Hello Cougar fans. I am putting my ’68 cat up for sale. This is my 9th restoration and my 2nd Cougar. Most of the fun for me is tearing them down and rebuilding them to look like new. I usually drive them for about a year then sell them to make room for the next one.
This cat has been torn down to just a wire harness and rebuilt from the ground up. I am extremely proud of how she turned out. Please read through the details and let me know if you have any questions.
VIN starts out 8R93J so it is a San Jose, CA. car. J-code. Previous owner sated that it was brought to Illinois back in the nineties. 72K original miles. I was told that it is numbers matching but I did not double check this. Kind of a moot point since I did not do a concourse restoration.
The fully rebuilt engine is a 300hp 302 courtesy of an Edelbrock top end kit. Edelbrock 650 cfm thunder series carb and a performer intake. Other upgrades include roller rockers, Pertronix distributor, high flow water pump, aluminum radiator and 3G 150 amp alternator.
The exhaust is 2 ¼ stainless with 50 series Flowmasters and ported 351W exhaust manifolds. Chrome tips.
The suspension has been fully rebuilt and upgraded with stiffer coil springs. Brakes are new as well. Front are disc.
Undercarriage was stripped down to bare metal and painted. Basically everything underneath is new including brake lines, e-brake, fuel lines, etc…
The car was repainted by previous owner 20 years ago. Whoever did it did an excellent job. It looks like a new car. It is, however, not polar white which is the original color. I do have some matching touch up paint though. I’m happy to say I haven’t needed it. I’ve only found one rock nick on this car and it is on the bottom of the driver’s door. No dents, dings or waves. Car looks as good as it did sitting on the Mercury dealer’s lot.
It is still all original sheet metal. However when I crawled under the fuel tank for the first time I found one small spot of rust on the passenger side trunk drop off. Unfortunately it took a couple inches of metal with it. I cleaned it, treated it with POR15 and left it. I suppose I could have welded in a small 6 inch piece but I prefer to retain the bragging rights of having an all original sheet metal car.
The vinyl top is original and mint. Mother’s vinyl/leather conditioner is the only thing that’s touched the top since I’ve had it.
The rear bumper, rear aluminum trim, cougar emblems, light assemblies, wheel well trim and front eyebrow trim are all new. The rest of the stainless, aluminum and chrome is original and it looks amazing. The front headlight grills are perfect. Not a spec of pitting. I took close ups to show them off.
I installed electric motors for the headlight covers.
I used spatter paint in the trunk and it turned out perfect. A full size matching spare has been added.
I installed a new headliner, seat covers, front arm rests and carpet. The rest of the interior is all original and looks like new. Even the woodgrain on the steering is still there. It has not been rubbed off by hands. The interior is absolutely gorgeous.
The stereo is a Custom Autosound head unit with a 300w Alpine amp and four Alpine speakers. I start out every cruise with “Magic carpet ride” by Foghat. Dynamat was used for sound deadening on the floors and doors.
New owner will get a duffle bag with a jack, fire extinguisher, 1qt or Joe Gibbs HR-2 oil and copies of my wiring diagrams to show what improvements have been made.
I hope the pictures do enough justice on quality of my work. Sun glare did bleach out a few of the photos unfortunately. I’ve had it in two cars shows this year and it got a lot of attention; specially the engine which I’m very proud of.
Please call me at 618-830-8349 if you are interested in the car or pass my number along if you know someone who might be. I live in southern Illinois about 20 mins from St. Louis. I’m really easy to work with and can even help with transportation.
I’m asking 24k for it. Thank you.
http://s1050.photobucket.com/user/GlueEater/library/?sort=3&page=1
Solid restoration! So glad to see a neighbor in Illinois taking good care of restoring a 68 Cougar. Good luck on the sale.