Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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famous bob said:
have you thot about borrowing an electrical tubing bender "a big one" from some one ? I bent my 1 3/4 tubing on a bender when I worked for the city. Don`t feel bad, I`ve droped two engines. the first was the hemi I used to race. we had a borrowed hoist at the time, my partner stepped off of it , the engine weighed more than the hoist could handle . bent the alum oil pan, no pickup damage. the second was a 383 sbc , the hoist I traded for came apart, needless to say, it got welded together ! bent the crank and balancer on the sbc. was I pissed !
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Yowser Bob! - Makes me wonder how many motors guys dropped back when they were using makeshift hoists on tree branches. I can understand why you'd have been pissed about the stroker crank. I'll definitely be double checking my lift the next time.

I don't think they'd lend the few nice hydraulic lifts here in town and the rental places I know of probably don't have them. I'll just wait until next week.

Sunday I went to check out the rotisserie that I'll be borrowing. Doug had his Coronet on it. It looks like I'll need to drop the K-member and rear end in order to use the attaching brackets he made.
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While I was there I helped him scrape some of the undercoating off the floorpan. Before I left he surprised me with a gift. He picked it up at a friend's estate sale.
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A few weeks back I bought some old license plates that I wanted to use on the Barracuda. They were a little rough and needed restoring. Larry Hoeft (the bodyman that's been doing my paintwork) specializes in reconditioning license plates so I decided to have him do mine. I was to meet him at another friend's shop where he was inspecting a '70 Challenger. Although it was originally a 318 auto, they were going to be putting in a 440 4-speed. The owner had most of the bodywork roughed in and even painted the undercarriage, interior, and engine bay. He wanted Larry to finish it.
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As far as the funnycar is concerned, I haven't made much progress. Saturday was rainy again and Sunday was spent running errands. I did manage to finish polishing the tank and detailed out the front hubs. I had to figure out a different set of lug nuts for it. After removing the front drums the portion of the studs that weren't threaded stuck out too far and my old nuts bottomed out before tight. It looks like a .550 length shank will work.

I've been debating whether or not to narrow the back half of the chassis. It's a wedge shape and after the motor plate it continues to get wider by another 8" to the front of the rear tires. - Not sure I want to start chopping it up but it'd be easier to build a cage if it wasn't so wide.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
Yowser Bob! - Makes me wonder how many motors guys dropped back when they were using makeshift hoists on tree branches. I can understand why you'd have been pissed about the stroker crank. I'll definitely be double checking my lift the next time.

I don't think they'd lend the few nice hydraulic lifts here in town and the rental places I know of probably don't have them. I'll just wait until next week.

Sunday I went to check out the rotisserie that I'll be borrowing. Doug had his Coronet on it. It looks like I'll need to drop the K-member and rear end in order to use the attaching brackets he made.
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While I was there I helped him scrape some of the undercoating off the floorpan. Before I left he surprised me with a gift. He picked it up at a friend's estate sale.
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A few weeks back I bought some old license plates that I wanted to use on the Barracuda. They were a little rough and needed restoring. Larry Hoeft (the bodyman that's been doing my paintwork) specializes in reconditioning license plates so I decided to have him do mine. I was to meet him at another friend's shop where he was inspecting a '70 Challenger. Although it was originally a 318 auto, they were going to be putting in a 440 4-speed. The owner had most of the bodywork roughed in and even painted the undercarriage, interior, and engine bay. He wanted Larry to finish it.
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As far as the funnycar is concerned, I haven't made much progress. Saturday was rainy again and Sunday was spent running errands. I did manage to finish polishing the tank and detailed out the front hubs. I had to figure out a different set of lug nuts for it. After removing the front drums the portion of the studs that weren't threaded stuck out too far and my old nuts bottomed out before tight. It looks like a .550 length shank will work.

I've been debating whether or not to narrow the back half of the chassis. It's a wedge shape and after the motor plate it continues to get wider by another 8" to the front of the rear tires. - Not sure I want to start chopping it up but it'd be easier to build a cage if it wasn't so wide.
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That rotisserie ,is art.... As to all the polished work,powder coating is SWEET... Why not simply hit those parts,with a catalysed clear coat? Or at least: VHT HI TEMP rattle can?....
 
360DartGT66 said:
That rotisserie is FANTASTIC! And so is the model car!
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After spending some time scraping undercoating off that Coronet I could see how convenient it was. - Very easy for one person to rotate the car and it locks into whatever position you want with a quick flip of one of the bottom levers with your foot. I think Doug is more proud of the rotisserie than he is of his car. He's very anal about cleanliness so I'm hoping it doesn't give him a stroke if I get overspray on it. I think my garage housekeeping drives him crazy when he comes over.

The model car is pretty old. It appears to be complete.
 
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If you do get overspray on it, I guess You could always give it a proper coat of paint when you're all done.
 
Abodybomber said:
That rotisserie ,is art.... As to all the polished work,powder coating is SWEET... Why not simply hit those parts,with a catalysed clear coat? Or at least: VHT HI TEMP rattle can?....
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Unlike conventional rotisseries that have the stands on both ends of the car this one supports the vehicle closer to the center. One of the big advantages to that is that it will fit into a shop that isn't any deeper than your car. Doug spent a lot of time trying to center the car weight inside the loops when he made the attaching brackets. The great thing for me is that our Charger should be able to use the same supports that he made for the Coronet.

I've got several different rattle cans of clear here. I haven't ruled out experimenting with them on the aluminum. I've been most tempted to try one of the DUPLI-COLOR Metalcast paints. It's translucent and available in several colors. One of the advantages to trying it would be my ability to try different colors until I decide which I like best.
 
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360DartGT66 said:
If you do get overspray on it, I guess You could always give it a proper coat of paint when you're all done.
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The bottom rollers would be easy to protect from overspray and they're the only parts that are painted. They don't advise painting the hoops because the paint may tend to build up on the actual rollers as the car rotates. I imagine some wax on those hoops may prevent rust from forming over time. Rust will be a concern when I borrow it because I'll likely be using it outside.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
Unlike conventional rotisseries that have the stands on both ends of the car this one supports the vehicle closer to the center. One of the big advantages to that is that it will fit into a shop that isn't any deeper than your car. Doug spent a lot of time trying to center the car weight inside the loops when he made the attaching brackets. The great thing for me is that our Charger should be able to use the same supports that he made for the Coronet.

I've got several different rattle cans of clear here. I haven't ruled out experimenting with them on the aluminum. I've been most tempted to try one of the DUPLI-COLOR Metalcast paints. It's translucent and available in several colors. One of the advantages to trying it would be my ability to try different colors until I decide which I like best.
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The Metal Cast aerosol: My head porter/boss/ buddy tried it ,on a jet white single stage hood...It's deep ,and rich colored.. It you want to see actual pictures: Google "David Freiburger rat rod chevy 350 build.".,or HOTROD.com....
 
Thanks for the info bomber. I took a look at the red valve covers and like the effect. I don't know how durable the finish is but it's probably my cheapest option.
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I've been busy the last few days with cleaning the garage again. I need to have the driveway cleaned off before October 1st. We'll be setting up the Halloween decor and are planning on displaying movies on the garage door.

I'm still waiting for a chance to get the cage tubing bent. Meanwhile I started back to work on the Charger. I had previously made a custom transmission cross-member for the Tremec and modified the driveshaft loop that we'd gotten from U.S. Cartool. Everything seemed fine but my son thought we'd be better off combining the two pieces into one. It sheds about a pound of weight and seems to be more rigid. He wasn't a big fan of the orange paint on the loop and asked me to paint it a charcoal color instead.

The good news was that I had only tacked the driveshaft loop together after modifying it so it wasn't hard to cut it back apart. I guess I'll toss the one portion on the iron pile.
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I do think the end result is better than what I had before.
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This morning I made a trip to Wahoo, Nebraska. There's a guy there that sells old license plates and he's got thousands of them. He's got plates from every state and several countries. I decided not to have the license plates I'd previously bought restored and opted to buy different ones instead. These plates are in better condition and don't need restoration. In the long run, it was going to be my cheapest option.
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I was able to find a virtually brand-new 1969 Connecticut plate, with the correct expiration sticker on it, on eBay. That's what I have on the back of my '69 GTS now. They allow you to run old plates in Ct., with a special registration. A state trooper stopped me once and told me my plate had expired! I had to educate the guy about the law! He said "I must have missed that part when I went to the academy". He was a real young guy. And he just wanted to check out my car , I think.
 
69_340_GTS said:
I was able to find a virtually brand-new 1969 Connecticut plate, with the correct expiration sticker on it, on eBay. That's what I have on the back of my '69 GTS now. They allow you to run old plates in Ct., with a special registration. A state trooper stopped me once and told me my plate had expired! I had to educate the guy about the law! He said "I must have missed that part when I went to the academy". He was a real young guy. And he just wanted to check out my car , I think.
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Just out of curiosity, how much did you have to pay for the new plates? I paid $35 for the pair I bought today and he did have a brand new set there also. He wanted $50 for them.
 
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I finally got one of the chassis builders to stop over and scope out the funnycar. I already had a plan in mind for how I wanted the cage made and he concurred with me about the design. It won't be until next Tuesday when he'll be able to do the work. Meanwhile I'll keep plugging away on the Charger.

I've got the transmission cross-member back underneath it and the car back on four wheels again. When I get the funnycar loaded and out of the way I'll get the Charger shoehorned in the garage where I can start fitting the Vintage Air system in it. It'll be a pain in the *** because I'll also want to re-install the dash at the same time to make sure everything clears.

Part of the wiring for the Dakota Digital cluster is at my son's house in Iowa. I need him to send it to me so I can figure out the Painless wiring harness. With any luck he'll get a blower intake coming soon too. Barring any further delays the KB Hemi block should be shipped to MRL next month for machine work.
 
1967 'cuda said:
Just out of curiosity, how much did you have to pay for the new plates? I paid $35 for the pair I bought today and he did have a brand new set there also. He wanted $50 for them.
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I can't recall exactly. But it was likely around that $50 number. They were just too nice to pass up.
 
69_340_GTS said:
I can't recall exactly. But it was likely around that $50 number. They were just too nice to pass up.
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The thing I like the most is the fact I won't have to renew my plates every year. I know they restrict how much you can drive your vehicle but I tend to spend more time each year working on cars than driving them anyway.
 
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The steering on the funnycar has been locked ever since I bought it around 40 years ago. Without a drivetrain in it I've been able to drag it around nonetheless. I always figured the rack & pinion was frozen. Today I decided to yank the rack setup off and tie the spindles together with a drag link so I could steer it when I take it to the chassis builder. To my surprise the spindles were the problem. They were seized and wouldn't turn.

It took me a few hours to remove the rack and free up the spindles. I made a temporary drag link out of some electrical conduit. It may seem like a waste of time but I went ahead and polished the conduit after fabbing it.
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Meanwhile the garage cleaning continues.

 
It's a good thing I've got garage cleaning to do. As I was getting ready to put the fuel cell back on the chassis the rain hit again. It's pouring cats & dogs out there and doesn't look like it's going to let up soon. I had hoped to get the funnycar pieced back together and loaded on the trailer today but it's a swamp out there now.
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I have an original 1948 plate registered to my Willys, it costs $32 to renew it every 10 years here, but it is limited use, but the plate was really nice.
 
sireland67 said:
I have an original 1948 plate registered to my Willys, it costs $32 to renew it every 10 years here, but it is limited use, but the plate was really nice.
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I don't know all of the restrictions locally on the old plates but most people I've talked to said that nobody ever monitors their use. I believe those plates here never have to be renewed. Although I haven't gone through the process yet I was told it costs about $80 to register your car with them. I wish I'd have put a set on the Barracuda years ago. It would have saved me a lot of cash.

One thing that I was disappointed to find out was that I wouldn't be able to use my old plates from my 'Lil Red Express. I guess personalized plates don't qualify here.
 
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There was finally a break in the rain and I was able to get the fuel cell mounted and car loaded. I'm really glad I made the attachment loops on the car for the tie down straps. - Otherwise I'd have had to lie down on the wet trailer to hook it up.

I need to make a trip out to our farm to see if I can find a steering box I had out there. I'm not sure what it was originally off of but I bought it at a swap meet decades ago in hope that I could make it work.
 
Legally you can only run them from noon on Friday until noon on Monday and holidays.
I pretty much stick to the rules, I did get the inquisition from a deputy, when I made a beer run on a Thursday, but I put limited miles on it anyways, like around a 100 a year. Plus I get a state safety inspection every year, even though it is not required.
 
This is what I found out about the vintage historical plates here in Nebraska. According to their website:

Vintage plates are Historical plates that were issued by the State of Nebraska in the year corresponding to the model year of the vehicle. If using a Vintage year plate, only one plate is required and must be displayed on the rear of the vehicle. Vintage year plates must be submitted, along with application, to the Department of Motor Vehicles for inspection and approval. Vintage year plates that have been restored to their original condition may be used provided the original colors of the plate when it was first issued are used in the restoration.

The following plate types may be used as Vintage:
Passenger
Farm
Commercial
Motorcycle

(Specialty and restricted use license plates cannot be used as Vintage plates.)

A vehicle licensed with Historical/Vintage license plates may be used for test drives, parades and hobby-related activities. Vehicles registered with Historical/Vintage license plates may not be used for normal transportation to and from work, driven on a daily basis, used for hire or used for a commercial business. At special events that are sponsored by or participated in by organized clubs, vehicles licensed with Historical/Vintage license plates may transport passengers for hire only if any money received is to be used for club activities or to be donated to a charitable nonprofit organization and to haul other vehicles to and from such special events.
Applicants applying for Historical/Vintage plates must own one or more additional vehicles that are currently registered.

The restrictions sound pretty strict. I guess you could stretch the definition of 'hobby-related activities' to include getting parts and the 'test drive' definition doesn't specify how long or how often. I think I'll be test driving my car a lot. LOL.
 
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