Very carefully slightly bend the tangs that hold the ends of the three cables and remove the cables from the housing. These are very easy to break. You can just carefully mask everthing when painting if you don’t want to chance messing it up. The 69 and 70 remote ends are different so if you mess it up you will have to find a 70 specific replacement.
Ahhh now I follow and thanks for the heads up and info Jeff. For some reason I was fixated that it was removed from the other side behind the mirror lens as it’s all hidden back there with the lens currently attached. The mirror and base needs some body work so it’s best to be taken apart. I’ll give her a try and hope for the best nothing gets damaged in the process.
Finished off the headlight trim rings and then finished them with the white rouge compound as a final buff. The polished stainless turned out looking like chrome.
The white line is a reflection of a jet engine flying by.
Started to put a bit of the fuel door back together. I sanded the plastic rod a bit and hit it on the bench buffer to smooth it out. Also decided to sandblast and sand the fuel door and paint it underhood black instead of the bare metal finish that it originally left the factory. I like the look of the fresh black paint instead of my crusty original bare metal fuel door.
Finished off the taillight housing with the two different painted areas. Now waiting on new hardware that should arrive this week before putting them back together with the new reproduction chrome taillight bezels.
I wanted to see how the new reproduction chrome taillight bezels would look on top of the polished original taillight lenses and they look awesome.
Also shot the fuel door chrome trim pieces with a second coat of SEM trim black paint and they are now done. Got a bit better this time cutting a straight line between the interface of black and chrome.
And finally as darkness started to set in I polished the screw heads for the rear back up light lenses.
Got a couple things done this weekend, not as much as I’d like, but I do got afternoons off this week as holiday time so I can put some hours into the Cougar and get a bit more finished over this week. Polished the other taillight lens.
Also started on the assembly of the front headlamp housings. Ordered a new hardware kit from AMK and it included the headlamp springs which seem to be a correct match to the originals. The reproduction headlamp adjustment screw is longer than the originals but you don’t notice the extra length as the ends of these screws are hidden away when assembled.
I ran into a snag as some of my headlight bowl screw holes were just a tad larger than the original screws, thus they weren’t really fasten down that well as some of them could wiggle themselves loose. So I decided to use a slightly longer stainless screw and install a stainless screw nut behind to securely fasten the polished stainless headlight ring. They’re not going anywhere now.
Here’s how they turned out. They look great and I’m happy with them.
Can’t wait to finish the rest of the font grilles off later this week. The plan is to strip them, polish them, paint them with SEM trim black and finally mount them onto these headlamp housings.
Well got one of the little grilles finished today. It turned out looking pretty nice but I’m kind of kicking myself if I should have sent them out and had then re-chromed as the exposed chrome has served well for the last 40 years and it’s showing its age. I could always have them re-chromed later down the road once the car is finished over a winter season as a side project because these cars are really never done.
A combination of aircraft paint stripper in a spray bottle and Q-tips soaked in lacquer thinner was used to remove all the original black paint from the chrome including all the faces of the vertical fins. These are how they turned out…
Hit them on the buffer and polished the chrome next…
Finally spray painted every square inch including the chrome with SEM Trim Black. Next, used a fingertip and rag dipped in lacquer thinner to carefully rub and remove the black paint to expose the chrome strips. Here’s a midway progress picture…
And the finished product. Total of about 5 hours of my time in this one piece alone. Still got 3 more pieces to go and 2 of those 3 pieces are bigger than this one lol.
Looks good from here!
Wow, that grill looks great. Gotta do mine like that.
Finished off the rest of the grilles this past week and weekend. It took a lot of time, snail pace detail work, but I stayed with it and got her done and they turned out pretty nice for $40 worth of materials. This task was definitely a labor of love.
Same process as above, stripped with paint stripper and lacquer thinner.
I duct taped off the chrome and glass beaded the backsides as this paint on this side of the grille was not coming off with the paint stripper.
Here’s the backsides painted with SEM trim black.
Here’s how they turned out. They’re definitely not perfect with little rock chips here and there, but this is the best effort I could provide to these original 42 year old grilles to get them to look as new as possible.
I wanted to assemble them onto the headlight housings this weekend but ran out of time. Going to leave these out in the sun and absorb some rays this week and assemble them next weekend after the paint can harden up some more.
Very very nice and great job showing your work. 
Thanks for the compliment and I do appreciate feedback with suggestions that can guide me a bit further 
. Hopefully these posts helps someone else out. I know if it wasn’t for you guys I would be totally lost and not have a clue how to do any of this detail work and have given up by now.
Also on the agenda this weekend was to assemble the taillights together. I have all the misc pieces painted and polished and have acquired all the new hardware and gaskets to date. Time to assemble.
For hardware I used AMK’s hardware kit…
Ordered new rubber bumpers for the fuel door stops…
http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/i6h11.html
Polished the taillight lens I previously posted about and the new reproduction chrome bezels from WCCC…
http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/70tailbezrepro.html
Taillight housing showing new hardware and gaskets…
http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/d438.html
This picture shows the original rubber gaskets versus the reproduction rubber & foam gaskets. I used standard weather stripping adhesive to bond the new gaskets to the metal taillight housing. Most of my original rubber gaskets were toast but I could see others reusing these if they are in good shape.
Foam gasket for sealing taillight lens to taillight housing bonded together with weather stripping adhesive…
http://www2.cougarpartscatalog.com/d437.html
Now for mounting the reproduction chrome taillight bezels, I used a slightly longer screw as WCCC suggests on their website but I opted to use a screw head with a bit of washer with it to provide a bit more surface area for securing the pieces together. I got these screws at Home Depot for 19 cents each. There are a total of 11 screws for each housing (driver + passenger) for a total of 22 screws. This hardware is not “correct” but once mounted to the car they won’t be seen. I didn’t have any problems with mounting these reproduction bezels to the original housings. All the holes lined up fine except one hole on the passenger side, it required a bit of a twist as shown on WCCC website to get it to line up to start the screw head.
Here’s how the final product turned out…
Haven’t had the chance to put any chrome polish on them yet hence some finger prints and smudges…
Reflection of my white rag in the chrome…
I’m really happy with how these turned out and a total do-it-yourself project. A lot of coin involved here on these pieces, specifically the new chrome taillight bezels, but to have nice chrome work on your cat doesn’t come cheap. I’m slowly trying to put together a fully restored Cougar so these were a must have.
Amazing work, love the attention to details, well done.
As always, everything looks great Steve.
One comment regarding the taillight nuts, you probably have noticed that the AMK ones are not correct but are functional. The nuts are crimped into the washers and the washers have serrated edges. Both of these details are different than the OEM type of nuts. I had mine replated and bought the “goop washers” from AMK to complete their restoration. The AMK nuts will work perfectly fine of course, but they’re not quite correct.
If my pointing out this sort of stuff is not helpful or is annoying, let me know and I will stop. Just trying to help out with your quest for a spectacular resto!
Regards,
Bob
I appreciate the feedback Bob. I didn’t mention it, but I have been noticing a bit of differences with the AMK hardware to not be “spot” on throughout my project, a lot more lately especially with the trim pieces. I can live with the slight differences for this project but will learn and be more wiser on my next project one day. But yes, these aren’t 100% “correct”.
Question for you, what kind of cost was involved to get original hardware replated? I know on my current project here I won’t be sending out any hardware for plating, but maybe on a future project one day to test those waters. Get a bucket full and get it done all at once. Bit of house keeping to remember what is what lol.
Worked on my fuel door lens tonight. I was going to buy a repro since I have a bit of wear and tear damage to my original fuel door lens, but tried “restoring” it tonight to see what happens as Jeff recommended to not go for the not so correct looking reproduction fuel door lens but instead to use a nice original piece.
Here’s what I started with. It had some damage at the top.
I sanded the damage out with 300, 600, 1000 then finally 1500 grit. Took about a half hour but it came out looking great.
Next hit everything with cut polish and lens polish for about a total of an hour and it came out like this.
In the end I’m going to use this piece and not go with a repro lens. I think it turned out pretty good for a couple hours of labor. Thanks for the advice Jeff! I appreciate it.
Now I have a question. I have the reproduction fuel door trim pieces from WCCC and I tried mounting the new AMK hardware kit to these chrome trim pieces but the hardware is not mounting onto the studs of the chrome trim. Seems like the hardware is slightly bigger than the stud or the stud is slightly smaller than the hardware? Anyone run into this with the repro chrome trim or any advice to get the hardware to stick onto the studs? Unfortunately my original chrome trim is no longer around to compare for differences.
It was mixed with some other parts work Tom at KTL Restorations did for me, but I would estimate the price for most all the HW from my car cost less than $200 to replate. I blasted, tagged and bagged all of the pieces and sent them off to Tom. He separated them into piles (by plating type) and sent them off. With a list I compiled of the pieces, he separated them back out and put back into the marked bags and sent them back to me (along with the other stuff he did for me).
Steve the gas filler door lens looks great. You have a great eye for detail. Between you and Bob you guys are the “Adrain Monk” of detail when it comes to Cougar restoration. You guys don’t miss a thing. Well done!
Steven
Monk could detail a Cougar 
Thanks Steven!
Steve,
Something doesn’t look quite right to me with the AMK fuel door fasteners (besides what you mentioned). I want to say that all 6 nuts are supposed to be cap nuts? Also, the crest box ones (I think it was) use flat washers underneath (which apparently are not supplied by AMK in their kit). The holes in the sheet metal part of the door are too big (or are big on purpose for alignment?) and the washers are needed to make up the holes.
Regards,
Bob
Dug out my original fuel door hardware and figured out that the hardware in the AMK kit is larger than the original hardware, hence nothing was ever going to tighten down. It’s close but just a tad to large. So everything is useless except for the two large mounting nuts for mounting the fuel door to the body within the trunk area and even those aren’t “correct”. O well it was only $4 dollars but I will keep this extra hardware for who knows what one day. I have an AMK catalogue kicking around here so I measured up the correct sizes for the fasteners and ordered the correct fasteners individually.
Bob,
This is how my fuel door hardware was when it came off and was torn apart. The top chrome trim and emblem section had cap nuts (4 in total) and the bottom chrome trim had the open end nuts (2 in total).
And on the backside of the chrome trim pieces, there were rubber washers (4 in total).
So yes the kit looks funny, but it’s actually consistent with what came off my cat (2 large nuts, 4 caps, 2 open nuts, 4 rubber washers) but nothing is really the correct size and works. I don’t plan on using those 4 large rubber washers. I have no clue what they are for?
Hopefully the new hardware corrects the above as the original crusty old hardware is not acceptable lol.
Hi Steve,
Looks like: A) the '70 sheet metal bracket doesn’t need the washers I was speaking of and B) uses 4 capped nuts and 2 regular as you’ve shown. Pretty sure the '69 uses 6 capped nuts but my memory could be wrong (at 53 and on statins, CRS is starting to set in).
A solution for the problem you are having is easy for the open nuts, tap down the raised “threads” part of the nut that sticks up, this will close the hole enough that the nuts will probably then grab your studs. On the capped nuts, not so easy (or perhaps impossible) since you cannot tap the tops as they are capped. The only thing I can think of is maybe threading in a slightly smaller screw than the nut opening and tightening it through a piece of sheet metal in hopes of pulling the “threads” part of the nuts down (and inward). It’s a long shot, but it might work.
(2) of the large washers are meant for sealing on the large (not quite correct) nuts, unless they already have sealing goop attached to them?
Regards,
Bob
Hi Bob,
They are definitely a size larger. I couldn’t get them to work at all even with your said suggestions so I cut my loss and moved on lol. Yes the larger washers have the sealing goop attached to them.
Things have slowed down for me lately because of work but I have been doing some small thing here and there still. My outdoors working on car part days are numbered as it is starting to turn into fall here soon. Thinking of enclosing my car port off so I can keep some momentum of car projects going into the winter season. My friend came by last weekend who’s going to do the frame, body and paint work to my Cougar and he checked everything out and crawled underneath and said everything will work out great. Hoping to get my car to him within the next 2 to 4 weeks but he’s painting two cars for the SEMA show this year so he is a bit busy with both of those cars right now.
Finished putting together one of the grilles today. It turned out nice, not perfect but good enough for me for now. Will tackle the other side this weekend.
Some before and afters…
Haven’t wind the spring up yet, will do that after installed on the car.
Does anyone sell these rubbers new?
Amazing work, It’s going to look like new when your done for sure.