Sometimes it hurts! I'm having a hard time deciding what to do with the Cougar. Most of the time I think that I should leave it as is and just get a repaint. Although I've found it pretty hard to find the trim parts that fit. Wheel arch chrome and one of the lower door moldings along with the roof rack being a little dull. What I was thinking was to remove most of the trim, fill the holes, and go kinda plain with the emphisis on a nice two tone paint with maybe a pin stripe line around it. If I stay with the same color under the hood could stay the same. Add some nice chrome wheels and I could forgo the white wall tires. The car has a very low value on the market so I wouldn't be losing anything. It is after all for my enjoyment. If I had photoshop or some like sw I could do a concept drawing. Any thoughts on a mild custom look? No flames as they don't go well with a 88 hp inline six!
Obviously, its not a hot rod and your happy with the 6 banger. Your gonna use it for a cruiser or daily driver. Since resale isn't a worry, do what makes you happy. If you want to de-chrome it and give it a mono look, go for it. A set of old-school chrome Crager Super Sports would look great on your wagon. Have you thought of having the dull chrome parts re-chromed? May cost a few bucks but probably a bit cheaper than buying replacements if you can find them, and they would probably be in worse shape than yours. On my 93 Buick RMW, I,m gonna keep it simple, just wheels and exhaust, thats what is gonna make me happy. Sometimes the K.I.S.S. principal is the way to go. You have a nice little wagon that would look good stock or cleaned up and decromed/two toned. I always liked the smaller wagons, there not as "busy" as the larger wagons. There are a few Ply. Volare and Dodge Aspen wagons in the gallery that are single color, plain-jane's and they look good, yours de-trimmed and without the roof rack would,IMO, look great. Just my 3cents worth. Grumpy
That was my other option is to do nothing as it's fine...looks good from 15 feet. The wheel arch chrome (aluminum) is certainly fixable (removing the dents). I was just thinking out loud.
Yeah, I think out loud too, than the better half steps in and tells me what to think. I was thinking of de-wooding and de-trimming my RMW too, but than I'd have to cut down about 60 or so studs and do body work and paint, and,and,and. Decided to leave it alone for the time being, and just get it in 100% running cond. Granted, your Cougar wagon may not have a lot of re-sale value, BUT it is still kind of unique. It might never become a classic or antique, but as it gets older, might become a collector. Just remember once you fill all those little holes and grind off those trim studs, its forever. Again, its yours, do what makes you happy. Oh, I finally figured out how to download to the gallery. Take a look at my stocker. Grumpy
well like grumpy said you dechrome it ,,it,s forever,,,i dewooded and dechromed my 80 cutlass and one front fender has about twenty some holes i welded up,,,,i fitted patches and tig welded all of em,,i still got the passenger fender to do,,,lots of work but i,m committed now,, aint no stoppin now,, however in my opinion your cougar would look kool as is,,,or as is with a set of wheels,, or with some slight trimmin removal and paint,,,or any of those combinations,,,,,but i do dis agree flames and six banger is way too kool,,,,and regardless of value or no value i think them ford and mercury wagons like yours and stormin normans are nice lookin rides
A nice set of tribal flames...dechromed...bagged...very cool. Or if you want to keep it stock...also cool. It is all up to what you want to do.
Oh TBird! Do what you think, man! I'm finally past the prep work and I just finished the fine sanding work (320). It looks exciting, after all that detail work. I can't wait to get the new (old cassette radio) in and crank her up in about 2 weeks! First coat goes on after I fill a couple of nicks and 400 grit the whole car. Now I'm really gonna get going. My arms are wiped out, it was a-holes and elbows 2 days straight and it was worth it. Even at 320-grit, the little beast has a nice smooth glow! I'll tell ya, that roller-painting method really gets you down into the details of the car's strengths and weaknesses. My goal is to make it user-friendly, comfy, good on long trips and just enough oomph to climb our rockies and tour the country. Other than a few trailer-loads of garden soil and construction materials, this Mexican beauty is just gonna be AWESOME! I like it better than my old Porsche 356B or my Corvair Turbo. It's just a fine, simple-to-fix car. A buddy owes me a trip to his farmer friend's 200 car field, and he's pretty sure there's a few wagons like ours, so I'll check for the Cougar trim. I fixed mine with a copper-art trick. And since mine is a woodie, I had to refinish all the pieces too, but that's on this site, already. I made a butter knife into a shaper tool and rubbed the dents out one by one. It ain't perfect, but its passable - the one that got CRUNCHED. The wheel well came out perfect though, so I'll keep my eye out for another. It looks like the only difference between the woodie and the regular 'chrome' finish is the applied wood film. A bit of poly stripper and the old stuff comes off. Then you can use POR's Metal-Ready to phosphate it and spray on a satin or gloss clear coat to get the sparkle back.
For some reason I can't wait for you to finish your car. I'm actually excited. I took the week off from work and hand polished both the wagon and the Ranger. My arms are not used to those muscles being worked. I've come to the conclusion that I can actually get a great shine from the light blue paint on the sides and it would be much better if I used a power buffer. I couldn't believe the embedded dirt! I expected the cloth to show some light blue as I don't have a clear coat paint. But it was black! I did get a pretty good shine but a power job would be the trick. I've decided to leave it as is and try to improve on what I've got. 25 years of wear and tear isn't all that bad. I do need to de-rattle the dash though. Lots of sqeaks and rattles. Too much plastic on metal. I'll have to cushion the mount points. Thanks for all the suggestions. I just can't see doing a restoration on something I like using pretty much all the time.
I just finished putting on the last coat! It was 10C downtown, and 12C in my yard. It blows me away! Mirror finish! Awesome! I'm out of words for how it came out! That was the 7th coat, from 4 US quarts, and I've got enough for 1-1/2 coats more! I used about 1/2 cup of the last quart and had 1 cup left of the 50/50 mixture. If you ever do it, you'll be amazed! Heck, I still have to buff it and polish it and that's got to take it up another notch! The weather is too unpredictable or I'd wetsand with 1000-grit and put another coat! Outstanding!
