Interesting question about the hood scoop color. Just my opinion but I'd say paint to match the hood. It's taller that stock so will be plenty visible. The vinyl roof already provides a different black texture.

 Great update. Glad to see you are keeping busy!

Apology accepted for the long post Jay.

Fabulous work and a great accomplishment. That IR is a space saver for sure. Some slow motion video of those Venturi would be a great hype video. Those are big number for a not so fresh engine.

which seems like it's on the verge of happening when some other crisis occurs and I have to put it off.

This situation is happening in many (all?) industries/families. A lot of things have to align and go just right for anything to progress. No frustration on my part. I work in the Sound and Lighting Industry which is hopefully about to emerge from a 2 year funk.

The local tracks need all the love and support they can get. I'm all for it!

Glad to see another 68 Cougar getting some love! Totally agree on the need to dedicated clean power. For the ECU that runs my transmission I have dedicated power wires, proper fusing, relay switching for 12V accessory etc....

The electrical system on my 68 XR7 is generally stock. Ford was fond of using rivets or similar for ground returns. That works but was never intended to last 50+ years. I have "tastefully" added dedicated ground wires from the dash panel as well as from the voltage regulator back to the negative battery power.

If you have an AMP gauge and want it to work don't get too creative. I forget the particulars but you can bypass it if the electrical system is modified extensively. Sort of a personal preference thing as many add a voltage gauge which is what I did also.

I have heard of a set of LS turbo (forward collector) headers being a close match also. Using a FE flange the primaries were 'massaged' to work.