What has everyone done for interior mods?? I have a little something up my sleeve, just wondered if anyone else has tackled anything major? :sawzall:
! Is that in your bird? What is that dash out of?
Ive never seen anyone do anything quite like that before..
Looks 'stang-ish.
Yes it is from a '96 Stang, going into an '88 Bird. :wtf:
How's the fit so far? Bolt-in, or otherwise?
Nowhere near a bolt in, I'm antiting 100+ hours before it fits like OEM, mind you that includes retrofitting the center console and E-Brake setup. Don't try this at home kids. :nono:
OK dad.. lol.
Had no real interest in trying it.. I like my T-bird dashes the way they are, with maybe the exception of the fake woodgrain on the '88. (the '86 has the fake brushed aluminum look or whatever it's called.. I like that better) Just fleshing out the discussion a little bit. It's nice to see someone try something different, though.
Anyone tried a mark VII interior swap?
Is the actual dash part bolt in?
I've made a clear anodized aluminum plate for my clock, a plate in which i have my water/oil gauges above my radio, a plate for my switch panel (between the seats, u know, windows, seats, mirror controls) and a plate for the door locks on the door panel. also, I've made stainless steel door pull handles. I'm thinking of making my digital dash buttstuffog, in that case I'd make a plate like the one I made for my water/oil gauges. I'm making a plate for where the cig lighter and ashtray were, just having a place to plug in things like radar detector, and putting a volt gauge there.
its not bolt in. there is a lot of cutting, fitting...trial and error stuff involved. i posted some stuff in the old forums. ive seen it done a ton of times in fox mustangs. they get the short end of the stick though. the fox mustangs door handles on the inside interfere with the dash. the thunderbirds wont i checked. i was gonna do the swap myself but figured that there are alot more important things to put my time into. i did have a dash though. the other thing is that most likely none of the climate controle stuff will work and supposedly the ac wont either. it would be very difficult. most of the guys that do the newer mustang interior swap into a fox do it for the looks with no function. it sure does look cool but at some point you just have to say why not just get a mustang?
I'm working on an "Information centre" that will occupy the lower half of the center stack. The HVAC controls will be joining the radio in the top half.
The info centre will have digital bar-graph tranny temp , oil temp and volt gauges, a lamp out monitoring system, a door-ajar warning, and a sequential signal light indicator. These will all be presented in a graphic showing an airial view of the car, with LED's showing the lights (the headlights will be represented with white LED's, the park lights with amber, the tail lights with red). It will also house a digital compass, in/out thermometer, altimeter and if I can find an appropriate donor, a fuel computer. So far I've got the bar graph gauges and light monitoring circuits built, the compass/temp/altimeter component is on its way, and the actual faceplate is in the design stage (trying to figure out the best way to lay all of this stuff out with that limited real estate).
I am also working on white-faced gauges with 140-MPH speedo and with white LED backlighting. I'm trying to find a decent looking dome light to convert to white LED's as well (the factory '88 dome light looks like ass, or at least something that would be more at home in a '68 T-Bird, not an '88). In case you haven't figured it out, I like LED's :D
:america: that looks awsome! i was contimplating doing somthing similar to my to my '84 t-bird. i was looking at trying an '98 or '99 t-bird but hadn't got up the nerve to rip out my dash to see if it would be semi bolt on or not(i use my bird as a daily driver) but seeing that stoked my fire just a little more!!! :evilgrin:
1. In my '87 T-bird (non T/C), I put one of those T/C panels that house the fuel setting/ride height/power antenna switches and mounted a Datel green LED voltmeter inside. I've run through a ton of alternators over the years, and with the stock dash the idiot light never really told me anything, but now I can look at it and instantly know the voltage.
2. I dremeled out the panel next to the lighter and did the cupholder mod described here: (requires column shift and small ashtray in the center console)
http://p089.ezboard.com/ffoxthunderbirdsmisctech.showMessage?topicID=1000.topic
3. On the other side I mounted a small digital tach (a programmable unit designed for a motorcycle but can be used on just about anything) so I could tell that the engine was getting a spark. I had a problem with the distributor stator overheating and shutting the engine down, hence the tach...The tach is about 1.2"x3"x0.5", give or take, and is made by a puppiesanese company called Shindy (just look for either Shindy or Daytona Digital Tachometer). The tach attaches by double-sided sticky tape, but I'd like to find something that holds up better on hot days.
4. I don't know if this counts, but my base car cloth seats were getting pretty ratty and I found a nice set of seats from an '87 XR-7 (same color, red) and swapped them in. The driver's seat was missing so I got that from a T/C, but that was in bad shape. I got both front seats re-upholstered with the inserts done in gray to match the interior charcoal trim (actually they're a bit lighter, but the exterior is silver so it works anyway). Also converted the passenger seat to power while I was at it.
Oh, and one exterior mod...
Pilot PL-220 clear fog lamps in the stock air dam. Had to take most of the nose off and drill through the inner fiberglass bumper to mount them, but they look like they were made for the car ( you, Ford, for not offering fog lamps!). Then got a T/C panel with fog lamp switch (I had all the other goodies already) and wired it accoding to the stock Ford wiring specs. While the lights look awesome, they don't shed light anywhere near as well as the fog lamps on my '97 Explorer (maybe I need better bulbs?)
got that right...the yellow plastic looks like its from the 70's
I moved my clock ('88 T-Bird) down to the lower panel on the lower right side of the steering column after lrngthening the clock wiring harness and opening the panel,and installed a tach where the clock was.By the way,if you don't like the wood grain dash panels,get some from another T-Bird and screw them on.Takes about 5 minutes with a phillips screwdriver.I also added Mustang seats,and a Cougar console with floor shifter.The 'Stang seats bolt right to the T-bird seat tracks with no mods.
Gray to black... http://ferdbird.com/87sport/interior.html
Plenty more to do, but one step at a time.
WOW!!! Way to go after it. I am sure nothing about this is bolt on, but the bolts will go where you want them to go anyway. The wiring looks like a challenge too, but I am sure you will have no trouble pulling it off. I don't think I would quite have the patience for that kind of thing. Keep up the good work. Jason.
Just had a thought...While your doing this radical mod you should cut out the passenger side and make it removeable so you can get to the heater core with removal of a few screws or clips. That would be awesome!! Jason.
(http://ferdbird.com/87sport/images/door.jpg)
^^Tiny Shoes!^^
I've done an buttstuffouge conversion, put in Taurus heater controls, and customized door panels. I have new black carpet, new headliner and TC seats. :grinno:
.....also have a cool shift for the T5. :ies:
Nice! I see you've also found out that the Smoke Grey interior paint doesn't exactly match the factory interior. ;) Don't know what's up with that, but every time I got the PPG paint matched to 1986-ish Smoke Grey, it was always too light and didn't have enough yellow pigment. I mixed my own up (added black and some yellow base) and got it closer but it was never exact. Still, it looks really nice all painted like that. I also like the emblems on the door panels. Nice job!
Thanks Eric!! :ies: