Starting a new thread on the restoration of my 1970 Cougar’s interior. Overall the original interior is in great shape including the dash pad, centre console, door panels and rear seats. The general plan is to remove everything, clean and paint all the vinyl and plastic pieces, install new carpet, headliner, sail panels and most likely re-upholster the front bucket seats among a bunch of other little things. Also thinking of installing a tachometer that WCCC offers where the clock is currently located on the driver’s side and relocating the clock to the passenger side.
Been ordering some parts for the interior right now but won’t be starting the majority of the restoration work on this phase for another month or so but have some questions to start. Are these seat belts correct? It is a standard model Cougar but the Marti report says it came with “Deluxe Belts/Warning Light”. The rear seat belts are larger than the front seat belts. Is that also correct?
Good to know as I haven’t seen any seat belts in this specific style. Are they suppose to be different sizes from the rear ones to the front ones? I’m looking into maybe buying the repro chrome buckle bezels if I can’t get these original ones to polish out nicely but the repro buckle bezels only come in one size. Looks like I can only replace either the front or the rears with the repro?
The fronts are supposed to be smaller. The reproduction chrome bezels are for the 68-69 buckles and though I’m not positive, I don’t think they’ll fit your rear belts anyway.
Except instead of the chrome surround, it is black. Front belts are smaller than the back. The pics of the above belts look more like the size of my back seat buckles.
Both styles were available in 70 but all 70’s should have the smaller front buckles and the dual hole receiver in the retractor. I’m not sure when the change occurred but my October 69 built 70 has the black style.
The difference is Standard and Deluxe Belts. 1970 Deluxe Belts used the Brushed Stainless Metal Buckles, and 1970 Standard Belts used the Earlier 69 Style Plastic Buckles with different sizes front and rear. Only 68-69 Deluxe Seat Belts used the Chrome Surrounds.
Thanks for all the info guys. From all the belts I’ve seen in Cougars I was worried these weren’t the correct ones. Always learning more info on these cats.
Hey Mike. Here’s the Marti Report for my 1970 Cougar. Looks like “Deluxe Belts/Warning Light” option came with these belts.
Yes, Deluxe Seat Belts with Reminder Light were a Stand-Alone Option for Standard Interior or Decor Interior, including Eliminator. I’m not positive if they were automatically included in XR7 Interior or Not. Only Cars with Deluxe Belts received the Reminder Light. All 1970 Cars will have the [BELTS] Lens but it was only functional with deluxe belts.
Well first day of 2013 for doing some work on my Cougar. It’s been awhile but feels great to get back into it. Got a 4 day weekend coming up and have some time set aside for removal of the interior pieces. Been really busy with work over the winter months and recently just finished building a garage for my Cougar, therefore I have no excuses to get some work done on it.
Started with removing the front driver and passenger door panels tonight. Overall they are in great shape and my plan is to scrub them clean and hit them with SEM Landua Black to freshen them up.
Original cougar emblem is in decent shape and will get carefully masked off before painting.
I’ve already purchased a set of new reproduction plastic door panel cups to replace the original peeling chrome ones. They should spruce everything up nicely.
I have a bit of a wave on the bottom side of the passenger door panel. Is there a way to fix this or will I have to rely on the door panel clips holding it down in place when it gets re-installed?
I’m not sure if I should replace the beltlines? I have no idea if they have ever been replaced but they are dirty and full of junk. I notice they are stapled into place so if I take the original staples out does a regular staple gun do the trick to staple the new beltlines into place?
I had a panel like yours that I was able to straighten. What you can do is mist the backside with water then support it with two by fours or anything that’s flat but leave a gap where the bow is. Place a heavy weight on the bow to bend it the other direction and let it sit for a few days.
The beltline staples can be attached by hand with a small drill bit and some pliers. A lot of people just use rivits.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll try leaving some weight on it overnight and see what happens. I like the idea of attaching the beltlines with rivits. I had a closer look at the door panels yesterday and noticed the top of the door panel is a thin piece of sheet metal, therefore rivits will do a great job attaching the two pieces.
Got most of the interior out yesterday and broke everything down. Took about 300 photos in the process lol. I don’t have the star shaped socket for removing the seat belts (Torx T50), order a socket set online and will remove the seat belts then carpet once the socket set arrives.
I’m torn (no pun intended) if I should recover the front vinyl seats and replace the 40+ year old seat foam while I’m at it. The passenger seat bottom has a rip and the driver seat has a couple small rips but the rest of the vinyl is in decent shape for its age. I’m also thinking the seat foam is rotten and needs to be replaced therefore I might as well just replace the vinyl while I’m at it. Not sure what to do here???
Got a little more work done on the Cougar this past weekend. Took out the gauge cluster apart and broke it all down. The plan is to replace the foggy lenses, install a Rocketman 8000 rpm tachometer, LED light bulbs, service the original clock (thinking of mounting the clock on the passenger side) and clean everything up before putting it back together. But got some questions along the way…
The red circuit board has a bit of a kink in it where it plugs into the dash harness. Is she still okay? Or is she toast?
My original gauge bezels have turned yellow. I hit them with some grade 0000 steel wool and it removed the yellowness and cleaned them up a bit but I’m not sure what the original finish was? Should they have a chrome looking finish on them?
Any other suggestions on the gauge cluster while it’s out and apart?
My friend doing the front clip work on the car highly suggested I take out the lower dash since he will be doing a lot of welding along the firewall, floor boards and torque boxes. I did not want to take this out but…
Tried out the SEM Landau black spray paint on a piece of trim. Wow, really nice product they have!
Are the lower dash trim pieces painted in a different color than the Landau black? My plan is to paint all the lower dash trim pieces in Landau black but remember reading/hearing they are actually a different colour. Bare with me on the questions but soon I’ll be making some progress. Cheers.
The original seats can have the foam replaced and the vinyl repaired and reused but how will they look against all the other freshly dyed and restored pieces?
The guage trim rings were originally a satin finish but I actually prefer the polished look which is how I did mine.
Your recollection is correct that the original interior black was actually charcoal metallic. It’s really hard to see the difference and would not be noticed by anybody except upon extremely close inspection in ideal lighting conditions by a Cougar expert. You can dye everything with the SEM dye for a uniform look or go to the paint store and have them mix you up some dye and paint in the correct charcoal metallic.
Don’t use rivets for the beltlines, you’ll regret it. You can see the staples now and again on a finished car, do you want to see rivets instead? Personally, I wouldn’t. Jeff covered the rest of the comments I had in mind to make.
To have the seat foam replaced would you just take them in to an upholstery shop? I imagine it would simple matter for the experts to carefully remove the original skins, replace the foam, then put the original skins back on. Maybe?
