Well I crawled into the carpetless and seatless Cougar to take out the back package tray.  It was in rough condition after years of sitting in sunshine and dampness.  There were holes for speakers that were no longer there.  I decided that this car did not require a stereo as I have done so in so many projects.  It is just an expense that I don’t want at this time balancing decisions to make sure this project doesn’t financially go off the rails. I had a good package tray in the parts car that the material used, which appears to be headliner material, was already loose from the glue giving up the ghost.  I easily peeled it off the board and will use that material when repairing mouse holes in the headliner.  Yes, you read that right.  I am going to repair mouse holes in the headliner.  The material on the headliner is still firm in place other than a few golf ball sized holes made to make an aerial public mouse washroom with complementary stuffing to take home after the mouse business was completed.  Putting in a headliner is not fun.  I call it torture and I am not interested.  The last few cars I have done have had a couple holes here and there and I am slowly perfecting a method to repair these holes so that it is not so noticeable and that mouse turds don’t continually fall on me and fall in my coffee as I drive.  (I don’t use contained sippy cups or thermos mugs for my coffee.  Those are for wimps. I use open mugs all the way.  If you can’t scald your self when braking hard for the idiot in front of you than you are not driving!   Ok back to the package tray.  Earlier in my planning I ordered the houndstooth material I was going to use to patch my one bucket seat, the back seat tops and make a compatable driver’s seat with to match the passenger seat.  This material pattern was a larger scale in the tooth pattern than the factory Ford material.  It might not be really noticeable but I would notice it every time I got into the car.  I used this material to cover the package tray, you know, use what i have.    I ran out of spray glue and had to halt my gluing to go and purchase more.  Who knew that the price would go up?  It was $19.99 two years ago to a new realistic price of $34.99 for one can.  When gluing it is important to spray both the material and the substrate to put it onto.  You must leave until the glue is dry to the touch before applying.  Then it will stick like crazy.  This houndstooth material was bought for a seat so there was a thin foam  backing behind the main material which made the overall size of this tray thicker when installed.    I was a bit worried about fitting the tray back under the back window lip but it appears to work.   Once I put the back seat into place will I know how smart I am.  I had to cut out an opening for the rear window defogger fan.  This was an option for the Cougar.  The original opening made for this fan looked brutal.  It was jagged and oblong (see photo).  I traced with a pencil from the underside while that panel was in place to my satisfaction and used a jigsaw to cut it carefully out.  I could not get the cover of this fan to sit flush.  It was the design of the cover which was why the butchery was done likely at the factory to make the screen sit flush.  I used a hole saw to open up the place where the four threaded bolts on the back of the screen would fit.  An hour later after cutting the four openings up with  I had the screen fitting flush.  I am sure the manicured board I now have resembles to a tee the butchered original board.  I always make myself better feel better by reminding myself that next time I will know better…..but I have said that several times in the past and there never seems to be a next time.  It is always just a different puzzle that needs to be addressed with time and materials and sour language!

Next on the line for tedious jobs are the back seatbelts.  These have  been sitting in dust and mouse excrement and fuzz and…….they are dirty.  I took them all out and cleaned the seat belt bolts on the wire grinder so that they will go back together smoother than they came apart.  I used a spot remover spray which has a high alcohol content and a soft hand brush to agitate the grimey areas on the belt.  I had small sections of surface rust on the chrome parts of the belt that I wired off.  I could get the belts out of the parts car but they are green in color and I would have to dye them.  I can always do that later if I wish.  I just want belts that work and seriously, how many times will people be sitting in the back seat anyways.  It’s not like the drive-in movies are a go anymore.  Most of the driving that I do now involves the front seats being used.  I used my carpet extractor to spray soap and water into the material and then vacuum that and the spot remover out.  They look so much better.