Thanks guys. I used alumacore to fabricate the bars and 3M engineer grade red reflective vinyl for the inserts.
Steven
Very nice work!
Very nice work!
Nice work, as always Steven.
Hey, on that prototype XR7S picture, looks like it has no side view mirror? It’s a prototype, so guess that could explain it but seems odd just the same…
Thanks Bob. I think it’s possible that particular picture of the XR7S prototype is a clay model. It’s also missing the trunk latch as well. Maybe the Mercury designers wanted a clean look for the car.
Steven
Like usual progress has been slow but my project is moving forward. I always want to balance family time over this project. I have stripped and welded some holes on the drivers side front fender. The holes were there from long sheet metal screws that a previous owner had drilled through the lower aluminum trim molding. After the welding and body work was done I sprayed the first coat of primer.
I also reworked my hood scoop because after spraying it black I could see some imperfections in the center of it.
Steven
I put the first coat of black on the fender today. There’s some light orange peel but after some wet sanding I’m sure I’ll be able to work it out to a smooth finish. The next step after getting the wet sanding complete will be masking off the black so I can spray the light gray for the GT-E inspired two tone paint scheme.
I also sprayed the XR7G hood scoop.
Steven
Family time as well as work have been keeping me busy as I’m sure it does with many of you and I’m thankful for that. It’s been a while since I updated my project so here is a little more information. I’ve taken some “artistic” liberties with my GTE inspired paint scheme compared to what the factory would have done if they had made a convertible in 1967 or 1968. I’ve added a 1/4” red pinstripe that I made on our sign machine instead of adding the extruded GTE moldings. I think the red pinstripe and the custom fender emblems that I made work well together. Here are a couple of pictures.
In the last picture of my fender emblem I did not have the print and cut properties set correctly so the machine made my walking Cougar a “bobcat”
. That has been corrected. 
Steven
With the level of build you’re doing I would paint the pin stripe.
That looks great, Steven. Makes me want to tear mine apart and start over. BTW, didn’t Mercury make a “Bobcat” version of the Pinto? I wonder what that emblem looked like?
Yes, the Mercury version of a Pinto is a Bobcat. I do not recall them having an emblem on them, just MERCURY and BOBCAT script.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Trunk lid stripped, primed, sealed and painted. Another step towards the finish line.
Steven
Little by little…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaL_3bdbbeQ
Another small item that I worked on today is my custom Cougar wood shift knob. I turned down a piece of cherry on my lathe. I stained it to mimic a burl walnut finish. I polished it and coated it with tung oil. I will do a couple of coats of tung oil with polishing in between each coat with 0000 steel wool. Once I’m done with the finish I will cut down the mounting points of the lathe blocks and insert my custom walking Cougar emblem. Here are a couple of picture of my progress so far.
Steven
Nice work! I like the red stripe idea to separate the silver and black.
Thanks for the kind words Andrew,
Steven
Ha, I just looked back a couple of pages and saw this. That’s the walking cat graphic I made for the WCCC logo years ago. I took a bunch of photos of a real emblem with different lighting / reflections until I got one I liked, and redesigned it into a simpler vector graphic.
For a little behind-the-scenes, here’s the original photo:
Yes I used a box of brake pads and a clipboard to prop up the emblem. Anyway I’m not mad that you’re using it for a personal project
Andrew thanks for the background on your walking Cougar emblem. I’m glad you’re not upset about me using it on my project. From now on I will refer to it as the “Blitz walking Cougar logo” as a way to pay homage to you for your wonderful design. 
Steven