Road trip to rescue a Cougar!

Cougar Community Classic Cougar Community Discussion
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I hear about old Cougars for sale quite often.
Well a few months ago we were parked at a local cruise, and a couple walk up… stop me if you had this happen!

Anyway, they tell me about a Cougar they have for sale back home in Wyoming. I’m interested as always and give them a business card. A few weeks later I get an e-mail w/ a picture of “her” Cat. A standard drum brake car, driven for years in the snow, and showing its age.

Well, I’m not interested in the car, and politely tell them that. He tells me a friend has 2 of them and that he might be willing to sell them. “Let me know” …

I get another e-mail a while later w/ a phone # & a name, so I call hoping for the 2 things we all want.
A rare Cat and even rarer a great price.

So, how about a 1968 XR-7 GT, interested?

She’s been sitting for a long time…25 years

Out in a field in Wyoming.

Still interested? Well if not how about $500 for the whole car, minus the engine.

So, I asked for pictures…

I got this one.





Well it shows little of what we are concerned about, RUST!

A need for more pics. A few weeks later

Now I start to see what condition and what options she has. Care to guess what they are?


So, Saturday morning 5am we (my wonderful wife & I) head north to Sheridan, Wyoming almost 7 hours away.
Dark and a bit cold, we fire up the “Super Duty” and head North. Miles pass as the sun rise slowly lights the sky on my right… a few stops and few more hours later we arrive in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Following directions we end up at the couples house. After visiting for a while, the owner of the Cat shows up and we head over to see it.

She’s there sitting just like the picture. Waiting, for rescue. I don’t look very close, but really want to get her on the trailer, and home. We make short work of it, winching her to the trailer bed. I secure everything and we reverse our course heading South to Golden, Colorado.

The miles, and scenery pass hour after hour…

I swear I could see Indians looking down from cliffs. The stark landscape, looking very much like the old cowboys & Indians movies.





Pulling up to the house after dark, we left her strapped to the bed of the trailer till morning. At first light I peak out and see no one had taken my prize! Ok, a bit rough, but still a Cougar…

Part 2
The Discovery

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Pics didn’t post properly… itching to see such a fine early Xmas present.

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Same here!

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C’mon Bill you’re killin’ us! :crazy:

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Bill, I created a general purpose Photobucket account and put the pics in there, and then put links to the pics into your post. Hope this works for you.

What beautiful scenery. Another few weeks and I am guessing this could all be snow covered?

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Thanks! Great scenery! waiting for part deux.

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Wow, nice!
FE motor car
“W” code perhaps??

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Scenery like that makes me mad I live in S/E Michigan. We have mountains here, they’re called landfills. Landfills can also be referred to as “future recreational areas” to put a political spin on it. Anyway…about the car. It’s too bad the nose of the car was not pointed down hill. If they’re allowed to drain nose first, the cowl and floors can still be good. Nice score nonetheless.

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Bill, Thanks for posting pictures. The snow came a bit earlier that you predicted. Border is closed from the Colorado border north. We got about a foot over night. The storm that all the “Right coasters” are dealing w/ was here last week. Guess what’s coming your way? 2 more, one just leaving here and another here by Saturday.

Part 2 coming soon!

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Anyboby gonna start guessing on the options on this Cat??

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390
C6
Tilt-a-way
XR-7
8 track
(no ac)

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Power steering and (power) front disc brakes.

That’s not so much a guess as that I can see them in the pic of the engine bay. :slight_smile:

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Now there ya go Art, so please tell the kiddies how you arrived at those options!

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Art, are you psychic? You got 8 track form looking at the engine bay? wholly molly…

I get the tilt away, I see the vacuum hoses to the reservoir in the engine bay, I see the tilt joint for the column, the big block heater motor shield (no air) (shield should have been removed at the factory) plus the C6 looking right at me, the XR7 badges and dash, PS and PB right there in front of God and everybody…

BUT HOW DID YOU GET 8 Track out of that?

one you guys missed that is obvious: sports console.

The owner was most likely right handed, and there is an obvious clue, so how’d I figure that out?

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On the first pic, from the outside with the door open, can you see the 8-track when you zoom in? The stereo area is visible, I just don’t know what the stock radio options looked like anyway.

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About the RH thing, is it the big gob of wrap on the bottom right part of the steering wheel, where it probably broke from excessive wear and then was “repaired”? I looked for signs of more or less wear, or more or less discoloration, from where a hand would have held the wheel, and also looked for more wear where the driver might have pressed the horn with his non-primary hand, but didn’t really see anything other than the lower right area bird’s nest.

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naaah… out of my league…

Gonna sit back, have a nice cold beer, read on (even if the suspense is killing me too) and TRY to soak up some experience…

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Oh and as for knowing the engine was a 390, is that because it has a C6 (so is not a small block), but isn’t badged as a GT-E and doesn’t have a hood scoop, thus ruling out the 427 or 428? If it didn’t have a C6, would you then have guessed a 289 or 302, those being the small block options for this year?

The more I look at the interior, the more grossed out I get. The more I look at the exterior, the more I fall in love with the car. The more I look at the engine bay, the more I think “lots of work” that I would have to learn a ton about to even begin to take a stab at. What a fun-looking project.

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Oh maybe I got one more too, though I think probably not… In the exterior and interior pics there is something hanging in the driver’s door area that looks like a seat belt. If that is indeed a seat belt, then it had the deluxe seat belt option, right? The optional shoulder strap? Or, is that just the piece that would hold the headliner in place along the door line? Mine has a totally redone interior so to me that doesn’t look anything like my shoulder belt, but for all I know mine is non-original. Worth a try, right? I don’t lose anything for guessing.

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Elementary my dear… oh hell. The steering wheel wrap was put on by the owner: if you paid some one to do it and they did it that poorly you would beat them with a stick. The wrap winds around the wheel counter clockwise from the center bottom, the way you would do it if you were right handed. A righty would hold the wrap on the wheel with his left hand and then start winding the lace around the wrap with the right hand. At first they were being careful making nice even turns around the wheel. Then they started thinking: what if I run out of lace before I get to the end? a few more wraps a bit farther apart… then wow, this goes a lot faster if I make these wraps farther apart… then they get to the end and they have a dozen feet too much wrap, sweat running down their nose… Crap, got to unwrap this biT$& and re do it! Screw that, I’m just gonna wrap this baby up tight and call it good enough for now: where did I set my beer?