On The Road Again!

I took the day off from work today to get my 1967 Mercury Cougar back on the road for the end of the summer and the last couple of months of the car show season.

Yesterday, I scheduled an appointment at Patterson Tire and Service Center for 9:00 a.m. where I had two new tires installed last month (see previous post). With the odometer reading 52,882, I arrived at Patterson Tire and Service Center just before 9 a.m. and they got the Cougar in about 9:30 a.m. As I waited, they worked on the alignment and eventually took the car for a test drive when completed. Brian advised after the test drive that the car still pulled slightly to the left - likely due to a brake caliper sticking, but also advised that the numbers on the alignment looked very good. That made me happy since last weekend I had a done the necessary work myself.

I decided to drive the Cougar the rest of the day and eventually put nearly 100 miles "testing" it out. I drove out near Lambert Airport to Grand America Jukebox and see the proprietor, Jeff Statler, to check on the progress of the work on our 1962 AMi Continental II jukebox that we bought back in February. As an aside, that project is going well except for a problem with some amplifier issues. Hopefully it's done soon because we're ready to start rocking!

Then, I drove into the city to have lunch with my wife at Pappy's Smokehouse. Mmmmm! We spoke to the owner a couple of times and he was very nice! The staff was very friendly and I am already ready for a return visit! I wish this place was closer to where I worked so I could eat there more often. Thanks for a fun lunch sweetie!

After we got back to my wife's work we showed off the Cougar to a couple of her co-workers, Paul and Nathan. Paul advised that it would be cool if I could get the lids on the headlights to wink at girls. Funny... but, somehow I don't think I'll be working on that project anytime soon. I drove back home and finally, I drove to pick up my daughter at the babysitters' house and returned home.

The Cougar drove admirably without issue and I was very happy. I am starting to think that the Cougar is almost ready for a road trip.

Caged Cougar

Currently, the Cougar is confined to it's cage - or the garage. No, it's not being cagey, in a cage match to the death, or even honing it's basketball skills; I should just say that it's parked. I'll explain -- When I had the tires replaced two weeks ago at Patterson Tire and Service the technician took me in the garage to show me why the tires were wearing in the first place. The technician showed me that there was a considerable amount of play in the idler arm causing the alignment to be off and thereby causing the inside edges of both front tires to wear badly. The rubber gasket on the idler arm was worn down to the size of a flat washer! He jerked the idler arm up and down and it had a 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch worth of movement up and down instead of being tight.

I did some research (if you know me you're probably really surprised here) and the plan is to replace the idler arm and the export brace on the Cougar to tighten up the front end and make sure the alignment true. The idler arm replacement is obviously a must, but you may be asking why the export brace. If you weren't asking I'm going to tell you anyway. Originally, Ford made braces in two pieces and they extend from the shock towers on both sides of the engine compartment diagonally to the firewall. However, on Shelby Mustangs and vehicles that Ford produced for export from the United States the braces were one piece instead of two. This kept the shock towers from flexing as much. See picture below for the one piece brace:

I priced these two pieces at Mustang Corral in Edwardsville and they quoted me $69.99 for an idler arm replacement (PN C7ZZ-3350-BR) from Scott Drake Enterprises and the export brace (PN C5ZZ-16A052-E) is $49.99 for a one piece replacement painted black. They also have a chromed version of the export brace, but I like the look of the black engine compartment with chrome on the engine only. I think that the engine pops more while surrounded by the all black engine compartment.

So, until I have time to buy these parts and replace them the Cougar sits so I don't wear out a new set of front tires too fast.

*SIGH*

New Front Skins for the Cougar

Last Friday, I decided I was going to do an oil change on the 1967 Cougar. I was going to a car show the next day at Culvers and needed to clean the car and thought I would take care of this too. Having bought the car in April, I had not checked the fluids since then, but I had found no sizable spots on the garage floor and the previous owner told me he had changed the oil the night before I bought the car. So, I get the car up on the ramps and put down a piece of cardboard and climb underneath to drain the oil. The first thing I notice is that the inside edges on both tires are worn down to the belts!

Damn!

I was planning to go to the car show on Saturday night with Mary and Elsie and now the car was potentially unsafe. After discussing the situation with Mary, she said she did not feel comfortable riding in the car. Overall, I couldn't blame her, the Cougar has no airbags and the seat belts are only lap belts, but I felt like things were going from bad to worse. To make matters worse even if we did have a blowout I could not have changed any of the tires because the wheels had wheel locks and I did not have the key. Furthermore, the spare tire in the trunk looks like it's the 1967 original! The plans for Saturday night were on hiatus.

For some reason, a previous owner had installed Firestone black walled tires on the front, but the tires on the back were BF Goodrich Radial T/A with raised white letters. The rear tires still had lots of tread left, so I decided to make all four match and just buy two tires. The Firestone tires were 195 70 R14 so I decided to try to get that same size.

At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, I called Autotire and they said because there was no longer a demand for tires like this they would have to order them. I started looking at the Internet and phone book. Most of the other tire shops opened at 8 a.m. so it gave me some time to do some quick research. I decided to look for independent tire shops so I wasn't calling a chain that was worried about volume and a shop that advertised they carried the BF Goodrich brand. After some research I found that Patterson Tire & Service Center not only carried most major brands but also carried Mickey Thompson Performance Tires. Now, I thought I had a good chance with this shop.

After 8 a.m. I called and spoke to Brian and I asked if they had any of the exact size to match what I had. He said he did not. Undeterred, I asked if they had any tires that were 205 70 R14. A little less sidewall, but not a big change. He checked and they had 6 in stock! I asked if he could replace them that day and he asked if I could come in at 10:30 a.m. Excitedly, I confirmed this was fine and got off the phone.

After breakfast and some morning errands, I showed up to Patterson Tire just before the scheduled appointment. The guys there were all very nice and even took me into the shop to show me why the tires were wearing. The idler arm bushing was almost non-existent and the size of a flat washer. You could move the whole assembly up and down with your hands! Not good. The technician advised that I should replace all the rubber and bushings with polyurethane. I advised that I did not have the key for the lugs and he said he could get them off, but they would be hard. I told him that if he only had time for the front two locking nuts that would be fine, but it would be great if he could get the back two off as well. He said he thought he had 4 lug nuts that would work and he went to work.

After about an hour at the shop I had two new tires, 4 lug nuts, and a receipt. I was on my way home by 11:30 a.m. I got home and had some lunch and spent a couple hours in the afternoon on cleaning up the car for the show. I found great satisfaction on scrubbing the blue protection off the raised white letters on the new tires and cleaning the lettering on the existing tires. The Cougar was ready to go!

That night we went to the show, saw some family and friends, had some ice cream, and had a great time!