65 Barracuda daily driver

[65barracudaLA]

I think your thinking about an LA 318 is right on the mark. More power but still perfect for a daily driver.

If you decide that's the way you want to go, post a Wanted ad on FABO. There are a number of members out your way.

Will do!

 

[65barracudaLA]

So I last minute remembered/ saw somewhere that the "Mopars in May" thing was going on Sunday about 45 minutes away in Ontario, so I hopped in the Barracuda and went. There were two early Barracudas (and one pretty rough one for sale that I didn't even care to take a picture of).

I mostly went to find a better fender than the one I got on the car right now, but couldn't find one. Not much sheet metal at all. But I found some other cool things. A dash clock, that I don't know yet where that's gonna go, an oil pan and pick up. The oil pan looked right to me and the guy sad it was for a 318, but I noticed there aren't any holes for the for the gaskets in the front and in the back?! I'm thinking it might be a 360 oil pan?! Anyways, I found a driver side exhaust manifold for 15 bucks! The oil pan was the most expensive thing for 20 bucks!

Also picked up this old ECU for 5 bucks! Took out the new junk that I bought at O'Reilly's and put the old one in and it runs great!

There's a thread about how the newer ones have fake transistors that are really more for looks than anything:

1974 Brain Box saves the day.

Like I mentioned I bought the blue one at O'Reilly's and then I saw one on Rockauto that showed a photo of a box with a Motorola transistor. So I ordered it, but received one that was identical to the blue O'Reilly one. I complained and they gave me my money back and didn't even want the ECU back. So now I have two new spares for just in case!

 

[geminimotors]

I like a good challenge. I'm also extremely stubborn, haha.

I feel your pain. Ill be chronicling my fender bender repairs as well.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I feel your pain. Ill be chronicling my fender bender repairs as well. View attachment 1715742224

Ouch! Sorry to see that! If you're ever down in L.A. I have a driver side fender that is not perfect, but rust free and overall straight. You could have it for cheap or trade for some other parts? I also have some grille halves and a bumper that has some chrome peeling and bumper jacks marks on the bottom, but is fairly straight.

 

[geminimotors]

Ouch! Sorry to see that! If you're ever down in L.A. I have a driver side fender that is not perfect, but rust free and overall straight. You could have it for cheap or trade for some other parts? I also have some grille halves and a bumper that has some chrome peeling and bumper jacks marks on the bottom, but is fairly straight.

Thanks. I’ve found a fender & valence locally. Keep up the posts on your progress!

 

[65barracudaLA]

Two little things that did:

1. I installed a tach to be able to set the idle correctly and really just out of curiosity. It's not that great to see while driving, but I also wanted to keep it out of sight to keep a more stock look.

2. I had built these speaker "cabinets" that are attached to the kick panels a while ago, but then half forgot about them and half wasn't sure how to finish them. I finally installed the driver side. It already sounds great with one speaker. But now I also want to clad the front in carpet. The passenger side will have to wait until I move the a/c an inch or two - they don't quite fit yet, haha. The mock-up seemed to fit, but I have to make some mods to the the a/c mounts etc and hook it up anyways. I have a Vintage air slimline a/c, heat and defrost unit, so I don't need the fresh air box and bulky heater box and figured it was a great place for speakers, haha. I also was too cheap to buy the kick panels with the speaker holes and I thought these actually look more period correct.

Without paint or carpet. The trim is from the original kick panels that are toast.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Finally made some progress on the fender. Filled in all the unnecessary holes etc, smoothed out some dents and put some primer on it. I'll have to go over a few spots again and I still need to practice with the paint gun before that fender is red again. But it's getting closer and the black primer looks much better!

 

[moparmat2000]

View attachment 1715746316

Two little things that did:

1. I installed a tach to be able to set the idle correctly and really just out of curiosity. It's not that great to see while driving, but I also wanted to keep it out of sight to keep a more stock look.

2. I had built these speaker "cabinets" that are attached to the kick panels a while ago, but then half forgot about them and half wasn't sure how to finish them. I finally installed the driver side. It already sounds great with one speaker. But now I also want to clad the front in carpet. The passenger side will have to wait until I move the a/c an inch or two - they don't quite fit yet, haha. The mock-up seemed to fit, but I have to make some mods to the the a/c mounts etc and hook it up anyways. I have a Vintage air slimline a/c, heat and defrost unit, so I don't need the fresh air box and bulky heater box and figured it was a great place for speakers, haha. I also was too cheap to buy the kick panels with the speaker holes and I thought these actually look more period correct.

View attachment 1715746317

Without paint or carpet. The trim is from the original kick panels that are toast.

View attachment 1715746318

Those look great, I hope you made templates. You could probably make and sell those.

 

[JDMopar]

Try to use the same color sealer on the fender as what is under the rest of the paint. Sand your old fender to see. Go to a good paint store, and get them to scan the passenger door with their camera. They can mix the paint to be dead on match if they know what they're doing. I know y'all have some paint rules in CA, so you may have to make a run to NV to get single stage paint, if that's what you want to use. Your speaker dealies look great!

 

[barbee6043]

Try to use the same color sealer on the fender as what is under the rest of the paint. Sand your old fender to see. Go to a good paint store, and get them to scan the passenger door with their camera. They can mix the paint to be dead on match if they know what they're doing. I know y'all have some paint rules in CA, so you may have to make a run to NV to get single stage paint, if that's what you want to use. Your speaker dealies look great!

TCP Global in Ca does single stages. with old PPG recipes.

 

[JDMopar]

TCP Global in Ca does single stages. with old PPG recipes.

That is probably true, but he needs someone with paint scan camera to scan the door, so they can mix the paint to be a perfect match instead of factory mix codes. My 04 Dodge truck is bright red, and I had to get the tailgate fixed where it got dented. The paint match is so far off that it looks like Fidos ***....lol. I'm gonna get the bed side scanned and new paint mixed and repaint it myself.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I saw this 318 out of a '74 Dart on craigslist for 500 bucks. 98,000 miles. I started talking to the guy and he might even deliver it to me. Seems like a good candidate for dropping it in the Barracuda. Thoughts?

 

[65barracudaLA]

Those look great, I hope you made templates. You could probably make and sell those.

Thanks, that's a great idea, but it'll only work for people who got rid of their heater box and fresh air boxes. I was able to remove them because I have a vintage air slimline heat, cool & defrost box.

 

[65barracudaLA]

That is probably true, but he needs someone with paint scan camera to scan the door, so they can mix the paint to be a perfect match instead of factory mix codes. My 04 Dodge truck is bright red, and I had to get the tailgate fixed where it got dented. The paint match is so far off that it looks like Fidos ***....lol. I'm gonna get the bed side scanned and new paint mixed and repaint it myself.

Yeah, this is probably supposed to be the same color as your Dodge truck: fire red (PR4). But when I bought a rattle can from the dodge dealership it didn't match what's on my car.

 

[moparmat2000]

I saw this 318 out of a '74 Dart on craigslist for 500 bucks. 98,000 miles. I started talking to the guy and he might even deliver it to me. Seems like a good candidate for dropping it in the Barracuda. Thoughts?

View attachment 1715765670

Go for it. I wonder if it's just a 1974 dodge thing. The 318 I pulled from a 74 dart was just as crusty with chunks of dried on grease as the pix of the one you just showed. I taped off the ports, and used a scrub brush and easy off to remove the crust.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Go for it. I wonder if it's just a 1974 dodge thing. The 318 I pulled from a 74 dart was just as crusty with chunks of dried on grease as the pix of the one you just showed. I taped off the ports, and used a scrub brush and easy off to remove the crust.

Haha, yeah, it'll need some scrubbing, at least valve cover and oil pan gaskets and some Mopar engine red paint!

 

[moparmat2000]

65barracudaLA I sent you a PM.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I've been working a lot, so haven't been able to work much on the car. I did install these back-up lenses that I got from Mexico. Unfortunately the quality of them is quite poor, they are a bit smaller than the originals and I had to use longer screws to get them in there. The outer red ring that is supposed to have a reflector is just concentric circles. I wanted to use the original reflectors, but they won't fit because the clear lens is too small. After all they don't look so bad and they are an improvement compared to the cracked old ones.

That's how cracked the originals were:

And then I attempted to swap out my old crappy Monroe shocks for some used KYB shocks that I bought here from a member on FABO. Unfortunately they are one or two inches to short and so they won't work. Also, one of the upper shock mount nuts was so rounded that I could not get it off. I guess I could just remove the entire upper mount from the interior. Anyone know who sells replacements? At least the nut, but maybe just the whole thing?

 

[66fyssh]

The taillights look good.

is the top mount a bolt and nut that goes through the eye of the shock? You can source a replacement bolt and nut at any hardware store. Might go with Grade 8 though.

Or post a Wanted ad on FABO.

 

[66fyssh]

Oh...and you may have to pull on the shock to extend it to fit. They need to have movement both ways.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Thanks, turns out the shocks are meant to be used with super stock springs, so they simply don't fit. This what I need to replace: Mancini Racing - A Body Upper Shock Studs But yeah, I just need to get the correct nut, the rest is ok, if I can only get that nut off, haha. The ones that are on the car are super thin though, so they are difficult to grip.

 

[65barracudaLA]

So my neighbor, who is an eighty year old lady, gave me this old engine hoist a while ago. Unfortunately it turned out the jack was beyond repair, so I just replaced it with a brand new one and now it works flawlessly.

So now I'm back on track to swapping a V8 into the Barracuda (original V8 car, but currently with a slant 6).
I've been talking to a guy who is selling this running 318 out his '68 Dart minus carb and brackets. Gonna go check it out Saturday.

 

[66fyssh]

Your pictures didn't load on my end.

Too bad he's not including brackets, but someone here should have what you need.

 

[JDMopar]

Motor mounts out of a 68 wouldn't work anyway, he needs 64-66 brackets. There's a member parting out three 66 Barracudas and one 65 in the parts cars section. Maybe he will have some. Congrats on the hoist!

 

[65barracudaLA]

Too bad the pictures didn't load. Not sure why he wants to keep the pulleys and brackets, but I don't need/ want power steering and I want a/c, which it doesn't have, so I'd need to get those anyways. I still need a radiator, carb, exhaust, motor mounts, carb linkage, and probably a few more things, but i'm not really in a hurry. I also need to rebuild the V8 A904 etc, so if I get all the parts and the engine with a/c in the car by early summer, that'd be great.