Starting a new thread for the restoration on the exterior of my 1970 Cougar. In the final stages of completing the entire drive train restoration and now about to move onto the exterior of the car so I decided to start a new thread for this phase of the restoration project.
First I will be starting on the exterior trim and grilles before a good friend of mine starts on the metal, body and paint work. Most of the trim on the car right now is in good condition but in need of a good polish. The rear tail light grilles are pitted, chrome on the fuel door as well and the chrome door handles are worn out. I plan to replace these parts with reproductions as well as some other parts including wheel well trim and to meticulously polish the rest of the trim which is un-pitted, straight and in good shape.
I bought myself a 1 HP buffing kit from the Eastwood Company and it came with a bunch of different wheels, compounds, face mask, a rake, etc. I have all the wheels in Zip Lock bags to protect them and each bag is labeled with what kind of wheel it is and what kind of compound it has been used with to minimize the risk of cross contamination. I will tackle the buffing work myself as detailing car parts is right up my alley. Here are a couple pictures of the buffer and kit…
I have collected only a couple new exterior parts which include a reproduction antenna, passenger side sport mirror and chrome trim for the fuel doors and many more parts are on the list as well.
I have a couple questions about the 1970 Cougar front and rear side marker lights. I noticed MU and NPD sell a reproduction side marker bezel for the rears (as they are the same for a 1970 Mustang I believe) but don’t sell one for the 1970 Cougar front side marker lights. What is everyone doing and how does one go to restore these bezels? Or can the rear Mustang/Cougar bezel part be used on the front? This is the bezel trim part I’m talking about…
http://npdlink.com/store/products/mustang_bezel_rear_marker_light_lh-102189-445.html
Front and rear side markers are a different shape and I don’t think they are shared across other lines. I believe they have a D0WY part number but I’m second guessing my memory at the moment.
The fronts are hard to find in good shape. I found 3 of the 4 markers NOS and used a very nice used one for the 4th. The used one wasn’t pitted so it only required a spray of argent paint to make it look good.
I’d look for NOS or search through the used parts that John Benoit or Don Rush have for good used ones. I’m unaware of any reproductions that work for Cougars but that doesn’t mean someone hasn’t started making them since I last looked.
I’ll order the reproduction rears soon and compare them to the fronts. If they don’t match the fronts at all I’ll restore the fronts. Haven’t looked at them in years but will take a look at them this weekend and see if they are pitted or not. If they are pitted I’ll have to track down some nice restorable originals. Is the argent paint a silver finish color?
http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/search_sorted.asp?Keywords=argent+paint+&x=5&y=9
I guess this argent paint is the same paint applied to the back sides of bumpers?
Fronts and rears are definitely different. You may be able to make them work but the fronts have a much deeper bezel than the rears do.
Argent is metallic silver. It’s the same as was used on 67-68 Cougar styled steel wheels. The link you provided compares to Mustangs and I’m not sure if they used the same colors.
K thanks for the heads up. I’ll pick up a can of VHT Metallic Silver for a spraty test and compare to the originals on the car.
Well, polished my very first piece on the Cougar today. Spent awhile learning how to this buffer and compounds but I got it figured out now and got a plan of action for all the rest of the trim pieces I’m going to polish. Worked on the rear deck lid trim. Here’s how she turned out…
Original to the left, polished to the right…
How does one tell if the front aluminium fender extension eyebrow mouldings are still anodized? I’m thinking of sanding these down as my originals are covered in little pin heads. Here’s some pictures of them. Any suggestions on restoring these? I was thinking of using over cleaner to remove the anodized coating than sand them for many hours through various grits than polish them to a shine and leave them as is as this car won’t get driven much at the end of the day.
As it came right off the car after sitting for 8 years…
After a quick polish on the buffer only to find pin heads everywhere…
I’m now moving onto removing the stainless trim around the front and rear windshields next and to restore these pieces in the evenings after work for the next couple weeks. I looked on youtube on how to remove these trim pieces and also looked on WCCC and they specify approximately 37 clips in total. Seems like a lot of clips and this may take me awhile as being a rookie car restorer. Any tips on removing these? I definitely don’t want to hurt the trim pieces in the process. What kind of tool should I use? I saw this one from Amazon…
http://www.amazon.com/Piece-Windshield-Window-Door-Trim/dp/B00636B9BY/ref=sr_1_8?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1344837215&sr=1-8&keywords=Window+Molding+Trim+Removal+tool
Man that trunk trim is looking great! How much time did you spend on it? sorry I am no help on removal as I am more of a rookie than you are Steve.
About 5 hours from removal to finished polished and a coat of wax to protect it for now. I work fairly slow and detailed and don’t know a whole lot, this is all a learning experience, but it was about 0.5 hour to remove and clean both sides with varnish, about 2.5 hours of sanding by hand using various grits starting at 600, 800, 1000, 1200 and 1500, than about 2 hours on the buffer which was a two stage polish. The hard part is once all the scratches are removed using 600 grit is sanding out all the sanding marks. Takes some patience but working with stainless is a treat assuming the piece is fairly straight. I give a lot of respect to the pro’s that can whip these out in an hour or two but its a fun hobby to do in the back yard on a nice afternoon for couple dollars in supplies as it doesn’t use much compound at all and the buffing wheels look like they will last for more than all the trim parts on my cougar. The buffer and buffing supplies was just under $300 from Eastwood and I think its a nice investment if you’re into detailed work which takes a lot of time and patience. Once piece down and about a dozen more to go.
Thanks. I’ll order and give her a try.
I’m still wondering if the front eyebrow and hood lip mouldings are coated in anodized? I’m guessing if they are still shiney after sitting for 8 years exposed to the elements they are coated but wanted to confirm before applying any chemicals to them. I was thinking of using an oven cleaner to remove the coating if they are coated but I’m unsure if they are coated or not. Anyone have a better recommendation? Here’s a picture of them right now…
How much would it roughly cost to have these re-anodized these?
Purchased rechromed front bumper guards through WCCC and I must say I was really impressed with the quality and finish on the chrome. They are a perfect finish.
http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/69frontguard.html
Also purchased a reproduction passenger side mirror kit from WCCC as my mirrors on my car right now are not original cougar parts. Will try and track down a used driver side mirror in the next week or so to make a set.
http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/70pssportmirrorkit.html
Steve,
The front hood and extension moldings are anodized aluminum as are the rocker moldings and wheel lip moldings.
Thanks Jeff. My main worry is that they are already stripped from the PO but I guess it’s not going to hurt it if I spray a section with some oven cleaner and wait for 15 mintues to see if it starts to remove anything.
If you can polish them up and they get shiny like your decklid molding then they no longer have an anodized coating.
I tried a section on the buffer for a bit and it turned a little brown in the finish and it didn’t get any shiny so I’m concluding they have an anodized coating and will need to be stripped.
Last night I ordered new reproduction rear side marker bezels and new red side marker reflectors and a bunch of misc clips and hardware related to the exterior trim pieces. Tomorrow night I’m stopping by my buddies place who will be painting my Cougar to get a game plan together for when I can drop my Cougar off to him. He works out of his back yard all on his own and has his own paint booth he made which fits perfectly into my restoration to date as I have completed pretty much everything on my cougar out in my back yard and car port. Even tho he works out of this back yard shop I must say his work speaks for itself. I’ll take pictures of what he’s got in shop tomorrow and post them up. Last I remember he was finishing up a 1969 Camaro and starting a 68 Mustang.
Well tonight I removed the rear side marker lights and rear side “Cougar” script emblems. Surprisingly they popped out really easy. The rear side marker brackets were covered in trunk paint so I spend an hour and cleaned them up. I noticed I have two LH rear side markers as both of the brackets had “LH” stickers attached to them and the part numbers are the same on them. Weird. I will see if I can find a plastic spray paint tomorrow which has a similar color to the orginal brackets so I can freshen them up a bit.
The plan for this weekend is to remove the remainder of the rear section of trim to the car and dig out my front grille from storage. I’m thinking I should remove the rear bumper first before removing the taillight bezels? Here’s how the rear section looks as of right now after removal of the fender extension pieces…
Dahm…it’s been since 2003 since I had this thing out last. Shame on me!
Tonight I painted the side marker brackets wiht some paint I had kicking around. The colour is not exact but close enough for my liking. Next, painted the vertical grille support brackets slop grey.
Also made a trip by my buddies place to talk body and paint. Looks like the end of september might be realistic. He’s got 4 cars hes doing pretty much full restos on at the moment but at least the 3 have finished body work. I snapped a couple pictures of a 69 Camaro convertible he’s finishing up right now which my Cougar will take its place in his shop once it leaves and I hear the owner is very motivated to get her done to take to some car shows this year which is good news for me. The photos are crappy cell phone pictures. Looks somewhat stock from the outside but the complete suspenion is all aftermarket including K member, coil over rear suspension, baer brakes, 18 inch rims, stroked big block, pearl in the paint, etc. This car is insane, wish I had my actual camera with me. Its all dusty and hasn’t been polished yet but from what I could see it was stunning.
I got some pictures online from him of his high end work paint work he has completed over the years. All of these cars are local where I live and I find it amazing he does all this work in his backyard shop 10 minutes from my place. He said he spent over a 1,000 hours on the body and paint work for this fastback mustang…
Now I’m super pumped to get him going on my body and paint work but he’s an extremely busy guy and very detailed so I will have to be patient some more. He mentioned he has about 15 more full restos potentially lined up if everyone is willing to wait their turn lol. I’m next in line on his list so I’m really looking forward to him doing this body and paint work as I’ve only been waiting two years now…
Awesome Steve, best of luck man!