Great read, and great car man!!
If it isn’t too much trouble, could you link the kit(s) you have used for the front end rebuild, including the brakes?
Thanks for posting!
I ordered the Moog parts individually from Rockauto, actually. The Wilwood kit, I picked up the Classic kit from Summit Racing. Lastly, the suspension bits came from Mustangs Plus. I ordered the Konis from Amazon. At one point, Amazon had a pair of shocks listed for the price of a single shock.
I won’t get the damage repaired this year, but not because I haven’t tried, I went to a few different shops and the estimates varied wildly. The gentleman I settled on lives nearby, and is having hip replacement surgery next month, so I scheduled the car for the first week of February, I’m replacing the front fender with a good one I already have, the extension, eyelid, headlight assembly. I have a couple of small bits I need to order (the bumper filler pieces that I found on WCCC). I’m also thinking of replacing the PepBoys special hood scoop with a GTE copy, mainly because I like that it’s a Cougar unique piece.
I continue to kind of be the man without a plan. I still plan on finishing up the suspension before I get the little bit of bodywork done. With the suspension wrapped up, I’ll refresh the rear brakes, as I think the rear drums are sufficient, and I don’t feel like replacing the master again if I swap them to discs. From there, I’ll decide my next course of action, solidifying a drivetrain plan.
I dropped my car off for the front end bodywork. I hope to have it back in a couple of weeks all fresh and spiffy. I’m not addressing the rear wheel arch rust yet, as that’s opening a can of worms I’m not sure my wallet can afford right now. Once the collision damage is repaired, I’ll install the electric headlight door kit. My list is definitely still long for this car, it’s been 1 step forward, 2 steps back, as for everything I fix, I find a couple of different things to tackle. Here’s the parting shot from when I dropped the car off at the shop last week. Obviously, the front end damage isn’t seen in this picture. 
Slow and steady wins the race…
I feel your pain, I’m in the same boat. Just chipping away as time and budget allows for. But if it was already perfect that wouldn’t be any fun. Nice looking cat by the way, really like those wheels with that color.
How is it my favorite pictures of the car haven’t made it into my own thread? Here are a couple of shots from a while back. I think I’ve posted them in other threads before.
Wow that looks killer. What size wheels/tires are you running?
coming along nicely. I know the pain of an endlessly growing list of things to do and spend money on but its all part of the fun!
If I remember correctly, the wheels are 15x7, tires are 225/60/15 BFGs.
Paint done. I’d call the match 7/10, but I’m pleased with how it turned out. My main priority was to fix the collision damage and get the new scoop on there inexpensively. Mission accomplished! I’m slowly erasing the sins of the previous owner.
Hey, that turned out nice, from where I sit!
I’m pretty happy. The paint/body work is good. The match is definitely so-so. It’ll tide me over until I have the budget for full body work. But in the mean time, I’ll get to drive/enjoy it looking a little better than it was.
Matching a 20-30 year old sun baked candy metallic respray seems like it’d be pretty difficult. The paint he mixed up has less red in it, and I kinda prefer that color. I change my mind often, though, so who knows how I’ll feel in a couple of years.
That looks great from the pictures! It may not be a perfect match but it looks alot better then being smashed up! Hey you gotta work within your budget and you still get to drive and enjoy it the way it is. The cool thing is you can drive it without worry of getting road wear on an expensive paint job!
Good point! I was nervous about bringing it home as I’ll have 50 people at the house tonight for an end of season youth hockey party. The thoughts of that many kids running around a freshly painted car…yikes! But now, knowing in the future it will see a full respray, I’m not nearly as nervous. Obviously, I’d prefer nothing happening to it, but in the end, it’s just a car, it’s just money (did I really say that?) and the car not being “perfect” is a bit more relaxing.
Now I realllllly need to get the interior in order. I’m sensing a large order coming up in a couple of months. Seats, kick panels, dash pad, carpet, etc, etc. That will add so much to the comfort of driving it around.
I started working on replacing the vaccum headlight door actuators with the electric kit. Naturally, I broke one bolt on one actuator, and the other is rusted solid. They’ve been soaking for a bit with PB blaster now. I’ve pulled all of the vacuum lines at this point and will just get the other stuff out when I can.
I’ve straightened out the hood latch a little bit, and the center grill piece. I need to touch up the paint on the center chrome insert. Also straightened the chrome trim that runs on the outside of that piece as well. Easy stuff to do while sitting on the couch in the evening. Yeah, yeah, lipstick on a pig and all that stuff, but every little bit helps.
Man, I watched that West Coast video on installing the electric kit for the hideaway doors. I think I remember the video saying it took them about 2-3 hours to complete. It took me a month!
Ha. The concrete was finally warm enough to roll around on to get under the car, so I finally buttoned up this project yesterday. Other than one gotcha, the rubber dust boot jammed on the driver’s side, and the door wouldn’t come back down, it went smoothly. A little bit of fine tuning is still required, but right now, it all works. Now I need to do an actual lightning upgrade and get the dash lights working. With that done, I’d feel safe if I happen to be out and about in the evening hours.
I envy those of you that are able to plan and work through a plan on getting your cars in order. Me, I just pick a random project and do it, in no particular order. I do at least try and do things that I know I won’t have to remove things down the road in order to complete something else, so I do have that going for me.
I my missed your update on the paint and hood scoop. I think everything turned out nice.
Steven
I think the worst part is getting the vacuum actuators out of the car. since you need to disassembly the headlight assembly’s to do so. I changed my mind on running the vacuum for a bit and decided after getting the headlights back in the car to ditch the vacuum. So I disassembled and reassembled the headlight with it on the car which did kinda suck. I have not ordered the electronic setup yet since Im thinking about building my own but that should be easier to install in the car vs getting the actuators out.
Removal was indeed the bigger task in this project. Everything else was just a couple of electrical connections and bolting things into place, especially with the ease of the kit.
It’s coming around. I look forward to the day I can take care of all of the body on the car. That’s a ways off, though, so for now, I’ll just enjoy the ride!