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

Four nylon detail brushes, 6 microfiber towels, three razor blades, a half bottle of Super Clean, and two cans of brake parts cleaner plus a roll of blue paper shop towels and she's as good as she's gonna get prior to painting.  

You can say that again!

Then I read the instructions from the paint kit I bought...

First step was their cleaner then a rinse.  Next step was their rust neutralizing spray then a rinse.  Next step was a primer with enough solvents to melt the brain of a lesser man.  Then another coat of primer within 6 hours then an 8 hour cure time THEN top coat.  Sheesh.  

silver primer

black top coat

Beautiful day in Detroit today.  77f and mostly sunny.  Decided to drop the top and head out to dinner with a buddy.  

Love seeing you get the cougar out!

Thanks my friend!  How have you been?

Doing car things today-bank, post office, new plate tabs, pharmacy-and I parked the anti-EV near the charging station for a laugh.

Very nice!  I am glad you are able to do what you do with this car!  And the engine paint is really called Motor Coater?  That is fantastic!  

And this makes me miss my poor old, rust bucket 1968 Cougar with a 351W and a C4 trans.

Thanks Noddaz!  Motor paint system is from KBS Coatings.  They offer paints, cleaners, rust solutions etc.  I bought the Motor Coater package.  Tons of colors.   
 

Today I drove the 'merican freedomachine to the polls to cast my vote.  72F and sunny in Detroit-ish today.  

Lunch time rip to Costco for some necessary dinner items.  Top down in November rocks.  
Came home to find a care package of Cougar parts from my friend in Indiana-dash trim pieces and some AC parts for future me to have on hand to make conversion and installation easier. 

Also got a call from my local fab shop to stop in.  When I pulled the valve covers to paint the engine I pulled the baffles out of them.  The maker used thread cutting 6/32-3/16" long screws liberally slathered with thread locking goo to hold the baffle plates in place.  6 of the 8 came out in one piece.  Damn.  Fab shop got the pieces out for me after I gave up.

I met two friends at a local C&C where we hung out for a bit.  We then drove about 10 miles to another C&C event where I captured the image above.  

Love the look of this thing. 

Thanks Shavarsh!  Makes me smile whether I'm behind the wheel, under the car getting dirty, or planning my next modifications.   

I dropped off the valve covers, intake manifold, spare set of aluminum pulleys, and my Ducati valve covers at my buddies powder coating shop.  I wanted to maintain the as-cast,raw aluminum look as much as possible but make clean up easier.  They blasted the parts, then tumbled them in their ceramic coating vibratory polisher to close up the rough finish a bit then did a lower cure temp satin clear powder.  I'm happy with how they came out.  Pics tonight. 

RPM Air Gap, Blue Thunder tall cast aluminum valve covers, and aluminum pulleys for the 393" Cleveland plus all four valve covers for the Ducati.   Shop was slow and they're friends so I got a smoking good deal.

In reply to wawazat :

That's tasty!

Me and a friend on Woodward Ave around Dream Cruise time.  This was taken in 2023 however as determined by the weenie sized rear wheels.  
 

Looking at the scooter behind me I found out it was ridden by one of my motorcycle buddies.  I didn't even know he was behind me.  

I dig the new engine look!

Thanks Michael.  I'm working to limit color palette and the Ford blue on the old but new to me engine was in rough shape.  Clean and simple is the goal.