Cougar

Help! I'm Stuck!

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Well it’s 2020, and we are back at it! This is the year, I can feel it.

Ran into a bit of a delay last year, and the body work proved to be very labor intensive. Mostly for my cousin. I’m afraid of the grinder, and not a great welder. But the body work is coming to a close end, and with COVID-19 changing lots of plans, I’m back at it every Saturday.

Today I was instructed to take some additional things out of the engine bay to prep for cleaning, painting, some replacements, and to get things out of the way.

  • Exhaust Pipes and Mufflers

    • Seemingly a pretty straight forward job. Just a few bolts attaching the pipes to the headers, and removing the hanging holders. Until I got stuck of course. With everything removed, I was on the creeper directly under the pipe. It fell down, and muffler and pipe wedged in my chest. I tried to move the pipe out of the header and shimmy myself around, but an extension cord and another random piece of heavy pipe were not allowing me to move. I called out once, but no one was home. I was getting out of breadth from the panic, and then my cousin returned from the store and checked on me just in time. Wasn’t hurt but it was pretty scary.

    • For the second exhaust pipe, I was sure to be on the side of it when it released from the holder to floor

    • Will need to buy new pipes and muffler - there were some rotting holes

  • Remove Radiator

    • Overall pretty easy to remove, though messy. Radiator was drained but there was still a bit of fluid inside. AND I learned that transmission lines are attached to the radiator, since that also made a mess as well.

    • Removed the fan as well

  • Headers

    • Removing the passenger side header was not too bad, tight squeeze to get to the bolts but was fine to get out. The driver side on the other hand wouldn’t drop unless I also removed the spark plugs.

    • Headers are in good shape, could use a clean up and pain job for another day

  • Where’s the rest of the engine parts?

    • The bay looked pretty empty when I go to the garage. Not quite sure what’s missing, and not quite sure where it went, but it’s gotta be in here somewhere. I imagine doing some organizing some time soon.

Being stuck and panicking aside, pretty productive Saturday at the garage.

Grind, Sand, Weld, Patch...Repeat!

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This post will not even come close to showing how much time, effort, and detail went into restoring the body of this car. My cousin spent countless hours on the body (honorable mention to my uncle and brother). Fixing rotted parts, replacing floor panels, welding, cutting, and sanding. And often redoing areas that he felt didn’t look good enough. Filling the holes for the rag top that I don’t want to have on the car. It’s very tedious work, especially trying to bend sheet metal to match the curvature and lines in the body.

Really quite incredible work. Even more incredible to look at the progression of where it started. THANK YOU!

FLOOR

TRUNK

DOORS

REAR QUARTERS & FENDERS

TOP

Safety First

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Control Arms, Ball Joints, Tied Rods, and Bearings…OH MY!

Who needs these things??? I sure did. Apparently all of these suspension parts are very critical to the safety of the car when driving. And mine were in less than ideal shape. Tie Rods were loose, and it was just an overall good idea to replace it all new.

And, we also replaced the rotors. Here I thought brakes were done…

This was a VERY HARD job. It took many weekends between my cousin and I just to get the old ones off. These suspension parts were bolted on tight, for good reason. Add rust, and it was a project alright. My cousin had to drill some old ball joints out. I slammed on a lot of things. My cousin even had one of the those fork things to lift the ball joints out. No dice!

This was one of those projects that definitely makes you feel weak. But in the end it looks AWESOME! Be sure to remember how many rotations your tie rods had connecting the inner and outer…this helps to make sure alignment is close before having it professionally adjusted. Learn something new every day!

After getting it all together, I spray painted the inner fender using truck bed paint. That black with the new slotted silver rotors, and new brake lines/hoses, makes it all look very sharp under there, if I do say so myself.

Also, my cousin worked on the master cylinder to help round out the brake project. My brother and I disconnected the gas lines from the tank as well.

I’m happy the way it all turned it out, but glad it’s over and hope I don’t have to repeat it for many many years.