Ken,
You can use the existing mounting holes for the new rocker mounting clips, I did and they worked fine.
I will send along the ground to top of wheel well opening heights for you to refer to. Isabel’s front end has 620# Grab-A-Trak springs with 1" aluminum spacers (which makes them stock length) and the Shelby drop.
See answers embedded above. Looking for the fender Cougar emblem.
Cougar fender emblem is “okay”. One or two small pits at the rear/bottom-ish of the casting where the letters begin to come away from the fender, but in fairly inconspicuous places. Chrome is good but a little “spidery” looking (or one might call it “crystallized”).
Maybe check with Randy and see if he has a better one. $25 for this one and the trunk lock rod too if you need that based on my dimensions.
Thanks very much Robert. Today I put on the passenger side rocker moulding. These are a high quality part. I used a couple of the OEM mounting holes, but found out I had to drill some holes to ensure that they went on dead straight. The template I received with the rocker mouldings didn’t have the end holes in the place I needed them, so I used a three foot yard stick along the top of the nylon mounting pads once I had them attached, to draw a straight line and then measured down for the hole for the end mounts which are made of metal and the hole goes in the middle vertically. I learned the hard way to protect the paint when installing these parts. I will never use pop rivets on this car again!!! Don’t ask.
Here are some pix of the covers on the car. I verified with WCCC that the panels have the more pointy-top end facing front.
I also received the seat hinge covers and repainted them and then installed them.
I also received the set of front fender extenders I will be repainting. They had the front Cougar emblem, which I put on the car for a look-see. What do you think Robert? If yours is better I definitely want it, as this is OK but not show quality. Still better than nothing.
Parts keep arriving daily. I received a chrome alternator but it doesn’t fit the stock mounts, although it was advertised as for a 351 Windsor. So I need to look into that. More goodies are on order and I am looking forward to making more progress in the coming days.
Can’t tell from the photo how good it is. The pics I just sent you will show you that mine is far from show quality too.
Regarding chrome alternator, what kind? Tuff Stuff? That’s what I have and it gave me all sorts of trouble, the rectifiers in them are CRAP. I ended up putting a bridge setup from another, core alternator in mine and it has been fine since. Anyway, what kind of fit problems? Sometimes they need to be “clocked”, turning the back housing relative to the front in order to make them match the original alternator they are replacing. Should not be a “351W specific” alternator. A modern, integral regulator type might have fit issues. What did you buy?
Here is the info on the chrome alternator I bought that is smaller physically than the one currently on the car, and hence doesn’t fit the mounting points. Even the chrome mounts are different!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&vxp=mtr&item=121415646392
Today I tidied up some of the engine compartment with new mounting hardware, plus painted the coil and put on a new chrome mounting bracket.
I also received the missing screws for the lip moulding, so I was able to get the last piece mounted.
I received the mounting pieces for the rear spoiler. I don’t have any instructions, but I figured out how the pieces from the spoiler to the deck struts go. I still need to figure out where they mount to the trunk lid. Any measurements for this referenced from the bottom of the rear of the trunk lid??
Tomorrow is my 33rd wedding anniversary. I won’t get much accomplished on the car, but sometimes there is nothing better than to spend time with those you love. Life is short!
Ken,
Flip the spoiler 180 and then you’ll have it in the right configuration. The stands sweep back and the more rounded side of the wing goes forward. Sorry, I don’t have measurements but did find them somewhere in Cougardom when I was doing mine. Don’t know if this will help but the holes land in two flat areas in the understructure just in front of where one of the “ribbed” areas of the understructure begin.
Whoops thanks Robert for orienting the rear spoiler correctly. I would certainly have taken a closer look at one already installed before I started to mount it!
I re-measured the current dimensions on the wheels and tires to body wheel lips. The rear doesn’t look bad, with the height of the rear tire at 25 1/2" and the rear wheel lip at 27". The fronts measure 25" for the tires and about 30" to the wheel lip, so I would like to drop the front 5" or so. At this point I am not sure shorter front coils will accomplish that large of a drop. I have read about the ‘Shelby Drop’ and some claim you only get a marginal front end drop maybe 1/2" or so. The PO said he thought he put big block springs in the front of the car, so I will measure them and then contact some places that sell lowering springs to get their take on how much the front end will come down with different springs.
A three foot yard stick, you say?
I have a four foot yard stick at home if you need… 
I was able to get the driver’s side stainless steel rocker moulding mounted without incident. I also used a brass wire brush on a drill to knock the rust off the disc brake rotor. It looks a lot nicer behind the wheel and I need to do this to the other three rotors.
The Eastwood paint for the brake resevoir and gas tank arrived yesterday, so I think I will go and finish off the trunk, where the PO never mounted the tank. He just set it in place with no mounting hardware and then the d@mn rug that boogered everything up so it has to be repainted.
Today I was able to finish off the gas tank install. I started by removing the tank and sanding down the original paint, which was damaged by the PO putting a rubber backed rug in the trunk, which managed to glue itself onto the paint to the point it took paint removal tools to remove the embedded rug. I used Eastwood’s Tank Tone paint, which I thought looked pretty good.
I spent some time cleaning the trunk area, as well as the underside of the rear of the car while the gas tank was out.
After the tank was painted I used Eastwood’s seam sealer to lay down a generous bead before I put the tank back in the trunk. I then used new tank mounting screws to secure the tank back into place, re-installed the gas line and fuel guage sending wire, and put a new rubber sleeve and new hose clamps between the tank and fuel filler pipe, which I also painted with the Eastwood tank tone paint.
My wife wanted something nice on the back of the trunk lid, so I obliged by installing a new aftermarket Cougar emblem.
I used some petroleum jelly to attack the rust on the brake resevoir and power brake tank. Tomorrow I plan on painting these pieces and that will be one more item off my list of things to clean, paint, and/or repair. I also sent off for a spring compressor so I can remove the front springs and find out why the front of the car is sitting so high.
More progress. I was able to remove the front shocks, although one nut was more difficult to remove. Three of the nuts were able to be removed using a half inch socket and socket wrench with extension. One nut on the bottom was too close to the shock rocker and I couldn’t get a socket on it. I ended up using a crow’s foot socket and a socket wrench with extension.
I found a lot of chipped paint under the top shock mount. There is a spring isolator in the shock tower. Total Control Products makes a 1/4" isolator that I think will help lower the front of the car, but I won’t know everything until I remove the spring.
I spent some time with a brass brush on my drill cleaning the rust off the front rotor. I then painted part of the rotor using a VHT caliper paint rated at 900 degrees. I am hoping I can keep the rust off if this paint holds up.
So I bolted the driver’s side front wheel back on and was satisfied with new black on the front rotor.
I then took the driver’s side rear wheel off and gave the rear rotor the blackout treatment.
After that I decided to see if the Verseilles rear disc brake guard would fit. I found out why the PO didn’t install them - there was a broken bolt snapped off where the bottom hole for the guard mounts. So I spent a lot of time drilling out the broken fastener and then re-tapping the hole so I can put a new bolt in place.
Some new reading material showed up.
I did some cleanup and painting on the brake resevoir and tank. I used Eastwood’s paint for the resevoir and was very pleased with the results, it looks just like bare metal. There is a lot of metal in the paint so be sure to use gloves! Here is a before picture after using Petroleum Jelly to take off the rust.
The chrome spring retainer bracket for the carburetor arrived today. I had to do some clearancing on the bolt holes to get it aligned properly. It is also easier to attach the springs while the brackets are off the car.
The engine compartment is looking much better than when I purchased this car!
I dismantled the front grille. I have to figure out the best method of removing the right side Cougar emblem and black background.
There are two pins that appear to be melted into the back of the emblem frame.
The new parts.
I am thinking that I need to use a drill to carefully drill out the back of the two pins on the old Cougar emblem, then peel the original backing off after the emblem is removed.
Your thinking is right on Ken. I drilled and tapped the studs for 2-56 screws and used loctite on them.
Thanks for the advice Robert. Today is a day off from the car project, too many football games on! I hope everyone is enjoying a fun and safe Labor Day weekend.
Yesterday I went out for a while to tackle the front grille, which was looking pretty sad. I started by taking a LOT of pictures before and during the disassembly process. Nothing worse than putting something on bass-ackwards just because you didn’t document your work!
After disassembly, I scrubbed each component thoroughly and then let it dry in the hot sun. I had a lot of the original paint flake off where there was chrome underneath, it didn’t look like the factory scuffed up the metal before they applied the blackening paint. Once dried each piece was painted. If there was any bare metal I used Eastwood’s ‘Paint Over Rust’ product after using a wire brush on my drill to remove any rust that was showing. After that dried I finished the paint off with the VHT high temp black paint I had used on the brake rotors.
For the pieces with chrome that face out, I painted the black and quickly wiped the chrome outer area down with a paper towel soaked in ****** to remove the paint. Disclaimer! Don’t do what I did! You should mask off the chrome and then paint!! If you don’t heed this advice at least make sure you are in a well ventilated area for painting and other paint-related activities, use proper hand and eye protection, use a respirator suitable for whatever substances you are spraying, wear a painter’s suit, and so on and so forth. In other words, protect yourself!!!
I used a drill to drill out the holes holding the Cougar emblem and background on the passenger side headlight cover. After drilling I turned the cover over and used a punch and hammer to lightly tap on the emblem studs, and the Cougar emblem came right out.
I used a thin flat blade screwdriver to pry under the black background and then peeled it off the cover. Underneath was the original glue, which I removed using a plastic scraper and then used pre-paint prep to clean the area under the cover and prep it for the new background.
The cover with new Cougar emblem and background, fresh paint, and the chrome polished using Turtle’s Chrome Polish. Rather than melt the two mounting studs on the backside of the cover to hold the Cougar emblem, I used some 3-M emblem adhesive.
Next step will be to re-assemble the grille and get it mounted on the car.
I started reassembling the front grille but got sidetracked on the rear spoiler. I printed out the mounting instructions I got from WCCC. They show 7 1/4" in from the edge of the trunk lid to the center of the pedestal, and 19 3/8" from the top of the trunk lid down to the top of the pedestal. I taped the mounting point to protect the paint.
After outlining the pedestal mounting point, I brought the rear spoiler over to double check the fit. Here is what I discovered.
I checked the pedestal mounts to ensure they were plumb and not cocked off one way or another relative to the spoiler. I then centered the pedestal bases left to right using the spoiler and mounted pedestals, and oulined the adjusted position for the pedestals.
So here is where the rear spoiler will mount based on the information I was provided. My big question is for those who have a spoiler on their '69, before I start drilling holes… Does this look proper relative to the rear of the car?
If you do not have it by then, I can confirm this evening Ken. I could be wrong but it looks to me kind of like the spoiler is too far forward.