Fall 2007

Cougar Chronicles (Fall 2007)

Notes from North of the Border

Hello all, it's been too long since my last article and I have not had an opportunity
to say anything. My first question is where did the summer go? I had my Cougar
out for a run yesterday with the heat on knowing it might be one of my last
drives for 2007.

The season started off in early June with the annual all Ford day car show
at the George F. Lamm Post in Williamsville, NY. The day was a success the weather
was on our side and a total of 136 cars in attendance, with a total of 14 Cougars
on the show field. Results as follows:

Class 10- 67-68 Cougar

Myself (first time in a while)

Steve Spyra Award of excellence

Class 11- 69-73 Cougar

1st. place Ken & Debbie Abst

2nd place Dennis Jordan

3rd. place Bob Ludwig 73 Coupe (Bob is one of the founding members of the GLCC)

Class 4- First place winner - Bob Jurek with his nice one owner 79 Cougar

I want to thank all who attended and made our show a big success and we hope
do it all again next year.

Jim Megannety: President Great Lakes Cougar Club

 

Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the

Mercury Cougar

1967-2007

By

Dr. Mark Hassard

My memories of the Cougar go back to a summer cottage we had up on Lake Huron
- my brother and I would spend two months every summer up at Sauble Beach with
our parents. There has to be some advantage to having a father who was a teacher.
Anyways, I remember quite clearly flipping through Life Magazine, it was likely
the August edition of 1966, when all the new cars would be highlighted. It used
to be that the new cars launched in September of each year, just like the new
T.V. shows. Well, I came to a page with a dazzling white car with a long hood
and a short rear deck, flip up headlights, sequential tail lights and deeply
sculptured body sides. This car really made quite an emotional impact on my
tender years! Later on when I actually saw my first new Cougar rolling down
the road - I remember actually being in our family car (a new fastback 2 door
gold Chevrolet Impala that my parents had purchased to go to Expo 67 in Montreal).
My vision of the Cougar was in the dark but the triple flashing rear signal
lights really got my attention.

There were many new innovative car designs with equally flashy paint schemes
launched throughout the 1960s; however, it was the Cougar that grabbed hold
with me. Unfortunately I had to wait until 1973 before I got my hands on an
actual Cougar - a 1967 highland green standard 289 with saddle interior. Like
many cars of the 60s and 70s that were used in southern Ontario and upstate
New York aka. "the rust belt" - my first car was a Flintstone car
with holes in the floor boards and doors. This is when I learned first hand
about wrecking yards, rivet guns, and bondo, lots of bondo. Oh and one more
thing - painting - painting with generic dark green Canadian Tire paint that
the side of the can said "can be painted on with a brush or sprayed on".
This paint was more like the consistency of porch paint or maybe Quaker Oats
porridge on a cold day in January but it did hide my amateurish body bondo work.
My first Cougar got me through my last year of high school and first year of
university but did not survive a collision with a pickup truck. After the crash
I had to rely on a 71 Chevy Vega for general transportation- but that is another
very scary story.

Time did not permit me to get back into Cougars again until 1996. At that time
I came across a fairly well kept Cougar driver in Burlington, Ontario. A standard
Cougar again but a 1968 painted black cherry with a black vinyl interior and
a black vinyl roof. It ran strong - for a 302 - and best of all it had floors!
Shortly after purchasing the Cougar and doing some minor tune ups my son and
I drove it to Carlisle PA for the Eastern Ford Nationals. This was also the
last time the GLCC ran a national event so I was glad to attend and even ended
up helping with some basic judging ie. checking lights and horns wa-hoo.

I've now had the Cougar just over 10 years and continually try and improve
the car when time and budget permit. I still get a kick out of going to show
and shines, and demonstrating the low tech flip up headlights and sequential
taillights to the younger generations raised on ipods and laptop computers.
It's hard to imagine a time when cars had carburetors, ignition points, and
vacuum actuated motors and not a single silicone chip running the car. It is
very refreshing to take the car out for a spin in the country, and to hit the
passing gear, and feel a surge of acceleration. You even get a whiff of unburnt
fuel and enough pollution to make Greenpeace keel over but for that moment it
is definitely worth it.

My latest review of the internet sites reveal that the Ford Motor Co. is struggling
and may have to consider an alliance with another major manufacturer. Mercury
was cast off in Canada and barely keeps rolling in the U.S. although its product
often outshines the equivalent Ford product. Mercury's prospects currently are
not too bright; however, back in 1967 they got the design right.

Mark.

Barrett-Jackson
Scottsdale 2008

I see 472 cars on the docket for the 2008 Barrett-Jackson at Scottsdale this
January 12 th to 20 th 2008. What I don't see are any Cougars! I'm not sure
if that's a good thing or a bad thing. What I do know is I enjoy watching those
cats go through and seeing the enjoyment and enthusiasm of others for the cats
we love.

Jim
Pinkerton interviewed by Dennis Gage

Here's a YouTube video of Jim's 1968 Mercury Cougar XR-7 GT-E , original unrestored
428CJ. This is a must see. There are also quite a few other cool cougar videos
to check out. Some are a little on the wild side. Enjoy. Wild

History
of the Mercury Cougar

The Cascade Cougar Club has done an excellent job of putting together a great
History of the Cougar. One of my favorite parts is 10. Way to go CCR !

Old Iron Online

Here's a fun site with many photos and brochures from back in the day. Oh what
I would give for a 76 Pacer or 70 Gremlin. Don't leave with out checking the
1970 Mercury Cyclones and Montegos brochures.

Wrecks
to Riches

Wrecks to Riches is a Discovery Channel show that features Barry White's Speed
Shop and a team of mechanics and other members that have to find an old wrecked
classic car, make it beautiful again and put in on the auction block. Looks
like they have made some pretty nice cars. They re-created this Dan Gurney racer
and have an on-line puzzle of it if that's your thing. Click
here for Puzzle.

Mercury
Cougar Station Wagon

Do you own a Cougar Station Wagon ? If you do you should register it on-line
@ www.cougarsw.flacarshows.com. They have several resources such as decode your
vin and data plate, replacement parts, wagon links, tech downloads and more
!

Historic
Racing

Some nice facts and figures on the Cougar and some great pics from recent historic
races at Monterey Historic Automobile Races and from Zippo U.S. Vintage Grand
Prix at Watkins Glen.

Mercury
Race Cars

A little collection of pics of Mercury Race Cars new and old. My favorites:
1965 Mercury Comet Cyclone Drag Race Car, 1966 Mercury Comet Cyclone Drag Race
Car, 1967 Mercury Cougar Dan Gurney Trans Am, 1967 Mercury Cougar Drag Race
Car, 1969 Mercury Cyclone "NASCAR.

Also at 70 Funny Cars.com
there's a couple of pics of a 1970 Kenny Bernstein race Cougar currently under
resoration. On the same site under a different
page there's a note about Dyno Don's Eliminator.

Lime
Green Metallic

Here's a rare cat that someone spent a lot of time and money on. It comes with
much documentation. I have this issue from Hemmings. This is a beautiful car!
Check it out. Boss 302 !

Fun Stuff

The
Bumper Dumper!

Just when you thought you had seen everything – you need to get this new
accessory from Uncle Boogers.

Ultimate
Cougar Trivia Challenge

The Classic Cougar Network people have put together a great on-line list of
trivia questions just for Cougars.When you play on-line it keeps your score
for you and your percentage. Letter Grade F for me. I guess I better get studying.

Rover
3.5-liter V8 engine table

Who knew the things you could do with a Rover 3.5-liter V8 engine when you've
got it sitting in your living room? With a displacement of 3528 cc, there's
all sorts of enough room for wine bottles, or you can use it as a coffee table,
or even a coffee table holding wine bottles (we here tend to have alcohol on
the brain, in hand, and down gullet, at all times). In fact, because this engine
appeared not only in Rover cars, but was widely sold by Rover to small car builders
-- becoming the virtual de-facto standard British engine for hot rod use (much
as has the Chevrolet small-block V8 for American builders) -- there's a lot
of them around. So grab a burbler that's quite burbling and be like these enterprising
young urban autonistas, turning your love of the automobile into a love of furniture.

Dean
Martin's Sex Wagon Uncovered

Volo, IL - After 39 years of hibernation, the 1966 Mercury Station Wagon that
served as a love nest for Dean Martin and Stella Stevens in the 1966 movie "The
Silencers" is now on permanent display at the Volo Auto Museum.

Some
very funny products from the mid 70's

Some wacky packages for gearheads. I think my cougar is using most of these
products!

 

Popular
Troubleshooting

The Big Bang

Not a Theory - Reality

By Dr. Mark Hassard

Last spring my wife and I decided to go out to dinner. The restaurant was about
half an hour from where we live. It had been a gorgeous warm day - the cars
were vacuumed and washed - so I said let's take the Cougar out for a run. It
would be nice to take a drive in the 68 Cougar since the year before we had
been out of commission because of a transmission problem. The tranny repairman
said that we had done the right thing overhauling our old slipping C4 tranny
because many internal parts can be ruined if that goes on too long. By the way
the tranny only required a minor overhaul - you know rubber seals can get stiff
and hard with age and heat. Part of the overhaul involves drilling an inspection
hole into the stator and having a good look. Mine was ok so that saved a few
dollars. Anyways, my tranny was all good and shifting very crisply.

My wife and I were cruising a long the Guelph Line just north of Burlington
probably driving about 45-50 mph when we heard the most horrific, metallic bang!
The kind of sound that really gets your heart pumping. I quickly pulled over.
Expecting the worst I started looking under the car, thinking the tranny had
dropped out. Nothing obvious showed. Looking under the hood - nothing wrong
there - engine was turning over nicely. Perplexed I looked in the trunk. Ah-ha,
the culprit responsible for the big bang was a broken trunk torsion bar. The
trunk lid was quite heavy because it didn't have the assist of the torsion bar.
Only one of the two rods had snapped.

With this mystery solved we went on to enjoy our dinner. The next day I had
to decide what to do with this problem. My web searches of the Mercury Cougar.net
did not come up with any solution. Apparently this problem doesn't arise too
often.

I still had a 69 Cougar convertible I was parting out - upon checking it turned
out that the torsion rods are identical to the 68 rods. My 69 rods were already
out so I cleaned them up with a wire wheel brush and primered and painted one
rod. I took the trunk lid off to reduce the weight on the hinges. Then I called
my friend Paul, the body man, over for a visit. Now if you consult the Mercury
manual it shows a special tool that is used to lever the rod into position.
We didn't have that so we used vice-grip pliers and a few pairs of hands. If
you have to do this job… WEAR EYE PROTECTION AND HEAVY WORK GLOVES. There
is potential for the rod to spring off its hooks. You will find one larger end
engages into the curved portion of the hinge. The long part of the rod then
goes across the whole trunk and the smaller part begins engaging a series of
small indentations. This small end is the part you hook on with the vice-grips
and rotate. The more you rotate the more tension you put on the trunk lid opening
up. Also, if you find that your trunk lid had washer or two between the lid
and the hinge be sure to replace the washer(s) in the same location. This will
prevent binding between the back of the lid and the opening where the lid fits.

* Eliminators by the way, had a spoiler on the trunk that added so much extra
weight that the torsion springs weren't up to the task - so Mercury used a trunk
prop rod to hold the trunk lid up. One way to tell if you have a true Eliminator
as opposed to a clone is to check the trunk for the prop holes.

Another difference between the 67/68 models and the 69/70 years was that the
69 Cougar has two pieces of split rubber hose positioned in the middle part
of the torsion springs…so that the two torsion bar springs do not rub together
and create metal fatigue.

Now I have outlined how the OEM set up was installed and adjusted; however,
there is another… PLAN B.

In the Mustang and Fords Magazine there are suppliers now that show repro hinges
with each hinge having curling spring pre-mounted. (Check inside cover of October
2007 issue -National Parts Depot listed as Hinge Assy, Trunk Lid) This loses
the old torsion bar spring and gives some additional room in the trunk. I haven't
seen these used on Cougars yet, but they sure look like they are the same hinge
as the early Mustang. If anyone has gone this route please let me know how they
fit. And how they function.

Now PLAN C. I would suggest this route only for those who wish to do a restomod.
My 05 Mustang has gas shock trunk lid assist. I am sure that there are ways
and means to adapt a pair of gas shocks to a Cougar trunk. Again let me know
if you are creative.

So that's another fix on my 39 year old vehicle. What's the old joke about
FORD meaning Fix Or Repair Daily. Might be a touch of truth to that.

Mark.

25
Top Fixes for Your Cougar

How To Repair the Most Common Cougar Ailments

Here's a great bunch on information on how to's for our Cougars. Just replace
the word Mustang with Cougar and you'll do just fine. It contains: Broken Seatbacks,
Leaking Cowl Vents, Sticking Seat Tracks, Slow Window Regulators, Stubborn Door
Locks, Squeaky Upper Control Arms, Blinking Headlights, Leaking Windshields/Backlights,
Rough Idle, No Power, Charging-System Woes, Power-Steering Leak, Parking Brake
Sticks/Doesn't Work, Sloppy Manual Shifter, Sloppy Automatic Shifter, Door Won't
Stay Open, Clutch Fixes, Braking Upgrade, Engine Runs Hot, Instruments Acting
Weird, Rock and Roller, Power Windows Quit, Turn-Signal Switch, Harden Your
Seats, Battery Apron Rusts Out, Air Everywhere.

Replace
Spark Plugs

Here is a good little article on spark plug changing. Very informative. Funny
how it is the little things that get missed.