My Body work update

A few remembered me when I posted a few months ago as I'm an old member, just turned 30 about 40 mins ago, but never posted all that much.

Anyway I have a 69 Barracuda that is at a body shop now and some progress has been made. I'm getting the car done for a steal but I must be there when any work is done to help or do most all the work myself. Because of my job I've worked a ton of hours for little pay the progress has been slow but there's been some progress made.

I promised to take pictures but my one phone which held all my pics went bad though I posted most all of them on facebook so could get them back. I do have some current pics I took Thursday. Really all that has been done is the car is stripped, and I've blocked out the entire car but hood because that needs replaced, and on Thursday my OCD body guy and I worked on the hack job rear quarters and got the trunk lid lined up and straight. I'm being sarcastic about the body guy but things must be perfect and the trunk closes easier than probably some brand new cars trunks would close now.

It's still a long go but the progress we made Thursday was gratifying and I even drove it Thursday. Really the car isn't running well and I don't have the normal distributor or carb I run as I just have stock replacements. While pulling out I gave her just a little gas to get out infront of traffic, though she's not running right, the car with about half throttle started to go sideways on me until the suregrip locked. Definitely brought a smile to my face. Yeah I drove it with no lights, bumpers, or license plates.

I hope I can figure out how to post pics from my phone.

I've decided on the color Surf Turquoise Mettalic. It's a 68 color but from what I can tell a bit darker than Seafoam Turquoise Mettalic and I don't see many cars with that color. I really love to be a bit unique.

Welcome back, Jason96R. Keep us posted on your progress. How much other work are you planning for the car beyond body work?

It's funny you ask....

I was actually daydreaming about the car all day yesterday.

After the body work. I plan to turn to the front suspension and a rebuild. I bought all of the parts for a complete rebuild but for some reason never installed the parts. I will also mount subframe connectors. I hope that is all complete before snow starts.

The next major thing that needs done is exhaust and from headers back. I probably got extremely lucky with my Flowtech headers on the car as they almost never scrape bottom, didn't need dinged to fit into the car, but while I was in the Army and the engine was out being built my dad and his friend were moving the car. Something started to bind and instead of stopping they forced it and crushed a tube about 3/4ths of the way shut. Anyway my exhaust as a whole is good enough now but I want large tube headers, x-pipe, and madrel bent exhaust all the way to the tailpipes.

I love my 360 build. When I built the engine I thought about a streep/stip combo but I wanted to build a car with old school technology. I have a MP 292/509 cam, a demon sizzled TQ carb, and even an old race Accel dual point distributor. However, my MP single plane I plan to send to shadydell to have gasket matched and intakes polished. I plan to do whatever I can to net as much power as I can with no cam change or major work. I then plan to dyno tune the car and hope if I'm in the area my engine builder can tune the car or if I move, which may happen to find good job, I will find a member here or someone that can tune a car and get it running at it's peak. I've had the car running at peak performance just a few times and it's insane, in an awesome way.

The transmission I swapped to a 4 speed. I plan to also rebuild the transmission, not really going to hammer car until tranny is rebuilt. However, my major plan and I've just started to do the research is to find a 3.09 1st gear. Right now the engine is built for higher RPM but a 3.09 1st gear and the 4.10 suregrip in the 8 3/4 should make for a fun launch. I will also work on trying to get a smooth and quicker shifting car. Not a slick shift or anything because I'm always downshifting to stop it's just what I was taught to do.

Oh I will put some aluminum wheels on it at some point more than likely too. But to start, cause of money crunch, it will have steel painted black or body color, and dog dish.

Very nice. It sounds like you have a sensible build ahead of you. No "pie in the sky," but well thought out. Suspension work is a very good idea; don't forget the leaf springs if they need attention. Also, consider disc brakes.

FISHBREATH said:

Very nice. It sounds like you have a sensible build ahead of you. No "pie in the sky," but well thought out. Suspension work is a very good idea; don't forget the leaf springs if they need attention. Also, consider disc brakes.

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Disk brakes was done before I even bought the car. I did the rear previously.

Glad to see you back and making progress Jason. Happy 30th Birthday by the way!! See if you can salvage your other pics, as Im doing a 69 as well!

Great to see you back here safely and making progress on your Barracuda. The turquoise paint will be beautiful. Happy belated birthday and thank you for your military service.