At the sign of the cat...'69 Mercury Cougar convertible restomod

At the inaugural Oak Park Cruise & Groove my friend put together this year.   
 

Dad and I at the Berkley Cruise Parade tonight.  

Completed the activities this week with no significant issues to resolve.  I do have a flaky brake light to address otherwise the car ran well-idled and crept thru traffic and parade with no ill effects and today it was hammered through some freeway on ramps at well above posted speeds and cornered flat and stuck.  I'm pleased for sure.  
 

Now on to the on-going improvements.  NVH issues are a thing with the old carcass-car, not mine-and I've got fuel injection tuning and parts to throw at it.  

Did a sales call afternoon in the Cougar.  About 70 miles with a mix of roads and a good dose of freeways.  Mostly running about 70mph but was up to mid 80's a couple of times.  

Cars & Coffee at Nissan Tech Center tomorrow morning.  Hose the car off then roll out for a bit.  

I got a bunch of rubber bits and bobs today to work on more NVH issues.   Also some SS fasteners to replace some crusty ones on the export brace.   

wawazat said:

Cars & Coffee at Nissan Tech Center tomorrow morning.  Hose the car off then roll out for a bit.  

I tried to talk myself into towing my Z over or just driving over for a long day but I've been on the road all week and hit 1050 miles today.

Send (or post) Datsun pictures.

My buddies MX5 turbo and some

kinda Porsche station wagon.

I also spotted the GRM sticker on this Fiat.  Didn't meet the owner.  

I received a few parts deliveries late last week-McMaster-Carr and West Coast Classic Cougar.  McMaster delivery was stainless steel 7/16-14 fasteners to replace the rapidly corroding fasteners on the export brace where it attaches to the firewall.  WCCC delivery was a mix of rubber bits and bumpers to replace missing and crumbling bits and plastic clips to replace the rocker trim panels.   Installation started before dinner and I'll wrap up what I can tonight afterwards.  

I bought a custom tachometer from a guy who makes them to match the original gauges on the base model Cougar which didn't offer a tach from the factory.  I dig the brushed silver center piece on the OEM design more than the black faced OEM XR7 model gauges.  I've never been a fan of the wood toned interior trim at all.  In preparation for the tach install I raided my parts collection and tore apart my extra gauge cluster for the trim pieces.  I cleaned and then painted the wood grain and the bezel SEM Trim Black and I'll brush the silver raised strip on the bezel when the paint is fully cured.  

That's a pretty incredible showing for a C&C!

It was pretty good size of course we are in Detroit.  I'd say this one was probably 125-150.  The biggest C&C in the area that I've been to-M1 Concourse-routinely brings in 325-400 cars on a good day in the summer.  

Got time to diagnose my flaky brake light and determined the problem was a bad ground.  I made a little jumper and cleaned up the chassis ground point and the taillight housing and got that resolved now.  

Stock gauges and panel.  I like the gauges.  
 

Painted gauge inner bezel.  I also cleaned and remove the corrosion from the outer bezel aluminum strip and painted it black as well.  
My car was built with a blank panel  on the passenger side that a PO had replaced with the XR7 panel with a clock.  The clock is dead and Mercury product planners in the late 1960's decided that the upscale XR7 panels should have a different fake wood grain.  I want to ditch the clock and have matching panel grain even though it will be painted.  OCD strikes again.  

As a fellow Detroit iron enthusiast, I like your project.

Thanks ckessel!  

Just been bopping about doing car things with the old cat-customer visits Friday, taking my parents a home cooked meal tonight.  This week is looking gorgeous in Detroit so I anticipate more miles being added just because I can.  Top down driving makes this guy smile!

Alright alright alright.  Drove the Cougar to a customer where I got confirmation of a nice order.  Project has been a long time in the works-over 2 years now.  We need to update the quote and do a little tweaking and they'll place the order.   It was a good day!

I drove downtown to a Hagerty sponsored car show at Michigan Central Station that Ford has rebuilt to its former glory.  Nice show with a variety of vehicles.  
 

ECC Cars & Coffee this morning.  
 

Detroit area season is shorter than warmer areas but we do know how to do car show while we can!

I've been using this thing like a car, a regular old car.  It's cool as hell and just running up to the hardware store or taking it to see my parents or picking my son up at a remote soccer practice session with top down and rowing gears makes any day a little bit better. 

Today and tomorrow weather is conducive to finally getting this thing painted.  I'm just about finished getting the block and heads cleaned up then will degrease a couple of times and get a coat of paint applied.