1966 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S - Restoration

[tone]

Haven't updated in a while - trim is all removed, only chrome is the vent windows on the door. Patched a couple of small bubbling spots on the passenger side door, welded up the passenger side chrysler emblem. Ended up botching the removal of the drivers side drip rail (followed some bad advice, ignored it and removed the pass side with no warping), but I'll deal with it. No luck finding anyone to paint yet - at this point, I'm leaning towards just finding a regular shop to block and paint it - I've done all of the trim removal, not much more left to do than get a good surface to paint and do it. Can't find anyone locally with any interest/availability. One shop refused because I did too much already - guess they just want the shop hours.

Got the engine back from the shop. Used egge 0.030 oversize hipo pistons, cleaned up everything .. polished and mic'd the crankshaft, all std. Surfaced the block, cut 0.010 off the top. Had the cam degreed. Had 0.010 cut off the intake sides and head surfaces. Turns out the heads had valve guides, guess its been reworked before. The shop put in CC 986 springs - seems a little stiff - but I'm going to rely on their experience. Just got the reworked heads on today ... used mahle gaskets, coated with copper coat. Went with an E4 isky cam and isky solid lifter replacements - things aren't as cheap as they used to be. I don't plan on installing lifters/intake and finishing up the engine until I get the body work done so I have a better timeframe for when I might be able to do the cam break in.

 

[tone]

Things always go slower than you expect - I've finished completely stripping the 66. No glass, no chrome, no trim, no interior, no handles/locks/etc, removed dash pad, removed dash components. I've finally found a local painter with availability (if his health holds out, the good ones seem to be fading fast - I can't afford 40k for a body/paint job and shops that used to do classics seem to only be doing insurance work now), so hopefully in the upcoming months the shell will be painted.

I've religiously bagged and tagged everything that's come off the car, but I know there will eventually be challenges. The body has turned out to be pretty decent, aside from the floor pans, a small piece of the roof seam on the drivers side, and a little of bubble on the passenger side door that got cut out and cleaned up.

I've cleaned up and painted the k frame and sway bar. Installed a new rear->front brake line. After it gets painted, I plan on installing a front disc brake upgrade (input welcome, considering going original Kelsey Hayes from a local user and getting some cragar 15-7, selling my existing 14-6 that never got mounted .. I don't really want to change the existing 7 1/4 rear for BBP, or a 8 1/4. It's getting a rebuilt 4bbl 273 so it's not going to be a power monster.

Haven't posted much, but I've been enjoying reading and watching other folks restorations! Hopefully after paint, I'll have more to post.

 

[clifftt]

Tone, just saw this thread for the first time, will be following this. I have been through a lot of what you're doing now, have probably forgotten most of it. Your last photo of the rear of the car with the back glass out reminded me of the two tiny cracks in the quarter panel metal at the forward opening of the back glass. I alerted member Bob Jasinski about this and he found them on his Barracuda, too. Just pointing this out before you get too deep into body and paint work.

Early Barracuda body cracks under rear window

Check out Bob's posts and you can learn a lot from where he has already been.

Search results for query: *

 

[tone]

Tone, just saw this thread for the first time, will be following this. I have been through a lot of what you're doing now, have probably forgotten most of it. Your last photo of the rear of the car with the back glass out reminded me of the two tiny cracks in the quarter panel metal at the forward opening of the back glass. I alerted member Bob Jasinski about this and he found them on his Barracuda, too. Just pointing this out before you get too deep into body and paint work.

Early Barracuda body cracks under rear window

Check out Bob's posts and you can learn a lot from where he has already been.

Search results for query: *

Thanks - I'll definitely check that area. No issues on the surface, but I haven't stripped it back yet. The body seams are pretty wild - I had to cut out a small piece in the roofline by removing the lead, cutting out the rusted seam, and replacing with fresh metal and weld, rather than lead.

 

[tone]

Progress continues - slowly. The guy that was going to do the body/paint is having health issues, so no idea when the car is going to be painted now (if anyone knows a body/paint guy on the east coast that's reasonable, let me know).

Everything suspension related on the car is crusty - most of it seems to be factory original, never replaced. The torsion bars were very difficult to remove - I built a tool similar to the factory tool that helped, but they were real stuck/seized in there. Finally got them out without resorting to anything that would damage them. Fair amount of rust on the hex ends that cleaned up pretty well. Stripped them, painted them, will install them after the LCAs. Got new boots from DMT.

I worked on finishing up the lower control arm refurbishment, following Jim Lusk's incredibly helpful videos on pressing in the pivot pins and bushings. Ended up using one of my pipe cutter heads as a spacer to get it pressed in. All went relatively smoothly. I couldn't use the bump stops on the LCA on the kit I used (they didn't have the proper head to lock into the spacer plates), but the originals were still in decent shape. Got things installed loosely, won't torque anything until its back on the ground.

Waiting on a socket to come in for the upper control arms before I get back to those.

Is the ball joint on the pitman arm replaceable? Seems like it might be integral - only seeing the full arm w/ ball joint installed.