That is cool! I love those keychains!
I’ve been looking for a cool Cougar keychain to replace the one that came on my '70 keyring - it is a bottle openner from a Ford dealership. Which I guess is the sign of a different era for sure, but it doesn’t really speak “Cougar” to me when I’m grabbing for the keys.
BTW ~ I won’t hold it against you that you are using a Cannon camera either (I work for Nikon) 
Got some garage time in this weekend. I got the intermittent no start problem fixed. Couldnot find anything wrong and concluded it had to be corrosion in one of the cables. Replace the cables and so far so good. A little more carb tuning and it’s running smooth, just need to play with the auto choke a little yet.
Time to move on to the next step which is the cooling system. It has anti freeze in the motor which I checked by pulling lose a heater hose. No anti freeze in the radiator as it is bone dry, but looks pretty darn clean for sitting for so long. Decide to fill it with anti freeze and see what flushes out of the motor. After running for a few minutes watching the temp gauge climb just past half way and no flow. I shut it down and figured a stuck thermostat. Also started getting a little leak in the seam of the top tank on the side, so radiator has to come out and fixed. Pulled the radiator and moved on to the thermostat. Whoa…wasn’t expecting to see that. It appears the water evaporated out of the top hose leaving the gel/waxy residue plugging the thermostat. Cleaned and check the thermostat and it doesn’t work, so time to install a new one. Also got a good picture of the original power steering belt.
Mike,
you work for Nikon? Cool, I have a couple Nikon’s. Love the old F2, but 35mm film and related expenses are out of my plans. So I got a D5100. Not top of the lie but fun and takes great pictures.
Now back to the previously scheduled thread.
Bad news on top of bad news!
Got the radiator off to the shop to fix the one leak it had in the tank seam. Once they flushed it out and applied pressure it start springing more leaks then the SS minnow! So I’m in need of a 69 radiator C9ZE-AF1 3 core 24"if you have a good one let me know 
My backup plan is to use the one out of my 69 standard then replace that one with a new repo.
So, moving on I figure since I have a new thermostat I would get that installed. Upon cleaning all of the leftover antifreeze gunk out of it I could tell some of the metal inside had started to corrode. A little more scraping with the screw drive reviled a couple thin spots and a hole. Checking my parts supply, I don’t have an extra water neck. So, I’m in need of a C9AE8594E 390 FE water neck as well. It’s better to find this stuff out sitting in the garage vs along side of the road in a puddle of anti freeze.
Brian,
Radiator shop can’t fix you up with a new core for your tanks??? If not, I’d check in with some of the vendors selling radiators… This car is such a wonderful time capsule that I wouldn’t do much except the minimum to make it safe to operate! You would need to have your tank straps moved over…but I would bet that your top tank says AUTOLITE on it or similar…that the new ones may not have!
My CJ Eliminator was scheduled for E5 build date. Fenders were dated 4-28! About 1600 cars after yours! (They were PUMPING them out at that time!)
I used to have a lot of big block parts hanging out…if I run across a good T-stat housing I will let you know!
Steve
I have yet to find a shop near by that will recore the radiator. Seems to be a service that most shops no longer offer. They just want to sell me a new one.
Good news! I have a radiator shop now that will re-core my original radiator for $500 which isn’t bad from some of the prices I’ve seen for this service. Local shop not too far away and really gave me a good feeling he knew what I wanted, and the best route to go.
I ever got some radiator education I’ll share:
My original radiator has 3/4’ tube size, so a three core ends up being 2 1/2" wide. You can no longer get a core with 3/4" tube size. But, what is available is a 1/2’ tube size which will make the width thinner around 2" wide for a three core. If I move up to a four core the width comes out the same at 2 1/2" wide. The only way you can tell the difference is to look inside the radiator and see the extra core. from the outside it will look the same as the original three core, so this is the route I’ll take. Also you can change the fine count per inch to improve the cooling as well. I elected to keep the same fin count so it will maintain the original look. When completed from the outside it will look just like the original and maintain the original tanks and brackets. I’ll post up some pictures when I get it back from the radiator shop.
Very cool! So are you going to recore your original and put it away for safe keeping, or just go with a new 4 core?
That picture of antifreeze sludge is scary…
Recore the original and use it. The goal is to get the Cougar road worthy and maintain all the original parts that I can.
That’s a beautiful car you have there. Good information from the radiator repair shop.
Got the re-core original radiator back last week. Turned out real nice and should cool better with the new core.
Brian. It looks like they did a nice job.
The more I look at this Cougar the more coll stuff I find. Like this red number 4 on the passenger side shock tower. I have no idea what the 4 means. Just notice the paint OK stamp on the hood from inspector number 613. You can’t make it out in the picture, but in the upper left corner is the FOMOCO logo.
Yes, they did and I don’t think it could have come out better having a new core installed.
Got the radiator installed and ready to go. Got down to the last step and forgot to buy anti freeze 
couple pictures of the original fan shroud and fan.
Last month when I had it running I added some trans fluid and gave it a test to see if the tran was OK. Shifted it all the gears and nothing! So, I have been planning on dropping the trans pan and valve body and seeing if some check balls are stuck, bad pump or something. I’ve rebuilt a couple of trans but by no means totally under everthing in them and how it works. A couple day ago I slide under the Cougar and found the trans might OK after all. But… the drive shaft is missing 
Ok that’s good news maybe the trans is Ok. Then I’m thinking in all my parts I don’t recall having a 390/428 auto drive shaft which left me puzzled as the original owner kept everything. After looking up the lenght 49" and something. I went to the the drive shafts I had and got some good news. I had mis labeled the shaft out of this Cougar as being from a 69 351w FMX trans Cougar which is 53" 
The next step will be getting it installed and seeing if it will move. 
Update time! Was planning on having it on the road by now, but was too busy this spring playing farmer, so the Cougar sat idle most of the month. I got the driveshaft installed, drained the trans/converter and installed new fluid. The trans is work good and shift through all the gears. Moved on to the brakes and exhaust. The rear brakes were good. I just had to clean the drum surfaces from some light rust which was making one drum seized up. Bleed the rear brakes and appears to be all functioning correct now. The front brakes I had one caliper that wouldn’t extend the piston. The driver side caliper extended the piston, but couldn’t get it to go back in. Going to rebuild the front calipers which should be done in the next couple of days.
Moving on to the exhaust. The end of the H pipe was to rusted so I purchased the repo H pipe from Don. My first thought was, I could make new pipes from the H to the mufflers and the rest of the original system I could use. Upon more inspection I found holes in the tail pipe sections as well. Plan B replace all the pipe and use the original mufflers. Both mufflers are very solid on the outside. Once I had the exhaust removed I found one muffler still in good condition, but the passenger side muffler not so good. Rust inside with some mouse poison in it, and the internal pipe was rusted and rattling around. Plan C, I just order the rest of the repo exhaust system from Don and will install the whole system. I was afraid it was going to sound like crap having one good muffler and one with a rusted pipe rattling around inside.
While waiting on new exhaust parts my son and I got to work on the front end. The middle of the bumper was pushed back and hit the stone guard panel. If you look at the before picture you can see it kinked up by the high beam headlights. Removed the front valance bumper and stone panel. Straighten the stone panel and painted it. I figured the bumper was toast and was going to replace it. Decide to get out the blocks of wood and go at it to see if it could be straighten. Actually, surprised that it straight back pretty easy with a few hits in the right spots. So the original bumper is back on it! Mitchell went to town cleaning the grille while I did the bumper and cleaned up the front valance and parking lights. Front end looks pretty dare nice now.
Got the exhaust on the Cougar and happy to report the repo system WCCC sells is nice! Compared it next to my original and bend for bend it is the same. Installation was easy. You have to tap the brackets on the mufflers for the hangers to attach if using the original bolts. I chose to weld them at the muffler inlet, so it would be done like original. Clamped them at the H pipe. The only thing Don could do to make it easier is to offer the original style muffler clamps for sale as well. Had to place a separate order to NPD to get the original style clamps.
Boring update time as their isn’t much to report. Been busy with my sons lacrosse traveling team and vacation. They won two big tournaments and lost one tournament by one point in the finals. This put them into the Lacrosse nationals in FL in December.
The coolant temp on the Cougar was still reading high, but the engine didn’t act like it was getting hot. Installed a thermocouple to read the actual temp and found it was cooling just fine keeping it around 200 F. Time for a new sending unit. I’m having issues with a run on problem once the Cougar is shut off and some spark knock as well. Haven’t touched the ignition system yet, so the next step is to give that a good going over and see if I can resolve the diesel/run on issue. I’m working on that now and once that is fixed. I think all the mechanicals should be in working order. Next step will be new tires. Seems like no more work that had to be done to this Cougar it is taking forever! Just haven’t had much garage time this last year. Looking back at the pictures date.I brought it home on August 21 2012.
