'68 Barracuda Formula S Fastback Restoration

Continuint on! The Cuda didn't live a pampered life and was hit numerous times in its lifetime. When I purhcased it, the prior owner said that it was rear ended by a PU truck and popped out the back window. The repairs were good as I never had any issues with the back of the car. But they replaced the dual outlet rectangular rear valance with a 6 cylinder valance (single round cutout) probably as that what was only available. The original owner dumped the exhaust right after the muffler and had flanges installed so the entire exhaust could be easily removed, which I did occasionally for runs at the drag strip.

The first month I owned the car it got hit twice. Once by someone backing out of their driveway into traffic and once when parked by a car pulling buy the Cuda. Other minor accidents resulted in at least 5 repaints which at that time were not expensive but were acrylic lacquer. The car always was stunning in black.

During the second energy crisis, roughly 1976, I freshened the engine with a smaller cam and SP2P 318 manifold. Tuning the AVS for maximum fuel economy and adding a desert cooler radiator (4 core) and electric fan, I was able to get 24-26 MPG out of the black beast. It ran at 180 to 190 in 117°F heat on a trip to Tucson in June 1976 when I went to an American Chemical Society meeting the first year of graduate school. My brother went with and raced the car against locals at night (while I slept!, and not to my full knowledge, but not disapproval!).

During those years I collected 2 extra 340's for the car as I assumed that I would eventually blow one up. They were $50 or so back then as junk yards thought they were 318's. I still have them and will use one for the build saving the original 340 as it is right now.

When I graduated from UC Irvine, I moved to NorCal where I stayed for 18 years and met a lot of great Mopar lovers. I lived in Rodeo and was about 3 blocks from a Mopar A-Body racer named Mike Martin who wrote the book Mopar Suspensions published by SA Design (1984). My '70 383 R/T Challenger is shown on page 36 as an example of the massive body lean in stock cars. But the car had 90K on it and the suspension was tired!. This is another car I should have kept, but such is life. But Martin's book and later, Tom Condrin's book Perf Handling for Classic Mopars inspiared me to upgrad the suspension of the Cuda.

As parts were cheap and availabile in junk yards, I was able to get '73+ A-Body front end components for nothing and now have 11.75" cop rotors and pin type calipers on the front. They interfered with the 1 1/8" swaybar so I mounted the calipers to the rear at that time. (To be rectified later.). But in about 1987 I put the Cuda on stands and worked on the Belveder Hemi and restored the '67 383 FB FS which took all my attention and funds. The '68 sat untouched for years until I finally installed a freshened 340 in the mid 1990's but really didn't get it on the road until about 2002 after I moved to Tulsa when I changed jobs.

All history and background for the subsequent restoration work started in 2019 after I moved to the Denver area.
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