Concours Restored Complete "Plug & Play" Grilles for the 1968 Mercury Cougar | ||||||||
| Description: One of the primary focal points of your early Cougar is in fact the hidden headlamp grille assembly... It is a trade mark of the early Mercury Cougars! Over the years we have heard all too many horror stories from customers that have sent their grilles to some very well meaning shop just to have them destroyed. We have decided to tackle this delicate project and offer to you our rendition of what we feel is an "as close to perfect" pair of complete grille halves as can be achieved. Many will not be willing to drop this kind of cash but please do view the 25 photos below and you may learn something about restoring your own grilles! Click on images to enlarge.
Our restored grille package includes a re-manufactured pair of actuators, four new eyelid tension springs, four premium quality eyelid bumpers, your choice of four reproduction or used FoMoCo script headlamps, new emblem with emblem background and two new actuator mounting pins. The chrome is stunning, show quality and the baked on paint process is actually better than what the factory would have applied in both workmanship and materials used.
When sending in your cores for restoration you will want to make sure it is as crack free as possible. The upper tab (pictured above) that mounts to the center grille is a key area to inspect for cracks. The condition of the chrome is actually less important to us than the black housing portion as we have a good selection of the vertical chrome bars gleaned from Cougar grilles with damage elsewhere. The up-charge for replacing one of the six sections of chrome (three sections per side) is $25-$45 each. Often we will allow you to send in multiple "less than stellar" grilles to us fulfill your core requirement and if you happen to have extras, we can deduct from your total. The amount of money we will deduct from your total usually is about $100-$200 per complete grille half. If you happen to have a 67 grille or multiples of one side we usually can work with you depending on what our current stock of passenger versus driver side grilles. We will also take 69-73 grille cores in trade. The goal is to get you the desired grille without you having to pay a costly core charge!
Here is a picture of our new grille repair clips. We install these regardless of whether or not cracks are present where the tension springs mount as these are excellent preventative maintenance items. Remember, an ounce of prevention clips is always better than a ton of grille hassles down the road...
Notice the correct plastic keepers and headlamp wiring is in place. If you are missing a part here and there (or your detail items are less than show quality) we do not penalize you price wise.
Make sure you send in all of your related mounting hardware and we will restore it also!
No reproduction bolts used here! There are excellent original SEMS bolts as taken from a clean Western parts car. Much attention has been given to make sure all the various parts have coatings applied as the factory applied them.
Since we have hundreds of actuator cores on hand at any one time we hand pick the best of the best to install in these grilles. These actuators have a 50 year limited liability warranty when you purchase them with this "Plug & Play" system. Normally we offer a 15 year warranty for our actuators when purchased apart from the restored grilles but we want this to be a premium quality investment for you in all ways.
These inconel alloy springs have a lifetime warranty and will never lose their memory. The originals start to lose their intended tension after a year or two.
These pictures have been greatly enlarged and show details not seen with the naked eye (including spray foam particles from our extreme duty packaging system). Once in hand you will find these parts look better in person than what you see here. We offer a no questions asked, no excuses return on these grilles. If you are not extremely happy we will take them back and give you as good or better cores than you sent in. We have multiple Cougar owners (every person that has ever bought them from us) that will be happy to share their experience.
The horns are carefully pulled apart, rebuilt and riveted back together. The goal is to make it look like they were never touched...
Arrow straight alignment is a must! They will not leave our hands until they are laser straight... Who wants a crooked grille on their freshly restored Cougar? This is a challenge but with proper tension applied over a period of a few days, add some heat (not too much), proper bracing applied in just the right places, we make these grilles line up as if they were NOS. This service is costly but in the end it will set your car way ahead of the rest. Ones eyes just cannot help but be drawn to a brilliant, laser straight, properly detailed COUGAR grille.
When you factor in the actuators and other detail items, a complete NOS grille system could cost you $5-$6000.00. Not only are most of the NOS grilles that we commonly find inferior, the actuators that were made into the early 80's were inferior as well. Internal documents tell us they were made in Cancun and we have found they cannot be rebuilt due to the porosity of the metal, they just crumble at the seam when we attempt to separate them for rebuild.. Another factor is "if" you could find all 50 (approximate) parts of the grille system in NOS form, the shelf wear on some parts would be disappointing to say the least. 
No, most people will never look at the backside of your grille but we know you will! Again, many scrutinizing hours are spent on these grilles to make it look as if they were never disturbed.
We are sure you will agree the show chrome on these grilles is superior to what you will ever find on a NOS grille.
Make sure your tin mounting brackets are not rusted out or ripped. If yours are not restorable we do have good used for an up-charge of $90 each. If you happen to have two of one side and none of the other that works for us!
*NOTE* The best grilles for restoration purposes are the ones marked "TEACO" on the backside between the headlamps. If they are not marked "TEACO" then they are most likely a later dated service replacement part. We have found that the porosity on these grilles is noticeably different than the examples from the OEM supplier. The Nickel content is substantially lower which means the grilles are much softer and more prone to misalignment and cracking. Often people will spend large amounts of money for NOS grilles only to find out that they do not hold up very well. Our opinion is that a restored "TEACO" grille is better than a NOS unit that does not bear the "TEACO" mark. *NOTE* Porosity is the level of bubbles (or trapped air) in a cast metal product. 
*Customer Feedback* Don, I want you to know that I am very pleased with the quality of service your company provides. I sincerely appreciate your responsiveness and the way you conduct business. I have recommended your company to others because of my satisfaction with your service. I look forward to doing business with you for years to come. Also I wish to give a special thanks to "Mr. Vacuum Man" for the way he handled my grille restoration. He was courteous and friendly as he made half a dozen inquires to update me on the status of my grilles. Such professionalism is rare nowadays. "Mr. Vacuum Man" is an asset to your organization and is part of the reason I look forward to doing business with you again in the future. Having a craftsman that one can trust gives a welcome sense of security in today's world. I will also recommend his work through you to all my friends. Again I want to thank you & Mr. Vacuum Man for the excellent service I received in my journey of putting my Cougar back to its final destination. Such service builds great working relationships! Sincerely, Bob D’Ortona, Nashua, NH | ||||||||
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