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Messages - 85CougarCobra

346
T-Bird/Cougar Parts & Cars WANTED / Looking for Cigarette Lighter Panel
Wanted to see if anyone had a nice spare cigarette lighter panel out of an 85-88?  I'm looking for the plain jane panel and not the "System Sentry" one.  Here's a pic of what I'm looking for ... just without the "Cobra" emblem of course.
347
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
Got everything routed the way I wanted, reinstalled the insulation and carpet and also replaced the door to body weather stripping with new pieces from Steele Rubber.  My driver's side one was torn in a spot or two, but all good now.  Should be getting close to the actual seat install ... I hope ...
348
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
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I like how that looks. Gives it a real clean "finished" appearance. I would like to find the cover for the under side of my trunk lid like you have. My bird was missing it when I got it.


Thanks.  I never had the cover for the underside of my trunk either ... pulled it off of an LS that had one.  Just installs with the plastic push in retainers.
349
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
The left and right side pieces are made of the same materials as the base and each piece attaches with three screws - one into the frame and two into the particle board blocks ... these six screws are really the only time consuming part of installing or removing the whole set up from the car.
350
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
During install, I have to finagle the base in a little, nothing major, and it kind of goes in from right to left with the hinged piece pointed up.  Once in place, it covers the entire trunk well and is supported from sagging by the spare tire below it.  The hinged piece can then be laid flat.  One small gripe is that it doesn't extend the entire way back ... this would probably require another hinged piece in order to be able to install and remove it.
351
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
The base has a couple of particle board blocks mounted to it to help secure the side pieces.  These are just screwed directly into the base.  Here is another shot of the "hinge" as well.
352
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
I had the base (new trunk interior "floor") and side pieces made at a car audio place.  They have a lot of experience with this stuff and did a good job of tracing out a pattern that both fit well and was easily removable which was a requirement of mine for if/when I ever need to get to the spare tire.  Here are shots of the top and bottom sides of the main piece.  It's made out of some style of 1/2" thick particle board and is scored on the right side with a reinforced duct tape "hinge" to allow for install/removal.  The stereo shop also covered these pieces and the material matches the stock trunk material very well ... not 100% identical, but very close.
353
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
Basic stock trunk set up ... I pulled the spare tire out and then bent the sheet metal down that the hook goes through to hold the spare in place.  I bought a Turbo Coupe 16" spare to accommodate upgrading the front brakes over the winter.  The spare tire basically just slots down into the well and then has the jack and tire iron inside of it.  The wheel cover fits pretty snug as it went to the stock 14" spare.  My stereo wiring as all set up to be sort of plug and play with quick disconnect wiring clips.  I have the door speakers hard wired all the way back to the amp.
354
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
Ok, so here's the basic set up on the trunk.  The paneling required putting two mounting screws into the frame of the car, one on either side of the trunk.  I put arrows on the photos to show where they are basically located.  I also had the left side interior trim out, so I snapped a shot of that hole so you can see the piece that the screw goes into.  For someone with a pretty modified car, I'm fairly averse to putting holes in the car if I can absolutely avoid it.  I was a little younger and dumber when this was done (probably 20 years ago) ... otherwise I would have found a better way and used the existing holes that are right around them.
355
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
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Interesting. The condition of my trunk liner has been a disappointment for a long time and I have been on the lookout for a "like new" replacement. As much as I would like to keep it stock looking, I too would never use the storage cubbies so this might be something I could do instead. From the pic, that material looks pretty close to the factory stuff too. Nice job!


Thanks.  Yeah, my left and right side pieces are not in that great of shape.  The backing gets all cracked up whenever you have to remove them or work around them.  I'd like to find some better pieces in a salvage yard, but everything I ever find is beat up worse than what I have ... or they are sitting in water with all sorts of fun stuff growing on them.  I have it apart right now ... again ... so I'll try to snap a few pictures of the different pieces.  They match much better than the picture looks ... flash and a drop light don't necessarily help.
356
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
Trunk going back together ... pulled everything apart to redo the way I had my speakers and amp wired in.  Moved the rear deck speakers back to the factory wiring and then ran the door of off the amp (car never had door speakers stock).  I had some custom panels made years ago to help clean up the look of the trunk.  They take away from some of the functional storage area, but I don't really use this space the way I once did.  The spare tire actually slots in under bottom panel now.
357
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
Picked up some rear coach lamps and the associated wiring the other day (thanks again Dan), so I'll be adding these in during the interior rework.  I've had the "Lights" button since adding/converting to the center console, but it was never functional.  Plan to throw some LED's in here as well.
358
Body/Appearance/Interior / Corbeau GTS II Seat Install
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I love the work / detail into the seat tracks,, it may not make them work better but they do look much nicer.
one thing about doing what seems to be pointless tasks,, you end up going through all the pieces parts and along the way making improvements or get the opportunity to notice something small that you can fix so its not a problem later.


Thanks.  A lot of this stuff has been a long time coming.  Again, probably stuff that no one would ever notice or care much about, but it has built up over the years and has been nagging me.  Having a touch of OCD doesn't help ... lol ... but the car is by no means perfect.  I enjoy modifying ... but I like to try to keep it as clean as possible or try my best to have it look like a factory job.  I try to avoid hacking into wiring and stuff of that nature.  Doing the 5.0 swap was a bit of a challenge as I had to go out in search of an '86 Tbird/Cougar EFI 5.0 engine harness.  Frankly, even though I love the car, it was never anything special in terms of rarity or how it was optioned out ... after all these years have passed though, "special" starts to take on a little different meaning when these cars aren't exactly a dime a dozen in the salvage yards.  When I started this thread, I was "simply" swapping in new seats, but that has turned into a little more since many of these things are easier to address while the interior is mostly gutted.
359
Drivetrain Tech / converting to floor shift
Here's a shot of mine (converted from column to floor shift probably 15 years ago).  Figured this might help in some small way and all of the interior is basically out at the moment anyway.  Used the the template, cut the plus shaped hole, undercoated and sealed stuff up, and the top plate really hides all of it nicely.  I could probably still space the shift selector/indicator housing up a little bit to get it to a "stock" height ... but that all depends on what you like.