It is really starting to take shape now. I Cannot wait to see this car one day in the near future .
Wow! Just looked through the whole thread/photos. Hard to believe this car is going to be a ādriverā
Great job!!
Update time,
I had to clean out and kill surface rust in the cowl and paint it. I use Eastwoodās Rust encapsulater and top it off with Krylon 1630 Satin Black. I think it turned out nicely.
In a week or so Iāll be taking a bunch of parts in to get sand blasted. I will be taking another air cleaner in so I can get it the same color as the rest of the engine. I thought I had the same paint as the engine builder, but missed it by a mile. I donāt want to re-do this one. I donāt want to waste the decals. I will sell this one minus the snorkel. Unless I have another correct one.
I will be cleaning more parts and installing them over the next week. I also want to take the radiator in and have it tested and cleaned. if it need any repairs have them done now. I also have some shopping to do, New U-joints a battery, wheels and tires then some gasā¦
Great progress. Looks like youāre going to have it ready for show season!
Maybe in a few weeksā¦
And itās about time!
Looking forward to seeing it in person.
Your on the home stretch Neal. This is when you have to start paying for all the items that you didnāt want to shell out the money for until the end 
Thanks Neal, ordered mine today (cracked a tooth so had to pay the dentist first).Watching your build i purchased a few ātouch up itemsā with the holiday sales to clean up my phat cat. Also after Tomās fire Iāll be going through the fuel lines from the tank to the pump (I did the pump to carb lines when I upgraded the manifold and carb) Keep up the good work and keep us posted on the progress. 
WHOA BAAABBBYYYY!!! Keep Austin Powers away from this car!!!
Neal,
I gotta say that when I saw your engine loaded up (I went back and read thru the entire threadā¦!!!) in the back of the truck off to your engine builder, my heart skipped a beat!!! One small detail piece that I noticed, was the small round black plastic clip that was at the left rear of the intake and was meant to hold the PVC hose that runs from rear of engine up to LH valve cover cap. It was on the engine when it leftā¦but I couldnāt see it on any of your other assembled engine picās! Of course you have the air cleaner on the engine in ALL of the subsequent shots and donāt really have a good Left Rear shot of the intake area to tell for certainā¦
You also had the dipstick and tube in placeā¦
I donāt know if you got the little clip thing backā¦but I just sold one for way too much money a couple of weeks backā¦ guys are buying these to detail out their Boss 351 and CJ Mustangs etc. Iāve also sold new dipsticks and tubes in large numbers tooā¦and these parts just donāt grow on trees anymore!!!
With all the horror stories of engines stuck in āmachine shop hellā or purgatory as it may beā¦I would NEVER give a shop that much stuff on an engine short of the stripped down intake, heads, and block. It would be debatable if they got the valve covers balancer and oil panā¦exhaust manifoldsā¦because I have heard WAY too many stories of parts gone missingā¦or thrown awayā¦
Anyway, I hope you got as many pieces back as you sent inā¦
Nice job!!! Almost there!!!
Steve
I have to go and look and see if it is there or not. I did have a few bolts go missing that I think I had supplied to the shop. Thanks for spotting that.
Edit;
I had the shop run in the engine on a stand so I had to supply everything needed to make it a runner.
Steve, Bad news, good news and bad news. That bracket is not on the engine. But I do have it. But I have to remove a intake bolt to install it. Not the end of the world. I will install it this week.
I got the radiator back and installed. I also spent a day getting a F250 with a 428 police intercepted in it home. I have several things ready to install on this Cougar and should do a update with what I have done in the last week soon. This evening I am out side burning wind fall from a recent storm.
Update time,
I have been getting a lot of little things buttoned up on this and should have it running in a couple weeks or sooner if all goes well.
I some how lost the vacuum tube to the transmission modulator. I think I may have left in on the transmission when it went out for rebuilding and didnāt come back. My mistake, I got a reproduction and fought getting on with the engine and transmission installed in the car. I then decided not to reuse the original transmission cooling lines and got new ones. They were no fun getting them in after the fact.
I had the radiator cleaned and tested. only 3% blockage. Maybe the same as new, but no repairs needed. They cleaned and painted it. I got is installed as well as the shroud, hoses and transmission lines. This is how it looks now.
As I was top side I spent time cleaning and polishing the fender mounting flanges and replacing the fasteners for that āNewā look, Passengers side before.
And after.
I was careful around this inspection stamping. It still exists and I want it to stay. I may research a clear finish I can put over it. But have concerns that paint may make it run.
I then moved on to redoing the drive shaft. Here is is before just after I took measurements and documented the color spots and stripes.
And after, I was planning to paint it with a natural steel finish, but it looked way off in my opinion, so I went with a satin Black and copied the rest of the markings. The build sheet calls for Lavender, White, White.
I then finished plumbing the fuel lines. I did not use correct clamps as I had not been able to locate them.But I don;t think that will be a deal breakerā¦
So now I have to do the Power Steering pump. What a messā¦ Here it is partly dissembled
I finished dissembling it and cleaned and stripped all the parts. I them painted the bracket Gloss Black, the reservoir, Tag and pulley were done in Satin Black with the indexing bracket done in a clear to try and mimic the original natural color the best I could. It may have been Phosphate and Oil, I could not tell.
I was going to reassembel it today, but I have a small problem with the new(remanufactured) pump.
I have no idea how that seal got cut in half, but it looks like it will be Wednesday before I get the new one. I still have several things to tinker on to fill the time while 'm down on the pump. When I have the engine running I will still have a bunch to do. I have to get the front bumper brackets blasted as well as another air cleaner to paint so it will match the engine. I also need to get tires and wheels and then off for alignment. She will be on the road soonā¦
Great job Neal. Iām looking forward to seeing you driving it.
It RUNS!
20180206_152648
I have another video I plan to post later this evening. I have gas in the tank now. But as I canāt put together the power steering pump I can only run for a couple minutes at a time so I donāt bake the new engine.
Well done, sir!
Excellent!
Looking and sounding good.
Nice Neal! That is going to be a nice cruiser for sure. And it might be a good calendar car for 2019ā¦
Bring it down to WCCC when youāre done so we can all check it out!
Thanks for tall the encouragement folks. I plan to have this Cougar at the WCCC Open house this summer.
Todayās update;
I got my parts back from the blasters in double time, I dropped them off and he said they would be ready in 45 minutes. So I went had had lunch and came back to pick them up.
Bumper brackets;
and air cleaner housing;
The power steering pump seal kit came in and I got the pump put back together and I think it looks good.
This pump was originally Black, not the Blue we see on some. So Black it is.
All the accessoryās are now on, adjusted and working. I am thinking about finding a different set of belts. The P/S belt from NAPA is a wild Green color. The belts I had in the trunk of Ginger last summer for my trip to Dearborn and back ups. They are the same size as this car uses. But Green?
I ran it for about 20 minutes last night looking for leaks and I think I have none now. I had to tighten one trans cooler line at the transmission. Not to bad for all that was taken apart and for how long is was apart.
I donāt know what Iām going to do about the color on the air cleaner, I now have one that is to light of a color and one that is to darkā¦
I have all the front bumper brackets painted and ready to assemble when I get the bolts.
I have the Grill, hood and front bumper to install still. The trunk needs to be put back together and detailed. Then wheels and tires and off to the alignment shop. I will be putting together a final pic list this evening and do some shop cleaning. But for now the Sun is out and I need to get out in to it.
Very impressive Neal.