Father/Son project....sadly, without the Father.

Cougar Community The Project Forum
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Hey all,
my name is Zach, i’m 22 years old and from a small town here in around southwestern Ohio, near Indiana. I’m new to Cougars, and classic cars in general, but have always wanted to own one. Not too long ago, a friend of mine and I were trolling through Craigslist when we came across this ad for a 1968 Cougar for $900. I remembered how I had always liked Cougars and their headlight doors among other things, so i figured i’d check this thing out. I went and checked it out, and instantly fell in love. I had to bring this cat back to a loving home!!! So I borrowed the money from a family member to pay for part of it, and a friend of my Dad’s for the other part. Currently i’m still waiting on a check to pay for the rest of this thing and take her home.

A big part of the reason for this project in the first place, is that I’d always wanted to restore a car with my dad. He had always said “paint and grease don’t mix”, as he was a mechanic and a race engine builder, and wasn’t really one for body work. But anyway, on February 8th, 2011 he passed away due to surgery complications. He was 45 years old. He left my mom, 47, my two brothers both 19, and my little sister who is 15. Life hasn’t been the same, but one things for sure, people remember my dad and the things he used to say & do, and the motors he used to build for people.

So this project is going to be in memory of what my Dad and I could have done together. I’m really excited to get this thing back on the road, better than ever!

As soon as I can get pictures I’ll be sure and post them up!

This project will probably be kind of slow, because I don’t have a whole lot of money kicking around… so for those of you who like those budget “good ol’ boy” builds, here you go! I promise this build will not disappoint, because it will be done RIGHT.

anyway, since this will be slow, here are my plans as of late:

MOTOR—
this is the fun part, because i’m working part time at a machine/speed shop, so most of this stuff will come cheap or free :wink:

306 “Clevor” motor (my dad always liked things that were “different”), Cleveland 2v heads P&P’d, COMP Nitrous HP 274/286 cam, full roller motor, stainless valves, 10-11:1 compression on 94 octane fuel, 650-750cfm carb, Petronix or MSD distributor, Edelbrock Performer RPM “Clevor/E-BOSS 302” intake, Eagle H Beam rods, JE or SRP pistons (may change), maybe a little 50 shot of nitrous, or methanol injection, we’ll see… most likely not, but if i do it’ll all be hidden.

since my dad LOVED the “sleeper” look, this motor will be dressed up as a stock 302 4v, stickers and air cleaner, everything will appear stock. even if i have to modify the valve covers some.

looking for around 450-500hp with this whole setup.

TRANSMISSION/DRIVETRAIN— this is where i can’t decide whether I want to do a C4 or C6 with a reverse manual valve body, or mount up a Tremec 5spd. either way it is getting a Ford 9" if it doesn’t already have one, something with a low gear like 3.73 or something so i’m not breaking things left and right, for now.

PAINT-- haven’t really decided on a color, but my top 4 color choices are: Black, Silver, or Glacier Blue/Madras Blue (whichever is closest to Chevy’s “Marina Blue” back in the day, that’s what color my dad was going to paint a Chevelle he had)…possibly Wellington Blue.

otherwise stock appearance, like i said, my dad liked the “sleeper” look, so I’m going to give it my best shot.

OTHER— stock suspension for now, probably an upgraded sway bar, monte carlo bar, and some traction bars to keep this kitty on the road. possibly a 8-10pt cage. upgrades for the future include either some adjustable shocks or coilover suspension, possibly a 4-link, or something similar.

i’m going to try and keep this thing more of a street car, so I don’t really have a huge need for racing suspension and such, but i would like to take it to the drag strip every once in a while, because i know my dad would do the same!


Thank you to those who have put up with my rant so far, haha, I promise i’ll shut up and get stuff done and post pictures soon!

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SUUUHWEEEEET! looking forward to following this build as I am also 22 and for the most part my car has been a father son deal too. Sorry to hear about your father. He sounds like a good man.
Our builds sound very similar as I found mine on craigslist for under 1000 too. ($500) complete car. And it has also been a slow build 6 years so far.
The car is now machanically sound and rebuilt and I am working on the body and interior now.
If your going for 3.73 gear or anything over than 3.25 and you plan on driving it on the street and highway I would consider getting an AOD trans. c4 and c6 have a final 1 to 1 end gear ratio which will put your rpms higher than youd like at 65 mph.
I love the sleeper look too. Didnt go that route with mine but hope to build a sleeper one day.
Look forward to seeing pics!

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Welcome Zach and good luck with the project. Sounds like you have a lot of ideas (and research put into them), I like it.

Now, about a 306 Clevor. That will come out looking like a Boss 302 and the reason will be the Cleveland heads. They look nothing like Windsor heads (and so making it look like a stock 302 is going to be hard/impossible). So looking like a Boss 302 is fine too, you could put that sort of decals and stuff on perhaps?

Regards,

Bob

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cool man! link me to your build so i can check it out?

see, i don’t know much about gearing, that part i will need help from people on. i know if you put too large of tires on a fairly large gear you’ll end up breaking things if you rip on it too hard.

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i’m constantly researching specs and topics and how things relate to performance and asking questions to people that know their stuff. i want this to be a motor and a car i’m happy with when it’s done. not just something i had someone else do and put together for me, to where i don’t even know what i have. i love building things, and i wouldn’t have it any other way than to build my own car from scratch pretty much.

right, i know it will look like a BOSS 302…maybe you’re right, maybe i can make it look like it came out of a BOSS mustang, but those didn’t come along until 69, right?

i know that people that know ANYTHING about motors, will pick out that it’s not a stock 302 right off the bat. I may go with the Boss 302 stickers and such, to make it look like someone did a factory BOSS motor swap in '69/'70 sort of thing.

i want it to look like the motor is a factory production motor (maybe not factory for the Cougar, but “factory” style)

good suggestion Bob! i think the Boss idea would be better anyway, it’s more unique, and it’d be a little easier to fool someone, aside from the cam making it rumble! hahaha.

BOSS ram-air parts will probably be very hard to find, but we’ll see. the Mustang scoop is probably really expensive, maybe i can use the Cougar style scoop.

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Sorry to hear about the loss of your dad. Bummer.

A few things! I don’t think a C4 behind a 450-500hp engine is going to cut it. Seems like a recipe for disaster.

It might be tricky to have a sleeper look with a roll cage. Maybe you can hide it enough so the guy at the light next to you can’t see it through the window. But I dunno.

You said you wanna do it low-budget, and then went into detail about lots of expensive performance upgrade parts! :smiley: Just be prepared to spend thousands of dollars on everything you’re describing. Actually, probably lots of thousands, especially when you’re talking about having it painted.

Totally worth it. It will be awesome. But it won’t be cheap!

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Scott,

Talk to Mike, 1970FastCat about a C4 behind a monster of a motor. Built properly, it is a fine trans for this purpose. Still, I like the idea of OD for just about anything, so I would suggest AOD (again, built properly).

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yeah see i’ve not really researched the drivetrain much, other than i know i need a Ford 9" to hold that power and torque.

right, i didn’t mention this yet, but i work part time at a machine shop, so i can get a lot of parts through there for pretty cheap. that’s the only reason i can afford any of that stuff! :slight_smile:

I’m going to be painting and doing the body work myself with the help of a friend who does it for his uncle. i’ve seen his work and i trust his help and knowledge, even if we have to get his uncle involved. it should look good when we’re done.

all in all though, i know it will be thousands of dollars. doing it all myself i’m hoping to keep this build around or under $20,000 total. so far i’ve figured up costs and i’m at around $8,500-$10,000 estimated cost… that doesn’t count interior work and suspension/frame upgrades. so i think i can hit the goal, seeing how the car has just about all the pieces to it in boxes, and in good condition.

judging by the condition of the car i’ve estimated about 700-800 hours of body work, that might be a little high of an estimate but i’m making sure i take my time and do things right.

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these are exact reasons why i’d probably rather go with a T5, for the fact i don’t have to mess around with stall converters, and spending a ton of money rebuilding it. will probably want a stiff clutch, though. nothing super stiff, but more heavy duty. i’ll have to see what they offer at work (i also work part time at an O’Reilly Auto Parts)

i’m totally lost when it comes to automatic transmissions, and how to get them to handle power. haha. so i will have to talk to many people and research before i even make a decision on this.

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does anyone know if the hood scoop and spoiler were an option for the XR7? or was that only on the XR7-G or GT-E?


this car is an XR7, so if it was an option without going to the XR7-G, Dan Gurney edition, or GT-E, i have a reason for my Boss 302 ram-air.

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Zach,

Consider the torque capacity of the T5, you may be okay depending on the engine build. I would not put one behind a 351C that was at all built for instance.

On clutches, I highly recommend the centerforce dual friction diaphragm clutches. I switched to this on my car’s build after always having run (and having problems with broken linkage and the like) the original long style clutches in HD versions. Nice, easy pedal effort and no slipping, what more coudl you ask for?

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While I love the idea of the Cleavor, my practical side has to ask… Why not just put a 351C in it? I put a 351 in my sons '68 and i love the torque that a few more inches can give you… Also, my vote is T5 (built for a bit more torque than stock) you can’t beat the feel of grabbing a gear. What ever you do, thanks for sharing it with us.

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Zach,


Sorry to hear about yout Pops - make em proud!
and welcome to probably the 2nd greatest resource you can use on your car!

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My build thread is http://www.classiccougarcommunity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=930

It’s kind of on hold right now as I been super busy with work and moving into a new apartment and what not. But I just ordered the last of my steering parts(control valve and ram) hope to get that in soon.

I drive a 5 speed car daily so when I went to build my car I was just sick of shifting gears everyday and didnt want to worry in the cougar. So I rebuilt the c4 with shift kit. Though now I wish I would have got an AOD so I can beef up the rear diff and keep rpm’s low when Im up to speed. The AOD gears arent too much different than the c4 but it has an extra 4th gear or over drive gear for cruisin.
If your building a 400 hp car and plan on having a pretty beefy cam I would recommend going with the t5 so you wont have to worry about vacuum issues to run the automatic. I have to keep my idle up kind of high due to my cam so it wont die when I put it in gear. But since I’ve switched to a Holly carb It runs and goes in gear much smoother.
But with a t5 you can have the idle down low and will make the cam lope sound awesome.

Heres a list of some automatic gear ratios.
http://racetransmissions.com/mainpages/tech_info/trans_gear_ratios/index.html

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24 y/o here. My dad died when I was 8, brother was 6, mom was 32. My dad had started a fund for mine and my brother’s first vehicles. At 16, mom surprised me with a '99 F150. Thought about selling it multiple times but can’t bring myself to do it. To me it’s kinda the last thing he got for me.

Good luck with the project man! I don’t know if the scoops were on anything outside of xr7-g’s and gt-e’s, but I do know the rear spoiler wasn’t available from the factory until '69. Tons of people put the eliminator style spoiler on 67 and 68’s though.

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Good luck w/yourproject I’m sure you’ll do our dad (& yourself) proud.

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you wouldn’t put it behind a Cleveland for the torque reasons? sooooo lets say 500ft lbs? haha

really? i always thought the aftermarket clutches had a really stiff pedal and just were hard to operate…

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i’m trying to work with some of the parts i already have, otherwise i’d go right out and buy a 351C and build that up. for instance, i just found a Holley 700 double pumper in my mom’s garage… just gonna get a 750 main body and voila! i have the exact size carb i need for the build.

and thanks for havin me! haha.

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Welcome and good luck on the project! Sorry to hear about your dad. It’s cool that you are doing this car in his honor. Looking forward to watching your progress.

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thanks man. and i will! i know the things that would make him proud are using the parts i already have, using your BRAIN instead of your wallet to make something that will make power, and last. My dad was a really smart guy and he knew exactly how to make awesome power without breaking the bank.

as for the car side of it, it will definitely be something he would be smiling about.