Please follow along with the restoration of my 1971 XR-7 Convertible
This is an M-code car that I converted to 4 speed. It is a blue-plate California car from new. Well equipped, including competition suspension (staggered shocks, 5/8" rear sway bar) Traction-Lok, functional cold air hood (my own design), and lots of cool convenience options - PW, tilt, AM-FM, AC.
The car was damaged in a fuel fire in 2017. The fire was largely cosmetic, damaging paint, underhood wiring, engine bay plastics. Then, the car was lost to three years in body-shop jail. It’s now back in my shop and steady progress finally being made.
Motor evaluated for damage. Oil pan gaskets, intake gaskets, valve cover gaskets replaced, motor repainted.
This is a 1972 4 bolt CJ block/crank, 1971 4V closed chamber heads, roller cam, roller rockers, Blue Thunder intake, Sanderson shorty headers, 780 CFM Holley, Canton high capacity pan, balanced and blueprinted.
A sweet running, potent little 351C
Placed on stand, cylinders fogged with oil for storage
Body has very little rust. This is a San Jose DSO 84 car that lived in Southern California until 2014.
Trunk floor was WASTED though - the well liner for the convertible top was torn to shreds and water was pooling on the trunk floor.
Adapting the 71 Mustang trunk floor was tough. The Mustang floor was 4" shorter than the Cougar, so I had to fab up a strip, spot weld it in. I also had to totally reshape the corners nearest the wheel houses. A lot of hammer, dolly and English wheel work required.
Plus the shape of the gas tank required the central hump to be made taller to clear the tank vent fitting and raised boss around the filler hole.
Cool to see your build thread since I am currently restoring my 71 xr7 429 car… I have untold hours of work in my trunk floor too! Sadly nothing is reproduced for these 71-73 cars unless it also fits a mustang… makes them tough to restore. Keep up the good work!
Jim
The fire was sadly my own damn fault. A moment of carelessness that nearly cost me my house, Cougar, GT350, and Porsche 911
Did a conversion to Holley Sniper FI. Since the steel fuel line was newish, and in excellent shape, I decided to use it again, not seeing a hidden rubber fuel hose splice under the driver’s side hood hinge. Under 58 PSI of fuel pressure, the small rubber splice ruptured, spilling/spraying gas everywhere. Caught fire inside the garage when I turned off the ignition and the power window relay made a spark.
A careless mistake, that nearly cost me everything.
I know i am 1 year off but i had to cut the back half of my 70 to repair many years of real bad bodywork. It sucks that there is no reproduction panels that are correct for our cats…