I have just become owner of 2 1968 cougar coupes. They are standard coupes with the original 302’s. One of them is a daily driver (Didi) and the other(T.Q.) is stripped down and one owner beauty with only 57k on the engine. Sadly as old as they are, Didi needs to be cleaned up from a rough existence, and T.Q. is in a million pieces that need to be put back together.
I have always been a Classic VW man, so pesky things like radiators, Air Conditioning, and Horsepower were not necessary. Now I am starting my quest with my first muscle car.
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Can I say whoever designed the inner workings must have owned stock in a vacuum line company, because HOLY CRAP there are a lot of vacuum lines under the hood. Should have nicknamed it the “Mercury Dyson”.
I am Starting out and hoping to get some general information about my girls from the local community. Thanks to anyone willing to tell me what stupid things I am doing or point out my errors or shortcuts to get my projects sped up.
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Welcome, nice bus!! Whats your plan with the 68s? Are you going to build them both or build one with the cars and parts.
Welcome to the Classic Cougar Community. It’s great to have another new member. West Coast Classic Cougars has informative videos and great customer service that can help with your restoration. Here is a link to their website. West Coast Classic Cougars
Steven
Hi!
Thanks for the Hello. I have enough parts to rebuild both 68’s and am currently listing extra parts on Ebay. There were 5 Classic Air Cleaners in the trunks, I have some extra fenders etc… I am still fairly new to the Cougars so I have parts that I am not sure where they go. I am just glad that I have a community to bounce questions off of…
Like what the heck is that??
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ha ha … Pop quiz Hot Shots…
I’ll take windshield washer pedal for $200, Bert. It’s much more entertaining than the dash or lever controlled ones!
You can also use that washer pedal as an intermittent wiper. Just lightly push it and the wipers will sequence once. Push it further in and you’ll also squirt washer fluid.
HA HA HA … ARE YOU SERIOUS?!
I love that crazy crap!!! you can almost run the car with your feet! …( and 419 yards of vacuum line)…
I had my bet on a “cruise control” as I read in one of my manuals that this year supposedly had the option , but it was called something else.
Someone else said they thought it was a manual Choke…
I am still tripping off of that… that almost beats push button shifting, or hiding your gas cap behind fender chrome.
Well thank you for playing , I am Alex Trebeck… and don’t forget to spay and neuter your children.
yup. and if you have big feet (or wear work boots), every time you use the dimmer button, under said pedal, you also wash your windshield…
It was an option. It was called speed control.
Steven
Well, as I see it this is the Project Forum, and Lordy be do I have a project.
I guess this is the perfect approach to documenting the progress of the Twins. So Here Goes
DAY 1 : Threw down the cash and purchased the Twins. Brought them home and began the arduous task of compiling parts and pieces into respective areas to promptly forget where I put them. I now have 7 locations of odds and ends as I was not too familiar with the components of the girls at the outset.
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DAY 2 : Purchased thick Plastic Sheeting for coverage to make sure that no water from the lovely Florida rainy season touched the girls. Didi had all seats pulled and carpet removed. Door panels were cleaned by my lovely wife and brought back to life (except the gold colors turned brown from too much sun. Sadly I have no clue how to revive the chocolate brown sun staining from the door panels and rear quarter panels). Rear window regulator had to be reassembled to allow it to roll back up. TQ had the rear half of her underside coated with a de-ruster and preventative to make sure no rusting will occur while I work on Didi. ( Her undercarriage is in great shape!)
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DAY 3 : Removed a Spark plug to see what condition they were in, only slight oily residue, so I bought a new PCV valve and tubing. I removed a Valve Cover and cleaned it up to look fresh and new, and found that after I put the New Blue Rubber Valve Cover Gaskets on, I was unable to get the mounting bolts to thread into the block?? Anyone know how a valve cover that seems no thicker than a cork gasket has the mounting bolts fall flush with the cover, and still not reach the threading on the block? Are there longer bolts that work? I purchased 25 feet of vacuum line and some new heater hose as a hose clamp had cut into a piece on top of the block and started to leak. The distributor was clean and looked like it had been recently replaced. I also roughly cleaned the carburetor, but will need to do a lot more to get it to shine like it should. I installed a new V belt for the generator.
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Day 4 : Found the hood springs in the trunk of Didi, so I sanded and painted them and installed them, so that gawd awful PVC pipe will no longer be holding the hood up while I work. I started degreasing the engine, and found that 50 year oil and grease is a pain in the keester to get off. I am sooo tempted to hook up my pressure washer and blow the ever loving snot out of the engine and undercarriage, but worried about getting it all over the rest of the engine and mucking things up. I ran a can of Electronics parts cleaner thru the generator and A/C motor. Lubricated the crap out of the rest of the components, until there was smooth movements and old dirt and crap had dripped away.
DAY 5 : Completely tore up the dash of Didi, and repolished all of the A/C controls and vents, rear quarter panel window cranks. Repainted the plastic dash background with a black metallic engine paint that almost perfectly matched the original paint on the dash components. Used Rubbing compound to take off the white overspray that someone had exposed Didi to at some point, so now I have a gorgeous clear view of the gauges. I removed all of the bulbs and cleaned the dust off, replaced and used a silicone liquid to keep the boots nice and supple. I ran some lubricant down the Speedo cable to make sure there is no binding or grit to screw with her operation Put the shiny pieces of the A/C and venting back in the car. Reinstalled the Dash components and used a gold cougar dash facing. Pulled the T-Bar Shifter cleaned and repolished the Shifting console. Hesitant to reinstall until I see how the light for the Shifter mounts… I received it with the wire and a broken bulb hanging out on top of the carpet, but I know there must be a mounting set up so the light moves along and lights the gear you are in on the console. Will consult my massive Bible on the car for referencing unless someone has a picture of how it is suppose to look under there…
Just finished cleaning the front plastic side kick panels, and will start messing underneath the dash next… the journey continues.
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DAY 6 : Applied a few smatterings of Bondo to uneven areas to the roof and side panels. Cleaned the front driver seat, and removed and vacuumed carpeting again. Then promptly threw the tarp back over it before the rain began. Short lived work day.
DAY 7 : Picked up some new bolts and washers for the valve cover. IT WORKED! the bolts actually had to be slightly longer to accommodate the new blue rubber Fel Pro gasket. Installed the Front Seats. Wiped Down the whole dash with Tire Black, and the whole thing Popped! Sadly I tried to start the car now that there was a valve cover on the engine, but there was no power whatsoever. Tried jumping the car but nothing… Double checked some of the wiring, and found the Positive Lead from the battery was about 2 feet longer than it needed to be and had melted on the exhaust manifold and most likely shorted out on any number of metal parts of the engine. Removed heater hoses and realized how difficult it is to remove the Elbow off the top of the block behind the thermostat area. That sucker was rusted away to nothing, and now I am not sure how to remove/repair it at this point? Cleaned up the hoses, and refinished the check valve for the heater.[album]1267[/album][album]1266[/album][album]1265[/album]
For the console light…if this is the style of shift indicator you have, here’s the parts required. The photo shows how the bulb guide/retainer is connected to the shifter Installation Kit - Center Console - Automatic Transmission - Used ~ 1967 Mercury Cougar / 1967 Ford Mustang ( 1967 Mercury Cougar, 1967 Ford Mustang ) at West Coast Classic Cougar :: The Definitive 1967 - 1973 Mercury Cougar Parts Source
As for the heater hose return elbow…remove the thermostat and housing. The debris which would fall into the manifold, from elbow removal, should easily be cleaned out with a magnetic screwdriver and shop vac with a home made attachment(1/2" hose and duct tape) from the thermostat opening. Option two would be to remove the intake 
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Thanks for the link, but mine looks like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/321136390810?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
So it is off to the side and I have the light cord, but I think there is a metal tube with a pin hole at the top?? Haven’t found anything in my Shop Manual or images online.
The Heater hose Return is rusted solidly onto the manifold so tried using a hammer and a wrench to try to loosen the elbow, but it will not budge and there is only about 10% of the nozzle that the heater hose clamp has to grip. Thinking of just drilling out the top and putting the hose over the top? ha ha Heater Neck gone RED-NECK!
DAY 8 : Cleaned up the Front seats and reinstalled. Reattached the Glovebox lock. Magic Erasers did quick work on the dash, then used a silicone to coat the dash. Then started working my way through understanding the engine components and how they work. Scrubbed down, emptied, and painted the Power Steering reservoir. Cut the Rubber to a solid point, then re attached and filled to see if there are any leaks. Scrubbed the A/C compressor and painted.
Ran new Vacuum lines for the headlights and added new “T’s”.
DAY 9 : removed Holley 4 Barrel Carb and scrubbed 1/4 inch of Grease and grime form the top of the engine block. Thank God for Brake Cleaner! It made very quick work of the really bad parts and dried the oil and grease into dry clumps which were easy to blow away and brush off with a wire brush. Then used a Pearl black engine enamel to put a clean look to the top of the engine. Then cleaned up the carb from a dull gray to a bit of a shine, and then lubed all the moving parts to smoothly work. Was unable to get it all bolted down as I ran to get new shiny bolts, then the wonderful Florida Rain started to fall.
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DAY 10 ,11, 12, : Well, after several stops to do body work, I had finally rerouted the vacuum lines, and installed the Window washer reservoir. Painted up the 3rd Quadrant of the engine compartment. I was finally ticked off enough at the Water Inlet Elbow to trim out the outlet to allow a socket over the whole piece. With a little elbow grease, and Viola… the whole thing bent and twisted all whackadoo,… BRING IN THE CUTTING WHEEL! I trimmed off the top so as not to inhibit the coolant flow. It then allows the hose to fit perfectly over the whole upright shaft and secured with a hose clamp. Having found an outlet for the inlet, I resumed attaching all remaining coolant lines. Refilled the 50/50 antifreeze dillyo and hooked up the brand new battery. Here is the finale… having not ran the cougar since it was dropped into my driveway, the hesitancy to go great guns had me rechecking the gas tank which was nearly empty, so a little Seafoam and more fuel and I was ready. My wife stood at the ready with a can of starting spray.
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After a couple dry runs and a couple seconds of running the carb caught fire. Small fire… quickly and easily put out. The Fuel finally kicked in and the car turned over and hummed as quietly as the holes in the mufflers would allow.
I am happy to report the engine part of the refurb is very close to finished…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVOvZlEKoNk
Sweet! Looks nice and clean now!
LOL! I was expecting to see a fire in your video though ~ morbid curiousity, I guess 
Until I saw the fan rotating, I thought your neighbor was running a weed-eater. That’s not being derogatory…she sounds really smooth, Great job! Impressive to see the A/C components intact, usually those items are long gone from previous owners…Nice.
Wow you work fast! I can’t wait to see the next installment. The motor sounds very quiet.