It seems that if you once owned a Cougar you are destined to own another.
Cougars have some sort of secret gravitational pull. Sometimes, it can pull money right out of a closed wallet. Other times it can attract flashing red and blue lights. But it can also bring people together and in a few choice instances even fathers and teen-aged sons. November 2017 Ride of the Month winner Scott Christian Sava tells us his story of how a Cougar is doing exactly that.
But for the love of my kid…
Once upon a time there was an artist named Scott Christian Sava. He lived in Franklin, TN with his wife Donna and his twin boys Logan and Brendan (14). Not long ago, Logan started showing interest in cars and wanting to see how they worked. Now if you have ever raised teen aged boys you will already know that it can be hard for a father to find common ground with his newly testosterone charged offspring. And so Scott started looking into a project….
For those of us with gasoline running through our veins, looking for a project car is almost second nature. Scott faced a different challenge.
"I’ve never been a “car enthusiast” beyond Hotwheels, Mario Cart, and the old CARtoons magazine (anyone remember them?). While my father (an engineer) would fix up old MGBs or Jaguars in his spare time, I never participated and never really learned anything about cars (always with my head in the clouds and a sketchbook in my hand).
"I know people say ‘if I can do it… anyone can”. And you always think “well… I’m sure you’re not as unskilled as I am…” but in this case… the answer is YES. I am literally that unskilled and as uneducated as one can be. "
“But, for the love of my kid, and a bit of sense of adventure, I’m learning. And what I can’t handle… I have family, the forum, and even the local Firestone mechanic who’s given me a hand here and there.”
Cougar 1 / BMW 0.
_“It wasn’t until about 3 years ago, when one of my books (I wrote about a dozen comics/graphic novels for my kids over the years) called Animal Crackers got financing to be made into a movie, that my life kind of changed to where we are now. You see? I had to fly out to Los Angeles about 2 times a month to meet with investors, actors, studio execs, and the like and I was spending a ton of money on car rentals. Like a LOT of money.”
“A funny thing about Hollywood. People judge you by your car. They will literally walk you out to your car to see if you’re driving a BMW, Mercedes, Tesla, etc. This tells them that you’re “someone important”. It’s stupid. But it’s Hollywood.”
“I wanted to do something different. Something that was ‘cool’ but different. So, I bought a no frills basic '67 Cougar off of Craigslist for $9k and handed it over to my cousin to prep it for me for when I would fly in. He’s a mechanic in LA who specialized in restoring vintage Ferraris and was happy to help me “arrive in style” for my meetings.”
“I named her Esmerelda after a character in my movie. A Fortune Teller played by Harvey Fierstein (Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day) and for a few months… it was a blast. Everyone loved the car and I was doing well. Until my cousin was in a bad motorcycle accident and was hospitalized for months.”
“Poor Esmerelda (still in need of a lot of work to handle LA traffic regularly) languished at his apartment, and I had to give her up.”_
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yrtrDjmw5c
Esmerelda casts her spell.
Flash forward two years. Perhaps Esmerelda could do more than just see the future? Or maybe Cougar gravity was kicking in…
_“When my 14 year old son told me he wanted to learn about cars. My search for a '67 or '68 Cougar similar to Esmerelda (I loved the Burgundy) began. I spent several months on Craigslist and Ebay. There were cars selling for $60k and up that would need essentially “no work” and I was tempted to invest in one being that I knew NOTHING about cars. But my son really wanted to learn and I eventually opened the search up to cars that were in GOOD shape… but would need work (unlike the first Esmerelda).”
I knew I wanted an XR-7 since the first Esmerelda had no options. I also found I really liked the vinyl roof. And tan interior. When this '67 XR7 came up on Ebay… I knew she was the one.
The ONLY thing she didn’t have that I was looking for was a MANUAL TRANSMISSION. I wanted to teach my boys how to drive a stick. But… that may be a project we undertake one day (or maybe at least pay someone to do). We’ll see.
From the paperwork we were given it seems the car was purchased in Georgia and was driven for 79,000 miles or so over the years. But after 1995 (when she got new tires)… she sat. I say this because when I got her… the tires (which they stopped making back in ’95) were still new.
While she’s technically “Esmerelda 2”, we just call her Esmerelda. I think Harvey would be proud.
She arrived in September and we’ve been learning how she works and have been making a list of what we want to do to her. Fortunately, she came in great condition. But she had trouble starting. Our first order of business was replacing the starter solenoid and she starts up great now.
Next, one of the 20 year old tires went flat and in my haste to get her to the tire store on the spare (which I found out didn’t fit well) I ruined the studs and had to replace them. That was kind of a big thing because I had to disassemble the hub and brakes and everything. But… with the help of friends on the phone… I did it. Yay for me.
The rest has been small things like fixing the side mirrors, replacing radio (a Sony cd player) with the original AM radio (found on Ebay for $25), replacing the package tray with carpet… then finding out (thanks to the great guys on the forum) that originally it came with a black Masonite textured package tray. So we went out to Home Depot and purchased a slab, cut it, and painted it to match. Looks great.
Oh. We also fixed the rear driver’s side window. Needed new regulator rollers (purchased on Amazon for like $5) and we watched a youtube video showing us how that’s done.
All in all… we’re loving learning together and we have a laundry list of things to fix. The headlight covers go up… but not down. The headlights are dim. The sequential turn signals don’t work… etc. Should be fun.
I love the interior. It’s clean. It’s fun. There’s still a lot of work to do. And I like that too. I like having little projects we can pick off on the weekends.
It’s been a lot of fun and I feel a sense of accomplishment you don’t get by purchasing a new car. A sense of pride. I do get stopped all the time on the road by people who love her. She’s a beauty._
We have to agree. Esmerelda is a beautiful Cougar, and the start of a great adventure.
About Esmerelda:
From the door data tag we can tell:
She is a 1967 model, Built in Dearborn Michigan, and an XR-7 (7 F 93 )
She came with a 289 cubic inch V8 equipped with a 2V (7F93 C)
She was the 89,899 Mercury vehicle scheduled for production in the Dearborn plant. The highest Mercury VIN in 1967 for the Dearborn plant was 651,900.
Body style 65B means XR7 with bucket seats
All of this was expected.
Then we have this:
Color 6 is Fawn. It turns out this red head was originally a blonde!
Trim 6F means saddle leather bucket seats.
Date Code 18D means the car was scheduled for production on April 18th 1967.
It isn’t over until the … well I really don’t know if Esmerelda sings or not!
