Hi Tim!
Great to hear from you. As fate would have it, my TC was an 85, in light blue metallic clear-coat! It was a Ford "Field car", that my dear friend Pierre Cliche (a Ford dealer) could get for me as soon as the district rep would receive his next car... A 1987 Merkur XR4Ti... that I also leased 8 months later! Followed by an 88 XR4Ti, and a 1989 Scorpio. I guess you could say I'm a Ford guy, eh?
I was partial to the 85 because of the dash update. And once I was sold on the virtues of the 2.3, the Merkur was a joy, even more so because its suspension was, let's say, more "subtle" than the TC. Nostalgia.
Happy you liked my Pro-Touring attempt, and I will try it on the contest table april 24th. We'll see how it fares...
CT