Old cars in my blood Part 2 - At the Sign of the Cat

Getting back to my history with owning old cars, here's some more on my Cougar obsession.

In an earlier post I showed a photo of my first Cougar, a very rare 1970 XR7 convertible with a 4-speed close ratio toploader transmission and 4-barrel 351 cleveland engine.

A very cool car that was just too far rusted out for me to restore myself.  It's in the hands of someone now who I hope will one day get it back to it's former glory.

Here are a few others:

Nitcat is the blue car on the end.

Nitcat - I bought this 1970 Cougar to use as a parts car, but it ran and drove and I quickly decided to license and insure it and start driving it all the time.  I had a lot of fun, learned a lot, and spent a lot keeping it on the road.  It got me up and back from Pennsylvania numerous times, although it also left me stranded lots of times too.  Eventually I parted it out because of all the rusty rot underneath the car.  It was worth more as parts than as a whole car, and I sold many pieces to members of our local club, the Delmarva Cougar Club, and sold other smaller parts on that auction site.

Yeller - This 1969 Cougar convertible came to me in 1999, and it was a lot of fun.  I drove it on sunny days and took it to some car shows and Cougar club events.  The paint and interior were not original to the car, and I eventually got tired of it after the engine and then the transmission gave out, and sold it a few years ago. When I got the car, it had all the chrome trim blacked out.  Over time I realized how awful that was, and changed the bumpers and some other pieces back to chrome.

This is one of my favorite shots of my daughter with Yeller soon after I got it.

 I sure wish the digital camera at the time had given me a higher resolution photo,

 she really looks cute in this shot.

I got on a stepladder to get this shot.

This was us arriving for a car show in 2000

This is what the '67 XR7 looked like the day we picked it up.

Barncat - This is the only Cougar I own now, and it's a fun car.  A 1967 Cougar XR7, it was built late in the first year of production, and is pretty rare because it is an XR7, the more plush model, but it has an optional 4-speed manual transmission connected to the original A-code 289 four barrel engine.  Most Cougars were sold with automatic transmissions.  This car also is rare because it was ordered without air conditioning, and also without power steering.

So far, I have rebuilt the front end of the car and lowered it a little by drilling new holes and repositioning the upper control arms, commonly called the "Shelby drop."  I also redid the brakes, put in a larger 1970 Cougar fuel tank and reinforced around the tank inside the trunk, scraped and cleaned under the car and painted those areas, installed a new hood and spoiler and trunklid, pulled the old carpet and cleaned and applied a brush on sound deadener to the floors of the car, installed Tri-Y headers and new side-exiting exhausts, and smoothed out the roof and door dings.  There's still a lot to do, but some day...

Here's the artist's concept of what the car could look like when I get it done.  

I found a guy online who drew this for me based on some photos I sent him.

So on one hand, it's got the luxury trim (XR7 included leather seats, burled walnut finish on interior trim parts, tachometer and different gauge cluster than in the standard Cougar, different door panels and overhead console which was really little more than a roof-mounted pair of map lights and some idiot lights).

On the other hand, this luxury car is missing not only air conditioning and automatic transmission, but also missing power steering, and it originally did not come with the center console (I've since acquired one from a good friend).  It's a great car and the four-speed manual shift makes it a lot of fun to drive, except in traffic.

I call this car Barncat for a couple reasons:  one, it has a real mangy look, with some surface rust and wear, some transplanted parts, and a dented rear quarter panel.  Two, it spent about 21 years of its life in a barn near Olney, Maryland, untouched!  I bought it after the seller got no bids two different times when he had it posted on that auction site.  The car has about 87,000 original miles on the odometer.  I went and looked at it and was amazed that underneath the car it was not all rusted out and rotten.  We settled on a deal and soon after that I sold off the 1970 Cougar convertible to make room and keep SWMBO from mutinying!

I referred to this cat as mangy, and I have some validation - when our club hosted the eastern Nationals for classic cougars in 2005, it got third place in the "Mangy Cat" division.  Yea, I was bummed it didn't get first place, but now I consider finishing 3rd even more cool!

I keep postponing plans to get the body work done on this car, but I really need to finish it.

Plans are to use a Trans Am racing color scheme that mimics this silver/red scheme used on the Bud Moore Cougars that barely lost out to the Mustangs in the 1967 Trans Am racing series.  It would be great to find an old car hauler like this to use for my Cougar.

I want to keep the XR7 interior close to stock looking, but do some mechanical, suspension, and paint modifications to make it look like a racer you could have bought off the showroom floor if it had ever been offered that way.  I would like to use the silver accent paint and combine it with a shade close to the Nordic blue the car originally came with.

So there you go, a quick run through of my love affair with Cougars.

 Maybe some day I can be like Dan Gurney or Parnelli Jones or David Pearson, who all drove Cougars in the Trans Am series.  Uncle Atom would look good painted above the driver's door, don't you think?

Hershey Pa. antique car road trip

Apologies for the long drought between posts again.  Work has had me on the road a lot this year.  So what do I do when I get a day off work?  Hit the road!

A friend and I spent the day Friday at the annual Antique Automobile Club of America annual fall meet and flea market at Hershey Park.  The weather was beautiful, and there were acres and acres of parts, automobilia, old bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, minibikes, and plenty of miscellaneous too.

You can find a lot of stuff that's not car parts, and if you like to people watch or want to get ideas for dialog for your next feature film or novel, go there!

Here are a few shots I took.

Mercury made this unusual "glass-topped" Sun Valley model in 1954 and 1955.

You see people carrying the wildest things.

All kinds of wheeled vehicles show up for sale, including this fire truck.

My big expenditure was a trickle battery charger to use on two of my old cars to keep the batteries from dying from lack of use.  There's some twisted logic in spending $100 to keep car batteries from going south before their time, but I get tired of having batteries die on me.  With this thing, I can maintain a very low charge to the batteries between starts.

We looked at cars for sale in the "car corral" and there were some real beauties.  My favorites are the 1957 Ford Thunderbirds - the last of the two-seater variety, and only that year had tail fins. (I just realized I didn't shoot any 57s, but here's a nice 56 in the corral).

I have a couple shots of the headlights and taillights on an early 60s Chrysler Imperial, which was immaculate. I love the beautiful details on these old cars, and the Imperial was among the most outstanding for detail inside and out.

Notice how these Imperial headlamps are not molded into the front tend but appear to float?  Very cool and unusual.  Sorry I didn't get more photos, but the owner wasn't there and it was too early in the morning to get decent images.

My best find of the day?  Tough call.

This autographed Miss Teen Detroit photo is cool (check that dress!)

 From what I know, the winner of Miss Teen America in 1967 was given a new Mercury Cougar.

These Esso Tiger bumper stickers must date from either 1968 or 1972 as they look like they were distributed around the time of a presidential election.  I love old decals, and I'll probably use one of these on my 1967 Cougar.

Another Cougar item was this unused contest flier - pretty cool unusual item.

Somewhere around here I have one of the plastic give-away cars shown here.

My other great find was this 1964 Mercury towing specifications brochure - it will be helpful when I finally have my 64 Park Lane convertible back on the road, because I want to use that car to tow the Shasta camper.

Here's a selection of photos from the day:

I didn't find it among this collection of auto emblem...

but I did find the Mercury script I was missing for the hood of my 63 Comet wagon with another vendor.

Somebody had welded this Mustang fastback's doors and front end into a single piece and made a funny car out of it.  Very unusual, because funny cars used a lightweight fiberglass version of the body.

A Datsun 260-Z

A very cool van owned by one of the vendors

This old van was huge, driven from Quebec!

I love the old Caddy's with chrome Dagmar bumpers

And since it was Hershey, there was the Kissmobile

If you made it this far, the Uncle(?)  sends a kiss your way...

Old cars in my blood Part 1

I haven't done many posts so far about my love for old cars, but don't let that fool you.  I was anxious to get behind the wheel of an old Ford from a very early age.

Within a couple years I had my first experience in the driver's seat.  Somehow I got away from my Mom one day, got down the steps and out to the car.  Opened the door, got behind the steering wheel and yanked it out of Park.  Couldn't find the darn keys but early 1960s cars didn't have a steering wheel lockout so you could move the shifter into reverse without a key.  I did, and managed to coast it down hill where I took out an old aluminum chaise lounge and smashed the garage door.  I think I was about 3 at that time.

My Dad started restoring Model T Fords by the time I was 9 or 10.  Not long after that he took me on a parts search to the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Fall Meet in Hershey, Pa. aka "Hershey" I was hooked on old cars.  Hershey is probably the Mecca of old car shows and flea markets.  You can wander down the aisles and find pretty much anything for any old car built in the last 120 years, or at least find someone who can help you find that part.

I remember taking a vacation from Pennsylvania to Wyoming and back in our 1974 Jeep pickup to camp, see the sights, and pick up some rust free Model T parts from a seller out west.  My Mom supported my Dad with his hobby, helping where she could and even letting him bring the freshly-painted body of his 1921 Model T touring car into the dining room through the sliding patio door, prop it up on sawhorses, and leave it set up that way for what seemed like a couple months while they reupholstered the body, seats, and installed the convertible top.  All in the dining room!  (Check out that knotty pine paneling by the way!!!)

My brother was big into cars when I was growing up (he was 15 years older than me) and he worked for a few years as an auto body repairman.  When I turned 16, he helped me pick out my first car - a 1970 Mustang convertible, dark metallic green with a white top and green interior.  It had a four-barrel 351 Cleveland engine and a Hurst 4-speed manual transmission.  I loved that car.  This is the only photo I have of it.

When the second gasoline crisis hit in 1978 and gas prices skyrocketed to about 75 cents a gallon, it got a lot more expensive for my fast food income, and eventually I parked the Mustang and took up driving a 1963 four-door Dodge Dart with a slant six engine and push-button automatic transmission.  Beige.  Ugly.  But it ran great and was a fun, simple car to own.  One winter I had it at my fraternity house and the alternator was going bad, so to keep it drivable I would plug in a battery charger and plug it in through a basement window.  I could get two or maybe three starts a day if I was lucky, but I didn't have to buy a battery.

After I graduated college Mom and Dad gave me their black 1977 Chrysler Cordoba.  (The only shot I have of that car is from my high school junior prom.  Like my wild and crazy grey tux?  Wish I still had that....much hair.)

No, the Cordoba didn't have fine corinthian leather, it had a gold velour interior. 400 cubic inch engine.  In-dash 8 track tape player and quadraphonic sound, great for cranking up the Doors or Led Zepplin. I drove it from Pa. to Arizona where I had my first real job.  It made it as far as Albuquerque before the catalytic converter crapped out.  I had a new one put in and it served me well in Phoenix for a year and a half before I sold it.  But I learned the hard way why no one in their right mind drives a black car in Phoenix.  You needed an oven mitt to open the door in the summer time!

I didn't get another old car until I was living here in the DC area in the early 1990s.  I had been looking for something cheap that would be fun to fix and drive. One Saturday I found an ad in the Post for a 1961 Mercury Comet for $600. The ad stated that it didn't run, but was in good shape and had only 5,300 original miles.  I hurried over to look at it and got the full story.  Grandma car, everyone was afraid to drive it after she got to old to drive, but they couldn't sell it until after she passed away.  I looked over the inside and there was almost no wear on the brake and clutch pedals, so I figured the mileage claim was probably true.  Heck, why would anyone lie about it to sell the car for only $600?

I got some help from my Dad when he was visiting us and we re-did the brakes, had the gas tank cleaned and sealed, rebuilt the carburetor and installed a new fuel pump and gave it new plugs, wires, and a tuneup.

After I got it back on the road, it wasn't long before I found a car I had to have, a Mercury Cougar version of that first Mustang I had sold years earlier.  The 1970 Cougar XR7 convertible had the same  351C 4v engine and Hurst four-speed manual transmission.  (It turned out that both cars were very rare - less than 70 of each were built with the 351c 4v and 4-speed combination in convertible form). There's nothing much more fun than driving a convertible with a manual transmission, shifting up and down with the wind in your face.

When I wanted to buy the Cougar, SWMBO said OK, but the Comet has to go.  I sold the Comet but have regretted it ever since.  I loved the Cougar, and it led me to buying several other Cougars and parts cars.  I'll get into Cougars more in a future post.