429 CJ! 1971 Mercury Cougar GT
Denoted as a one-year-only offering is this 429 Cobra Jet equipped 1971 Mercury Cougar GT. Admittedly, it’s not a common find and the seller claims lots of originality that further adds to its rarity. As with many cars, this example is an amalgam of good and bad, so let’s look it over. Discovered by James M., this Cougar is located in Largo, Florida and is available, here on eBay for an opening bid of $7,500 – no reserve!
So, the word “rare” is bandied about an awful lot in this listing. Is rare, regardless of how it’s defined, an important valuation aspect. I guess for some it is, I suppose what’s the really rare aspect of an object, car or otherwise, is the deciding factor. The seller claims that “According to the 429 Cobra Jet Registry, this car is the only one of the 20 1971 GT J-code Auto Coupes known to exist“. When I went to the registry, however, I found a claim of 448 such Cougar-equipped cars produced in model year 1971. The difference may be due to Cougar GT vs. non-GT trim levels so equipped with the CJ engine. And of that total, the registry has located 94 examples. Total 1971 Cougar production reached 62K units so 448 armed with a 429 CJ Ram Air engine does equal less than 1% – I suppose that qualifies as rare.
Rated at 370 gross HP, and topped with a GM Rochester Quadrajet carburetor (that’s got to stick in a Ford fan’s craw), the 429 CI V8 Cobra-Jet engine carried the same power rating regardless of the presence of the Ram-Air option which this car is said to possess. This example, married to a C6 automatic transmission and connected to a 3.25:1 Traction-Loc 9″ differential doesn’t sound like it’s a runner as the seller mentions that it has been sitting for twenty-five years and he has not tried to start it. It is claimed to possess the numbers matching original engine that has never been removed. The mileage recording is 57K miles but there is no authenticating documentation.
The troubling aspects are the body as the seller tells us, “Roof is rusted through and will need replacing as will the hood. (a replacement roof assembly is included in the auction) The rest of the sheet metal could be repaired, but I personally think it would be easier to replace all of the bolt-on metal (since donor cars are easy to find reasonably cheap) as well as the quarters“. He also mentions that the roof has been coated with pickup truck bed liner to keep things watertight. It is said that the floors and platform rails are sound but there is a problem with one section of the passenger footwell, along with the trunk pan.
All that’s said about the interior is that it needs to be restored – and that’s definitely the case. It’s listed as being complete but obviously, the seating upholstery and the dash pad have seen better days though the carpet looks surprising sound. The Marti report lists this Cougar as being A/C equipped but the compressor appears to have been removed.
So it’s going to need a lot of bodywork but this is a pretty impressive find as muscle cars go. After ’71, the performance orientation was starting to fade away so this Cougar, a product of a fallen flag no less, is a car that is just screaming out for a new caretaker who has restoration plans on their mind. And it’s at no reserve… any interest?
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Comments
Not the best looking of the Cougar models, and this practically needs a whole new body. There’s better projects out there.
Hold on a minute! A Q-jet is a spread bore. That would require an adapter, which I would think would interfere with the air cleaner. Thoughts?
No adaptor is needed. All 429CJ engines used a dual plane cast iron intake with a 4300-D spreadbore bolt pattern and a Rochester carburetor.
So you’re saying Ford used Rochester carbs?
Yes Boatman, Ford used a Rochester carb for this application.
Q-Jet was OEM on the 429 CJ. The SCJ had the 780 Holley.
i had a 73 with a 351 Cobra jet and as I vaguely recall it had a Motorcraft Spreadbore.
I’m a sucker for green and love the options and that it’s not common today but man, I have to agree with Terrry. Lots of work to be done here. Not something that will make you auction show rich probably.
Jim Odonnell said “I found a claim of 448 such Cougar-equipped cars produced in model year 1971. The difference may be due to Cougar GT vs. non-GT trim levels so equipped with the CJ engine. And of that total, the registry has located 94 examples.”
A quick check of the registry……
http://429mustangcougarinfo.50megs.com/71_429_cougar_registry.htm
shows only 6 “Cougar GT’s” registered. Three are “J-code Ram air” cars and three are “C-code non-ram air” cars. This green car is a J-code GT Ram Air coupe, of which only three are listed in the registry and all three of those are 4spd (trans code 6) cars. So, according to the 71 Cougar Cobra Jet registry, actually NONE of the “1971 Cougar GT J-code Ram Air AUTO coupes” are registered, making this one the only one known to exist.
It can be confusing.
Not sure where he is getting his “94” GT’s made with the 429 CJ, but again, the registry under “statistics” clearly shows only 46 429 GT coupes in 4spd and automatic, Ram Air and non-ram air and only 20 GT Ram Air automatic cars made, this one being the only one known to exist. Those stats are from Kevin Marti who has possession of the Ford archives so they are 100% accurate.
So, yeah, numbers are important and rarity is a valuable aspect of collector cars so it is important to get the numbers right. When these cars change hands in restored condition it is often in the $65,000 to $85,000 range so a restoration is doable. The car is being discussed on the 429 CJ/SCJ Mustang/Cougar site where the seller is offering a $100 prize for whomever can guess the actual high bid price. Guesses start at $8,150 and go well past $30,000 with most in the high teens to mid 20’s. It will be interesting to watch.
“Not sure where he is getting his “94” GT’s made with the 429 CJ” Check the hyperlink that I included.
JO
Yeah, there is a lot of misinformation about a lot of cars on the internet. First, your hyperlink is not the actual registry. This is…
http://429mustangcougarinfo.50megs.com/71_429_cougar_registry.htm
Second, your hyperlink got it wrong and the man’s listing is 100% accurate. There were 20 “GT” J-code (Ram Air) automatic coupes made and none appear in the registry of that 20. Additionally, his posted marti-report shows it is the only one of the 20 with the green on green color combo. Kevin Marti is THEE authority on many Fords because he owns the rights to the factory records.
The actual registry shows a total of 73 cars identified/located thus far (some are known to be destroyed) and these include ALL models, coupes, convertibles, Ram Air and non Ram Air, GT’s, Standards, RX-7’s, 4spds and autos. Mitch Lewis is the keeper of the registry and his contact info is on the registry pages.
I’ve got a 429 GT 4 speed j code ram air
On the Ebay listing seller states that he had sold another rare Cougar a while back so I looked it up.
https://barnfinds.com/1-of-48-1968-mercury-cougar-428-cobra-jet-4-speed/
It was a 1968.5 428CJ 4spd 4:30 trac loc car. Photos appear to be the same garage. Both cars are very rare and in pretty rough shape. The red car from 2018 sold for $26,777 with a NOM engine. It will be interesting to see if this one sells close to that.
Yes, I tried to buy that Cat.
Jim,
The 448 number you found is the total for all C code (429CJ non ram air) and J code (429CJ ram air) built. This includes both transmissions, automatic and 4 speed. It also includes both body styles, hardtop and convertible and both models, standard and XR-7. So it is the total number of 1971 Cougars built with a 429CJ engine in them. For just this car there were 29 1971 standard Cougars built with a J code 429CJ Ram Air and an automatic transmission.
I forgot to say that the 29 number is for the total of 1971 standard Cougar hardtops.
This car is a “GT” as well. GT’s came with the competition suspension, sport mirrors, tach, blacked out dash, etc. There were only 20 GT Ram Air coupes made in automatic and none are listed in the registry.
By standard I assume you mean non-GT?
Boatman, standard means that the car is a standard base model Cougar and not the upscale XR-7 model. The GT option has no bearing on it.
But this is a GT too so only 20 GT coupes with the J-code Ram Air in automatic and none shown in the registry.
Kevin Marti’s Cougars By The Numbers book does not break down the engine/transmission numbers for the GT option. It only gives the total number of GTs built. Only by doing a special search would Kevin Marti be able to confirm that there were 20 J code automatic standard coupes built. He may have already researched that number for the registry or it may have come from someones Marti report. That is information that I do not have.
CATHOUSE, The number of “Standard” 429CJ coupes is 26. Out of those, 12 are J-code Ram Air cars and of those, 9 are “Standard 429CJ J-code auto coupes”. The number of Standard cars has nothing to do with the number of GT’s, other than they are both CJ Cougars.
The Marti Report is posted on the Ebay listing showing that they made 787 “GT” cars and of those 31 were Ram Air 429CJ’s, and out of those, 20 were auto’s and of those two were dark green and this one was the only one with the dark green interior.
Also, the 1971 429CJ registry shows the break down of ALL models, including the “Standard” models as well as the GT’s and XR-7’s and convertibles. They too have the 20 automatic GT 429CJ Coupes listed. The registry also shows zero GT auto’s registered.
So, no special search needed.
only step up would B the S CJ if they had’em in this model/yr.
No SCJ in 71 Cougars.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1597674397277203/posts/1667579173620058/
The Cougar 429CJ was keeping some pretty respectable company in 1971. Faster than 340 dusters, Camaro 396’s, 455 GTO’s and 440 Charger RT’s.
Basically the car will need roof and quarters replaced a trunk pan and passenger footwell pan. As the listing says, the rest of the body panels look repairable. This is a common repair list for things like 67/68 Mustang fastbacks that share a common value spectrum with the this 429CJ Cougar. If this were a standard 67/68 Fastback, nobody would be questioning the extent of required repairs and many of those 67/68 fastbacks have been brought back from the brink of death because they can and do bring $60,000 and up restored or restomoded. These 429CJ Cougars have and do selI in the $60k plus range so there is room to restore this car if you mind your budget carefully.
I recently did door corner rust repairs on my 69 Mach1 and while it was doable, I would much rather have bolted on a clean set of used doors for the time I spent doing them correctly. You can easily find a nice clean 71 Cougar 302 plain jane with faded paint for $3,500-$4,500 or even less. Then use the best of everything you can from the parts car. Photos show the underside is pretty solid. Having done this several times, it makes for an efficient resto within budget since actual rust repairs are time consuming and costly.
Here is an example. Buying this car would solve ALL the sheetmetal issues, interior issues and still have maybe a couple of grand worth of parts that could be sold off afterwards. You would not even have to paint the jambs on the parts. It could probably be bought for $5,500-$6,000. Just saying, where there is a will, there is a way.
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/d/los-angeles-1972-mercury-cougar/7499192229.html
RA, the smallest engine that was available in a 1971-1973 Cougar was a 351. Usually a 351C but sometimes a 351W. The 302 was not available at all for these years Cougars.
Also the 429CJ subject car has the base standard style interior. The car in your CL link has the optional decor style interior. There are differences between the two styles that would make the decore parts unusable if someone wants to do a “correct” restoration on the 429CJ car.
$11,700 now and mighty rough!!
It will likely go double that.
67-70 were the Best looking Cougars IMOP, after that too big and too little hp.
I had a Green 69 I should have kept, had a overheating problem I couldn’t figure out. I think it had a hairline crack in the block because I flushed the engine AND the radiator, changed the thermostat, changed the radiator and it still would start to run VERY hot after driving about 5 miles.
Love that body style though, very similar to my 2012 Challenger RT
Very rare car! I helped a friend restore his 71 C code 4 speed cougar GT.
Cant upload any pics!! Car sold at Russo Steele 9 years ago for 127K+.
He found it in the forest in Wa. Drug it out and did a frame up restoration.
This Cat one day will be out of reach for the average Joe. I would love to buy it to restore but this body style is not for me.
Bidding is up to $15,100 with 6 days to go and 23 bids.
Donor cars are easy to find ? These rusted away just as fast as their 1971-1973 Mustang sisters, and there were far fewer built . These were nice looking cars IMO and this one is a rarity for sure, but finding straight rust free body panels isnt going to be easy…or cheap
Not that hard.
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/d/los-angeles-1972-mercury-cougar/7499192229.html
Who would pay $6500 bucks for a parts car ? or tear apart a perfectly good car to fix a rotted out one?
It makes perfect sense for a rare car like this. They don’t reproduce 71-73 Cougar sheet metal or most interior parts. If they did, you would be spending close to that on sheet metal and interior parts. With a good clean parts car, you have a ton of little parts such as brackets, fasteners, window regulators, trim and small things that you spend a lot of hours tracking down and paying for. With a parts car like this, you could likely sell off what you don’t use (like the running engine and trans) and reduce the cost of the parts car by about $2,000, meaning, you only paid about $3,500-$4,000 for the parts required to make your total $85,000 finished car happen for a lot less.
I bought a super clean 1960 Cadillac coupe to help restore my 1960 Eldorado. That was the best $14,500 I ever spent. I got almost everything I needed to restore my car which had the front clip missing and the seats. Sold the car for $110,000 after it was done. It also made the restoration so much easier and it took several months less time.
You just need to know where to look for the parts. I have fenders, doors, hoods and trunk lids sitting here right now. Plus lots of other parts as well.
$16,600 with 3 days to go and 30 bids. Wonder what it will wind up at.
$21,000 and one day to go with 38 bids. Wow.
Always hate reading the older Barn Finds and not knowing what the final sale price was. Car sold for $23,600 with 43 bids.