Recently installed a leather shift boot and parking brake boot from Redline Goods, replacing the yucky factory vinly shift boot and the torn, half missing rubber parking brake gasket. Also temporarily replaced my sad steering wheel with a less sad one I scored out of a 1994 Cougar at the pick-n-pull last week - this way I can drive the car while I restore the original at my leisure.
Leather boots
Shift boot: I ordered it 2" shorter than stock for the stubby Pro 5.0 shifter. I made a collar out of a short section of pipe that's about the same diameter as the shift knob so the boot and knob line up better. The knob is slightly oval so I had to flatten one end of the collar with a BFH so that it lined up better, I flattened the other end too so that it would lock in place better on the shifter handle. I tucked the end of the boot down inside the collar. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I may still dye the shift knob a little darker so that it matches the boot and rest of the blacks in the interior better.
This is the Cougar steering wheel:
It was originally dark blue and the dye had faded to yellow on the rim along the top (forgot to take before pics) so I painted it with some black interior dye.
Thunderbird/Cougar wheels can be used in Mustangs but you need the complete wheel minus the airbag (you could probably use the air bag too if you didn't mind a bird or cat in the middle of it):
The wheels are physically and electrically compatible but rear trim cover and cruise buttons mount differently to the wheel and the cruise and horn button wiring and connections are different inside the wheel. The three pin connector to the clockspring is the same though so it's plug an play as long as you have a complete wheel.
There is a very subtle difference in the arc of the air bag around the cruise control buttons between the SN95 wheels and the MN12 wheels.
It's really weird that Ford made these steering wheels with no interchangeable parts despite the fact that the are visually, electrically and functionally identical. Why, Ford? Why?
Here's the old one - $5 steering vinyl wheel covers FTW:
That black stuff is 1/8" padding I added a couple of weeks ago to make the wheel a little more comfy - stock wheel is too skinny, definitely keeping the padding.
In other news... Had a problem since my PI intake swap with coolant never getting fully up to operating temp, running consistently 10~15F degrees cool. Took forever for the motor to get warm, gas mileage was down a little, and idle quality suffered a little bit if the motor wasn't warm enough. I replaced the parts store thermostat I put in during the intake swap with another and the problem persisted. Finally I went to the dealer and spent the extra $5 for a Ford t-stat and now the motor comes up to operating temp in just a few minutes and the temp sits right on 195F like it's supposed to.
At the pick-n-pull I also nabbed some front control arms off a '96 V6 - I'll rebuild those out of the car so that I can spend more of my time just swapping parts and less of my time wrangling bushings when I overhaul the front suspension here shortly. Somebody'd already grabbed the hubs so all I had to do was pop the springs out (fell right out with a little nudge with a crowbar) and they came right off, no problem.
The sixer was pretty well picked over - I was hoping to grab a few other odds-and-ends (including a steering wheel) but there wasn't much left and what was left was trashed. I did score that little vent that shoots air at your feet - mine was split and kept dangling down and catching on my toes - woot!
Found a Fox body with halo headrest - I tried to get those but they wouldn't come out easily and I was about to pass out from heat exhaustion so I left 'em.
Leather boots
Shift boot: I ordered it 2" shorter than stock for the stubby Pro 5.0 shifter. I made a collar out of a short section of pipe that's about the same diameter as the shift knob so the boot and knob line up better. The knob is slightly oval so I had to flatten one end of the collar with a BFH so that it lined up better, I flattened the other end too so that it would lock in place better on the shifter handle. I tucked the end of the boot down inside the collar. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I may still dye the shift knob a little darker so that it matches the boot and rest of the blacks in the interior better.
This is the Cougar steering wheel:
It was originally dark blue and the dye had faded to yellow on the rim along the top (forgot to take before pics) so I painted it with some black interior dye.
Thunderbird/Cougar wheels can be used in Mustangs but you need the complete wheel minus the airbag (you could probably use the air bag too if you didn't mind a bird or cat in the middle of it):
- wheel
- rear trim cover
- cruise control buttons
- horn contact assembly
The wheels are physically and electrically compatible but rear trim cover and cruise buttons mount differently to the wheel and the cruise and horn button wiring and connections are different inside the wheel. The three pin connector to the clockspring is the same though so it's plug an play as long as you have a complete wheel.
There is a very subtle difference in the arc of the air bag around the cruise control buttons between the SN95 wheels and the MN12 wheels.
It's really weird that Ford made these steering wheels with no interchangeable parts despite the fact that the are visually, electrically and functionally identical. Why, Ford? Why?
Here's the old one - $5 steering vinyl wheel covers FTW:
That black stuff is 1/8" padding I added a couple of weeks ago to make the wheel a little more comfy - stock wheel is too skinny, definitely keeping the padding.
In other news... Had a problem since my PI intake swap with coolant never getting fully up to operating temp, running consistently 10~15F degrees cool. Took forever for the motor to get warm, gas mileage was down a little, and idle quality suffered a little bit if the motor wasn't warm enough. I replaced the parts store thermostat I put in during the intake swap with another and the problem persisted. Finally I went to the dealer and spent the extra $5 for a Ford t-stat and now the motor comes up to operating temp in just a few minutes and the temp sits right on 195F like it's supposed to.
At the pick-n-pull I also nabbed some front control arms off a '96 V6 - I'll rebuild those out of the car so that I can spend more of my time just swapping parts and less of my time wrangling bushings when I overhaul the front suspension here shortly. Somebody'd already grabbed the hubs so all I had to do was pop the springs out (fell right out with a little nudge with a crowbar) and they came right off, no problem.
The sixer was pretty well picked over - I was hoping to grab a few other odds-and-ends (including a steering wheel) but there wasn't much left and what was left was trashed. I did score that little vent that shoots air at your feet - mine was split and kept dangling down and catching on my toes - woot!
Found a Fox body with halo headrest - I tried to get those but they wouldn't come out easily and I was about to pass out from heat exhaustion so I left 'em.
