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Reply #210 – January 08, 2010, 01:35:27 PM

Yea, I was really skeptical on how it would look with the ornament... But it looks great in this setup!
The Lines and squareness of it flow well with the rest of the header and front end.

...Your making me think about swapping my header. lol.

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Reply #211 – January 08, 2010, 09:01:19 PM

Quote from: vinnietbird;305524

I like the Bird on the header panel.It looks like it belongs there.I don't think it would pass on an '87/'88 though.But on the 4 eye,nice.

Thanks for the compliment Vinnie! I was kinda wondering what you might think about this header swap. I agree I would not even think of molesting a 87-88 with a stand up hood ornament. I like the turbo coupe nose the best. It's interesting how the designers purposely captured some of the lines and cues from the 1958-60 Tbirds and put them to use on the 87-88. The smooth nose with the bird emblem between the headlamps and the brow shape of the top of the headlamps and how it sweeps down. The non-turbo cars even emulated the thick center cross bars of the 1960 grille... And of course, the triple round taillamps as well. When I had my 1985 Tbird I took apart the taillamp lenses and painted the insides with three circles. I thought it looked good. You can somewhat see it in the rear view picture below. If you look on the other side of the Buick Regal, that is my 89 Tbird there. This was at the point I had retired the 85 as a daily driver. I was so attached to this car I didn't want to part with it. I finally did because I never thought I'd ever get around to retoring it and now I regret it. That car was in a much better shape to restore I think than the one I am working with now.

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Reply #212 – January 08, 2010, 09:15:06 PM

Quote from: Romeo2k;305549

Yea, I was really skeptical on how it would look with the ornament... But it looks great in this setup!
The Lines and squareness of it flow well with the rest of the header and front end.

...Your making me think about swapping my header. lol.

Yeah it's an interesting alternative mod to the usual I suppose. Sometimes I like to do different just to be different. It was a pain though fixing the stem base of the hood ornament so that it stands up straight in the base fixture mounted to the header panel. I had the file the back bottom and rear edges so it would sit down deeper while the front is tilted up. The top edge of the header is so steep. I wish it was more level to begin with. I wonder how the base fixture is made on the 1983 Cougar stand up hood ornament because that one stands up straight.

The top of the header panel isn't as steep with the Tbird nose, as you can see in an earlier post I did not have to modify to make it stand up straight, although I still had to rock it back just a little so that it would.

Anything can change between now and paint restoration time. Who knows I might want to swap a 87-88 nose on it later. The stuff can be had so cheap when I find parts.

Right now I am dealing with the reality that I will probably have to switch to a 85-88 dash just to have something with structural integrity because all those cracks of the old dash are driving me crazy. It's a shame too because I really like the padded glovebox and driver knee pad design. I also favor the straighter lines which mirror the design a lot of my 08 Mustang dash. I cannot find parts for 83-84 dashes. I am not as crazy about the 1980-82 dash which is also used in the 83-86 LTD and Marquis, mainly because I don't like the exposed plastic driver's knee panel and glove box design.

I just removed the ends of the dash pad I made. It was cumbersome, not straight up and down, but bowed out too much on the sides when installed and they made contact with the vinyl door panel strip that coincides with the upper door pulls. I am still not happy with the result although I do love the charcoal vinyl and the hooded extension a lot.

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Reply #213 – January 08, 2010, 11:49:53 PM

I can't believe this.. I just checked Pull-A-Part's local inventory and they pulled out a ton of Tbirds and Cougars. This sucks!

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Reply #214 – January 09, 2010, 06:47:12 AM

I especially like the new emblem because there isn't one on the grille.Too many emblems takes away from the overall look.As you have it,it looks great and it looks like it belongs there.Nice touch.

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Reply #215 – January 09, 2010, 08:55:17 PM

Sweet! I like the look. To me it looks more classic/retro. I'm thinking add some wire wheels and 1" whitewalls, a new coat of black paint and you have the 55-57 look!:D

Does the bezel line up perfectly in the area shown with the arrow? I seem to recall test fitting Cougar bezels in a TBird and the fender had a slightly different contour in that area??

Great job on the dash pad too. Don't worry about the wood underneath. I've seen 60's Ford consoles made exactly the same way!

It's too bad your dash shell is so brittle. It will probably a looong time until they are repro'd (if ever) so if anyone a decent one, grab 'em!

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Reply #216 – January 09, 2010, 11:28:14 PM

Quote from: rodsterh;305724

Sweet! I like the look. To me it looks more classic/retro. I'm thinking add some wire wheels and 1" whitewalls, a new coat of black paint and you have the 55-57 look!:D

Does the bezel line up perfectly in the area shown with the arrow? I seem to recall test fitting Cougar bezels in a TBird and the fender had a slightly different contour in that area??

Great job on the dash pad too. Don't worry about the wood underneath. I've seen 60's Ford consoles made exactly the same way!

It's too bad your dash shell is so brittle. It will probably a looong time until they are repro'd (if ever) so if anyone a decent one, grab 'em!

It would be easy to find wire wheel covers... That is if I could get the locks off all the ones in salvage yards...

Yes the header panel and lamp bezels line up perfectly. The Tbird fenders and hood are exactly the same as the Cougar so the only difference in the front ends were the Tbird's leaned back header panel vs. the Cougar's more upright one. Bumper covers were exactly the same for both cars too.

You all make me feel better that I am heading into the right direction creating something more interesting and unique with a few interchangeable mix-match parts swaps. If this was a low mileage preserved original condition classic I would have never molested it. However with the condition I found it in, it's not important to me to be original as it is to be more creative.

Ya know it occured to me that I could have snagged some Mark VII flag style rearview door mirrors and they would have worked and looked different than norm. I also entertained the thought of possibly doing the Mark VII dash as a swap but after looking at and saving pictures I really hate it's dated stacked box and binnicle look.

A 1985-88 dash might be my best solution. However like I said before, Pull-A-Part pulled a bunch of 85-88 Tbirds and Cougars out that I was hoping to go back and look into getting a dash from. There may be one or two cars left I may be able to look at but I am not holding hope. There is one 86 LTD out there I might consider. The best part of that is I can swap my existing gauge cluster right in and it will fit. It would at least retain the basic layout and look of my original dash. If there was only that 1986 Continental I pulled the passenger power seat track from, I could have pulled the entire dash for that one and made it work.

I would never consider a Fairmont or Fox Mustang dash, not even the 87-93 style. If you want my opinion Ford should not have wasted the money to tool up a new dash for the Mustang in 1987, instead putting the far superior Tbird dash to expanded use.

What I really do not want to do is remove the plastic dash shell I have and build it up on the metal frame. It's just too homemade and It's not like I am freakin Chip Foose here. I am not really completely comfortable with the homemade pad I just made even though I put a lot of work into it.

But hey there is nothing wrong with using wood as construction for consoles and dashes. I have seen a lot of really nice custom ones done before.

I doubt we will ever see reproductions of the early 80's dashes. We might possibly for 85-88 but I am not holding my breath. You can virtually get anything you want for the sacred Mustang. I look in the restoration catalogs at the old Fox body Mustangs and it seems they got virtually everything.

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Reply #217 – January 10, 2010, 12:14:08 AM

Funny, most wire wheel covers I see in the junkyards are off the car and tossed in the trunk or ground, and most are -junk-!

Interesting, I thought there was a slight difference in the highlighted area...maybe just brainfade. I'll have to try my test fit again when I get a chance.

I agree on your opinion of some of the Ford dash designs. I think they had it right in 83 and should have continued the theme (along with steering wheels, why the steering wheel "A" design?????)

Doubtful if we'll ever see much stuff repro'd for our cars which is why I keep suggesting to everyone to grab any good stuff they find. I hate to think how much stuff got crushed during the high steel price days.

It's amazing how much stuff is available for Mustangs...even NOS stuff for the early cars! But I can't complain since I own some Mustangs too.

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Reply #218 – January 10, 2010, 12:48:13 AM

Quote from: rodsterh;305769

I agree on your opinion of some of the Ford dash designs. I think they had it right in 83 and should have continued the theme (along with steering wheels, why the steering wheel "A" design?????)

Well I actually liked the 85-88 dash very much when it came out and loved it on my 1985. However I think because I own a new Mustang now I am more favored towards the full width dash themes plus anything that reminds me of classic 60's Tbirds.

A frame wheels sucked when they came out new and suck now. One time I considered ordering a 1984 Mustang new. I had it planned out to NOT get factory cruise control because I did not want the stupid A frame wheel. I liked the three spoke wheel shape of the Mustang SVO's which by then the Mustang GT's without cruise also had an alternate less exotic version of that wheel. I could not figure out in the name of God why Ford was too cheap to integrate cruise switches into that 3-spoke wheel. I suppose if I wanted to make it work now I could install cruise switches somewhere else. I never use cruise anyway, not even on my new Mustang with traffic like it is nowdays.

A long time ago when I was young and much more niave, I had actually taken a picture from a 1980 Tbird brochure of the dash and clipped out a picture of the Mustang instrument cluster and taped it over the Tbird one. I sent it to Ford suggesting that is what they should use in the Mustang instead of that horrible Fairmont dash. It came back stamped and with a statement saying they could not accept ideas from outside the company.... LOL!

I always favored a Fairmont Futura coupe in my collections of Ford dreams. First thing I would do is rip out the Fairmont dash and swap it for some sort of Tbird one....

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Reply #219 – January 10, 2010, 08:30:56 PM

Fitment is a car to car issue. I have had 3 header panels on my car, all Cougar. The last one fit the best, lined up flush with everything and helped reduce the hood to header gap.

Funny thing is, its an aftermarket replacement I got from Chuck. Fits better than both Ford pieces I had.

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Reply #220 – January 10, 2010, 10:15:41 PM

Those header panels with the front edge of the hood set back in them have always been problematic. If you notice Ford has adapted the practice of not using them anymore with the front edge of the hood brought all the way forward to close on top of the grille or nose. It does look better and cleaner that way.

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Reply #221 – January 10, 2010, 11:24:52 PM

Too bad you're so far away. I have a good dash from my old '84 Cougar XR-7.

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Reply #222 – January 10, 2010, 11:48:54 PM

Quote from: Chuck W;305917

Too bad you're so far away. I have a good dash from my old '84 Cougar XR-7.

Dying here could I sure could use it!

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Reply #223 – January 12, 2010, 08:55:11 AM

I bit the bullet and bought a complete dash from a 1986 Tbird including an instrument cluster. I am holding a funeral for the sad cracked dash shell of the original 84 unit... LOL! This 86 dash will need to be recovered on top and the entire thing color matched for my interior, but at least the dash is structurally solid. The vinyl on top of the dash was the best I have found with no gaping cracks. This one is in a very early stage so recovering the top with result in a smooth look.

I entertained replacing the dash shell with one from a 1986 LTD (recycled 1980-82 Tbird dash) but that dash suffers the same brittleness and had a couple of bad places.

Now I am trying to figure out if I can sucessfully integrate the digital speedo or not. I had a choice to get a full digital cluster with the tach but I figured that one might be too complicated to tackle. I made a safer choice and got a standard digital speedo-only cluster. Is it as simple as just getting a speed sensor and making the connections? I am pretty confident about the rest of the connections. My backup though is to reuse the original 84 cluster and modifying it to fit inside the dash opening.

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Reply #224 – January 12, 2010, 08:10:52 PM

Now wipe a good bit of Vaseline on the dash, let it soak in for a day or so, then buff it out. Do this three or four times before you attempt to install it and you will have much less of chance at cracking it while trying to get it installed. The Vaseline does a great job at softening up the vinyl.

Shiny Side Up!
Bill