Looks like a car that is fun to drive. More useful than a trailer queen to me. Well done. I've put over 40,000 miles on my 1969 Cyclone in the 36 years I've owned it. Thanks for including the Guess Who in the video.
Thank you! That's exactly what I'm going for with this build. A car thats fun to drive hard. It's great to hear you're still putting miles on the Cyclone, love those cars!
Cool car. I changed out my 3-speed to a T-5z in my '69. I also kept my manual brakes which I really like. I did go with the Borgeson power steering though. The manual steering was just a bit too much manual for me.
Thanks! I can definitely understand the manual steering being too much. If I still drove it daily into town I could see myself getting tired of it pretty quickly. How do you like your Borgeson system?
@@Justin666i, I appreciate that! Yep, the Cougars have lived under the Mustangs shadow for their entire life which has led to some interesting conversations at the gas pump haha. They did quite well in the 1967 Trans-Am racing series, almost beating the Mustangs, but Ford pulled the plug so that the Mustang would win that year. So I'm planning to build the car with a lot of inspiration from the original race cars but with a few changes here and there and with some degree of streetability in mind.
Since a year ago i fell in love with the 1967 Mercury Cougar and im looking to buy one but the problem is im from Belgium.... there are no cougars on marketplace, only 2 on a local 2nd hand website one for 16.000 euros that needs a paintjob and probably has some rust, it has a 289 windsor with a automatic transmission so nothing special... the other one is listed for 30.000 euros and looks almost perfect it also has a 289 windsor but with a 4 speed manual so also nothing special but atleast its a manual. it will also be so so so hard to find parts for it like a manual transmission. my point is... im gonna have a hard time but i will not give up on the dream of having a cougar. also looking forward for the next video's of ur cougar :).
Hello, those both sound like they could be great cars for you! My car was essentially the first car you described, 289 with an automatic and some rust issues. It's been a driving project from day one, but I learned a lot by fixing it and modifying it. There's still a lot to do to it, but I enjoy it. So if you really enjoy working on cars and learning, the cheaper car might be a good driving project for you. With that being said, I can totally understand going for the perfect manual car with the parts shortage over there. I imagine shipping costs on large pieces of sheet metal and transmissions would be quite immense internationally. I hope you keep up the search for one! Thanks for the comment and follows my friend and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!
I dig the car. Followed so I can keep up with this if it evolves into something more. Less fidgeting and more eye contact should come with getting more comfortable in front of the camera.
Thank you so much for the follow, its greatly appreciated! More content is in the works for this year, so hopefully I'll be getting more comfortable in the next few videos haha.
Hello! I recently got a 67 XR-7 manual everything as well, including the choke. I was considering rack and pinion or borgenson eventually. Its nice to hear something positive about the manual steering. 67 seems to be an odd year for aftermarket. It was a bit tricky getting it into the garage, with manual steering and drum brakes, its a tight fit. Tearing out the interior and on a rust hunt atm. Please what suspension, brakes, wheel and tires sizes do you have? I really like the stance of yours? Thank you!!
Hey, great to hear from a fellow Cougar owner! Manual choke is something I forgot to cover in this video, but I did end up switching to it after my electric choke started going bad. I was able to hide the cable handle where the cigarette lighter normally goes. Yep, manual steering can definitely make tight spaces a bit more tricky but I really enjoy the new steering feel enough to put up with it. I haven't driven a Borgenson or rack & pinion converted Mustang/Cougar yet, so I can't comment much on them, but I'm sure either would be a nice upgrade! Up front I'm running cut down Grab-A-Trac GT springs with Koni shocks and a Shelby Drop on the upper control arms. The front springs I cut down per Mike Maiers video as a guide. In the rear I'm running factory worn out leaf springs with 1" drop blocks. One caveat with the drop blocks is that Cougars have rubber isolator pads on the leaf springs that Mustangs don't have and all the kits are geared towards Mustangs. Effectively the rubber pads end up being a 1" drop block on their own, so if you remove the pads and use the blocks in place of them you haven't really changed anything. With that being said, once you stack the lowering blocks on top of the rubber isolators, you'll find the U-bolts that come with the kit end up being too short to work. So I had to order some custom U-bolts to make it work. It works and drives fine, but I think others have made custom lowering blocks that would be considered more "proper". I will look into making a video to go into this in more detail in the future. Brakes for now are still factory disc up front and drum in the rear. In the future I do plan to upgrade to the larger Lincoln style discs up front and doing a disc conversion on the rear. Wheels are American Racing Torque Thrust D's, 15x7 front with 235/60R15's and 15x8 255/60R15's on the rear. Thanks for the comment, and let me know if you have more questions!
@@boolersofficial Thanks for the info! My leaf springs are rusty and was considering buying new ones that are dropped. Any chance you bought wheels and tires from a national chain that has online selection? Most of the ones around me, their sites cant handle looking up 67 cougar wheel tire combo.
@@digitalwitch1111, No problem! Yep, I bought my wheels from Summit Racing. I spent some time searching around forums to see what would fit before ordering my setup. I did roll my fenders, so if you have the fender chrome trim pieces and want to keep them you might want go with a more conservative set up.
Ya know, for having 7 videos and less than 60 subs, this one is doing ok. You just showed up after a Freiburger video. I dig the Cougar, and I am pretty sure all of them came with power steering and brakes. Let me tell ya, finding parts to fix the booster and steering 35 to 40 years ago was a HUGE pain. My first car was a 67 A code automatic Cougar. Bought it when I was 13 way back in 1982. Yeah I am old. Still have it, but haven't driven it since 1987. I repainted it in 2008, after it sat for 20 years in primer and bare metal, and now it needs it again, but I am a lot better at it now. Put a 351C in it, because I have four of them and I liked the power I got from them in the 80s and early 90s, before I got big into Pontiac. Been thinking I should go manual transmission, just to make it more fun. I got away from clutches because my Pontiacs 455s like to break manual transmissions. Put a TKX in my 65 GTO back in September, after making a Th350 hate its life, and breaking a bunch of 700R4s I rebuilt for it. Have an extra 6-71 blower sitting here, I think that would make the Cougar lots of fun with a 4V Cleveland. Already decided to ditch the power steering, not sure which way I will go yet, but its definitely going manual. I subscribed so you can keep making Cougar content and motivate me to get mine back in the shop and make it drivable again.
We were quite surpised with the way the video took off as well, looking at the analytics a lot of viewers came from Steve Dulcich's recent Cougar video. Thanks for letting us know how you came across it! Man, it's been great to hear from fellow Cougar owners! Sounds like you'll have yourself a pretty wicked car with that drivetrain setup in it. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm certainly enjoying the all manual setup. It makes for a great driving therapy session. I'm not sure if you've watched much from Craig909 with the white F100, but I'd like to do a very similar engine and transmission setup with this car. I have a few small blocks laying around that I'd like to make use of. I'm sure you know, but parts have definitely become a lot easier to find especially with the help of West Coast Classic Cougars for the stuff that hasn't been reproduced yet. There's also so much more sheet metal available for them now to from Dynacorn. Definitely not as great as OEM I'm sure, but its something! Thank you so much for comment and subscribing, it means so much to us! I'm going to try my best to keep the Cougar content coming through out the year!
Keep that Cougar content coming.
Looks like a car that is fun to drive. More useful than a trailer queen to me. Well done. I've put over 40,000 miles on my 1969 Cyclone in the 36 years I've owned it. Thanks for including the Guess Who in the video.
Thank you! That's exactly what I'm going for with this build. A car thats fun to drive hard. It's great to hear you're still putting miles on the Cyclone, love those cars!
I put a t5 in my 71 cougar and love it....about to do some Viking front coilovers next....
Cool car. I changed out my 3-speed to a T-5z in my '69. I also kept my manual brakes which I really like. I did go with the Borgeson power steering though. The manual steering was just a bit too much manual for me.
Thanks! I can definitely understand the manual steering being too much. If I still drove it daily into town I could see myself getting tired of it pretty quickly. How do you like your Borgeson system?
I do like it. It’s a night and difference. The ratio is also a bit closer than the stock manual box so it tightens things up too.
That car is tough
Thanks man!
@boolersofficial I didn't know this car existed and I thought I was pretty knowledgeable, it's a really nice car are there more plans for it?
@@Justin666i, I appreciate that! Yep, the Cougars have lived under the Mustangs shadow for their entire life which has led to some interesting conversations at the gas pump haha. They did quite well in the 1967 Trans-Am racing series, almost beating the Mustangs, but Ford pulled the plug so that the Mustang would win that year. So I'm planning to build the car with a lot of inspiration from the original race cars but with a few changes here and there and with some degree of streetability in mind.
Since a year ago i fell in love with the 1967 Mercury Cougar and im looking to buy one but the problem is im from Belgium.... there are no cougars on marketplace, only 2 on a local 2nd hand website one for 16.000 euros that needs a paintjob and probably has some rust, it has a 289 windsor with a automatic transmission so nothing special... the other one is listed for 30.000 euros and looks almost perfect it also has a 289 windsor but with a 4 speed manual so also nothing special but atleast its a manual. it will also be so so so hard to find parts for it like a manual transmission. my point is... im gonna have a hard time but i will not give up on the dream of having a cougar. also looking forward for the next video's of ur cougar :).
Hello, those both sound like they could be great cars for you! My car was essentially the first car you described, 289 with an automatic and some rust issues. It's been a driving project from day one, but I learned a lot by fixing it and modifying it. There's still a lot to do to it, but I enjoy it. So if you really enjoy working on cars and learning, the cheaper car might be a good driving project for you. With that being said, I can totally understand going for the perfect manual car with the parts shortage over there. I imagine shipping costs on large pieces of sheet metal and transmissions would be quite immense internationally. I hope you keep up the search for one! Thanks for the comment and follows my friend and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions!
I dig the car. Followed so I can keep up with this if it evolves into something more. Less fidgeting and more eye contact should come with getting more comfortable in front of the camera.
Thank you so much for the follow, its greatly appreciated! More content is in the works for this year, so hopefully I'll be getting more comfortable in the next few videos haha.
Hello! I recently got a 67 XR-7 manual everything as well, including the choke. I was considering rack and pinion or borgenson eventually. Its nice to hear something positive about the manual steering. 67 seems to be an odd year for aftermarket. It was a bit tricky getting it into the garage, with manual steering and drum brakes, its a tight fit. Tearing out the interior and on a rust hunt atm. Please what suspension, brakes, wheel and tires sizes do you have? I really like the stance of yours? Thank you!!
Hey, great to hear from a fellow Cougar owner! Manual choke is something I forgot to cover in this video, but I did end up switching to it after my electric choke started going bad. I was able to hide the cable handle where the cigarette lighter normally goes. Yep, manual steering can definitely make tight spaces a bit more tricky but I really enjoy the new steering feel enough to put up with it. I haven't driven a Borgenson or rack & pinion converted Mustang/Cougar yet, so I can't comment much on them, but I'm sure either would be a nice upgrade!
Up front I'm running cut down Grab-A-Trac GT springs with Koni shocks and a Shelby Drop on the upper control arms. The front springs I cut down per Mike Maiers video as a guide. In the rear I'm running factory worn out leaf springs with 1" drop blocks. One caveat with the drop blocks is that Cougars have rubber isolator pads on the leaf springs that Mustangs don't have and all the kits are geared towards Mustangs. Effectively the rubber pads end up being a 1" drop block on their own, so if you remove the pads and use the blocks in place of them you haven't really changed anything. With that being said, once you stack the lowering blocks on top of the rubber isolators, you'll find the U-bolts that come with the kit end up being too short to work. So I had to order some custom U-bolts to make it work. It works and drives fine, but I think others have made custom lowering blocks that would be considered more "proper". I will look into making a video to go into this in more detail in the future. Brakes for now are still factory disc up front and drum in the rear. In the future I do plan to upgrade to the larger Lincoln style discs up front and doing a disc conversion on the rear. Wheels are American Racing Torque Thrust D's, 15x7 front with 235/60R15's and 15x8 255/60R15's on the rear.
Thanks for the comment, and let me know if you have more questions!
@@boolersofficial Thanks for the info! My leaf springs are rusty and was considering buying new ones that are dropped. Any chance you bought wheels and tires from a national chain that has online selection? Most of the ones around me, their sites cant handle looking up 67 cougar wheel tire combo.
@@digitalwitch1111, No problem! Yep, I bought my wheels from Summit Racing. I spent some time searching around forums to see what would fit before ordering my setup. I did roll my fenders, so if you have the fender chrome trim pieces and want to keep them you might want go with a more conservative set up.
5 Speed is better, nice car, and a beauty.
Thank you for the kind words, they are much appreciated!
cheese.
Kase.
Ya know, for having 7 videos and less than 60 subs, this one is doing ok. You just showed up after a Freiburger video. I dig the Cougar, and I am pretty sure all of them came with power steering and brakes. Let me tell ya, finding parts to fix the booster and steering 35 to 40 years ago was a HUGE pain.
My first car was a 67 A code automatic Cougar. Bought it when I was 13 way back in 1982. Yeah I am old. Still have it, but haven't driven it since 1987. I repainted it in 2008, after it sat for 20 years in primer and bare metal, and now it needs it again, but I am a lot better at it now. Put a 351C in it, because I have four of them and I liked the power I got from them in the 80s and early 90s, before I got big into Pontiac.
Been thinking I should go manual transmission, just to make it more fun. I got away from clutches because my Pontiacs 455s like to break manual transmissions. Put a TKX in my 65 GTO back in September, after making a Th350 hate its life, and breaking a bunch of 700R4s I rebuilt for it. Have an extra 6-71 blower sitting here, I think that would make the Cougar lots of fun with a 4V Cleveland. Already decided to ditch the power steering, not sure which way I will go yet, but its definitely going manual.
I subscribed so you can keep making Cougar content and motivate me to get mine back in the shop and make it drivable again.
We were quite surpised with the way the video took off as well, looking at the analytics a lot of viewers came from Steve Dulcich's recent Cougar video. Thanks for letting us know how you came across it!
Man, it's been great to hear from fellow Cougar owners! Sounds like you'll have yourself a pretty wicked car with that drivetrain setup in it. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm certainly enjoying the all manual setup. It makes for a great driving therapy session. I'm not sure if you've watched much from Craig909 with the white F100, but I'd like to do a very similar engine and transmission setup with this car. I have a few small blocks laying around that I'd like to make use of. I'm sure you know, but parts have definitely become a lot easier to find especially with the help of West Coast Classic Cougars for the stuff that hasn't been reproduced yet. There's also so much more sheet metal available for them now to from Dynacorn. Definitely not as great as OEM I'm sure, but its something!
Thank you so much for comment and subscribing, it means so much to us! I'm going to try my best to keep the Cougar content coming through out the year!
Mine was built with manual everything. No A/C either. 69 M-code XR7. Ordered that way from the factory.