Well onto a new project.  I have known about a 1970 cougar that has been off the road for 40 years or more.  It has been sitting at a friend’s yard and I have been looking for parts for it for some time.  It is missing the entire front clip except for a hood that needs some work.  The engine is in the vehicle but is seized.  All of the antifreeze has turned into a rust colored dry rot mess throughout the engine and cooling system from sitting.  I am tackling this project in an order that allows for this vehicle to move under its own power so that it doesn’t have to be pushed in and out of the garage all of the time.  First things first so I went to get the Cougar with my trailer.  The car was originally in a barn  for most of its time at the current location until about six years ago when it was pushed outdoors in the elements.  Grass grew up all around and underneath it.  Grass is known to trap moisture against the metal underneath causing an orange rusty look to the unprotected metal parts.  Even the floors that have some sort of undercoating sweat and begin to rust.   Time to get to work and save another car from the crusher or from another garage to be left to an uncertain future wanna-be build.

The brakes on this car were seized from sitting and two tires were rotted off so I began by putting some spare rims and tires on to drag this car up onto the trailer.  Note:  if you are wanting to purchase an electric winch,  get a heavy duty version with lots of power and a thick cable.  Very few of the vehicles I have saved will roll easily onto the trailer.

This car was a base cougar with a 351 Cleveland 2 V engine and automatic transmission.  It has really cool seats called Hounds Tooth pattern in black and white.  It even had the hounds tooth vinyl top that has faded over the years and some rust is bubbling under this roofing material from trapped moisture.  Vinyl roofs were notorious for trapping moisture and causing rust to form.  I will eventually strip off the vinyl, repair the rust and spray bedliner on the roof to simulate the vinyl.  It is a clean look and will not trap rust under the sprayed material.  This is the same procedure done to my  Comet.  It is by far way cheaper to do it this way and you don’t have to glue your fingers together and get clumps in your hair putting it on.

My goal with doing these cars is to get them back on the road driving again as cheaply as possible.  I am not out to win awards at car shows or keep the cars exactly as they came from the factory.  The above Comet started its life out in 1974 and came with bumpers that you could have a dance on.  The car was brown and had little style to it.  The car was not a GT model but I always liked the look of a GT Comet so that was my goal.  I even replaced the six cylinder engine with a 302 v8, added a rear spoiler and front spoiler, and put a hood scoop on the hood like the GT would have had. Here is a photo from when I was fitting the scoop on the car.  See what I mean about the crash protection bumpers?  They are not my favorite.

So back to the Cougar.  I love the looks of a 1970 Cougar Eliminator.  I spent many hours cruising in one that my friend owned thirty years ago.  The cost of purchasing an original Eliminator is out of this world.  I don’t care if my car is an original one or not.  In fact, no Cougar Eliminators came with vinyl roofs let alone one sprayed with bedliner….but that is my goal.   The interior won’t be white but hopefully Hounds Tooth provided I can purchase new seat covers to replace the old ripped material.  Oh the color that you see is wicked and it is called Grabber Blue.   Next time we will discuss the search for a donor car or parts needed for this build…and yes it is getting harder as the years go by.