Hi all.
I have been wanting to share this project story with you all for a while, but I hadn’t made the time to sit and write this down. My project car is a 1969 Cougar XR-7.
In 2010, a member of the Delmarva Cougar Club sent out an email stating that a gentleman in Maryland wanted to find a new home for his 69 Cougar. He was willing to give the car away for free if you had a trailer to come get it. He tried to donate the car but was unable to since it did not run. I had a trailer and garage space at the time, so I contacted him and on June 13, 2010, my wife and I went and picked up the car. We took a 1:18 model Mach 1 for his son.
I was told the car was purchased in California, went to Chicago before coming to Maryland. I checked the car over and found very little exterior rust. I climbed under the car and found the floors and torque boxes to be in excellent shape. The car had been parked for about 2-3 years and had only been driven in Chicago for a very short period of time. Once we had the car home, I was able to look it over a little better and found that the car appeared to be very original. It has been repainted at some point.
Fast forward to 2012 and we decide to sell our house and move. I cannot take this Cougar with me, so I sell it to a friend with the understanding that if he ever decides to sell it, I have right of first refusal.
In late 2019, my friend calls me to tell me he is ready to sell the car and do I want it back. The car had been sitting in his garage and he had not had time to do anything with it. Unfortunately, I was not in a position to get the car back, so I had to say no. In September of 2020, my friend and I are talking, and I mentioned the Cougar and he tells me it’s still in his garage. He says, “do you want it now” and a deal was struck to get the car back. We have moved a couple of times and I cannot wait to get back to working on this car.
The car is currently at a friends Body Shop (Southern Classic Cars in Fredericksburg, Va,) and then will be heading to our new home in Florida.
Here are a couple of pics from original pickup:
