Another 67 cougar, with a big twist.

[grambo]

Starting the wiring next.




New problem is I can’t get the drivers door to open, so that sucks.

[grambo]

Hey everyone, it’s been a bit but I have a few updates. The past few years I have been tinkering in the background. but the immensely complicated Eletrical systems for this car have been kicking my butt for a long while. That all changed these last two weeks. I have a friend who does Eletrical systems engineering for a tractor company who found some spare time and we made a bunch of progress. Then I had some life long friends(one who builds desert race trucks for a living and another who builds computers) fly in for a long weekend just to help on the car and my very skilled neighbor jumped in to help. So here is a big update. First off I had a ton of things that were 50ish percent done that we completed. It now has: brakes, a complete emissions delete, heat shielding , seatbelts, a headliner, hood vents, an attached front valence, all fluids, working power steering (yes the Volvo pump runs and turns the tires easily), headlights tail lights, brake lights 3/4 turn signals, a complete fuel system, installed oil catch can, and many other finished things. The biggest news is it runs awesome! We even drove it a mile and spun the tires a bit. This motor is awesomely powerful and smooth. I am so impressed.



As for what’s next: I need tires, and they are out of the budget for the moment. The clutch is not moving the throw out bearing quite enough, (not yet sure if it’s a blessing issue or master cylinder size issue) the The drivers front braided stainless brake line ruptured, there is a bad noise on deceleration. Still need to finish the blinkers, and install glass, And obviously it needs some serious body work, and I need to clean up the mess of wires , and mount the last fuse panel.
. But even with the rest of the list some incredible progress has been made.

[grambo]

Here are my two poorly filmed first start up clips.

[grambo]

I have a renewed commitment to getting this car going. I have been working away, and learning from my mistakes. First, I can’t get the clutch to fully disengage, I spent about an hour being bounced from person to person at Wilwood and found a clutch expert. So my master 3/4” cylinder is the correct diameter but cannot move quite enough fluid to fully move the clutch so I have a 7/8 master cylinder being shipped to me. I have a set of 295 50 r15 tires in the mail. These are not as wide as I wanted but they are close and far more affordable. I am fighting with my blinker switch. Best we can figure it was not made to work with the two prong blinker relay in my fuse panel. Got more testing to do. The dash is coming together, I made a bunch of mounts for it and have it 90% done. I have a cheap Chinese digital gps/obd2 gauge pod in the mail as well, so as soon as the brown truck of happiness gets here some good things will happen. I have changed my mind on exterior color a million times, I don’t like modern car “boring” colors. Part of me wants to make it green because the whole car is recycled from crashed, neglected, and abandoned cars. I also like orange, may be a while on any of this but my arrest friend has been playing and it was too cool not to share.

[grambo]

I almost forgot. We live outside Kenosha Wisconsin. There is a huge car show at the end of August downtown and now that my car actually runs, I have made a personal goal to get the cougar there. I doubt I will have time or funds to do exterior finish in time, so it may be looking as rough as ever, but the 15 mile trip seems possible and I am pushing hard to make it happen. So if any of you are nearby come say hi if you see the car. Here is the link: https://www.visitkenosha.com/events/...sic-cruise-in/ I also I received a new brake line, it has been installed and bled, so I have brakes again. I also added another gusset to the brake peddle assembly, as it was moving more than I wanted, but I forgot to take pics. Here is a shot of my dash brackets.

[grambo]

Little wins= little updates.

Hood pins are installed.

Under hood wiring cleaned up.

Center console fully installed.

More to come.

[grambo]

The cougar is now registered! Has plates and everything, the dmv had trouble with the vin being 11 digits but after several consultations buy other dmv people it worked out. Along the way I learned some cool things about the shell of a car I am working on. It was a no option 289 2barrel auto car originally without vinyl top, and no power stating, no ac, and no power brakes. But the factory color was Nordic blue. Here it what it looked:


Still have no idea what color to paint it or wrap it now, but that is a pretty cool color. Modern cars are so boring. Shapeless bland colored blobs…
Anyway still moving. Lots of parts are still coming, but I ran the car to (most of) temp today and the alternator and thermostat are working well. So I am building confidence. My awesome neighbor (who is an electrical genius) Found a damaged wire that was popping a fuse, but the also bits of the wiring harness are getting so close.

The tires arrived!


I installed more pins to meet the trunk shut.



I have been working on wrapping up all the little things that were not quite finished, like a cover for the factory fuel door hole, forward mounts for the front fenders, and plugging the 3rd rear axle threaded port (it still has a vent, but also had 4 other threaded ports for the oil cooling system I deleted). Along the way (now that I know what I am looking at) I found a few spots of the factory paint.
I only know a few other things but I know it was taken off the road and stripped for parts in 1994, before that someone spent a bunch of time and bondo hiding a lot of rust spots, I assume someone got scammed along the way, but that’s just speculation. Other than that it’s almost the 60,000th of 150,000 cars that first year.
So yeah, it’s been fun digging up the old cougars past,

[grambo]

All Eletrical is DONE!
Tires are mounted and on the car.

I got a cheap eBay digital dash, it’s installed and working.

Door cards are fully installed.

The old fuel door hole is covered.

The new clutch master cylinder came and is installed and bled. The car can now shift gears(I have not driven it but when running I can get it into gear and out where I could not before.) I have moved it forward and back 2 feet and it works not. I had to change up from a .7 to a .875 master cylinder. It’s a bit heavier but feels great, the .7 was pretty light. Over all very happy.

I also spray painted the hood black as it was multi colored primer and it embarrassed me, I forgot to take a pic though.

I also found and repaired the cooling fan wiring. There was a damaged wire causing a short.

It is almost insured. I have an application in with Grundy, so hopefully I can be legal in the next few days.

So next is installing the front and rear windshields I have never roped in a window before, and at the moment it feels a bit daunting, so any advice is welcome. I have been watching YouTube , but everyone seems to do it differently.

Things are going well.

[grambo]

The cougar is drivable!
All the odds and ends are buttoned up, windows are in.

Interior is all installed and working.

And it’s driving great!


There was also an issue where the two cooling fans in start up would blow fuse and shut off the ecu, so that now on a relay (like I should have done in the first place).

So aside from chasing a squeak in the front left corner (only under power strangely, as in it goes away when the clutch is depressed) and maybe a few touch ups and tweaks this is officially phase one complete! Phase 2 may be a while, I want to enjoy driving it ,learning its personality, and building confidence in it ,but at some point the exterior needs some attention. I kinda like the whole “under construction” vibe for now but it’s gonna be body worked and finished at some point. The car still has some of the worst gaps ever, but for now I don’t care “#because race car” (technically street legal race car). I do think �� need some sort of electric brake booster though, the brakes are stiff.

The big car show is coming up and I am now registered and insured. So assuming I can make it through the whole 7 miles with out breaking down that will be my next update. I am getting nervous to show the cougar to the world, but maybe it will not be openly mocked. Thank you for not judging too harshly here.

[grambo]

I just passed 100 miles with only one breakdown ( blown fuse easy fix). I made it to the kenosha cruise in yesterday and the “cougar” was well received, way better that I expected.
Attachment 218316
There were thousands of people there walking between loads of shiny clean show cars, and my junk box. My favorite part was letting kids play inside my car. With so many “look but don’t touch” cars being different was kinda cool. I have said this a few times but I never meant for this to be a show car so I am leaning into that.

The thing that surprises me more at about this car is how fast it really is. I raced (stop light to stop light)a yellow Malibu driving into the show and kept just ahead of him. I was a bit surprised he could keep up, and I was thinking “maybe I’m not that fast…” at the show I found the car and spoke to the driver, it had a 600hp 397cid (with dyno print outs) so yeah the cougar scoots, and I am enjoying it.
So yeah, show was good, driving it is better, and confidence is building. I may try to drive to work this week (3x farther than I have driven it so far…)


Next step is windshield wipers, and new rims, after that maybe bodywork, though many people at the show tried to talk me into leaving the exterior alone. Having watched a guy spend 20 mins closing the hood on his hot rod show car just right so the paint didn’t get scratched it’s a somewhat appealing prospect. So many options.

[grambo]

Still wracking up miles and chasing down strange noises. The cougar is running well and does some easy burn outs. I have now burned through three Tanks of fuel (22 gallon tanks) and somehow have yet to me pulled over. I have also enjoyed using at as a car, I have taken my oldest boy to school several times and gone to several parks and such. I took it to a cruise in at a local diner this week with my youngest, and her booster seat fits great into the corbeau seats.

Still working on next step, planning for paint or wrap, and I just got my new windshield wiper motor and parts so soon it will be more legal.

[grambo]

Well, another curve ball came our way. We are moving to Indy for a promotion. good things its a promotion and comes with a relocation, bad things its not far enough to qualify to ship the cougar on company dime, so once we get our place down there sorted out, I get to test my build on a 300 mile road trip... the idea is both nerve wracking and awesome. Anyway still out of play money at the moment, so no new rims or paint ect... but playing with ideas for the exterior.

[Vimes]

Congratulations on the promotion.

If you're looking for votes, put me down for the two tone gray on pic 1. That's pretty sharp looking. The flame job would be two, green would be three. So far as number 4 goes, your car, your decision.

[NCSU68]

Welcome to Indy a great place to live and fun car town. Check out cars and caffeine when you get here. Plenty of car shows. Safe travels.

[jaybee]

I'd go with two tone gray and the red highlights. Looks wicked.

[grambo]

Welcome to Indy a great place to live and fun car town. Check out cars and caffeine when you get here. Plenty of car shows. Safe travels.

I will be there just in time. If you see my car somewhere come say hi.

[grambo]

Here are some more before pics a friend (who helped me a ton) just found.

[grambo]

The cougar is now in Indy. As info I have been all over and believe me when I tell you Indianapolis has the worst roads I have ever seen. It is atrocious! Pot holes on patches, everywhere I go it’s like rock crawling just to drive down the road. The cougar does not have a lot of suspension travel. Gonna have to figure something out. Here is my current plan: thoughts?

[Rooster67]

I'm definitely in for that build thread after just reading through this whole one!