First I'd just like to say that I came upon this place from a link on EricCoolCats's page. I don't remember how I found his site, probably a Google search or something, but it's really great. Eric, your "cats" are really nice and your site is so informative, thanks! I've been lurking around here reading posts for the last few weeks, and this place seems real nice.
My name is Paul, I'm 17 years old and I live in the Capital Region of New York.
It is not a happy story how I obtained my cougar. In 2003 my father became ill with a malignant brain tumor. He lost his battle on December 31 that year. I inherited this car and his 1938 Buick Special 4 door sedan he owned since 1968 when he was my age, and which sat for 25 years in a nearby garage until last year when I resurrected it. I am a member of the Buick Club of America and up the local chapter. I also belong to this forum: forums.aaca.org. http://forums.aaca.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=351607&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1 that is the thread I have going about my Special. On the first page down near the bottom are a couple posts with "Attachment" in orange letters at the top of the post. They are pics of the car. I'll post some more here if anyone would like.
The cougar he bought in 1998 because he had a grey two tone 87 T-bird that he bought new but which was totalled when a car sitting in a turn lane with its wheels already turned was rear ended and thus veered into his lane, oncoming. This was the next best thing he could find. It had ~60 or 70k miles when he got it I think, I gotta look it up again. He always told me to NEVER sit waiting to turn with my wheels turned. Because of that experience and other he had lots of automotive wisdom for me. He was a racer, we have his '84 Reynard Formula Ford in the enclosed trailer next to our house. he was in the SCCA, just as a hobby, for fun, no prizes or anything. Its a small car with a 1.6L Pinto engine in it. We will probably sell it this year.:( We dont have use for it...
The cougar now has 114750 miles on it. It is in great shape. As far as I can tell the underbody is very good, the front suspension and cross members, etc are very well rustproofed due to a slow oil leak for a long time:hick:. (i really like that smiley lol) and in the back i tried to peek underneath and the frame rails in the back that go up real high have some significant surface rust but dont look eaten through at all. And of course the driveshaft and rear axle and diff are nice and brown too. The body is great, just a little rust starting as the very bottom edge at the rear of the doors, on the inside. Some silicone spray or something should stop that when I remember to do it. It runs great, has always been well taken care of as far as I know, the ol' AOD is fine, the trans fluid is crystal clear red.
I absolutely baby the thing. This winter is the first one I've driven it in, and Ive taken it out in the snow/salt maybe 6 times total. After every one within 3 days I got it washed, if the road wasnt still salty and full of crud. I take the bus in to school 90% of the time. My bus driver knows a lot about real old cars and cars in general and I love talking to him about the Buick and cars in general. Occassionally I romp on the cougar because its pretty powerful, but I want this car a LONG time. I always talk with relatives about the musclecars they once had and hear "If only we knew then what we know now." A classic statement. I think these 20th Anniversary's will be worth something someday, and even if not its rare and cool.
So here's my conundrum: OF COURSE I've read on coolcats about the HO conversion and it sounds appetizing. I remember when I was like 12 years old once my dad lit the tires up somewhere while I was in it. I tried once last year and could only get a few squeaks. I probably could have let off the brake and nailed quicker, or do what I didnt know about then--brake torquing. I'm definitely gonna try that sometime. That must be what my dad did. He was smart, I'm sure he knew how to do that. But anyway I think 75 extra horsepower would be um...noticeable, LOL. And its really not much more stress on the motor, at least not more than it was designed from the factory to be able to handle just fine day-to-day, right? But I kind of want to be like the guys that have old '40s or '50s cars in their original condition, I don't want to modify this car much. So i'll see what happens. I think in a few years I'll end up doing the conversion. I'm thirsty for some horses.
Sorry for the long post if that irritates anyone, but I felt I needed to tell all of that. Theres more I want to tell about that oil leak (and pics will come tomorrow!) and there are a couple small gizmos that don't work, so I'll save that for later, and I'm sure everyone will have questions for me, too.
Nice car man! I'm 17 too, I've got an 88 Cougar XR7 im taking home Monday when I finally get my licence (NJ sucks, making me wait 6 months...) Can't wait to see some pics of your car. Have you thought of making a car domain? How about going to Catjam this summer? lol. Anyway, what have you done to the car so far as far as mods and sound system goes? Welcome to the forums!
well, i haven't done anything, lol. i never really considered doing anything to the sound system. i know, thats usually first on everyone's list, but the buick is what i have spent my money on, and to be honest, I'm happy with the stock "Premium Sound" system, with that equalizer. its pretty neat, and works well. sure i have one of those tapes with the wire coing out of it in the tape deck, connected to my portable CD player and that is a little bothersome at times because the player moves around on the seat, but its good enough for me.
as i said, some engine mods will come in a few years i think, but i really like the car the way it is.
Welcome to the board bud. I'm 19 years old and purchased my first cougar when I was 15... I love 'em to death as will you once you start doing some more stuff to it. Sorry about your Father tho...
maybe you heard about Cat Jam? It's in Youngstown OHIO. A bunch of guys from New York head there every year in late July. I'm in central PA... but ya look that up on Coolcats.net .
Welcome again! Good Luck with everything and if you need help these guys here are amazing and pulled me out of many (and i mean many) binds.
-Steve
Hey, sounds like my turbo coupe! :giggle:
alrighty...im tired and ill go to bed soon but since im up and decided to check here, ill talk about the leak.
last fall we actually had my uncle's friend, who is probably the most knowledgeable person with fords i have ever met. he has a '73 mustang mach 1 thats pushing 500+ horses letsput it that way.
he replaced the valve cover gaskets, intake gaskets, thinking that was where it was leaking from. also new cap, rotor, wires, plugs. it would always have a lot of trouble starting after sitting after it rained, for an hour or more. youd have to crank it for a minute's worth (not constantly, dont worry im not stupid lol) before it was finally start firing and eventually fire up.
turns out we later had a garage look at the car and the oil pan was rusted pretty bad. a bunch of pin holes. so they only did oil changes and stuff, so they recommended this really great place that we ended up taking it to and they replaced the pan. $1000 job. :yuck: but it had to be done. it still leaks a little now. they recently said when i took it to them to get it inspected that the rear main seal is actually leaking a bit. so someday...
also they found oil all over the one rear brake drum. they replaced the wheel seal, $300. my mom was very generous in footing the bill for both of those. what she said was "you cant buy a new car for that little money" obviously you can get a car but not a great one.
finally, the keyless entry pad has been pushed in, broken off the metal frame thing for a few years. my dad always claimed my mom pushed it too hard but she is sure she didnt. i wanted it to work, so they said it would be ~$250 to do. i paid for this one. im very very careful with it, and half the time i still use the key, lol. again i baby this thing. i think that will pay off very well over time.
Welcome, Nice well thought out and done first post.
Welcome fellow 20th owner...
Wow man welcome to the boards. Sorry to hear about your father. That Buick of yours has an amazing sound to it. Most guys kill for that sound and pay out the pocket for it. Is that from the stock exhaust?
I wish we had more newbie posts like yours. Welcome to the board.
You need to go to Cat Jam: http://www.coolcats.net/catjam/
My opinion on your dilemma depends on the current condition of your car. If it's in really good condition and has never been wrecked, I would preserve it.
If it has been wrecked and repainted and there is still evidence (upper radiator support welds for instance), then I would lean toward customizing it. Also, if it hasn't been wrecked but it has a lot of rust and the paint is peeling, the seats are worn, etc, then I would be tempted to customize it as well.
Yours sounds like it is in good condition though. Has it ever been repainted or repaired?
That's why I decided to modify one of my cars (modified one (http://www.coolcats.net/photos/index.php?ID=105)) over the other one (stock one (http://www.coolcats.net/photos/index.php?ID=245)) that was exactly like it - it was in a previous front-end collision and you can still see the rework under the hood. The other one has never been repainted or repaired or anything.
Welcome Paul.
I was 16 when I purchased my '88. If you take care of the car, it will last a long time. Well, I'm 21 now so if you want to call 5 years a longe time... :hick:. I drove mine daily until I bought a new car in February '05. Now I basically have the Cougar for fun.
I agree with you keeping the sound system stock. I would have done the same in my car but it's previous owners had already hacked it to bits.
Now the motor. How about getting yourself a HO motor and pull and keep your original SO. The motor is a bolt in and next to no changes have to be made. That way say 20 years from now, if you want the car to be stock again, all you have to do is put the original back in.
I too agree with Karl (Cougars2go). My car has body panels that were replaced, had 172000 on it when I bought it, interior shows a little wear, and was repainted so I felt better about modding it. If it was in perfect original condition with original paint and so on, I would have kept it stock.
Welcome.
You have a couple nice cars from the sounds of it though a sad way to get em.
I agree with the last few posts. If it is in good condition and you don't have to do much to keep it stock, then just keep it stock, but if it has already had major work done, might as well go to town.
like i said ill be posting pic later today. it looks as good as Cougar5.0's signature. my dad once rear-ended someone at a traffic light as maybe 10 mph, because they stopped too fast. the metal piece right in front of the hood was damaged, as well as the grille and stuff in that area. we still have the old, cracked in half grille in a box in my basp00get, LOL. he kept everything like that. better not tell mom she throw it out! he found a grille in a junkyard, problem is its just a flat metal one, not the red color. I think it could be painted though. that metal in the front that got damaged he either had repaired or he did it himself, again maybe finding one in a junkyard or something. i cant remember it seems so long ago!
the only noticeable thing due to that accident is that on the driver's side of the car the very front edge of the hood bows up maybe 1/16 of an inch, maybe a tiny bit more, but not very noticeable unless you looked at the car for a minute or two to the average person. and the plastic flexible bumper, where theres black paint, some is gone and the yellow plastic underneath is showing.
FOREWARNING: you may notice in the pics there will be swirls in the paint. this is because last year a friend of mine was like "dude you gotta get some rubbign compound on that make it look real nice...blah blah rubbing compound....rubbing compound" it got really annoying i was thinking it looks fine. well we had some in my garage and i looked at it and its talking about marred paint, etc, and im thinking thisll take the paint right off! so i grabbed the one that said "polishing compound" and we used that. that caused the swirls. he has done some other REALLY stupid stuff, and as a result i dont really see him anymore. so my other friend who is very smart and knows a helluva lot about car detailing assured me that its ok and that the other guy didnt **** up my paint completely. he said he'll show me what stuff to use in the spring, and i even offered to pay him if he wants to go all out like hes done for other people.
as promised. all taken today, along with the one of me with the buick. finally decided to "wash" it. no garden hose etc, but used a spnge with some zip wax car wash soap, because the door seals, etc are not sealing, lol. so a spray of water is not a good idea. then i wiped it down good with a 100% cotton rag, too get rid of all the streaking and "water spots" that appeared, and there were quite a bit. im amazed how much better it looks, i figured it was just the paint being old and having as many blemishes as it does. but i guess it was more that the car was just dirty and dusty, lol.
heres the underside of the cat
Looks good man!
Nice looking cars Paul. I see the cardboard under the Cougar to catch the dripping oil. I have to do that every time I have my Cougar at my aunts house.:giggle: "No oil in the driveway!!":nono:
Nothing better than marking your territory!
Welcome to the board man, sorry about your dad.
yes but as you might see that is a result of it leaking, the driveway has oil on it, lol. though also i have run the buick several times with the valve cover off, and i rev it a little and the spinning pushrods with all kinds of oil flowing down them throws it into the air and down the side of the engine or straight to the ground. thats where a lot of it came from :nono: so i gotta keep the cardboard underneath because some still drips from the engine, probably left over from the last time i ran it w/o the cover LOL.
nice cars man ...
Nice cars Paul, especially the Buick. I just read your thread over on Antique Autos, and also downloaded the movies. What can I say, that thing is awesome !
Good luck with the Cougar, I think you'll find the people here very friendly and helpful ;)
nices cars and welcome aboard
Nice to see you just joined. Heres a few pics of my ride
thanks for all the kind words guys!
CarPimp1987,
looks great! love the paint/stripe job.
once i get the buick on the road ill probably have someone take a video of my taking off in it, or even a video from inside the car.
That's a really nice Buick you've got there. When you get it back on the road you should always wear a pin-striped suit and a fedora when you drive it. And don't smile at anyone. And keep a Tommy gun in a violin case in the trunk at all times. :D
As for the Cougar, I feel your pain. I owned a 20th Anniversary once. I bought it from the original owner with 63,000 miles on it. It was mint. I couldn't bring myself to modify it. So I sold it.
If I learned one thing from that, it was don't sell your mint 20th Anniversary Cougar because you will always kick yourself for doing it. I'm with Fred (5.0willgo) on this one. If you want to do the HO swap then save your SO motor and ECU in case you want to put it back in later.
Hey Paul, it's nice to finally see someone else from the Capital District on the site. I have been coming to the site (with only an occasional post) for quite a while. I stumbled across Eric's site about 6 years ago when I got my first Cougar, an 88 Special Edition. Since then, I purchased one in perfect shape and have done some customization to it. If you have any questions, need any parts, help, or even just want to check out my Cougar let me know, I live in Niskayuna/Woodlawn. Just send me a private message.
If you are ever intersted in making the trek to CatJam, let me know as well. My wife and I went for the first time last year and had such a great time we plan on attending this year as well.
Arnie
alright cool! i rarely see other fox cougars around here. there are several mn12 ones around here, and more frequently i see the new little one, but rarely any 88 or earlier cats. and sadly the ones i see arent usually in very good shape.
and jkirchman,
dont worry, im never getting rid of this one. like the buick, the sentimental value is just too strong. if you knew who my dad was you'd know how close we were and how much he meant to me and inspired me. the fact that these were his creates a very strong connection. my mom says i shouldnt think he would feel bad knowing i sold the buick if i did, but its not that so much. i would feel im losing a link between him and i if i ever sold the buick OR the cougar. within a few years i think id like to get a cheap py beater car and keep the cougar usage low, if money permits. though coming up are my first two years in college. though ill be going to RPI in troy, nearby, no car allowed your first two years. even after im still gonna live on campus, so itll see little use.:D after college i would think id be able to afford a little beater. i care about the cat that much. i want that thing to be like a time capsule years from now.
i did not mention it before, but we also have a 1979 Triumph Spitfire sitting in our shed. at our new house we moved into 6 years ago, we had a large shed delivered a couple years afterward, with a garage door on the front. this car sits in there, well protected from the elements. it sat for 12 years outside his parents house and didnt deteriorate much from that. in our old house he brought it back home and got it running and registered and he took me and my brother for rides in it for two summers. the battery tray was about rusted away from the old battery leaking acid, but he made one that he dropped into the hole out of sheet metal. he got a new ler and tailpipe for it. some of the paint is a little faded, and there's a CD sized rust spot on the trunk because my grandfather used a cinder block there to hold down the cover :yuck: :nono: dad was always a little annoyed with him for that. the convertible top windows cracked one day when he folded it down, theyre old and need to be replaced. the car has almost 27,000 miles on it. my mom says it never saw winter, it would be a terrible winter car, and it was his car for fun back in the '80s. also a keeper. my little brother wants to drive that when he can drive in a couple years.
there was also the 1958 Triumph Tr3 in the garage the buick was in, in the next stall over. that was about as rough, maybe less, but the interior was kind ratty and we sold it last year because we'd like to clear out that garage (lots of other junk there) and hand the keys back over so we can stop paying rent on it. the buyer was a friend of my uncles and a friend of my dad's somewhat, hed get a kick out of this guy getting it. hes working on it this winter, will fully restore it.
almost done! theres a 1931 ford model A frame and part of the body sitting under a tarp next to where the spit was since the late 60s when he went off to college. the engine and trans are in our shed, many body panels, wheels and tires up in grandparents' attic, where the fenders currently on the Buick sat, for about an equal amount of time. the other fenders were very rusty and had the wells for sidemount spare tires. when he bought the car in 1968 he thought it would look better with sidemounts. so the original fenders got to sit in dryness for 30+ years, unmolested by anything. hence my choosing to swap them. :D
lastly i gotta mention the 1980 porsche 924 he bought a couple years ago. he was gonna get a 944, he told me he was gonna get the S2 with the big engine, then turbo that and have a 944 that friggin hauled @ss. this friend of his lives out in the boonies sort of about an hour from here, and was down on money, so he helped him out and bought this thing for like $1200 or something i dunno. the head was ruined, the guy didnt know jack, messed up the VALVE timing. yeah so major repair. i recently found the replacement head sitting in our basp00get, oily and in a plastic bag. in our shed in a box are a bunch of intake parts. the car is still at the guy's house, i believe that garage stall is a dirt floor:dunno: when we went to see it i was younger but i think it was alright. we dont know what were gonna do with that but its not taking up space here so my mom isnt worried about it. i wish i had infinite time, id friggin put it together and drive it or store it somewhere it wont deteriorate.
so YEAH my dad was a car guy in the worst way, it always annoyed mom just a little. she feared hed turn the place into a junkyard :giggle: but the buick and the spit are keepers for sure.
sorry if these long posts bother anyone, but i feel i oughta tell about my dads collection, its kinda funny even to me when i sit there and think about how friggin many cars we own.
hehe your post lengths don't bother me....I enjoy reading them as you have very good stories that keep my interest. So congrats!
I'll stick with my 1-4 sentences per post then I'll just watch my post count go up 50 ticks per day. :)
Nothing is wrong with your long posts. You are making complete sentences and using proper grammar and punctuation. That's more than I can say about some posts I've read. :giggle:
I know what you mean about the sentimental value the cars have. I have the same feeling towards my '76 Camaro. It was bought new by my grandfather for my aunt and once she bought her Trans Am in 1980, she gave the car back to him. Some of my best memories were when I would ride with him in that car. Well he gave it to my sister when she got her license in 1993. He then passed away in 1994 when I was 9. When my sister bought a new car in 1995, she gave the Camaro to me. Unfortunately, rust has eaten away most of the body, floor pans, dash and cowl. It was going to be my first car but without the money to repair it, I searched for something else and found the Cougar. The Camaro holds a great deal of sentimental value to me but now I'm faced with getting rid of it. It is too far gone beyond reasonable repair so within the next couple weeks, I'll start the disassembly process. I'll keep the good stuff and send the rotted shell to the crusher.
:flip: I is only an College Stewdent
^^^ zomg post-w!!!!
j/k hehe
5.0willgo, thats really too bad about the camaro. when its that far gone its tough to decide what to do with it. youve probably picked the best course of action. save what you can. how's the engine? 350 right? sure its smog-restricted, but you could drop it in something, hop it up, and i read somewhere that some companies make high performance catalytic converters (and that just in general the cat's of the 70's were HORRIBLE with comparison to todays). it seems that modern ones are much much cleaner and actually way less restrictive too. so to me thats kinda neat, if you wanted to hot rod a car within the smog control era you can, modern cats are clean and powerful
"you see now we have freedom, and responsibility its a very grooovy time!"
Actually, it's a 305. 1976 was the first year for the 305 in the Camaro and my grandfather wouldn't let my aunt get a 350. It has an auto tranny, and a non-posi rear. It does have a converter on it and I laugh every time I read the warning on the underside of the sun-visor. But being a '76, it is emissions exempt in MD. So basically my plans were to build up a 350, get a posi rear, put on true dual exhast and work on the suspension. Going this route I really needed a solid shell to work off of.
It is nicely optioned with the sport instrument cluster with the tach and clock and it had an optional interior that I have never seen in any other Camaro. This specific pattern was only available in '76 for a short time and seems to be fairly rare. Its sad because the car really doesn't look that bad. But look behind the outer sheetmetal and it's really bad.
My plans are as follows. Surprisingly the trunk in the car is not rotted. Thats weird because most Camaros have bad rot in the trunk. My cousin is restoring a '79 Camaro for one of his friends so my car will be it's donor. The '79 has a rotted trunk so the rear of the car will be used for that. I'm going to take off all the trim pieces, nose, lights, bumpers, interior and maybe even the windows and store them. My plan is to find a '76 out west that isn't rotted and transfer all my parts onto it to build it the way I always wanted.
Howdy, Paul!
I'd also like to welcome you to the board. I LOVE this place, and all the people here. I only wish I had more technical expertise so I could actually help out once in awhile!
It seems we have a couple of things in common: I'm a fellow 20th owner (which includes all the same concerns about wanting to stay stock or maybe some mods...), and like you, I've had mine since I was 17yrs. old. (sorta)
I had a thread on the old Cougar Nuts forum I had posted about myself and Roxanne (my car) a long time ago, and I was going to give a link to that...but I have just discovered that forum seems to have been recently revamped, and that thread seems to be gone now...so here are a few pics of Roxanne...
Try to go to Cat Jam in July so i can have someone to park next to!
hmm ive noticed something i must pay attention to when i go to correctly paint the grille--only the slats, not the outer piece and the cougar symbol.
also, correct me if im wrong but do i see dual exhaust on that thing?:cool:
looks nice!
catjam sounds fun, but it is quite a hike from here. probably not this year, but certainly in years to come. id like to see how many 20ths are there. though im sure there are lots of 20th owners out there with no clue of catjam or the cougar club of america. i sure didnt! at least until i found eric's site. id be curious to know how many of the ~5000 20ths are still in decent shape still kickin around today.
id really like to see what that number will be in 20 years.....
Just noticed this thread, any way welcome to the site.
Well, I am considering Cat Jam for the first time this year. I can personally account for 6 20th that have been crushed in NH alone... (don't worry, I nabbed anything good that was left on them :D )
wow i wish mine looked that good to bad i have to sell mine i want to keep it but i have to many cars.
wow you guys make me want to keep mine so bad god that is a beautiful car really nice good luck