As im going through the restoration on my cougar im finding that some things are in correct for the car which is to be expected. Anyway I have a tilt away column with the actuator however, there is no wiring for it or vacuum hoses for it. I got a marti report done that verifies my suspicion that it came with a non tilt unit. Would it be smarter to just remove the tilt and replace it a standard column or acquire all the stuff to make the tilt functional?
That depends upon your intentions. Are you looking to do a 100 point 100% correct restortation? If so then you need to put the car back exactly the way it left the factory. Or are you looking to restore the car the way you would like it to be? If so then it would be up to you whether you want the tilt feature or not.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
If it were my Cougar, Unless it is a GT-E or XR-7G I would keep the tilt. You can slowly find the parts to make it fully functional. But I would not let the missing parts keep me from working on it. I would get the door switch done now so it will not be a problem to new paint and move on as the search is in process. If I did not find the parts by time to put it together I would just use as is until the parts are found.
If you decide to go standard, I will send you my standard column and you can send me your tilt. 
I may even throw in some cash to sweeten the deal!
I don’t think that til will ever take away value. The vacuum and electronics are all for the tile away feature, tilt works minus any of that. I might leave it as is, as long as the bearings are good.
Im kind of torn about it. The cars just been painted so, that means I would have to drill a hole for the tilt activation switch. The vacuum motor has a crack so, a new one of those would need to be sourced then route wiring and vacuum hoses, there is a bit of up and down play in the steering wheel which I haven’t checked into yet.