[70 Cougar]

Thought I would post some pictures of my progress. This is my very first car and restoration ever and it's been going on for awhile now. My skills are junior so if you guys see anything that's not correct please let me know. Also if you have any questions I'll be more than happy to answer. Itching to drive this car again one day. I've owned this car now for 11 years since I was 16 and put about 2,000 miles on it over 3 summers. Haven't driven it now for 7 years and it's been completely apart for the past 3 years. So far I have taken apart everything myself, sandblasted, detailed, painted and now starting the assembly. I owe a lot of gained knowledge through you guys and just pictures posted here online of what it should look like when it's all together. Cheers. Steve O

Rebuilt calipers

Rebuilt brakes

Lower control arm

New brake hoses and mounting hardware

Lower control arm and brake hoses mounted

 

[70 Cougar]

Upper control arm

Battery tray mounted

Starter solenoid, mounting hardware and voltage regulator

I thought I would take the time now, figure everything out and pre-assemble everything onto the replacement front clip, take it all off and box it up in order, and that way after this replacement clip gets welded onto the car the front suspension will be all figured out and will go back on in a breeze during final assembly. My next project is to rebuild the control valve. I got a rebuild kit for it and will attempt it myself. Cheers.

 

[Jan Ove]

Nice work

 

[70 Cougar]

spent a couple more hours tonight and got the front brakes installed. i noticed on the lower control arm ball joint that connects onto the bottom of the brake spindle that when i turn the nut on the threaded end, the lower ball joint turns with the nut, therefore the nut wont tighten all the way down. the driver side went on so smooth and fast and it threaded all the way down right away. any ideas why the passenger side won't tighten down all the way? is it because there is no load/weight on the front suspension? would an air rachet solve this? cheers, steve.

 

[1969XR7Vert]

Just a thought, the shop that is going to splice this clip onto your car may not want all the "stuff" on it when they do so. I think I recall you writing that you are going to take the stuff back off, but it seems like a lot of work to put it all on and then take it back off only to be put back on later.

Why not get the clip put on the car prontisimo and go from there?

 

[70 Cougar]

Yes it's a bit more work but I want to learn and figure everything out myself. Plus I'm missing a couple items that I now need to order. It will just make everything go faster after the clip is finished. I want to pay the shop as little as possible and in the end I can say I did as much as I can on my own. It's only been 4 hours already and I got most of it on. I got parts all over the place from two years ago when I detailed them so the best way to figure out what I have and don't have is to preassemble for now and take it all apart in order and pachage it away in order, save me time and money at the shop. I know my next project will not have this much rust in it and I won't have to do this ever again LOL. Also my shop is booked up till July so I'm itching to get as much as I can get done now. It's been lots of fun thus far. I got lots of evening time to burn on this project lol. Cheers

 

[1969XR7Vert]

Have you asked the shop if they could put it on with all the stuff on it? If yes, then you could paint it up and put the parts on for good? It's your project, so what you decide is of course up to you, but I am left kind of scratching my head on this one!

Regards,

Bob

 

[70 Cougar]

My shop will also be doing the painting so it's got to come apart again. As well, there are still some holes that need to welded up on this front clip and I unfortunately can not weld. This project here of mine is way above my head for a first project lol. I agree, it's a bit of work to put it on and take it off but it's my first one and want to learn every little detail, buy the extra tools I need and I seem to learn better when I figure it out on my own time. I definitely want to restore more cars down the road so it's time to invest the time and tools into this car for the future ones down the road one day. It started out 3 years ago with I'll do a bit of painting in the engine bay and now it's snow ball'd into this...I guess you can call me WCI lol Cheers.

 

[Bad69cat]

You may want to consider buying a cheapy mig welder for doing the small simple stuff yourself. The first few shop bills would pay for it I'm sure. You can practice a bit on some sheet metal and what not until you get the hang of it....it's not hard. That way you can fab up littlle brackets and fix lots of seemingly silly things since you happen to have a welder! ;>0 No such thing as to many tools!

 

[70 Cougar]

Thought I would post some more pictures on progress. Got the control valve rebuilt and assembled pretty much the rest of the front suspension. Hope you like pictures lol

 

[70 Cougar]

 

[70 Cougar]

 

[70 Cougar]

 

[shercomike]

Great job!