At the sign of the cat...'69 Mercury Cougar convertible restomod

The cooling system, as I mentioned before, consumed a lot of my time this summer.  I installeda new DeWitt aluminum radiator and shroud (stealthy black), a PowerMaster alternator, DeltaPAG 16" brushless fan, upper and lower radiator hoses, heater hoses, heater core, FlowKooler aluminum water pump, 50/50 water/coolant,  and TMeyer TrackBoss high flow 180F Clevelaad thermostat and diverter.  Continuing my theme of robust reliability, I want this car to have rock steady cooling performance regardless of the driving conditions or weather.  After all of those changes the temps still creep up beyond my comfort level when in cruise traffic (low/no airflow).  The fan moves air but not enough apparently.  Quick drive at speed forces air through the radiator and brings the temp down.  Anyways, on to the pics...       

The last shot was me and the boys at the Detroit hydroplane races on Belle Isle.  Young one got shy and ducked down when I busted out the camera.  I did get a wave though! 

Wow... a blast from my past (sort of....)  back in the early 90s I worked for a restoration supply company(A1 Original and Obsolete) that the owner owned a 69 CJ Eliminator.... he never did restore it... sold it on.....   your's looks nice!

In reply to oldeskewltoy :

Ever thought about adding a small (tasteful) front spoiler to pack some more air through the radiator? It'd also make the car a bit more pleasant to drive at highway speeds....

Thanks oldskewltoy! 

Pushrod-I'm considering a slightly larger version of the Ford front spoiler made in aluminum by a friends fab shop.  Slightly deeper with a front splitter lip.  Powder coated black.  I know it will assist at speed but I need airflow at standstill/slow cruise. 

Thanks for the compliments racerdave600 and RossD!  I really appreciate them.

I'd twist the distributor to get some more initial advance and see if that makes a difference.  Late timing puts more combustion energy into the cooling system...

Cougars love Dan Gurney 

I always figured that the differential pressure between the front and rar of the rad told the tale of why it wont cool in traffic. You can push/pull all the air you want, but if there is no pressure gradient across the fins, it ain't gonna cool.

Whenever I've had a car with marginal cooling, adding Redline Water Wetter can make a big difference - as much as a 10 degree pull-down. Seems especially effective with larger V-8s.

Thanks for the thoughts on the cooling system issues I'm having guys.  Since summer is over I'm punting this one to next spring. 

Recently I had noticed a some pretty severe stumbling while at low speeds and a few stalls.  I cleaned the fuel filter then called FiTech phone support.  Their tech, who answered right away,  gave me some things to check and I ruled out fuel delivery as the issue.  The ignition was the next step.  When I bought the car it had a Mallory Uni-Lite distributor, MSD coil, and a ballast resistor in place.  I replaced the ignition wires when I replaced the plugs last summer as one terminal separated when I removed it from the plug.  I checked the Mallory module in the past and it checked out fine then and again this time.  MSD doesn't recommend that their oil filled coils be installed horizontally, which mine was.  It was mounted on the intake near the distributor and the ballast resistor was mounted right above the coil.  I hated the look and the messy wiring from the previous owner and wanted to remove it.  I also thought that the coil might be the issue.  I found a good deal a used MSD billet distributor, 6AL box, coil, and wires locally and made the swap yesterday.  Pictures forthcoming.  I marked the manifold with the rotor position them pulled the distributor which brought up the oil pump drive rod.  Getting the oil pump drive rod back in to the pump while picking the right starting position for te cam drive gear took some doing.  I dropped the rod out of the distributor a couple of times even after loading the hex end with grease to keep it in place.  With the distributor locked down, I moved on the finding a spot to mount the 6AL box and coil.  I used a sheet of heavy ABS for a mounting plate and cut it to shape.  I mounted the box and coil on rubber mounts then installed the entire assembly on rubber feet.  I picked up the MSD instructions online then wired the box.  It needed power and ground to the battery, keyed power, coil +/-, and a connection to the distributor.  I used the tech signal on the box to connect to the FiTech TB then gave her a start. Timing was off and she wouldn't run or idle well so I made some gross adjustments of the distributor and got her to run!  After a bit of warm up I got out the timing light and got her dialed in then off for a test drive.  Success!  No more stumbles or idle issues.  I need to clean p the wiring, replace the cap and rotor and open up plug gaps but she runs well again!       

What do you think about the FI Tech overall? i have a 445 stroker that im toying with adding the FI tech. Feel like the throttle response is good? Ease of installation?

New radiator, cool

So glad to see this project humming along.  

I've been following your Galaxie project Norma.  Very nice build and you're going way deeper than I am. 

I've been very pleased with the FiTech purchase.  The products look good and have worked well.  I'd recommend them to you based on my experience.  I didn't use the FCC as I chose to do an entirely new fuel system and that took time.  Installing the TB itself was easy and instructions were clear and easy to follow.  All the problems I had were self-inflicted and FiTech tech service has been very responsive and helpful every time I have called in.  The only re-occuring problem I seem to have is temperature related in that when the ambient is high (90F plus) I have seen the handheld display go blank.  The car runs fine and doesn't require the handheld controller to operate so it's not a huge deal.  The handheld is fine (checked via FiTech) and a new cable set didn't fix the problem.  I installed a 1" phenolic spacer under the TB to reduce heat gain in the TB but with winter on it's way I won't know if my efforts resolved the problem until next summer. 

At the time I purchased it, the Holley Sniper wasn't yet available and the MSD Atomic required the additional control box for installation so this was the best choice to me.  Throttle response is very good but my current combination of three speed manual trans and 2.70 rear diff don't make for a rocketship on launch.  The TKO-600 and 3.70 rear diff  going in this winter should help.    

Last Sunday used MSD stuff installation pics

Any reason you didn't spring for the FITECH to control the ignition timing?

The system I have GO-EFI 600HP can (and will) control timing with all of these components.  I was running out of time to get the car running Sunday so I finished the install without switching over to timing control.  As I bought the pieces used I wanted to verify everything worked before I opened up the distributor to lock out mechanical advance and changed wiring to use the Fitech timing control.  It is in the long term plan now that everything works and the car runs.   

From what I understand from reading Mazduece's Grosh thread I'm about to experience a major life changing event.  I bought a MaxJax last night!

Picking up my MaxJax this afternoon!  Pics to follow of installation.

Yesterday I removed the passenger window as the 50 year old adhesive FoMoCo used to bond the glass to the mechanism had failed.  Pulled the window, cleaned it up and applied the correct 3M epoxy adhesive.  The adhesive had failed for a previous owner and it was repaired incorrectly so I spent a lot of time cleaning and preparing the glass and die cast bracket.  I applied the adhesive yesterday and everything looks good today.  I found some other incorrect repairs when I was in the door so I'm sorting those out tonight and ordering the necessary parts.    

Well winter in Detroit has been cold and my motivation has been lacking but today I got back in motion.  Did some garage cleaning and sorting of parts today while she idled nicely in the background.  The soft burble of a V8 in the background made me smile.

I recently picked up some parts I had stripped and re-chromed.  That's not a grassroots repair bill but the parts-side view mirror base and rear license plate frame pieces-came out beautifully!  Pics coming soon.  I'm replacing the Mercury crest on the fuel door cover with a piece of red plexiglas and chrome/black "GT" diecast emblem letters from a '68 Mustang.  Subtle change that I think I'll like...I hope.  I need to get the mirror heads stripped and repainted so I can re-install the drivers mirror and mount a passenger mirror for the first time on the car.

While not in complete alignment with my vision for the car, I'm replacing the stock, sear the skin off the back of your legs in the  summer time, vinyl seats with two Recaro Sports I had purchased and used in my SVX while I was autocrossing it.  Gets them out of the basement which makes SWMBO happy.  I'm re-doing door cards and the back seat as the original stitching in the seats has been coming loose under the onslaught of the boys and the door cards have been delaminating and warping due to age and moisture.  The rear seat and door card will use a mix of vinyl and alcantara/ultrasuede to match the Recaro seats.

Tomorrow I'm picking up a 9" rear axle assembly to strip and rebuild.  Spring is coming and I'm itching to drive her again.      

Concrete work kicked off for the lift install.  I hope to have that done, temperature permitting, in the next two weeks.

Today I worked on putting the mirrors back together.  I picked them up from the painter Friday.  I had to work out the cable tensioning mechanism for the drivers side while in the hardware aisle at ACE.  I don't want to cut a hole in the door panel skin and the cable on the mirror mechanical mechanism was cut. 

The difference in chrome trim from the offshore, aftermarket passenger side to the show quality refinished drivers side is yuge!  Good thing they're on opposite sides of the car!  I was going to install the passenger mirror tonight but the thought of drilling holes in the passenger door when it was 40F in the garage had me concerned about cracking the paint when I punched the door.  

Here are the 4 pieces I had stripped, polished and chromed the day I delivered them to the shop.  

Various mirror shots.