1969 Mercury Cougar

Coupe

8 - Cyl.

Automatic

Clear

Gasoline

1969 Mercury Cougar. 351w, C6 with shift kit, Trick Flow Heads, runs and shifts like a muscle car should. Has been my daily driver. I looked a long time to find a Cougar this solid to start a project with, and now money is too tight to restore it. A very solid car, in and out, with very little prep work needed to get it back to perfect. Floors and trunk are solid, driveline is solid. Since 1969, many owners seem to have tried to make it a "clone" of every Cougar produced that year. It has a complete XR7 interior. It has the Eliminator hood (functional if you put the ram-air intake on, the hole is there under the scoop) and Eliminator spoiler. The only things missing to make it a Eliminator clone are the chin spoiler, stripes, and a Shelby drop in the front. This car is not numbers matching. A previous owner replaced the doors, I assume to get rid of rust. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Good- - 351 engine runs strong, unknown miles since it's rebuild. Trick Flow heads, Holley Dominator intake and Holley 4 bbl carb. Unknown cam grind, the engine was built when I bought the car and the owner at that time was no mechanic. He bought it and it sat in his garage until I purchased it, untouched mechanically other than for PA inspection. Engine is strong enough I was planning to leave it untouched except to convert it to all Edelbrock (intake, cam, carb). Distributor appears factory, no idea why they didn't upgrade. - C6 trans. It's been rebuilt, again I don't know when. Shifts like a champ. Chirps second and third, so there's obviously a shift kit in it. - Interior and trim are all complete. I priced the interior, planning to change the color and get rid of the XR7 trim. Someone invested a lot of money in there. Seat covers are all newer, headliner and all panels (door, rear quarters, etc) are nearly perfect. Only imperfection in interior trim is the horn button was rigged to work, and no longer works on the steering wheel. Only imperfection in upholstery is the drivers seat is starting to tear, and the carpet looks a little shabby. Apparently not one of the better kits, it fits poorly. - Full gauge package, down to the tach in the dash. - Body is great for the year. I shopped around a while before finding this car, and picked it up even though the numbers didn't match just because of the shape it's in. It's my daily driver, and gets a lot of compliments. - Best floorboards and trunk I've seen in a Cougar. It's rock solid. Car is complete, not missing any hard to find trim pieces. If you've ever worked on old Cats, you know how hard it is to find those little parts. This one has them all, to my knowledge. The Bad: - Like I said, tear in drivers seat. Not terrible, but it's starting to go. If I keep the car, it will get new carpet. The current kit is in good shape, but fits poorly. - Leaks power steering fluid. It has a brand new pump on it, but whoever plumbed it crossthreaded a fitting under the car (pump is NOT damaged, just a line under the car drips) and now it has a leak. Easy fix, but there it is. - Brakes are squishy. It stops fine (my daily driver) but it either has a leaky wheel cylinder or the master cylinder is starting to go. - Starts fine, but hard to get idling when it's below freezing. Thank Holley for that, I never had one that wasn't cold natured. Warms up quick though, just needs a little patience. I suggest purchaser invest in an electric choke Edelbrock and forget the rest. - Some body parts misaligned. No idea why, but someone took off the "eyebrow" fender extensions and they never lined them up again. Makes the hood look crooked. - Exhaust leak somewhere, you can hear it when it's idling. A new set of header gaskets and collector gaskets would likely fix it. The Ugly: - Number one, the car needs painted. STRIPPED and painted. 40 years of repaints have done their work ,and now the paint is cracked, allowing water underneath. Needs stripped and painted ASAP to prevent further damage. - Passenger rear fender. Only obvious bodywork on the car (the big primer patch in the picture). I am told it was backed into, and that was a fix. Looks like they threw bondo at it from across the room, no finish work was done, just filled and primed. Doesn't look bad, I doubt it will need a quarter panel. Just needs ground out and done correctly to get it into line with the rest of the car. - Both doors have quarter sized rust in the doors. Luckily enough, those areas are simple to fix without major surgery. - Interior power is a mess. One interior light works, two windows work (has 4 power windows, the little wing windows are power too) . Has everything for AC except the compressor, though the mount is still on the engine. The vents do not adjust, it's stuck in defrost. They run on vacuum, and I'm guessing there's no vacuum there. Needs gone over with an electrical tester. All parts are present, but the wiring is haywire. - Headlight bezels do not work properly. Another vacuum problem. Looking at all the vacuum problems, that could be what's messed up with the disc brakes. - Rear window is caulked. I didn't mind because I was going to pull all the glass for painting anyway. Like I said, previous owner was no mechanic, and didn't have the money to invest in labor costs to get the car corrected. - Not made for the highway. I don't know what rear ratio it's running, but it's too low for extended highway travel. Good 9" rear, no "clunk" when engaging the gears, but not for highway use. - Strong exhaust/fuel smell in the cab. Not sure if it's the carb running really rich, or if the exhaust leak is causing it. Can smell it as soon as you start it up. Again, I can't stress it enough, the car need a paint job to save it. Water is getting under the current paint due to cracking, and I can't stand to see such a solid car go to rot because it was neglected. These cars are getting hard to find, and a good running, mostly rebuilt, complete Cougar that isn't a rustbucket is getting rare. I hope someone can give it the attention it needs, I simply don't have the funds right now, and I refuse to leave it sit until I do have the funds and risk it falling apart. Regards.