I finally found a picture of our family’s first Cougar. I’m the ascot-wearing young lad on the right in this photo from April 1970.
Dad doesn’t remember if it was a '67 or '68 standard but Royce suggests it’s likely a '68 given the door lock knob.
Color in the photo is hard to see but it was definitely black with red interior and red pinstripe.
It was traded on the '70 standard hardtop which I inherited at age 16 shortly after this picture was taken. Not sure why but I’m thinking it was because the '70 had A/C. Here’s the '70 in a snap taken in 1981:
Like our '70, the black car would have come from Dick Price Lincoln Mercury in Wichita, KS. Wonder if it still lives?
I zoomed in on the driver seat, but the jacket is covering the front, so you can’t even tell if it has the decor trim or the definitive 68 non-decor seat.
Edit: The shape of the center section and stitching on the passenger seat and the trim on the door panel makes me thing 67 or 68 decor – which does nothing to solve the mystery.
It really is as if mom framed it to intentionally create a mystery. Sadly she’s passed or she would likely remember more details. I will be searching for more pics again at Xmas.
I’ve looked. So far nothing but their house is full of boxes and mom was a good record keeper.
On our '70, I was able to pay for a database search with a high degree of confidence because I remembered its exact configuration and selling dealer which paid off.
Pricless! I had my wife take pictures of my son and I working on ours. Growing up my father had a GTO, Impala and several Novas. I wish I had pictures.
It looks like the 67 link is pictured, the 68 transitions to its maximum width very slowly, the 67 is a much sharper turn and much wider at a lower elevation. I say a 67 lock knob on that car.
Also… On a 67 hubcap the inner black stripe is solid where the 68 has the word COUGAR incorporated into it. My gut is this is a 67. If the picture was just a bit larger we could see if it had 68 rocker mouldings!
My only thought on the mystery is I don’t see a 1967 Car of the Year sticker on the rear quarter window. Not to say it couldn’t have been removed or maybe never had one… did all 67’s have that sticker?
