1968 Monterey

Cougar Community Cougar Owners other Fords and Mercurys
1

Hey guys,

Here is a car I’ve had since 2005.

Back when I lived in Melbourne, FL I found this car for sale online. I thought it was such a cool looking car. Well, I talked with the seller and he held it for me untill June when my house sold and I moved to Vermont. I picked up the car during the 2005 Cougar Nationals in Virginia. I trailered down my 69 SS and parked it at the show. Then early Satuday morning I drve down to Sandy Hook, VA and picked up the Monterey. The 2005 Cougar Nationals were great—as they always are, and to top it off, I won 1st in the Mangy Cat class. When it was over, I trailered home the Monterey and left the Cougar at a friend’s house in VA. The following week, I took the train down to VA and drove the Cougar home.
The Monterey was in good shape. It drove really well. Here is are a couple video clips of the Monterey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4_oN4zQ0X0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YUDUOPokuU

The Monterey was a good Spring, Summer, Fall driver.

The car was really clean inside. When it’s hot outside, being the Monterey has no a/c, it’s nice to take off my shoes and cruise.

The first time I went to Carlisle I took the Monterey. It was the only 68 Monterey there. Since 2007, I’ve only seen a couple others.


This Monterey was used in the movie Taking Woodstock. Here are a couple clips:

Damn hippies. One of the ripped my door panel. The movie set sent te door pane to SMS in Oregon to get it fixed. The panel looked so good, I eventually had to send out the other 3 panels to match in freshness.

Then, about 1am at night I hit a deer. The grill broke and a piece punctured the radiator. I had to get towed home about 65 miles. The only other damage was a small dent in the panel above the grill. I decided to start taking the car apart since itneeded a full repaint anyway. Unfortunately, this was 4 years ago. Now, it is the next car on my list to redo. I bought a rotisserie to get the job done in the most thorough mannor. The front clip is currently removed from the car. The engine and trans are out. Some parts have been accumulated for the restoration. These full size Mercs are really well put together. There are bolts coming in from every angle. Every bolt that came out was documnted in sketches in a notebook for proper reassembly.

The car is in sad shape right now with weeds growing around it and slowly sinking into the parking space. However, this won’t last for much longer. A few other small projects need to get done and then the Monterey body will come off the frame and onto the rotisserie. I will take some current pics of the Monterey and post them soon.

2

Here is a cool pic that I haven’t seen in a long time. Things sure do look different behind the house now.

3

Hey, nice Bronco! Is it a 78 or 79? My 79 was originally that same color scheme.

4

Darn, I miss driving this car. It has been sitting apart for a long, long time now. Time to make a list and start checking things off.

5

Git after it MP! That car is the coolest. :beerchug:

6

This week we’re in a lull for work flow in the shop. So, Wednesday, at the end of the day we pushed in the 68 Monterey. Today I finally had a chance to spend some time on one, actually two of my many projects. As I disassemble the Monterey, I’ve been sketching where every bolt and clip and everything else goes. Which takes quite a while, but progress has restarted-----which I am really happy with. I kept waiting for the day that I come in and the Monterey is gone, fizzled away to leave only a stain where it was parked for the past few years. Now, it’s in the shop. Disassembly around the trunk area is mostly what took place today. The rear bumper came off along with the tail lights and emblems. I should be taking pictures as I go, but didn’t have the camera in the shop today.
The other project was replacing an exhaust manifold on a Ford 300 that is the upper engine on a 1970 Grove crane. Dorman makes a new replacement manifold. It looks nice and is pretty beefy. But, the fit kinda sucked. I had to elongate one hole, then fill two other bolt holes to drill and tap in a location that works. The intake and exhaust manifolds bolt together as they install on the engine. As the two manifolds went together they were hitting in a bunch of places. About 10 places had to be trimmed to provide some clearance between the two manifolds. These manifolds are notorious for cracking and I don’t want any pressure points from a poor fit. After a few extra hours of modifications we finally had them bolted on the engine at the end of the day.

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I brought the camera into work to take a few pics this evening.

Here is the back of the Merc after removing the bumper, tail ilghts, bumper fillers and other stuff.



Back when I started taking this car almost 4 years ago I was making sketches labeling every nut, bolt and clip location for every part that I’ve taken apart. I am not sure where assembly information might be available. Taking apart this car I can say these full size Mercs were built really well.



Looking at the tire, you can see just how long this Monterey has been sitting in one spot. It needs to get done before it weathers and declines any further.



The front clip was removed a few years ago and the car has sat outside since then. There is surface rust on everything that used to be bare metal. The flash really brightens up the rust. The rust doesn’t look this vibrant under normal lighting.



This tool will help with the production line on getting the projects done. It’s a Brut 300 lb capacity, pressure fed sand blaster.



Some NOS parts for these full size are common, but many were probably just thrown in the dumpster in the 70’s and 80’s.



Now it is just finding or forcing the time to keep the progress going.

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It seems like the next chance I get to think about the Monterey it is a week later. I’ve done a little bit of repaint work on the gauge bezels.









I’m using Testor’s silver paint pen to brighten up the lines. These silver areas were originally a plastic chrome. The original chrome is brighter, but this will be sufficient. Some of the areas were pretty bad as being rubbed off or faded and having a yellowish look of what ever the base plastic is. It sharpens up the edges between the black and silver.


Little by little this will get done.

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The silver looks great and the lines are crisp. Little things like this add up towards a completed project. :thumbup:
Steven