Trying to save a ‘66 Barracuda

I was probably unclear, but I located the car, but as of yet, I have not purchased it. I am really not a “Chrysler guy” by design, but the early Barracudas have been a bucket list car on my list for a long time. My first experience with one was my aunt’s (by marriage) mother drove a pretty beat ‘66 Barracuda when I was a little kid (mid 1970s). I had seen plenty of Valiants by that time, but never a Barracuda and I was fascinated by that huge back glass! I digress, I have a fairly strong mechanical knowledge having restored a few cars, novice welder, not bad with bodywork just slow, but very limited knowledge of Chryslers and what parts interchanged and when, thus why I am here. Tim, thanks for the offer on the core support, I might take you up on it later, but I am not quiet there yet. The missing parts on this car present both a challenge and an opportunity to me, but I really wanted to nail down what all of my options were before buying it. I already had in mind buying a 1974 or older 225 and 904 as a unit, just to simplify the parts search. Now knowing there could be some issues mating the two together, I’ll definitely confine the search to buying a complete unit. I still don’t think I’ll have much of a problem locating that. I honestly don’t know which rear end is in it, or if it was a v8 car or a six. It was an automatic and all of the shifting parts are intact. Good to know about the Duster drive shafts as well as being able to mod a newer core support if I am up against it. Definitely want to keep the ‘66 look and I am sure a Valiant parts car will turn up; this is definitely going to be a long term project (unless I win the lottery!), so I have the luxury of time to track down the bigger and Barracuda specific parts. I have found that it has worked out best for me to buy a restorable car and slowly put it back together; even with all the extra time and work required, it just works out better for me to ‘pay as you go‘ rather than trying to save up to buy a finished car or taking out a loan. Life just keeps getting in the way, so better to have most of a Barracuda than none at all!

Thanks again to all for your info, advice and suggestion!