Well, if all of you are posting introductions I guess I should include mine. I live just outside of Washington, DC. in Ashburn, VA. I grew up in Maryland, almost within site of the Univ. of MD. I am a Terp fan and have been since I can remember. I bought my first Cougar in 1980. It was a standard with a 289 and AT Aqua/Bluish paint (maybe not original). I bought it for $350.00 and owned it for 7-8 years and then I sold it for $650.00. I had the transmission rebuilt and dual exhaust put on by my uncle. My friend (Paul S.) and I rebuilt the engine after the machine work was done at the parts store my sister did the books for. I got most of my speed parts from the best shop around. I walked in with Paul and he introduced me to the owner. I told him I was trying to price everything I would need for the rebuild and proceeded to get the information. He asked what I was intending to do with the car and I said drive it anywhere I wanted. I started giving him my wish list and he just smiled and wrote some notes and then left us at the counter. Paul and I looked at each other and then he returned from the back, carrying everything I thought I needed and so much more. I told him I can’t buy it now, because I don’t have the money. He asked if I had a job and I said “Yes” and then he looked at Paul and said “Is he really your friend”? Paul said “Yeah”. Then the owner said something I won’t forget. He said “I trust you and because you and Paul are friends that is good enough for credit with me” and then he said come by on Friday after you get paid and make payments. So, we tore done and rebuilt the engine on the side of my house in the 2 weeks that followed. We were really proud of ourselves until we tried to start it. It would not start no matter what we did, I finally broke down and had it towed to the best speed shop around (Paul F.) (See a trend yet?) Paul F. was really impressed with everything we had done, except the distributor. We had installed it 180 degrees off. He switched it and it fired right up. When we went to pick it up, he was racing up and down the street smiling all the way. After about 2 years I traded my 55 Chevy to a guy to paint it white. (Worst mistake I ever made) The guy was a friend of a friend and he really screwed me over. He had painted my friends truck and did a great job on it so I though he could do the same with the Cougar. He didn’t do a good job at repairing the inner rear wheel wells and he had a couple of runs towards the bottom of the rear quarter panels. I tried to get him to fix them, but was never able to get him to do it.
Now in 2006, I found a Cougar a couple of hours from my house and drove down to take a look. The car was in really good shape, it had just been painted (sliverish/greenish) had the original interior and really solid (little to no rust). My wife even though she doesn’t like Cougars said “If you want it, go get it” I went back with a friend of mine and my oldest son Paul Jr. and bought it and took it home. I made the mistake of trying to fix the dash lights first without getting tags/title for the car. I found out that the previous owner really hacked up the under dash wiring harness. For example, he had taken 2 computer fans and wired them to be the blower for the defroster/vents. I was really surprised by this as when I went to pick the car up, he was there in his 32 Ford that was fantastic. I took the dash apart and got even more pissed off, more splices to wires that went nowhere. Then the transmission sprung a leak and since I didn’t have money to get the transmission rebuilt the car sat for 2 years. Last summer we finally had a little extra money and got the tags/title and the transmission rebuilt ($800 to rebuild). I started driving the car every chance I got! Then, the car staring leaking gas (1st day of school at the bus stop) and I had promised my wife I was done spending money on the Cougar for the summer. So the car sat, until she heard me talking to my neighbor’s wife 3 weeks later and she asked “Why I wasn’t driving it?” I said I needed a new gaskets and maybe a fuel pump. She asked “How much is that?” I said around $30.00 and my wife was standing behind me a said “30 Bucks!?” I said yeah and she said “go buy it and drive the car!” I got the pump and installed it and drove it until December, when I parked it for the winter. When sping hit, I was ready to go, I was driving the car to work 3 or 4 days a week and then I noticed a “puddle” under the car. The rear main seal had failed and again no money spend so the car sat. Since it was raining so much, I wasn’t in a hurry to spend the money to get it fixed. I had never replaced one before and I don’t have enough room in my garage to work anyway I went back to the guy who rebuilt the transmission he said he could do it for $300.00. I said OK and picked it up last week and I will drive it as much as I can until December when it will be parked for the winter.
I bought Magnum 500 rims from a member of MC.net and will get them installed in the spring. I hope to buy the Pertronix II and get it installed during the winter. I have plans to restore the car and leave it to one of my kids. My daughter (7) keeps asking if she can have the Cougar when I die. She is the one who “works” on it with me; my boys (13, 11) don’t seem so interested right now. But, Paul likes the 68-72 Corvettes and asks if he can have one for his first car, my other son just loves looking at the Hi-boys and roadsters at the local cruise ins. So I have hope for them yet, I may get them each to write a letter to Don and see if one of them can get the Eliminator so we can restore as a father/son/daughter project.
If you are still here, thanks for letting me in and letting me tell my story.
Paul