Hello everyone,
Another CCC forum newbie signing up and reporting in…
I have a 1969 Cougar XR7, I think it may be considered a “GT-390” model, but am unsure… I still have much research and learning to do before making any wild claims.
My mother bought me this car for my 16th birthday present, for $800 … way back in 1978 and I have kept it ever since. It’s a very sad basketcase right now, having not run and been stored derelict… mostly either in a garage or at least under a carport since 1985.
I think I am probably about the 3rd or 4th owner since it was new.
It came originally from the factory with a 4V 390 engine (10.5:1 compression), a C-6 automatic transmission and 3.00:1 rear axle (28-spline 9", open, non-locking), factory air conditioning, full instrument gauges, and leather interior. It was originally a very light metallic tawny gold/platinum paint with a full black vinyl roof. Something about the roof line is different from most of the 1969 Cougars that used to be in this area’s junkyards back in the 1980’s and 1990’s before all the junkyards here went away forever, is that the roof height, windshield height, and side window height is shorter than most plain 1969 non-XR7 Cougars. I had to replace a couple side windows way back in the past, and found that out the hard way by buying used junkyard windows (removing them from the wrecks myself) and bringing them home only to find that they were too tall to fit my car.
Being as the car was a stupid teenager’s hot rod for a while, it got wrecked and sorta-kinda repaired a couple times, and no longer has original front seats (which were awful BTW), and of course had the engine rebuilt and hot-rodded in multiple ways. Good news is that the body has very little rust, and what sheetmetal dents it has will be easily repairable by a competent bodyman.
Anyway, I always said that once I turn 50 that I was probably going to begin the restoration of this car as my “old geezer’s” project, so I have less than a year to prepare for the journey 
One of the easiest pieces will be the instrument panel and original padded vinyl-coated dashboard top. Mine is in near mint-condition, has no cracks or weathering, and it’s still pliable after all these years! I had kept it preserved with liberal doses of Armor-All and other vinyl protectant sprays back when the car was still being regularly driven in the late 70’s and early-mid 80’s, and when the engine failed in 1985 due to a broken oil pump driveshaft and I parked the car for the last time, I removed the entire dashboard assembly and have kept it stored away from the elements, and inside my home ever since.
I’m still on the fence about whether I should restore it to as original as I can… or to make it a mostly-original-like street rod, but with the kinds of customizations that I dreamed about as a younger man but could never afford. I also have a 1970 fire-breathing 429CJ engine (D0OE-R) from a long-gone Torino Cobra that I’ve always been sorely tempted to want to try to shoe-horn into the Cougar, but know that it would require un-reversable mods (e.g. ruining) to the unibody front subframework to make it fit… so I’ll probably not do that. Might be willing to trade the 429CJ engine for running/rebuildable 428 FE-block engine
Anyway, it’s good to find an online forum that’s dedicated to the classic Cougars.
I’ll be visiting here from time to time as this project slowly gets off the ground.
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7RH
Seven Romeo Hotel
(yep, I’m also an experimental airplane nut)