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1969 Cougar Cobra Jet Ram Air Convertible For Sale
SOLD!!!!!! sorry
This is a real 69 numbers matching CJ Convertible (see the Marti Report and Invoice)
which is 1 of 31 built with this engine/transmission combination. In 1969 there were only 129
total CJ Ram Air convertibles built total. This is one of a few built in bright blue metallic with the close ratio 4 speed. If you go through
the text and pictures below most questions should be answered. If not, please
email me and I'll do my best to help you. The price is
$29,000 or best offer. I'm not looking to do any trades at this time. I have too many projects going on and need to generate some money for them.
I'm looking to sell some of my other cars and if I do that first I will take this off the market as I really want to keep it.
As far as the market goes,
here is basically the identical car (options, condition) but with the SCJ (oil cooler, rods, counterweighted crank) which sold for over 64k.
I have a clear Massachusetts title in my name. NOTE: I have the original hi-res pictures for any of the ones on this site and can email
specific ones if requested. I did not have the disk space on my web-server to put them out there at that resolution.
I just had quite a bit of professional work done (with receipts) and the car is now runs (starts on 2 spins) and drives very nicely. It could be road worthy with
a bit more work (mostly hooking up the lights & instruments, installing window glass if you are worried about rain and putting the trim back
on the windshield to hold the top down (while up). My driveway is about 300 feet long and I had fun drag racing up and down it yesterday.
The brakes take a pump to come up and probably should be bled (they are all new). Also the power steering is not connected
but the car steers fairly easily. The fenders, hood, etc have been hung on for shipping but are not fully attached. You will notice the rattling in the
video.
This car would be perfect for hobbyist looking to do some light body work to prep for paint, spraying it, and then doing some reassembly. Additionally you would need a new top and
some bumpers and trim and you would have a great cruise night car. It is absolutely a project car but a very worthy one. Remeber, it costs the same to work on this car
as on a 302 2 barrel coupe so your effort will be much more rewarded here.
Here is a video where you can hear the engine running.
Shipping
There are many reputable shippers out there and sending a car across the country is not a big deal at all. I'll be happy to make sure
the car gets loaded properly on my side. My GTE went half way across the country with no issues. The buyer used these guys and was very
happy. I can say I found them to be very professional and they used a beautiful enclosed truck. When getting quotes be sure to quote an
enclosed trailer as the door glass and rear window are not in the car.
Options & Details
Price is $29,000 or best offer
History
I purchased this car from Don Rush of West Coast Cougar Classics in March of 2006. Here is
the thread on the Classic Cougar Forum where it is talked about. You can see from reading the thread that Don had purchased it
from the long time owner in Michigan with the idea of keeping it. Tom Lawerance (well known Cougar restorer) traveled from
up to Michigan and brought the car back to his shop in South Carolina for Don. A careful inspection by Tom revealed this car was going
to require quite a bit more work to complete then what Don expected. There were a number of repairs that while functional, (see front end frame and inner fender section for details)
were not made in a perfect manner. These are not rags covered with Bondo sorts of things, but welding and panel replacement that was just
not done with a concours quality restoration in mind. These repairs were made because of both rust (Michigan car from new)
and front end damage (looks like it was hit on Passenger right side at some point). Don put the car up on ebay using the poor quality pictures he had from the original seller
and was very purposeful in under-selling the car so that any buyer would not be dissappointed with what they got. When I got the car
home and got to inspect it first hand I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as I had expected. Given that Don makes his
living on his sterling reputation in retrospect this makes sense. I do not make a living sellings cars, but I too want the buyer to
completely understand what they are getting (and hopefully be happy!). To that end I have gone to a lot of effort to provide detailed pictures and descriptions of everything
I see and know about the car.
So... what you would be getting is one of the coolest Cougars ever - in my humble opinion. The combination of paper work (Marti,Invoice),
drive train (Cobra Jet - close ratio 4 speed with orginal engine) and color (Bright Blue Metallic on white) all in a convertible
is what made me go wild over this car. This is a REAL car.
Both inner fender stamps and dash vin are intact. The
original door tag is also included.
Recent Work
I bought this car with the intention of doing a ground up restoration. Immediately we dissambled the front end and pulled the motor with
the idea of reparing the torque boxes and going through the motor. Although the engine was advertised to Don as a full rebuilt, neither of us
have any paperwork for that and I planned on going through it anyway while it was out. Shortly after we started work both myself and my restorer
got sidetracked on other projects and it sat for the last 15 months or so. I'm to the point now we are I'm spread too thin accross car projects as well
as a new house and I'm having to make some hard decisions about which projects I will ever actually get to. This car is back in the line behind my GTE
and a couple of pre-war cars. In preperation to selling it I have had my restorer spend some quality time getting this car running and driving. I'm sure
I got carried away but it is to the point now that if I got the brake lights going it could go down the road. While the engine was
on the ground, we pulled the valve covers, pre-lubed the motor and turned it over by hand. Prior to running it we did a compression test on all the cylinders
(175-190 on all - most were around 185 - remember this motor sat for a number of years too). Plugs, wires, rotor, cap, radiator, hoses, battery & cables are new by me. (Note: the previous owner did much
new mechanical work discussed below). The fuel line front to back is new. We rebuilt the original carb. The clutch, pressureplate and throwout bearing are new. All the suspenssion, front and back was done by
the prior owner and is new. I had a new H pipe but we could not get it to fit
so in the interests of having some exhaust we cut an old one and hung mufflers. This system is o.k. for messing around but you should probably assume
you are going to need a complete exhaust. In the interests of making it look like a real car and to make storage and shipping easier I had them hang much of the body
and trim pieces. The seats are bolted down (but the new carpet is not so the floor is not hidden). The dash (which is MINT) was hung also but the harness was not attached
to the instruments. The dash harness looks to be in o.k. shape and there were no obvious signs of shorts in it. The car starts from the ignition switch in the dash.
The motor starts quickly and sounds great. There are no ticks or raps coming from it. All the brakes look to be new and you do have a pedal.
The door glass is not in the car and the headlights are not actually hooked up. This assembly and getting it running project was done
by a profession shop and I have the reciepts for the work. It was not cheap.
Pieces that are missing to make it "Concours"
To the best of my knowneldge (i.e. what I know is missing) if you want to make the car concours you will need the correct shifter (Currently a Hurst), Heat-Shield,
S-Tube, Snorkel, fan & clutch and Distributor. If you really want to get carried away you will need the Smog system too. Go
here for all the information on identifying Cobra Jet Parts .
The S-Tube and heat shield are available in reproduction and are
indinstiguishable on the car from original. There is also reproduction snorkels and smog equipment. They are much cheaper then the
original stuff and would be fine to use unless you are going the concours route (i.e. nobody except a very few can tell).
I believe that the car is complete however I'm sure there is a missing piece here or there that I'm not aware of. Please ask
and I can look if you notice anything missing in the pictures that is important.
Work done prior to me
From looking at the car there was a tremendous amount of mechanical work done by the previous owner, the brakes are new
master cylinder, ball joints, bushings, gas lines, rear springs, shackles, etc, etc.
Pictures and More Details
Contact Info
If you have any additional questions you can
email me.
Updated on October 23rd, 2008
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