New owner wooo! :) black zetec

JBunney17

JBunney17

Forum user
Apr 8, 2012
46
17
Gloucester/Cardiff
Hi,
I’m finally a Cougar owner after a long time of waiting. :D
After so much thinking of which colour is best, I’ve ended up with a black W reg, ’spares & repairs’ Zetec model as most of my savings will be going towards insurance :( (it’ll be my first personal car once I’ve passed my driving test) - so I’ve tried to start off by spending as little as possible!
To be fair, what I’ve bought is horrible; the paintwork looks like it’s been washed with kitchen washing up liquid and a scouring pad, the tail gate has been attacked with a hammer and the alternator is useless – But shouldn’t take more than a few hours of work to make it as it should, and hopefully do some minor modifications on the way too :p (don’t want make insurance premiums even worse).
Just wanted to ask a few questions that I thought wouldn’t be answered as well elsewhere on the net:
  • Has anyone swapped the cloth seats for electric leather seats in a 2.0? Just wanted to know if there would be factory wiring for the extra power functions somewhere under the carpets or would I have to wire in my own stuff to power up the leather seats as my current cloth seats seriously smell and look like they have been used as a toilet… :sick:
  • Also does anyone know of any black cougars being broken for parts at the moment as I really need a tail gate and where can I find cheap 30mm lowering springs; they all seem to be 35mm on ebay?
Any replies will be appreciated.
Thanks, :)
JB.
 
JBunney17 said:
Hi,
I’m finally a Cougar owner after a long time of waiting. :D
After so much thinking of which colour is best, I’ve ended up with a black W reg, ’spares & repairs’ Zetec model as most of my savings will be going towards insurance :( (it’ll be my first personal car once I’ve passed my driving test) - so I’ve tried to start off by spending as little as possible!
To be fair, what I’ve bought is horrible; the paintwork looks like it’s been washed with kitchen washing up liquid and a scouring pad, the tail gate has been attacked with a hammer and the alternator is useless – But shouldn’t take more than a few hours of work to make it as it should, and hopefully do some minor modifications on the way too :p (don’t want make insurance premiums even worse).
Just wanted to ask a few questions that I thought wouldn’t be answered as well elsewhere on the net:
  • Has anyone swapped the cloth seats for electric leather seats in a 2.0? Just wanted to know if there would be factory wiring for the extra power functions somewhere under the carpets or would I have to wire in my own stuff to power up the leather seats as my current cloth seats seriously smell and look like they have been used as a toilet… :sick:
  • Also does anyone know of any black cougars being broken for parts at the moment as I really need a tail gate and where can I find cheap 30mm lowering springs; they all seem to be 35mm on ebay?
Any replies will be appreciated.
Thanks, :)
JB.
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Hi JB and welcome to the home of the Cougar :)

Leather seats - yes it's pretty much a straight swap leather for cloth - the wiring should be in place - not 100% sure if the connectors are different between the earlier "C1" and later "C2" leather seats. I'm sure someone can confirm this (y)

There have been a couple of black cougars broken on here recently - have a check in the 'Breakers Yard' section (not sure if you need to be a subscriber or not).

Have fun with your new motor and consider subscribing so you can access the Technical/Modifications sections - it's the best £18 you'll ever spend as this place is 'The only workshop manual for the Cougar' :)
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Whereabouts are you in Glos? I'm in South Glos. near M4 junc 18. If you're looking for a leather interior you're more than welcome to call in and look at the spare one I've got.
Cheers, Andy.
 
Hi JB and welcome to the home of the Cougar. The seats can be swapped easily, but, you may have to change the connectors under the seat as they will more than likely be different. Don't worry, it's not a hard job. Kully Singh was breaking a black car so it may be worth getting in touch with him. As said before, The Breakers Yard is a good place to look for spare parts and Subscription of 18 quid a year opens up a whole new world of Cougar information.
 
Hi JB, welcome to ukcougar.com, your in the right place for all things cougar related, as well as some crazy banter. You will also be able to find all the fixes you need in our subscriber sections. Have a browse around the open forums and get a feel for the place. Remember! ukcougar.com is the only workshop manual for the big cat.
My cat is a 98 zetec, i swapped to leather interior a few years ago and it was straight forward plug/play, no wiring issues at all as my leather also came out of a 98 V6. You will need the relay though for the heaters and iirc the fuse needs to be uprated.
 
Hi dude difference between 30 and 35mm lowering is sod all not worth worrying about the tolerances in making them will be around that anyway.

Good luck getting it in shape.

JJ
 
Welcome to the club JB. As you can see, you've have had some responses for help on your ebony cat and you can gain more in the subscribers section. I literally saved a bunch on my car repairs thanks to this forum and the FAMILY like people who are on here. If you ever come to a meet you will see what i mean dude.

p.s. Si aka Scunnycougar might have something in regards to your tailgate issue.
 
Wow, didn't expect to get that many replies in a day :)

Thanks alot for the helpful information on the seats, just got to shop around to find an interior for a good price.
Andy, I'm in Gloucester - a bit North of you but will contact you about your spare interior soon. :)

Will try get some pics posted by the end of the week; Its a wreck at the moment.
Hoping to subscribe once I've got the important bits sorted on my cat as I'm quite tight on money and time at the moment.

Thanks very much for the warm welcome :)

JB.
 
Hello and welcome aboard JB and also welcome to the 'Ebony Club' too. I'm pretty sure you'll get your coug looking much better in a very short space of time. My piantwork when I first bought mine was terrible and had been cleaned using a kicthen scourer! Ouch!!! So, I managed to get some great stuff from www.i4detailing.co.uk called Britemax - this stuff: http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/britemax_black_max_1.html and it's worked miracles (with a lot of elbow grease).

Re: Lowering kits, well mine is lowered 30mm and I have used PI Springs, although they have gone up in price slightly since I bought mine over 3 years ago - see here: http://www.potn.co.uk/pi-spring-kit-sportpack-ford-cougar-1998-lowers-30mm-30164_p1253372.htm

Anyway, best of luck with cleaning up your coug and also best of luck with passing your test.

Cheers, Tim
 
Wow, those springs are expensive Tim. I'm sure you can find cheaper JB and also make sure they're for the Zetec as that link doesn't specify which engine (unless I missed something).
Front spring and damper ratings differ between Zetec and V6.
 
FlamencoAssassin said:
Wow, those springs are expensive Tim. I'm sure you can find cheaper JB and also make sure they're for the Zetec as that link doesn't specify which engine (unless I missed something).
Front spring and damper ratings differ between Zetec and V6.
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Yes Manos, they are quite a bit more expensive than what I paid for mine, think mine were around £103 - when I bought mine you had a choice of either V6 or 2Ltr, so not sure why they have changed their site?

Anyway, just found these - Apex Springs for the 2ltr Coug and they come in at £113.99 (which is same price for the V6 too) : http://www.motorsportandsparesni.com/shopexd.asp?id=2751
 
WildV6 said:
Hello and welcome aboard JB and also welcome to the 'Ebony Club' too. I'm pretty sure you'll get your coug looking much better in a very short space of time. My piantwork when I first bought mine was terrible and had been cleaned using a kicthen scourer! Ouch!!! So, I managed to get some great stuff from www.i4detailing.co.uk called Britemax - this stuff: http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/acatalog/britemax_black_max_1.html and it's worked miracles (with a lot of elbow grease).

Re: Lowering kits, well mine is lowered 30mm and I have used PI Springs, although they have gone up in price slightly since I bought mine over 3 years ago - see here: http://www.potn.co.uk/pi-spring-kit-sportpack-ford-cougar-1998-lowers-30mm-30164_p1253372.htm

Anyway, best of luck with cleaning up your coug and also best of luck with passing your test.

Cheers, Tim
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Thanks for that Tim,
Well your cougar looks awesome in the pics actually so may have to give that Birtemax a go, however do you need to use a power polisher?

Cheers,
JB
 
JBunney17 said:
Thanks for that Tim,
Well your cougar looks awesome in the pics actually so may have to give that Birtemax a go, however do you need to use a power polisher?

Cheers,
JB
Click to expand...

LOL!! No, you don't have to have an auto polisher, but it helps. I have done mine 2 or 3 times by hand and it's a lot of elbow grease and you can end up aching the next day....like I did..lol. the first time I did mine by hand I spent 9 hours, the 2nd time I did it by hand took me 12 hours. I have now bought a proper DA machine, and it's so much easier. Good luck.
 
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