A story of a car affectionately called Rudolf;
It was August 2006, I was at a car show with the local SC club when a guy came up to us stating his boss had a Cougar that had a knocking engine and was thinking of selling it. My attention rose a bit, I asked the year with a reply of it being a '89, then I asked did it have 16" 7 spoke wheels, with a reply of yes it did. So I instantly knew what I’m dealing with. I got the owners phone number and he went off on his way. The next day on my lunch break I called the owner and he told me the car was at his place of business, and said I can just come by a look at it whenever I wanted too, so obliviously that evening after work. As I drove around trying to figure out where the place was, I finally seen in a corner of my eye a White XR7. Well the car initially looked to be in very good shape, except for a hint of rust and the front bumper hanging on with its life.
I called the next day and asked how much did he want for it? We came to an agreement of $500 (I thought for a car with 7 spokes, decent tires, clean interior and reasonably low mileage it wasn't bad, even for just parts) so we got together, he gave me a stack of receipts from day one (he was the original owner) said he will miss it and the Bonneville (with the SCed 3.8) couldn't holds its own to the XR7 but was happy it was going to me instead of a wrecker (I showed him all the documentation on my '91 XR7) and I was a proud owner of a badly knocking 89 XR7
That weekend I called a towing company to move it to my parents place (I live in an apartment here) well after it was unloaded I got it fired up to move it the last few feet into its new home, Well it got maybe half way there when all of a sudden there was a nice clanging/bashing noise from under the hood and the engine locked up solid as a rock...
After using my parent’s minivan to move it the rest of the way, I disconnected the battery and there it sat for a few months. I kept thinking to myself other than a front bumper looking sad, and a hint of rust here and there and with the near mint interior the car was to nice to part out, and went about removing the old engine, sadly since I couldn't turn the engine over to remove the torque converter bolts, the whole assembly had to come out as one, not the end of the world for me, also found out that the transmission must have been rebuilt within the last couple of years at the most.
Once I got the engine on the stand I first started with removing the oil pan before turning it over as to see what was in the pan... first off recent oil change was done on the engine, but the chunks metal I don't think were suppose to have been in the oil pan, flipped the engine over and one rod was trying to make its way through the block, another one got twisted when the first broke up, even the Camshaft itself got nicked in the whole process. I got in hold of John in Alberta for another engine, after I got it from him, I just freshened it up a bit, new rod bearings, gaskets, new plugs, wires, o2 Sensor, motor mounts, fluids and so forth) Mocked up my new power steering lines and went about installing the engine over my winter break at the shop.
She runs! Runs nicely at that, too bad she didn't want to stop all that well, but new front rotors and pads cured that problem
I would insure her every once in a while for a long weekend. Went straight as an arrow, felt very planted, suspension was tight, the car made a real awesome cruising car, I was thinking of using it as my daily driver, and selling my ’96, but that never came to be sadly.
After a year of it running, I remembered how I felt like taking a ’91-93 XR7 and swapping in a 3.8SC 5spd combination, But then I got to thinking, I have a ’89 XR7 in my own hands, it’s easier to swap the headlight panel, bumper and hood and tail lights then doing an engine swap. The car needed a front bumper anyways, so the hunt was on for the pieces. I found a Red ’93 XR7 with rear end damage also a ’92 LS with front end damage. Collected the parts except for the headlight panel (forget why I could get it, broken?) But was able to buy one from Ford cheaper than an aftermarket piece. And to top it off it was the last known one in Canada! Over my winter holidays again I took everything to the shop to do the conversion, a co-worker at the time was suppose to paint it white for me, but he ended up having other plans, and since it was over the Christmas holidays I did this, that is basically how my '89 XR7 affectionately became known as Rudolf the red nose cougar
Sadly Life changed for me, I got married, bought a place (sadly an apartment) and my cars have been neglected for many years. I've tried to sell poor Rudolf a few times, but nothing came of it. So she just sat and waited, I felt sad about it, such a nice running car just sitting there
So after saving her 7 years ago, and having a fun time doing it too, and least got another few more years out of her, it's time for her to be stripped down of parts I could use for my '91 XR7 and maybe even my '91 SC (which my wife wants gone too)
So I am on my summer holidays for the next three weeks, so in around 3 weeks time there will be yet another '89 XR7 off the road forever
I really didn’t want it to come to this, even thou this was the original thought I had when I first heard of it 7 years ago.
Sorry for the long winded sad story, but hey not all stories have a happy ending.