XR7-G Update

The XR7G Hit the road for it’s first drive in Miami this past week. After getting the brake issues taken care of, test drives of three and twenty miles were done. Everything went good during the short drives.
Replacement leather seat covers have arrived from Don at WCCC’s along with some other items. The seats will be recovered by a local upholstery shop soon. The set of steel styled wheels that have been in our family and used on a couple of our previous Cougars were painted. I made XR7G inserts to go inside the standard walking Cougar caps. Tires were mounted on the styled steel wheels Friday afternoon. The Rader wheels have been but in the garage and will be used when the G goes to shows. So progress has been steady.
Here are a couple of pictures.
Steven

Painted Styled Steel Wheels With Custom XR7G Caps

Test Drive

Out for the evening at the Biltmore Hotel

Wheels look great. Glad to hear you’re making progress and getting the car out on the road.

Looks sweet! If you get some of the car with the new wheels on it, post the. Good to see it went to a good home.

Thanks for posting Steven - I love reading your updates.

Tell us how you made the custom G center cap inserts.

Thanks for the compliments on the wheels. Dennis was pleased with how they turned out and I must say I am also. I’ll get som photos of the wheels on the car and get them posted. Making the inserts for the center caps was a fairly easy process, I have access to the sign computer and plotter that the City uses in their sign department. On my days off from the fire department in work in the construction department where the sign shop is located. I asked if I could use the computer to make some car logos during my lunch break and my boss said it was fine. During a couple of my lunch breaks I drew the XR7G logo in the cad program we use for making signs. After I was done I cut the logos on 3M engineer grade red and white vinyl then I inserted the logos over the walking Cougar on the caps. Here are a couple of photos of the process.
Steven

old Center Cap

3M Red Logo

3M White Logo

XR7G Custom Cap :slight_smile:

Ha!

Very cool Steven!!

Indeed!

Very nice Steven. I knew you and Darren were the right owners for the G.
Keep up the good work and the updates coming.

Darren…who’s this you speak of? Is Darren Canadian for Dennis? :laughing: It’s ok Scott I make typo’s all of the time. I’ll keep the updates and
coming.
Steven

I think Scott’s been watching too much Bewitched lately. At least he didn’t call him Darwin.

Sorry… Dennis!!! You’re lucky I get any names right.
Most of my shirts have my first name and 68 XR7-G on them. That way I know who I am and what I am driving. It’s a real problem if I drove something else. Thank goodness Jeff is around frequently to point me to the correct vehicle.

Here are some pictures of the styled steel wheels on the G.
Steven

The material I used for the XR7G inserts for the center caps is reflective at night (added safety feature :smiley: )

Wheels look great. Even though the Raders are unusual and cool for that reason, I much prefer the styled steel wheel.

Styled steel wheels look great. I agree with Jeff. The Raders will only be for special occasions, at least on my G.

Looks terrific Steven.

Are the SS wheels painted or chromed?

  • Phillip

Phillip the wheels are painted with chrome trim rings. The wheels have been in the family for many years but the chrome had rust issues. The wheels were in storage in my mothers garage. The garage roof took a lot of damage from hurricane Andrew and the wheels got wet with standing water and developed rust. So I sandblasted and had them painted. I know they aren’t original but they have family value which is cool. I’ve attached a picture of the wheels from when they were chrome on my Cougar when I was in high school in the mid 80’s.

Thanks guys for the compliments on how the wheels look. I too like the Rader wheels for the cool/show factor and that’s when they will be used. Steel styled wheels will be used for general driving duty.
Steven

Wheels in 1984
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Wheels today

Did you have them powdered coated or just painted? I really like the looks of them and have a set I could do the same to for a restomod project that is still in the brain development stage.

Brian the wheels are painted with base coat clear coat. I have a friend that does paint and body repair and he painted them for me. I talked to another friend that worked for a local powder coating company and he gave me a price of $150 each wheel. I thought that was to much and the painting was worked out in trade.
Steven

Very nice! I may be biased to the painted grey look, though…

It’s been a little while since I gave an update. Had some cooling issues which were discussed in this thread, Cooling Issues 302 J Code. Those issues were taken care of with a new radiator cap and the replacement of the upper and lower radiator hoses. Here are some pictures taken yesterday afternoon.
Steven