Rule Breaker.
Everybody knows this stuff!
There were no convertible Cougars in 1968.
No one drives their classic Cougars any more.
Wisconsin is far too cold to have a convertible as a daily driver.
Three two-barrel carbs are two too many for a small block Ford.
A manual shifter won’t fit an automatic console.
Well, almost everybody. It seems more than appropriate that the April Ride of the Month begs us to say April Fools when we read the list of features that Jody added to Copy Cat Vert. Not to mention that this is his DAILY DRIVER!
So here we go:
1968 XR-7 Convertible 1 of None.
5 speed overdrive manual transmission (using the original automatic sports console.
Three two barrel carbs, and these are not more common Holleys, they are all Autolite.
Heated Jaguar seats
And he drives it EVERYDAY!
There is more to this Cougar than meets the eye. For example the heated seats use pulse width modulation to control the amount of heat they provide. That means there is a controller for the seats that gets a momentary signal to activate the different temps. Jody installed a single momentary contact switch to control the temperature for both seats. Jody described it like this “The heaters have two settings each, hi and lo. On the Jag, each seat had a separate switch with two LED’s to show hi or low status. I didn’t want to clutter up the clock face with four LED’s so instead I ran both the hi and low signal to the same LED for each seat. However, I put an extra resistor on the low signal lines so each seat’s LED starts out bright on the first click of the switch (high setting), dim on the second click (low setting) and off with the third click. Clicking up activates the driver seat, down activates the passenger seat.” Where do you put that switch? You replace one of the factory toggle switches in the XR7 dash, (the original switch is no longer needed to control the now missing overhead courtesy lamp). And what about the switch for the other courtesy lamp? You use that position for the power top mechanism.
And there is much more to tell, but I can’t steal all of Jody’s thunder. Lets just say that Jody never let the rules get in the way of building his personal best Cougar!
