My Dad's 67 Standard

Cougar Community The Project Forum
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Hey eveyone

First off, I’m new here. Thanks for letting me be a part of the community.

Back in the 70’s my dad owned a used car lot, so I was fairly fortunate to be able to drive a pretty good variety of cars. Somewhere around 1978 he bought this 1967 Cougar. He was a Ford guy, and always seemed to hold onto Mustang and Cougars for his personal use. This particular car is just a standard painted pale yellow, with a 4V 289 automatic, and factory air. I’m not sure why he kept this, as it wasn’t anything special.

I turned 16 that year, and had already bought a 66 Ranchero for my first car. However, I ended up driving the Cougar a bunch through my high school years. I can remember installing a casette deck/amp-equalizer, and some house speaker to fill the back seat… I had a lot of fun driving it, cruising the parks and beaches, and a couple road trips. My memory is a little foggy, but I think I drove it off and on until 1983, when I enlisted in the USMC. That’s the last time I recall driving it…

…Until about the year 2000. My dad and I kinda bumped heads a lot before I joined the Marines, so unfortunately, we didn’t see much of each other before he passed away. I regret a lot of my behavior towards him during those years and wish I could turn back the clock. Anyhow, forward to 2000, his estate was kinda a mess and my brothers and I had to deal with it. He had a low rent trailer park with an old concrete storage garage below his office/house. It crammed full of his junk that he accumulated over many many years. In the very back corner of this garage, under a bunch of that crap of his, was the 67 Cougar in a pretty sad state of repair.

When I started cleaning out the garage, I noticed the car and the condition it was in. The garage was a real damp place with not much ventilation. There was rust under the back window, and along the bottom of the passenger door. From what my brother told me, it hadn’t been run since about 1985. Neither of my sibling showed any interest in the yellow beast, so I decided to get it running and out of there. I changed the oil/filter, sent the carb to get rebuilt, and did a thorough tune up.

Here’s a teaser photo


Bringing the 67 back to life… by Lexispops, on Flickr

More to come…

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After that bit of work, it fired up without issue. I drove it outside(the fisrt daylight it had seen in 15 years). The drivers door had been primered and the was a couple of creases in the roof. My mom mention sometime later that a large tree branch fell on it at some point when it was parked in our yard. The original single exhaust was completely rusted out, so it was pretty loud and sounded like crap. I drove to Midas and had a 2.5" dual exhaust installed.

I probably drove it about 250 miles that year before my girlfriend got pregnant. I bought a house after me daughter was born, in 2002. At that point, I drove the car to the new home, and there it has been for the last 15 years. It’s been buried under my own crap in the garage slowly deteriorating. Marriage and a couple kids took priority over my dads sad little cat.

Forward to a couple weeks ago. My nine year old son has taken a liking to automobiles, vintage ones especially. He’s been egging me on for awhile now to get the Cougar running. We spent a couple hours clearing out the stuff on and around the car. The only thing I really had to do to get it running was charge the battery. A few shots of ether and it fired off, not very smoothly though. The plug wires were shot and I could see them arcing across each other. I had some used wires from another vehicle, so I replaced most of them. I’ll get to doing a full tune soon…ish.

When I tried to back out of the garage, the car wouldn’t budge. The rear brakes were frozen. After a bunch of cursing and some bloody knuckles, I was able to remove the drums. The shoes were crumbling apart, the drums were real rusty, and the wheel cylinders were completely shot. I replaced those items and had the drums turned, and now the brakes work… sort of.


Untitled by Lexispops, on Flickr


Untitled by Lexispops, on Flickr


Untitled by Lexispops, on Flickr

Here’s the car after getting it out of the garage.


Untitled by Lexispops, on Flickr

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Thats a good start!

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Roger, I can see by the license plate that you are(or were) in Washington state. WHat part? And do you know there is a Cougar show next Sunday in Tacoma Wa?
Go to http://www.cascadecougarclub.com/ for more info. Even though your car may not be a show car we would love to have it come out. If you don’t fean the car is ready for that kind of drive bring your son over and introduce your self and enjoy the cars.

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Roger welcome to the Classic Cougar Community. Enjoy the ride that comes with owning a classic Cougar.
Steven

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Thanks for the comments everyone. I do know about the show in Tacoma this weekend. I’d really like to bring my son down to it. The car needs new tires before I can drive it any distance. If we get clearance from the tower(mom), we’ll head down. Which day is preferable?

I live in Snohomish, about an hour from Tacoma(if traffic is light)

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Cool story and cool Cat! Your gonna owe your son big time when your cruising down the highway! And the fact that your Cat will be owned by three generations in the same family one day is the best!

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Awesome story! Keep the pictures and work coming. Should be a cool project for you

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Welcome. First and foremost in my mind is, Thank You For Your Service To Our Country! Meanwhile, it is a great story and good luck with your Cougar adventure or ummm, addiction.

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Always neat to see a car with a story behind it. Sounds like you’ve got a fun project for you and your son to enjoy together, good luck with it!

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Your Cougar has already touched three generations. I hope you can stay with it. My son and I started on his Cougar when he was about 13.

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Roger, I know Snohomish well. My dad’s parents lived on Ave. C looking at the High school. It is a nice area/I’m north about a half hour from you. I would recommend coming down for the Sunday show. Maybe plan to be there from 10:00 to 1 or 2:00. Time can get away from you at shows. If you do make it down try to find me.
Look for this Cougar,

799×533 78.2 KB

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Welcome Roger, sounds like a great project. My kids (3) have all grown up messing with old cars in some form or another. It’s pretty cool to have stuff in common w/them as the years progress.

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Thanks again everyone, for all of the comments and encouragement.On a good note,today my kds helped me sort out the turn signals(which weren’t functioning). We found a website that had a good troubleshooting page on the sequential turn signals. My daughter read off the laptop while my son and I went through each item until we found the culprit. That turned out to be a corroded inline fuse under the dash. The kids we pretty stoked to see the sequential lights in action!

Hey Neal, I saw a car that looked just like yours today, on Hwy 9 heading up the hill towards Clearview.

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That was me. I have a room here in Tacoma for the weekend.I took back roads down.

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So in getting this beast back on the road, issues pop up as it gets driven. It seems to be running better as I drive it each time. However, the pressure line on the power steering gave way and started leaking. I bough a new one, but getting the lower connection to thread in was a bit of a chore. Not sure how many times I used an expletive…

Anyhow, the steering is back in order. My next issue is some tires…

I appreciate the information that the forum has shared with me so far. Thank you.

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I have a question for the experts here.

I noticed that the vacuum distribution block on the back of the intake manifold is mostly plugged off. Where are the ports supposed to connect to?
One goes to the transmission and one connects to the headlight door system. The distributor vacuum advance goes to the front of the carburetor(bottom).

I’ve also noted that the secondaries are not opening on the carburetor.

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How’s the interior? Pics?

Thanks,

Ed

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Sorry for the late reply.

The Interior needs help. The seats are in good shape, with the drivers being the exception. It needs a new cover for the bottom. The door panels are fair, with some warping and the plastic chrome has flaked off. Carpet is junk and the passenger floor is rusty(VERY). I don’t have any interior photos yet.

I’ve been whittling away at small issues with the car, and it’s running pretty good now. The brakes work better, but I’m going to replacing all of the rubber hoses in the system. I found a set of American Racing wheels(with tires) for a very good price on Craigslist. They were much cheaper than buying a set of tires. Overall, so far it’s been a headache, as well as a lot of smiles for my son and I.

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Little update on Dads Car.

I’ve been driving it a few times every week, finding something else to fix just about each time the damn thing gets fired up…

I found a door mirror for it. Had to replace the heater core, and learned how to do some fiberglass work in the process. The gauge lights are now functional.

This winter’s projects will be(in no particular order):

Fuel tank sending unit
All rubber brake hoses(3 I believe?)
Replace passenger side floor panel
Carpet
Service window mechanisms
Suspension work…
oh… and learn how to rebuild C4

It’s been really fun getting this thing up and running with my kid . We’ve both learned a bunch in the last couple months. My son is a fourth grader, and he wrote his whole summer paper just on the Cougar!