Well I haven’t been rocking down to electric avenue but have been driving myself into a tizzy trying to solve the turn signal sequential lights, the blinking side marker lights, the heater fan that just won’t run, the ignition that just won’t ignite, and the dash gauge cluster that stays dark as night.    Maybe the Grinch can come and take this car back to his workshop where he will fix it up there and bring it back here!  As always I start by fixing one problem at a time.  With these Cougars they have sequential tail lights and there is an electric box in the trunk that controls the majority of the sequencing.  Now, being off the road for over forty years I have no clue if this box works.  I have spent two weeks on this problem and can say that I am on the top of things but not for a lack of swearing and sweating.  I started by making sure all of the light sockets in the exterior bulbs were replaced with new bulbs.  I connected headlights to their wiring even though the headlight in the hideaway headlight holders are not ready to be installed.  I just connected bulbs.  I don’t want any kind of disturbance to ground by not having lights connected and this was true on this car.  I tried the light switch and had headlights come on.  All the marker lights remained off though.  On my 69 Mustang the side marker lights would come on when the headlights were either turned to running lights or to headlights but would never flash.  This is important as our story continues.  I had no turn signal lights so the steering column out of the parts car was removed and brought in to connect to the wiring harness to test to see if my signal light switch had given up the ghost.  Nope!  It had the same problems.  I had no turn signals.  I went to check out the signal light relay under the dash that is a two pronged tin button rely.  It was painted red with writing on the side saying for 429 sequential tail lights.  These relays click as the turn signals are working with each flash of the lights.  This signal is sent to the sequential box in the trunk to operate the tail lights to work in lighting up from center to outside one bulb at a time.  It is a very cool look.   So likely this bulb is no longer functioning.  The one from the parts car was a clear plastic electronic one that I took and used to test.  I had the sequential lights working finally.  This bulb made its clicking sound but I did not have any indicators in the gauge cluster.  When I turned the headlights on the sequencing lights failed to sequence and only flashed on and off.  Now with this bulb in play the marker lights flashed on and off with every click.  This was how my 69 Mustang operated and these two cars used a bunch of the same parts.  The engine compartments are identical as are the windshields…..you get the picture.  We used technology and used Gemini AI and asked it to research this problem  of flashing marker lights.  Gemini replied that after looking into Ford repair manuals, Mitchell online, and other sources the lights were supposed to only stay lit and not flash.  This may mean I have a bad ground.  So now with a wiring diagram we set out to locate all the grounds.  I left this task for a while as I was ready to quit cars entirely and decided to take the gauge cluster out to clean and to lightly sand the circuit brass on the back side where the bulbs were located.  Would you believe that all of the six interior gauge bulbs and the two turn signal bulbs were black and not functioning?  This is why my gauge lights wouldn’t light.  Who would think that all the bulb would be blown at the same time.  Likely they burned out one at a time while this car was being driven many moons ago and the owner did not bother to change them because of the procedure necessary. The dash has to come out in order to reach the back of the gauges and this was a pain in the ass job.  So not my signal lights work in the dash as does my lights to light up the gauges at night.  It wasn’t my light switch after all.  I had tested the one from the parts car by plugging it into the wiring harness earlier and it made no difference to my gauge lights.  All of these tests take a considerable amount of time and a flow chart to map the way from insanity.   Some guys are better at wiring than me for example. I used my phone a friend who used to own many Cougars in the past.  He wasn’t sure if those marker lights were supposed to flash.  We conferred with a couple of other guys who felt that they should operate like my 69 and not flash at all.  My freind used his phone a friend call and got a hold of a past Ford technician who has several old Torino cars.  He went to his 70 Torino and tried his lights out.  Guess what?  They are supposed to flash.  Gemini was wrong!  All the people we talked to were mistaken.  These lights that I had been chasing for two weeks for a bad ground were functioning as they were intended.  It turns out that Ford changed the function from 69 models to 1970 models likely due to safely regulations imposed by the government during manufacturing.  So what is to be learned from all of this?  A person needs to keep an open mind and not assume anything.  It helps to have a parts car to try different parts.  It helps to have friends with knowledge and example cars.  I have never built a Cougar before but now I know how the lights should work.  Oh yes, I’m not done yet.  That flasher relay I used that was clear and electronic I read would not work correctly and that is correct.  As I already stated the sequencing effect stops when the headlights are turned on.  I re connected my red relay that came with this car and flicked it with my finger. Not only did it start flashing, but the sequencing worked even with the headlights turned on.  So this relay was also a key to the whole process.  I took a video of these lights working and sent it to various people who knew my plight. It worked for two days and then went back into not working piece of crap mode.  It gave me just enough life to see that it was a key to making everything all right. I had to order one on ebay since all the Cougar parts companies were sold out.  A relay that was $5.99 many years ago now cost me $170 by the time it arrives.  The heater began to work once the ignition switch was replaced.  It was worn out and wouldn’t send power to the switch to operate the blower motor.  I knew the blower motor was fine because I had tested it when I rebuilt the heater box a few months back.

I haven’t been working just on electrical.  Apart from polishing my gauge plastics and re assembling the gauges I started to paint the interior metal of the dash below the dash pad where the glove box is.  I even found an am radio to install since the one from this car was missing.  I found an under dash light on the passenger side from the parts car and rewired it to work in this dash.  It is an add on feature for upper quality Cougars like in the XR7.  I can add most of those features over time as I find them on different parts cars…..but those cars are getting harder to find.  Most people don’t know that their car they are selling is a parts car. They are selling it as a restoration project.  Sorry, no!  The rear pinion seal was replaced as it was leaking on the floor.  As the driveshaft was out I ordered both U joints for this shaft.  I used a high speed grinder to apply a spaghetti wheel over the rusty driveshaft as well as a wire wheel attachment.  Once the shaft was clean and relatively rust free I sprayed rust converter on it and when that was dry I hung the shaft  vertically and brush painted aluminum paint color.  Two coats were needed.  When I was taking the rust off the shaft there were two colored stripes painted on this shaft from factory.  The first one was a yellow one and the second was a red oxide color.  They each were about 3/4 inch wide.  I am going to re paint them……not for any reason other than to make me smile when I lift  this car in the air to do an oil change or whatever need that car in the air for.  I have not gone this far in detailing a car in most of my builds.  It goes against my reasoning for building such cars……to drive them.  Details like stripes on driveshafts are for the cars that get trailered to car shows.