65 Barracuda daily driver

[65barracudaLA]

Thanks @FridayGt, @Tadams and @66fyssh! It's quite an experience to restore an entire car in your driveway (and sometimes on the street). I couldn't do it without the advice from the Mopar online community. I'd love to have a garage, and more and better tools than I do, but I love this car and you have to work with what you got. Posting my progress (and sometimes failure) here motivates me to keep going.
I'm dying to get the interior done, but I probably should fix the front suspension first. About 5 years ago I paid a auto repair shop to "fix" the suspension. The holes where the strut rods come through the K-frame were broken and they welded big washers on. Not pretty, but I think it works. The problem was that they put the strut rod bushing cups in backwards, so the strut rods couldn't move as freely as they need to, which resulted in the driver side strut rod to break. They also didn't shorten the bushings on the engine side, so the alignment shop said they couldn't get it right. Also, I bought these really cheap upper control arms on ebay that had the bushings and ball joints already installed. They sometimes hit the rim, which is why the shop ground them down, which didn't fully fix the problem. I assume that the strut bushings not being shortened causes that issue. I already have new strut rod bushings, new upper control arm bushings and new ball joints. And I have a good pair of upper control arms from a 1971 Dart. I have the ball joint tools, but so far I have not been able to get the old ball joints out. I honestly haven't really tried yet, but I'll probably soak them in WD-40 and see how far I'll get. I found some great instructions online:
:::MoparMax::: Torsion Bar Front Suspension Rebuild Tips and Tricks: Part Two - 11/8/2011

What the K-frame looked like back then:

 

[65barracudaLA]

By the way, I have a nice, powdercoated K-frame sitting around, but changing the K-frame is a little more than I can accomplish in my driveway right now. I also have a set of (incomplete) Kelsey Hayes disc brakes, but I want to get this fixed quickly, so they'll have to wait...

 

[66fyssh]

I have that same website saved to use as a reference when I decide to do mine. Its very thorough!

 

[65barracudaLA]

I actually changed my mind and invested in adjustable strut rods from QA1. They just arrived today! I hope I can get those in along with the "new" (stock) upper control arms over the weekend!

 

[Tadams]

Awesome my friend. You have come so far with your project. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your pictures. I have really enjoyed reading and watching your progression. I would love to be back in L.A. And see you cruising around.
Hope to be able to get some work done on mine this week.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Finally got a ton of work done! First, I painted the dash and installed the brand new instrument cluster bezel! I still have to redo the the glove box- it came out weird. Maybe because I painted it at night and it was too cold.

That all was the easy part... Next I put new bushings and ball joints in a pair of upper control arms that I had laying around. I got one ball joint out myself and I had to take the other one to a machine shop, because it didn't want to come out.

Once I had the strut rods out, I looked at the mounting holes in the k-frame and they were sooooo bad. Like I mentioned before, a repair welded in a piece on each side, because they were broken out (see pictures somewhere above). They did such a butcher job though. And the worst part was that they put in the metal cups of the strut rod bushings in backwards, which caused the driver side strut rod to break and the other one was severely bent... Well, I had a nice, powdercoated k-frame sitting around, that I bought at a swap meet a couple of years ago. I just had no idea, how to get it in, without taking the engine out. But once I had most of the suspension out, it actually looked doable. I secured the engine with a wooden beam from inner fender to inner fender and then a jack under the oil pan and tried, if the frame mounting bolts would even come out and they did! The leaning tower of power unfortunately started leaning a little bit to the passenger side, but that was not a big deal. I bolted it in and was very happy about that!!!

Then I installed control arms and the QA1 adjustable strut rods, replaced the brake shoes and put everything back together, torqued it to spec and lubed the new ball joints.

The alignment is really bad, even though I took pictures of the control arm positions and marked the ride height adjuster. Well there is a tire shop two minutes from my house and I was going to get two new tires for the front (they are pretty bad due to the bad alignment before) and an alignment. Well, they didn't have the tires I wanted and they said they their equipment wouldn't work on a car this old... I went back home and called a couple of places and it was the same story. Then I remember this repair shop across the street from where I used to work that always had a bunch of old mopars parked outside. They worked on my '71 Beetle about ten years ago and they did a good job. So I called them up and the owner told me he had a '65 Barracuda himself and he would do the alignment. He didn't have the tires, but I was able to order them online and they should be here within one or two days. I'm still debating whether I should get the car towed there or if I should drive there slowly. It's about 4 miles from my house. Maybe I can get the alignment at least little bit closer.

Anyways, next up is installing the new carpet and I'm supposed to get the new seat covers and foam in about a week. Then come the door panels and and the metal and plastic panels that go around the windows that I still need to paint.

On the mechanical side, I need to replace the fusible link (slack joint) and install the lokar kickdown cable. Since I bought the car, there always just been a piece of wire that is in one position and it kind of works, but I have to shift down manually and it's bad for the transmission. It's a super six, so the original linkage does not work. I still want to figure out a way to use the original gas pedal that I found in the trunk when I bought the car. I don't like the later model one that's in there currently, but it work with a cable instead of a rod.

Then it's time for a road trip!

 

[Tadams]

Following your thread has been so amazing. You have done a remarkable job on your restoration. I am so excited to hear about your road trip. I am hoping to get to work on mine the later part of this week, but the North Carolina weather has rain in the forecast. Hopefully we will have some sun so I can get some more complete.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Thanks again! Haha, we haven't had rain in months, but wrenching in 90+ heat is not ideal either... Not sure yet where I'll be going on my road trip, possibly to Santa Barbara- a very good friend just moved there. I also want to go back to Joshua Tree. We'll see

 

[Tadams]

Both of those sound like a good road trip. Yea, we have had the 90 plus days quite a bit as well. I am working 2 days this week and was excited to see the temp drop to the mid to upper 80's, but then added 50 to 70% chance of rain. I would really hate to roll mine out of the garage and get one of the pop up storms. Enjoy your trip and post some pics when you go.

 

[PapstXX]

Following your thread too

looks good

 

[65barracudaLA]

Following your thread too

looks good

Danke, PabstXX und schoen Gruesse nach Niedersachsen! Ich hab 7 Jahre lang in Braunschweig gewohnt.

The car is still in the shop. No one wanted to do the alignment, because they were saying they wouldn't work on a car this old. The owner of shop where it's at has 65 Barracuda Formula S himself, so that's a good sign, but he is swamped with work. There is literally no room for another car on his lot. Luckily I work from home, so I don't have to drive anywhere right now. I still hope to get it back, so I can continue working on the interior etc. Still need to install the lokar kickdown cable, too.

 

[PapstXX]

Cool wie klein die Welt doch ist

 

[65barracudaLA]

I went to the shop today to visit Salma Barracuda. The alignment has been done, but the steering gear needs to be rebuilt. The guy who rebuilds it is an old school guy and he wants cash up front, so I went to drop off some cash... I will also need new leaf springs, but I don't have the cash right now. Where can I get stock leaf springs for cheap? I found super stock leaf springs on jegs.com for 230 bucks for the pair, but I want to keep the look mostly stock. Does anyone have 64-66 Barracuda with super stock springs, who could post a picture?

 

[Tadams]

I can't get a picture at present, but I don't think it changed the height more than 2 inches. I really like the way it looks after the new ones were added. I purchased mine from a company in Maryland. I'll find the name for you.

 

[Tadams]

Check ESPO.com. They can supply you stock or SS springs. I'm not positive if that is where I purchased mine, I'll look for the information, it has been a few years

 

[65barracudaLA]

Check ESPO.com. They can supply you stock or SS springs. I'm not positive if that is where I purchased mine, I'll look for the information, it has been a few years

If it doesn't change the look too much, I'll go with the super stocks from jegs. Thanks for the info, though!

 

[Tadams]

Espo springs and things. They are in Pennsylvania. They have anything and asked a lot of questions. Are yours 5 leaf or 6. Mine were 6. They have stock, or stock plus 1 inch or 2 inches as well as Ss.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I finally got the Barracuda back from the shop and it handles great! Also, it used to shake like crazy at higher speeds and now it's super smooth!
I haven't ordered leaf springs yet, because I already spent a lot of money on the front suspension... Apparently I also need new torsion bars...
So, I moved on to the interior. I took out the rear seat to clean it and to prepare for installing the new carpet. More carpet to come within the next couple of days. I also installed an original gas pedal and brake pedal pad. The other one just didn't look right.
Now it's time to drink some beers for Labor Day!

 

[65 Dartman]

The original pedal set looks "right"!

 

[Tadams]

Looking good my friend

 

[Tadams]

I was going to send you a shot of mine with the springs I purchased, but I can't take a picture till Friday. Are your springs 5 or 6 leaf

 

[65barracudaLA]

Not sure, if I have 5 or 6 springs. I'll call ESPO and ask them what they recommend for me. No need for a photo, but thank you. Yesterday I installed new shocks in the front, which luckily is super easy to do and doesn't take much time. Then I took out the seats and ripped out the old carpet and as I was cleaning the floor, I found some rusty areas. Luckily not rusted through, so I cleaned it up with a wire brush and sprayed some Rustoleum on the floor, which will hopefully prevent further rust. I hope to install the carpet today, but I have other things to do as well, so we'll see...

 

[Tadams]

I wish my floors had been that solid. My car is a Formula S which came with the 6 leaf spring set up. I talked to a few places before ordering my springs and espo seemed to be the most knowledgeable.
Looking at your car, mine may sit a couple of inches higher in the rear.

 

[65barracudaLA]

The photo might even be misleading. It's actually sagging badly. A lot of times I put a lot of heavy equipment in the back and almost lost the exhaust when I went over a bump... Like I said I want to keep a somewhat stock appearance or maybe just a bit higher. I guess the 6 leaf might help with the heavy load.

 

[Tadams]

The formula s came with those. Yours may be 5in. Don't know how much it would effect the ride height though. This isn't a good picture, but perhaps you can see where mine is sitting. But with no weight, it may be sitting a little high.