On the Charger project I took more pictures as the car progressed so that I could send them to my son that was stationed overseas. The Barracuda was a little different. My original plan was to fix any of the major issues that kept it from being streetable. Then I was going to drive it as-is until the day came when I had more time to refinish it. So I didn't do as much documentation when I started on it.
First things first. The worst problem I had was with the wiring. The previous owner told me that the lights had stopped working on the car shortly before I arrived to pick it up. With the immediate goal of getting the car home, I didn't have the time to investigate what was going on until we returned to Nebraska.
So... what did I find? - I found that the guy was a lying bastard.
Are there actually any honest people selling cars on eBay? The lights hadn't mysteriously stopped working. It was obvious that they hadn't been working for some time. There were no bulbs in the tail lights. Most of the wiring was disconnected. There were missing fuses. The headlight switch was not only disconnected, but needed replacing also. The dimmer switch was disconnected and the harness that attaches to it was melted. Most of the dash bulbs were missing. The blinker switch was junk. Now, if the guy had been straight with me and told me that I was going to have to go through the lighting circuit, I wouldn't have been upset. But giving me the BS just sort of pisses me off. I'm just glad that we hadn't had to drive the car to get it back home.
It took me a couple of weeks to get the wiring sorted out. Most of that time was spent looking for whatever parts I needed and then waiting for them to arrive once ordered online or from the local Big A auto parts store.
I wasn't taking new pictures of the car at this time. But I was doing a fair amount of work to it. The car had no window cranks, interior door handles, or arm rests. When I bought replacements, I discovered what the problem was. When they upholstered the door panels they added about an inch of foam padding to them. So with the added thickness you couldn't get the window cranks to turn without digging into the padded panels. The door latch handles wouldn't return completely to their flat locations because of the extra padding either. Although I hadn't planned on replacing them, I knew that I needed to get different panels now.
The dash was missing several parts. There were no defroster vents. It didn't have a radio. There was no knob/handle on the glove box door. The speedometer wasn't working, nor were any of the other gauges. The horn didn't work.Not only did the dome lights not work, they weren't even in the car. No seat belts. No heater. None. The heater box below the dash was busted up with no heater core, fan or control cables. Just a hole in the firewall. No ashtray or cigarette lighter. The finish piece under the steering column was missing. The dash plastic surrounding the radio had been cut for an aftermarket radio and had a large chunk broken off. There were no kick panels. The vents in the doors were gone. None of the interior sheetmetal behind the front seats was there. The fold down panel that was supposed to cover the spare was missing. The glove box liner was shot. The rear seat would not fold down. All of the rubber door/window/trunk seals needed replacing. The same with the window fuzzies. The keys did not fit the doors or trunk.
Now as discouraging as the list of issues was beginning to look, I didn't care. After all, I finally had my fastback. Sure, I was upset for someone selling me a car that was supposed to be fully functional when they knew it wasn't. BUT, I finally had a fastback.
Naturally I had to fix any of the things that kept the 'Cuda from being roadworthy. I started with the wiring. Oh... - that was after I pulled that butt-ugly steering wheel cover off. Most of the wiring issues stemmed from missing wires or things disconnected. After searching online for a schematic, I muddled my way through the repairs. I wish that there hadn't been so many
different color coded wires. Well, actually I'm glad there was because it would have been a lot harder tracing things out. But, I wasn't able to keep the color coding correct. I didn't have violet wire with a black stripe or pink with a black stripe, etc, etc...
I found a guy in Milford, Nebraska that had a '67 notch being parted out and picked up an extra dash, the defroster vents, an extra grill surround that had all of the P L Y M O U T H lettering intact, a set of red door panels, the ash tray, and all of the parts to complete the heater assembly. I think the parts from him ran me $300. Everything needed heavy duty cleaning but I was thrilled that I was able to get most of the parts that I needed so quickly.
The red door panels had to be dyed. Because my inspiration for the Barracuda was based on memories of drag cars, I chose to go with a silver to simulate aluminum. As far as I know it wasn't an interior color option but I felt it would blend in well with the charcoal colored upholstery. I didn't want to fab actual aluminum panels because this was going to be a street car
styled to look like it might have been on the strip.
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I NEEDED TUNES! Sure, it may not have been a necessity but it just ain't right to ride around in a muscle car without listening to some Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, or something! So I bought me a radio. I didn't need (or want) anything too fancy. - But I wanted it to sound good. I wanted simple controls without the micro sized buttons that are on most of the newer radios. I chose to go with a Retrosound radio in part because it was really difficult to find a radio that even came close to fitting the dash. It sounds really good (to me) when combined with the 6"X9"s in the rear and the 4"X6"s in the front. I really didn't want to cut holes in the door panels that I'd just put on. Luckily while I was looking for kick panels I found new A-Body replacements with the speakers already built in.
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