Thanks for all your guys' help and advice in whether or not I should restomod my cougar. Your reaction was not unexpected and yes I have decided to keep the original look. Well I won't have the original color, Gold isn't really my color you know. I'll probably paint it black or there is this dark blue color on the new Porsche boxters that I like so I'll paint it something along those lines. Right now my seats are getting reupholstered at Bascom trim, they do some good work there. My real question now is what engine should I dump in my 68 cougar? Right now it has the original 302 with over 100,000 miles on it. My last cougar [1970] had a 351-W and it had some power. It had small performance up grades, nice intake and carb, but that was it, and it felt really powerful. The first thing I noticed about the 302 was how slow it felt, but it has no hi po stuff on it at all. What I want to do is build up my own engine, I’m thinking about buying a nice 351w short block, I’ll put in a nice cam and some nice heads and a edlebrock victor intake manifold with a nice Holley or demon carb. Then put on MSD distributor and control box. It sounds like it would make for some good horsepower but is this the right direction? The engine in there now is kind of on its last leg, black smoke comes out when the engine idles [probably a carburetion problem] and I want to be able to keep the engine and not mess it up being that it is the original block. Is the 351w a good idea or should I just keep the 302, and if so what are some good things I should get for it? Or, should I just get something else, my price range for the engine is around $5000. Thanks for everyone’s help and advice for my cougar, ya’ll are helping a lot [well no one has answered my post to see if mustang wheel openings will fit on cougars, but that’s all]. Anyway thanx a bunch
-Chad
-Chad