A few years ago I found a 70 Cougar XR7 vert for sale in Texas. At the time I had no use for another cat so I talked my brother into buying it The car looked solid and it had the right options for a convertible (Power windows), so my brother bought it believing he was buying a nice driver quality car that he could restore over time.
The XR7 looked very nice under the Texas sun back in February 2008
Unfortunately the car looked a slightly nicer in the pictures than in real life (doesn’t they all do?) and on the list of things that needed attention was the carpet that needed to be cleaned (and to have the power windows fixed. Not surprisingly the floor had some rusty spots here and there common to convertibles. It was nothing major, but all in all enough for me to say that I would recommend to have the complete floor pans replaced instead of patching it up here and there. As a result my brother decided to let it sit in his garage while he was waiting for me to help him with the body work. So back in July this year we started to work on the car. The plan was to get the floor fixed and to have it licensed, but then we also discovered that the car had been hit in the rear and that we would have to redo some poor previous repair work. One thing took the other and suddenly we had to realize that this would be a lot more than we planned for. Here are some pictures of the work so far.
Left side floor is done, here is the right side floor on its way in. We decided to go for the Mustang floor pans and not care about the profiles that are not so correct.
Here is the old damaged tail light panel and rear of the trunk floor cut away and waiting to be replaced. At this point we realized that the car would need a new paint job as well as the body had a lot of problems. Among them were a twisted and dented hood, and we also found that this Cat originally had the less desirable side trim and the screw holes along the side of the car had only been filled with bondo. So next step was to strip all the old paint and bondo from the car. Then we found that the hood was not worth saving and a good one is now on its way from the US. . .
The engine was smoking quite a bit and just from driving the car in my driveway I got a feeling that it was kind of weak and worn. The engine compartment did not look much nice either, so we decided to pull the engine and take it apart to see what it needed to be reliable for the future. This would also give us the opportunity to clean up the engine bay.
Not so nice after 40 years in service.
It turned out that the 351 Cleveland 2V engine was in bad shape. The block was inspected and sent to the machine shop to be rebuilt with 0.30 over forged pistons. The old cylinder heads were in terrible condition and will need to be replaced.
The carpet cleaning project took a another turn and we decided to take the front suspension and steering off to refinish what could be saved and to replace whatever was worn out which was mostly everything.
With the engine out it was tempting to pull the transmission as well. It turned out to be easier than I like as the transmission mount was broken. The FMX was covered with years of oil and dirt so it took quite some time to clean it up. It also had a leaking seal in the selector shaft so it was replaced.
Very nice looking project going on and quickly too! Can’t wait to see the final product. I have the body pretty much done on mine and over the winter plan on polishing chorme parts. Then when it warms up I will get back to the assembly part of things. The engine and tranny although I drove the car home will both be gone through from top to bottom. That will be a couple of the last things I do at least this is my plan so far. Keep the pictures coming. it helps me keep my mind one what I am doing. Also wish I had some one like Hera to keep me company when I am out in the barn working!
It is about time to post a few new pictures. Since last time all the small parts for the engine compartment and front suspension have been cleaned and painted. We are not restoring this car to original perfection, so most of the suspension parts we decided to save have been painted semi gloss back. Before the parts were painted we had them first cleaned from old grease and dirt in the white spirit bath, they they went in the citrus acid bath for a couple of days and after that scrubbed with a wire brush. Then they looked like new and were ready for paint.
The engine block and crank is back from the machine shop. Block has been bored .030 over and the crank is 0.010 under. The machine shop also normalized the rods and decked the block.
As you can see we have also removed the rear suspension and rear axle. we also decided to take out the dash and rebuild the heater/AC so now there is absolutely nothing left on the body that can be removed. Later the outside of the body will get a coat of Epoxy primer. So far front of the car and the floor have been painted with a red primer. Inside of the engine bay got a coat of grey primer.
I have not mentioned what the plans are regarding the future color on the car. I can say so much, white is history
Wow, nice work and lucky brother. I wish my sister could have directed and helped me when we did my Cougar, but I still love her anyway. My restoration started with a leaky heater core and twelve years later I had it fixed.
You guys are so funny
First of all, this fast going restoration is a result of several peoples effort. I am just supervising the restoration (and then some), my brother, his youngest son, his daughter and also good friends have been involved in the work so far. Without them the restoration would have been slow going.
Yesterday I mentioned that the car will be painted in a new color. When we started to work on the car I just for fun showed my brother the dealer color and upholstery album for 1970 and asked him to look close at the colors and pick the one he would have chosen if he had been able to order the car from factory. I was thinking he would chose Competition green or blue, but to my surprise Competition Gold was his favorite. At the time a full restoration and repaint was not the plan so we somewhat left it there. Later when it was clear that a full restoration was the way to go I asked my brother to think seriously about a color change for the cat. I also have a spare Eliminator hood scope and a front spoiler that I suggested to put on the car. All this will give the car a much more aggressive look which I think will make it look great. To my surprise he agreed with me and that is now the plan.
Someone got really dirty (not me) cleaning the underside of the Cougar making it ready for me to paint the primer and apply seam sealer. Originally this cat had an army green color on the underside, but since this is just a driver quality restoration we have decided to paint it with whatever leftover paint I have or to use black. Time will show
I really like the color choice. And as usual excellent work by you and everyone helping. I bet your Brother is VERY happy with the results so far. Will be a really cool ride when finished. Great job!
The car looked solid and it had the right options for a convertible (Power windows), so my brother bought it believing he was buying a nice driver quality car that he could restore over time.
