Transcona a dirty old Cougar

If you have not checked out this thread in a few days you need to go way back and get caught up. I have realized that as far ahead as I currently am that I could be dead before all the posts are completed.
While the project is still a ways off from being finished, I have extensively documented the build. 
If you remember from the start I promised a lot of pictures, an intense build and that it wasn't another F-Body.
I believe that I have held up my end and hope that you continue watching. 
Comments are always appreciated as I make mistakes frequently and maybe you can catch something that I have not down the road.
Please don't be intimidated by anything that I have done here. I started off just like anyone else with more guts than brains. Unfortunately as I get older I wish I still had some of that young mans drive again.
Thanks to all of you for following along and good luck on your own projects!

I think the comprehensiveness of the custom work is above my brain's ability to process at times, making it hard for me to comment. The pictures of the stock engine and suspension coming out are easier for my brain to recognize. Good to see what the IRS unit looks like in a complete assembly like that, I believe those were popular swaps into hot rods at one time.

I still just love the classy roofline of the Cougar above all else. The equivalent Thunderbird's fastback shape is also good, but nobody expects a hot rod Cougar.

In reply to slowbird :

I really wanted a SC T-Bird at first. This body style stole mt heart once I saw the Roush Trans Am cars. The fact that I got it for pocket change didnt hurt either.

In reply to egoman :

If you need any reference pics, I've got plenty.

slowbird said:

In reply to egoman :

If you need any reference pics, I've got plenty.

Thank you but I keep an extensive file on all the cars that I get inspiration from. That picture being at least one of them, LOL!

If you have ever read the Optima rules for the rear wing/spoiler then you could see why this abomination could come in handy. Could gain about 3-4 inches in height.

Time to get some working room. I knew from the start that a stock floor-pan would never work. This is a zip cut and sawzall deal for the most part.

I was quite tentative when I first started cutting. Don’t worry I got over my hesitancy quite quickly.

We are getting a little braver with our cutting. The body is hanging from its 2 lifting fixtures. When I am underneath I also add the rigid pipe stands for extra safety.

As you follow my build you will notice that I buy stuff just for mockup. These shocks may have had aspirations of fame on Transcona but they are just the stunt doubles.

I removed the dash. Then the dash removed some of my skin. I loosened and shook and pried on the dash assembly and it wouldn’t move. When I was at my absolute limit of POed, it just fell down, WTF!

This is one of the greatest days that took place on this project. It was Good Friday and there was a wedding taking place. A wedding of the body to the frame for the very first time. While the pictures are not in order you get the idea of what was going on. Tears were shed and not because I hacked up my fingers this time! Lots of pictures here.

Just like my apple trees, the car needed to be trimmed for a better fit.

You Americans have Harbor Freight but we have Princess Auto! Ours was first and serves as the model for yours.

Every so often they have a tool come up for sale and I must have it. Let’s get something straight, I am quite stubborn and admitting I was wrong doesn’t go well. Hence my online name.

A tubing bender came up for sale and it looked OK but it was 700$. The floor model had a few scratches on it and didn’t have the box (BIG DEAL). I offered 450 so the salesman would go away. He accepted it! Like I said I don’t back down and had to load that into my little car. Funny thing is I have a Hossfeld at home. Naturally I wanted to make this better than that so off we go on this mission.

You will see a pattern of this going forward if you haven’t already noticed it!

Might be a little late in the game for this but……. Decided that the windows should all be removed going forward and wanted someone who actually knew what they were doing. I have never had any luck welding up broken glass anyways!

As you should be aware I bought the Princess Auto bender. It is not ready to bend tubing when it comes out of the crate. I showed you the conversion to hydraulics. There is more of course, A LOT MORE. LOL

I should have paid more attention instead of just skimming the first page, as it took me by surprise just how much this escalated.

Page 1: Just bought this $450 Mercury Cougar, found a few junkyard parts and scored a god deal on some wheels for it.

Came back on page 6: Cutting out the floor pans so as to fit a Corvette front suspension and custom fabbed Watts link rear suspension.

It is madness, and I love it.

MadScientistMatt said:

I should have paid more attention instead of just skimming the first page, as it took me by surprise just how much this escalated.

Page 1: Just bought this $450 Mercury Cougar, found a few junkyard parts and scored a god deal on some wheels for it.

Came back on page 6: Cutting out the floor pans so as to fit a Corvette front suspension and custom fabbed Watts link rear suspension.

It is madness, and I love it.

Glad to see I ruined at least a part of your day! I promised a detailed and energetic build and it just gets worse!

A man’s work is never done!

Before the pandemic set in I went to Grand Forks every Friday for sprint car racing. It also gave me an opportunity to order stuff to our local parcel pickup location in Pembina ND. Speedway Motors sent along a care package for me to start my next bender experiment.

I am not kidding my Hossfeld worked perfectly but was all hand powered. Why didn’t I just convert it to hydraulics? Remember that I said I was stubborn.

One of the reasons that I always liked racing the sprint cars and the modifieds was the ease of working on a tube chassied car. That goes out the window for a street car.

The trimming and cutting sort of never ends if you don’t want to re-add stuff later.

Another trip to the River Cities speedway for the WOO late models this time.

We had an alternator quit at the border. Then I phoned another friend to get ready to save us. 20 miles from Grand forks the car quit. 2 Walmart batteries and some booster cables and we had a plan.

Enjoyed the races and my friend Lisa charged all 3 batteries to max and we were on our way.  85 MPH and no lights as we made our way back to the border. I had called my friend Chris to meet us with the truck and car trailer. Naturally I had picked up a load of stuff at the parcel pickup and needed to do the duty stuff. By the time I was done the car was loaded and tied down. 

Those friends that you can call at midnight are the best.

Picked up a bunch of parts from Alabama. Not sure if they will even get used but the price was good and I will use them for mock up if nothing else. Some very high end Ford racing parts.

A few posts ago you seen I was trimming to make room for the roll-cage and associated bars. Today we start that process in earnest. The local sports car club indicated that they would check the top roll cage welds with a mirror. I said that I would take picture for them. I DON’T leave that much room that they could ever get a mirror in there.

Cages are my favorite part of a build. Usually when I build for someone else as soon as the cage work is done I tell them to get out of my yard. It’s so much simpler for other people.

Tacking a roll-cage in makes it look like you actually have a lot done. Oh but there is still tons of work to do. Doing this by yourself while not impossible, is slightly harder than having an extra set of hands. As usual there are some good ideas that get changed or abandoned here.

Sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes you are the bug.

The forward A-pillar bars of the cage were an exercise in frustration and allowed me to greatly increase my scrap pile. Let’s just say that it got done and leave it at that.

The pictures tell the story.