Copycatvert is scheduled for some body shop time the first week of May so that would be a good time for me to pull the valance off and try my hand at the buckets. If mine turn out anywhere half as good as yours, I’ll be happy.
Broken Dipstick Tube Fix
I had an oil leak at the dipstick tube on Top Cat’s 302. The tube was cracked right where it goes into the timing chain cover. This was a result of the previous owner not having the mounting bolt installed in the tab on the tube. While I was trying to get the tube out it broke off. I did not want to pull everything off of the front of the engine to get the timing chain cover off so I came up with a “fix” to remove the broken piece. I tried a easy out with no luck so here is what I did. I packed the remaining protion of the dipstick tube opening with axel grease. I then got a 3/8-16 tap and used it to cut threads in the remaining part of the broken tube. The axel grease traps any metal shavings from the tap and keeps them out of the engine. After the threads were tapped I threaded a piece of 3/8 all thread down into the broken piece of tube. I then slid a piece of 1/2 pipe over the threaded rod added a washer and nut then tightened the nut against the pipe/washer until it extracted the broken piece of dipstick tube out of the timing chain cover.
Jody here is a picture of the bottom of the buckets. You can see the area I left for drainage.
Bringing the taillights back to life.
After removing the grilles I took the cleaned each lens with soap and water. The plastic was very cloudy from years of sun and weather so I figured I try to revive them. I wet sanded each lens with 3000 grit sandpaper then followed up with rubbing compound, polishing compound and then a coat of wax. Here are the results.
Steven
Wow, that really turned out nice.
Can’t complain about those, for sure! Good job, Steven.
LOVE IT Steven! 
Bring the Taillights Back to Life
After reworking the the lenses for the taillights I turned my attention to the taillight housing and grilles. They were pitted and the chrome was in poor shape. I lightly sandblasted the housings and grilles in the sandblasting cabinet we use at the Fire Department (purchased when we restored our 1946 Sea Grave ladder truck). After the sandblasting was complete I used SEM heavy build primer and a lot of sanding to fill in the pitting. Once that was complete I finished off the inside of the housings and sprayed them with bright silver. Then I followed up with masking off the silver and sprayed the housings and grilles with SEM trim black. Here are the results.
I have not had a lot of time to work on Top Cat due to my wife and I moving to our new home. Yesterday I did a little work stripping the valance to prep it for minor body work. It felt good to do some work other than lifting boxes. 
Well my family and I are getting settled in our new home. The move has taken a lot of time from working on the Top Cat project. Well today I moved Top Cat to our new house from my friends shop and everything went well. I snapped some photos and thought I’d share the move.
Having it in my shop now will give me time to get to the bigger parts of this project. My youngest son Ian is really liking the Cougars.
Steven
We’ll expect to see at least weekly progress reports from now on.
Started working on fixing some body cuts that were measured incorrectly when the original roof was removed. As a result of the measurements being incorrect on the previous cuts the stainless trim was out about 7/8 of an inch from one side of the car to the other.
The stainless body trim hung over the up sweep area at the rear quarter windows. This had to be dealt with so I could keep the Cougar body lines in this area. I’ll look at modifying or making “hockey” trim pieces so I can keep the factory style look. Here are some before and after photos from this modified area.
Before
After
Steven
Looking great so far. I’m curious to know how much of a gap is there between the edge of the top frame and the well trim on each side when the top is up (circled area in pic)?
On mine, it’s pretty tight and the top is actually starting to wear through from rubbing against my trim.
Jody I now have 3/8 of an inch clearance on each side.
The previous owner notched the convertible frame to gain clearance.
I did not like that idea at all so I addressed it on each side by trimming as much of the side body as I could. I extended the side trim a little bit more where it meets under the rear center trim to gain extra clearance.
I hope that 3/8" will be enough when I get the top installed on the frame.
Steven
I’m not sure how the top would have worked with the notched area. Your approach is the right way to do it. 3/8 shold be plenty of room. Mine is only about a 1/4". Thanks for the pictures.
Steven, Jody,
Do 'stangs in these years have snaps on the top well trim? Guessing yes. I notice both of your cars trim seems to have holes here and I know Jody is using snaps for the boot cover attachment to the trim. Not that it would matter here but as you probably know, the 69/70’s have plastic spines in the boot which slip under the trim and the trim has no holes.
P.S. Steven, I am jealous of you/that car/that job! Think you bought it well and the work to finish it looks fairly mild, at least to me. Awesome!
1 Like
Bob, the 67’s had snaps. 68 and up Stangs didn’t. As I recall, the 68 style (non-snap) trim is not reproduced so that’s why you often see 68 Mustangs with snaps.
Steven, I’m curious… since you are using the Mustang well trim, you should be able to use a mustang boot, correct?
Bob I was under the impression that both the 1967 and 1968 Mustang had the snaps in the trim for the boot. I’ll have to do more reasearch as to wether the 1968 didn’t use the snaps.
Thanks Bob 
I think the car was well bought also. It has a lot of little things that need to be done but thats what makes doing this type of project fun. I’m enjoying every minute of it. 
Steven
That is my plan. I haven’t bought any top pieces (top, boot, well liner) yet. The Mustang boot should fit but I’m not sure after I’ve moved the trim back with the body cuts I made this weekend. The boots are not very expensive so when I get one if it dosen’t fit right I’ll have one made in the factory style.
Steven
I worked on installing the Mustang convertible glass this past week. Man that is a time consuming job. The difference between the Mustang glass and Cougar glass is quite noticeable. The door glass angles down at the rear upper edge to clear the convertible frame. The rear quarter glass has a very different shape compared to the Cougar quarter window.
After getting the Mustang quarter window installed on the passenger side I was not pleased with the way it looked. The difference between the Mustang body lines and the Cougar clearly show in the window frame.
I really wanted to retain the Cougar body line in this area so it was clear the Mustang quarter window frame had to come out.
I ended up going back to the Cougar quarter window frame and I reshaped the stainless Cougar trim on the rear of the frame to match the Mustang frame. It was a slow process of tapping and hammering the stainless trim into it’s new shape. As a result of going back to the Cougar frame the Mustang glass would no longer work. I took an idea from Jody’s CopyCatVert and made new quarter windows from Lexan. I figured if Lexan is strong enough for aircraft and Nascar windows it should be just fine for “Top Cat”. After the quarter window was cut and shaped I did a test fit in the modified Cougar fame then I installed it in the car to test the fit. I’m pleased with the fit and the ability to keep the Cougar body line in this area for more of a factory type of look.
