'68 Barracuda Notch

[rymanrph]

I recently posted a thread asking for opinions on this car I found on Craigslist. I got some great advice from you guys and finally decided to take the three hour drive to check it out.

After a test drive, some examination, discussions and price negotiating, I brought it home Saturday evening.

It's a '68 with some '67 parts. The previous owner gave me the following engine info: 360 engine bore .30, ( less than 2000 miles on engine), Holly 4bbl, 480/280 comp cams, KB 107 pistons.

I highly doubt the less than 2000 miles statement. The oil was black and needed changing. One of the lifters developed a tick on the way home. Marvel mystery oil to the rescue.

It has disc brakes up front, but the rotors need turning. Anything associated with the heater doesn't work. The factory oil pressure gauge doesn't work, but an after market gauge has been added. Most of the dash lights work. All the glass is in good shape and the trim is pretty good.

The seat covers look brand new and the carpet is in good shape. There is a little bit of rot on the rockers, but I think it can be patched. The floor pans have been patched before in some spots. I found a couple small holes, but nothing major (at least not yet). The trunk pan is solid, but needs a couple small holes filled as well.

The car sits way too low in the front and the wheels have impacted the fenders before, so while they look no worse than the rest of the car, they will need to be replaced whenever I end up painting the car. One of the down tubes on the driver side header has taken quite a beating because of the height, so that will need to be addressed as well.

I know fully well that I have bought a basket case of a car, but its my basket case now and I can't wait to start working on it. I certainly could have saved some money in the long run buying a much nicer car to start with, but half the fun is working on them.

My immediate goal is to get the car running well and make sure everything is functioning properly. Then I can begin to address cosmetics.

It certainly is a head turner. I've had multiple people stop me to talk about it and got thumbs ups from drivers on the way home. This thread will be as much for me to chronicle my progress, but I'm looking forward to the journey.

Now to find some '68 tail lights....

 

[cudavert]

Looks like a pretty cool head turner. Does it haul ***? Don't suppose the dude had any receipts, did he?

 

[moparbob71.2]

Glad it worked out for you. Anything old will have some minor issues, sounds like you've got a good starting point. Have fun with it.
Bob

 

[rymanrph]

Looks like a pretty cool head turner. Does it haul ***? Don't suppose the dude had any receipts, did he?

Receipts, ha. The guy I bought it from knew absolutely nothing about the car. He bought it a year ago, drove it a couple times and decided he wanted to buy another house, so he sold his '71 Duster and this car too. He didn't build it and the guy that owned it before him didn't build it either (I talked to him briefly). I don't even know where the 360 came from (model or year).

It definitely has some punch to it, but I haven't nailed it yet. I want to make sure it runs well and I want to take a look at the brakes. I don't want to get moving too quickly when I don't trust it to stop. Initial bite is good, but as the car slows and nears stopping, the pedal pressure becomes erratic and it surges a bit, so the brakes are one of the first things to tackle.

 

[4spdragtop]

Looks nice!! It sure looks way better than how you described it as a "basket case". If you are looking for 68 lights, there are some for sale on here. Maybe put an ad in the "trader" forum, so you can trade the 67's for nice 68's??

Cheers
Steve

 

[cuda20]

Let me know if you want me to take that basket case off your hands.lol Nice looking notch.

 

[smlveightis]

Congrats! I've seen some basket cases before, but never that good looking......

 

[rymanrph]

After some rain today I have some standing water in the driver floor board. My first two guesses are either almost non-existent window felts on that side or the two unplugged hole in the firewall.

 

[Rocky_JS]

it is likely windshield seal. also try blowing out the cowl with compressed and inside vents as they get air from the cowl. another area is the wiper seals.

if I were you and since you already have working body parts, tail lights, etc. I would get on the stuff that needs attention like the above water problem. then wait and hop on the other stuff you want as it appears for sale you will generally get it at better prices.

 

[rymanrph]

I won't be able to get the car into my garage until this weekend, but I took a flashlight out with me last night and did a little more investigating. The trunk pan looks to have been removed at some point (possibly for a fuel cell), but it has been replaced. There are still some holes, but nothing major. Both floor pans have small patches in them, but it doesn't appear that they were done correctly. I'll know more when I can pull the carpet. I mentioned that the very bottom of the rockers had a little bit of rot and I found one small hole at the front driver door jamb, but the rest looks pretty solid.

I was a little worried about interior wiring after seeing what was in the engine bay, but under the dash doesn't look too bad. There is a bundle of wires for the aftermarket radio and a couple wires here and there for the additional gauges, but no jumbled mess of factory wiring.

The first project is addressing the inconsistent brakes because its a safety concern for me. Any ideas on identifying front discs?

On my truck, I know the year of everything that's in it, so when I go to the parts store, I know exactly what to ask for. I need to figure out exactly what I have so I don't run into problems in the future.

 

[Oklacarcollecto]

I am not seeing any pictures. All I see is this.

If the car has small bolt pattern wheels with disc brakes then you have the Kelsey Hayes four piston caliper set up.

 

[rymanrph]

I am not seeing any pictures. All I see is this.

If the car has small bolt pattern wheels with disc brakes then you have the Kelsey Hayes four piston caliper set up.

Sorry about the pictures. I fixed the links and added a couple more.

I guess the easiest way is to just measure the bolt pattern. I'll take a look tonight. I would like to have power brakes, but that is something that I can address later. I think I'd rather have power steering first.

 

[rymanrph]

I went and checked this afternoon. My wheels are 5x4.5, so I would assume they are not the four piston Kelsey Hayes brakes? When I get the car home, I'll put the wheel off and get a shot of them.

 

[cudavert]

They'll probably be giant single-piston cast iron calipers, mounted forward of the spindle centerline.

 

[TheTecher]

Looks like its got a 67 front end.

 

[Wheels]

Welcome to the world of Barracuda, nice buy.

 

[Sparky]

Nice, gotta love those 68 notcho's. Sorta love them myself.
Enjoy, it looks great. Just took a real good look at that pin stripe, that is nice, I like the dip it takes. Might have to steal that idea from it.

 

[rymanrph]

I figured out a couple things this weekend. The brakes weren't working correctly because the rear shoes were not adjusted at all. After a quick adjustment, the brakes are working great.

I got a new heater core and removed the heater box. The box itself is in rough shape with pieces of plastic missing, but I think I can make do until I decide to swap in an aftermarket unit with AC. Some of the lights on the dash didn't work and after pulling the cluster, I found that some light were missing and some plugs weren't connected.

The odometer/trip wasn't working and I've determined that the plastic gear that controls that operation is stripped. Not surprisingly, I have a '67 speedometer with the screw in cable, unless it was a mid year change to the clip on style in '68. Looking for a new gauge now.

I'm not sure why the factory oil pressure gauge isn't working, so that needs some more investigating.

 

[4spdragtop]

Glad it was a simple fix for the brakes. I dont believe the thread on to clip on was a midyear change for the speedo cable. You could get it repaired?? Google Mr Heaterbox, they did dads speedo and tach...finding a 67 with trip will be difficult.
Oil pressure gauge....could be the elec connection at the back of the engine abv the bell housing...

 

[mosleyme]

Nice looking car at least. Hood inserts are '68. Header panel and grills are '67. Decklid and decklid trim are '67. Tail lights are '67. You do not have any reverse lights.

To go with the '68 tail lights you need the '68 tail light housings, '68 lenses, and the red plastic piece inside that goes between the brake light and back up light area which I do not believe is reproduced. Then you would want the matching '68 deck lid trim and would have to cover the holes from the '67 center piece.

Is the driver's door '67? The mirror mounting location is farther back on a '68. The other differences on the door interior and hardware are subtle.

The dash pad is obviously '68 (one year only). Could not see enough detail to tell if someone swapped in a '67 cluster.

Welcome to the world of the '67-'69 Barracudas. I have actually seen cars with parts from all three years, so no surprise that your car has a mix of '67 and '68.

 

[rymanrph]

I tackled way too many projects today and I didn't finish many of them. Since I had the heater box and the cluster out, I removed the climate controls. A couple small repairs, a clean and lube and it works like it should.

I completely disassembled the cluster bezel. It has a major crack in it.

If you look close enough, you can see a second crack that goes from the fan speed selector to the heater controls. I used some plastic weld on the back to seal the cracks. I couldn't get it quite level, so I'll have to sand down a little in the front and fill in the visible cracks. I'm going to try and recreate some the texture with wrinkle paint. I'm not too concerned about originality since this one has already been hacked up for the radio and its in rough shape. Besides, this will give me something to work on while I find a new speedometer.

I also started working on the rear quarter glass on the driver side. For some reason, the glass was sitting on top of the vertical stops, so it wouldn't go down. As best as I can tell, its a result of a missing roller on the back separate guide. I've been looking at some pictures on R/T Specialties and Layson's trying to figure out exactly what I need. It would help if I could look at a 100% assembly, but I don't want to mess with the passenger side because its works perfectly.

For some reason, I can't lock the driver door with the knob on the door. I was able to get it to move with the key (which is more than it would do earlier), but still a little odd. I'll have to mess with that again later, but at least now, I can lock both doors.

I'm happy with my progress this weekend. Hopefully, I can find the parts I need and get it all re-assembled. There is a test and tune at Zmax in two weeks that I'd like to make an appearance at (ended a sentence with a preposition...). I've got a couple other things I would like to address before then as well.

Pictures of the dash bezel progress soon.

 

[rymanrph]

You do not have any reverse lights.

Is the driver's door '67? The mirror mounting location is farther back on a '68. The other differences on the door interior and hardware are subtle.

The dash pad is obviously '68 (one year only). Could not see enough detail to tell if someone swapped in a '67 cluster.

I'm going to try and swap some '68 tail lights on soon, just so I can have the reverse lights. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the trunk and trim yet.

I hadn't noticed about the mirror, but you're right. It does sit further forward. It is such a hodge podge car, I can't imagine there are many original parts on it.

I'm not familiar with the dash differences; what about the dash pad is different than the other years?

 

[monook]

I was following this thread. In my opinion ,I would just add 67 reverse lights.
To put back to 68 will cost a lot of money(front grill tail lights and panel, door, wiper motor.)
The only people that really notice are the hard core mopar freaks like us.
1967 dash was one year only upper (no lower) with a crease. Yours 1968
has upper and lower (some kind of safety thing so as to save your knee cap in a
head on from the key) The 1969 was upper only and I do not know why they went
back (there goes the safety thing with the knee cap).

By the way, your car is NOT a basket case car! I would own that and be happy myself.

Darryl
Ps got to hate it when they cut the dash for a stereo, but it is what it is.

 

[Rocky_JS]

The odometer/trip wasn't working and I've determined that the plastic gear that controls that operation is stripped. Not surprisingly, I have a '67 speedometer with the screw in cable, unless it was a mid year change to the clip on style in '68. Looking for a new gauge now.
I'm not sure why the factory oil pressure gauge isn't working, so that needs some more investigating.

I have the part for the back of the speedo with the plastic gear it is not difficult to replace. But need to know if 67 screw on or 68 clip on speedo cable.

If all other gauges are working and oil wire is plugged into sending unit. With the oil pressure gauge you can use a grounded 10 ohm resistor at the sender wire it should go to full.

 

[rymanrph]

I found another speedometer from another member on here, so I'm good to go for that.

Can anyone confirm that the oil pressure sending unit wire is gray? The PO installed a mechanical gauge in the dash, so I don't have a sending unit on the back of my 360. There is a loose gray wire in that area and from what I can tell, its a gray wire that plugs into the gauge. Of course, I will have no way of knowing for sure until I can get a new sending unit and hook up that wire to see.