... people that say that the 1983-84 dashboard is the same as the one in the 1980-82's. It's not. Yes, it is similar, but it is NOT the same dash. However, the dash in the 1983-86 LTD/Marquis sedan & wagon & 1982-87 Continental sedan IS the same as the 1980-82 T-Bird/Cougar XR7.
Yessir, I can verify all of that except the lincoln continental stuff, I've never owned one. The easiest way to show somebody the difference in the 80-82 + 83-84 dashes is to show them the turn signal indicators. In 83/84 they are in the cluster, in 80-82 they were in the dash-top above the cluster.
I'm almost positive that the 1980-82 and LTD/Marquis gauge clusters are identical.
I don't say that, because I know better.
They are. I went through my pictures, and I happen to have pics of my old 85 marquis dash, and my current 81 thunderbird dash. Mercury (cougar,marquis) got the silver cluster, ford (ltd, tbird) got the black.

Reminds me of my old ride......... 81 Cougar XR7
And the only one that had a tach was the LTD LX.
And the Canadian Mercury Marquis LTS, lol