Front fenders and hood are back on and partially aligned. looks like everything should line up nicely. Now on to this back fender rust which feels like it rusted ll he way through the other side inside the wheel well but i’ll figure out the extent once i star cutting it open.
Looks great. I’m pretty sick of welding and repairing rust too lol. I’m also in Texas.
After a couple of months of not being really motivated to work on the car, finally finished the last patch panel on the rear driver side quarter panel. Now to start stripping it down for paint and uncover last minute surprises
I hate that it’s been almost a year since I’ve updated this project but you know, life gets in the way along with other projects around the house. I bought a XR7-G scoop for the Cougar, the hood and front fenders came from my dads stash of Cougar parts and he had previously drilled holes for the same style scoop but the holes didn’t match. So instead of welding closed the old holes on the hood and drilling new ones and possibly ruining an original grade A hood, I relocated the studs on the scoop to match the old scoop. I used JB stick to initially locate the studs and tack them on the scoop then I used a fiberglass body filler to epoxy and lock the studs onto the scoop as they originally were.
Glad you were able to get back on the cougar. I have your post as a favorite and thought maybe you just got rid of the car since I hadn’t seen anything in a while.
No I still have the car, other projects like house tile and half bath renovation made the Cougar take a back seat for a while. Stripping the paint is my next task but weather has not been cooperative here in Texas with all the rain lately. Fishing also tends to take priority some weekends down at the coast this time of year when the weather is good.
Let the paint stripping begin! I had about 3 hours to play with it on Saturday so I didn’t get as far as I wanted for the weekend.
Paint stripping progress for the weekend. Waiting on more stripping drums from Eastwood to continue.
Nice. what color are you going? Factory? Painting it yourself?
My dad and I will be painting it and changing the color to Inverness Green.
Nice. Mine was factory inverness green and that is what I would like to put it back to.
I haven’t seen a paint stripper like that, where did you get that, it looks as though it would be quite quick. Thanks
It’s from Eastwood, it’s called the SCT Contour. It makes fast work for taking off all paint layers including bondo and fillers. The tool is like $200 but the down side is how expensive the black stripping drums are at $50 a pop.
On a side note, I’m slightly annoyed that I’ve made this much progress finally on getting the car stripped down to prep for paint just for it to all come to a screeching stop with a herniated disc in my lower back. 
My back is finally recovered for the most part, but it gave me time to focus on acquiring parts for the interior and making a color change to saddle. Big shout out to Randy G. and Bruce E. for helping me source these hard to find originals! I can’t wait to get this car back together now.
My back felt good enough this past weekend to pick up the Eastwood SCT and knock out some more of the paint stripping. Finished the top of the trunk, top of the front passenger fender and the second half of the roof.
I had my suspicions of a collision in the right rear of the car and confirmed that after I got through the paint and about 3/8” of body filler. Going to explore my options of replacing the damage, I really don’t want to mess with the factory lead seam and replace the full quarter panel. Any recommendations? I’m thinking of buying a full quarter panel and cutting in only what I need since its mainly everything below the body line that is damaged.
