Hey everyone. For those of you not on the Facebook Eliminator page, I have created a website and youtube page to document the progress on 428 SCJ Cougar Eliminator Restoration. My dad and I bought this car in 2019 in Pennsylvania and brought it back to San Diego to do a full restoration. I am trying to upload a video once a week and greatly appreciate any follows and shares.
You can see my youtube channel here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIhktihCMsP7fbrEVi-La4g
My website is
https://cougareliminatorden.com/
Welcome to the Eliminator money pit club! LOL
Looks like a fun adventure picking your car up. I can relate, I had mine shipped from a barn in Missouri back here to Cali in 2017.
Good luck on your project, I’ll be watching from up the coast a little ways.
Rick
awesome ! I subscribed to the youtube
I’ve been forgetting to post the updates here but just released a new restoration update video at this link
https://youtu.be/SahMasLW2vU
Nice clip going over the car and your progress
BTW the markings on the inner fender panel have nothing to do with a specific worker or his initials. R does not only identify R (engine code) cars at both plants (edited from Dearborn but site does not have strike through as a choice )
Looks like fun - Keep up the good work and the progress
Thanks for the input Jeff - appreciate it. Do you know what that marking means?
Going into the weeds since you asked. Likely more than you asked for 
We think we have some these figured out but often we know only what they are not, through cross referencing and documentation
On your example (Below) from what I got are from a spring (April 69) Dearborn built Cougar.
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The large D with the lower loop that forms a cross is not known. It does not correlate with cars with disc brakes, specific rear ends, transmissions or other things people have tried to decode it to. Surprisingly (not typical) this is one mark that you also see used at San Jose during many years and its meaning for that plant is still undiscovered and none of the workers have recalled it yet that I’ve spoken to.
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The line through the first letter/number. If you look at a fair number of these you will see a D with the big loop on the bottom of the letter that forms a horizontal line through the D. You will find D’s with the loop at the top that comes around and forms the line and finally a standard capital D with a simple line horizontally though the letter. These likely relate to three different workers assigned to the same task on the different shifts.
Looking at other cars with smaller engines you will find a horizontal line through an “8” for some reason.
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Other marks on your example include the circle/loop around both letters (in the example) and the line under the “D” each likely indicate some other detail was checked. Neither show up on a regular basis in the examples we’ve collected so far and yours is the first example I’ve seen where both are present on the same car. May be nothing my than a doddle or something the writer choose to do for no reason other than trying to call more attention to the markings.
-The R would communicate different specific things depending on where the car was built. At Dearborn during 69 production it does appear that the workers assigned to the writing used “Q” and “R” that matched the VIN. At the other plant you will find “R” being used for both engine codes suggesting that the purpose was not for installing an engine but something else. They did have multiple copies of the buildsheet tapped to the car at the front and rear of the car guide most of the processes. For non-CJ built cars built at Dearborn that year other codes were used in the same general area but not always the engine code.
Hope this helps and sorry for the length
Thank you for the thorough explanation Jeff. It’s interesting knowing that these markings are unique from car to car. I have photos of measurements of the marking if you want them for your files. Sean
Not sure I would use “Unique” since there are similarities and difference between workers who applied them But they are not all the same and why copying them from other cars can be problematic and often ill-advised
