will e wrote: ↑Tue Sep 13, 2022 5:44 pm
Welcome from Phoenix! Looks like a good start for a project.
I see the 68 Cougar in your sig. What's the story on that?
My dad and I bought the car together in 2007, splitting the purchase price of $1,350. It was a show car in the 90s (nothing crazy, just stock rebuild type of show car) but was in an accident after the owner hit another car and ran. The hood came unlatched and flew up, hitting the top of the windshield trim and ripped the hinges out. It had a damaged fender and grille. The previous owner was very involved in the Cougar community in the Northwest. He had 3 when I met him, the one I bought ('68 blue with black top and black interior), he had a similar one for his wife ('68 blue car with white top and white interior, and then he had a black '69 convertible. After he crashed mine he ended up selling his fleet and moving somewhere else and hasn't really been heard from since. I've reached out to try and see if he could send me some older photos of the car with no luck. The car was in a garage at my dads house but unfortunately my dad passed and I had to scramble to find somewhere to keep it. Thankfully a friend let me keep all 3 of these at his property, but they were outside the whole time unprotected.
At the time I had a '67 Cougar which was very rusty, but I was able to take the parts needed from that and install it on the cougar. I was ~19 at the time. Then life got in the way. I went to college, got married, had kids, got a job which moved me a couple states away, etc. So my cars sat two states away for ~6 years. I recently got back to WA state and bought a house and was able to bring all my cars home which is why they look like they've been in a jungle for so long. The Zephyr looked the same way before I cleaned it up.
The Zephyr was the first car I brought home and needed a lot of work to get back going again. It needed a new floorpan, new carpet, a full interior clean, power steering pump, and front suspension work. I've since replaced the front control arms, installed camber plates, lowering springs in the front, new tires, and all new calipers and brake fluid. I've been focused on that car and am almost to a point that I can drive it reliably again. It's a 302 with a t-5 5-speed swapped in, 5 lug conversion from a 95 Mustang GT (so it has 95 Mustang disc brakes front and rear along with the 8.8 rear end 3.27 Trak-Lok), aluminum driveshaft from a 2wd V8 Explorer.
The Cougar now has a 306 with aluminum heads, roller cam, and a 4-speed AOD. The rear leaf springs are sagging badly but it does indeed have an engine installed in these photos. I have to finish installing the electric fuel pump and adjust the TV cable of the AOD to get it going again, but I haven't even touched it since I got it back. The roof under the vinyl top has become EXTREMELY rusted out so I have a spare roof that I will be using as a donor for the skin this winter. You can see the spare roof sitting on the wall behind the Cougar.
The Jeep is my newest purchase and I think it will run after I replace the fuel pump, filters, and blow the lines out (or replace whatever lines are rotted). So I've got some work to do, but I'm happy I finally have all my projects in one place so I can make progress. This forum has already taught me a bunch of stuff that I'll be doing during the winter months here. Here are a few photos of them.
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