I picked this up last night but it was too dark to get good pics. It is an 85 with 150k on it, but it is very clean. It has a 5.0 in it, which is running pretty rough, but I will work on that in the coming up days. It still needs a good cleaning/washing, but here are a few daytime pics of it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/007.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/009.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/010.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/008.jpg)
Yes, uncracked dash
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/011.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/012.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/013.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/014.jpg)
The first order of business is getting the trailer hitch off. It is bolted through the trunk floor. They appear to be carriage bolts but spin freely when I try to loosen up the nuts. Any tricks to hold them in place?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/015.jpg)
Great car! Vent window too........ awesome. Please change the wheels ASAP, I cant stand those wire hubcaps. Ten holes would look good.
On the bolt heads, could you Dremmel or cut a straight slot in it and use a large screwdriver to hold it?
wow, thats very tidy.
i second the opinion on grinding a slot in the bots.
Thanks guys.
I was also thinking of dremmeling a slot for a screwdriver, I just wasn't sure if I could hold the screw driver with enough force to overcome the tightness of the nuts. I will give it a try though.
I actually have a set (6 actually) of 10 holes sitting around that I took off the turbo car when I put the snowflakes on. They might go on this car in the future.
That interior looks beautiful .
Looks sharp man! I had the same hitch on mine when I got it, But I don't recall having any issues getting the bolts undone. Did you try soaking with WD-40 or something?
They don't have any rust to speak of on them. The problem is the entire bolt is turning instead of the bolt staying in place and the nut turning.
Looks can be deceiving on the interior. It has some spots where its worn down on the drivers seat, cracked seat belts and somewhat dirty carpet. I'm still very happy with it.
You can always use a pair of channel locks or vise grips to hold the end of the bolt on the threads (if it's not super tight) and loosen the nut just enough to where you can cut the bolt in half with a dremel cutting wheel or sawzall.
The car looks awesome. You just can't get away from them. When you see one for sale, you almost feel obligated to buy it lol. Do you have any future plans for this one?
They are pretty tight against the floor and I don't think I can grab onto the curved head very well. I'll see if I can get some work done on it tomorrow.
I really can't get away. Luckily for me there aren't any Cougar/Tbird people out here in Vegas because if there were, they would pretty mad at me for c00ching up all the Fox cars that pop up!
I am planning on getting it running well and then just driving it the way it is. I can't even afford one project, let alone two. It might get a few little things here and there but nothing cool enough to mention.
Hell just keeping it stock is cool enough in my book. Maybe you could grind the heads of the bolts down? Just throwing out ideas here, good luck.
grind the heads down so you can put the vice grips on them. Nice car Ed :) those seats look comfy
great looking car. I need to find one locally (a Fox Bird or Cougar) to drive around while I work on the Sport0, then pass it along to the youngest to drive next year. Great score.
I love it another 4 eye!!!!!:evilgrin: That is one Sharp looking Cougar. Not so sure why you want that hitch off there so bad. That is more than a full sized car now days! LOL If your still working on removing use a grinder/dremel to grind to flats on it so you can use an adjustable wrench to hold that domed top. That is how I would do it.
Stuckman
Your new ride looks good. :headbang:
D & P ;)
Well, I may have just bought the nicest race car ever. There is title issues with it and both the Utah DMV and the Nevada DMV are unwilling to assist me. One of the owners listed on the Utah title is deceased and the other person sold it. The person who bought the vehicle was unable to register it because of this and sold it to the guy who flipped it and sold it to me. Hopefully I can figure something out with it. The wife is going to kill me.
Update:
I tracked down the previous owner and talked to her daughter (previous owner is 88.) She initially thought it was a scam but then realized I was telling her the truth and they are going to help me out. They will be ordering a new title and signing it over to me, cutting out all the garbage in the middle. I have to drive to Utah to get it, but that's ok as they have a Cracker Barrel there. Apparently, they sold it to a relative who "couldn't wait" to start driving it, and they sold it, starting this whole mess. Above all she said they want the car to be in a good home with somebody who appreciates it. It couldn't be in better hands.
Now that you got that straightened out, I'll say it.................what, no Tripminder yet? J/K. Nice car.
Very nice cat and a great find.................congrats.
Awesome, it looks really clean, and it's a 5.0.
Thanks guys. Hopefully it doesn't take too long to get the title. The last owners really turned out to be extremely cool about it all.
Haha, it is hard to believe there's not a Tripminder in it yet. I actually don't think there will be either. My wife's first car was an 86 Cougar and has always hated that I swapped the buttstuffog cluster into the other 86 when I did the turbo swap. This one will have to remain as close to her first car as possible to appease her. She did request that I swap a later model radio (86-88) into it, just like her old car had. She also asked for the 14" polycast wheels, but I don't think I can do that.
It's nice to find a solid car with so much potential as well as the option to leave totally stock. Keep us updated on what you do with it. :cool:
Great looking car!! Perfect color combo for wire wheel covers and whitewalls. Very classy.
Forget the ten holes, it looks right!
4 eyed cougars look cool. nice car. there is an evil twin to this car on tccoa--irv
What?! I thought TCCOA was only MN12s ;)
Finally got the trailer hitch off today! I can't understand why it bothered me so much, but it did. I used a nut splitter to remove the nuts then it was cake after that.
I also replaced the TPS and it runs a lot better now. Now if only I had a title to register it...
Wow..that car was really taken care of. Looks great!
Woohoo! I drove up to Utah to get the title on Saturday and I got the temporary tag today. After 3 months of owning it, I can drive it!
Nice. What are the plans for it at this point?
Still just planning on enjoying it as is.
Ed , I bet you thought this day would never come. :cougarsmily:
Dan & Paula ;)
Very small update.
I installed a Tripminder and later model radio today.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/85%20Cougar/015-1.jpg)
Hey man, that's still worth, oh, an hour or so of work(It would be more, but you installed another factory radio!) :)
Nice!
Jeff, I wish it would have only been an hour of work. 85s still use the older style radio plugs and the radio I put in uses the 86+ flat plugs. I had to build a jumper harness between the new radio and the factory wiring to avoid cutting the wiring harness. There was also some other odds and ends such as no constant 12v (not needed for radio that was factory), no factory ground wire (old radio grounded through radio support bracket), common ground for speakers vs individual ground wires on new radio, etc. After figuring out the wiring, testing stuff and soldering everything together, it probably took me about 4 hours.
I feel it was worth the effort. The old radio had horrible reception and would lose the station I was listening to a lot while just sitting still. The new radio sounds better, is easier to operate, and looks better. I thought about putting an aftermarket deck in but I don't want to risk it being stolen (and the car damaged in the process) and I grew to hate carrying a stereo face around back in my younger days.
Very small update.
I installed a Tripminder.......
Thought you'd slip this by us eh ? ;)
Car looks good.
You knew it all along. I couldn't resist!
Very nice find, nice looking cat!
I managed to convince Dad not to sell the car. The parents decided that it's now my car. I've got big plans for this cat. =)
It looks new inside and out. Great find. With the inside being that color it is even more impressive that it still looks that good. The dash looks flawless.
Very classy in silver.
Yep, it's your car, and since it's your car now, you get to figure out how to move it to another state! :)
It's a small price to pay, this cougar's exactly what I want.
Me and the boy washed the car, and then it rains a couple of days later!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v648/Loaded87IROC/010-4.jpg)
Dang! That car cleans up nice.
Looks good! That two-tone looks great!!
That is one nice cat!
just use a cutoff wheel and grind the heads off, till the bolt drops
if you already got the bolts off.... ignore that post
My browser only lets me see the 1st page of threads sometimes until I post something
nice and clean :)
Wow, that is a gorgeous kitty cat! you never see 'em like that anymore. I would keep that baby stock as possible, but thats just me :D
Bummer, I lost a hubcap today. I went back and picked it up but it was broken. Good thing we have a set of 10 holes to go on it in the near future.
I put new shocks and struts on this weekend. The old ones were completely wasted. The car rides sooooo much better now, which is good because the roads are in considerably worse shape here than they were in Vegas. I also put in new wheel bearings and fixed a small coolant leak while i was at it.