COOL CATS

Media

Artwork

Cougar Line Art Drawing

If you’re trying to visualize ideas such as modifications or paint schemes for your Cougar, you can get a great head start by using the royalty-free black-and-white line art below. We created them with you in mind: if you want to draw flames, scallops, or stripes, or just want to visualize a set of rims before you buy them, this line art provides a great starting place. We’ve provided a view of the front, back, and both sides for each model year. And you can import them into your drawing program of choice and do all of your rendering digitally. The sky is the limit!

MODIFICATIONS

All drawings have correct ornamentation for their particular model year; however, we have omitted the hood ornament and antenna for aesthetic purposes. Also, the wheel styles have been omitted from all drawings so that you can add your own.

LICENSE

The images below are royalty-free and can be freely used, modified, and distributed by anyone. There are no costs involved and no legal penalties will be assessed as there are no copyrights on the images.

FILE FORMATS

There is a .zip file for each model year and style. The .zip file contains the following:

Vector: Adobe Illustrator native (.ai), Illustrator EPS (.eps), AutoCAD (.dwg)
NOTE: All points and line widths remain intact, and all text has been converted to paths (outlines).

Raster: JPEG (72 dpi, RGB)
NOTE: Vector EPS format can be converted to high-resolution raster EPS using Photoshop or equivalent program.


 

1983

83gs (.zip)
83ls (.zip)
83custom (.zip)

1984

84gs (.zip)
84ls (.zip)
84xr7 (.zip)
84custom (.zip)

1985

85gs (.zip)
85ls (.zip)
85xr7 (.zip)
85custom (.zip)

1986

86gs (.zip)
86ls (.zip)
86xr7 (.zip)
86custom (.zip)

1987

87ls (.zip)
87xr7 (.zip)
87custom (.zip)

1988

88ls (.zip)
88xr7 (.zip)
88custom (.zip)

Fonts

Mercury Cougar Dash Emblem

One of the most “1980s” things about these cars is the unabashed retro look and feel of that decade. In a lot of ways, the Cougar was the epitome of its time: formal, elegant, futuristic, but in a rounded-square sort of manner. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Our eye tends to look for recognizable shapes, and our cars sure had them in droves. In doing some research for this site and for my parts collecting, it occurred to me that I never recalled seeing an actual font that was used in the nomenclature on the Cougar. Other Ford and Mercury vehicles used the same typeface as well, and they harken back to at least 1978-79. Yet there was no trace of this font anywhere. So I decided to make one, based upon the nomenclature. How does one start this task? Quite literally, scanning the emblems then tracing over them with a vector image program. Then output all characters and import into a font building program. This sounds easy but it’s a lot harder than it sounds. There is a steep learning curve to all of this, and the programs can be a little counter-intuitive at the start. But in the end I accomplished what I wanted.

Telnak Font

In doing this little project I learned a few things. It’s not a properly aligned font; in other words, the spacing and width of letter parts are all over the map. While this is good enough for an automotive emblem, it’s not so great when you’re typing on a screen. So there was a bit of give-and-take with the proportions and spacing. I tried to even things out and get them more logically proportioned without losing the essence of each character. Also, some letters and numbers did not exist in emblem form so I had to improvise. All of the punctuation marks and special symbols were created from scratch. It’s technically just a display (headline) font even though there is a lowercase style included. Overall, though, I’m pretty happy with the final version and hope you will be as well.

When it came time to name the font…well, one thing came to mind immediately—rather, one person. The font is named Telnak, after the renowned US Ford designer of the 1970s-1990s, Jack Telnack. I figured I owed him for designing my favorite car in the world, so this is my tribute to him, his brilliant staff, and the forward-thinking attitude at Ford when it was truly needed.

Jack Telnack

Now for the good news: the Telnak font is available, free of charge, for anyone to use as they wish. You can choose either the OpenType (.otf) or TrueType (.ttf) format, whichever your particular device can handle. I hope you enjoy using the font in your projects as much as I did making it. -Eric

8 July 2024 – New version 2.0 update! We fixed a bunch of issues from the first version and reconstructed all characters to better comply with standards. We also used a more compact app to process and output the fonts. Standard Western/Latin characters are applied. Any issues, please let us know. Thanks and enjoy!

Telnak Regular Font
Telnak Outline Font

Gauge Faces

1985-88 Analog Gauge Face Layouts

For those people who either have 1985-88 analog factory gauges or have swapped them in, you may be looking for a way to customize them. Below are custom layouts for these gauges that can be printed on a variety of materials or even used by custom gauge companies. They are as accurate as possible; however we must disclose that despite our efforts, nothing is 100% certain and you use them at your own risk. That being said…enjoy!

Thanks to Joe for providing some of the gauge layouts below.


SPEEDOMETER

95 MPH Speedometer, Black Face
95 MPH Speedometer, White Face
140 MPH Motorsport Speedometer, Black Face
140 MPH Motorsport Speedometer, Black Face, Cougar Logo
140 MPH Motorsport Speedometer, Black Face, Thunderbird Logo
140 MPH Motorsport Speedometer, White Face
140 MPH Motorsport Speedometer, White Face, Cougar Logo
140 MPH Motorsport Speedometer, White Face, Thunderbird Logo
220 KPH Canadian/Export Speedometer, Black Face, Cougar Logo – Thanks to Carm for this file
220 KPH Canadian/Export Speedometer, Black Face, Thunderbird Logo – Thanks to Carm for this file
220 KPH Canadian/Export Speedometer, White Face, Cougar Logo – Thanks to Carm for this file
220 KPH Canadian/Export Speedometer, White Face, Thunderbird Logo – Thanks to Carm for this file

TACHOMETER

6000 RPM Factory V8 Tachometer, Black Face
6000 RPM Factory V8 Tachometer, Black Face, Cougar Logo
6000 RPM Factory V8 Tachometer, Black Face, Thunderbird Logo
6000 RPM Factory V8 Tachometer, White Face
6000 RPM Factory V8 Tachometer, White Face, Cougar Logo
6000 RPM Factory V8 Tachometer, White Face, Thunderbird Logo
6000 RPM 2.3L I-4 Tachometer with Firm Ride Light, Black Face
6000 RPM 2.3L I-4 Tachometer with Firm Ride Light, White Face
7000 RPM 2.3L I-4 Tachometer with Boost Gauge, Black Face
7000 RPM 2.3L I-4 Tachometer with Boost Gauge, White Face

The following is for converted 4-cyl-to-V8 tachometers only. See this page for conversion instructions.

7000 RPM Converted V8 Tachometer, Black Face
7000 RPM Converted V8 Tachometer, Black Face, Cougar Logo
7000 RPM Converted V8 Tachometer, Black Face, Thunderbird Logo
7000 RPM Converted V8 Tachometer, White Face
7000 RPM Converted V8 Tachometer, White Face, Cougar Logo
7000 RPM Converted V8 Tachometer, White Face, Thunderbird Logo

SURROUNDING GAUGES

Oil Gauge, Black
Oil Gauge, White
Temperature Gauge, Black
Temperature Gauge, White
Amp Gauge, Black
Amp Gauge, White
Fuel Gauge, Black
Fuel Gauge, White
All 4 Surrounding Gauges, Black
All 4 Surrounding Gauges, White