Hi there Cougar owners. I have just purchased a 68 standard Cougar from Gateway Classic Cars of Scottsdale, Arizona.
It is currently in transit to New Zealand as my first ever classic car. I have been a GM (Holden) man all my life and had been looking for the perfect barn find Corvette to be honest for the last 4 years.
Then when browsing the Gateway listings the 69 Cougar caught my eye and I fell in love with it.
After passing an inspection I purchased it site unseen by me at least.
It will be a driver for a few years until I have the funds for a larger motor and manual gearbox? It wasn’t matching numbers so no sacrifice there?
Anyway I am new to the classic muscle car ownership hobby so looking forward to lots of good advice.
Cars VIN number was 8R91C522957.
It now has an engine with Mustang Rocker Covers, once I get the car and the engine number is there a way to trace what car that engine came from?
Thanks.
Congrats on your purchase and welcome to the wonderful world of Cougars. I hope that the car gets to you safe and sound and that it is everything you envisioned.
For the engine ID there are several things you can look for. You can look at the side of the block in the area of the starter. You should find a casting number and a date code, that will be a start. If the car has a small block and is at least a 1968 or newer engine there will be a flat spot at the top of the block just behind the intake manifold. The factory stamped a partial VIN of the original vehicle on that flat spot. If you do some searching on here you should be able to find photos showing examples of the places I am talking about. Good luck.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
My new Cougar is now in my garage and already on stands. The car had been modified for disc brakes and lowered 2 inches. All imports here go through a road worthy inspection and the car failed on the rear disc brake modification. Somehow whoever did it used the same caliper mounts on both sides so the car has one rear caliper on the front and one on the rear of the disc. I’m now trying to choose from one of the many disc brake conversion kits so I can get the car legal.
Anyway that aside I actually wanted to ask if anyone has ever modified the under dash fuse box to something more modern and accessible?
When we did the right hand drive conversion on my 68, we mounted the fuse box on a hinge to drop it down when we needed access. We replaced the fuse box on a 69 we are building and added a couple of circuit breakers for the constantly powered circuits (they fit in a blade style fuse panel)