Mercury Cougar Owners banner

69 Custom Grille Replacement Project

15K views 54 replies 7 participants last post by  T100kg 
#1 ·
I started this thread on the other forum but I figured I'd post it here too.

Started my grille replacement project this weekend. Fun to get back to working on the car. To give a little background I bought this car back in 2013 to get back into cars with my sons. We worked on the car for a few years until they went off to college and I was left with a decision to make. Either buy a new brand new muscle car or invest the money in the cougar and take it to the next level. I think you know the choice I made. Anyway the car had a custom billet aluminum grille installed when I bought it. I actually liked the look of it but the old style bulbs did not shine through the grille very well. When I sent the car to Schwartz Performance to be redone I left the grille as part of the project but added black-out LED headlights behind it to improve the look and hopefully the brightness. However, after driving the car for the last year I'm still not happy with the amount of light that gets through. I decided to reach out to Don at WCCC to see if he could put together a complete grille package including all the brackets and hardware so I could return it to the stock configuration. My intention is to paint the grille matte black to match the rest of the trim on the car so I was looking for a solid grille but the chrome didn't need to be good. Low and behold Don came through like a champ as he always does. I have bought enough parts from him I think he credits me with putting one of his kids through college!!

Custom grille
Land vehicle Vehicle Motor vehicle Car Bumper


Another view
Land vehicle Vehicle Car Muscle car Bumper


Table of grille parts from WCCC
Auto part Machine
 
See less See more
3
#2 ·
So I have removed the custom grille and headlights and started to trial fit the factory grille. All was good until I got to the passenger side and found the AC drier was in conflict with part of the assembly. I need to move it about an inch toward the center and redo the line from the condenser to the drier. I'm going to bend a hard line to keep it tight and out of the way. Once I get the ac system evacuated I can temporarily remove the drier and continue the trial fit work. These are some pictures of the problem.

Motor vehicle Automotive exterior Vehicle Bumper Car

Vehicle Car Vehicle door Automotive exterior Hood


Engine Machine Auto part Vehicle
 
#8 ·
Sunday I was able to get a better alignment and get the Cat Headlights electric motor conversion installed. I temporarily wired it using my battery tender connection. I used the hot side to make a jumper for the trigger wire and used a bullet connector as a temporary switch. It worked great for testing.

Motor vehicle Vehicle Engine Car Auto part


Cable management Wire Electrical wiring Cable Technology
 
#10 ·
They work very well. They are a little noisy but I think once I get some rubber bump stops in place and make some final adjustments it will quiet down. Doing the headlight install this weekend (LED conversion) which I will cover with a more in depth post when it’s all mocked up.
 
#11 ·
Had another fun weekend working on the car. I’m waiting on a pair of headlight door shaft assemblies from WCCC in hopes of getting a better alignment on the headlight doors. Apparently if the shafts aren’t a matched set the doors may open and close unevenly. Only off by a ¼” but its visible to me.

So, while I’m waiting, I went to the headlight assemblies. I had Dapper Lighting LED headlights behind the custom grille, but they are WAY too deep to fit in the stock housings. I’ve attached a few pics of the Dapper lights with a comparison to a stock bulb.

Headlamp Automotive lighting Light Auto part Lens


Auto part


Auto part Vehicle
 
#12 ·
So, I have been searching for a while to find a 5.75 DOT approved LED headlight that will fit the stock buckets. This proved to be more of a problem then I thought it would be. Apparently very few people in the Cougar community are doing this and if they are, they aren’t posting about it. I thought I was in luck when I saw a new thread a few months ago about a contest for free LED headlights from NPD for Delta Tech lights but that thread kind of died no matter how hard I pushed it. Here’s a link.

https://classiccougarcommunity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9617&hilit=free+led+headlights

Anyway, I couldn’t get much in the way of specs/dimensions for the Delta Lights on the web. Not sure if they are DOT approved etc. but I did find a lot of positive info on Vision X VX series XIL-575RDB lights. They are DOT approved and appeared to be of a size that would fit a stock Cougar bucket AND they are stupid expensive. However, I was able to source a very gently used set from a local builder for a more reasonable but still stupid amount. They are an H5001/H5006 replacement size which means they fit the outer low beam bucket without modification. The inner high beam bucket needed to be modified for the tabs to fit so I ordered 2 extra outer buckets from WCCC rather than cut the inners I have.

Auto part


Metal


Auto part Rim Light Automotive lighting Tire


Land vehicle Motor vehicle Headlamp Vehicle Automotive exterior
 
#13 ·
These lights are a sealed beam with LED high, low and halo DRL’s all in one with a low power draw. They can be wired to light in several different ways such as lighting the high, low and halo all at once. After installing them and testing them I’ve decided to run them in a standard setup with one extravagance. I’ve wired it so the headlight doors open and the halo’s come on when I turn on the parking lights (nice perk with having electric headlight door conversion). When I pull the switch all the way out for headlights the halo’s stay lit and outer low beams come on as designed. When I hit the high beam switch the inner high beams light. Far from concourse correct but I love it!

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Bumper Classic car


Automotive exterior Bumper Vehicle Light Car


Motor vehicle Vehicle Automotive exterior Bumper Car
 
#14 ·
I’m close to finished with the test assembly. After I receive my parts from WCCC I can final the door alignment on opening and close. I also need to fit the second pair of lights and test them as well. Once that is done, I will be ready to break it all down and send it out for blasting and painting.

I still need to build the final wiring harnesses, make-up the new AC line for the relocated drier, etc. but I will do all that while everything is at the painter.

That's all for now.
 
#55 ·
I went through a lot of the same things you did I bought a 70 that had a lot done to it one was the headlights it had a electric conversion on the covers that took forever to open so I bought a new one that uses a gear drive and it worked fine but when the headlights came on they would work about 3 min before the breaker tripped when I checked it had aircraft landing lights they take a LOT of amps so I did like you and went for leds they work but boy did they cost a LOT of money and I didn’t find used ones
Glad yo got yours working.
 
#21 ·

Well I finished the headlight door adjustment and got the lights all in and tested. Doors were sloppy when the were open until I installed the repro bushings on the center brackets. Now they open and close solid. No door movement when open or closed. Still bang a little bit but I’m not sure if that’s normal. You can hear it in the video below. Anybody that has the Cat Headlights installed it would be appreciated to know your thoughts.


https://youtu.be/zql6HqQSJlM





 
#23 ·
Small update on my progress. The grille is completely removed and packed up for delivery to the powder coat/painter. I'm waiting on a few pieces to finish out the packing. I hope to deliver it on Wednesday. On another note, I want to throw out a big thank you to Don and the crew at WCCC. THANK YOU! They have been fantastic through this process with parts and advice. They have stood behind everything they sold me and at times have shipped extra parts when I was trying to get pieces to fit properly. If you look back to the beginning of this thread you will see I started with a non-original grille. Don was able to source a complete grill including brackets and hardware. Pretty certain they are sick of me and I'm the bulls-eye on the break-room dart board but they haven't said it out loud to me!

Bumper Automotive exterior Vehicle Engine Auto part


Automotive exterior Vehicle Bumper Auto part Luxury vehicle
 
#24 ·
I had a headlight door with a broken stud that I was able to use as a test piece with the powder coat/painter. After blasting it they said they think they could powder coat it but all the imperfections from the chrome peeling would show through. So I am going to have the cast parts body worked and painted and the metal parts powder coated.

Wood


Line Material property Architecture Metal Column
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top