What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

[XR7-4.6]

I eliminated the rubber gasket around the shift bezel:

View attachment 15788

I always hated how that gasket looked, if I still had an auto I’d do the same which is what ford should have done in the first place.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

, if I still had an auto

Manual swappers, any opportunity to point it out, they're like: "actually, it's manu-awllll..."

which is what ford should have done in the first place.

But contrary to yours truly, Ford didn't bother to mount the bezel on springs to achieve a tight fit.

 

[XR7-4.6]

Manual swappers, any opportunity to point it out, they're like: "actually, it's manu-awllll..."

Well it is I deleted mine too, see?

But contrary to yours truly, Ford didn't bother to mount the bezel on springs to achieve a tight fit.

I would have expected it would be molded to sit higher and have rubber nubs in the console top to prevent NVH if it were factory executed (similar to the rubber nubs between the cluster and bezel). The rubber gasket almost strikes me as a hasty solution to bad measuring.

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

I would have expected it would be molded to sit higher and have rubber nubs in the console top to prevent NVH if it were factory executed (similar to the rubber nubs between the cluster and bezel). The rubber gasket almost strikes me as a hasty solution to bad measuring.

About that, fun fact: there's an unused tab molded into the bottom of the console panel (red arrow), same type of tab as those used to hold it to the console (yellow arrows). This may have been intended to hold the shift bezel during development. (Or does that hold the manual shift boot?)



For NVH, I cut off the tips of the melted nubs that held the rubber gasket; then I covered the remainder with thin foam (total of eights all around), which prevents the bezel from directly touching the edge of the opening in the console panel.

 

[XR7-4.6]

(Or does that hold the manual shift boot?)

View attachment 15796

Nope, the top for the manual shift boot was entirely different in shape, placement(about 1.5” closer to the dash) and retention using little metal clips that dig into + shaped nubs to hold the boot surround on…. Incidentally the auto top has one as well for gasket alignment purposes, as you can see next to the tab.

That’s an interesting idea, I never thought much of that tab piece but it really does look like it’s meant for a spring clip. It’s there on all the 94-97 auto tops so it’s curious why they didn’t get rid of it when the mold was altered for the 97s

 

[1997ThunderbirdLXV6]

That’s an interesting idea, I never thought much of that tab piece but it really does look like it’s meant for a spring clip. It’s there on all the 94-97 auto tops so it’s curious why they didn’t get rid of it when the mold was altered for the 97s

It's like those indentations in the door panels where the Cougar wood trim was supposed to go. Some sort of development dead-end, or some potential rare option.

 

[Ericv8thunderbird]

Why do I prefer UPS over FedEx?

I’ve always preferred UPS, now even more after this stint with FedEx.

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