If you know 80-89 Town Cars ... get in here

[the_pack_rat]

There's always something I wondered about these cars.

I worked for a L/M dealer for close to 10 years ... and it never came to me to check into this.

Long story short .....

Can the front end & tail end parts including bumpers be swapped amongst years ..... _IF_ you obtain all the year correct pieces along with the bumpers ?.

While the tucked bumpers of the 85-89 have their advantages, it was an 84 Signature & Cartier T/C that I really fell in lust with more than 20 years ago, & I seem to prefer that look more than the 85-89.

Other than having to snag the all trim around the 80-84 bumpers, the rear center reflector & the tail lamps with corner pieces along with the actual bumpers themselves ... would it work ?.

Anyone "been there done that before" ?.

I can't recall if the big rear reflector assembly & tail lamps had any kind of curves on their mounting base(s) where it bolted to the rear panel of the car itself on the 85-89's.

That could be a problem.

The 80-84 center reflector piece was pretty much straight up & down when mounted. The 85-89's panels & tail lamps have a slight angle to them when mounted.

The way I see it ...

The rear most end panel of the car where the center reflector bar & tail lamps mount, was either

1) re-tooled to give that slight slant in 1985-1989.

OR -

2) The rear area of the body shell was left alone, and the backside of the 85-89 reflector & tail lamp assembly themselves, were designed in such a way to give the installed panel & tail lamps that slight slope look.

That was probably clear as mud ... I'm sure most are asking themselves ... "WTF is he talking about ?.

Hopefully it's not clear as mud to all. And some understand what I mean in regards to the non-slope 80-84 vs the slight slope of the 85-89's.

[Lincolnmania]

i dont think that anyone has done it
i know the front fender extensions will swap over and the header panels will swap out.....but i do not know about the rear stuff.....the bumpers will fit......i want to take a 80-83 mark
vi coupe and put 86 bumpers lights and grille on it

[87_crown_vic]

as far as what i have seen in my dventures at the junkyard ripping them apart, it is just the bolt on parts designed different but the body of the car is the same. the fiberglass stuff was made to fit on the car using pretty much the same body just made to look different. i have some good front signals and tails for the earlier townies. i think that all you need to do is swap headers panels to the older look along with rear fiberglass panels to get the look you want. here are some pics of what i have for a lincoln since i know they are to find in this style.

[gadget73]

The front all swaps, and I'm reasonably sure the rear stuff does too. The trunklid itself is the same, and I don't think the rear fenders changed any. Possible you'll have to drill a couple holes or something to mount the older panels up but thats likely the extent of it.

If you really want to get stupidly anal about swapping parts, you know all the interior woodgrain is different in 84 compared to later models. 85 had a half burl, half black dash, 86-87 have burl, 88-89 have some darker color. 84 back has this glossy stuff thats a different pattern. The clock has roman numerals, but the other instruments are the same 85-87. 88-89 had a revised instrument panel. 84 doesn't have a power antenna switch either if I remember right, don't ask me how it actually worked. I also want to say 84's have cable operated mirrors. The earlier model Towncars had silver instruments, but I'm not totally sure when that stopped. 80-83 had "stash panels" in the the door armrests.


Depending where you are, I know someone selling an absolutely gorgeous 81. http://www.lincolnsonline.com/forum/...994#post692994

[the_pack_rat]

Sounds like it may be do-able.

Yea, I'm pretty aware of the interior changes over the years.

Other then not knowing about the front & rear swap stuff ... I know these cars pretty well.

85 was a strange year with the black & burl. I've seen a few 85's that had the full burl. Whether or not it was a production change on later 85's I do not know. What I do know for sure is ... whoever came up with the idea to do that should be beaten with a bag of oranges. It looks like absolute shit IMHO.

My favorite of all the interior trim is the 85-87 wood grain(assuming you take the 85 only black panels out of the equation).

88 wood grain I never really liked at all, but 89 is pretty nice. I always thought the 85-87 wood grain was win/win. Classy with a non-shiny look that doesn't show finger prints & smudges. 89 while nice looking ... will show smudges & fingerprints.

I don't hate the 84 wood grain, but again it's not my favorite. I'm not quite sure if how far back the 84 wood grain goes. I'm pretty sure the Mark VI's had their own unique wood grain. Most of them that I can recall, had a wood grain similar to the 88 TC's. But admittedly ... I have only seen a fraction of Mark VI's vs TC's, so I could very well be wrong about that. I'm also pretty sure that 84 was the last year that the control panels on the doors were silver vs wood grain. I'm also pretty sure that the 84's were the last year to have the silver buttons when equipped with the digital dash. Furthermore ... I also think 84 was the first year for the extra nice coach roof that went into the rear glass further than previous years (something else that I think was a Mark VI thing prior to this).

Bottom line I guess is this .....

I wouldn't mine having one, one of these days ... but I really do not want a CFI car. The shame of it all is ... other than still being CFI, 1984 was a great year for the Town Cars. It's the first year that the Signature Series the & Cartier had the tall lower rocker chrome. The best looking seat (at least in my opinion) made it's debut as well in the Signature, which was previously a seat style & pattern that was only found in certain Mark VI's.

1984 was also the only year in the 84-89 run where the Cartier shared the Signature style seat. The 85-87 Cartiers had seats while not exactly the same as a base TC, were very similar. FoMoCo may have tried to dress them up some ... but IMHO they failed, the Signature seats were much more plush & upscale looking. At least in 88/89 the Cartier seats had a more unique look to them, tho I still feel the 84-89 Signature seats were as good as it got.

I'm probably just rambling on at this point ...

Guess I'll shut up.



PS -

That's green TC for sale is very nice.

But I'm more of an 84-89 guy & I'm sure I don't have the coin he would probably want for it.

[86VickyLX]

CFI can be done away with mang. You could do a SEFI conversion. Other people have done this and they are very pleased with the results.

[Dereck]

Hi

If you wanted to do something really cool I have seen a late 80s Town Car with vacuum headlight doors a la 70s Continental style

Regards

Dereck

[Cable Guys FGMQ]

Hi

If you wanted to do something really cool I have seen a late 80s Town Car with vacuum headlight doors a la 70s Continental style

Regards

Dereck

80 to 83 Mark VI header piece & a trunk & tail lights.....

[gadget73]

PS -

That's green TC for sale is very nice.

But I'm more of an 84-89 guy & I'm sure I don't have the coin he would probably want for it.

It might go reasonable. I think he said his dad was only offered like 1000 or something for the car from a dealership.

Understand about the not so fond of CFI. It runs great when running properly but it can be a pain in the ass when its messed up. That 81 is EEC III CFI, if you're familier with that at all.

Interesting tidbit about the seats. I pulled mine from an 86 Cartier. They're identical to Signature seats. I have however seen 86 Cartier seats, and they were totally different. I think whoever ordered that particular 86 got the Signature seats as a special option or something. I'm glad, because they're also my favorite Towncar seats, especially in velour.

[p71towny]

I LOVE the older style front and rear end. I want a 2dr with moon roof & digi dash. Thats the ultimate 2dr panther. Next in line is a 2dr merc.

[91LTDProject]

I want that green TC.....badly. Its gorgeous.

[85linc]

i got a 85 tc that came pretty basic its brown with brown int. so iv been collecting parts and had a few parts cars and have done a 84 guage clustin and heater controls and the silver around the window switches, converted to eletric mirrors with termometer and 88 cartier quarter windows with chrome lincoln emblem in them, as well as the full rocker chrome and chrome strip around bottom of the vynl top and an aluminum hood and in the prosses of putting a fmoonroof over the back seat, limo style lol and im trying to decide if i should do a 80-84 rear end i like the way it looks better but i would wanna keep the newer front end

[gadget73]

I wouldn't mix and match them. I've seen it done, and the lenses look out of place. Pointy on one end and flat on the other is odd. One calf-catcher bumper and one flush bumper also looks odd. It ends up looking exactly like it is: a car put together from mismatched parts.

[85linc]

i thought bout that expecialy how the bumpers differ do u have any pics of a tc with the older back and newer front

[gadget73]

no pics, but there used to be one driving around here. I think it was an 84 that hit something, and it's front end was put together with later parts since it was a different color. It looked really stupid to me.

[LoPar]

I wouldn't mix and match them. I've seen it done, and the lenses look out of place. Pointy on one end and flat on the other is odd. One calf-catcher bumper and one flush bumper also looks odd. It ends up looking exactly like it is: a car put together from mismatched parts.

my thoughts exactly!