Ok for my first post I will introduce myself and my project car. I am a soldier in the U.S.Army. I am also a classic car freak. I use to be in to the mainstream cars big time. Then I found my project that changed that.
My project car is a 1976 Mercury Cougar XR-7 with numbers matching 400m and C6 trans. The one pictured in my avatar. I bought it a few years ago for $600.00 out of the need for a car so my wife would have a car when I wasn't around. By the time I got home. A total drive of about 6 miles. Yes I drove it home. I was in love.

Now I know that the cougar is an overlooked car and this body style is even overlooked by even the most hard core cougar fans. But I see potential in the big cat. After all it is a torino under the sheet metal

My plans are to make the cat original-ish looking on the out side but under the skin a major restomod. I have already started but it has been hard to do any thing on a regular driver that can't be complete in a few hours to 1 day. But that should change soon when I come home from Iraq. Since I plan to get a regular driver

My questions are what are some places that I can get parts that will not cost me an arm and a leg? I am set on the engine since it shares a lot of its parts with the 351c. And also what are some of your suggestions?

I know that this car probably will never grace the covers of car mags but I would like to see it make it into the readers rides one day. Other than that I just love driving it.  

How bad restrictive is all the Smog Equipment on that car? You don't see many of those around, so parts may be a little hard to come by as many of them have probably been sent to the crusher. From what I can tell the body looks to be in pretty good condition.  

Origanly the smog equipment was pretty bad. The smog pump was not connected at all when I bought the car and the catalitic converters where removed when I had new exaust installed. I do have a really good supplier for body parts that pretty much just deals with 67-79 Cougars. The body is really solid on the car even though it is from South Carolina. It was origanly sold there and stayed in the state untill I go stationed at Fort Hood. Thankfully the 400 shares a lot of parts with the 351c. I can pretty much get what I want for the drive train with it having the C6 trans and the ever popular ford 9" rear. Interior is what is going to be the hard part most will probably be custom made but thats fine with me. And yes many of these have been sent to the crusher there where more made than the any year before but there are less left around than even the XR-7 models from any year before it.