1967 Mercury Cougar XR7 - Project Green Kitty

[Tiggie]

I like the 67-69 Cougars. The XR7 is especially nice upgrade over the Mustang. Looks like a great project!

[massacre]

Nice Cougar

[packman]

Beautiful!!! Wish I had the patience for body work; even if I had the facilities for doing such work.

[SeanP]

Hi folks!

Been a while since I've had anything worthwhile to share on the Forum in terms of cars owned (unless anyone is interested in me posting my 2019 Mustang?).

I picked up this 1967 Cougar back in September:



She's an XR7, Inverness Green exterior, Black Vinyl roof and saddle leather interior. She's suffering from a brutal repaint that took place sometime in the late 1980s, early 1990s.

Powered by a 289 2bbl running through a C4 tranny. Aftermarket headers and dual exhaust added later. Engine bay is detailed.

No AC.

Clock works!

Runs a bit hot (will be addressing this in the spring).

My father-in-law and I started digging into the body last month. Found a few rust spots that we're addressing with some patches cut and shaped from a leftover aftermarket fender for a 2nd generation Trans Am (use what you got, right?).

Cut off pounds of mud from the driver's side trouble spots with a grinder. Also had to straighten out about 2 feet of pinch welds. The passenger side had been patched with actual metal, but they had been braised instead of welded. Cut the braising out and put in welds to ensure future reliabiltiy of the repairs. Pictures below tell some of the story:

















She's taking a break for now in storage alongside an Austin Healey (not bad company).



Will be finishing the bodywork as time allows over the winter, including peeling back some of the vinyl roof to inspect a few suspect issues. Debating whether or not to keep the top. Really like that slick top look but the vinyl top is class... decisions are hard sometimes!

Will also be scraping off the ancient undercoating and painting on some rust paint for extra protection and to make the bottom look all pretty.

Hope to have everything ready for the paint booth by late spring early summer.

Thank you for indulging me on this dive into the money pit.