Mods or changes you want to do…… but never will.

XR7-4.6

XR7-4.6

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    1994 Cougar XR7 DOHC TR3650
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    With it being winter and having more mental space to *think* of car stuff than to *do* I often come up with stuff that’s often illogical, dumb or well out of what I can afford.

    Here’s a few of mine:

    Keep all current mods and restore appearance to 100% stock including wheels(albeit widened with fat tires), for sleeper purposes.

    Keep all *cosmetic* mods but bring it back to stock mechanically(minus the manual, I’ll never give that up unless my left leg gets caught in a bear trap or something), because slow car fast is more fun.

    Years and years ago around the time pulled my Mach 1 DOHC from the junkyard and later my TR3650 I had an idea to make what was the modern Cougar equivalent to the 03-04 Mach 1; the Eliminator! Using a 69 stripe layout I spent a ton of time photoshopping it to perfection(ironically with nearly the wheels I currently have being my last revision(13 years ago!!!). I’m ultimately glad I didn’t do it but that’s the fun reflecting on the “what if” ideas.


    IMG_8020.jpeg
     
    I like the stripe, but the word Eliminator there is a bit much in my opinion.

    All your  undo ideas there don't do much for me. The cosmetic stuff as it is now is still within the realm of sleeper to me; none of it is too aggressive (stuff like ground effects and the like). And the mechanical stuff, too much work went into that; keep it.


    For my car, it would be a 90s two-tone paint job. Think Mercedes or Lexus of that era, as well as some Town Cars.
    I would use pre-96 bumper covers because they have a distinct upper and lower with a thin line molded in to separate the two. Upper would be Pacific Green, lower would be anthracite or tan metallic. The side cladding would stay the 96/97 type, but also in the contrast color.

    The whole project is pointless due to the general fadedness of my paint. It would require a full respray to work, and that's cost prohibitive.
     
    Eliminator was a trim option, different engines than the regular one. There is one of each sitting in oak ridge, that belonged to my dad's race buddy; when my dad built his mercury , tommy built the 68 cougar. The eliminator is wrecked, no engine, and they have sat 50 years in a yard.

    I'd say, fuckit, and add the eliminator stripe.





     
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    I always thought the Cougar as a station wagon would be cool.
     
    Stuff I'd like to do but know I never will?

    Aluminum block
    Better intake manifold
    Stronger bottom end to spin faster

    It's borderline miraculous I ever got, then actually installed, the long tube headers I was obsessing over for years.
     
    I'd say a T-56/TR6060 swap is likely on this list, unless my built AOD takes a crap on me. It would be a lot of fun, but then I'll need axles, etc, so the cost is prohibitive.
     
    IMG_9451.pngI’ve thought of…. Puttting… SOHC Vtec…. Stickers on the side of the bird just like the Honda guys 😅 just to mess with em. More than like never gonna happen but would be pretty funny.w
     
    XR7-4.6 said:
    Keep all current mods and restore appearance to 100% stock including wheels(albeit widened with fat tires), for sleeper purposes.
    Click to expand...

    That is a big one for me too. I don't have much to change apperance wise to get there. I think im going to wait until the tires on my 17" wheels age a few more years. Then it's going to go back to the factory sport wheels with some new rubber. Maybe I will look for a factory exhaust to put back on as well.

    theterminator93 said:
    Aluminum block
    Better intake manifold
    Stronger bottom end to spin faster
    Click to expand...

    I'd like to go that route too; a few years ago I was even looking for an aluminum Explorer 4.6. But at this point I don't have anymore drive in me left to do any major work. I love driving it and taking it out to hoon around in, but throwing countless hours of work to try and make it a *little* bit faster just isn't appealing to me anymore.

    Part of my lack of interest is probably due to all new cars now being so much faster than classics. I don't feel like it's worth all the work to make a now a days slow car, a bit less slow. I think the way I have it now (besides forced induction); it has all the changes done that make it as fun and unique as possable.
     
    I wanna do a 302 ford crate motor swap and supporting mods but until I at least graduate and work for a while it will be far too time and cost prohibitive to do it any time remotely soon
     
    I have an aluminum block I'm building for Lazarus, a 10:1 that I'll use the 2v heads with until I finish the 4v stuff. I need to finish the porting on the manifold, and assemble the heads.
    If I get that done, I think I'm good on mods. :)
     
    Grog6 said:
    Eliminator was a trim option, different engines than the regular one. There is one of each sitting in oak ridge, that belonged to my dad's race buddy; when my dad built his mercury , tommy built the 68 cougar. The eliminator is wrecked, no engine, and they have sat 50 years in a yard.

    I'd say, fuckit, and add the eliminator stripe.





    Click to expand...

    The roadblock to it is it really needs a repaint to pull it off the way I want. On my car the side moldings were left on when it had a partial repaint before I owned it and the only way that stripe would work without looking cluttered would be to remove them so I killed that idea dead long ago.

    Actually a full repaint in and of itself is another one I could add to my list. Not just white again for the Eliminator but I if I ever did a full color change 03 Cobra Mystichrome has been in my fantasy list since I first saw it… luckily the department of treasury is an obstacle I wont bother to weave lol




    Kenz said:
    I'd like to go that route too; a few years ago I was even looking for an aluminum Explorer 4.6. But at this point I don't have anymore drive in me left to do any major work. I love driving it and taking it out to hoon around in, but throwing countless hours of work to try and make it a *little* bit faster just isn't appealing to me anymore.

    Part of my lack of interest is probably due to all new cars now being so much faster than classics. I don't feel like it's worth all the work to make a now a days slow car, a bit less slow. I think the way I have it now (besides forced induction); it has all the changes done that make it as fun and unique as possable.
    Click to expand...

    For me it’s not even the speed relative to other cars, I’m straight up apathetic to horsepower, to me anything above 300 is more than enough in a street car for fun sake. I care way more more about the sensation, be it through the coarseness and engagement of a manual transmission, the V8 burble/cammed idle chop, or just the ability to burn rubber(which frankly a mere 200 horsepower is adequate at)

    The only thing I envy in modern cars is not their speed but just being able to drive them year round without worry of corrosion or totaling them. I daily drove my Cougar for years year round when it was stock or just mildly modified(J mod, gears, PI intake) and even though right now it has probably 100+ horsepower than it did to then my fondest memories come from it then because I drove it HARD then. I love mods but less for the result than the pursuit, I just love tinkering and those are the excuse to.

    I love the current wheels on my car looks wise but given the 295 45 18s out back that look so so good are nearly $300 each I do find myself longing for 15s and their $100/piece 15” tires when I want to blow off some steam 😆
     
    I will sound like a broken record soon, but if you do go from 18" to 15" I would love to hear your feedback on the handling with the width changes. The (16") LSC handling is a chore comparatively and I'm still trying to find out why the old bird is so much easier to handle (and adjust) amongst the variables. In my mind the LSC is a straight line cruiser but my buddy loved the LSC handling when he tried it, and likened it to an asian compact
     
    Vicinity said:
    I will sound like a broken record soon, but if you do go from 18" to 15" I would love to hear your feedback on the handling with the width changes. The (16") LSC handling is a chore comparatively and I'm still trying to find out why the old bird is so much easier to handle (and adjust) amongst the variables. In my mind the LSC is a straight line cruiser but my buddy loved the LSC handling when he tried it, and likened it to an asian compact
    Click to expand...

    I think it’s apples & oranges given the airbags vs springs, plus tread widths if they’re different between cars(245+ makes a MASSIVE difference in handling on these from the stock 205-225s)Sidewall height makes a difference to be sure, but so does the unsprung weight of larger diameter wheels. Braking would be the big downgrade *for me* since going from 13”/11.65” Cobras to stock with PBRs at best with 15s would be a definite hit.


    I have gone from 17” to 20” and back to 17” with the same tire height and tread width, all I noticed was the ride quality penalty of the thinner sidewall
     
    XR7-4.6 said:
    Actually a full repaint in and of itself is another one I could add to my list. Not just white again for the Eliminator but I if I ever did a full color change 03 Cobra Mystichrome has been in my fantasy list since I first saw it… luckily the department of treasury is an obstacle I wont bother to weave lol
    Click to expand...
    No need to worry about the treasury department for the 03 Mystichrome. The 96 “Mystic” was the one that used the same color shifting pigment as the $100 bill, which was why the treasury department restricted it. The 03 “Mystichrome” was a completely different formulation, which had a similar effect but was not used on any money, and so the treasury department had no authority over it. While it is more expensive than a traditional pearl 3-stage, it is nowhere near as much as the 96 “Mystic” paint.

    Funny story about that paint, back around 01-02, I was working in a body shop, and I saw on the side of the road for sale a 96 Mystic Cobra, hit in the left front. It wasn’t that bad of a hit, needed a fender, bumper cover, and headlight, and a little fiberglass work on the hood, but it still ran and drove, didn’t touch the wheel or door and didn’t look like it moved the frame at all. They were asking some ridiculously low price for it, I want to say they wanted like $3k for the car. I was so excited to buy it, thinking I could probably fix it for $2k and either flip it for a nice profit or have a fast (for the time) newer car for cheap. Luckily I decided to make sure I could get all the parts before buying it, which wasn’t a problem, but when I gave my boss the paint code to look up how much the materials would be, he found he couldn’t get them from his local supplier. After a few calls, he was told the whole deal, that the paint was $5000 per pint, it had to be brought to the shop by secret service agents, and the secret service agents had to watch the entire process of the paint being applied, and they would then take back any unused paint, and then the secret service would send you a bill for the agents’ time. Needless to say I didn’t buy the car. I actually considered buying it anyway and just shooting the whole car in black, but that seemed wrong. But imagine my frustration when about a year later Ford comes out with a color so close, but 1/10 the price, and with none of the treasury department strings! There aren’t many cars I regret passing on, but that is definitely one of them.
     
    I want to swap my gold cars roof to carbon fiber. Which I would never do to that car.


    Ill probably do that to the red car if I ever get around to it.
     
    The roof is structural, so replacing it is going to be rough. A member at the old place had one with the roof off, and it was flimsy; if you sat in it, the doors wouldn't open.iirc, it was casper.
     
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