The Warriors of the Fort Bliss Warrior Transition Battalion (WTB) need your support to complete the restoration of a Classic 1968 Mercury Cougar. Mr. Tony Torango, owner of Body Masters Collision Repair Shop, El Paso, TX graciously donated his facility and his time to guide the Warriors through the restoration process. As you can imagine the restoration is quite extensive. Because of the scope of the project, along with the attention to detail needed, the soldiers must stay focused.

Click/Tap to View PDF What would a classic Cougar be without functioning sequential taillights? Frustrating, that’s what. Classic Cougar Community member coachJack has come to the rescue with his thorough guide “Everything You Wanted To Know About the ’67 Cougar Sequential Taillights.” According to coachJack, he started with Steve Citrone’s “Sequential Signals of the 67/68 Cougar,” which provides comprehensive information about the system. Next, he added the “Sequential Turn Signal And Emergency Flasher Systems” which contains essential information, working diagrams, wiring diagrams and a troubleshooting flowchart.

Click/Tap to View PDF On October 17, 1913, Henry Ford launched the first moving automotive assembly line at the Ford Highland Park Plant, the birthplace of modern industrial mass production. Line workers earned $5 per day, twice the average industrial wage at the time, and sufficient to allow the workers to purchase the product they produced, the Ford Model T. The American middle class was born. The beautiful buildings comprising the Ford Highland Park Plant were dubbed the “Crystal Palace” due to the openness and natural light afforded by the huge windows.

It was a great day to get together, the weather was perfect for bringing the cats out. Several attendees drove for more than an hour to attend. Set up began at 9:30 in the morning as slowly the members found their way to the Sycamore Picnic area. Ernie, as in years past, did an amazing job organizing the event. He was the first to arrive and began unloading his car with the various items he picked up, anticipating the arrival of help to set up the covered picnic area soon.

What If Team Cougar had won that last race in 1967 and become the Trans Am series Champs? It would have been difficult for Ford to pull the plug on Team Cougar. Perhaps Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and Ed Leslie would have gone on to win again in 1968. We will never know of course, but for certain, Mercury would have tried to make the most of the victory, and the best way to do that would have been with a commemorative vehicle.

The Mercury Cougar interior color section of the 1968 Mercury Cougar Dealer Guide. You can download a PDF copy of the Mercury Cougar section of the Dealer Guide here.

Today, we bring you a January 3, 1968 letter from the A.O. Smith Corporation to John Kerr of Shelby Automotive, Inc., regarding pricing estimates for modifying the 1968 Mercury Cougar. Shelby Letter (2 MB)

The following document is a PDF containing two blueprints for the 1968 J-Code 427 cylinder heads. J-Code 427 Heads (3 MB)

The Way They Did Things Back Then… Cougar Horn Emblem Blueprint The original design drawings for the special components that were used to turn a regular Cougar into an XR7-G are now available in the documents section of this site. The documents are downloadable PDF files and were produced from scans of the original 40-year-old blue prints. It amazes me that these documents survived for all of these years. From what I have been able to piece together, this story begins in about 1970.