Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Topic: Why T-Birds and Cougars ?? (Read 4350 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #15 – March 31, 2005, 12:20:53 AM

The unique styling of the T-bird/Cougar is the main attraction to me. Like my mother says, if you don´t know what year is the car, you can say that is a modern classic car. I personally prefer the 83-86 models, but the 87-88 are very pretty when they´re modified (no one does that here....)...maybe i´ll be the first. I appreciate the ride quality on these cars over any car. But the most important for me is that i´m the only guy that drives a cougar at the entire university. Looks rare besides a Sentra and a Jetta.

And i´m like Chuck W says: I can look at the lines on the cougar for hours. Yes, several hours....

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #16 – March 31, 2005, 02:34:29 AM

Dominator...I'm with you. I look at the Cougar and see SOOOO much potential. Your T-Bird looks ten times nicer than my cat, and it may never look that good, but with this being my first, I will play for awhile and try to get to know them a bit before I build one to compare to anyone's show car. My interior is perfect, aside from the seats being worn, and body isn't bad either (rust on deck lid and very small amount bottom of driver door). All are minor repairs, but since this one will be my daily driver I will be limited to what I can do for awhile. My wife has had a kick from watching me feel the seams, get down on my knees and look over the finish for flaws to fix, etc. She said I am like a kid with a new toy, and I guess that was what I was looking for.
I haven't been this excited about a car in a long time.

Thunder Chicken....I can remember driving to and from work in the Ramcharger with it raining or storming, and soaking wet by the time I got to where I was going. Can't remember times when I enjoyed myself more. My old boss would tell me he could drive down the road and feel sorry for the poor guys on motorcycles in the rain, but a dumba** like me deserved to be wet. I basicly refused to have the top on between May and October. Loved it.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #17 – March 31, 2005, 02:42:27 AM

The Cliff Notes version, written stream-of-consciousness style: My uncle had a new 83-86 bird and drove me around in it when I was 5 or something (so my mom claims, I don't remember anything). Fast foward 15 or so years, was bored in the apartment, went eBay surfing. Saw a 1986 T-bird, said to myself, "Wow! The back of that car is really nice/oddly triggering fond memories!" Bought the car on an impulse (why study for class when you can blow your savings and have a good reason to procrastinate?), went on a memorable road trip, car makes it back in once piece. Start fixing her up. Find Eric's Coolcats website, learn some stuff, curse myself: "DAMMIT! I have this py V6! arrrrrgh!"

The 5.0 bug bites, almost do the swap but wisen up

. Sell the '86 Bird to a friend, buy an '85 modded TC (thanks again eBay!). Little to my knowledge, Eric's incessant ramblings about Cougars implants itself deep within my subconscious, and I soon feel the itch again and buy an 88 Cougar Xr-7. Apparently this wasn't the solution though, because the desire to buy more fox bodies is still there....

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #18 – March 31, 2005, 02:49:34 AM

#1 At the age of 5 i was like thats one slick car.
#2 At my high school people either owned Mustangs, Camaros or ricers
#3 Its got high potential in my eyes.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #19 – March 31, 2005, 08:26:28 AM

Sorry so long...

My fondness for the t'bird started back in '88 when i went into the ford showroom looking to trade in my '86 Bronco II. I was thinking that I would get another Bronco II but, when I went in, I laid my eyes on the front of an '88 base model. I think it was the pointed nose that got me, along with the side glass and round taillights. I no longer wanted a Bronce II - I wanted a T'bird.

I asked my father what I should do - I was only 20 and i valued my father's opinion. He wasn't happy with me giving up the 4x4, Since I'm in a wheelchair he was worried how I would get around in our snowy winters. So I decided I'd get another Bronco II...but not before talking my sister into trading her 87 duster in on the T'bird. She hated the duster and it's fwd and would only drive it in sunny weather.

The first 7 or 8 years I put most of the miles on it. I loved the car on the highway and the torque from the V8 made it fun in town. We garaged that car every winter except for the second winter - after all, I still had a Bronco II.

That car is still registered to my sister but my dad is now driving it. It has over 200000km on it now and had fallen into a state of disrepair since my father's been using it. The frontend is loose (bearings, rack, tierod ends - I'm not sure), it needs a valve stem job and there are a couple spots of surface rust on it.

I still hope to get my hands on that car within a year or two. Lot's of memories in the back seat of that car. :D

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #20 – March 31, 2005, 11:27:27 AM

I had been looking for my first car for a bit. I knew I wanted something stylish with a V8. I found a few Camaros, but nothing I really liked. I also looked at some Monte Carlo's but couldn't find any in decent shape. The Mustang appealed to me, but I coulnd't really find one I liked in my price range. I looked at a beautiful '79 Trans Am Silver Anniversary with a 400, but realized it really wasn't a practical daily driver for me. My mom was looking in the paper and found my current Cougar. I wnet to look at it, it was two tone brown (wasn't quite hooked on it yet) with white walls, but the basic stance, and style were beautiful. I wasn't very familiar with them, other than they were so close to Thunderbirds, but this car was immaculate. Took it for a spin, power was pretty good, comfort was better than anything else I'd driven (I'm 6'8") and I was hooked. Have been driving it ever since.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #21 – March 31, 2005, 11:40:35 AM

Why T-Birds and Cougars?

It's all my fault...everyone can just keep blaming me.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #22 – March 31, 2005, 11:45:15 AM

IT'S ALL ERIC'S FAULT!!! :p

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #23 – March 31, 2005, 04:02:39 PM

For me it all started when I was 15 and bought my first '86 cougar to learn to drive with. After I got my license, it's the only car I wanted to drive, I just loved it, especially doing a brake stand and watching the digital speedo slowly fading out due to rubber smoke. I had the car for almost three years when I went to fire her up one winter morning before school and she just wouldn't start, so I went inside and told my mom my car wouldn't start, and needed a ride to school, she said she had to leave for work soon and couldn't, so I made a few phone calls and finally found a ride to school. When I got home from school, my car was gone, so MY first thought was that my mom found my keys and got my car to start and took it to work, WRONG! I went in the house and my mom was there, so I asked where my car was and she told me, "Oh, you said it didn't run, so I sold it for you" :flip: Yea, thanks mom. Anyways, ever since then I've been looking for another one, and finally found one this past summer, now if only I can get it running before long, so I can drive it to CJ.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #24 – March 31, 2005, 04:36:48 PM

I seen my Bird almost a two years before i bought it. It was in pieces, plus i was looking for a Mustang! Then a friend of mine bought another Mustang and sold his other 'V6' Mustang to me. I had the car for about a year and a half before it finally decided to die on me! I traded the Stang (big mistake)... and looked for another one. Whilst looking for another Stang i realized that it was not the ideal car for my current relationship... 5 ppls would be quite the c hauling around town everyday. I needed more leg room and trunk space... but i didn't want to give up sportiness. ^_^ That's when i saw the TBird again, this time it had more parts on it (carb, tires, exhaust) and i couldn't pass up $900 for a nice looking car with a V8 with more room than Mustang. It's had it's share of problems, but they are almost all removed.... as soon as i get it back on the road. So me and my son can enjoy it's company again. ^_^

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #25 – March 31, 2005, 04:50:31 PM

If you have to ask why, the car isn't for you.

My sister pretty much destroied the car I was going to get to learn on, so when I got my license we went out searching. The big issues were safe, kinda big, cool, fun, needing a little work, and cheap-ish. Looked at a bunch of stuff, even turned down an F-bird TA because of body rot, then somebody my sister knew had "an old T-bird" for sale that we went to look at...

I wasn't sure about the car when we first rolled up behind it, looked it over, started liking the lines, my parents took it for a test drive so I got the backseat, comfy, $1200 later... Got it home and cleaned up, found out I had a heatercore to do... Fell in love with it sometime while I was playing in her guts.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #26 – March 31, 2005, 05:21:06 PM

I love my tbirds. I in all including the two I drive now, have had 7 TBirds. I also have 3 parts cars. I am in the process of buying another 88. My very first one was a 86 with a 5.0, and two tone gray. My latest one was an 88 Turbo Coupe, converted to HO 5.0. With 3.73gears. I will keep driving my TBirds for as long as I can.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #27 – March 31, 2005, 07:17:22 PM

Because I like 'em.

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #28 – April 02, 2005, 01:18:08 AM

The first time i rode in one. That did it for me. A friend of mine dad had a brand new one in 85. He traded in his 84 supra for. The day he got it he took us for a ride. The thing nearly made me shiznit my pants. I was only 12 and was in the back seat sliding all over the place hangin on for dear life. It was way better than the supra he had before. after that i always wanted a bird or a cougar. I finally got my 84 T/c blue/gray on gray. Also 2 other cougars on i totaled when i fell asleep while dirveing with the cruse on. The other is a 85 couger XR7 2.3t. Any way always remeber thinking about how fast that car was when i was little made me want one. Now that i have one i can't get enough

Re: Why T-Birds and Cougars ??

Reply #29 – April 02, 2005, 10:13:22 AM

I started liking them as early as I could remember. In 1988, I was three years old and my grandparents neighbor bought an 88 two toned LS Cougar. They kept this car for several years until I was about 8. I remember looking over at it and for what reason, I don't know why, I liked it a lot. Starting when I was about 9 or so, I wanted an 85 Thunderbird. I had seen a couple and really liked the styling. So the time comes to buy my first car when I was 16 and I didn't care what I got as long as it was a rear drive V-8. I was looking at camaros, firebirds, and monte carlos of the 80's as well as muscle cars of the 60's and 70's. Since I only had $1,000 that I was allowed to spend on a car, all of the decent ones were out of my price range. While looking through the paper one day, I found and ad for an "88 Cougar 5.0 loaded. $900 or best offer." As my dad and I pulled into the sellers driveway, I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I stumbled across Eric's website and saw the potential for these cars. So since things started giving up on me, I have been modifying it. The car is not perfect. It has its rust spots here and there and the interior shows it's age, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. What other car is as affordable as this, can be modded as easily as this and take 4 full grown adults comfortably on a trip with a trunk full of luggage, tools, extra fluids and still have room for car parts at summit?