93 Mark VIII interior swap into 1981 Foxbody Mustang?

*Maverick*

*Maverick*

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Ok, obviously, this isn't going to be easy, but I have a friend who's seriously thinking about doing this. He's wanting a nice street/strip foxbody that's also a custom. A couple weeks ago, he was talking about a SN95 Cobra interior swap, but he wanted something different from that. I mentioned that I had alot of Mark VIII interior parts lying around, and he jumped all over that. I was back at his house for a party Saturday night, and I pulled up some pics of Mark VIII interiors on his computer, and now he's totally on board. I've got a 81 notchback Mustang, and I told him I'd sell him the car and the full Mark VIII interior for $400. Now I know it's not going to be a simple swap. I'm pretty certain the dash is going to have to be narrowed, the door panels and rear interior panels are going to have to be modified somehow or not used at all, and probably either use a different back seat than the Mark VIII's, or just make the car a 2-seater. Anyway, does anybody have any ideas on this or actually have a picture of a foxbody with a Mark VIII interior? I searched on here and on Google and couldn't find anything. BTW, he does have people around him who can do almost any kind of fab work. One of his friends put a '61 Impala dash in a S10 and it looks perfect, just as an example.
 
87TTOPGT420 said:
Good luck but a fox body dimensions are so far off from the mark viii
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Agreed.





Your buddy would be ruining 2 cars by doing this.

I'm usually not one to say "it ain't gonna work".... but it aint gonna work!

It would be like trying to cram the contents of a watermelon inside an apple!

The cars aree just too different. Now from sn cars to fox cars there are an extreme amount of similarities... sn cars were just "better" foxbodies. Hard to tell a difference from underneath.
 
How about just the dash (narrowed) and front seats from a Mark VIII? Those are the major things he's wanting. As for ruining the Mustang, I was planning on making it a drag car a few years ago, so the interior is mostly gone already, plus I already have the Mark VIII interior parts lying around from an old parts car. Like I said, keep in mind he's got inlaws who can do some really good metal fab and fiberglass work. So would just the dash be do-able if it were modified?
 
FWIW, I tend to agree with you guys that it would be a major undertaking, but he's convinced he can do it with the help of his friends, but I'm just wanting to get opinions on here on just how hard it would be.
 
I'd say it would be a MAJOR undertaking. But nothing's impossible. I remember seeing an article in one of the Hot Rod-type magazines a few years ago about a guy that put an SN-95 Mustang interior into a '66 Mustang fasback. And it looked good. If that can be done, then this can. It's just gonna take a whole lot of time and work.
 
By the time you narrow the dash you'll have to recover it in vinyl, and nothing will line up, there's no holes for anything on the doors for the door panels, they'd have to be cut and shortened and recovered. Plus if you did any fiberglass work that adds weight. Dude would be better off just putting all sheetmetal interior and a bucket seat and continuing the drag car deal.
 
Well I'll have to talk to him I guess. Having owned the Mustang and a Mark VIII, I told him it would take some work, but he's dead set on the idea when I saw him over the weekend. IDK if he'll want to go ahead with this after I tell him or want to go a different route, but he wants a full interior in the car and he wants something "different" or modern looking. What he wants is to have a fast car at the strip (he's talking about a 408 stroker or getting one of my Mark VIII engines to start with), but be as much a show car as it is fast.
 
I have experimented with so many different variations, anything is worth a try if it's what you want to do. Granted it wont be a direct fit, and there will be some fabricating, but just imagine what it would look like when it's done.
 
Oh yea, I agree. That's what we were talking about over the weekend was how good it would look. The Mark VIII interior is one of the best looking car interiors in my opinion (I'm a gen-I guy, but I do have to admit, I think the gen-II interiors look better), and I'm always interested to see any variation on the Mark VIII interior in custom applications. Like I said, I'll talk to him, and if he still wants to do it, I'll definitely help him with it. It should be an interesting project anyway. If he wants one of my Mark VIII engines, I know that can be done. I've seen enough foxbodies with DOHC mod motors all over the internet. He told me he'd buy one of my engines if I gave him my W3Z2 ECU with it. I told him no way. I only have one of those, and it's staying with me for when I get another Mark :gr_devil:. I told him I'd give him one of my W3Z3's, but he doesn't seem to think they're worth anything. To be honest, I don't even know what ECU he'd need for an engine swap. In other swaps, I've heard people don't want to use the Mark VIII ECU.
 
Being an '81... if he wants something different, just tell him to find interior out of a 87-93 and swap it out, dash and all. It will fit if you get all the parts from the donor car. Foxes didn't change much. Heck you can put the majority of a fox mustangs interior into a 2dr fairmont!
 
Well... I've been texting back and forth with him about it, and he's still talking about trying it. I don't think he'd go for the 87-93 dash swap (I agree it does look a hell of a lot better than what came in the 81). He's wanting to swap a 87-93 nose onto the 81, so if he did the interior too, it'd just look pretty much like any other 87-93 notch. Plus, I don't think he likes that interior either. He was talking about an interior swap even when he was talking about getting that model. The fox T-Bird interior might be an idea, but I kind of doubt he'll want to go that route either. Like I said, he's wanting something modern I think, but maybe that will be different enough that he'll like it. We were talking before about an SN95 Cobra interior swap before we got to seriously discussing a Mark VIII swap, so that might be an option. I mean for $400 for the car and the complete interior minus a few things I'm probably missing, he might still go for it just to see how it goes. I'd like to see it done, especially after he texted me earlier about what color he's wanting to do it all in. How the Mark VIII dash is normally 2-tone from the factory, he's wanting to do the top part in black and the bottom part in some shade of white or off-white.
 
*Maverick* said:
Well... I've been texting back and forth with him about it, and he's still talking about trying it. I don't think he'd go for the 87-93 dash swap (I agree it does look a hell of a lot better than what came in the 81). He's wanting to swap a 87-93 nose onto the 81, so if he did the interior too, it'd just look pretty much like any other 87-93 notch. Plus, I don't think he likes that interior either. He was talking about an interior swap even when he was talking about getting that model. The fox T-Bird interior might be an idea, but I kind of doubt he'll want to go that route either. Like I said, he's wanting something modern I think, but maybe that will be different enough that he'll like it. We were talking before about an SN95 Cobra interior swap before we got to seriously discussing a Mark VIII swap, so that might be an option. I mean for $400 for the car and the complete interior minus a few things I'm probably missing, he might still go for it just to see how it goes. I'd like to see it done, especially after he texted me earlier about what color he's wanting to do it all in. How the Mark VIII dash is normally 2-tone from the factory, he's wanting to do the top part in black and the bottom part in some shade of white or off-white.
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You can't just swap the nose from an 87-93, well you can but it looks like butt!
He'll want to do the doors, fenders, nose.. and maybe the rear bumper/lights.
Been there done that, a couple times. Should have just bought a 87-93... LOL... But when I was younger I always had more time than mone, and we would try anything at least.a few times.
 
Well, I just quit texting him now. There might not be a Mark VIII interior swap, but only because there'd be no point swapping a Gen-I interior into another Gen-I Mark VIII. I *might* have brought him into the fold. When I was at his house over the weekend, I started out showing him Mark VIII interiors, and ended up showing him alot of other Mark VIII stuff, and showing him quite a few threads on here (he's a big fan of the Marks on Saleens, BTW), and he was on here looking around at stuff earlier tonight. He actually sent me a picture of the Mark VIII on here with the customized Mazda 6 projector headlights (sorry, I forget the guy's SN, but that is an awesome car). Of course, all the stuff he was sending me, I'd already seen before, but I've been trying to bring him over to the dark side for years, so it's cool to see him starting to lean this way. If I talk to him tomorrow, I'll try to talk him into signing up on here, since he's already becoming a semi-lurker.
 
Tell him to forget modulars, go boosted windsor.

Stangman said:
It would be like trying to cram the contents of a watermelon inside an apple!
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Sounds delicious, I'd like to see it done.

Also, you can't ruin a Mustang. That's like ruining this Fruit of the Loom wifebeater I have on right now because I'm about to go to bed. Yeah I could get a mustard stain on it, but that hardly ruins it, because they made 42 billion of them..
 
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