Parts car noob

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Community Discussion
1

I just have my 68, only cougar I’ve ever had. In my search to find a hood for it that I can feel free to be creative with and not mess up my actual hood which is probably Grade A, I finally have a potential solution, a parts car local to me. It’s a huge unknown for me, the process of having a parts car, and I need to decide my course of action quickly, in the next three or so days.

I’ll start by posting a link to the auction for the specific car I’ve got my eye on.

http://bit.ly/16RKlFb

What I specifically want is the hood. It’s ratty and rusty looking, but doesn’t seem beyond hope. I’m gonna try and go get a look at the car in person in the next day or two and inspect it real good.

The seller says the car was operating fine before someone started taking it apart piece by piece 10 years ago. I wonder if it might not have been even longer, as the plates on it as it sits are a style that Illinois used from 1984-2001.

Seller says he believes all parts are there. The pics do show a lot of parts sitting loose, detached, in the engine bay, driver’s side seat, passenger side floor appears to have a whole bunch of miscellaneous rusty bolts strewn around, in the trunk… Lotsa parts I can identify, and a couple I can’t.

I cannot tell from the pictures if the steering seems to be operational, I think maybe not because the pump and control valve are shown in pics other than the engine bay. So it may not be steerable. And for sure the tires are all flat.

Two of the logistical concerns I’ve thought through already are, 1) I can have enough space for it in my garage if I park the bronco outside, and 2) I can rent a trailer from u-haul for $55, a flatbed car hauling trailer with ramps.

What I can see myself doing with the car is first taking the hood and cleaning it up and painting it and having some fun with it and then putting it on my cougar. And after that, going through the car and continuing the disassembly, and cleaning up all the parts and selling them off to good homes. I don’t expect the car itself to be saved, it’s listed as salvage and has no title, has clearly been sitting unprotected for over a decade and this is Chicago, so the winters are not so car friendly. Maybe the extent of the rust is what’s clearly visible in the pics, who knows.

And that brings me to another quandary. What if the rust is exactly as it looks in the pics, and no more serious? What if the floor pans and torque boxes and frame rails and rocker panels are all totally solid and straight? Is this a car that someone would want? If someone was eager to rebuild it or even just get it running, I would even consider just giving it away to save it from the crusher, after taking the hood (see that’s an issue, right?) and selling off a few parts to be able to break even financially on the whole undertaking. Or I can just sell off all the parts that anyone would want, or keep some for my cougar even, and then what, send the shell off to the crusher?

How does this work out? And what are the other major issues to consider when entering the world of the parts car? I know nothing about this, so don’t wanna make any serious or stupid mistakes if I don’t have to, like having a car with no steering that I have to try and get on and off a flatbed and into a specific spot in my garage. :wink:

Btw out of what’s shown in the pics, any insight into what parts are worth at least like $25-50 or more, in the condition shown? I think the grille components look pretty solid and they appear to be complete, one pic shows the vacuum motors still installed, so maybe one or both of them are salvageable. The taillights look ok, and if there is a working sequencer that would be cool. The dash pad doesn’t appear to be too bad off, surprisingly, and might even be better than the one in my cat! Is that something someone might want?

I like the idea of totally disassembling the car, too, just on its own. I feel like I would learn a lot about my cougar in the process, without having to take it off the road during driving season.

Thanks for any insights guys, general or specific, whatever you’ve got I am eager to learn. Thanks!

Scott

2

Hope you don’t have to pay $3000 for it.

The rust is ALWAYS worse than it looks.

3

Absolutely not gonna pay anywhere near that. If I am gonna get it, it will be for well under $1k

4

I might want the windshield but only if no scratches or pitting. Also, I think I still need an air conditioner compressor.

5

From the pics I’m not noticing all the usual rust through areas being affected, nor am I seeing accident damage. It has all the wheel well mouldings intact…that’s an excellent sign! May be surprised how little of a space a disassembled car will fit into.
Myself, and I’m sure many other Cougar owners, have about 1/4 of a Cougar in parts laying up in the garage rafters…just in case.

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GDub the glass would all be available if I win it. My ideal plan includes the windshield having the same sort of circular spider web light scratches that my cougar has, so I can use it as a test bed for the fix that was recommended to me by a guy I trust, using Barkeeper’s Friend to remove the light scratches. If it already shows no scratch noise under nighttime lighting conditions (which is when the windshield in my cougar is an issue) then I would just sell it as-is.

67.5xr7, I’m not at a shortage for space, at all, if I’m willing to subjugate my Bronco to staying outdoors, which, I totally will do. I’ll be able to put the donor in the center of my garage and have a good 2-3’ clearance on every side if not a little more. Disassembly should not be an issue, at least not in terms of space. :slight_smile:

Right now it looks like I will not get the car for what I’m looking to pay, namely around $500. My last offer is about to expire and I’m sure the seller is asleep this time of night (tomorrow morning) so it looks like this time around it’s not likely to work out for me.

I think this would be a great opportunity for those folks who’ve gone the parts/donor car route to share their greatest insights, what are the key aspects to the donor car route that may not be at all obvious to a noob about to embark down that road for the first time.

This isn’t my own piece of wisdom, but, some advice that was shared with me in the non-electronic world was, before you get into stuff like wanting hood pins, first take care of every functional issue, in my case, the leaking power steering system and leaking axle seals. While it’s not what I wanted to hear, at all, the message rings true and I know it’s worth considering.

In my defense :slight_smile: this donor car could provide one or more of: power steering box that isn’t sloppy, power steering control valve or pump that have no leaks. So if I get lucky and the guy gives it to me that cheap, I might actually solve what has been an issue with my cat since before she became mine.

The drawings I’ve put together of the design for my combo cowl induction and ram induction setup are pretty amateurish, but the concept seems really good. I look forward to the day I have a hood and front valence that I don’t mind hacking up to make it a reality.

7

Donor car route is a good one, but you need to get the right one. There are just too many differences between 67/68 and XR7/non-XR7 (and then in 68 the Decor/Standard differences). For example, the PS Control Valve differs between between 67/68, with the 67 having a smaller diameter hose fitting (they increased the diameter in 68 for failure/safety reasons). Headlight grille parts are different between 67/68, headlight vacuum circuitry is different. Tail light circuitry and electrical components are different as well.

If you do manage to get this car let me know. I’ve got far too many 68 parts and not enough 67 parts that I’d be willing to trade for!

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If you’re just looking for a hood…

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/pts/3847718606.html

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Wow that’s a pretty decent price on the hood.

But, turns out the seller agreed to the number I sent him in a message very late last night (early this morning) and just lowered the buy it now price to my final offer price, so I got the whole thing for $525

As pointed out there are differences between years and models, so any part on a 67 Standard that isn’t the same on a 68 XR7 is going to be for sale, I guess I’ll get my first taste at using the cougar centric shopping site bill set up. Looking forward to that!

Being able to chop up the hood and front valence will get me the chance to make the, um, “experimental” air intake setup I’m gonna put on my 68. Hopefully I can get something from the power steering parts, maybe the gearbox or even just parts from the box, I guess I’ll find out!

The dash pad may or may not end up in my 68. The dash components other than the pad will for sure be sold. All the AC components will be sold. Every component for the headlight vacuum system will be sold, including the doors which look to be in pretty awesome shape from the pics.

Anyway, the auction is over and I’m the winning bidder, so, looks like I am officially embarking on the road known as Parts/Donor Car Noob.

Good times. And please keep the advice coming. Not just for me, but for anyone else who ends up in this situation.

For example my father told me be sure that my tetanus shots are up to date. :slight_smile:

10

Congrats! Sounds like you’ve got a good plan going forward.
Just one suggestion, do you have a place where you can power-wash the underside of the car/engine compartment on your way home? That would keep you from getting all that grease and grime all over you and your garage floor during the disassembly process.

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Congratulations, Lots of good parts there. I’m sure the return on the investment will be in the black. I see a Sawzall and some cut-off wheels in your future. A nice thing too, when you’ve finished salvaging parts and with the price of scrap metals as they are, just call a scrapper to haul away the carcass…

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If you don’t already have them, get yourself a good set of mechanic’s gloves and put them on before you stick your hand into dark places during the disassembly process. The first parts car I bought also resulted in the purchase of a sawzall and blades. I ended up using mine on some of the grille attachment points that were once welded to the radiator support (I cut out the section of the radiator support to free the grille section).

After I had everything I wanted off the car, I just called a local scrap hauler and he took away the shell. He got the scrap value and I got the car out of my garage quickly.

13

After lots of coordinating to get three friends to agree to help with loading it on and off a trailer, and pricing it out, a friend made the most obvious of recommendations that I for some reason hadn’t thought of. Uhaul trailer is $55, heavy duty tie downs will run me another $40 or so, then a come along will be like $40, so that puts me around $135 plus the food and beers I would use to pay off my buddies to help out. The genius idea I somehow overlooked, professional flatbed towing, $200. The cost is barely more, but seems well worth it.

14

Oh and power washing probably wasn’t going to be an option on the uhaul and for sure wont be with the pro towers. That’s fine, I’ll just clean it up piece by piece as I go, I’m not afraid to get dirty. Probably extremely dirty at some points. :slight_smile:

A sawzall and angle grinder are in my future for sure, luckily my birthday is coming up in 2 months so maybe I can get one of them that way. These are tools I should already own, so I’m looking at this as an opportunity to catch up a little closer to where I should already be.

Before either of those though I need to get a set of wheel dollys. Gonna start researching that now, since I don’t have to look into winches and come alongs anymore.

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Wheel dollies are nice to have. I’m kinda ol’ school,…grab the floor jack and PULL! Yeah, if garage real estate is at a premium the dollies would be the way to go. When the birthday celebrations come about and if a thoughtful pixie just happens to get you a reciprocating saw…the best demo blades I have found are Milwaukee Torch Blades. They are amazing…sheet metal doesn’t stand a chance and plate steel…nice straight cuts. Happy Disassembly!

16

Perfect parts car… too far gone to rebuild, and pretty much still there. Create good listings with good pictures price stuff reasonably, and you will make good money with this car and learn a ton in the process.

17

So right you were Bill. One of the first things I noticed when seeing the car in person was a nice big crack in the driver’s side shock tower.

I am SO glad I sprung for the professional tow. The car was sitting right next to a fence and a tree, it actually ended up being pretty difficult to get it loaded on the flatbed, part of that being that the front drums are seized. If I tried to do this job myself with the help of a few friends, I don’t think there’s any way it would have gone well.

The original price quote was $220, but the guy I talked to (a few days ago) dropped it to $200 to match a quote someone else had given me. Said he wanted my business, and gave a whole spiel about how other companies add extra charges after the quote and they never do that. So I was expecting to pay $200. But then when it turned out to be such a chore to get it loaded, and then the driver helped me get it positioned just right in my garage (using a couple of floor jacks, since the front wheels were locked and the rear needed to go sideways a bit) I was fully expecting that $200 to turn back into $220 or even more. To my surprise, it went the other way and dude only asked for $180!! I still gave him the $220, he absolutely earned that extra $ by going above and beyond what he was obligated to do.

There weren’t too many surprises really. Only found one dead mouse so far, in the trunk, in the rotted out air cleaner (useless, sadly). Turns out the front windshield is cracked and headed for the trash, though it will still make a good test bed for the Barkeeper’s Friend that I want to use to remove the spider web swirl scratches in the windshield of Diane-- the new car is Sam, or more accurately SAM, which stands for Sorry A** M********er. Poor car. Turns out it was actually sitting for 17 years, not the 10 that the seller originally stated. '96 license plate sticker.

The hood is great, a solid Grade B, I think, and will absolutely serve my purposes. The front valence, from what I could tell so far, looks to also be in great shape, should do just fine.

The engine is a joke, the heads and intake manifold weren’t even attached, so I am assuming the block is beyond hope, cylinders probably all rust.

The ATF that came leaking out of the lines when it was tilted to load on the flatbed looked like new, so I’m wondering if the trans might not be salvageable. Until I get it up on jack stands I won’t be able to see what’s going on underneath, but I’m certain it’s not pretty. :slight_smile:

One of the grille/headlight door assemblies looks to be in really nice shape, the other had some rust on the pivot point of the door but that may clean up, we’ll see.

The doors opened and closed like butter, smoother than my 68 actually, which surprised me. The door glass all seems to be decent. The rear glass was just sitting loose, so it’s in the back of my Bronco with the hood and a bunch of other parts. Seems like it’s a keeper

The tail lights look to be in decent shape, I think they might clean up nicely and be usable for a daily driver as-is and for a more fancy car with some attention, I’ll probably either hang onto them as spares or let them go as-is, don’t know just yet. The sequencer was in the trunk and still attached to the wiring harness which looked to be in good shape. If the whole wiring harness is in as good of shape as that part in the trunk, that might be something that someone could use.

I left a couple peanuts sitting on the floor jack, if they disappear I’m going to assume that means that the dead mouse wasn’t the only one and I will have a mouse roundup to do.

The steering was functional, which was a great sign. Less slop in the box than my 68 has, so if that’s a part that’s the same for 67 and 68, I may be able to use it instead of having mine rebuilt.

So much ahead of me. I’ll be busy for months to come I’m sure!

18

Got a pic of the door tag and looked up the codes, was a little surprised.

The color code V indicates bronze metallic according to what I found on a couple sites, so the blue is apparently a repaint.

The axle code 0 indicates a 3.1 rear end, but not trac-lock so I’m not really interested in swapping out the 3.0 in my car now.

June 1967 manufacture, serial number 619435 means it was 119k into the production run, right? So towards the end of the run.

I went through it a little bit and found a few things I hadn’t noticed or hadn’t gotten a good look at before.

There was a bunch of moulding pieces in the trunk, I don’t know if it’s a complete set but if it’s not it’s probably close. There’s no pitting, at least on the pieces I looked closely at, it seems to be in really nice shape.

The carb seems fine, 2V so I don’t imagine anyone will want it, but the moving bits all move though the choke is pretty sticky. Probably just needs cleaning.

I took all the stuff off the front seats and was surprised to find they’re in great shape, and the area under the cardboard box (driver’s seat) was actually clean and nice looking. Shocker. Maybe the front seats will be of interest to someone.

The power steering pump was in that box on the driver’s seat, when I picked it up it leaked a bunch of ATF out of the nozzle, got all over my floor. I have a feeling there’s a lot more of that to come. :slight_smile: The pump wasn’t seized, though it wasn’t perfectly smooth as I rotated the pulley-- is it normal for it to have a sort of varying periodic resistance as it turns, or should it just be totally smooth?

I didn’t get it up on jack stands yet, but will do that soon. I’m curious to get a look at the body panels from down there to see how they look. I checked the doors today and while the passenger door has a big section rotted out at the front, the driver’s side door seems to be in great shape, no rust anywhere that I could see except one bubbly area about the size of a dime, maybe a little smaller, on the side of it. But no rust along the bottoms of the doors which was pretty shocking considering it’s Chicago and all. DSO is Dallas, and the lady who owned it moved “down south” so I wonder if maybe she brought it up here from there and it hasn’t actually faced many winters.

As far as non-cougar stuff I found, in the trunk there was a pair of winter gloves (in the trash now) and a pair of sunglasses that will go in the trash as soon as I verify they aren’t anything special. There was a pulley puller attached to one of the pulleys, which is great since I didn’t have one previously. The Chilton’s book was a nice touch too.

Oh and the dead mouse count is up to 1.5 now-- I found the skeletal remains of the back half of a mouse, spine and legs, in the trunk. Wonder what happened to the front. :bloated:

19

How fun, to get to dismantle one with no intention of putting it back together. I’m kinda jealous, Scott.

The half mouse…simple. It got splinched.

20

Scott when all your work is done you could always practice making a convertible. :thumbup: