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I'll start off this issue of our newsletter by introducing myself, as "The Sign of the Cat" will have a new editor for a while. My name is W.P. Kaminsky - Bill for short. I'm from out West, Southern California, the land where RUST is what all the foreigners bring in on their cars. I got into a Cougar much like some of you may have. I went looking for a Mustang some years ago, test drove a Cougar for a comparison- and liked it, bought it, and won't let go of it. But, Tom has asked me to take ahold of the leash on this wildcat of a letter for awhile. His work and correspondance is backing up quite a bit. He will still hold post as the main man though-He would preferr that all correspondance that can be put into the "The sign of the Cat" be sent to me or our new Technical Director-- Richard Martin. Tom still will handle the want ad section for now and do the actual printing of our newsletter-- and mail it. We'll try to keep the restorers happy by helping them in the tech articles. A number of ideas and items have come in from some of the members explaining some repair work etc. they've used, and hope will be of some help to other members. If you also have an idea or an item and don't know how to put it into word and phrases contact me or the technical director anyway and we'll help you to write it out. ALL items are greatly appreciated. Items of historical note are especially helpfull. Tom has informed me our membership has swollen to about 280 members now. We're going pretty good for an infant (kitten) club so far. However some of you haven't sent in your envelopes lately. Don't forget. He needs four large, stamped and addressed envelopes plus a dollar for the printing. Also, if you didn't have too much luck with the last issue's want ads (or phenominal luck) ship him a note stating that you'd like the ad re--run. One last thing, he would appreciate you adding your membership number to your name and your correspondance to him. So if you don't send in any envelopes (and subsequently don't receive The sign of the Cat), or don't give your latest address, there's only one person to blame-right? I'll get on with some more interesting items now. I hope you all read the nice article on Cougars in the October issue of Car Exchange magazine. It was a good article, but I felt the article cut short the later model cars some. The subsequent editorials written by a few Cougar Club of America members really said quite a lot for us also. It was quite nice to hear from all of you whose name did appear in print. Sock it to em' !!! Some of the members have enquired about a possible regional or nation wide meeting at one of the Ford, Mustang, Mercury, or Shelby meets. I believe most members would at some up coming time attend these meets if they knew of the locale, date, etc. and who would be the contact person. I believe many C.C. of A. members would like to get aquainted with each other, and this would be an excellent means of getting together. Laurence Juhnke #34 informs us that he contacted a few C.C. of A. members in his area and is planning on attending the SAAC (Shelby American Auto Club) 6th annual convention in Monterey, Cal. this August. He states it might be quite fun to arrange a get-together of Cougar owners and would appreciate hearing from those interested in attending. You can contact him at 11604 S.W. Lancaster Road, Portland Oregon, 97219. All you ELIMINATOR owners don't forget to write Kirk Youngberg #157. He's starting an Eliminator registery and would love to find out just what you have. You can contact him at 1301 S.E. Sharon Drive, Ankeny Iowa, 50021. Also as a note we would like to thank Mark Stramd for designing up the Cougar Club of America membership cards and club patches. According to Lorin Sorenson's book "The Open Fords", the last Ford convertible was actually a 1973 Cougar convertible. It rolled off the assembly line July 5, 1973. The car went to Floyd Moore, aChicago auto collector. A black and white photo shows an all white car with wire wheel covers.
All above stats were received from FORD MOTOR COMPANY Does anyone have some information on the 1967 Bud Moore SCCA competition Cougars? Please write in a story on it if you can and send it in. It would be quite interesting to hear of a competition Cougar. Same goes for the "DYNO" Don Nicholson funnycar Cougars or the Fast 3ddy Schartman 429 powered 70 Cougar. Does anyone remember what kind of Cougar was used as a get-away car in the James Bond movie "On Her Magesty's Secret Service"? In the last newsletter there was information on a Ms. Lois Eminger stating that she could get factory invoices for Cougars. That was slightly in error as she can only get them on 1969 Cougars. Not any other year. However, she does have ones available for 1962 Thunderbirds, convertibles and roadsters, and all model invoices for 64,65, and 66 T-birds and 67&68 Lincolns and Marks. Her address is Box 220 Dearborn Michigan,48121. Please send a S.S.A.E. also. Having trouble with your factory clock? I took mine to a local clock shop once to get her fixed up as she gave out. The work lasted about six months (guarantee was for 90 days). I jumped in the car one cold morning and found the thing doing 33 1/3 RPM. Well, Richard Rodeck #49 found that Jacobs Auto Clock Co. does a first rate job (unlike my dealer) of rebuilding them for about $25.00, and this includes the removing of any scratches in in lens. You can get ahold of them at 4027 Broadway in Oakland Cal. 94611 (415-655-8468). Now the only trouble will be getting the bugger out once again. Some Cougar owners (and Pre- 1971 big car owners) are really singing the blues now if their car must run on apremium grade of gasoline. As they either have to accelorate slowly (easily) or turn up the radio so they can't hear the engine ping. Premium leaded gasoline is a rare item in some parts of the U.S., and in other areas it just doesn't carry the octane rating it used to a few years back. I'm sure you've read about the octane problem and read of some cures published in various magazine articles. Old Cars Weekly has had a few good articles on this problem lately, as well as a few of the high-performance type magazines. But even with their blending ideas, and the running around finding out what runs best in your car and what ratio and from what dealer, it still presents a problem to those with HIGH compression big engines, and some trouble in smaller ones also. The August HOT ROD came up with an article on another solution--water injection. I won't tell you all of whats in this article as it deals with a couple of makes and methods. One of our members, Bruce Eyerly #147, recently installed one of these on his car. Above and beyond what is mentioned in the manufacturer's instructions, this is what Bruce told us. I have installed the SPEARCO water injection unit and found it to be very good. I mounted mine on the hood latch bracket behind the grill to keep the water tank cooler. One problem is with the injection nozzle for 2 or 4 barrel carburetors. Since the nozzle is actually on the air cleaner lid, the lid must be carefully aligned each time it is put onto the element housing to insure that the water will be shot towards the venturies. The press nut supplied to hold the nozzle may rotate and I cured this problem with a drop of super glue. While the unit is adjustable, you may not be able to trigger it under moderate acceleration. The manufacturer suggests an air bleed system be put in the vacuum line, but I found an easier way was to remove the adjusting stud in the vacuum switch and fabricate a longer one from a bolt of the same size, thus allowing a greater adjusting range. With high compression (9.8 to 1) and the poor quality of gas , I was having quite some trouble with ping. The water injection took care of the problem under heavy loads , but I still had trouble under moderate acceleration. I cured this by re-calibrating my distributor vacuum advance curve. If you remove the fitting at the end of the vacuum advance diaphram, you will find a spring, a plastic stop, and several calibrating washers. By adding one or two more washer, you can make the unit less sensitive to vacuum, which is very high when coming off of idle due to the ported vacuum tap used from the carb. I then raised my static (initial) timing to 12 degrees BTDC and obtained much less ping, more power and about 10% better fuel mileage. Don't forget to add in a little alcohol into the water when you use water injection in the cold climates. When you install your water injection unit, I would suggest that you go to a Buick dealer and obtain their small plastic check valve (Part No. 497853, $2.20). Place this in the water delivery line, close to the reservoir, to keep the water in the line instead of allowing it to drain back into the holding tank. In my case it shortened the response time from two seconds to about one half second. Got this tip from HOT ROD when they modified a turbo Buick Century--TDJ. Any tips or modifications to increase the mileage or performance of our Cougars back like they used to, which can be added to our newsletter will be greatly appreciated. I myself will be telling of some modifications in some of the coming issues. These mod's will usually require some wrenching or screwdriver work beyond the normal tune-up. They will range from evening type work, to weekend or longer work items. Does your driver's side (or passenger side) window rattle or not close properly? Does it seem to change position when you slam the door? Well it might be that your glass has come loose from from the glass channel bracket, if its of the epoxied together style. I found the local auto glass shops would correct the matter, but would also charge an arm and a leg to do it, at their leisure , and no guarantee as to fit. To do it yourself will consume about four hours or a "whole" Saturday if you are slow. So, first off, before Saturday, obtain some window epoxy (usually a dark gray color) from your local glass shop. It comes in a plastic cup ($3-5 per cup) and you'll need one cup per loose bracket, or you can use some of the hardware store variety epoxy. They usually are soupier and can cause some alignment problems in the long run. Start off by getting the window assembly out of the door. Consult the factory shop manual on this. If you can figure out where the bracket originally fit, write down the measurements. Then wash the bracket area off with a strong solvent like acetone. Chip off any pieces of the old factory epoxy left on the window with a single edge razor blade. Roughen up the glass with some fine sandpaper where the new bond will be. Clean out the bracket channel with acetone also. Use a small brush or compressed air to clean out loose dirt. Cut loose any obviously loose small pieces of factory epoxy, but DON'T remove all of it. If in doubt, leave it in. Don't remove more than about one third of the original epoxy. Rough up the inside faces of the factory epoxy with a rough file. The factory stuff is usually soft, so don"t get carried away. Now mark the bracket position off to the side of the window edge with a grease pencil or a piece of masking tape. If you couldn't figure out the old position measure up the passenger side. The distance apart the two brackets are is very important, as it determines the tightness, front to rear, that the window will fit into the runs. Now mix up the epoxy well. Its quite stiff and will usually take an hour to completely set up. Using a popsicle stick, or something throw away, shove the epoxy down in to the glass channel. Smear the epoxy all over the bonding area on the glass in a thin layer. If any thing's left, shove it into the bracket. Put the window upside down on a piece of carpet or a board. Now slip the bracket onto the window into your pre-marked position. Push HARD, really lean on it and squeeze out the epoxy. I used a hammer to get it all the way down. If m6st of the original was removed, the bracket will slip on easily-Bad, but if you have only removed just a little it will be quite hard-good, as the epoxy is quite stiff. One last thing, the original glass is quite tough, but not indestructable. Make sure the bracket is square and as parallel as the other bracket is to the plane of the window. Let the epoxy set up. If you used the hardware store variety epoxy, you might have to hold it in place until it is set up stiff. The glass shop stuff usually will stay still during the set-up period. Chip off any excess with the single edge razor blade. If the bracket din't wind up in the correct position, no problem, but you're going to have to start over once again. If you didn't get the forward-rearward position correct-start over. It either won't go into the runs, or it will rattle around. The window tilt can be adjusted per the factory shop manual. If things got away from you a little then a flat washer under one of the guide bolts will give-some additional tilt. If its start over, you can break the bonds once again( after everything has set up) by applying a little heat, via a propane torch, to the bracket. This will usually break the bond. It will snap and stink and then "pop" its loose. Usually takes about 5-15 minutes. Then go to it once again cleaning, removing loose stuff and re-glueing. The window can now be re-set per the manual. You might also want to set in some new weatherstripping etc. and lube the runs and other mechanics. The following was taken from DAN BOWERS COUGAR INTERNATIONAL NEWS (no longer in existance). Many of you already know of the saggy rear springs installed in most 67-68 Cougars. In 1973 1 bought a new pair of BOSS 302 Mustang 4-leafers for about $60.00 and installed them myself in about 14 hours. At that time I didn't yet have my torches, so that's why it took so long. After almost 4-years service they haven't sagged or weakened, in any way. The springs in the 69-70 aren't the greatest either. Bruce Eyerly #147 writes: 1) Does anyone know where to get new plastic handles for the toggle switches on the dash of the 67-68 XR-7s? Try Bob Cook, Fort-Hazel, Kentucky. 2) Has anyone tried the leather restoration kit from Clausens? Laurence Juhnke #34 writes that J. C. Penney (chain store) sells black floor mats that may be pruchased with Cougar inserts. The insert is red and white and depicts the original Cougar emplem and the word Cougar. They are somewhat similar to tstock ones and are orderable through their catalog front and back complete sets for about $20.00.
Keep on Prowl'n - Bill | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||