This car sat in storage for 15 years in southern Florida until recently when my uncle had to be admitted to memory care. Fished it out and trailered it back to Illinois, got it running and cleaned it up. Wanting to carry on the family legacy. Has some paint chipping on the front and back but runs really well after a significant amount of work on the front end, brakes and engine. Can’t wait to get out to some car shows to show it off!
You will get miles of smiles from that car, It looks really sharp! Your headrests might be on backwards?
Thanks Don! Had no idea. Just went out to the garage and flipped them around.
So cool that you did that. He’d be proud of you!
Thank you. He loved the car but it had been neglected over the years. Glad to get it back on the road. I’m quickly learning that classic cars are an expensive hobby!
Wait till you start ordering stuff from Don. :lol
J/K Don.
Yup, I used to think of my Cougar as an investment. Expensive hobby is a much better description! Enjoy that great looking convertible! Like Don says - you’ll get LOTS of attention and smiles in it.
Budget extra time at the pump to answer questions, double that time if it is your wife driving it. Maybe in the day they were chick magnets but now they are more of a “guy magnet”. The only reason we call them investments is to get our wives to let us spend more than we should. The good news is that if you compare it to a late model Ford, 10 years goes by and the classic almost always retains more value than the disposable modern car.
Mine is definitely an investment…in the ever-growing empire of Don Rush 
I’m so upside down in mine that I’ll never see any kind of a return and I could not possibly care less. It’s a labor of love for me.
Sully,
The 69 Standard Vert is awesome to drive and IMHO way underrated by enthusiasts. To maintain tour sanity, Teach whoever sits in the passenger seats:
- The year (even if your plate says 69MERC)
- The engine size and country of build. (No W really means Windsor, Canada)
- Yes the sequential directionals are factory.
That will save you from answering the same questions, over and over at traffic lights or in heavy traffic where windows can be rolled down to talk. 
Then drive it. 
Thanks to you all for all of the nice words. I know enough to be able to talk about the car in basic terms, but, not being a gearhead, can’t talk in infinite detail about the ins and outs of the car. Am going to invite my buddy who fixed up the car for me along to car shows so he can talk the language.
Like I said, I am finding out this is not an inexpensive hobby, but a whole lot of fun. I know the wheels and tires on my car are not original, but I don’t care, they are what I could afford at the time. Am going to slowly try to fix things up on the car, especially the interior, as cash flow becomes available.
Here is where the car came from. My uncle is a hoarder and this car was buried in junk inside a storage container. Took several hours to dig it out from being buried with all of the junk. Got it on a trailer and pulled it 1200 miles back to my home. Fortunately the body was in really good shape so there was little to no work there. Needed a bunch of motor, front end and brake work and new tires and wheels. But it was so worth it.
I think this is what is called a “barn find”! Good to see it being rescued!
I love it! Almost twins with my ‘69!
The good news is you did not have to pay a lot up front so paying more than you want for upgrades is not as painful. I would get a replacement value policy on it for $35k if I was you.