Detroit area 1969 base convertible

Hi all,
I just joined though I’ve owned my car for about a year now. Living in the Motor City and within a few miles of Woodward Avenue I’d been looking for a classic Ford/Lincoln/Mercury convertible for a few years. I was specifically not looking for a Mustang as I’ve owned a bunch of them in the past, all Fox bodies. My car came from Utah and is a base Cougar convertible equipped with the 3 speed transmission, manual drum brakes, and converted to power steering and a rebuilt 351 Cleveland by the previous owner. Originally yellow with black interior the previous owner fixed up some dents and dings and repainted her red and replaced the top. A perfect blank canvas car ad one which will be modified to my preferences with an eye on ability to revert back to stock if ever required. My family and I enjoyed it all last summer even after she blew off the lower radiator hose at a gas station on Woodward during the Dream Cruise :blush:. I knew the exhaust system needed some love when I bought her and it fell apart last summer as well so was replaced with a set of long tube Doug’s headers and Borla SS exhaust for a Mustang that was adapted to the car by PowerGrid Inc.

My plans are to make this a long trip worthy car with better handling and braking performance and a European GT car feel/vibe. As such I’ve purchased a TKO-600 transmission, a complete suspension, braking (Wilwood 4 pistons), and R&P steering conversion from Unisteer, and a set of 17"x8" T.A.R.E. Superlite wheels. D&D Performance supplied the transmission. Street or Track here in Detroit supplied the suspension, brakes and R&P kit and I worked with Trans Am Race Engineering directly for the wheels. I also am using Flex Form monoleaf composite springs for the rear. Mike Maier Racing is supplying the one piece combination Monte Carlo bar/Export brace. I’m installing the Recaro seats from my autocross Subaru, a MotoLita steering wheel, and reupholstering/recovering the back seat for my two boys.

Installation starts next week and I’m excited by the changes in store my car. Regardless of the state of the conversion I will be at the Detroit 50th Anniversary show as it’s only a short trip from my home. Pics to come as I figure out how to post them on this site :laughing:

Sounds like a fun project! I’m from the area too (scs) and own a 70 convertible. I’ll keep an eye out for your car!

I like it. Welcome!

Nice list of speed parts! Welcome to the forum and I’ll see you in Dearborn

Welcome :beerchug:

Welcome. I think you’ll like the 4 piston Wilwoods. Installed them on the front of my '68 a year ago and love them. Smooth quick pucker free stops!

Thanks guys. I’m breaking her out of storage this weekend to begin the transformation. I scored a complete 9" 3.70 Auburn posi center section last Friday so that’s going in as well.

Good to hear about your Wilwood experience guitar74! Now I need to start selling all the other brakes parts I’d been collecting over the years for other projects Stoptech and Brembo stuff mainly.

Well, due to carb issues I wasn’t able to drive to the 50th meet in Dearborn. Tonight I finally got her fired up with the FITech system I installed. Got to tidy up some install stuff Sunday and put on some miles.

Hurry up and get some pictures up. Haha. I look forward to seeing your build

Welcome to the forum and congrats on you scoring what sounds to be a very nice Cougar sometime soon. Lots of great people and knowledge here. Yes, pics would be great!

I gotta figure out the picture posting thing on this forum.

I drove about 40 miles today on a variety of roads and a variety of speeds to get the system to learn and tune itself.

I always have trouble with the picture size. So I email them to myself with my phone and it automatically saves the resized pictures to my phone. Then it’s easier to post them. I haven’t figured out how to resize them otherwise

The Ford show I attended last summer just after I picked her up. I wasn’t planning on showing just wanted to see the cars and the swap meet section. Brian shamed me in to the show. She wasn’t even clean :blush:

Here is the car after I installed the wheels. I was pretty pleased that they matched how I envisioned them so well.

Alright I got the picture thing figured out here. Time to call it a night.

Good looking car. How did the Dougs headers fit?

Thanks !

Unfortunately not as well as I’d hoped or had been led to believe by Doug’s. The biggest concern was the angle of the collectors when mounted required the transition to the exhaust system to be cut and re-welded back together to get the exhaust to tuck back up in to the tunnel. They also didn’t clear the bell housing very well and needed some massaging to fit. My Z bar had been tweaked over the years so it also needed to come out, be straightened and then reinforced. Everything is in place now and it sounds good though still too loud for my wife at times.

So anyhow. How’s everyone doing today? I hope well.

Well that escalated quickly!

With the upcoming Woodward Dream Cruise this Saturday I tore in to the car 8 days ago so I didn’t have another hot Cat during the Cruise. I R&R’d the:

  1. Radiator-replaced with a DeWitt’s 24" aluminum direct fit and shroud
  2. Delta PAG 16" electric fan
  3. PowerMaster 150 amp alternator
  4. Flowkooler aluminum water pump
  5. WCCC diverter disc and 190F t-stat
  6. all hoses, belts, clamps, fluids, etc.

What an adventure! Finished up tonight and took her out for a 10 mile shakedown cruise. No problems post drive!

The tear down was pretty quick and I only did a few “While I’m in here…” such as cleaning, polishing lenses, and swapping the gauge lights to LED’s, replacing the heater core, all gaskets, and blower fan motor. I had some fab work to do to mount my recirc can, cleaning up the poorly mounted PS pump, and interior wiring but it’s ALIVE!

After missing the 50th in Dearborn with the car due to the FI swap (though I did see the show), I wasn’t going to miss this weeks events around Woodward.

Just after my last post the temps in Detroit skyrocketed and the car started a random stumble and shut down that was both frustrating and proved difficult to trouble shoot. I replaced the entre ignition system-MSD distributor, 6AL and coil, fuel pump, and revised my wiring connections with no improvement. After reading hundred of posts on various forums I finally started adding shielding to my wiring and between the distributor and the throttle body which finally appears to have solved my problems. I’m not sure what triggered the problems months ago but my confidence in her not stranding me feels good.