Reprinted from TCP Magazine courtesy of TCCN
http://www.TheClassicCougarNetwork.com
CAT SNAP!
December, 2001
.
| If you've been hanging around TCCN for any length of time, you know Royce Peterson. He's our go-to tech guy for performance issues, especially those involving Ford big blocks. |  |
| How did Royce get to be a big block expert? Well, Royce likes to go fast . . . really fast. And if you want to go really fast in a classic Cat, you need a big block. Ergo, Royce has made it his business to know just about everything there is to know about big block FE engines and how to make them go really fast. |
| Knowing this, you'd
expect Royce to have a quick Cougar or two in his garage. He does,
including a couple of GT-Es, but this Cat Snap is about the sleeper of
the litter: a 1968-1/2 XR-7 CJ-428.
That's right, a 1968-1/2 XR-7. While that may not have been a Lincoln-Mercury designation, it is Royce's and it fits. If you've studied up on Cougar history, you know that L-M dropped the 427 engine from their line-up half way through the 1968 model year. |
 |
| For most Cougar fans, the loss of the 427 wasn't a big deal because the only way you could get one was in a GT-E. However, the 427's replacement was a big deal, because it came in the form of 428 Cobra Jet and you could order it in any Cougar. That meant that Cougar muscle car performance wasn't just for GT-E owners anymore. Now anyone who came up with the bucks to buy Cougar could play hardball with the 400+ cube big boys. Best of all, you could have a CJ-428 car that looked like any other Cougar, except for the Ram-Air hood scoop. Talk about a street racer's dream car! |
| To
a dyed in the wool street racer like Royce, a relatively docile looking
1968 Cougar with CJ performance was too much to resist, so several years
ago he began his search for such a car. It took a while and some
help help fellow GT-E enthusiast, Jim Pinkerton, but in 1998, Royce
found exactly what he was looking for in British Columbia, Canada.
What Jim and Royce found was a factory CJ-428/C6 equipped Cat with less than 60,000 miles on the clock. The car had been built late in the model year and was shipped from Dearborn to Universal Ford Lincoln-Mercury in Calgary, Alberta on July 20, 1968. |
 |
| That was the good news. The bad news was that the current owner had purchased the '68 because he needed a numbers matching CJ motor for a 1969 convertible restoration. As for the rest of the car, Royce says, "Someone had repainted it in Black Cherry, which looks good but the car's original hue is Cardinal Red. There was also a set of bias ply tires that were so flat-spotted that the car hopped up and down above 40 MPH! Other problems included a bad brake booster, leaking radiator and collision damaged radiator core support. The heater core was bypassed and disconnected. Most of the chrome was pitted and the rubber external seals were oversprayed during the Black Cherry paint job. The rear valance, while externally appearing fine, was packed with Bondo. A lot of things on the car were just screwed up--wiring harnesses cut and spliced in several places, for example." |
| After
replacing, cleaning and touching up the trim and appearance parts, Royce
tackled the biggest challenge offered by this restoration: Finding
a correct CJ-428 to replace the original, which now resides under the
hood of a Canadian '69 rag top.
Royce describes the search like this, "Parts for this engine came from friends all over the country including machine work and short block assembly by Jack Tarner of Owasso, Oklahoma. A correct date coded 735 CFM Holley and ram air components were purchased from Hank Huisman of Florida. I assembled the engine and installed it in the XR-7's freshly painted engine bay." |
 |
| Other new parts included a correct fan and fan clutch, new motor mounts, new hoses and belts. A new four core radiator came from Mustang Country in Paramount, California. The heater assembly was replaced with a good original sourced from John Benoit at Cascade Classics. The interior needed only a good cleaning--surprising for a 30 year old car. The bias ply tires were swapped in favor of Goodyear Eagle radials. Front suspension parts were replaced as required and the brakes, u-joints and rear axle bearings replaced as well. |
| Was Royce's '68-1/2 CJ XR-7 really worth all the effort that has gone into its restoration so far? Royce answers with an emphatic YES, and explains why, "The 1968-1/2 CJ-428 represents a very rare car. Only about 260 Cougars, including a total of 37 GT-Es, received the Cobra Jet 428 engine during the 1968 model year. The fact that all of them were equipped with Ram Air induction, certainly adds to the under hood appeal." |  |
| In addition to being a rare Cat, this Cougar came from the factory with an attractive color scheme--Cardinal Red with a Parchment interior and black vinyl top. Royce plans to restore the exterior color when time permits. |
| Then there's the performance issue, which was what attracted Royce to this car in the first place. Royce says, "Ask anyone who has driven a 428 CJ, the performance is outstanding. Mercury didn't just install a big engine, they also beefed up the shock towers with extra wrap around support plates, installed a big 15/16" sway bar and provided a beefy 31 spline 9-inch rear axle in all the 428CJ Cougars. It makes for one impressive package when combined with the XR-7 instrumentation and Cougar styling." |  |
| Beyond restoring the
exterior color, Royce's plans for his '68-1/2 CJ are fairly straight
forward. In his words, "The car will be driven and not be
concours trailered as long as I own it. This Cat is too much fun
to drive!"
When Royce says the car will be driven, he isn't kidding. This CJ is his main transportation and goes to work with him every day. However, he says that, since his move from California to Kentucky, he will garage the CJ from the first snowfall until Spring to avoid any contact with salt. |
| Royce also drives his '68-1/2 CJ to shows, but he says he never enters the competition because it isn't really a show car. Performance events are another matter, though. Royce says, "My goal for next year is to attend the Pure Stock Drags and enter the competition. This year I drove the car at three events in test and tune sessions to see what it would be capable of. So far the car's performance is very consistent at about 13.90 seconds and around 98 m.p.h. in the quarter mile." |  |
| And
there you have the story of Royce Peterson's 1968-1/2 CJ-428.
Well, most of it. There's one more detail worth mentioning.
At the 23rd Annual Ford Expo held earlier this year in Columbus Ohio, Royce had an opportunity to chat with a fellow Ford big block enthusiast, "Dyno" Don Nicholson. As a memento of the occasion, Royce asked Dyno Don to sign the CJ's air cleaner snorkel. Now, wherever Royce and his '68-1/2 go, a piece of Cougar racing history rides with them. |
PHOTOS BY
STEVE EITZEN
|
| SNAP SUMMARY |  |
| Model
Year: Body Style: Engine: Transmission: Factory Options: |
1968-1/2 XR-7 CJ-428 4V C6 automatic Cardinal Red paint Black Oxford roof 3.50:1 Traction-Lok Sports Console w/Clock Power Disc Brakes Power Steering AM Radio/Stereo Tape Door Edge Guards Styled Steel Wheels Comp. Handling Pkg. Rear Window Defogger (Car sold for $4,778.35) |
. | Added Features: | Hardened
valve seats Stainless steel valves Flow Master mufflers . |
