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Work Log Begins

My brother and I made the 3 hour drive to Kansas City, KS to purchase the car.  It was not in road worthy condition, so we carefully loaded it onto our trailer without the assistance of brakes, and headed for home.  Less than a week after bringing the car home, I underwent microscopic shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum.  Although I was not able to work on the car during my recovery, but I did manage to start collecting parts over the new few months.  I already had a black 1989 Cougar rolling chassis that my friend Raymond had given me for a lot of the parts, and managed to find a great deal on an OEM header panel, grille emblem, headlights, and a few other items.

December 17, 2006

1989 Mercury Cougar XR7

After sitting in storage for nearly 6 months, I have finally begun work on my XR7. I Didn't do a whole lot this weekend, but at least I was able to get the car out and asses the damage. I washed it down and pulled out the junk that was in the trunk. There was some crusty surface rust in the bottom of the trunk, so I cleaned that out and sprayed it down with Rustolem. The carpet is still drying in the mean time.

I plan to start by fixing the brakes. The master cylinder is leaking badly, so I'm just going to replace the whole unit with one out of my parts Cougar. Then it will be a full tune up, hoses, belts, reseal all of the IC connections, change the supercharger fluid and front seal, oil/filter change, motor mounts, etc. Then I plan to start on the interior, pulling the carpet for cleaning, and fixing up the seats. Then I will start on the front damage. I already have a black hood, fender, and bumper cover from the parts car, so I'll get all of that and the new headlights and such mounted up, and then have a friend buff it all out. It should look alright until I am able to get the whole car painted sometime down the road in a few years.  I have a hole in one of the tires, so that is why the wheels are mismatched currently.

June 11, 2007

Sadly I have not made much progress on my Cougar, but I have got a few things done this week. Last Saturday I was able to move enough of my dad's junk around to get the Cougar into the first stall of the main garage so it would be close to my tools and have a solid floor to work on. Since then I have managed to remove what was left of the header panel, front bumper cover, hood, and drivers fender. I gave it a quick bath tonight to get all the dirt and bird crap off of it before I tear into the motor for a little minor maintenance and TLC.

You can see in the pictures that the left side of the bumper took about 90% of the hit. My brother is picking up a 1994 Cougar parts car tomorrow, so I am hoping to just cut the bumper off of it and weld it into place on mine. Then I just need to straighten out the front support just in front of the battery a bit, hang the fender, hood, bumper cover, and other parts from the parts car.

Before that all happens though, I need to replace the brake master cylinder, reseal all the IC and blower connections, replace the blower snout seal, plugs, wires, belts, tensioners, and maybe motor mounts and valve cover gaskets. I'm hoping to have it back on the road by September 1.

July 26, 2007

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