Bob,
I see from the pictures that you stayed with the stock style booster for your disc brake swap. I see you added a prop valve to your distribution block. I had a couple of questions. What master cylinder did you use? What distribution block did you use? How does the pedal feel?
Dan
Hi Dan,
Yes, stock booster. Stock disc/drum master as well (after a LOT of research). A stock master works fine as long as: You don’t mind keeping an eye on the rear reservoir level (because calipers do not have a self-adjuster mechanism like drums do and as the pads wear the volume of fluid behind the pistons increases). And, the stock master is a a “newer” unit (how new it needs to be, I dunno) as they no longer put the RPV (Residual Pressure Valve) in the rear circuit of the newer masters. To check for this, look to see if you have a brass flare seat in the rear circuit outlet (front outlet). If brass, thread a self tapping screw in of the appropriate size, pry out the seat with two screw drivers and make sure there is nothing behind the seat (the RPV is like a sort of check valve). If the seat(s) are iron - part of the casting (mine are), you have no RPV. As for dist block, it is a stock disc/drum unit with the stock proportioning valve (an external, “cigar”-shaped valve on 68/69 disc cars) removed and replaced with an adjustable one. '70 and up uses a prop valve which is part of the distribution block. A stock drum/drum distribution block should be fine as well (with an adjustable prop valve added in the line to the rear brakes - after the block). So far the pedal seems okay (or that is my impression), but I have only driven the car a few miles since I completed the rear brakes, need to manually bleed a bit more just to make sure I am getting clear (no air) from the rear calipers and I have to get the warning light shuttle centered (which for some reason has been problematic in the past on Isabel). I have the dash ripped out for a few other wintertime projects/mods/tweaks/etc. so I have not been able to drive it much for that reason. Hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions.
Regards,
Bob
By request from Steven! I ran across these today as I continue fixing 110+ pages of broken links (and upload content to photobucket too 
):
More as I come across them/have time.
Bob
That is worse than I remembered… I recall that car looking pretty good at least from the 50’ pics.
Yup, after I cleaned it up, it did. None of that changes “the evil that laid within”. 
I’ll post up some more as I continue the tedium that is both uploading and then changing the links in posts for over 1700 pictures…
Here’s a quick couple before I go do something useful in the garage:
Now contrast those pictures with this… Isabel, you’ve come a long way.
Hey Bob, my wife needs back surgery. After seeing the before and after pics, are you up for the challenge?? Just can’t keep her under for 7yrs ; )
Bob, in the story “Hurricane Surviver” it says that the motor and toploader came from the original cougar when you were 17. Does that mean this car or another cougar you had when you were younger?
If it’s from when you were younger, Im doing the same thing. Mine was when I was 19 (71 cougar XR7) and that motor is going into my 68 XR7-G tribute car.
this is the first time reading this story about you car. Cool! I bet you got it for a song. 
2 (BTW, what’s your name?),
MMF paraphrased a bit from what I submitted (which is expected). The engine (351 Cleveland, neglected to mention that in my submission) and top loader transmission are from my first Cougar, a '70 Black Imron HT, “Cleveland Rocks”. I bought and began working on the car when I was 17 (am 52 now). The car came with a 3 speed, I upgraded to a 4 speed before I ever drove the car. So, yeah, Cougar’s have been a long time interest of mine.
Here is a thread on Cleveland Rocks which was disassembled and disposed of during the restoration/build of Isabel 
: As I desecrate the "old girl" further... | Mercury Cougar Owners… There are a few associated pictures I will have to find and repost as I am doing to my ECI thread, the links are all broken.
In regard to the price of Isabel, they were asking $2000, I bought the car for $1900.
Anyway, enjoy! Thanks for the interest.
Regards,
Bob
Here’s a link to the story and pictures of the “Bronx Cat”, a parts car match made in heaven for the ECI odyssey. First the post saying a car was available:
http://www.mercurycougar.net/forums/showthread.php?18387-quot-Almost-quot-Free-Cougar-in-NY
Then when it was (ultimately) offered to me (and I went and got it):
http://www.mercurycougar.net/forums/showthread.php?18455-Fort-Cougar-The-Bronx
And finally to round out the requested “before” pictures, a few in situ during the extensive unibody repairs:
'Twas a long road…
Bob, This is great stuff, high value info, Glad you were able to recover it.
Photos re-uploaded to new hosting (photobucket) and the bazillion links (On MCNot) fixed. If anyone happens across anything that is still broken or doesn’t look right/in error, please let me know.
Regards,
Bob
Have you given any more thought to publishing the entire odyssey?
Plenty of thought, little to no action. Just not sure if it would be worth the effort and what to do with the product. The thread I knew I wanted to fix (even if it was just for myself and/or to piss off Lo Ho ). Not sure if a “book” would be worthwhile or if anyone would really want it, how to physically do it, etc.
I did think of a couple of things (that would be part of a more complete work). A table of contents, glossary, index, that sort of thing would be invaluable toward making the thread more useable by others. Beyond that, not sure. But then, if I put the work into such a thing, it is one (or a few) steps closer to a complete work, right? I dunno.
Seriously? Haven’t you yourself used the words “grow up” to LoHo??
Don’t matter to me. Besides… the whole “Build Book” has already been done on famous cars by famous builders.
Looks like there’s still more to do in proving the naysayers wrong…
WTF?? As if you weren’t UNSTABLE enough… now you feel the need to go and pull a quote from some multi-month old thread that is supposed to prove what?
Talk about taking stuff out of context. 