1969 'cuda 383 4-speed

jimharvard said
THANK YOU AAndrews for your pictures. yes, i was referring to the Formula S Rally dash. after i posted my comment to CudaDad on the restoration of his car by GYC's and what i felt was a "mistake" in the dash, i realized that the "basic" dash was the one in his car. i have looked through the large amount of original literature i have on 67-69 Barracudas and several dash configurations were offered either as standard or optional on the Barracudas. a "regular" slant six 67 or 68 Barracuda appears to have come with a dash with black paint on the top section of the dash and silver on the bottom with a 120 mph speedometer. then there was a 67 to "early production" 68 dash that had a "burl wood" upper section and a silver bottom section again with either a 120 mph speedometer or the 150 mph spedo that was in the "rally" dash option. then later on the 68 cars, the burl wood applicay changed to a "woodgrain" type top applicay with the silver bottom section. in 68 for the "standard" interior, the dash still had a black upper section with the silver lower section. THEN in 1969, the dash panel came with either the woodgrain upper section with a black lower section OR a silver upper section with a black lower section. if you ordered the "Deluxe Interior" in 1968 or 1969, you got woodgrain on the upper portion of the dash and on the door panels and on the console. the "Rally Dash" option always came with woodgrain on the upper section of the dash and "either" silver or black (68-69) on the bottom section of the dash. AND, if you got the separate "Deluxe Interior" option in 68 or 69 you got woodgrain on the door panels and console and some other trim stuff. SO.... it appears that the dash panels on the 67-68-69 Barracudas (and 69 A56 and A57 "Cuda" packages) could have several different dashes in them based upon other interior options the buyer selected. with all this said, i have to apologize to CudaDad and to "Mark Worman" of Graveyard Carz for my comment on CudaDad's new and BEAUTIFUL Cuda A57 having the wrong dash after the restoration was complete. as with so many things with "Ma Mopar", there is a "range" of "correct" "factory" parts and combinations that are possible on these cars.

I bought my car from the original owner back in 1979 and it was all original down to the full wheel covers. It had the "burl wood" '68 style wood grain on the dash bezel with silver on the bottom and gauge centers were silver. For what ever reason it appeared my car rolled off the assembly line with what appeared to be a left over '68 dash bezel. My car also has the 4 speed pivot brace welded on the driver side front wheel well even though it is a factory automatic car but no torque boxes. So cars rolled down the line, humans were involved, maybe left over parts from previous years, maybe human error, maybe only certain parts were on hand at the time, maybe assembly line workers smoking dope at lunch break, and they didn't always get built "correct". Just like some '69 340s got built with red engines when they were supposed to be turquoise. Then you have some B Bodies got built with torque boxes that weren't supposed to have them stuff like that. There was how they were supposed to get built then there is how they actually got built and it appears there are numerous examples out there of F-ups that happened.