'68 Barracuda Formula S Fastback Restoration

[RLF Cuda]

I am restoring my '68 FB Formula S 340 that I have owned since June 6, 1969. This will be a long series of posts documenting the journey that started when I was a Junior in High School. It is now nearing completion with the body work and paint complete, drive train installed, and final assembly proceeding. But first, the background.

I purchased my first car, a 1968 Barracuda Formula S FB in black on black on June 6, 1969 for $1700 from a co-worker at a grocery store in Bellflower California. The first owner and I both lived in Long Beach, CA at the time. It was the last day of my Junior year in Lakewood HS (LBUSD) and I walked about 2 miles to pick up the 'Cuda and that started a long continuing love of this beautiful car.

During my Senior year in HS I began my love of drag racing and had Hot Rod Heaven as there are at least 5 different drag strips to visit in the SoCal area. My favorite was Orange County International Raceway (OCIR) but Lions, Pomona, Irwindale and the like were also great. I went to the drag strip most Wednesday nights when I got get away from band and work. I got very good at driving the Cuda and turned some incredible times for a pure stock 340. I probaby had 350 or more timing slips in my glove compartment but saved only a few which i found recently when going through old records for the car. Best timing slip that I saved was 13.45 @ 104.65. Best reaction time was 0.01 but I remember cutting a triple zero once as well. The car was mechanically stock and original with only H70-14 retread tires (sticky compound costing $20 each at the time) and lightened by removing the folding rear seat, which was heavy. I had 3.55 gears and Sure Grip but went through the traps in second gear as shifting to 3rd slowed the car slightly. I was pulling 6000 through the traps.

My most memorable race was at Irwindale one Saturday when I was paired against a '70 Cuda 440+6. Brand New and looking very fast. We launched evenly and were neck and neck through the whole run until I started pulling him at top end. I won by about a car length, but it was close. The engine was missing at top end so I pulled into the pits to change plugs. The driver of the other Cuda came up asking to see my Hemi as he said he had never been beaten. His mouth dropped when he saw the 340 in the engine compartment. That was memorable!

During the intervening years I moved to NorCal working for Chevron and living in the Rodeo/Martinez area. I purchased a '66 Belvedere II 426 Hemi 4sp and showed that a lot. I also bought a '67 Formula S FB 383 4sp Cuda which I restored over about 5 years in the 1980's. That kept me from working on the '68 for many years. But now I am in the process of fully restoring and upgrading the '68 and will detail that project in subsequent posts.

Thanks for reading,
Bob

 

[65dartcharger]

Cool story! Will be great to follow it.

 

[azaustin]

I agree. It would have been great to have been able to keep my ‘65 Dart GoGo all these years. I’m really envious. Can’t wait to see the result of your restoration.

 

[mpgmike]

Let's see some pictures of the car now! You have my absolute favorite Mopar ever made and I will definitely be following!

 

[RLF Cuda]

Continuint on! The Cuda didn't live a pampered life and was hit numerous times in its lifetime. When I purhcased it, the prior owner said that it was rear ended by a PU truck and popped out the back window. The repairs were good as I never had any issues with the back of the car. But they replaced the dual outlet rectangular rear valance with a 6 cylinder valance (single round cutout) probably as that what was only available. The original owner dumped the exhaust right after the muffler and had flanges installed so the entire exhaust could be easily removed, which I did occasionally for runs at the drag strip.

The first month I owned the car it got hit twice. Once by someone backing out of their driveway into traffic and once when parked by a car pulling buy the Cuda. Other minor accidents resulted in at least 5 repaints which at that time were not expensive but were acrylic lacquer. The car always was stunning in black.

During the second energy crisis, roughly 1976, I freshened the engine with a smaller cam and SP2P 318 manifold. Tuning the AVS for maximum fuel economy and adding a desert cooler radiator (4 core) and electric fan, I was able to get 24-26 MPG out of the black beast. It ran at 180 to 190 in 117°F heat on a trip to Tucson in June 1976 when I went to an American Chemical Society meeting the first year of graduate school. My brother went with and raced the car against locals at night (while I slept!, and not to my full knowledge, but not disapproval!).

During those years I collected 2 extra 340's for the car as I assumed that I would eventually blow one up. They were $50 or so back then as junk yards thought they were 318's. I still have them and will use one for the build saving the original 340 as it is right now.

When I graduated from UC Irvine, I moved to NorCal where I stayed for 18 years and met a lot of great Mopar lovers. I lived in Rodeo and was about 3 blocks from a Mopar A-Body racer named Mike Martin who wrote the book Mopar Suspensions published by SA Design (1984). My '70 383 R/T Challenger is shown on page 36 as an example of the massive body lean in stock cars. But the car had 90K on it and the suspension was tired!. This is another car I should have kept, but such is life. But Martin's book and later, Tom Condrin's book Perf Handling for Classic Mopars inspiared me to upgrad the suspension of the Cuda.

As parts were cheap and availabile in junk yards, I was able to get '73+ A-Body front end components for nothing and now have 11.75" cop rotors and pin type calipers on the front. They interfered with the 1 1/8" swaybar so I mounted the calipers to the rear at that time. (To be rectified later.). But in about 1987 I put the Cuda on stands and worked on the Belveder Hemi and restored the '67 383 FB FS which took all my attention and funds. The '68 sat untouched for years until I finally installed a freshened 340 in the mid 1990's but really didn't get it on the road until about 2002 after I moved to Tulsa when I changed jobs.

All history and background for the subsequent restoration work started in 2019 after I moved to the Denver area.
More Later

 

[RLF Cuda]

Continuing on (This time typed correctly!)
After 2 moves (to Tulsa for 8 years, then to Denver area in 2007), I got the Cuda reliably on the road. But not really running well. The engine didn't idle smoothly and didn't have a lot of power. The trans lost 1st/reverse due to a broken servo and tosted the rear band. I rebuilt the trans but it shifted way too early. Would bark tires in 2nd, but was sluggish when shifted automatically even though throttle position rod was adjusted correctly. Must be tailshaft governor as this trans came from a van. Then I determined that the valve job done during rebuilding the 340 was terrible. Compression was low in the 100 to 125 PSI range (although at 5800 feed altitude!), but I built a leakdown tester and found that 5 values were leaking, both intake and exhaust. Trip to the machine shop and reinstallation, but leakdown showed that 3 values were still leaking. 2nd time a charm as a different person did the valve job this time. But these problems made me want to use one of the other 340's so I got Edelbrock heads and freshened up a 20 year old build of my spare 340. Parly in a quest to save weight and partly for performance. A dyno run of the 340 that was in the Cuda show 320 HP at the wheels (altitude corrected), so I know the second 340 would perform as well. This one has a DC 280/0.480 cam similar to the '68 340 4sp cam.

The photo below is how the car looked before I committed to do the body work and paint. This was taken in 2019 on Ridge Road near Castle Rock, CO. The rims are Weld ProStar 15x7 front and 15x8 rear with 235-60x15 BFG's and 255-60 BFG's front and rear. The *** is too high as I went with Mopar Perf road race rear springs with 1" lift thinking I needed tire clearance. Need to rectify that later which I will detail in the future.

This is how the car looked before sending it to AMD for quarter panels and rear valance replacement.

 

[RLF Cuda]

I had a lot of sins to take care of when doing body work on the Cuda. Nothing major other than typical A-Body rust in the lower quarter panels, but there was much bondo and body work on the quarter panels over the years and that had to go. AMD posted that they had 1 set of '68 rear quarter panels left before they want to a universial panel that was not punched for running lights. So I snagged them by putting a deposit down and got ready to ship the Cuda body to AMD Instillation Center near Atlanta. I purchased USCT's wonderful dolly system for rolling the body shell around. These are incredibly strong and bold to the k-frame holes and rear leaf spring perches. (I will put these up for sale shortly as I am done with them.)

AMD took a lot of photos. The first is how the car looked when received. Note the left rear quarter panel damage due to losing a wheel once. Ooops! Trunk floor was in good shape but slighly dented from the accadent that happened before I owned the car. They chose to straighten rather than replace it as the metal was solid.

The interior floor panels were also solid and not touched other than installing bucket seat perches as the car came with a bench seat (not buckets!). Engine compartment was also looking good, but this was due to me having repaired the damage done when I put fenderwell headers on the car in '71. My Bad. Very Bad. Wish I never did that. Looks good, but the guy that put the patch panels in brazed everything, not welded. But AMD didn't have front aprons available at the time and no clue when they would be available, so we left things as they were.

Next is the photo of the rear without quarters and valance. Quarters, trunk extensions and valance to be installed. And after a week or so, the quarter panels are in place looking beautiful.

As AMD works with US Car Tools closely, we decided to install torque boxes, subframe connectors and chassis stiffening at the front aprons and lower radiator support. See the last photos for details of what the work looked like. I finally got the rear valance as I wanted it from the start. Exhaust tips will look great in those openings.

 

[RLF Cuda]

Aside Story during the Restoration of my Cuda.

Back in my SF days, I met a guy that had a '67 Cuda vert 273 auto. He ran up to me when I was filling the Cuda in Patterson, cA (Hwy 5) in 1982 and wanted to buy my Cuda. I said no, of course and he said I made the right decision. We became friends and I found out he lived about 5 miles from me. I helped him upgrade his 'Vert to Formula S suspension including sway bars, 8 3/4 rear, torsion bars, and K-H disk brakes. All in anticipation of installing one of my 340's into it. I built the original 340 for my Cuda for him not thinking at that time that numbers matching meant anything. I gave him the engine in 1987 and after I moved to Tulsa in 1999 we lost touch. He had moved to Vashion Island, WA and I moved to Denver.

When I decided to restore my Cuda, I wanted to find the original 340 for it and finally found a phone number for my friend that was for the SF area. Surprisingly, he still had that number and we reconnected. He had never installed the 340 into his '67 and agreed that I should have it back. Just had to pick it up. That was one driving issue for purchasing my Ram 1500 as I didn't have any other way to haul an engine or all the other car parts that would need to be moved around diring the restoration work.

So I drove to WA and loaded the engine into the truck.

Also attached is a photo of the '67 Cuda Vert that my friend has had since the late '70's. Still in nice shape but in need of paint and some major mechanical work. We put a new fuel tank and pickup in the car as the original tank was full of crud and the pickup plugged 100%.
Anyway, I made it home with the original 340 for my Cuda. The engine has sat for 35 years with no attention. The outside was a mess but inside it was only dirty, but not rusted. Yea!. Taking the head off showed corrosion had left deposits on the pistons but the bores were clean. I cleaned and sealed the engine but no machine work was needed. It now resides with a good coating of fresh oil and I turn it over about every 6 months. But it is not going back in the car as I plan on racing the current 340 at Bandimere when it is finished.

 

[RLF Cuda]

Selection of Restoration Shop

Denver had a number of places that could have painted the Cuda but many of them were GM orientated or more like Rod Shops than Muscle Car shops. I interviewed 5 places and settled on Cars Remember When in Littleton, about 11 miles from my home. Scott Morton at Cars Remember When (CRW) is a fellow Mopar enthusiast and has had several great Mopars including a 340 6-Pack Challenger. CRM also has a muscle car showroom off Santa Fe in Englewood, CO which has an impressive collection of all muscle cars and special interest vehicles for sale. Based on my observations, they do quality work and I have not been disappointed by their efforts.

I am not going to go through the entire process but wanted to show the major steps and results in this post. I may delve into some more issues and process in a later post. The car was sanded, primered and painted using PPG CRE-321 gray primer. This is a commercial primer for industrial applications and is harder than conventioal automotive primers which in CRW's view provides a better base for painting and is more corrosion resistant.
The paint is also PPG single stage black. I didn't ask for cut and buff as I was going to drive the car a lot. But they did it anyway and I cannot complain about the results, so there it is. The car looks stunning in black. Much to do yet, but just with the wheels and taillights installed, it really stands out as a great looking Cuda.

 

[mbaird]

Gorgeous car ! Great story .
My 68 was originally black but it gets too hot here for black and my bodywork skills wouldnt do it justice .

 

[RLF Cuda]

Growing up in SoCal, you got used to the heat in the car. I did many drives in the deserts of California, Nevada, and Arizona. 4 window air conditioning was the ticket, and Wilers Lemonade mix in canteens of water to keep hydrated. Highest I survived was 117°F in Tucson. That was a long drive from Long Beach!

 

[RLF Cuda]

Problems with Build--Old Damage
There were several issues to overcome with this build even though I thought I knew the car's history and damage. Apparently not. In the past, I had clearance issues with aftermarket radiators with fans. They simply interfered with the water pump snout by more than 1/4". I thought it was design issues and I went with a stock setup most of the time.
Turns out, when Dave at CRW was welding up K-Frame bracing, he found a segment of the K-Frame that was filled with brass. See photo below.
I already was suspecious about front end damage as there was a welded crack in the right front frame rail in front of the suspension mounts. Many opined that it was just a factory mistake. The welding was shitty, but solid. And I had no problems with the car for 200,000 miles. But now, coupling the K-Frame damage and shitty repair with the front frame rail damage, and I condluced that this car was in a very massive front-end accident prior to my owning it.

Further inspection of the fully painted car showed that the core support was misaligned and was about 3/16" further back than stock. Thus the issues with radiator clearance. Further thinking through the probable accident lead to other indications of what happened. My hood inserts were the stock '67 finned ones and not the argent silver ones with 340-S callout. I thought that was just an assembly mistake. But what probably happened was the car was repaired with '67 parts as the accident happened (AFAIK) very early in '68 and the car was built in late '67. If I had known, I would have had AMD replace the core support, maybe with the wide version that they offer. But too late now.

This heavy front-end damage coupled with the damage to the rear ascribed to being hit by a PU truck leads me to believe that he spun the car and hit the right front corner and the rear very hard. At least now all that damage has been repaired.

 

[RLF Cuda]

I forgot to attach a photo of the right frame rail damage and weld job. All fixed now.

 

[RLF Cuda]

K-Frame Bracing.
I had the K-Frame reinforced with Firm Feel brackets. Below are photos of the work. I also reinforced the LCA's and installed Energy Suspension bushings in the lowers but left the off-set Moog bushings in the UCA's.

 

[RLF Cuda]

Brakes
I upgraded to '73+ A-Body spindles and UCA back in the early '80's when all parts were available at junk yards. What an improvement. I went with 11.75" police car rotors and pin-type calipers. Mopar Action has all the details, but I did this well before the MA article. DISC-O-TECH: Stop on a dime from Mopar Action and Rick Ehrenberg
I was using a Helwig 1 1/8" front sway bar and the big brakes hit the bar when mounted forward as stock. So I swapped side to side putting the caliper in the back, but I was not happy with the brake line and hose routing. I ran the brake like forward and extended the hard line from the rear to a more forward point with a bracket I fabricated. I wanted to mount the brakes correctly now so I found that the Hellwig 55917 bar has the needed clearance and is physically lighter than the bar I had on the car earlier.
Mopar Action had an article on using ball end links to replace the rubber bushing links for the sway bars. This worked well with this setup but required extending the swaybar mount to make the longer links fit.
For the rear, I followed the MA Disk-o-Tech swap of Jeep Liberty brakes to the 8 3/4" rear. I had these on the car for 2 years and they work great. So I got new rotors and calipers/lines from RockAuto. As they are modern components, they are cheap and readily available.
I am running an adjustable proportioning valve and have it all adjusted to just lock the fronts before the rears. Stoping power is awesome with this setup.

 

[RLF Cuda]

Engine and Transmission Build
I have 3 340 engines including the original engine for the '68 Cuda. Having collected junck yard engines in the early '70's and hauling them around for years in unassembled condition, I decided to build them all in the late '80's. At that time, Ed Hamburger had lots of Mopar parts available for very low prices. I built the two spare 340's with 0.020" oversized Sealed Power Hypereutectic pistons. (2332P +020). I never bore engines more than absolutely necessary. Both engines were line-honed and balanced. The first engine was built with a MP 284/484 cam and adjustable rockers (from a 273). This engine pulled to 6500 cleanly and dynoed at 320 RWHP (atmospheric corrected from 5800 ft) Not bad for a mostly stock engine.
But in my quest to reduce weight, when possible, I went with Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum heads for the second engine.
I will be using a TQ carb on a Performer intake manifold as the TQ is the best street carb available. I have 6 different one but the 440 version (6322) has the highest flow rating so that is the one I will use.
The Edelbrock heads have different mounting surfaces than the '68 340 heads so I have to use the '70+ water pump. This takes up 3/4" more room in front of the engine making radiator selection difficult if you want electric fans. I have yet to choose the radiator for this build.

 

[missing linc]

Wow, what a great story. Thanks for sharing this with us, beautiful car and I hope you enjoy it for another 200,000 miles.

 

[RLF Cuda]

The trans was an overkill build, but will never be a problem with all the components used in this assembly. The trans that was in the car worked just fine except it shifted way too early. I assume this was a governor issue but didn't want to mess with it myself. I chose Andrews Racing Transmissions to build my 727 as he has a great reputation with the Mopar community at Bandemere Raceway. The trans was built to handle 700 HP which is their standard HP build. New clutches (Red) and steels, Rigid band with Red material. Billet servos, Billet aluminum pistons, 5,400 RPM governor, cast aluminum pan, pan studs for rigidity and new bushings throughout.
Andrews recommended a Transmission Specialties 10400LSXHD 3000 rpm converter which should work well for street driving. Not cheap, but reliable.

 

[RLF Cuda]

The dash for the Cuda was mostly original. Surprisingly, the dash pad never cracked over 55 years of life. Probably due to the fact I covered the dash every time I parked the car in sunlight!
The gauges were all functional so that wasn't an issue. I needed a rechromed or new bezel and chose PG Classics over Classic due to the cost difference ($300). I couldn't wait for Just Dashes to restore the original bezel and that was a very expensive option. The PG Classics bezel looked great, but it didn't fit well. The mounting plate on top of the bezel would not slide into the grove in the plastic bezel. I had to use a Dremel tool with a cutoff blade to open the slot sufficiently to fit the steel plate. That was nerve wracking. Risking a brand-new part due to poor production tolerances. The lenses look good and fit correctly though.
I will put my extra 4 gauge assemblies and bezels up for sale after I complete the restoration.