I was just reading through one of the Mustang magazines and ran across an article talking about a new website. It is a source for parts for enthusiasts of the car hobby and has 62 million database records and 3.1 million parts!

Owners can share car profiles, part numbers, parts sources, torque specs all kinds of cool stuff. I have just scratched the surface but I already like it. Check it out.

www.partskeeper.com

Well, after a month of being busy at work, dealing with the Feds to maintain certain privileges to fly the friendly skies, and the IRS, to stay out of jail to exercise those privileges, work on the Cougar has resumed!

The restoration of our Cougar started before Hunting American Muscle was launched, so I’ll be catching everyone up on the car and the work. We purchased the car in the Fall of 2014. Then the wife wanted a bigger house so we moved a couple of months later, so the real work didn’t start until the winter of 2015. The car is a 1967 Mercury Cougar Dan Gurney special and a Marti Report verified 1 of 1. Power disc brakes, an A code, 225 horsepower 289 and the famous C-4 automatic. Nowhere near a powerhouse, but a decent performer in the day. The Cougar, as most car people know,  was Mercury’s answer to the wildly popular Mustang. Introduced in 1967, it was designed to be more of a European sports car that was more luxurious with a longer and lower stance. The Cougar was stretched 3  longer inches in the back. Other than that, it shared the same uni-body as the Mustang, and just about everything else. Since everything is reproduced for the Mustang, it is pretty easy to get Cougar parts because of the crossovers.  So restoring the Cougar is almost as easy (easy, right) as the Mustang.

Our cougar is a 1967 that we located in Bloomington, Indiana, home of the Hurryin’ Hoosiers at Indiana University.  The guy that had was a musician and moving to Hollywood and had to sell it. We got it right. He bought it from the original owner in 2005 in Chicago. Before that the car sat in a garage for 24 years! An affidavit from the original owner matches the odometer at just over 37000 miles!  Lots of wax markings from the factory still exist, the data plate on the door is the original and the buck tag on the radiator support is there too. The car is complete and it was ready for restoration.

We got the car in the shop and got it on stands. I started on the rear suspension. Got the exhaust with the original ford muffler out of the way and then on to the shocks and springs. The shocks were the original Autolite units! There was no resistance on those shocks at all in either direction. Got the springs removed and lowered the rear end down. Don’t forget those parking brake cables. The rear axle is now at the other shop and is getting sandblasted. There was a lot of noise coming from the rear end so we purchased axle bearings Warrick Automotive, the local Napa parts store and had the bearings pressed on in their machine shop. The spring and shock mount plates were blasted in the cabinet and then sprayed with Eastwood rattle cans of Rust Encapsulator Gray for a primer over the bare metal and then the Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black in Satin for the topcoat. The axle housing will be with the Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black in Gloss for a little contrast.

The differential that came out of the axle was an open unit and carried 3.00 gears. That is a fine ratio, a little performance and ok on the gas mileage, but we are going for a little more performance. So we opted for a 4 pinion Traction-Loc rear end with a 3.55 ratio. All of it inside of a Ford factory extra rib 8-inch case with the stock 28 spline axles. That should help!

More to follow, stay tuned!

Well, here we are! The wheels of Hunting American Muscle are turning! What is Hunting American Muscle? It is pretty simple, really.  We are a couple of guys that love Cars.

It started in high school for me when I was driving around a 1965 Mustang Fastback GT, with Pony Interior no less! (More on that car later!) My brother was driving a 1967 Fairlane GTA Convertible. Triple Black!  My buddies were driving a 1965 Falcon, 1966 Mustang coupe, a 1966 Nova (that was faaasst). My buddy Dale was driving a restored and super sweet 1971 Super Beetle. We had some other friends with classic Corvettes, Chevelles, there was a 1955 Chevy Sedan delivery floating around from time to time, lots of cool stuff, and this was in the 1980’s!

We are mostly about American Muscle cars, but there are a lot of European autos that we love too. We also look for classic motorcycles. See our Best of Class winner on the website! Our goal is to keep as many of these vehicles alive as we can. When we hear of one that is interesting we will drive to take a look at it and consider it for the Hunting American Muscle garage. If we like it, we will purchase the car or bike and get it home.

These days it seems that  most shops like ours will start a complete restoration, finish it, and then try to sell it. That is great. We love the restored cars! We are working on some now. The problem with that as I saw it, was, that I can’t afford to buy a fully restored Classic Mustang or Camaro for $20k or $30k or $40k,! Okay you get my point! I am a husband with a honey-do list, I work too much, a dad with kids that are going in different directions, so, I am guy with a limited budget and time for acquiring a car, but have the garage time available (Is an hour a day time?), the skills and the garage space to restore something over time.  That is where HAM comes in. After we purchase a car we think is worthy, we will go through the engine, brakes, lights, transmission, etc., to make the care drive-able and SAFE. We are not going to fully restore our rescued cars. (Unless you want to hire the Hunting American Muscle Restoration Services!)

After the car is roadworthy and safe again, we are going to offer it for sale. On our website, Ebay, Craigslist, or, anywhere we think it will get lots of exposure.

Hunting American Muscle is trying to get these Classic American Cars into the hands of the people who want to restore their own car. We want to be able to provide a good, solid platform the the guy or gal to be able to do a restoration with some of the technical work done, or to be able to do a driving restoration. We really want help people find their dream car, be able to buy it for a decent price and then do the work to make that car their own.  An automobile canvas for the classic automobile masterpiece in your mind!