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Welcome from North Idaho! How about an interior photo or two?
Harrison, Idaho here. working on interior this week, and getting frustrated.image.jpg
 
Your interior looks good, my interior is still stripped down and waiting on me to get it back together. Why are you frustrated with your interior?
the frustrating part is the shoddy craftsmanship back in the 70's. some of my interior trim pieces dont fit very well. big gaps, etc. i am not going to modify them. i am going for concourse original. even if it doesnt look right. i am also having a tough time locating a few key parts. plastic trim piece that goes on front of my dash pad. only early 71' had them. cant seem to find an original, or repop rear package tray. only better than factory ones. made of abs or pvc. i dont really want better. i want original. it seems to me that going concourse is harder than custom. because i have set strict guidelines for myself to follow. another tough item is the divider board that goes behind the back seat. separating the back seat from the trunk. i think that it is simply a "curtain" of foam padding, or cardboard/fiberboard material. not really sure what i am looking for. i did have good luck with the carpet and seats. the center console is turning out great. as soon as i am confident that all my hard to get to wires, heater controls, and vents are good to go. i will put the dash back together. i dont look forward to hanging my doors and installing all of the window and door mechanisms. however, i am good with this sort of thing and will get it done.
 
the frustrating part is the shoddy craftsmanship back in the 70's. some of my interior trim pieces dont fit very well. big gaps, etc. i am not going to modify them. i am going for concourse original. even if it doesnt look right. i am also having a tough time locating a few key parts. plastic trim piece that goes on front of my dash pad. only early 71' had them. cant seem to find an original, or repop rear package tray. only better than factory ones. made of abs or pvc. i dont really want better. i want original. it seems to me that going concourse is harder than custom. because i have set strict guidelines for myself to follow. another tough item is the divider board that goes behind the back seat. separating the back seat from the trunk. i think that it is simply a "curtain" of foam padding, or cardboard/fiberboard material. not really sure what i am looking for. i did have good luck with the carpet and seats. the center console is turning out great. as soon as i am confident that all my hard to get to wires, heater controls, and vents are good to go. i will put the dash back together. i dont look forward to hanging my doors and installing all of the window and door mechanisms. however, i am good with this sort of thing and will get it done.
I can understand this! I'd be frustrated too if I were constrained to the mediocre quality of the original product, especially knowing I could make it better.
 
the frustrating part is the shoddy craftsmanship back in the 70's. some of my interior trim pieces dont fit very well. big gaps, etc. i am not going to modify them. i am going for concourse original. even if it doesnt look right. i am also having a tough time locating a few key parts. plastic trim piece that goes on front of my dash pad. only early 71' had them. cant seem to find an original, or repop rear package tray. only better than factory ones. made of abs or pvc. i dont really want better. i want original. it seems to me that going concourse is harder than custom. because i have set strict guidelines for myself to follow. another tough item is the divider board that goes behind the back seat. separating the back seat from the trunk. i think that it is simply a "curtain" of foam padding, or cardboard/fiberboard material. not really sure what i am looking for. i did have good luck with the carpet and seats. the center console is turning out great. as soon as i am confident that all my hard to get to wires, heater controls, and vents are good to go. i will put the dash back together. i dont look forward to hanging my doors and installing all of the window and door mechanisms. however, i am good with this sort of thing and will get it done.

3 years or 36,000 Miles. The idea was to make you happy enough to buy another after 5 years or so. Ford never intended for these things to be on the road in the 21st century. Thanks to BIC (Lighter, Pen, etc) Planned Obsolescence was finally perfected in the 80s.
 
3 years or 36,000 Miles. The idea was to make you happy enough to buy another after 5 years or so. Ford never intended for these things to be on the road in the 21st century. Thanks to BIC (Lighter, Pen, etc) Planned Obsolescence was finally perfected in the 80s.
Yep. Most car loans back then were 24-36 months.
 
Back then people traded cars every year or two. Cars needed valve jobs around 50k miles and engine rebuilds at around a 100k. Thanks to computer controlled engine management, engines now run 200k-300k miles
 
What a stunning Mustang! And, based on how many folks in this forum took the time to say something in response to your post (and photo), I dare say it is evident this forum is attended by a lot of really passionate folks who love their pony cars... Anyway, welcome. I look forward to seeing more of your pony...
 

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3 years or 36,000 Miles. The idea was to make you happy enough to buy another after 5 years or so. Ford never intended for these things to be on the road in the 21st century. Thanks to BIC (Lighter, Pen, etc) Planned Obsolescence was finally perfected in the 80s.
I remember back in the 60s and 70s a car with 60,000 miles on it was often considered to be all used up, maybe good as an outdated transportation-only car. By the time it hit 100,000 miles it was ready for the crusher. Then, slowly began to change with planned obsolescence on the one hand for really inexpensive, economy cars (Vega, Pinto, Yugo), and then later I noticed a swing was made to producing longer lasting vehicles provided an owner took good care of their vehicle. It seems manufacturers realized one way to encourage a customer to trade up into a new vehicle was to take measures to help ensure their used car had enough value to help make it worth trading in for a new car. Also, manufacturers were getting deeper into leasing in the 80s, and the vehicles had to have some worthwhile residual value at the end of a lease to help keep leasing expenses low. Even the US and state governments got into the longevity-by-design act by requiring emission control equipment be warranted for some rather long time and mileage terms. Now it is not unusual to see a vehicle go through the hands of three or more owners before it ends up looking like it is finally time for the scrap yard. So, if it is looking like cars are lasting longer than before, it is not just a passing illusion. But, it still takes maintenance, and for repair shops it takes some pretty costly equipment to keep up with current technologies. If manufactures felt making cars last longer might have somehow hurt them this never would have happened.

I looked at at some transportation "facts" on this subject, and found the average age of a passenger car in the US is now an incredible 12 years! And, it is deemed that a person can expect their car to last 200,000 miles, or even longer is very well cared for and maintained (think synthetic oil). I guess some of that "future of cars" tendency must have somehow worn off on our beloved Mustangs and Cougars! Well, I for one, feel our First Generation pony cars get a great run because of their popularity, where there is a large enough market to attract parts makers to keep these cars in play. And, even if not intended, the cars were built better than the engineers likely intended - especially when folks take excellent care of these wonderful machine from half a century ago. I would love to see how they fare with 100 years on them. I hope they do well, as we are planning to pass our pony cars down to our kids in the future. I can only hope they will have the same kind of appreciation for them as Lynda and I do.
 
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