Hi All, I’m considering a donor car for my 70 Eliminator resto and im looking at a 69 XR7 for eg and wondering the differences between the two.
Are the doors, quarters, guards, interior etc similar and be a straight fit? I havn’t seen many Cougars in the flesh but to me the 67,68 and in particular the 71 look to have major differences on the 70 model.
Thanks, any advice appreciated
Cheers Brett
Doors are the same. Quarters are different.The XR7 interior panels are a different style, but will fit.
69 and 70 Cougars share a lot of parts, however there are also a lot of differences. Only some mechanical parts are shared with the 67-8 and 71-3 Cougars. If you are looking to restore your 70 to stock you would be better to stick with a 70 for a parts car.
Now what is different between the 69 and 70. Sheetmetal - quarter panels, rocker panels, front fender extensions, hood, complete grille, front bumper, stone panel, side marker lights. Glass - door and quarter window. Interior - there are 3 different sytles of interior for both years. The rear side panels ar ethe same for both years for the standard style, the decore and XR-7 styles are different. Door panels are different for all 3 styles between the years. Other differences - front seats, upholstry style, sail panels, lower dash panel, steering column, plastic piece above steering column, plastic piece below steering column, instrument cluster face panel, control knob for left remote mirror, seatbelts, console. Mechanical - disc brake front spindles, power brake booster.
There are probably other items that I am not thinking of right now.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Unless you have a remote control left mirror.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Thanks for the info fellas, very helpfull.
What part of the rear qtrs is different?
The wheel opening on a 70 is 1" bigger.
All that and then the electrical is totally different. There is also a difference between XR7 and standard. Eliminator and XR7 same year are pretty much same. Then there are different harnesses pending options ect 
Mine was a wiring nightmare. I pretty much replaced it all… So ya better off looking for a same year and even model doner car.
No worries, thanks for the advice. I think i will hang out for a 70 model of some type.
Ive been looking for a while but all the late 60’s ones seem much easier to find ( here anyway)
Ive been offered a 69 qtr for my resto can anyone advise or show where the 1 inch difference is? Or where to take the measurements from? I already have a donor qtr with the car so i want to make sure its a 69 or 70 as well
Thanks
The rocker panel is longer on a 69 than on a 70. This makes the quarter panel different as well. The best place to measure would be from the door jamb to the wheel opening along the rocker panel to quarter panel joint.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
We had talked about this on CCG. Here’s what we came up with - http://www.classiccougargarage.net/showthread.php?tid=81
Just for the hell of it, I went to the garage and measured my two cars and came up with the same measurements for both, I did not find any difference between the two.
Go back out to your cars and wrap your finger around the edge of the rocker panel just in front of the rear tire. See how far your finger goes before it touches the wheel house. On a 69 you should have more depth before you touch the wheel house than on the 70. That is the reason why on a 70 the rear of the rocker panel moulding is held in place with a screw, there is not enough space to allow for the nut used on a moulding clip.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Randy, I did what you said, and I find no difference. There is plenty of space for a clip if Ford had wanted to use one.
Perhaps one of your cars has been rebodied. The next time that you bring the 70 to Carlisle Eliminator Dave and I will need to take a better look. LOL. One other thing that you might look for would be to see if the underside of the rocker panel is stamped with a C9W or D0W. Also try taking a tape measure across the wheel opening. The 70 should have a larger wheel opening. Seriously though this area is different. Years ago I was installing a repair quarter on a 70, the quarter was made for a 69. When I had the panel ready to test fit and put it onto the car the panel went past the end of the rocker panel by close to one inch. I had to take a pie shaped cut out of the front wheel opening area of the panel to get it to fit.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95
Here is the qtr I have to replace the missing drivers side, its seems to measure up the same as the original damaged qtr on the passenger side so Im hoping its a 70
I have 2 different guards so Im guessing one is a late 60 compared to the other?
The boot has a 68 date stamp underneath so Id like to know if there would be any problem fitting to a 70 or what the difference may be? Would fitting an Eliminator spoiler be a prob?
Cheers Brett
The rear quarter is from a 1970 (note the large side marker hole).
The left (white) fender is a 69, the right (red) fender is a 70 (note the small marker on the 69).
As far as I know the 67-70 trunk lids are interchangeable - the main difference being the lock - 67/68 had a cover, 69-70 did not.
Correct, they are interchangeable. Can’t speak to the 67/68’s but there are differences in the 69 and 70 trunk lids in the understructure.
The 68 deck lid (or boot) will fit your 70, but but the key hole is different ,a stock 70 spoiler will not fit because of lack of cut-out for the supports. You can use a 69 spoiler on the 68 lid , because it mounts in a different location.
Randy, I did what you said, and I find no difference. There is plenty of space for a clip if Ford had wanted to use one.[/quote]
Perhaps one of your cars has been rebodied. The next time that you bring the 70 to Carlisle Eliminator Dave and I will need to take a better look. LOL. One other thing that you might look for would be to see if the underside of the rocker panel is stamped with a C9W or D0W. Also try taking a tape measure across the wheel opening. The 70 should have a larger wheel opening. Seriously though this area is different. Years ago I was installing a repair quarter on a 70, the quarter was made for a 69. When I had the panel ready to test fit and put it onto the car the panel went past the end of the rocker panel by close to one inch. I had to take a pie shaped cut out of the front wheel opening area of the panel to get it to fit.
Randy Goodling
CCOA #95[/quote]
Randy, the last time you looked it over, I thought I was going to have to re-build it. LOL
I did fix the little things that you pointed out and I am going to take a closer look at the two different panels and let you know.