A lot has happened in the last few months, unfortunately not so much on the car.
I took my eight year old boy to the Mopar Nats. We met up with Jeff our old neighbor from Round Rock at the airport in Columbus.
Got to meet a few of the 67-69 Barracuda guys. There were a lot of A-bodies there! I have a few hundred pictures. Jeff and I bought windshield gaskets and I picked up a rear window gasket. Jeff also found some parts for his Valiant and his 1939 Dodge. Jeff spent most of Saturday at the swap, my eight year old spent most of the day watching the drag racing. Saturday night in Heath was awesome.
The past week I have been focused back on the Barracuda.
I fixed some issues with the wiring, pre-lubed the engine with a drill and a hex shaft. Cranked the motor - forgot, I have no gas in the car. Decided not to mess with it and move on for now. I am sick and tired of patching the wiring crap the PO left me. When I was fixing the wiring I found about six places where he had done something that could have caused a fire. The last piece I fixed was where he had broken the side of the connector housing for the ignition switch and tied a male spade connector to the ignition 1 terminal with a piece of wire twisted around the terminal and spade connector. Really?
I finally decided which way to go with the dash, wiring, etc. I have a good clean dash frame in the garage. It came with a good cluster, a decent bezel and a good uncut harness. I think I bought it from Daty before I moved to Dallas. I ordered a new bezel and a new glovebox trim. I found a good heater control assembly and a rebuilt stock AM radio. The cluster has been sent out to Redline Guage Works. The cluster will be functional, modern, and work with my aftermarket stuff. And, to the non-Moparites out there it will appear pretty much stock. The other pieces to the puzzle include a Classic Auto Air system that works with the stock heater controls / face and a hidden audio system. I want to make a bracket and sheet metal piece in the trunk and mount a painless "trunk mount" harness fuse panel about 6-8" directly in front of the driver's side tail light. If I build panels on the left and right flush with the trunk opening to make hidden compartments what would be the best material to use that is not too heavy?
I removed the old plastic 16 gallon RCI fuel cell and cleaned up the trunk some. I trimmed the opening in the floor where the fuel cell used to drop through the floor to fit my new stainless tank. I am now working on the sheetmetal piece that fits the rear of the opening and fills the gap at the back created by the spare tire opening. Next will be to cut the tail pipes, fit the fuel tank in place, then screw the subframe connectors in place so I can figure out the fuel line routing. I will then pull the tank back out so I can do some finish work in the trunk, mount the fuel filter, run the fuel line. Then I will pull the interior out so I can do the welding and the wiring.
I have been getting a lot of help lately from the newest crew member. Every time I open the door to the garage he pushes his way into the garage, stands next to the car, and insists I open the hood so he can see the engine. Here he is today inspecting the progress in the trunk. Probably wants to know when I am going to finish his car.
