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Jeff's 1970 Standard
Cougar Convertible
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By Jeff Giffen |
| This is the story of my
cat as only I can tell it. The story of my car is much longer than
what I can put on this page so I will just give you the highlights.
I am the second owner of this 70. |
| THE BEGINNING! |
| My father and I began our
search for a car when I was 14 years old and we had looked at plenty of
Mustangs, Cameros and Firebirds. What I really wanted was a
convertible. One Sunday my father showed me an ad that read
"1970 Cougar, runs, make offer" and we decided to take a
look. When we showed up the car probably belonged in a junk yard
because the ad was false advertising--the car didn't even run and had
plenty of rust; but it was a convertible. So an offer was made and
we were the proud owners of a Cougar for $1,550. Coincidently my
father had owned a Cougar when he was younger and I fell in love with
them. I had always admired his 1970 Medium Metallic Blue
"M" code with hounds tooth and factory spoiler. If you are
wondering where my father's car is now it was totaled by my mother when I
was very young. You will notice the color is red. Not an
original color, the previous owner of the car thought all convertibles
should be red, so Walla!! The original color of the car was the Dark
Green Metallic. |
I can remember the ad reading "1970 Cougar,
runs, make offer"
The original color of the car was Dark Green
Metallic. |
| THE FIRST ACCIDENT (yes
there are more) |
| The day after we brought
the car home I decided to start the car up without actually sitting in the
car. Unfortunately the car was in reverse and the neutral safety
switch was not working. The car flew out of the garage in reverse
and destroyed my dad's Jaguar XJ6 and hit the rear end of my mom's Triumph
TR8. Fortunately my cat only had a couple of scratches and a broken
lens thanks to good old American steel! That's how I got my first
job, when my dad came home the only thing he had to say was that I was
going to fix his Jag. I ended up working at a Jaguar Restoration
shop for the next four years, hence enjoying doing all of the work on my
car myself. |
 So
my dad and I got the car running and I used it as a daily driver all
through high school and a couple of years in college. You can see it
to the right with it's first paint job, a Porsche color called Minerva
Blue. And then in 1992 the second accident happened.... |
| THE SECOND
ACCIDENT (and hopefully the last) |
| I was on my
lunch break and driving down a major street when a woman in a Nissan
4-door pulled out in front of me. As you all know a 1970 Cougar
doesn't stop that easily so when the car went into a skid the rear end
took out the Nissan's entire front end. Then my cat decided to go
off-road and cross the median to turn a Honda into a horseshoe. I
couldn't open the doors after the wreck so I had to jump out of the
top. I was already in tears. When we finally got the doors
open the car actually broke in half. Yes, that's right, broke in
half. So after a long fight with the insurance company the
restoration of my car began and this time I was going to do it right. |
| THE
RESTORATION |
| The
restoration of my cat was, as you would expect, taking everything off the
car and either fixing it, replacing it or restoring it. During this
period of the ownership of my car I tried to keep the car as original as
possible. Here are some before and after pics: |
Floor
Pans Before
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Floor
Pans After
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Engine
Compartment Before
 |
Engine
Out of Car
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|
Engine After
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Interior After
 |
| So this is what I ended up with after
repainting with a Ford original Medium Metallic Blue and complete chassis
restoration. |
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Currently this is what my
cat looks like. It is getting a new paint job, AOD transmission,
4bbl carburetor and manifold, ram air intake, hood scoop, new seat covers,
new doors and misc. other stuff. New pictures will be posted when I
am finished! FOLLOW THE PROGRESS AT http://www.1restoration.com
on the works in progress page. |
|
1970 Standard
Cougar Convertible |
|
Model Year:
Body Style:
Engine:
Transmission:
Axle:
Factory Options: |
1970
Standard
351 Cleveland, 2bbl
FMX
3.00:1 Open
Dk. Green Metallic Paint
Ginger Comfort Weave Interior
Black Conv. Top
Power Disc Brakes
Air Conditioning
Racing Mirrors
Power Steering
Rear window glass |
|
Added Features: |
Mallory Distributor
Tan cloth convertible top
Medium Metallic Blue Paint
AM/FM CD Player and speakers
Magnum 500 Wheels
AOD
Transmission
Edelbrok 4bbl Intake
Holley 600 cfm Carb
FPA Headers |
| Future
Plans: |
Ram-Air and Scoop
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