Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
I spent the day working on the headlight wiring harness. I want to route those wires beneath the aluminum panels. It involved removing the headlight bucket assemblies and drilling a large hole on the left side. I cleaned and scuffed down the original inner fenders and firewall before spraying them with a silver base. After a while I will hit them with that METALCAST paint from Dupli-Color.
As I was in the garage I began to reminisce about a 1970 Camaro I had years ago. Before you all start groaning about someone defiling this site and put your fists through the monitors, bear with me.
This was going to be a hybrid.
This was during the mid seventies and Camaros were the hot ride on the dirt short tracks everywhere. They were cheap and plentiful.
I acquired the car from one of my older sisters. It was a plain Jane showing rust and sporting a 350-2 barrel. Rather than leave it abandoned on the family farm I decided to turn it into a custom street/road racer.
I was already fully won over by Chrysler and wanted to put some Mopar touches on it. With some of the spare parts I had in the shop I attempted my first custom.
(I did not own a camera at the time so I do not have any pictures of the car I had. The best I can do to illustrate the mods I made is to search for similar images online)
I cut the center section out of a damaged '70 Roadrunner hood and grafted it onto the Camaro hood. It had the look of a cowl hood but retained the rear nameplate bezel. - An ideal spot to mount a digital tach.
My next step will sound really strange. After filling the original Camaro tail light panel I cut it out for a set of '70 Roadrunner tail lights. I discovered that if I put the tail lights on the opposite sides (the right on the left side & left on the right side) that they fit the body contour perfectly. Most folks thought it resembled a Firebird from the back. But unlike Firebird tail lights, the Roadrunner lights were recessed in a couple of inches.
I noticed that the Porsche Carreras had a similar shape to the Camaro. I liked the way they would sometimes flare the front fenders and rear quarters on some of their race cars. So I mounted a pair of 16 X 12 aluminum slots on the rear and a pair of 14 X10s on the front. Then I constructed a full set of flares out of steel to fit my tire/wheel combination. I didn't want them to look like add-ons. So I bulged the quarters and fenders to gradually blend into the flares.
View attachment C67053FGB.jpg
View attachment HWD-B-11103B.jpg
View attachment p43670B.jpg
View attachment 1970-camaro-taillights.jpg
View attachment IMG_00000340.jpg
View attachment 1969-firebird-400-taillights.jpg
View attachment 73_Porsche-3-RSR_Prototype-DV_10-MH-02.jpg
I spent the day working on the headlight wiring harness. I want to route those wires beneath the aluminum panels. It involved removing the headlight bucket assemblies and drilling a large hole on the left side. I cleaned and scuffed down the original inner fenders and firewall before spraying them with a silver base. After a while I will hit them with that METALCAST paint from Dupli-Color.
As I was in the garage I began to reminisce about a 1970 Camaro I had years ago. Before you all start groaning about someone defiling this site and put your fists through the monitors, bear with me.
This was going to be a hybrid.
This was during the mid seventies and Camaros were the hot ride on the dirt short tracks everywhere. They were cheap and plentiful.
I acquired the car from one of my older sisters. It was a plain Jane showing rust and sporting a 350-2 barrel. Rather than leave it abandoned on the family farm I decided to turn it into a custom street/road racer.
I was already fully won over by Chrysler and wanted to put some Mopar touches on it. With some of the spare parts I had in the shop I attempted my first custom.
(I did not own a camera at the time so I do not have any pictures of the car I had. The best I can do to illustrate the mods I made is to search for similar images online)
I cut the center section out of a damaged '70 Roadrunner hood and grafted it onto the Camaro hood. It had the look of a cowl hood but retained the rear nameplate bezel. - An ideal spot to mount a digital tach.
My next step will sound really strange. After filling the original Camaro tail light panel I cut it out for a set of '70 Roadrunner tail lights. I discovered that if I put the tail lights on the opposite sides (the right on the left side & left on the right side) that they fit the body contour perfectly. Most folks thought it resembled a Firebird from the back. But unlike Firebird tail lights, the Roadrunner lights were recessed in a couple of inches.
I noticed that the Porsche Carreras had a similar shape to the Camaro. I liked the way they would sometimes flare the front fenders and rear quarters on some of their race cars. So I mounted a pair of 16 X 12 aluminum slots on the rear and a pair of 14 X10s on the front. Then I constructed a full set of flares out of steel to fit my tire/wheel combination. I didn't want them to look like add-ons. So I bulged the quarters and fenders to gradually blend into the flares.
View attachment C67053FGB.jpg
View attachment HWD-B-11103B.jpg
View attachment p43670B.jpg
View attachment 1970-camaro-taillights.jpg
View attachment IMG_00000340.jpg
View attachment 1969-firebird-400-taillights.jpg
View attachment 73_Porsche-3-RSR_Prototype-DV_10-MH-02.jpg
