Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

What do you all think?

Umm.... something to the steering wheel?

LOL, here are the "before" pix:

Added wood.

And put the keys in the ignition and added someone's feet.

Nice touch. I had that in my bird but switched to the silver. Had I left my car stock I would have kept it.

The base silver bezel is just boring to me. Btw, I thought the ashtray drawer front cover plate would have been tricky, but it took me only about 10 seconds, lol

The wood seems to look better with that tan interior.  My grey interior, I switched to the black/darker type.

It definitely looks classier than the original dash surface.
Is it real wood, or paper/plastic….I can't tell from the pic?
Ron

Fake wood, came from an 88 LS.

It will always get lambasted by many due to it not being real...but the fake wood veneer remains a staple of vehicles targeted to the U.S. market.
As stated, with the right interior colors, I can't help but like it. It has a "warm" appearance and makes the interior more like a home away from home. I love it in my 20th.

I'm not a fan of the fake wood, but on tan interior it works. I just done the reverse on mine. I have blue interior. I ran into a couple of problems though. Most of the screw holes are broke out on the silver pieces I installed. The donor car had a full console that I can not use. If you still have those old pieces I can take them off your hands...
Send me a PM, and we can make some arrangements.

I agree with both of you, it depends on the interior color, but look how much the wood classes up my '87 Ranger: The second pic is a friends 86, and doesn't the blue interior look much better with the aluminum bezel?

Both look out of place with the red interior. I might remove mine and paint them flat black.

Yeah, but woodgrain would look less out of place

nothing wrong with a little woodgrain, and red

(http://i1046.photobucket.com/albums/b463/daminc-pics2/putting%20it%20back%20together/IMG_2317_zps1064e9f2.jpg)

I only keep the wood because it's original to a LX Thunderbird. I'm trying to keep the car as close to stock looking as possible with the hood shut. Otherwise I would be looking for a nice Turbo Coupe/XR7 dash and center stack surround.
(http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa33/thunderjet302/Thunderbird%20web/DSCN3200.jpg) (http://s198.photobucket.com/user/thunderjet302/media/Thunderbird%20web/DSCN3200.jpg.html)

My base 85 V6 Bird had wood, the 88 5.0 LS had wood, and the 87 Sport and 88 base Bird had the brushed stainless look. I actually preferred the wood look in the 4-eye and Cougar, because it's a more "classic" look. In the aero Birds I think the stainless look was more fitting to a more modern, swoopy bodystyle.

The 85 Bird and LS both had charcoal interiors, and the 87 Sport and 88 base Bird both had red

Daminc,  Is that a AOD with a 5spd shifter boot/plate?  I like the way it looks.

yes it is, I hate the way the stock base plate looks. next year, I'm connecting it up to the indicator on the dash

just to be clear, all Thunderbird Elan & LX and all Cougar GS & LS had the wood standard?  Another reason why I do like these Fox body ones more than the MN-12's is because the top bezel/dashes are the same for both models.

......Actually I seem to prefer that stainless/aluminum look on the Ranger dash. Makes me think of the DeLorean or something. Seems fit for the '80s. Forward-looking, futuristic from the POV of that time. Precision, high-performance, TURBO TURBO TURBO!!!.....COMPUTERS!!!!!

Honestly these cars look WAY more futuristic next to the Ranger, the Ranger looks dated. Oh, almost forgot, the wood in the Thunderbird also looks good together with the leather wrapped wheel