Thanks, guys, it really is nice to see it up there. My ability to “wax eloquent” is not as polished as Bill B’s, but, we’ll give it the ole Okie try…
So, my love of Cougars started like many of yours, at the tender age of 1_(17 for me, you fill in the blank for yours!), however, my love affair involved a 1988 Fox body LS. I didn’t have a clue they were made earlier! This particular LS had been “dressed up” with ground effects, custom wheels, etc, and was dubbed “Prowler” on the tags. I wanted that car, BAD. Dunno why, it just…spoke to me. Being a teen, and the car was virtually new at the time, it was out of my league, so, I forgot about it.
Fast forward a few years, get married, start hanging out with your wifes uncle, who just happens to be a “Ford” nut, albeit Mustangs, and the bug hits again, I’d like a Cougar. Uncle-in-law informs me of the first gen’s at one family-function or another, and after some extensive research, I HAD to have one. Keep in mind, we were still young, getting established, etc, so it was a “one of these days” thing. My wife would roll her eyes, and give her uncle the evil-eye, but, sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.
Fast forward again to 2007, life was good, settled, etc, had some disposable income, so, I brought it up again. Wife was game on TWO conditions, 1)whatever car I picked, Uncle Steve had to approve it, and 2)I had to listen, and take his advice. Deal. So, I call a neighbor that just happened to have a '67, asked if he wanted to sell. Nope, sold it a month before. DOH! But, his brother has a '68, and is in the midst of divorce #3, so he calls the brother. Brother tells him what it is, and what he wants, and where it is so I can go look at it. So, the uncle and I load up to go look that day, since it’s close to his house, even…and we find it as Bill stated:
Owner met us to let us in the fenced area, but, newb/excited as I was, I didn’t take any other pictures from closer range! Uncle gives his blessing, as the car was very clean appearing, other than floor pans, came with a 351C in mid-swap(all it lacked was a carb and buttoning up the fluid lines), and the original 302, and a toploader 4 speed to boot! A deal was made, and, the next day I showed up with a car dolly, and took it home.
I can’t seem to remember my log-in for another photo site that has all the de-construction photo’s on it, so, for the next two years it sat in my garage being disassembled. You know the story, “while I’m this far, I might as well…”…all of these while I’m at its were verified for the wife by her own Uncle, so…it ended up stripped to a shell, parts all over the garage, some in the house(after being restored/refreshed, can’t have them getting crummy in the dirty garage, can we??), waiting on the budgetary chair to OK the trip to blast/metal repair. Welding scared me, at the time…looking back, I should have bought a welder then, I’d have been money ahead.
It eventually made it to the body shop for metal repair, and then home(much longer, and much more $ than originally planned), and sat on my homebuilt body dolly for a while, going through body/paint prep:
It was about that time I tumbled onto Mark’s(Local Hero) thread on MCN about painting The Hero, so, like many others, I PM’d him to plug him for more info, could I do it, etc, etc. He was very helpful, and wished me luck, figuring that would be the last he’d hear from ME…not so fast, there, Bucky…several months later I join up @ The Curb, and he’s there, too…so, I shoot him some pics of “test sprays”, and thank him for his assist, etc, and my “plan” to pull the trigger myself. That turned into the “Email Question of the Day”, and, kudos to him, he answered them all, to the best of his ability. IIRC, the only time he’s ever hesitated, was on questions regarding my “transmission that isn’t clever enough to shift itself…”…
That leads us into paint…I’ll give you the album link, as it’s much better to see the whole weekend process being done. Scroll to the bottom, and start from there… http://s217.beta.photobucket.com/user/mo2872/library/#/user/mo2872/library/Cougar%20paint?&_suid=1357181074183023477368809926846
And, since I’m getting long-winded here, suffice it to say, through the help of the Curbies, CCCF’ers, MCN’ers, and the wifes uncle, the car came together, and made it’s “show debut” at the Tulsa “Cancer Sux” show in May, which I can’t seem to find the pictures for, then the Collinsville, OK, “Hogs n Hot Rods” in June:
(My boys and the two little girls from next door…they’re like siblings…for now)
Then, it’s biggest “show” yet, we(myself, The Heap, Uncle Steve, and his son) spent three days at the Mid-America Shelby Meet, also in June. That turned out to be Uncle Steves last trip anywhere, as he passed away from cancer(thus the debut at "Cancer Sux) in September. He spent July, and most of August in the hospital, then came home, for when he went “home”.
Shelby Meet Cruise night to downtown Tulsa:
Lined up with some other great Cougars/Lincoln-Mercs:
And probably my “proudest” moment so far, The Heap actually took the Lincoln/Merc class at the meet…
Pretty neat “trophy/plaques”, featured a “never released to the public before” photo of Mr. Shelby himself.
Sorry, it got longer than I had anticipated! Many thanks to all who have provided info, support, and just plain old comraderie in this venture!
Maybe T3 needs to submit more pics.
nice car 
