It has a 69 M Code 351w 4-V I’m currently rebuilding the wheel house’s and taking care of rust and redoing the the whole car but concentrating on replacing both rear quarter panels and and have rebuilt the left wheel house and am now working on the right wheel house. I’m about to pull the gas tank. To make it easier to work on.
I’m sure I will have a lot of questions and hopefully you fellas will be able to help me with questions as I have never owned a Cougar and have wanted one since I was a kid. I hope I have put this post in the right place if not, the moderators may move it if need be.
My question today is I found a plate pop riveted in the passenger side trunk area and I’m not sure if it should be there and am not sure if I need to look under it? I am fixing the rust issue’s with this car first.
This car will never be perfect but will be a street rod for fun and cruising with AC I hope already runs and sounds good. I just want to clean up the rust and make it safe right now. And it will get a fresh paint job when I’m done.
Factory didn’t use pop rivets. Pull both those plates-probably find holes under them. Wit rust there is always more than you figured. Good luck with your project.
Thanks guys. I really appreciate your replies. There is a round hole on the other side so I figured there was rust probably under that plate. Behind the plate is actually a spot that is stamped in the metal panel. It looks like a plate, but it is not. It has a rust spot in it and I’m going to cut that out and replace it, but I will probably cut more out to check that hole rail under the car.
I may have to do surgery on that whole rail when I cut into it if there’s rust I’ll cut further and weld new metal in after repairing the rust.
Really appreciate your reply and there will be more questions. I’m trying to redo the whole rear end of the car at this point to fix all the bad spots.
The round holes in that location (on both sides) were used by the assembly line fixture that carried the car through paint. As a result, a circular area around the holes did not receive paint. The hole got closed up with a rubber plug, but the unpainted bare metal in that area was naturally prone to rust.
Thanks for that information very interesting i learned something thank you. I really appreciate that information I’m learning more…. That’s exactly what it is I took the gas tank out and the plate off somebody was just covering the rusty spot.
So there is some pretty bad rust that looks like it was cleaned up and metal glue was smeared on it.
I am going to investigate further I may have to do something to what looks like a frame piece underneath the car that the leaf springs mount to. It’s rusted pretty bad. but covered with metal glue and black paint. If it is needing major repair, what is recommended there?
Really appreciate you guys
@gah thanks for posting those pictures all great information thank you wish my car looked that good..
