Cougar Buying Guide Ep.3 - 1968 XR-7 390 "Barn Find"

hi my name is dawn and we are doing yet another video on what to look for when you're buying a cougar hopefully when you look at our videos we have several of them now it'll it'll keep you away from some of the pitfalls on buying an old Mercury Cougar I'm actually selling this car but we're going to focus this video on what to look for when buying so I'll walk around with me and let's learn a little bit as you approach the car in the driveway for the first time take your time look at everything and when something catches your eye don't pass over it ask yourself why be a detective here first thing I noticed in this very first corner when I walked up to it and the barn I found it in down the street believe it or not just two miles away from our shop been there for years didn't know about it first thing I noticed was grind marks around this light look at those grind marks now what could that be indicative of a wreck maybe I don't know well as me you may know 68 headlight 67 didn't when I reach back here and you can't see what I'm reaching for there's no flange the 68 fenders when they punch the hole there's a flange there's a lip this is a 67 fender somebody's cut a hole for this light this car has been in a fender bender well that's okay but let's figure out if maybe there's some more damage we should look for okay first thing I will look at is this corner has it been worked is it wrinkled is it welded on I see some factory chalk mark our grease pen marks that looks good this looks like the factory rubber seal bonded with factory staples aftermarket core support or even a service replacement core support wouldn't have this that looks good I'm seeing these dimples here if this panel had been replaced I doubt they would have replicated those factory spot welds not seeing any wrinkle here so if this is an offender bidder it was in a light one I don't see anything else having been replaced reason being look at this this grille here that's a 68 grille right there a 67 grille would be cut away so I do believe that's a correct original 68 grille everything I see here looks correct and untouched I like the alignment here it's within tolerances it's not perfect these wee lip mouldings have obviously been replaced they're way too nice looking so somebody went to the dealership when they were still available and got these 68 only brushed trim rings that's kind of a rare treat these are the correct style steel wheels four six eight six seven had a hole that was a little bigger here and six seven was prone to cracking because of those enlarged holes and six seven wouldn't clear these 68 disc brakes properly so it's good to see the correct wheels here aftermarket caps as evidenced by the fact that they won't move original caps are snap-on so those are reproduction caps which is fine this being a 392 barrel car has these emblems here very hard to come by people like to sand the car and do paint on there and grind the edges off so very rare hard to find emblem there this is touch-up paint we did and a head peeling paint and we figure to look better but look close to spots like that for hidden rest look for pimples down here here's where I always look see these pimples here that's actually better than average if you see a patch right here that's not so good you see lots of dimples here that's expensive to fix next thing I always do how do you have to look I feel this edge and I just go like this and if my fingers my fingers go like this that's what I call a swollen seam and that's rust so you should also have all and poke around in there too this one's super solid in here I always look in these door jamb areas especially if I've noticed the fenders been replaced maybe it got hit from the side should be arrow straight in here shouldn't see any filler wobbly marks you shouldn't see a pile of shims in here this is just what it looks like from the factory in fact this one even has its original seam sealer still in place that's a good sign look for the pimples in the rear of the doors too also right here they love to rust out in this area I do this with my fingernails a lot I'm looking for you know kind of a tinny hollow sound not a thud thud thud I also look real careful these lines you see how how that's a gradual right line right there a lot of times when they get in a wreck or they fix rust they try to recreate this line it'll be really sharp should look very mellow I want to say washed out by a gradual curve here not a sharp line here's the next place I look for rust right in here fills up with water down here I actually like to squeeze in this area and fill in here and if it goes crunch crunch that's bad again if you suspect anything you should have all and be kind of probing away at it okay here's one everybody misses well I won't say everybody but people that watched my videos before even look feel oh listen to that crunch I don't know if you get it on the mic oh look what see what I'm seeing flake down here this is bad this is very very bad look at that now let's get our eyes in here yeah at first glance it you can say oh it's kind of rusty anytime you see a hole like this you can expect it gets much worse from there just like cancer when you detect a little cancer in your body yeah it's spread this is what I would say is a non-repairable trunk lay this is gone but the good news is the previous owner years and years and years ago got a junkyard deck lid it comes with the deal that's perfect I'm not going to put it on because it's not read but notice you look out here it looks fine you'd think there's no rust in this deck lid oh right we see that telltale sign right there if you see a dot there expect a crater back here spensive peace 500 bucks for a good one if you can find it here's another telltale sign there supposed to be a hole right here as you've seen in my other videos didn't get painted from the factory often rust occurs around here here what they did when they put a cheap paint job on this years ago as they slathered over it you can actually see the filler that's not correct so again there's some rust here we know it water often finds its way down to the lowest part of the trunk but in this Carr's case nice really nice and I always feel in the very very corners of these quarter panels body men can fix this area pretty good but these corners are hard so if you feel any any lumps or bumps or filler in here you know it's been hit from the corner both of these quarters feel great in that respect detail items like this are worth a fortune as these cars get passed from owner to owner guy has two Cougars maybe he wants to upgrade often they rob little things like this you'd be surprised what just this little original piece is worth an original jack these days can fetch a couple hundred bucks nice to see an original style steals pair when you bought style steel wheels should have five not four each and old tire here that's not original but it's era-correct it looks kind of cool here's a big boo-boo yes and no these are not factory these were dealer-installed these came from auto parts stores these were of course to protect your car from door dings and the Cougar has a bulbous body line here that's very prone to getting body damage here so people put these on in my opinion these are far more ugly than door dings I'll take door dings there in any day but here's where people go wrong they send their car to the body shop they get their $8,000 about paint and bodywork overdone then they call me and say I need new new strips here I'm like sorry there's no new strips what I got holes fill the holes do not put this crap back on it looks terrible the values your car and you won't find good replacements there we go rust again if you see a tiny little pimple on that don't kid yourself that isn't a $200 fix well it might be but inevitably if you see rust there you're going to be cutting out something like this because all that metal around here is usually thin oh you might get lucky and do a patch this big but that's costly to fix so if you see a car that's like gone here oh boy budget it in don't don't don't pass up the car but don't kid yourself that's expensive no bubble there little tiny bubble here remember what I was talking about these emblems people like to run their sander over them you got a cheap paint job on this years ago and you can just kind of see where they hit there da here also the the guy that was taking the car apart thought these pried off so we put a screwdriver back here and you can tell he broke a stud and bent the emblem you ruined a 200 dollar emblem that's never going to be reproduced very rare item more important is then the deck lid is the hood this one's not as bad as the deck lid but that little rests there you might want to overlook that don't that is going to be that's going to take a repair same over here see that bubble there if I was to take a all through this right now look at that didn't even need at all that's expensive to fix don't overlook that stuff almost every cougar this age has it but you know maybe the seller of the car doesn't even know point that out to them that's costly to fix also you can sometimes just go like this look what's going on here you know that tells you a certain amount of decay is going on inside you when they made these cars from the factory they didn't get any paint behind here they bonded the bare metal pieces together and then sprayed it their goal is to make this car last ten years not 50 okay let's point out some little things I see right off the bat here that spins good but inevitably you put a belt on it and spin it at full speed it's going to make noise keep in mind we rebuild these don't throw these away and buy a cheap aftermarket one this this core is worth money get your original rebuilt I always like to see if the compressors froze up for a part number on the fan there I like to see these original shrouds with a faux moko they're the reproductions are plastic this is more of a fiberglass and they're very valuable and it's very rare not to see one it's been broke right there that's a very valuable piece always look real close for cracks in the shock towers especially on big block cars go ahead and point your camera down there this one is perfect that is a rare rare treat I always look close at these aprons look for telltale signs of wrinkle in here you see wrinkle there that can mean the hood flew up often the case you can also mean it was in a pretty good collision and shove the thing back so look for any irregularities in these aprons big block cars I like to take these off and throw them away and put in the one piece export they flex so much specially in big block cars and of course we show the video on how to reinforce these shock towers even on small block cars so they won't crack must must must if you're rebuilding the front end get in there and put the plates in there we sell okay here's a treat these pieces here getting to be so rare reason being is look how easy I took it off these get lost all the time the Cobra Jet one is reproduced this is 390 only 68 only not reproduced you'd be surprised how valuable that is this not being a GT being an X code that's a that's a common as dirt snorkel as found on a Ford pickup four years no big deal there that heat shield down there and this hundreds and hundreds of dollars also this canister xcode's came either way they weren't high performance cars so they didn't really need this extra air inlet here but it's been my experience that some have this lower canister and some don't so it's kind of neat that this car has it so this car can be a fake GT pretty easy re chrome this lid a couple other things it's going to be all intensive purposes at GT in my opinion a vinyl top D values a car by hundreds of dollars reason being there's always it seems like some rust hidden if you can take your thumb and you feel hear it go crunch crunch crunch that's almost a car to walk away from unless you really want to put in the labor we've done a video on how to replace the top but trust me you don't want it these pimples here those are all that's a big one right there that's going to take some that's going to take some labor to get that ground down and welded back in place this car is way better than average but don't just pass right over those bumps each one is going to take individual time to fix the number one area where these vinyl top cars rot or right in here the water just seems to pool right in here I don't feel any bumps or crunching this one this one feels super solid along here that's a good thing I you know bring your buddy along with you and have him distract the owner while you go back really reef on his car that matters I mean these we sell this patch right here but you'll have to hand fabricate any rot that you find up here luckily this one's a rock-solid one thing I like to do when I'm serious about looking at a car is buy a deluxe Marti report don't be a cheapskate it's like forty some odd dollars online and it'll tell you everything you want to know about how the car left the factory and it's a nice thing to walk up to the owner and say here look what I got you for your car original documentation they'll be floored and you'll just get it right back if you buy the car but it's nice to know what the car came from with you can show the owner hey your car used to have a console no it didn't well look at the Marti report money well spit anyway that being said my Marti report matches on this car to a tee I really like how nobody's buggered with anything here the guy the second owner bought this car when he was a team and was conscientious enough not to mess with the 8-track he didn't cut anything original knobs or Joe radio everything law box stock just the way it should be that's a big deal this is a thousand bucks right here the steering wheel believe it or not having what I call a kid wheel on it that could be a thousand bucks by the time you locate a core and spend 450 on a restoration and buy this this this I mean we're talking expensive so this is this one had a rap on it so when I got the car I figured it has a rap on it means it's cracked and ugly underneath know what it meant in this case was when the car was brand new they wrapped it and preserved it look at the woodgrain on this there is no restoration service out there that replicates this woodgrain so this is a big deal this this steering wheel is actually worth several hundred dollars nice to see an original dash pad here still straight and pliable and you know a little dark on the top like they all are nice to see all this untouched till column a lot of people don't even know they have till there's been people I've had customers I've owned a car for 15 years and had no idea until I step in their car that it was a tilt column unlike Chevrolet there's no second lever so you know depress this turn signal wand in there and see this one's rock-solid well not rock saw there's a little slack in there but that's within tolerances a lot of people say I only have a tilt sorry they didn't make a tilt only all tilt columns in 67 to 69 Mustang cougar and Thunderbird were tilt away an original tilt tilt away car will have a second button here I'm not hearing anything I should hear a click click click click every time I push on this that means somebody had a problem there and disconnected it that's ok these are actually easy to troubleshoot we got a guy here that full time rebuilds columns for people keep that in mind Mustang cougar and t-bird owners but you need to have all the equipment a lot of times a junkyard tilt columns people don't realize that they tilt tilt away so they just go and grab the tilt column and split they don't take all the wiring the feeds through the dash they don't take this vacuum component here so reach down and feel for this on a tilt tilt away car this one seems to be all here that's sweet also on a tilt tilt away car in 68 and 69 you'll see the can bolted to the fender well there and a 67 it's bolted under the battery tray in most cases door panels are a big deal on these a lot of people think when they see faded or ripped door panels that they're going to spray-paint them and they're going to do a little vinyl repair well look at the texture on this pretty hard to fix or rip on this and if you look really close you'll see some marbling I call it little shades undertones of black in there you spray paint this panel that goes away forever there's a few artists out there that can you know replicate that but it's a big deal our breasts on these are a big deal these are worth more than a hundred bucks apiece because sixty-eight only xr-7 only Mustang which is reproduced looks like it will work and we sell them but it's a smooth texture keep that in mind no big deal on these these are actually reproductions that I put on because the originals were faded look at your map pockets pretty easy to put new elastic on there but these Kitty pockets are getting hard to find remember the Cougar always walks forward another thing I see in these door panels a lot is a big circular pattern here and that's from the window cranks gouging into the panel that's pretty impossible to fix these are not reproduced your goal is to get them from somebody that never wore their seat belt this person wore their seat belt and every time they let go they ship this up no big deal on these these are reproduced and there's quality reproductions out there but keep in mind these door panels these are worth in 2015 anyway these are worth six hundred dollars then you start adding all this other stuff get in two thousand bucks right here in these two panels so having really clean panels really helps the value of the car I want to point out somewhere here you know they usually have this this one's better than average a good vinyl repair guy could actually fix that the boards are often broken on these this one can't feel but I'll bet money there's some some cracks back there we are sell these backer boards they're hard to put in but don't discount panels because the boards are bad they usually are this is a bad bad deal right here you can see what happened here somebody tried to take this screw off bezel off with a screwdriver that's what they did we have a tool that fits over this that takes this off so that'll never happen but that's what keeps this pair of door panels from being a $600 door panel right there I always look for these tags I like to see the original rivets not Phillips screws and I like to see them in their original place should match identical to the picture of the tag on the Marti report the thing I like to look for in old cars have been in barns is rodent damaged pest tracks if you find one little mouse turd or rat turd for every one you find there's a thousand more hidden check this out you might overlook a hole in the headliner and say oh it's an old car if that's the worst of the headliner no big deal well if you look close it's not a rip because there's no flap of material going behind it the mice ate that you can see there little nibble marks all around the perimeter so when you rip out this headliner you might find a surprise I guarantee you'll find some nesting and some turds mouse urine is one of the most corrosive substances known to men I've bought cars where it's gone down the pillars and the pillars you can just crumble them in your hands not so on this car but don't overlook that stuff can't stress this nut enough I know I've said it a lot of times don't buy a car and so you've seen underneath I don't care if you have to spend 150 dollars to use the rack for half hour and drive 40 miles out of your way you're buying a pig in a poke unless you look at the important side of the car before you purchase oh this side is important too but the underside so much tell so much more okay starting at the forward portion here a little damage is indicative of a floor jack a lot of damage is indicative of the wood jeebies being driven out of it this car has been bottom doubt here but more important you want to look at this piece here that's nice hasn't been t-boned or nice edge here good contour no rust that passes okay let's look over here uh-huh look what we see here rot again don't assume that you're just going to patch this you see a hole this big you're going to be cutting out probably the whole section here okay we have an unoriginal chrome oil pan he did have this motor rebuilt years ago so he probably did a couple of extras there I'm not fond of that original light duty sway bar as seen on an Xcode I'd go the rest of the way on this car and upgrade to GT on that what we're really looking for is damage and rust well while we're here we might as well check the steering box I'm going to reach up there and wiggle it Hey look at that this one's not even out adjustment I'm wiggling that rag joint just a little bit and I'm seeing a little movement there that's good although I do feel a click click click click in the tilt column so there's a looseness in that tilt column I'll watch our suspension troubleshooting power steering troubleshooting video on that and I show how to diagnose all that but there's something going on that tilt palm that's not right it's just a little bit loose torque box is that's West Coast people rarely find rest here but see just a little bit of rust starting there you East Coast guys if you see it expanding that torque box has got to come out that's not a cheap repair either this is nice original stuff here look at this though look at that you'd think oh that's just a tiny little spot that's not a tiny spot again if you see a little spot like that who knows this whole area could need replacing look at this right here that's paper-thin see how this flexes this is a rusty floorboard this has had water from the inside it'd be really easy to overlook this especially if you didn't put it on the lift but that means a floorboard section is most likely going to have to be replaced oh you might get lucky and do a section don't count on it here's another one look at this tiny little hole again you might want to discount that don't don't not buy the car because of a floor pan like this but factor it in when you buy it I guarantee you this isn't going to be a little patch this is going to be maybe a whole floorboard in here this one feels more salt than the other one to be honest with you it's not real flexi but that's going to be weak in that area let's look at this torque box this is probably just indicative of a floor jack placed wrong nice and solid we like to see that all original no weld marks ok this exhaust appears to be original to this point but mufflers back has been replaced that's okay that's normal I like to see these original hangers these right ones are easy to come by only dual exhaust four-barrel cars got the left on or these big blocks that's a $400 set the rear end looks original let's look at the tag ok I see 2.75 that looks original here's the point where you want to have the all in hand I like to get a needle sharp one this is this is great but you see this little bubble here that's not a bubble in the paint that is drop look at that Here I am so you do have a patch to cut out there it's looks great though way above average here's this other one right here that don't be don't be fooling yourself that's not paint bubble that's rocked here's another one look at that now that one might not be oh I was right look at that look what I just did don't buy this car not just kidding of course you're going to want to see if the headlights work and the taillights work even if they would do work they're usually on their way out so many people get hung up on that that's the most important thing about a cougar don't worry about it the solid-state electronic module on the back which I put in this car is cheap the headlights there's multiple ways you can go on these most people are putting electric in there these days not cheap but they all need it sooner or later of course we rebuild the vacuum actuators too but just assume you're going to spend $1000 between the two on those and you're fine so it actually works to your benefit when you buy the car that they don't work and then that way you can factor it in if they do work do know they're probably going to go out pretty quick one thing you want to factor into these barn finds that have been sitting for a decade or more is the first 30 miles you drive them they're going to break down about every two to five miles on this car we had to do a water pump miscellaneous electrical of course we had to do tires a brake booster put anyway fresh out of the barn that means money so keep that in mind heater core is often break you know the first hot day so factor that in heater cores on an AC car aren't fun when you're driving it you're looking for clunks you're looking for pulling to the left to the right you're watching the temperature gauge I always like to do at least one panic stop too and see if all you know if one of the rears lock up before the other it just acts like it should in summary try to spend a whole afternoon with a car if you can drive it touch it wiggle it poke at it ask questions don't be rushed sometimes the adrenaline the endorphin release the excitement of it makes you just want to make an offer and do it just play it cool and take your time on these cars you're going to find all these things eventually it's better to find out about them before the negotiating begins hope this helps in your purchase of an old cougar you

Channel: West Coast Classic Cougar

Views: 70,347

Rating: 4.7800407 out of 5

Keywords: west coast classic cougar, wccc, tv, wccctv, mercury cougar, ford mustang, 1967, 67, 1968, 68, cougar, mercury, ford, classic, car, inspection, buying, buyer's, buyers, guide, inspect, how to, what to look for, body, engine, rust, hood, trunk, xr7, xr-7, 390, x code, 390-2v, parts, interior, seats, information, details, detail, vinyl, roof, top

Id: 9XLIm9YVzG4

Length: 30min 53sec (1853 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 22 2015