Been scraping away at the undercarriage and its 2+ layers of undercoating. What an awful job. I’ve got about 50 hours into this clean up stage and a little over the half way mark. Been using an angle grinder with a wire cup brush to hit all the accessible areas and in the areas where the angle grinder can’t physically fit into I’ve been using a heat gun and a scraper. Hard work but it’s slowly showing some results.
here’s a before picture…
and some after pictures…
Hey Steve, looks really good!
So basically as you get an area scraped clean you hit it with a coat of primer to keep it from surface rusting?
Are you using a paint gun, or just rattle canning it for now?
Do you plan on putting any sort of undercoating back on it?
Hey Mike. Thanks. Slow work but rewarding, eventually.
To your questions, yes basically. Clean an area up and hit it with some spray paint primer for now. I have a friend of mine that does metal, body and paint work, so I will get him to do a bit of metal work under the car and spray it with a sealer of some sort and a red oxide primer as a finished paint. Will also hit it with an air brush to replicate the factory overspray of the exterior paint color. No undercoating will go back on as this car when it’s eventually finished will be driven quite limited. Within the next month my friend will start on the metal and paint work under the car. I’ll continue to post pictures as things progress. Cheers.
Very nice Steve! I see someone took “some liberties” to get air shocks to clear the crossmember? And those holes by the brake line hose mount, what were those? For a universal muffler hanger perhaps? Guessing these are what you are going to have a bodywork buddy help you with? Not sure the crossmember could be fixed, but I suppose it could be filled (is it worth the trouble?). Regardless, stellar work bro! 
Bob
Thank Bob. I didn’t know about those impressions are not factory looking as they look similar on each side. I’ll have to ask the original owner if the car ever had gas shocks in it at one time. When I got the car it had basic shocks in it. Yes those holes were off a universal exhaust hanger which looks like it’s had a couple rounds of being installed at that location lol. I think a quick and dirtly metal/body work in that area will clean things up as there are also a couple other areas I’d like button up. I’m going back with original style exhaust hangers so those holes would just be holes. Can’t have that now lol.
Decided to take this week off work to get a bit more progress brewing. Right now the focus is finishing as much as possible with everything related to the undercarriage, rear suspension and axle.
The exhaust system on the car is about 12 years old with around a 1,000 miles on it. The goal is to give it a light sand and hit it with some exhaust paint to freshen it up and make it look clean and fresh. It’s 2 1/4 tubing with a long body tripple chamber flowmaster muffler. I must say I was quite impressed with the exhaust paint with how it misted on and the final product.
Before…
After…
Next it’s onto the drive shaft. The goal is to strip it down to bare metal, paint it, install new U-joints, balance it and finally add paint markings to it. Right now it’s at the drive shaft shop and I will be picking it up in the next day or so.
Before…
During…
After…
I also sanded down my replacement front clip and shot it with a new coat of primer to freshen it up before it goes to my buddies shop for the “transformation”, but this is a whole other story and another new thread in the near future…
Now onto the fuel tank. When the car was torn apart, the tank in the car at that time was the original gas tank to the car. I decided to go with a new reproduction tank as this car hasn’t ran in years and with a freshly rebuilt motor going in the car it was just a good idea. Overall I was happy with the quality and fit/finish, but my only compliant would be the drain plug as I’m pretty sure that’s not a factory correct feature.
Dry fit to test alignment, bolt holes lined up and everthing is all good…
New fuel sending unit…
Reproduction gas cap…
All installed and ready to rock…
Now here are all the exhaust hangers, clamps, brackets and hardware. I pieced everything together to creat my own little ‘kit’. For the exhaust clamps I decided to go with stainless steel as I want to try to minimize anything from surface rusting over time, hence why the exhaust was painted and freshened up.
Stainless steel clamps installed…
Picked the drive shaft up from the shop this morning and I was very please with their work.
New U-joints installed…
Freshly machined & balanced…
Factory paint markings applied…
Finally got around to installing the brake drums…
And the correct blackened bolts for the 3rd member…
Steve,
I have some bad news regarding your muffler hangers, those are mustang units and will not fit properly on a Cougar. The ones you want look like these:
http://www.mustangsunlimited.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=CHK2+01
I referenced a 2 1/4" kit (what I bought), they have a 2" kit as well (just the clamps are different).
Also, since we’re birds of a feather, allow me to point out that the pinion snubber nut should be a beveled/crimped nut which is blackened.
Everything looks great, per usual.
P.S. Did you get brackets to weld to the rear of the mufflers so they can mount the OEM way? Maybe that is what I see in the middle of your kit (but there only two of them, should be four)??
Steve-
Your gas cap…looks like the same one I purchased. I used it only briefly, as it did not vent properly(at least mine didn’t!). Car would drive fine for a while, then would buck/surge/sputter, then try to die. Barely made it home one day. Replaced my points with a Pertronix thinking it was ignition, nope. Finally described it to the local speed shop fellows, and they said “Drive it around until it does that, get out, and pop your cap…if you get a big whoosh of air in, your cap isn’t venting.”…did that, and BINGO.
So, to make a long story longer, put the old cap back on, and it hasn’t done it since. Old one looks like crap, though, so may try to figure a way to make the repro vent properly.
Who knows, maybe it was just the one I got, too!
Progress is looking way-good!
I have a gas cap just like that. No problem. I guess you just got a dud, T3.
Probably, Adam. Glad your’s works. Going to have to look at mine a bit closer. Hopefully Steves will work “as designed”, too.
I have one of those replacement caps too in my collection of used parts, but went with an original that I sandblasted and sent out with all the other fasteners to be replated. Looks like new but is an original.
Wow you’re making a lot of progress.
I believe the drain plug is correct for your gas tank. My car has one anyway.
Pretty sure (but not positive) that original '69 tanks have a drain plug, '70’s do not. Having the drain plug is of course a beautiful thing.
The change from drain plug to no drain plug gas tanks was in early spring of 69 rather than at the model year change over.
If he runs that replacement non-vented gas cap he runs the risk of collapsing the gas tank at some point - if it doesn’t stop running first 
It’s been awhile since I posted last but I have been working away on detailing all the front suspension pieces, adding paint markings and finishing off a couple things to the motor. I am really close to having 90% of the drive train completed and ready for final assembly. Will be going to my buddies shop next week and hopefully have my Cougar at his shop the week following that to start body work.
Now you guys got me all paranoid about the new gas cap lol. I will keep this advice in the back of my head if the car starts running rough to pull the gas cap and see if it sucks in any air.
Hey Bob, I took a picture of the exhaust hanger with the one that came off the car and the new reproduction one. They look quite similar to each other or were you referencing to the tail pipe hanger? I have been keeping all the used parts until after the car is all back together so worse case I will have to clean up the used one until I track down the correct one. And yes, there should be 4 tabs, I had the other pair of tabs on back order.
Steve,
Looks right compared to your original (minus the minor differences like the reversed rivets and slotted holes), but on a dual exhaust car (maybe here is where the difference comes in?) the hangers on both sides look different than what you are showing - on the top bracket.
Dahm you got a sharp eye! I will try mounting it tomorrow to just to make sure. I recall 2 different holes to choose from. Worst case I drill a another hole in the hanger. Cheers.
Change over to no drain plug was during spring of 69 - can’t remember exact date - believe it was March production so the date stamped on the tank would be maybe two months before that