Hi all. I’ve been trolling this and other Cougar sites for years but haven’t really engaged with the community. Well I retired earlier this year and have made the rehabilitation of my 67 standard a priority. Fairly low mileage (43k) but nothing special or unique so I’m not too worried about maintaining originality.
I’ve owned her for 15 years and did some work on my own including radiator, dash pad, intake manifold and carb, electronic sequencing module, various LED lights etc.
About 7 years ago I turned her over to a local shop for an engine, tranny and rear end rebuild and 4 wheel discs. Wasn’t very pleased with the workmanship that the shop did. They were going to do a suspension upgrade but I had lost faith in the workmanship and timeliness. I was left with frustrating electrical glitches that affected turn signals and brake lights. I believe this was an unintended side affect of putting in Sniper EFI which imposes some sizeable electrical loads on the car. Dug into it myself a couple of years ago and solved those problems only to kick myself in the head - in my rush to get it back into storage before the snow started, I didn’t properly isolate the leads on the horn circuit when I bolted the steering wheel back on. As you can guess, they shorted and it started a small fire (while I was driving) that destroyed all of the plastic bits in the steering column and the back of the steering wheel. Thankfully, I escaped unscathed.
Frustrated that a fuse didn’t blow which probably points to a mistake of mine. Anyway, I was pretty pissed and had it towed to the storage locker and didn’t look at it for 2 years.
Now she’s back in my garage and I’ve pretty much gutted the interior.
Not surprisingly there is some rust in the floor pans (W New York most of its life) but only a few small holes. I’m hoping I can do most of the repairs myself without needing to weld. Most importantly I need to carefully assess the entire electrical system to ensure there are no further shorts or unprotected circuits. Not surprisingly, I’m now faced with ‘while I’m at it…’ and feel I need to rebuild the heater core and associated controls, maybe add AC, put in a proper stereo….the list is endless. I’m sure Ill be needing some advice.
Thanks for your time.
