Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

[Thumpin455]

Let me preface this with a little bit of info. I dont build show cars, but also I dont slap things together and just backyard engineer anything. Its done right even if it isnt done with store bought parts. Its more fun finding alternatives than scraping up enough dough to pay for some new widget or even a quarter panel. Some cars deserve new quarters, others I can patch easily. All the engines and transmissions are built with quality parts and machine work, no halfa$$ stuff there, they are an investment and the ones I have done already have lasted through years of hard driving. Budget based doesnt always mean its crap, it just isnt done by writing a check to a shop or store. Scrounging and being creative pays big dividends in this hobby, and I like to find other ways to do things within my budget.

Im not wealthy, I just have a bunch of cars I picked up over the years and never sold. Im an ASE certified master automotive tech, been to school to pick up the things I didnt get doing it myself, and have been learning body work lately. Its about time my beaters look presentable even if the paint job doesnt cost me much.

Old Ugly is what we called my street strip ride. I bought it on base in Germany back in 1990 for $200 and have been stuffing engines in it ever since. It ran high 11s with a mild 455 and a stock converter at 3750lbs for a total outlay of $5000. Fun times. Had a problem with sabotage and lost the 455 to some lead shot in a rod bearing. Ordered a 467ci stroked 400 from Butlers in TN while I was in Kuwait back in 04, and someone dumped gravel down the carb just after I got it running. Apparently someone didnt like me. Hard times resulted in it taking me 4 years to pay off the repair bill, and last summer I got it back. I decided the car didnt need to be ugly with a nasty engine like that in it, so I stripped it down, fixed the minor rust and painted it, along with some lightening and upgrades.

This was it before last summer.




Here it is mid paint job with the bullet back in it.


Just about finished banging metal around.




Made a radiator support from aluminum angle stock I salvaged from a satellite TV dish.


Slapped some mud on the rough spots, hit it with epoxy primer, since it was a race car I didnt bother with hours of block sanding high fill primer. Just get it close and relatively smooth, still it came out nicer than it was.


And a medium metallic blue I picked out of a DuPont chip book.


Had to cut the trick springs and lose the gasser stance, along with a bit of wet sanding and a quick buff to remove overspray and a bit of peel.






Still needs some work and a bunch of updates because it will be considerably faster than high 11s now, and the 65 GTO project took precedence. So Old Ugly, that isnt very ugly anymore, is waiting out the winter in a snow drift. The general consensus in the Pontiac world is very low tens to mid nines in the 1/4, so it needs a bunch of safety stuff.

[Thumpin455]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

Prior to Ugly, I found a 79 Trans Am with very few options and traded a friend some parts for it. It was too far gone for him with his skill set, and he knew it would get a good home. The idea behind it is to build a 400 or 455 with some small chamber high compression heads, and use it as a tuning mule for my Qjet ethanol conversions. The other part is to find out how much mileage I can pick up by not using pump gas and a minimum of E85 with compression, torque, overdrive trans, and highway gears. It has 2.41s in it and I have a few 2004R cores laying around, and the 455 is machined and waiting for the crank and rods (after the GTO is done).

It had lots of rust and crappy body work from before I got it, the scoop was pop riveted to the hood, and they assumed some tin would fix the rusted rear frame rail. It wasnt pretty but it was cheap. Doesnt look that bad, but then bondo can look ok until the bubbles come back.



They attempted to fix the floors, I think leaving holes would have been better.



Not much left of this frame rail either. I repaired it by cutting all the rusted stuff off, then welding 1/8" wall 2x2 box steel in place, and running a stub of that into the good part of the rail in the rear end kick up. A couple plug welds to hold it in place and it tied the spring mount to the rear quite well. Eventually it will get repaired with a new stamped frame rail, but for now its drivable.


Quarters were swiss cheese and covered in bondo.



So chop the bad stuff off and replace it with sheet metal patches cut from a mid 80s Suburban hood. Hoods make nice patch material because they are flat and not usually rusted. Sometimes the contours in them are helpful in making a piece. I need a shrinker/stretcher to make the compound curves, I did this with a dolly, some body hammers, and a bench vise.




Despite how it looks, its all metal under there and the filler turned out to be no more than 1/8" thick.


Primer and a bit of blocking, the old gun was causing problems with runs so I had to pick up a new Devilbis. Much better quality than the cheap gun I was using before.


With all the red cars in the yard we decided another red one was too much. So the better half picked out the color. 79 Trans Am yellow. Its retina searing in bright sunlight.


To break up the monotony of yellow, we masked out a 70-72 style TA stripe ans shot it in sunset orange metallic, a GM color on 98+ Vettes and F bodys. Also put the Centerlines that came under another car on it and now it looks decent.




Need to finish the floors, build the new 455 and replace the tired 403 this summer. After that add some interior parts like a carpet and some decent seats and drive the wheels off it.

[Thumpin455]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

The first vehicle of mine I actually did a complete paint job on was my 76 C10.


That is another story...

The first one I started was my Cougar. It began in 1986, then sat in a shed at my dads for 20 years while I was in and out of the military, and running my shop between enlistments. I bought it for $450 when I was 13 with money I made by growing and selling sweet corn, busted my hump to get the money. It was a 302 2 barrel automatic so perfect for a 16 year old, not fast enough to get in lots of trouble. It had lots of peel and dents that had been filled with bondo while it was in California, but very little rust. Passenger side floor pan and a spot in the quarter panel that was easy to fix. The dents were another story. It looked halfway decent in the 80s, until I started sanding on it..


When we pulled it out it looked like this. 20 years of dust and the mice had a few too many parties inside. I hate mice. The interior wasnt too bad when I parked it, and I have almost gotten the smell out of most of it. Sitting takes a toll on cars though.



So we dragged it to Michigan, getting offers to buy it every time we stopped. Same thing happened with the 65 GTO. Sanded off all the old primer and filler from 20 years before and assessed what there was to work with.



Ripped it down to a bare shell and sand blasted all the crud off it.




Had to fix this dent and no replacement quarters are available in the aftermarket.


So section it out, and replace it with good metal.




Then primer and filler work after lots of dent repairs like the one above. I learned a lot doing this car, but it took me FOREVER. It was 2008 before I got paint on it.



Used a two stage Nason with in the red that my 98 Formula has, came out nice even though I had to do lots of rework on it, and I am still not happy with some of it.



Dropped a Cleveland in it and rebuilt the front suspension.


Then got to work putting the front end back on.




When I get the suspension sorted out and pick up some wheels for it, this is the general idea of how I want it to sit. I used photoshop to make the altitude adjustments, I wish it were that easy and simple to do in real life.


This is the only car of mine ever to get ink in a national mag, it made Readers Rides Feb 09 CarCraft. Hopefully I can get good enough at this stuff to get a bit more ink in the future, its nice getting some acknowledgment for my efforts.

[JOES66FURY]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

cool cars and nice work man, thanks for sharing...

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

nice work.... welcome aboard.

[67prostreet]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

I came across your Cougar not to long ago when I Googled 67 Cougar. Nice build.

[Thumpin455]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

Thanks guys, I plan to drive the wheels off it this summer. I havent driven it since 1986 and the last time it moved under its own power was 87.

[Blazerteam]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

Keep up the nice work,and you will soon have a big collection of nice cars ;).So you bought the trans Am in Germany,and shipped it back to great old US?? :D

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

Nice work. I decided to keep my old dented front fenders from my Impala for use for patches as well.

[Thumpin455]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

Keep up the nice work,and you will soon have a big collection of nice cars ;).So you bought the trans Am in Germany,and shipped it back to great old US?? :D

Ya, its a WS6 Formula not a TA though, I was stationed at Rhein Main near Frankfurt back in 89-91. The Air Force shipped it back for me, and its been down Bahn 3 and 5 quite a few times. Parts availability back then before the internet was rough, Summit and Jegs took a month or more to get anything to me, it was mainly the military PO that was the hold up. Getting a clutch for the 77 TA I had before this one took 8 months, Summit kept sending me the wrong one. I needed an 11" 26 spline clutch, and they would send either a 10.5x26 or an 11x10 spline. Jegs got the right one the first time.

I cant imagine what its like for you to get parts in Norway, I have some friends down near the coast. They tell me our weather is rather similar even though you are farther north.

[mustang13]

Re: Old Ugly, The EMule TA, and the Cougar

Wow! You have a nice shop set-up for yourself. Your Cougar would look soooo bitchin' painted up like a Bud Moore T/A race car. Keep up the good work.