67 Barracuda convertible

[Longgone]

Very interesting thread Longgone, you`re doing an awesome job with your
convertable. Sure gives me a lot of inspiration.
Keep up the great work.

Thanks Swedefish, progress has been really slow lately as my work schedule hasn`t afforded me the time and the weather hasn`t been condusive for working on it. I hope to get back to the grind soon and post more photos of the progress.

 

[jimrat]

I am rebuilding my 67 ragtop as well. I have put new front frame rails,inner fenders,quarters,trunk floor, trunk floor extensions,not to mention interior etc. etc.. If I can be of any assistance drop me a line. Do you have any parts you need or want to get rid of?

I don't know what your looking for but I got some 68 dart parts like disc brake spindles calipers and rotors but rotors are thin. Also have power steering box pump and brackets. A tried smoking 360 [free] brand new headers muti piece, 4 barrel factory manafold. Spindles and rotors are big bolt pattern 1976.

 

[jimrat]

Progress was fast for a while, but work is demanding right now so things have slowed down. I used a factory 2bbl. 273 cam, just had it mic`ed and polished, it spec`d within tolerances so in it went This one`s all about mpg. It should be great fun when it`s all back together. I recently got the radiator back from the shop, it was recored, which gave me the opportunity to run the car. Late the other night without any fenders/headlights on the car I cranked her up and stole away across the street to a primary school with a large well-lit parking lot so I could go through the gears and try out the brakes,etc.. My girlfriend thinks I`m insane but she did get a good laugh out of me driving the car without any fenders/frt.end with the top down! Thanks for all the help Bob and let me know how your 340 project is going.

awesome job very few people understand the time and money it takes to restore a car the you have.

 

[Longgone]

"Time won`t let me" should be my theme song lately, as I haven`t had time to do much at all on the B`cuda. I did order a lot of interior seat covers, carpet, and door panels and have waited for time to install them. I got a 20% discount on it all due to the winter sales. Here`s a few pics of the rear seat cover install. These are from Legendary and are exact duplicates of the originals. I bought hog rings at the local hardware store, they`re about 1/4 the cost of buying them from Legendary or Year One. I cut the old rings off w/ the blue handled cutters and removed the old ripped covers. I installed the metal rods in the rear of the new seat cover after taking them from the originals. The muslin lining was in good shape so I left it and simply installed the new cover with hog ring pliers (red) and the help of a welding vice-grip. The vice grip makes the fabric easier to grasp and to stretch over the frame. There`s a copy of the build sheet that I`m just going to leave in it`s place. I`ll soon be doing the front seat covers and post photos as I go. This is good work to do since winter`s here, but I did do it all inside where it was nice and warm.

 

[Longgone]

awesome job very few people understand the time and money it takes to restore a car the you have.

Thanks jrat , I visited your garage and see that you`re up to your neck in restoration as well,..... looks good!

 

[OldVart]

Way to go John. That's a great job you did on that seat cover. Keep the photos and updates coming.

 

[memike]

John's go it going on :toothy8:

 

[memike]

John's got it going on :toothy8:

 

[Longgone]

Finished up installing the new Legendary covers on the the front seats and when I removed the bottom of the passenger seat, I found that the guy who had recovered them in 1990 forgot his razor blade on the cushion. It had been there for the last 16 years. Someone before me tried to remove the side covers from the seats without first removing the tracks. They had broken all the small brackets that support the center. I removed the brackets, straightened, redrilled them, and rivetted them back in place.

 

[Longgone]

It`s been a long time since I`ve had a chance to work on this car, but while I`m doing the body work during the day I`ve started working on the trim at night. Here`s a little work I`ve done on the headlight bezels. I started with sound pieces but both are dinged up well so I had to do a lot of straightening first. I picked several pieces of wood as well as a screwdriver, and a center punch to bang out the dents. Once all the dents are out I flipped the the bezel and started sanding with 220 then moved to 400 grit sandpaper. From there I took the bezel to my buffer and with white and red rouge I buffed it out. I finished by painting the trim with a paint pencil and Mopar argent silver paint. Here`s a couple pictures of the restoration. The last 2 pics are of the other bezel, before and after straightening and rough sanding.

 

[swedefish]

Great to hear about your progress again, John.
It`s looking great.

 

[OneOfMany]

WOW! Did that trim ever turn out great! Have you done it before?

The car is really coming together, cant wait to see more.

 

[Longgone]

WOW! Did that trim ever turn out great! Have you done it before?

The car is really coming together, cant wait to see more.

Yeah , I have a 68 fastback that I did a two year restoration on, so I got lots of practice on it. I need to get a dedicated buffer because I`m using a buffer wheel on my wood lathe which is less than ideal. I`m sure I could get better results with a real buffer but for now this is okay for what I need. Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[cuda67bnl]

Great thread!!
Gives me more inspiration to work on mine.

 

[cudajim]

Hey,
That was my trusty old 67 Barracuda! I now have a new one though.

See my progress pictures at:

http://netlynx.us/abrodeur/cuda/rebuild.htm

More coming soon. My 273 engine is just about ready to install - perhaps this weekend.
I have new disc brakes, large bolt pattern axles, 8-3/4 rear end etc.

The red Barracuda above looks like it needed a lot of rust attention; too much for me. Best of luck to you.

I will post new pictures soon.

 

[cudaspaz]

Tell your engine compartment mine says hi.

 

[Longgone]

I`ve been working the inner grille sections and have all the dents out. I had to replace several studs as well ( there`s always a few busted ). I simply drilled out the rivets, removed the brackets, and silver soldered new studs in. There`s more polishing to do but I want to fit everything now in case I have to do some tweaking. Here`s a rough fit, turns out I do have to do some bending of the bezels to get a good fit. This weekend I`ll start tackling the trunk mouldings, YIKES! Check out the vintage floor mat.

 

[swedefish]

That looks great John.
How long do you estimate that it will take before you have her on the road.
Keep up the great work. :thumbup:

 

[Longgone]

Thanks swedefish. I might have her roadworthy within a few weeks ,but as far as rust goes it may be 2008 before all of it `s cut out and replaced with good metal. The quarter panels, trunk extensions, and rear valance are all in the garage awaiting installation. It should be done just in time to put it all away for winter. Lol!

 

[Longgone]

Wow, I`m finally getting back to doing some work on the vert. I bought a 68 GTS and have been working that to the point that it was ready for a REAL bodyshop to take over. Lol! My 15 year old Dalmatian Dexter got sick about the same time , July of `07 and died of cancer/immune disorder in Feb. of `08 that was a major factor that kept me from working on the car. Anyway ,I bought a 8.75 rear end from a FABO member (BubbaC....kudos to Bubba) to replace the 7.25 that was put in the car in the early 80`s, after the PO had broken the pinion gear. The car came with a 8.75 sure-grip with 2.94 gears. Right now all I have is a peg-leg 3.55 but it`ll do to get her going again. I cleaned everything and painted the housing and some 5.5 wheels I have for it as well. It also came with 5.5 inch wheels from the factory but they were also missing when I got he car. The car has HD leaf springs -7 per side, ...one of the few things that haven`t been removed and replaced with something inferior. The rear end should go in within the next few days and I need to find another driveshaft or have mine cut to fit. I went ahead and pulled the fuel tank (so I can safely weld and) to remove some big dents from it. I found it was replaced in 1980 with an original. It had some dents in it that I removed by plugging the filler tube hole and then pressurizing the tank with air via the fuel line hose. The dents popped right out. Soon it`ll be time to start tackling the rust on this guy...and this ones got a ton of it. I`ll be replacing the 1/4 panels, rear valance, and trunk extensions. Oh, it`s going to be fun. Attached are some photos of the finished work and the pending work.

 

[Longgone]

Okay I`ve had some time lately and have launched a full scale attack on the rust. The right quarter is off and I`ve repaired all of the substructure so I`ll actually have something to attach the quarter skin to. It`s been several days of work to get all of the rusted metal out and the new metal fitted and welded in. There was rot in the front of the wheelwell and all around it`s perimeter as well as the rocker panel and the trunk extension. I`ve cut out the rot and replaced all of it with fresh metal. They don`t make a trunk extension for the 67-69 Barracudas yet but I was able to use one for a Dart by trimming the width and length. The area around the wheel was pretty bad and it took a while to fabricate a new wheel lip. After all the new metal was welded in and ground smooth I put of coat of body putty on it, sanded, and primed everything. The quarter panel was fit and bolted on first with self-boring screws and then welded in 4" spaces. It takes HOURS just to do the welding on these things. Here`s a couple photos and I`ll add more if the weather lets me.

 

[cuda67bnl]

Nice work. It's seeing other people do this stuff to their cars that inspires me to work on mine. Keep it up!

 

[RedFish]

WOW ! I thought my 67 ragtop needed a lot of work. Looking through the pics makes me want to help you. No doubt that you'll "geter done'
I have to ask why you seamed the qtr. skin down the side of the car rather than on top beside the deck lid ?

 

[Longgone]

WOW ! I thought my 67 ragtop needed a lot of work. Looking through the pics makes me want to help you. No doubt that you'll "geter done'
I have to ask why you seamed the qtr. skin down the side of the car rather than on top beside the deck lid ?

Yeah this fish is from N.Y. and had been there her entire life, so she has a lot of rot. Eventually I`ll have all new metal under her and without any more harsh winters she should go at least another 40 years. It would`ve been nice to seam the new quarter on the top but the replacement skin had a very poor top edge (not very sharp, uneven, and turned up considerably) so I knew I could never get that crisp body line seaming it on the top. After doing three of these skins ,I`ve learned to leave the tail light buckets intact as well. The replacements never seem to line up with the tail light housings and trunk extensions like they should, so I kept all the lines original there too.

 

[Longgone]

I finished the welding and grinding on the top edge of the quarter and started filling the seam with body putty. Here`s the latest, just a couple photos of the completed weld and the first application of body putty to the seam. Rain moved in and cut things short so work stopped rather early today. It`s daunting knowing that when I finish this quarter that there`s another one waiting for me on the opposite side and a rear valance to install. Whew!