Lessons learned from the Registry thread

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Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #15 – March 12, 2007, 03:48:12 PM

Quote from: 84 Fila;134035

Not what does it have in it NOW?

Take a picture, and you wont have to ask the question anymore.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #16 – March 12, 2007, 03:53:58 PM

Quote from: ZondaC12;133999

so ALL 20th anny's had a 7.5 inch, 2.73:1 ratio NON Traction-Lok, aka open differeential? i was wondeing about my car so i checked the door tag sometime like 6 mo. ago, and i coulda sworn i saw in "M" in axle code, which, according to coolcats is a 2.73 with Trac-Lok. maybe i was looking at the wrong thing.

Several years ago I had looked at a 20th a local car lot was selling. The door tag in that indicated it had the 3.08 Trac-Lok rear. Course, it is a Canadian car, and things were different here.

BTW, some of our older members will remember when I was looking at that car (it would've been around late 1999/early 2000). It was before I bought the '87 Sport. Well, believe it or not, the guy STILL Has it for sale! It was $3500 originally and I offered him $2500 because the car needed exhaust work and the safety sticker expired a year previous even though the window sticker said "New safety", meaning he'd had the car on the lot for at least two years. He wouldn't take it. After selling the Sport I decided to take another look. This time the paint was badly faded and chemical burned (he had it parked close to a coal fired power plant's smoke stack), the tires were all cracked, and the floor was getting ripe. Still, it could've been saved. He told me he'd take that $2500 I had previously offered him, and I told him the offer was now $1000.

That was in late 2002. It is now nearly five years later and that guy STILL has that car on his lot! Counting the two years it sat there before I looked at it the first time, that car has been sitting outside, unprotected, under a smokestack, for TEN YEARS!!! It looks horrid now. Paint is history, wheel openings and door bottoms rotting, four flats, missing trim pieces... the guy ruined the car through sheer stubbornness. I wouldn't offer him $100 for it now, as all the "good" 20th anny stuff is no good anymore (seats faded and trashed, moonroof seized, gold emblems all with gold flaked off).

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #17 – March 12, 2007, 03:54:53 PM

I will next time it's in the air. And I did look for the ID plate one one of the bolts on the rear cover. I didn't see one. Now I'm officaly done with the Hi-jack

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #18 – March 12, 2007, 04:59:57 PM

http://www.coolcats.net/fox/20thanniversary.html

"The only available options were a power moonroof, power antenna, illuminated entry, keyless entry, automatic climate control, engine block heater, and the Traction-Lok axle with 3.08 gears."

so yup that makes sense that the one you saw had the 3.08.
thats a sad story! its awful how badly some people neglect automobiles.

cant wait til friday, now im really curious, gotta know!!!

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #19 – March 12, 2007, 06:57:26 PM

Actually, I have to amend that...there was another option on the 20th (and all other Cougars and T-Birds from 1983-88). It was the front license plate bracket. Even though it was provided at no cost to the buyer in a state that required a front plate, it was still an option. It carried its own order code and its own part number. Sometimes that's the deal-breaker on a "fully loaded" car...but oh well, that's how it goes.

Quote

Any ideas about my core support tag that has a bunch of numbers and "Tulsa State fair" stamped on it across the bottom of the tag?

Maybe it was a special edition made for the fair. I don't know for sure...you need to post a GOOD photo of that here. We can probably help decipher the "bunch of numbers". No clue about the fair thing. That is rather odd...then again, there are some unique buck tag stampings for these cars. Actually I know someone that had his re-made due to a connection that he had. It used the factory-style stampings and everything. One of these days I'll have the dude make me one with "LICK MY SACK" stamped in, and bolt it to the convertible. We'll see how many people notice that one.

And just FYI...Ric and I deciphered a few things about his '85 today. While going through my dealer order books I found what could possibly be a very rare combination of colors for 1986: Midnight Blue XR7, charcoal bottom striping...and a Desert Sand interior. I don't recall ever seeing one of those in that combination of colors. Same with black, also...a black '86 XR7 with a Desert Sand interior has got to be uncommon. I would tend to think those two cars would be collectors' items in the future, simply because of the already-scant XR7 availability, plus the color combos. Those have to be just gorgeous...I hope at least one of each existed.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #20 – March 12, 2007, 07:49:05 PM

its funny, for about the first year i drove the car, the front plate wasnt on. my dad had taken it off after the small accident in which he rear-ended someone in traffic at like 5-10 mph or something, and i just never got around to putting it back on. i was always worried i might get pulled over. i probably crossed paths with a hundred or more police officers, never saw one so much as give my car a second glance. finally i was like "okay stop putting this off, im bored as hell today lets put the license plate on!" :hick:

i oughta take it back off, looked better without it! course, then there are those holes there...

though i dont remember noticing that particularly, theyre probably small enough where it just isnt that ugly.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #21 – March 12, 2007, 09:56:47 PM

So my '88 is only missing 4 options then. And two of them, it may have had.

They are...
Argent wheels - came with the white inserts
Leather wrapped wheel - I have the standard issue TC type wheel
Block heater - Never looked on the orginal block but that's been gone for over 4 years now
Floor mats - Got the car with 172K on it. If it came with mats, they were probably long gone by then. I do have a set of Ford mats from a junk Cougar though.

It has the license plate bracket since the car has been a MD car since new.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #22 – March 13, 2007, 12:47:06 AM

Layla's only missing the block heater (original engine was gone and it was sold new in Seattle so it *may* have had it) and the dreaded automatic tranny (A4LD). I have every single other TC available option including the front plate holder (which is in the trunk :hick: )

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #23 – March 13, 2007, 01:21:34 AM

I am going to continue to think of the 20th as a third "trim" in '87.

The large diameter front and rear sway bars and quad-shocks say "XR-7" which was traditionally a V8 car with a handling package and special badges inside and out. The only weird thing they did with the 20th was use a 7.5" rear. After swapping in the TurboCouple rear, I was unaware of any additional OEM suspention upgrades.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #24 – March 13, 2007, 01:33:31 AM

So being that my car is pretty loaded (as far as I know I'm only missing the sunroof and a block heater to have every 88 LX option) why do I have a block off plate next to the power antenna switch? Does anyone know what went there?

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #25 – March 13, 2007, 07:00:56 AM

Quote from: Tbird232ci;134037

Take a picture, and you wont have to ask the question anymore.

He's right, Mike. It's great that you want for your car to be something so one-of-a-kind, but these cars are some of the last you'd expect some average Joe to switch the rear ends in. We're all glad you're so enthusiastic about your car, but a lotta things we tell you on here, you'll have to take at face value, remember, a lot of us have been tinkering on these cars for longer than you, and hey, a lot of others even longer than me. People like Aerobird have had TONS of these cars & really know what they're talking about. Basically I'm saying you can't expect to get the answers you want by asking a question time & time again. I'd wager that there's about a 95% chance that the rear end in your car is exactly what the door tag says. There's no way it came from the factory with anything different and there's a very slim chance that someone changed that rear end. The proof will be in the pictures. And if you're still not 100% sure on whether it's trac lock or not, I'll bring my floorjack over personally and we'll do the tire spin test on it, then we can put this 'mystery rear end' issue to rest.

I also take part of the blame for the big debacle over the Fairmont rear end. I'm good friends with yet another Mike, who owns the Fairmont. I'm the one who introduced these two Mike's and all that. He bought the car thinking it was a factory 302 car and it turns out that someone's dropped a 351 and C4 into it and the good Lord only knows what else's been done to the car. (I will say some of the work is pretty rinky-, though.) I've never looked at the rear end in question, nor have I done the tire spin test on it to see if it's really track-lock or not. I can't vouch for any of these claims, nor can I deny them.

Anyway... so yeah. That's how it is.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #26 – March 13, 2007, 07:01:45 AM

Quote from: thunderjet302;134180

So being that my car is pretty loaded (as far as I know I'm only missing the sunroof and a block heater to have every 88 LX option) why do I have a block off plate next to the power antenna switch? Does anyone know what went there?

Programmable ride control or fuel octane switch in a TC maybe? I'm not familiar with the loaded dash switches as my car's a py base model.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #27 – March 13, 2007, 08:30:56 AM

Tire spin soundlike fun sometime. Wait till I take ownership of the cougar though,as we can play with that too. As for ( the other mike), if you could please try to figure out what the hell is in his car so I can be swapped into mine and we can just take mine out and play with it. It sound like an idea to me.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #28 – March 13, 2007, 10:52:54 AM

Quote from: thunderjet302;134180

So being that my car is pretty loaded (as far as I know I'm only missing the sunroof and a block heater to have every 88 LX option) why do I have a block off plate next to the power antenna switch? Does anyone know what went there?

Got a pic? On Layla it's the Ride Control switch and foglight switch, neither of which an LX would have.

Lessons learned from the Registry thread

Reply #29 – March 13, 2007, 10:56:40 AM

Quote from: thunderjet302;134180

why do I have a block off plate next to the power antenna switch? Does anyone know what went there?

I have one too. I'm thinking it was something that was TC specific maybe?