Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

[1967 'cuda]

Yup, you have to make a new tunnel. The tremec sits higher than the ol" A833. Search my thread and see what I did. Worked out pretty well. Only need about an inch. When you're done, it's not a noticeable difference.

It took awhile but I found the pics in post #319 of your build. Maybe I'm over-worrying about some things but one of my concerns is carpeting. I'm hoping that we'll be able to find a molded carpet that will fit well later. I had an upholstery shop sew me carpeting for a car years ago and it never layed right. We won't be running a console so we won't have that center area to slice & tuck it.

An even bigger concern is strength. We saw several examples online of T-56 installations and most of them did not tie the cut off upper transmission cross-member back together. Some of them just boxed off the ends where they were cut and made a new lower support for the transmission. The factory cross-member is pretty stout. I assume it needs to be on a unibody. Even after having added in the subframe connectors for frame reinforcement it seemed to me that you'd lose a lot of strength in that area.

We even saw some places selling T-56 cross-members that didn't take into consideration the top half. Our Charger showed major signs of having body twist from the 440/4-speed combo that was factory. The right rear quarter was bowed in behind the sail panel and the sheet metal was starting to rip next to the door. We figured that a 1000+ HP powerplant would do even more damage. Our hope is that the subframe connectors will make it strong enough but I don't want to create another weak point.

One of the photos we found online that shows a bottom cross-member bolted behind the 2 cut halves of the original top.

I didn't see any photos showing an upper cross-member tie on your Barracuda. (maybe it's there but I didn't see it) I realize that Frankencuda is being built as more of a road course vehicle and it probably won't be subjected to the hard launches we think the Charger will experience but I'm still wondering if you wouldn't see a benefit.

 

[1967 'cuda]

A body and B body will be a little different of course. Here is a series of pictures showing the tunnel mod, console fitment and shifter position. We ended up moving the console brackets back a little which will limit how far forward the seat will move. Seats are in rear most position in the pictures.

I see that you did fabricate a new upper cross-member. The design we've been kicking around is a little different because our shifter will be inline with the cross-member location on the B-body. Do you have any photos of the bottom? We haven't gotten far enough to know for sure but I think we may be able to modify the stock lower to work with our car.

 

[mosleyme]

I see that you did fabricate a new upper cross-member. The design we've been kicking around is a little different because our shifter will be inline with the cross-member location on the B-body. Do you have any photos of the bottom? We haven't gotten far enough to know for sure but I think we may be able to modify the stock lower to work with our car.

I bought a kit meant for a small block in the A-body with a different bellhousing and different version of the T-56 Magnum, and then I modified it. Saved me some work. The upper piece and the new lower piece are considerably more stout than the factory parts. The shop working on my car belongs to a friend, I went in that day and helped "engineer" the solution to get it done and save on shop labor needed for the mods.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I bought a kit meant for a small block in the A-body with a different bellhousing and different version of the T-56 Magnum, and then I modified it. Saved me some work. The upper piece and the new lower piece are considerably more stout than the factory parts. The shop working on my car belongs to a friend, I went in that day and helped "engineer" the solution to get it done and save on shop labor needed for the mods.

Thanks for the pics. It sure helps to see how everybody is adapting their cars for these transmissions. I like the mods that you and SNKEBIT have done more than most of the examples we found elsewhere.

It rained here Saturday so we didn't make much progress. I ran to the local weld shop to pick up some sheet metal for the tunnel. When I got back we threw a tarp over the car so we could work beneath it and take some measurements. After that a major migraine set in and I was done for the day. I've had a problem for years with recurring sinus infections and things get really nasty when it flares up. Between the paint, fiberglass resin, and bondo fumes and then all the metal grindings I was suffering pretty bad.

It's difficult to describe how bad the pain actually gets. I've fallen out of our hayloft head first onto a concrete floor splattering blood all over the place and shattered my elbow. I've been miserable with toothaches. I've had a couple of concussions from being struck in the head. I've had 2 major heart attacks. - But the migraine pain from these sinus infections is way off the pain scale. I haven't found any meds that will knock it down. It gets so bad that I honestly can not keep myself from moaning or screaming. When it lasts all day I'm really in a world of hurt.

The doctors had thought at first that the infections were initiated in my teeth and spreading to my sinuses but now that the teeth are gone it's obvious that it was the other way around. Even after having all those teeth pulled the infection still tends to spread into my jaws and I still feel the type of tooth pain I had before. I speculate it's what led to the loss of my teeth.

- Enough whining. I'm hoping Sunday will be better.

 

[famous bob]

Thanks for the pics. It sure helps to see how everybody is adapting their cars for these transmissions. I like the mods that you and SNKEBIT have done more than most of the examples we found elsewhere.

It rained here Saturday so we didn't make much progress. I ran to the local weld shop to pick up some sheet metal for the tunnel. When I got back we threw a tarp over the car so we could work beneath it and take some measurements. After that a major migraine set in and I was done for the day. I've had a problem for years with recurring sinus infections and things get really nasty when it flares up. Between the paint, fiberglass resin, and bondo fumes and then all the metal grindings I was suffering pretty bad.

It's difficult to describe how bad the pain actually gets. I've fallen out of our hayloft head first onto a concrete floor splattering blood all over the place and shattered my elbow. I've been miserable with toothaches. I've had a couple of concussions from being struck in the head. I've had 2 major heart attacks. - But the migraine pain from these sinus infections is way off the pain scale. I haven't found any meds that will knock it down. It gets so bad that I honestly can not keep myself from moaning or screaming. When it lasts all day I'm really in a world of hurt.

The doctors had thought at first that the infections were initiated in my teeth and spreading to my sinuses but now that the teeth are gone it's obvious that it was the other way around. Even after having all those teeth pulled the infection still tends to spread into my jaws and I still feel the type of tooth pain I had before. I speculate it's what led to the loss of my teeth.

- Enough whining. I'm hoping Sunday will be better.

you probly ought to go see a sinus type specialist. I had a complete sleep apnea operation, and it pretty much stopped my sinus infections. the wife just had a minor one(operation) , and it stopped hers.------jfyi--------bob

 

[1967 'cuda]

you probly ought to go see a sinus type specialist. I had a complete sleep apnea operation, and it pretty much stopped my sinus infections. the wife just had a minor one(operation) , and it stopped hers.------jfyi--------bob

Dang Bob, I don't know whether or not you were having the same kind of pain I've been experiencing. - I hope not. I'd asked my doctor about what could be done to prevent recurrences and he was still under the belief at that time that my teeth were causing the problem. I haven't gone back in yet to see him this time. Maybe he'll rethink the options now.

 

[1967 'cuda]

My son came across some Youtube videos on a T-56 install in another '68 Charger.

 

[SNKEBIT]

John, I sectioned my crossmember and welded it back in the factory location. I will take a pic today if I remember. lol

 

[1967 'cuda]

John, I sectioned my crossmember and welded it back in the factory location. I will take a pic today if I remember. lol

- Looking forward to see what you came up with. (if you remember...lol)

 

[1967 'cuda]

Spence and I went to see the new Independence Day movie today. I guess you'd say it was part of our 4th of July celebration. Maybe I'm just too cynical but I thought it sucked big time. Teresa was going to go with us but pulled out at the last minute. - Lucky for her.

I rarely see a movie that I find enjoyable. That's probably why I don't go to many. - That and the price of popcorn. Remakes and sequels seem to be the worst. I don't know who's making the decision to fund some of these shows but you'd think that any 1st grader with the ability to proof read scripts would've turned them down. They all tend to remind me of the horror shows where everyone in the audience is smarter than anyone in the movie. We all know that you don't assume the bad guy is dead when he falls down and turn your back on him. We all know you don't go outside alone to investigate a weird noise when you already know there's a monster out there.

I think I may have found something more painful than my sinus infection. It was at the theater.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I spent the 4th in the garage trying to make a little headway. Normally I put some tunes on the computer to listen to while I'm working. Today I listened to the audio book 'Being George Washington' by Glenn Beck instead. I know that everybody's not a fan of his but I believe he does a good job with his recounting of historical events.

I think we've settled on which design to go with for the Charger's transmission mounts but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get the steel we need. In the meanwhile I turned my attention to the engine plate for the funnycar. I ran up town and got some poster paper for making a template. It's pretty straight forward how to make one using a marker for around the perimeter of the engine rear and then I simply used my fingernails to form an imprint of the hole locations. It sounds crude but I seem to get decent accuracy with this method.

After transposing the template onto the aluminum I used a center punch to mark my holes and drilled them out. The bolts are 3/8" and that's the size I drilled. I figured that if I was off a bit I could easily enlarge or egg shape a few holes. As it turned out every hole lined up perfectly without the need to modify. My biggest problem seemed to be cutting the aluminum plate for the crank clearance. I had thought I'd zip right through it with a jigsaw but the coarse tooth (for metal) blades I had didn't want to cut. I struggled with every tool I had and eventually got it done using the cut-off wheel and 4&1/2" angle grinder.

Happy I'd gotten that far I decided to pick the engine up and transfer it into the funnycar frame. That's when I found out that the cylinder on the cherry picker crapped out on me. - Now it looks like the Charger & funnycar will both be on hold until I get a lift.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Back in April 2015 Cuda68Scott sent me a replacement cylinder for our cherry picker. Our old one had been giving us problems and he decided to send me a used one so I wouldn't drop an engine on my head. I had never swapped them out because I'm a huge procrastinator and I was going to have to modify our lift to use it. Well, now that I found myself in a bind I finally got around to it. All I can say is BIG THANKS again Scott!

It's too late in the day to get the motor in the frame but I've got it in the air and we'll be able to continue working tomorrow.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I was ready to call it a night after my last post. It was after midnight, dark outside, and the bugs were attracted to the lights. But, I'm behind schedule. I sucked it up and decided to try transferring the Hemi.

It's still not secure. The rear motor plate is sitting on top of one of the frame cross tubes and the front still has a jack holding it up. My motor plate is too wide to move forward in the frame but it needs to go about a foot forward and drop about 4 inches. At least it'll be out of our way tomorrow when we start on the Charger again.

 

[Abodybomber]

John,at least you accomplished something...My landlord,hot rodder buddy:" Just 10-15 minutes a day,and you feel better,and the flow starts..." I find that,to be true......

 

[Cuda68Scott]

Hey John thanks for the shout out for the engine jack. Actuallu surprised it worked, I thought it might better used as ballast for your pickup during winter. I haven't posted much due to some family care taking responsibilities, but I do check in on your thread fairly regularly - it is always great reading, never a dull moment in your garage and I wished I lived nearby. No progress on my car yet other than I finally have cleaned out my garage enough to have some working space. My excuse now other than my family is that it is effing hot in there, usually about 105 or more. If you remember I jabbed you on your winter weather, so I am tossing you a nerf ball here.....

 

[1967 'cuda]

Hey John thanks for the shout out for the engine jack. Actuallu surprised it worked, I thought it might better used as ballast for your pickup during winter. I haven't posted much due to some family care taking responsibilities, but I do check in on your thread fairly regularly - it is always great reading, never a dull moment in your garage and I wished I lived nearby. No progress on my car yet other than I finally have cleaned out my garage enough to have some working space. My excuse now other than my family is that it is effing hot in there, usually about 105 or more. If you remember I jabbed you on your winter weather, so I am tossing you a nerf ball here.....

It's probably a good thing I waited to swap out that jack. I was grateful when you sent it but now I'm EXTREMELY grateful because it saved the day when the old one crapped out.

I've never thought of my garage as the exciting place to be. It's more like going to the local dump. Obviously you're a big fan of the show Hoarders. Whenever I post a pic of my garage 'cleaned' I aim the camera away from whatever pile I'm standing on.

NO PROGRESS?? NO PROGRESS!! I figured by now you'd be tooling around in your ride, - enjoying all that sunny weather down there. I think it's time for you to show the family that you're king of your castle. Instead of getting sidetracked doing stuff for them you need to take a stand. Put your foot down! Pop open a beer and demand your time in the garage! Convince them that it's all in their best interest. Ban all those chick flick channels on your TV and set it so they can only view Velocity. Eventually they'll see the light.

HEAT? If you get the family situation taken care of you won't have to worry about the temperature. With your wife wiping the sweat off your brow and handing you a cold one whenever she sees you're running low it shouldn't be a problem.

Excuse me, - I gotta go. I hear Teresa coming and can't let her see my advice to you.

 

[famous bob]

It's probably a good thing I waited to swap out that jack. I was grateful when you sent it but now I'm EXTREMELY grateful because it saved the day when the old one crapped out.

I've never thought of my garage as the exciting place to be. It's more like going to the local dump. Obviously you're a big fan of the show Hoarders. Whenever I post a pic of my garage 'cleaned' I aim the camera away from whatever pile I'm standing on.

NO PROGRESS?? NO PROGRESS!! I figured by now you'd be tooling around in your ride, - enjoying all that sunny weather down there. I think it's time for you to show the family that you're king of your castle. Instead of getting sidetracked doing stuff for them you need to take a stand. Put your foot down! Pop open a beer and demand your time in the garage! Convince them that it's all in their best interest. Ban all those chick flick channels on your TV and set it so they can only view Velocity. Eventually they'll see the light.

HEAT? If you get the family situation taken care of you won't have to worry about the temperature. With your wife wiping the sweat off your brow and handing you a cold one whenever she sees you're running low it shouldn't be a problem.

Excuse me, - I gotta go. I hear Teresa coming and can't let her see my advice to you.

------------------------------------------------------------------LOL------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[1967 'cuda]

I'm not sure , but it doesn't look good outside tonight. I think maybe...
the

is about to hit the

!!

The wind has really picked up and it's been thundering & lightning like crazy. I heard that they had all sorts of tree limbs down 25 miles away. I went out and lowered the funnycar body back down hoping it won't make it's first quarter mile pass without me.

Today in the garage we did get some fab work done on the transmission's upper cross-member. I think it'll be stout enough when combined with the lower we'll be making. We used 1" X 2" rectangular tubing that we welded to a top plate cut to match the Charger's factory 4-speed boot. Then we welded a 1/4" X 3/4" flat around the perimeter to reduce any flex.

After scoping out the original lower cross-member we've decided to only use it for reference dimensions. By the time we'd have finished hacking it up there wouldn't have been much left. The polyurethane mounting block has been ordered from JEGS and should be here in a few days. If all goes well (and the storm doesn't relocate the cars) we should get the bottom mount done.

 

[1967 'cuda]

What a night. The sinuses were really acting up. I was waking up after each hour of sleep in misery. Around 3 a.m. I heard the hail coming down hard. It was only about an inch in diameter but there was a lot of it and it was hitting hard. I scrambled to get dressed and find the keys to the Barracuda. Just stepping outside was enough to be totally soaked. Our garbage can was laying in the street a block away. Despite the tree limbs all over the ground it looks like the vehicles survived unscathed.

Yesterday's forecast was for 'thunderstorms'. Tonight's forecast says 'SEVERE thunderstorms'. I guess I better be prepared. Maybe this is the lack of dull moments that Scott referred to.

It's hard to feel enthused after the lack of sleep but I know we need to get work done on that transmission tunnel & cross-members. Spencer's planning on returning to Iowa tomorrow. Most of the progress could be done by myself but I like having someone around to help guide the engine/transmission in and out of the car.

 

[1967 'cuda]

It's starting to rumble outside again. The revised forecast said that maybe we won't have as much of a chance for severe weather tonight. If you don't hear from me tomorrow that means a tornado has picked up my house and dropped it on my ex.

Most of the time working on the cross-member has been spent measuring , making templates, and planning. Often we see flaws in one design and change course.

Our hope was that we could design a lower cross-member that would closely mimic the factory design. The location of the T-56 tail shaft mount is close to the same spot as an A-833 but was going to have to have an offset. Because that Tremec is fatter than the original transmission the lower cross-member was going to have to be wider and drop farther. We didn't want to have it sit so low that it would cause ground clearance problems so the profile is thinner on the bottom but we are reinforcing it quite a bit to compensate.

We were able to keep the back side of the cross-member straight but the front side was going to need a swoop in it to clear the transmission and allow room for things such as the speedometer cable attachment point. We also kept an eye on how much room we were leaving for exhaust routing. Spence has been considering a 3 & 1/2" exhaust system so we didn't want to have to notch this thing later on.

Here's a comparison between the stock mount and ours.

We still don't have the mounting holes drilled that go through the frame and haven't gotten to the mounting plate for the polyurethane block. We also haven't finished what's already shown in those pics. Depending on how our mounting plate works out, we may try boxing this piece.

 

[1967 'cuda]

We made it through another stormy night. It wasn't as bad as the night before but we did have lots of thunder, lightning, high winds, and heavy rain.

Spencer decided to head back to Iowa early today but before he did we called Starlight Motors for status on the Roadrunner. - Still getting nowhere fast on it. My son decided to set up some shop time in Des Moines to have the work finished and we'll take the car there if it's not finished by the time he comes back next month.

What really pisses me off is that these guys were arrogant as hell when I ran into them last year at the St. Paul, Nebraska car show. They had a couple of really nice 'Cudas there running FAST efi systems and claimed to be experts that would fix any problems we had in no time. Their attitude was that any idiot should be able to do it. We didn't make the decision to take the car to them because we thought they were nice guys. We took it to them because they were into Mopars and their claimed expertise. I guess I should have avoided them just on the a-hole rating scale alone. Maybe they're just another example of the arrogance of E-body owners?

Before I could get started on the Charger today that guy with the Chevelle showed up looking for help installing a new trunk lock. He had me order him one last week and it didn't fit the way the original one had. It took a bit of tweaking but I got it in for him and he's a happy camper again.

While working on the trunk lock the FedEx truck stopped and left off a couple of boxes. The polyurethane transmission mount and a can of inner frame rail coating arrived.

In an effort to keep myself enthused on the funnycar I ordered a used book off of eBay. I saved about half the cost of buying it new and it'll probably spend a lot of time in the shop so I wasn't concerned with having a pristine copy. I'm hoping it'll have some photos that will help me design the interior work that's to come.

 

[1967 'cuda]

- Finally went to the doctor to see about that sinus infection. A few years ago I could go in and be charged around $40 for the visit. It's $140 when you go in now. - Of course that doesn't include the cost of any prescriptions. Who (in their right mind) believes that Obamacare was a good thing? I'd go on and on with my rant but with my luck I'd give myself a stroke and have to go back to see the doctor again. - It'd be a vicious cycle.

With Spencer gone I turned my attention back to the funny for awhile. Although I had the motor sitting between the frame rails I had yet to figure out the place it needed to be. I know that there is no one single "correct" location. You could mount it as far forward or back that you want. - The same with the height. I tried viewing old pics of McCewen's Duster for a hint but it only gave me a ballpark idea. Obviously I don't have the chassis that was originally built for this body and there weren't any motor mounts made on this frame yet. - So I've tried to guess. For now the engine is still supported by jacks and straps.

The stock oil pan drops pretty far below the motor and I don't know if I'll invest in one of those expensive low profile ones. Keep in mind that this vehicle is not being (re)built as a competitive race car and my pockets aren't as deep as my son's. By trying to maintain sufficient ground clearance with a stock pan the engine is likely to sit higher than I'd like. I've got the feeling that I should only make temporary mounts. Things are likely to change. As is I've moved the engine forward about a foot from where I'd originally set it.

I'll probably keep carburetion rather than go injected because we've got a decent selection of carbs available and the last time I checked they weren't giving injection systems away. Vision is gonna suck but I hadn't expected it to be great.

The zoomie tube headers are very short. I've only got them tacked together so I'll have to cut the tubes off the flanges and extend them to clear the chassis/body.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I jumped back onto the cross-member. Even though we were able to put it in place and it cleared all of the important stuff, we weren't done with it and Spence wasn't satisfied with the workmanship.

Some portions of it weren't as symmetrical as they could have been when viewed side to side and we actually had more clearance than we needed in others. By adding some more fill it should strengthen the final result.

The polyurethane block is already mounted to the tailshaft and I still had to put the holes in the cross-member that would bolt to it. I debated making a bulge in the cross-member for awhile and then decided to try notching it instead. I've added pipe for our fasteners to pass through. If it all fits well I'll plate the top of it yet.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I should have opted for a bullet to the head instead of going to the doc. Teresa brought the horde home with her when she returned from babysitting. All night long I suffered in agony while the monsters rummaged through the house looking for things to destroy. I holed up in one of the bathrooms trying to escape the carnage. Sleeping in the tub might have been a good option but the noise became unbearable around 2 a.m. With a throbbing headache I headed out to the crew cab to get some relief.

I was woke up early in the morning by the sound of Teresa's kids arriving. Unbeknownst to me they had planned to have a garage sale today at our house. They brought with them the rest of the pack that weren't here to torment me yesterday. SOMEBODY, PLEASE SHOOT ME!!!

With the driveway full of my project cars they set up across the front lawn. Unable to get any rest I chose to hide in the garage where I could avoid the majority of the chaos. Teresa's kids & grandkids don't talk, - they yell. They yell EVERYTHING! Every other word out of her son's mouth is preceded by F@%K, F@%KING, or F@%KED. The riots in Ferguson seemed peaceful compared to the scene outside. I'm sure the constant swearing could be heard for a two block radius from our house.

I'm not usually politically correct. I don't consider myself to be high society. But I don't want to be a blight on the community. Sure, I've got cars in the driveway that I work on and my lawn isn't perfectly manicured but I don't feel I'd scare most people away. - 7 hours since the mayhem started and I'm surprised I haven't seen FOR SALE signs going up on every neighbor's property by now.

I guess I'm not too old to cry...

 

[1967 'cuda]

While Teresa's offspring desecrated our home I stayed busy. Rather than focus on what they'd write on my tombstone (after my head explodes) I found it best to search for peace away from everyone else. The garage.

I've just about completed the transmission cross-members. The upper half doesn't look that sturdy but I think it'll be plenty strong after it's welded in and the floor is tied to it.

I did make a reinforcing plate for the bottom half. I haven't shown what I've gotten done to Spence yet but I think he'll be OK with all of it now.

The fit seems pretty good. I need to drill the holes to mount it to the frame yet and then do one more test fit. If everything lines up alright then I'll cut my tack welds and do my finish welding as I re-assemble it.

If you're wondering why I have such a large gap here - it's because we needed clearance for the speedometer cable.