1969 Cougar import

[stuartmmcfc]

My new toy finally left Montreal on Sunday and is due to arrive in Liverpool on the 10th of October. It's a 1969 Mercury Cougar, a car I thought I'd never own until fellow PHs reminded me that I only live once and it's better to regret having done something than regret not having done it.
Anyway, a bit of background...
I've had some nice cars in my time like an Integrale, an ur Quattro and a Karmann Ghia. Not really expensive but quite cool
My last weekend car was a xkr convertible which had a lot of good things going for it but tbh, I never really liked it that much because a) it was to modern and b) I don't play golf
I sold it 2 years ago and surprisingly, I missed having something special, so I started looking around.
A complication was that I have MS. This means I have to have an automatic fitted with hand controls and I don't honestly know how long I'll be able to drive for. Could be worse though!
I seriously couldn't think of a car I liked enough to buy and then the Wife made the mistake of buying several car mags for me to read on holiday. I'd never really been interested in American cars but one of them was Classic American and the seed of an idea was planted.
Initially I liked the idea of a muscle car, and even went as far as viewing a 440 Charger in Norwich. This made me realise though that it was a bit to "unruly" for me nowadays and I also needed my Wife to be completely onside. She didn't really like the Charger and since it was ultimately her money, I decided to abandon this particular idea and carry on looking.
Last year we went to Schilthorn in Switzerland where they'd filmed "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Naturally, we watched it on DVD when we got home and that's when I first noticed a Cougar. Importantly, the Wife like the look to
Diana Rigg drove a red convertible so I threw myself into finding out as much as I could about these cars and joining a couple of American forums so I could ask plenty of dumb questions.
I spent the next year scouring the net investigating cars until I found this one in Calgary.
I'd expected to find one in the "dry" South, but this ticked all the right boxes. It'd been restored some years ago by an enthusiast before being sold to a dealer. I was able to contact him, and he answered plenty of questions the dealer wasn't sure off.


Eventually the deal was struck and I bought the car in August.
I appointed John at Golden Chariots to handle the import. I'd approached several agents but he'd been the only one who'd given me a complete quote and was full of friedly advice and tips, and has remained so throughout the process.
One small problem was the car was in Calgary and the port I wanted to use was in Montreal, some 2500 miles away. John came to the rescue and arranged covered transfer by train. It wasn't quick, taking over a week, but there was no hurry.
On Sunday it sailed on the MSC Sandra and is currently just passing Newfoundland.[/URL]
I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas!

Edited by stuartmmcfc on Tuesday 29th September 20:18

Edited by stuartmmcfc on Tuesday 29th September 21:23

[stuartmmcfc]

Apart from the concealed headlights, the rear indicators are pretty cool!

There was sound on the original, hopefully it's still here

[stuartmmcfc]

Big Rod said:

stuartmmcfc said:

Apart from the concealed headlights, the rear indicators are pretty cool!

There was sound on the original, hopefully it's still here

I had a later model Cougar and it had these deleted. Will you get away with it?

I'm assured that the importer knows how to sort it so, hopefully, they'll still be sequential but the dictator part wil flash orange.

Incidentally I've got the Marti report which I'll post later, if "you" don't know what one is (I didn't!) then it makes interesting reading.

[stuartmmcfc]

If you've never seen one, here's the Marti report for my car, and virtually any old Ford.
It's gives information such as where it was built, the actual build date, options and original dealers address .
I think it's a very interesting resource

[stuartmmcfc]

It looks like the Sandra arrives on the 4th. I don't know if it's made good time or it's because my general incompetence meant I misread the arrival date since they put the month first and we put it in the middle of the date.
Doesn't matter though

[stuartmmcfc]

Big Raff said:

Love these stories! I hope it treats you as good as it looks!!

Very quick question, do Golden Chariots also help with the process of making the car fit for UK roads? And also taxes when importing...because there are many deals to be had out in the US of A and i am considering the same kind of approach. Sorry for the question away from the thread...Hope the sun stays out for you!

Thanks

Edited by Big Raff on Friday 2nd October 12:20

John, at Golden Chariots, is very friendly and can arrange everything for you.
I've found him very helpful and, coincidentally, there was an article in Classic American this month where the writtenr jhad used GC and was very pleased.
http://www.goldenchariots.com/
Theres obviously plenty of good guys out there, but so far, I've been very pleased.

Thanks to a very helpful PHer I've been able to track the Sandra across the Atlantic and it's getting close! He's using a work system so I've not posted the images but thanks H.

I'm also expecting a passenger mirror to be delivered tomorrow. They didn't even offer them as an option, but there's a company who specialises in Cougars in America and they make them. All I have to do is get it painted and drill a couple of hole in the door and fit it ( )

[stuartmmcfc]

hidetheelephants said:

Isn't the Cougar just a Mustang in a posh frock, a shared/common platform in modern parlance?

Yes, but better looking

[stuartmmcfc]

hidetheelephants said:

Isn't the Cougar just a Mustang in a posh frock, a shared/common platform in modern parlance?

Yes, but better looking

[stuartmmcfc]

The passenger mirror arrived today.

Very good quality, jit comes in primer, and just needs painting.
Much more "stylish" imo than contemporary European mirrors. Should be easy to fit but at the moment I'm in 2 minds whether to paint it myself or get it done professionally.

Car arrives in Liverpool tomorrow lunchtime and I can't wait til I lay my eyes on it.
As hard as it may be to believe, I've never actually seen a convertible Couga in the flesh, but I have seen 1000's of pictures, so hopefully I won't be dissapointed!

Edited by stuartmmcfc on Saturday 3rd October 17:15

[stuartmmcfc]

Over the last 30 or so years of buying cars I've always had a little thing about the first song I play in a new car.
I've decided what I was going to play in the Cougar some time ago.
It's age appropriate and I know many service men came back from Vietnam, grateful for still being alive, and bought cars like this.
Seems appropriate
http://youtu.be/LMUBWKJ5A_0

[stuartmmcfc]

[stuartmmcfc]

Quick update:
Car has been unloaded, vat paid and is going to be collected on Monday.
It then goes for mot work and then for its actual test.
Swept out garage today as well

[stuartmmcfc]

You have to send a v55 ( I think) to the dvla along with its mot, proof of identity and a cheque for £55 etc and they give you its first uk reg and tax it (free because of its age). I'm getting rhe importers to deal with this.
Dvla don't hurry though but now the bad weathers here there's no hurry.

[stuartmmcfc]

Re the mirror and spraying it. I've no issue with spraying it myself but it looks like I'll have to take the drivers mirror off to get a colour match as I've tried a couple of places and, even with the code, they've been unable to find it on their systems.

[stuartmmcfc]

Update:
I've still not seen the car yet but it's getting closer.
It's at the engineers in Wolverhampton where it's been prepared for its mot by having orange indicators sorted ( they've managed to retain the sequential lights by using a custom board with LEDs on).
It went through its mot this morning with no problems. All I'm waiting for now is for the original title to arrive and it can be regeristerd and its new reg issued.
Once that's sorted it can be delivered here.
We're off on holiday for a week on Friday, so hopefully it'll arrive before the end of the month

[stuartmmcfc]

Quick update:
Cars mot'd, it's been registered and a fresh UK reg number assigned and I've even taxed it
Unfortunately, I still haven't seen it yet though, but now the number plates can be made up and fitted, it should be able to be delivered sometime next week.

The Wife's made the mistake of telling her Mother who sees it as confirmation that I'm a tt do I care!?

If anyone's interested, the total cost to import was about 25% of the total price.
Shipping was more expensive from Canada but the strength/weakness of the £/CAD made the initial purchase cheaper.
Things like unloading, vat, mot work etc would be similar regardless of its departure country imo.

[stuartmmcfc]

Arriving at 1:10 today, 50 minutes to go!!!

[stuartmmcfc]

There's a Cougar in my garage now

On first inspection it looks every bit as good as I hoped but not dared to believe, I've spent the last hour just gazing at it!
I took a picture of it arriving which I'll post later, but right now I'm going out to the garage again

[stuartmmcfc]

To be honest there's been a lot of gazing and not much else!
I've not got it out of the garage yet mainly because it's been pouring with rain virtually non stop ever since it arrived.
I also need to sort out the hand controls but, for "technical reasons" I can't do this until I decide whether to keep the Lorry sized steering wheel or buy a smaller diameter one. I can't do this until it's out of the garage and I can get the roof down to get some day light in. First world problems
Initial thoughts are:
I need an owners manual. This is so I can work ourt what does what. If I could get it out the garage I could see better but it's always raining..
Switches aren't that logically placed, There's 4 rocker switches in the centre. I only found that no. 4 isn't wired to anything in the convertible when lafter an hour of fiddling and trying to get it to work, I asked on one of the American Cougar forums. It also took me ages to find the bonnet release catch.
I found the hood switch but didn't see the catches you release first. Luckily I quickly realised and stopped before I wrecked it.
I've ordered a repo from the States
It sounds brilliant. Exactly how a V8 should sound. Unfortunately I can't start it much because a) I don't know how much fuel is in it because I can't find the light switch and can't get it out of the garage because of the rain and b) the exhaust fumes would kill you dead in 30 seconds. The answer would be to get it out of the garage but...
The noise made my daughter cry
It's in lovely condition and I can't see anything wrong at the moment. I'm very very pleased and tbh I hadn't really expected to get it out much over the winter so I'm very happy to keep on gazing!
Photos and reports will follow, I promise!