Car Doors – Episode II, Return of the Torque Box.

In a garage far away there lived a shell, the remanants of a Mercury Cougar once driven. This dilapidated old Cougar boarded the transport “Flat Haul Express” to find its long lost cousin to help breath new life into her.

Yes, we have added another kitty to our garage. This is referred to in the car restoration circles as a “shell”. It doesn’t run, has no interior and is in pieces. But it does possess something the first one didn’t, a mostly rust free underneath. In the time we have owned our cougar we found out how costly it is going to be to repair those pesky little structural parts called “Torque Boxes”. The shell we just got cost half of what it would have been, and the best part, we can drive the first one while we get the second one ready for the transplant. Here’s how it goes.

We are going to strip every, light, trim, and interior part off of the shell, as well as remove the engine, transmission and brake system. Do a full clean up and restore of the main body, inside, outside, top and bottom. Then we primer and paint those parts. Then, during one winter we remove ALL of the parts from the first Cougar and put them into the restored one. Projected timeline, by summer 2011 we hope to have the fully restored and painted version on the road, but that’s being optimistic. This will be an interesting couple of years.

The next few pictures show you the first one compared to the new arrival. The first one is on the left of these pictures, the new arrival on the right.

Inside the trunk

Left rear wheel well

The dreaded torque box

You can see more pictures at http://s873.photobucket.com/albums/ab291/Tabithas_Trials/The%20arrival%20of%20Chapter%202/