Amazing what just polishing on the painted black parts of the interior can do. When wiping the dust/dirt off, it seems it is not going to shine up but with some aggressive polishing it just comes back to life.
1967 Barracuda Formula S 383 daily driver build
- Thread starter GRANCUDA
- Start date
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The finned hood trim was gone & with everything else I had to buy I decided to go cheap on these so I bought some $25 pitted up swap meet ones. Figured I could paint them black & hit the high spots & around the edges with thinner & it may hide the pits. It worked out to look pretty good for cheap. Now to polish out the hood.
Since the car was backed in for rear ended work I finally got around to polishing out the decklid, roof, pass quarter/door. Found & got the bottom decklid trim on finally too. Chomping at the bit for the seats so I can really drive it.
Quite a change from when it rolled off the trailer.
Since the car was backed in for rear ended work I finally got around to polishing out the decklid, roof, pass quarter/door. Found & got the bottom decklid trim on finally too. Chomping at the bit for the seats so I can really drive it.
Quite a change from when it rolled off the trailer.
Crazy73
Vroom boom pow
Nice job!
Pateras
Well-Known Member
Wow, that's nice man.
Took some time but I got the seats back & he did an awesome job. No wrinkles & the material/pattern matches the originals I dropped off perfectly. Now to figure out how the rear fold down seat goes together. I didn't disassemble it & its kind of a setup.
Thrashed on the car Friday night to get the front end back together & pulled the trans mount off due to a little leak from behind the mount & various other small issues. Ran over early Sat morning to get the seats, bolted the front seats up & got it road worthy just in time to get to the muffler shop 20 miles away just before thier cut-off time.
You got that car to clean up nice.
I cannot believe the machine shop missed the crack in the block.
Also I like your 80 dodge tow wagon, I use a 78 to drag my projects home with.
I cannot believe the machine shop missed the crack in the block.
Also I like your 80 dodge tow wagon, I use a 78 to drag my projects home with.
Exhaust is ran for now & sounds good. Kind of a quick & dirty / cheap way to mount it. I really like how it turned out & I was able to use an existing bolt on the front side & an existing hole for mounting after the muffler.
Eventually I will run it from the backside, hidden on the collector just upstream of the collector flange. Run it inside & all the way out the back as a normal set-up. I'll run some butterfly electric dumps & you won't see any of it but the 1" thick butterfly dump.
Eventually I will run it from the backside, hidden on the collector just upstream of the collector flange. Run it inside & all the way out the back as a normal set-up. I'll run some butterfly electric dumps & you won't see any of it but the 1" thick butterfly dump.
Took the Barracuda out & about around town Saturday just tinkering with the timing, trans shift points & carb. It's running really good, pulls good and all. But after checking out stuff tonight it seems my crack has grown. I'm going to take my other 383 I have up to the machine shop Monday & just have him prep it & I will just swap all my stuff out & into it.
Little dirt road to the shop.
I cleaned the old crack with brake kleen 2 weeks ago to get all the blue engine paint off then since it pretty much is non-visible as bare metal I used a white paint pen to outline it. Seems the whole side of the block was weak from a water freeze at some point in the past. Glad I decided to drive it a little before pulling it & getting it repaired.
Little dirt road to the shop.
I cleaned the old crack with brake kleen 2 weeks ago to get all the blue engine paint off then since it pretty much is non-visible as bare metal I used a white paint pen to outline it. Seems the whole side of the block was weak from a water freeze at some point in the past. Glad I decided to drive it a little before pulling it & getting it repaired.
Hard to believe that's the same car!
GREAT work....you should be proud!
Jeff
GREAT work....you should be proud!
Jeff
Well I learned a lesson on this one. I had done all my measurements when I first built the 65 block, put light weight springs in & checked the clearance, checked the degree of the cam to make sure it's per the cam card. I didn't measure anything in this '68 because I figured it worked out good with my timing set-up. The 65 was the first engine I've put together & this is the 2nd. I should have went thru all the steps in the big block rebuild book I bought when sticking this 2nd one together.
So let's get to it, I got it all buttoned up in the car & fired it up, it didn't bust right off & I turned the distributor got it to bust off & revved to about 2500 because I was thinking to get it up in rpm like breaking in a cam. It made lots of noise & died. Cranked it back up & it just spins really slow, not nearly fast enough to fire.
So the damage - the intake push rods are bent, intake valves are slightly down when you stick a straight edge along them (bent after disassembly) & the pistons have dings.
So the issue was the lower timing gear, it has multiple keyways & each keyway has a mark then there is a corresponding matching mark further out on the gear. I lined up the cam gear dot with the dot on the keyway for 0 degree but I should have lined it up with the outer 0.
So let's get to it, I got it all buttoned up in the car & fired it up, it didn't bust right off & I turned the distributor got it to bust off & revved to about 2500 because I was thinking to get it up in rpm like breaking in a cam. It made lots of noise & died. Cranked it back up & it just spins really slow, not nearly fast enough to fire.
So the damage - the intake push rods are bent, intake valves are slightly down when you stick a straight edge along them (bent after disassembly) & the pistons have dings.
So the issue was the lower timing gear, it has multiple keyways & each keyway has a mark then there is a corresponding matching mark further out on the gear. I lined up the cam gear dot with the dot on the keyway for 0 degree but I should have lined it up with the outer 0.
Seems like a marathon on this deal but I finally got everything back together & got it dropped in the car. It's been a learning experience but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.
I pulled the pistons back out & filed the pistons to get the "slag" off & used emery cloth down in the new valve reliefs to get any sharp stuff off.
Got new intake valves since the old ones were bent. At the machine shop, he ended up doing a valve job because he was getting a small gap on each where they weren't sealing completely.
Got all new pushrods & since I had to get intake pushrods I went ahead & upgraded to some Crane ductile iron 1.6 rockers over the stamped steel stock which are about 1.45 & use a different length / end style.
I hammered out the oil pan more because this last time, the 2nd rebuild, I added a windage tray & the extra gasket & material put it where it was just barely touching the '67 idler.
Glad to do some upgrades as I'm worked out the issues. Pretty cool because after doing my measurements I ended up picking up some compression with this block because it turns out it's been decked.
I pulled the pistons back out & filed the pistons to get the "slag" off & used emery cloth down in the new valve reliefs to get any sharp stuff off.
Got new intake valves since the old ones were bent. At the machine shop, he ended up doing a valve job because he was getting a small gap on each where they weren't sealing completely.
Got all new pushrods & since I had to get intake pushrods I went ahead & upgraded to some Crane ductile iron 1.6 rockers over the stamped steel stock which are about 1.45 & use a different length / end style.
I hammered out the oil pan more because this last time, the 2nd rebuild, I added a windage tray & the extra gasket & material put it where it was just barely touching the '67 idler.
Glad to do some upgrades as I'm worked out the issues. Pretty cool because after doing my measurements I ended up picking up some compression with this block because it turns out it's been decked.
The motor went back in really easily but it's been in & out a few times now so I have some good practice now.
I couldn't get the Moroso valve covers to seal up, they are just too soft. I had some Direct Connection chrome valve covers but they had issues of thier own, the sealing lip is about 1/2 the width it needs to be.
Took it to town to see if everything is working as it should be. Put around 10 miles on it & it's good.
Got back home, checked my valve lash & adjusted to make sure they are good.
Once I got the hood on it was apparent that the hood was not going to clear the factory air cleaner. I will figure out something to get it working with the hood but for now I have a really low drop base & an edelbrock 14" chrome air cleaner.
I couldn't get the Moroso valve covers to seal up, they are just too soft. I had some Direct Connection chrome valve covers but they had issues of thier own, the sealing lip is about 1/2 the width it needs to be.
Took it to town to see if everything is working as it should be. Put around 10 miles on it & it's good.
Got back home, checked my valve lash & adjusted to make sure they are good.
Once I got the hood on it was apparent that the hood was not going to clear the factory air cleaner. I will figure out something to get it working with the hood but for now I have a really low drop base & an edelbrock 14" chrome air cleaner.
Took it out now all over the place now, took it to work 3 times this week which is 78 miles round trip. I have about 350 miles on it now and its running great.
All the factory gauges work. I just put new senders on the engine temp & oil pressure, hooked up the vacuum to the "Performance Indicator" & put a new sender in the tank. I was really surprised the vacuum gauge worked. The car has 70 psi of oil pressure at speed so the factory gauge is maxed out and for some reason the temp gauge shows normal around 150 degrees and at 180 is showing high so going down the road they both are maxed out. Not sure if I can put a resistor inline some how to get them to be in the middle of the gauges. I do have aftermarket gauges as well so it's not a big issue.
Going to get some carpet on order for the thing to finish out the interior. The seats turned out way better than I imagined and I recommend that guy to anyone in central OK.
All the factory gauges work. I just put new senders on the engine temp & oil pressure, hooked up the vacuum to the "Performance Indicator" & put a new sender in the tank. I was really surprised the vacuum gauge worked. The car has 70 psi of oil pressure at speed so the factory gauge is maxed out and for some reason the temp gauge shows normal around 150 degrees and at 180 is showing high so going down the road they both are maxed out. Not sure if I can put a resistor inline some how to get them to be in the middle of the gauges. I do have aftermarket gauges as well so it's not a big issue.
Going to get some carpet on order for the thing to finish out the interior. The seats turned out way better than I imagined and I recommend that guy to anyone in central OK.
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Just wondering if you have the right senders, because my oil pressure and water temperature work normally. I also have the performance indicator. Your tach looks familiar. I just added a wideband A/F gauge to mine.
R4Sedan
Larry
Sorry about your misfortunes. But, I'm glad you got everything ironed out and your enjoying your ride.
I ordered the senders from NAPA & got them for a 67 w/383 & gauges. I'm not sure if maybe they are wrong. Maybe I should get a different brand to see if maybe they are incorrect.
Been driving this to work on the days it's not suppose to rain since I still need windshield & rear glass window gaskets. I have racked up almost 500 miles now.
This morning at 5am it was nice & cool. The car did good in traffic after work stopping off at Grand Prix with temps at 95*. I just got a factory fan shroud this week & plan on adapting it to my champion radiator.
Finally figured out an air cleaner arrangement that clears the hood & I can run the factory pie tin.
The air cleaner baseplate I got almost completely covers the carb, not sure what that does for the summer heat, sure it can't be good.
I got one of the adjustable Dual Flow PCV set-ups & I am curious how it's going to work out. Normally the valve cover breathers I have to run a sock top around it & it gets oil soaked after 3,ooo miles. Hopefully this set-up helps cure this.
This morning at 5am it was nice & cool. The car did good in traffic after work stopping off at Grand Prix with temps at 95*. I just got a factory fan shroud this week & plan on adapting it to my champion radiator.
Finally figured out an air cleaner arrangement that clears the hood & I can run the factory pie tin.
The air cleaner baseplate I got almost completely covers the carb, not sure what that does for the summer heat, sure it can't be good.
I got one of the adjustable Dual Flow PCV set-ups & I am curious how it's going to work out. Normally the valve cover breathers I have to run a sock top around it & it gets oil soaked after 3,ooo miles. Hopefully this set-up helps cure this.
Been driving the car daily 70 miles round trip to work & it's been doing great. Got 5,ooo miles racked up on it now & just a few small issues.
I had the rear axle vent pressuring up & loosing some gear lube so I added a hose & a motorcycle type crankcase vent mounted to the frame rail. It cured that issue.
The original mechanical voltage regulator started charging to 15.75 volts which is just a little more than I like. I'm running a points distributor but eventually I am sticking a Uni-Lite in so I need to get the voltage to around 14.5 or if will burn out the unilite. I ended up getting a electronic one from Oreillys but its square & plastic. I found the P/N from AutoZone VR706 which is electronic but has the same look as the old mechanical unit, just needs painted black.
Need to figure out a way to get my front end aligned with it having a taller than stock ride height. As it is I have bad negative caster & when I turn the wheels tilt in at the top drastically. Really not sure how it get it, everyone just says to lower it but that's not what I'm going to do. I want the taller ride height & will just have to work around it.
I had the rear axle vent pressuring up & loosing some gear lube so I added a hose & a motorcycle type crankcase vent mounted to the frame rail. It cured that issue.
The original mechanical voltage regulator started charging to 15.75 volts which is just a little more than I like. I'm running a points distributor but eventually I am sticking a Uni-Lite in so I need to get the voltage to around 14.5 or if will burn out the unilite. I ended up getting a electronic one from Oreillys but its square & plastic. I found the P/N from AutoZone VR706 which is electronic but has the same look as the old mechanical unit, just needs painted black.
Need to figure out a way to get my front end aligned with it having a taller than stock ride height. As it is I have bad negative caster & when I turn the wheels tilt in at the top drastically. Really not sure how it get it, everyone just says to lower it but that's not what I'm going to do. I want the taller ride height & will just have to work around it.
Took it out to the drag strip with our local car club that rents the track and this is the final year that’s going to happen. The Barracuda ran great, I didn’t have any mechanical issues. I made a 1st pass thru the mufflers the pulled the pipes off. It was the slowest run was with the exhaust on the car. I never added my electronic ignition so I was still running points. If I were to really want to run good at the track a converter is what it really needs. I could’t stall it up more than 1700-1800 before it pushed it thru the beams. I tried a few passes stalled up at 1200 then just hit it at the light but it kind of coughed a little using that method. I ended up with the best pass of 12.88 @ 107.9 with a 1.96 60’.
Here’s a bunch of pics from the day.
Fastback has plenty of room for slicks in the back with the seat folded down.
Mopar section of the pits
This particular event is a local club that has had a yearly Sunday fun run day. Check it out at duckuscrapus.com
Here’s a bunch of pics from the day.
Fastback has plenty of room for slicks in the back with the seat folded down.
Mopar section of the pits
This particular event is a local club that has had a yearly Sunday fun run day. Check it out at duckuscrapus.com
I love the retro look. That picture of you and the Vega looks like it could have been "back in the day" when this picture was taken.
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