68 Barracuda Fastback build

[yotah1]

Done some work recently to the car, moving forward with a lot of things at the same time and upgrading even more stuff.
The dash is cleaned up (I'll give it a clean coat of paint later on too) and with a carbon fiber insert instead of the fake wood thing it came with...

I also lowered the rear a little bit to get a nicer fitment of my wheels.

Then I received my new fuel tank with integrated sender unit, inner baffles and AN fittings. I cutout the rear trunk floorpan to fit it in-between the frame rails with its own removable structure so I can easily drop the tank in the future if need be.

Then I finished the rollcage tubing and gussets all around the car.

Next was the egine break-in which I did in October last year. After that I tore the engine down to check everything, and install the final setup of double valve springs.

 

[yotah1]

More pics of the engine...

Then I assembled the brake discs, fitted the calipers and built some custom brackets for them.

More cage work with the roff off to finish TIG welding all the top welds properly ...

I also fabbed up a new jack point in the rear of the car, welded netween the frame rails. It also adds rigidity and protects the fuel tank as I won't be fitting bumpers on the car.

I then clsoed the hole behind the fuel tank with a piece of sheet metal from the old rear fenders that I had cutout 3 years ago now. Some dimple dies, or speed holes if you wanna call them like this, to make it stiffer. Some of the welds were a bit shady, I'm not extra happy with it but in the end, the trunk area will be painted with a kind of wrinkle finish so you won't notice it so much. But welding onto 50 year old steel isn't always a pleasure...

I also gutted the original front seats. I can't find a nice aluminum bucket seat that I like and fits my needs, so I'm going to build my own frame by starting off of the OEM seats and making them better, non reclining, and with an aluminum sheet used as the main part of the seat where custom cushions will be fitted. I'll probably start on this once the rest of the interior work is done as I have to adapt them a bit for my driving position, as well as my girlfriend's (I'm 6'2 and she's 5'4 ...)

Recently I received my new pedal box to have a better braking setup, along with the AP Racing front calipers, a brake bias bar and remote adjuster, and some other goodies like a fire extinguisher system with remote lever, etc etc.

And this week I've been working on the oil cooling and filter system with a NASCAR oil cooler mounted up front (bracket on the right of the image is temporary, the final piece will be more sturdy, this was just a quick work to fit it in position), -12 AN lines everywhere and remote oil filter setup on the passenger side of the engine bay.
I've also built an oil catch can with two inlets that will go front each bank of cylinders so I don't get any oil blow-by into my intake while on track.

 

[4spdragtop]

Wow, beautiful work. Glad to see the progress!

 

[yotah1]

No posting for a long time, but progress keeps progressing lol
Wiring is pretty much done, interior also, new pedal box is in and plumbed, welding of the entire cage, floor pans, rear trunk extensions, patches in the fenders to remove the side markers and bumper mounting points, etc.

 

[Clelan]

Awesome!!!!!!
Cley

 

[Ron816]

Some serious money invested

 

[yotah1]

Trying to do things the right way to not have to do them again anytime soon ...
I still have to build a 3 link rear suspension with coilovers setup that ties back into the frame rails and the cage, finish building the widebody, order shocks and seats (getting some custom built Corbeau seats built for the car) before I can do a test drive. I intend to drive it a little bit, idiot-proof everything I can, and then work on it again to build the stainless headers and exhaust, setup a dry sump system, and install a fuel cell with surge tank before final disassembly / acid-dip / e-coating / paint / final assembly.

 

[yotah1]

Some more photos of the trunk alloy panels done on the bead roller (still learning that, i need more practice to reduce warping!), and also the new inner fender wells from AMD that I cut and modified as soon as I received them (widening the car by almost 3" on each side), and my new steering wheel setup with the MOMO Heritage MOD.07 wheel on a OMP spacer and Forever Sharp adapter. I had to modify my column in the engine bay also as I switched from a power steering pump to manual steering, so I cut the steering shaft and welded the Mancini Racing adapter on it to have it at exactly the right length I needed while clearing the headers easily.

 

[yotah1]

Making progress and preparing the templates for the aero elements of the car which I'll build in aluminium. Ride height is now set, it looks high in the front but that's only because I've cut the lip of the fender as I'll be bilding metal flares to clear the wider tires.

Also doing some work on the front fascia (finished it since this photo was taken) by filling some of the holes that were there for the bumper brackets, and also moving the cutline between the fender and front valance so now it is lining up with the upper fender to hood cutline.

 

[Challngd73]

Badass build! Love it, and following.

 

[Mpacker]

Just stumbled on this while looking for anyone doing widebody work on a Dart. Way cool build. Awesome work!

 

[turb0mik3]

Any updates???? This thing is rad!

 

[yotah1]

I have been working a lot on it, finishing details, little things, and moving forward on the widebody, suspension, exhaust design, etc.
Not much to show in photos but things are moving fast as I now have sponsors backing up the build so parts are getting here faster (they cost me less...) and I can crack on and move forward !!

I finished welding my hood louvers, my rear valence, got the wing built up and welded, added Aerocatch latches both to the hood and trunk (panel gaps are spot on and won't change now!), also removed all the lead from the car and fixed some rust issues, welded some new patch panels here and there, built a closeout panel over the headlights, built a reinforcement / jacking up point under the QA1 crossmember, made adjustable pushrods to setup my ride height while waiting for my shocks, cut out the top of the front radiator panel to be able to pull the engine easily from the front, welded shut the trim holes and mirror holes in the doors and around the quarter glass (i won't have side windows or trim, so I wanted it to be clean).

 

[yotah1]

I also 3d printed my own header build kit and will build a full 4-2-1 stepped header system in 321 Stainless Steel for the car, equal length and everything. Not easy to package 22" long primaries and 15" secondaries in there.

 

[440jimr]

Very nice!

 

[moparmat2000]

Wow!!!

 

[Mpacker]

Glad to hear you got some sponsors. This build is just so good.

 

[yotah1]

Did a bit of work in the past few weeks :

Motion Raceworks steering column with removable steering wheel hub and Momo steering wheel.

Recaro tested in position to finalize some brackets.

Laid out most of the sponsors stuff currently arrived with the exhaust tubing from Vibrant Performance and Goodfabs, the seats, the Radium Engineering fuel cell...

And mounted the fuel cell (2 surge pumps and 1 lift pump for an integrated surge tank setup) into the car, with the fuel fill and vent setup on a bracket under the decklid, which required cutting the decklid open and hammering a flange all around the opening so I can refuel without opening my decklid.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Beautiful work! I never thought you were going to take the build this far when you started.

 

[yotah1]

Me neither

 

[Shane65]

Me neither

@yotah1 sweet build man! What are the specs on those wheels?! Those 5x4.5?

 

[yotah1]

@Shane65 these are 5x4.5, 16x9" wheels with zero offset.

So, in the latest news, the car is coming back home in a few days. We were at SEMA 2023 last week. It's been an absolute thrash over the last 4 months to finish the car for the show. Interior, exterior, paint, widebody, suspension design & build, windows, plenty of details everywhere...

Well, here are a few photos of the last weeks of the build. Still more work to do before I can drive it next year, but we're getting close. The car made it into Hagerty's top 10 restomods from SEMA< alongside builds from Goolsby Customs, Ringbrothers and other million dollar builds. Not bad for a 2 car garage, driveway kinda build

 

[yotah1]

 

[yotah1]

 

[yotah1]