Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

[1967 'cuda]

John, where have you been. Hope all is well. Enjoyed the video you made.

- Still kicking over here, - just been too pooped with house stuff to post anything. With winter coming I'll probably be spending a lot less time working on that house but the coming cold may limit the time in the garage too.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I hope everything is good with you John, I miss your posts on your cars. Hope all is well and you come back soon.

Car activity has been minimal compared to the last few years. The demise of the funnycar took a lot of steam out of me. - Coupled with battling that city council, I've just been too otherwise occupied. There were a few other projects that I was able to make progress on that I'll try to post about later.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Good to hear from you, John!!! I haven't been able to work on my car either, too busy with customers stuff. Piling up!!!!!!!!!!

I hate it when life gets in the way of projects!

 

[1967 'cuda]

Keep swingin’ John

Thanks DD. I seem to find it hard to get back into my projects after I've taken a long break from them. We're still waiting for that Hemi from Keith Black but Spencer is anxious to see the rest of his Charger advance. I guess if he keeps pushing me for progress I should have more updates this winter.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced (lost) a lot of the photos I did take of progress made over the past few months. One thing I did work on again was Spence's '70 Roadrunner. It's been running good since he got it back from that last tuning shop he'd gone to. Because he's used it as a daily driver he hasn't focused on getting any of the needed bodywork done. Instead he's just wanted to tweak the drivetrain and eliminate any issues it might have.

As I've mentioned in the past, he's been running Evans Waterless coolant and it seems to have been a good choice so far. Once you stop worrying about the extra 10' to 20' temperature rise over standard antifreeze mixes you get used to seeing the temp hover around 200' all the time. When he was driving the car this summer in slow, heavy traffic he started to become concerned because the temp was getting closer to 220'.

After I inspected the car I figured his problem was likely from lack of airflow through the radiator. He's been running a 4 core Champion with no shroud and the mechanical fan sat about 4" away from the radiator. At low speed there was no way it could pull air across the cooling fins. The temperature was always acceptable going down the highway.

I told Spence that I'd solve his problem for his birthday so I made a trip to Des Moines, loaded it up and brought it back home with me.

I started by using a wider spacer to move the fan closer to the radiator. I figured a 3/4" gap looked about right. Then I wanted to fabricate an aluminum shroud for it next but the fan that he was using was so large in diameter that it overhung the right side by almost 2" and extended to the top of the radiator tank. It would have been very difficult to make a shroud to fit properly without swapping out the fan for a smaller diameter so I decided to use the stainless steel flex fan that I originally ran on my Barracuda. I think it was a 16" fan and his had been an 18".

Everything was coming together perfectly. I was able to make a shroud that fit great. The Champion radiator has a flange on the side towards the motor that was a good attachment location and I installed some nutserts in it so that it bolted up with 4 fasteners - EZ PEAZY.

I got it done and it seemed to pull air through the radiator 10X better than ever. I even gave it a quick polish before installing.

After idling for a few minutes in the driveway it was time to take the car for a drive and see how the coolant temperature responded. That's when disaster struck.

Despite the fact I thought I had sufficient clearance, I didn't count on how much effort it took those fan blades to pull air through a 4 core radiator. They apparently flexed towards the radiator as engine speed increased. Even though the engine was only running at about 2000 rpm, it must have drawn those blades in too far and I shredded his radiator. The engine is mounted firmly and doesn't have much rock to it so I'm fairly sure it was the suction that caused the contact.

I had been eager to call Spence to let him know I'd finished his car before I screwed up. Now I had to call him to let him know otherwise.

It was discouraging but I knew I had to fix the mess I made. The new shroud I'd fabricated survived unscathed but the fan and radiator were toast. After researching options online I decided to buy a new radiator combined with a pair of electric fans and a matching shroud. It wasn't much more than the cost of going back to another mechanical fan and Spencer had once mentioned that he thought he'd like to gain whatever horsepower back that the mechanical fan drew.

I think he'll be happy with this setup. For now I simply drew the power directly off the battery and through a toggle inside the car. No relays or fuses yet. If everything works well I'll most likely go back and re-do the way I wired it.

One other issue the Roadrunner had was that the steering wheel wasn't clocked correctly. Spencer had replaced the original (leaking) steering box with a new one from Borgeson. When he did he also decided to upgrade the stock steering coupler to a universal joint. He hadn't taken the time to align the steering wheel when he swapped the parts out so I went ahead and re-did it for him.

I'll be hauling his car back to him later this week. I'm hoping the wind settles down before then.

 

[Cuda68Scott]

Glad to see you back John. I haven’t got much work done on my car either, have been too fraught with worry on your whereabouts.

 

[famous bob]

Glad to see you back John. I haven’t got much work done on my car either, have been too fraught with worry on your whereabouts.

I was wondering if u bit the dust or something, glad to hear from you. > There sure is a lot of reasons why not to use a flex fan. Surprised me u did ! That roadrunner reminds me of one a buddy bought new, his had the air grabber set up on it, black hood treatment and side stripe from the factory. 440/4 speed/ 4:10 dana . Are you getting cold weather up there yet? It`s around hi 30`s and forty`s at night and 60-68 in the daytime , here, "already hating it !"

 

[bkd]

Awesome reading this car stuff again and anything from you for that matter! Carry on my wayward son

 

[360DartGT66]

I'm very relieved to hear from you, John! I thought of you just yesterday, in fact.

You actually did Spencer a big favor ruining his radiator. That electrical fan setup is worth 30-50 horsepower! They did a series of tests on Engine Masters a few months back.

It's a real pity that very nice looking shroud will go to waste, though.

 

[1967 'cuda]

With Halloween looming once again we set up all the decorations that we'd used last year and we added more. One of our spookiest is an animated witch that is holding a child by her legs over a cauldron as she kicks and screams.



Last year Teresa wore a minion costume. It looked great but was difficult to see out of as she handed out treats. I dressed as Gru. This year we decided to use those costumes as props instead. We positioned them beside the garage door that we project Minion mini-movies on so that they appear to be watching the movies.

We also used a couple of plastic skeletons that I propped up using steel rods stuck into the ground. After I added a few cheap pieces of plastic armor they remind me of a scene from the old 60's movie Jason and the Argonauts.

I got a few plastic barrels off of Craigslist that I decorated to hold the treats we'll be handing out. The larger one will be for cans of pop and the smaller one for bags of chips.

I took an old werewolf costume and stretched it over the box that some tti headers had been shipped in. - No sense leaving it in the closet when I could junk up the yard further!

We've got an entire coven of witches on display now. The cauldrons have a fog machine hooked to them that adds to the spooky atmosphere.

Our inflatable jack o lantern and spider light up at night.

The walk in garage door was a good spot for a door covering.

The last few years we've used plastic pumpkins that we project talking faces on. The effect has always pleased the trick or treaters. We added a lit jack o lantern on either side.

It wouldn't be complete without our zombie graveyard.

Last year we used 5 computers and 5 projectors to make the yard come to life with motion. This year we've stepped it up to 8. Three of them are located inside the house and project onto the windows and door. The outside ones make the pumpkins animate, another witch appear to cast spells, the movie on the garage door, and 2 others are projected onto 2 separate screens that I constructed out of electrical conduit and sheer curtains. Those display ghosts and skeletons.

Although these following videos are not of our house decorations, they are examples of some of the displays we have going on.





Halloween 2017 - Trick 'r Treat Digital Decoration #Halloween #Halloween 2017 #AtmosFX
AtmosFEARfx Shades of Evil DVD
Halloween 2014

 

[1967 'cuda]

Glad to see you back John. I haven’t got much work done on my car either, have been too fraught with worry on your whereabouts.

Dang it! I haven't had a chance to catch up on all the build threads I follow yet but it seems as though there hasn't been a whole lot of progress on most of them. I guess we're all a bunch of slackers.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I was wondering if u bit the dust or something, glad to hear from you. > There sure is a lot of reasons why not to use a flex fan. Surprised me u did ! That roadrunner reminds me of one a buddy bought new, his had the air grabber set up on it, black hood treatment and side stripe from the factory. 440/4 speed/ 4:10 dana . Are you getting cold weather up there yet? It`s around hi 30`s and forty`s at night and 60-68 in the daytime , here, "already hating it !"

Actually I think I was biting quite a bit of dust working on that house. (I hate drywall sanding) I'd still like to see an air grabber on Spence's Roadrunner but unless I find a bargain on one it'll probably wait until his Charger is done.

The weather here's been all over the place. Some nice days but quite a few with the highs in the lower 50s. - A lot of wind too.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Awesome reading this car stuff again and anything from you for that matter! Carry on my wayward son

Thanks bkd. I WISH there was a lot more car related progress to report. I guess everyone will just have to put up with a bunch of my meanderings about some of the other junk I've been toying with for awhile.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I'm very relieved to hear from you, John! I thought of you just yesterday, in fact.

You actually did Spencer a big favor ruining his radiator. That electrical fan setup is worth 30-50 horsepower! They did a series of tests on Engine Masters a few months back.

It's a real pity that very nice looking shroud will go to waste, though.

I haven't seen that Engine Masters video yet. Spencer told me he hoped for an extra 20 HP. Years ago I'd heard a lot of guys estimate about a 10 HP difference.

I need to find someone running one of those Champion radiators that could use the shroud I guess. I'd hate to have to toss it into the scrap pile.

 

[1967 'cuda]

After getting the Wilwood clutch & brake pedal location figured out on the Charger the next thing we'd tackled was the throttle pedal. Spence wanted it to match the stuff from Wilwood but we couldn't find anything available. He did decide to buy an aftermarket assembly made by Offenhauser.

It provided us with a pivot assembly that would exit the firewall at a higher location which was better suited for the height of the blower carbs. The workmanship was poor but we were confident that we could bush it to give it a smoother action. The pedal itself did not match the Wilwood pedals so our best bet seemed to be to make one ourselves. It's just roughed in right now. We had to extend the arm to make it feel right when sitting in the car. When we're done we'll clean the assembly up more.

 

[famous bob]

I'm very relieved to hear from you, John! I thought of you just yesterday, in fact.

You actually did Spencer a big favor ruining his radiator. That electrical fan setup is worth 30-50 horsepower! They did a series of tests on Engine Masters a few months back.

It's a real pity that very nice looking shroud will go to waste, though.

30-50-? ????????

 

[360DartGT66]

30-50-? ????????

Sorry. I re-watched the video and I must have scrambled my memories completely. More like 20-30. For a high-revving engine, it would be more.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Despite another lull in posting, I have been trying to keep busy over here.

Halloween was a big success despite the fact it snowed that day. We had over 260 trick-or-treaters this year! It was so cold that the lens on my camera didn't want to open half of the time.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I am happy to report that I got Spence's Roadrunner hauled back to Iowa without any problems along the way. While I was there we dropped the gas tank so that we could re-calibrate the fuel sending unit. (It installs from the top with the modified fuel injection pump) I'm also relieved to hear that all of the cooling issues are gone now. Spencer drove it without the fans on until the temperature rose above 110'. Then he turned them on and it quickly dropped back down. - Actually, it dropped further than what I'd like to see. He said it was down to 160'. I guess he needs a hotter thermostat now.

 

[Abodybomber]

Good to hear from you, John .Stay on, the even keel.

 

[1967 'cuda]

More progress has been made on the Charger but I'll wait to post about that until after I have a chance to get some pictures taken.

Meanwhile, I do have updated pictures of the basement racetrack. Before I took Spencer's Roadrunner back to him I'd seen that someone from Iowa had posted a bunch of Carrera slot car track on Craigslist. Although it was a few more hours more out of my way, - it was a lot closer than it would have been if I wasn't already in the Des Moines area. I cringed at the thought of putting more $$ in the downstairs setup but they were selling it at pennies on the dollar. - AND IT WAS DIGITAL!!

I had dreamt of converting my track to digital but I thought the cost was way too prohibitive. This was almost everything I was going to need plus so much extra track that I could actually make a second large digital track if I wanted to.

Right now I've got it back up and running. It's a lot like building a car in that there always seems to be a few more tweaks you'd like to make. At present I've combined two layouts together. I have an oval track in the middle with a road course around it.

The oval course is an analog setup that I can only run two cars at a time on. I painted it brown to resemble a dirt track.

The road course is much longer. I love the digital setup. The ability to run eight cars concurrently is awesome. I used two lane change tracks that allow cars to swap lanes if you choose to by holding in a button on the controllers when you approach those track sections. Computer controlled 'ghost cars' change lanes randomly. You can turn the car lights on & off with the controllers as well. These cars even have brake lights! It's pretty wild.

Among the stuff I'd gotten with the track was a pair of pit lanes. - Yup. - Not one, but two. Now if I choose, the track gives you the option to run the cars in a 'real fuel mode'. That means that the cars will require you to pit and refuel. With two separate pit areas it's much easier for multiple cars to pit at the same time. The fuel mode can be disabled if you don't want to use it by flipping a switch on the track's control unit.

The maximum speed and braking strength of each car can be adjusted to suit your tastes/abilities so it's possible to slow things down for younger kids that would have difficulty keeping their cars on the track.

I haven't set up a pace car yet but it's another option. It will come out of a pit lane before a race and automatically return once the race is underway. It will also come out if you press a button to trigger a caution event and return automatically when press the button again to signal the caution is over.

I'd always enjoyed slot car ever since I was a little kid but this is WAY cooler than anything I ever had back then.

Two of the controllers that came with it are wireless and they have a recharging base that attaches to the track.

It also came with one driver's display that allows you to see your fuel level as you race and will act as a tachometer too. With only one, you need to swap out which car's display you're viewing. It's sort of a pain in the behind so I'm hoping to add one for each driver.

The blimp and animated signs are back but I didn't install any of the regular street lights that I'd previously ran. Drilling all those holes and wiring them was a ton of work. Instead I opted to string several strands of L E D's in strategic areas.

I kept the cardboard grandstand that I'd made and the concessions building that I'd made out of Lexan. But - I did have to relocate them to accommodate the new layout.

I had a ton of trees before that were scattered around the old course. After the addition of so much more track I relocated them to more of a wooded area towards the back of the layout.

I'm not sure that painting the inside oval looks the best but I guess I'll live with it. Some of you might remember that this Carrera track is made to accept both 1/32 and 1/24 scale cars. One other thing I had wanted to do for some time was modify some 1/24 scale cars to run on my setup. I finally got that done too. In a couple of nights I whipped together a pair of Dodge Darts. I shot a light film of brown paint across the fronts of them to simulate dirt from the track and tried to make tire scuff marks on the sides
. They've got full interiors but I chose not to install the motors.

All of the fancy digital options are connected to the road course. This display tower shows which place each car is in as they race.

I did keep the spectator 'jumbo-tron' but it got relocated also.

The old pit area was retained inside the oval track with little change.

It's a bit of a crowded layout. There isn't much room for other additions. I used a raised 'bridge track' section so that I had enough area to route the digital pits. They are actually below the raised track. I installed L E D's beneath the raised track to light those areas up. My camera does a poor job of showing detail and doesn't accurately show the way the lighting looks on the track. The darker images are actually much lighter in reality but when I use the camera's flash it sort of drowns out the effect of all the L E Ds. All together there are over 200 lights on the track.

A few more miscellaneous pictures.

There's a 40" television/monitor hanging on the wall behind the track. I have it set up so I can run a feed from a video camera aimed at the racing OR display car themed movies from a laptop OR display data from the digital track such as drivers positions, lap times, drivers pictures, all the vehicles fuel levels, etc, etc...

 

[Abodybomber]

John: What a find... I can't even find that style or old school non H.O. scale track ,in California. Looking good ... And imagination and adversity sometimes grows a better idea. Best of luck .

 

[1967 'cuda]

John: What a find... I can't even find that style or old school non H.O. scale track ,in California. Looking good ... And imagination and adversity sometimes grows a better idea. Best of luck .

Thanks bomber. I'm sure there's got to be a lot of this stuff floating around California though. I know there are a lot of better things I should be doing with my time but I cracked a few ribs a few weeks ago and couldn't get much done in the garage so the basement got the upgrade.

 

[69_340_GTS]

That slot car track is amazing. Great work!

 

[1967 'cuda]

That slot car track is amazing. Great work!

Thanks GTS.

I gotta believe that there's still a lot of kid left in most of us guys that participate in this car hobby. I really need a better camera to bring out the detail this track has. Those pictures I've posted don't do it justice.

I was messing around with it this afternoon running against four computer controlled cars. They're easy to beat because you set their speed low enough that they won't fly off the track while cornering. Even so, the computer controlled cars are a great addition because they act as filler cars and obstacles when people are competing.

Every now and then there were crashes when one of the computer cars would change lanes while side by side with another. They sell a chip for the track lane change sections that provides accident protection. It disables the change in lane if another car is there. I don't know if I'll add that mod into the track but it's another example of how well they're engineering these digital setups.