Congratulations to Steve O for winning the June 2015 Ride of the Month!
Do you remember your first car? How about your first Cougar? Or the first car you learned how to drive?
First and Only
If you are of a certain age, you can close your eyes and know exactly how it feels to pick up a Hot Wheels car and make it zoom across the floor. For many of us it was our first love affair with cars. Steve O’Connell was not yet 7 years old, but already he was big into his Hot Wheels. Hot Wheels were cool, but the cars most moms and dads drove, well… they just didn’t measure up. Surely his parents hadn’t always been so practical. A search of the old family photo album turned into a revelation. His parents had owned a cool car! A 1969 Mercury Cougar! It even had mag wheels on the back. His parents were pretty cool after all, and from there on out Steve was hooked on Cougars.
Steve probably pestered his dad about the Cougar in the way that only 7 year old can. Fortunately his dad had a solution. Some very old family friends had a '70 Cougar that he could take Steve to visit. Not only did they have a Cougar, they had bought it after Steve’s dad took them for a ride in his '69 when it was new. They bought the '70 Cougar on October 20th of 1970 and now 21 years later they still owned and loved the Cougar. Dropping by to visit the beautiful black on black Cougar would become an annual tradition. Steve would grow up watching as the Cougar got oil changes and tune ups. No doubt the owners enjoyed Steve’s appreciation of their “baby”.
After 30 years of careful ownership, in March of 2000, it was time for a new car to take the Cougars place. Fuel Injection and four wheel drive beckoned. There was no doubt that the best keeper for the Cougar would be Steve. It would be his first car, as soon as he got his drivers license. Steve learned to drive in the Cougar and it was in good enough shape to attend a lot of local classic car shows.
Only 110,000 miles showed on the odometer and the paint was still shiny, But 30 years had taken their toll and the car needed restoration. All of that would have to wait while Steve spent the next 4 years at university studying engineering.
Steve had owned the black on black '69 for ten years by the time he was able to start the restoration. The Cougar would be completely stripped down to the shell and a rotisserie restoration, right down to last nut and bolt would take place over the next five years.
Every restoration is a battle. Time, space, talent, and budget all have to come together to get the job done. For Steve this meant that he would do as much of the work as possible. Fortunately he had a friend with a 4 car garage that could provide some space. Together they worked on the car in the only time that their busy schedules allowed, mostly between 10PM and 3 to 4 AM. Even the beautiful black paint would be laid down in a wooden make-shift paint booth assembled inside the garage.
Every restoration project begins in mystery. You never know quite what will be involved until you get the car completely apart. In Steve’s case the discoveries were not good. The Cougar would require that essentially everything in front of the firewall, the entire front clip, would have to be cut off and replaced. It would not end there. The floors, frame rails, trunk and many other parts would require extensive rework. All of this would be a challenge to even the most experienced restoration shop, which makes it even more remarkable that this is Steve’s first restoration. Fortunately Steve’s friend was there to provide a helping hand but he never worked on the car unless Steve was there.
In the car hobby there is a very common problem. It is called “might as well” or MAW. You start to do one simple thing and then decide “I might as well” fix this while I am at it. One thing leads to thousands of others. In what might be the strongest testament ever to MAW, Steve started a thread on the ClassiCougarCommunity.Com forums titled 1970 Cougar Exterior Restoration. It now spans some 43 very well photo documented pages. If you have ever considered doing a full restoration, this thread is a must read. https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/1970-cougar-exterior-restoration-thread/1456/1
No project of this scope is done without a little help from your friends. Steve says “the biggest help along the way has been the online forum community. Without the knowledge, photos and input from the online community there is no way that my Cougar would have turned out the way it turned out.” Steve would also like to extend a special thanks to his buddy for his help and guidance.
What comes next? Steve has an eye out for a rust free '69 Cougar standard convertible, and his brother just joined the Cougar hobby with a '68 XR7 GT. We all hope that Steve takes us along on those projects as well.
When you consider the time, effort, and money, that goes into a restoration like this some people ask why. As it turns out the answer is easy. This is the rarest Cougar of all, it is the only Cougar Steve has ever owned, it is the first car he ever owned, it was in this car where he learned to drive. SImply put, it is the one and only. What car is more deserving than that?
