Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

[1967 'cuda]

nice!!!!:blob:

Thanks SNKEBIT. There's no way to completely restore one of these 'Lil Red Express trucks without getting upside down on them. I suppose I'd have saved a bundle if I had the equipment to make my own wood. I guess for the cost of it I should have bought the tools to do it but my original wood was so far gone that I didn't have a decent pattern for cutting the new oak. Every time I see someone selling a really nice Red cheap it tempts me to get another.

I talked to my older son Greg this last week and he told me he's thinking about buying one now. He's never really gotten into the whole car thing so I was surprised. He drives truck for a living and said owning a 'Lil Red suited him better than a muscle car. He still remembers riding around in mine when he was little. I tried talking him into getting a Warlock instead. A black one would sure look nice parked next to the Express.

 

[SNKEBIT]

My brother had a Warlock, I wish he never got rid of it!

 

[1967 'cuda]

My brother had a Warlock, I wish he never got rid of it!

With all of the engine choices for them, availability in a bunch of colors, and models in both 2 and 4 wheel drive, I never thought of them as being that special, but I always thought they looked cool - especially in black. I know that even the striping came in various styles. I know my son would prefer a 4 wheel drive model.

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[sireland67]

Good tip on straightening wood.
My grandpa used to make curved porches for older houses.
He would soak the wood for weeks at a time to bend them into shape without notching the back side, kinda like ship building.
I think it a lost art.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Good tip on straightening wood.

My grandpa used to make curved porches for older houses.
He would soak the wood for weeks at a time to bend them into shape without notching the back side, kinda like ship building.
I think it a lost art.

I've never done much work with wood so I never knew these tricks like a lot of you guys out there. I tended to avoid it way back when I first learned that a two by four is only 1&1/2" X 3&1/2". I tried to avoid the metric system when I was in school and I sure wasn't crazy about having to cipher another measurement conversion.

Some people are experts in only one field. Some like to think of themselves as a Jack of all trades. I'm starting to think that I might be a four of all trades. - maybe a deuce when it comes to woodworking.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Anyone that read the last post and thought that I misspelled douche, no I meant deuce.

 

[Cuda68Scott]

Nice work on the PU bed John - does not look like the winter has slowed you down one iota! Got a question on your Cuda - what leaf springs are you running and how do you like them as far as ride and height?

 

[Abodybomber]

I am just totally amazed!! It's infreekinbeleevable!! I tried the trick where you use an iron to straighten the wood and it worked!!

The first step is to lay the wood down on a flat surface with the cupped side up. I used our kitchen Formica counter top.

Step two is to lay a towel over the surface of the wood and saturate it with water. I doubled up a medium weight bath towel and then poured tap water over it from a cup.

Step three is to turn the iron up to it's highest temperature and very, very slowly work your way across the board as the water turns to steam. It doesn't hurt to leave the iron sit in spots for long periods of time. I just watched to make sure I wasn't scorching the towel. Then you remove the towel and wipe up whatever moisture is on the counter.

By the time you're done with that last step the board will already be fairly flat. It does call for a fourth step though. You flip the board over and cover it with a dry towel. Then you apply heat as you did on the other side of the wood. I used a thinner towel for this backside. Without the moisture it was difficult to transfer heat through a thick towel.

The last step is to step back and grin, because it really does work!

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I still have a few cracks that need attention but otherwise the wood looks perfect.

Haven't seen the "wet wood trick", to massage wood since 8th grade wood shop. Very cool info, about the iron. Gracias.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Nice work on the PU bed John - does not look like the winter has slowed you down one iota! Got a question on your Cuda - what leaf springs are you running and how do you like them as far as ride and height?

Thanks Scott. When I bought the 'Cuda it had a pair of new Eaton springs on it that were labeled (+2). I assumed that meant that they had an extra couple of inches of arch in them. I bought a used pair of springs from a racer friend of mine. They came off of his '69 440 Barracuda. He was switching to a single leaf setup with Caltracs.

It dropped my back end down to where I wanted it to be. I've been running the shocks that came with the car. I don't know much about them other than that they're gas charged. I used to think that the ride was too stiff but after I swapped in the Dana and added the sub-frame connectors it's seemed to ride smoother. I still haven't gotten around to installing those CE drag shocks yet. With all 4 on the car including the 90/10s on the front I imagine the ride quality will suffer.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Haven't seen the "wet wood trick", to massage wood since 8th grade wood shop. Very cool info, about the iron. Gracias.

I was surprised at how many people there are that I've talked to that knew you could manipulate wood with water. The shop classes that my high school offered were exclusively wood shop. I chose not to take those classes when I was in school. The only thing that I ever saw them make were butcher block clipboards. - But I missed out on learning how to work with wood.

 

[Abodybomber]

I was surprised at how many people there are that I've talked to that knew you could manipulate wood with water. The shop classes that my high school offered were exclusively wood shop. I chose not to take those classes when I was in school. The only thing that I ever saw them make were butcher block clipboards. - But I missed out on learning how to work with wood.

Early 80's skate boarders, were building their own boards, instead of buying Santa Cruz, and other brands for the name.(In my neighborhood, anyway,1981...)

 

[1967 'cuda]

I honestly don't know what all they taught in wood shop here but I knew that each student had to make one of those clipboards by the end of the school year. I never saw anything else. Our shop class was taught by one of the football coaches and most of the jocks signed up for it. It might have been a cool course to take elsewhere but it seemed pretty lame at my school.

 

[Abodybomber]

When my son decided he wanted to try fuel injection we both researched the various systems that were on the market. FAST was relatively new to the game but we were reading fantastic reviews about their first system. We weren't sold on it because they seemed to be a new company and we didn't want to end up with a system whose manufacturer might not be around long. They were expensive. When the FAST 2.0 came out and was advertised as capable of handling up to 1200 HP it seemed that they were going to outperform all the other systems out there and provide more than enough power capability if we installed a monster motor some day.

When we saw the episode on Roadkill where Finnigan installed one on his '70 Hemi Superbee we were sold. Everything looked simple and trouble free.

What we ran into is that we'd bought a system that no one knew much about. Almost no information existed online. FAST's tech support was pleasant but it was like talking to a broken record. They always insisted that if we were experiencing problems it had to be with the way we'd hooked it up.

We read and re-read the manual. We checked and re-checked all of our wiring. We tried various ways to re-route the wires as we tried to avoid picking up electrical noise from elsewhere in the car. As time went on we found more people were reporting problems in forums online. We weren't finding solutions. It seemed as though the guys that didn't have problems loved it and there were a few guys that said they had found noise issues that they overcame.

There were a few times that we thought we'd totally debugged the system. We were producing a noticeable increase in power. But every time we'd thought we'd solved problems they'd come back to haunt us a month or two later.

Now they've got a much more complete manual to follow that we found on the JEGS website. At this point it's tempting to take the car to someone with a bigger brain. - But the few shops around that would be likely to figure it out charge big bucks. It'll probably turn out to be something simple to fix. I'm not ready to give up yet.

MRL is raving , about this system. He uses it, seems to have tuning down. Being you bought an engine from him, would it hurt , to ask him about tuning information? After all, you a customer.

 

[1967 'cuda]

MRL is raving , about this system. He uses it, seems to have tuning down. Being you bought an engine from him, would it hurt , to ask him about tuning information? After all, you a customer.

I was thinking the same thing after I read about his 422 build. I wonder if Mike has had an opportunity to actually drive a car with the FAST 2.0 system yet. The bugs in ours never showed up until we were on the road. I would assume that the dyno time would simulate some of the same loads that the system has to adapt to, - but not to the same extent. If he's only used it on the dyno then he's much less likely to have picked up electronic noise as you would in a car.

I was thrilled to see that he was using that setup. I also need to ask him if he's allowing the FAST ECU to timing control. We didn't have as many issues when all it was doing was controlling fuel delivery. My son was also eager to hear what he had to say. I'm planning on calling him in the next few days.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I've finally gotten to the stage where I'm applying varnish to the outside wood. After getting the first coat on both sides yesterday morning I've now put a second coat on the backs. For some reason this wood is absorbing the varnish like a sponge. The floor planks tended to have it pool on top. These pieces were exposed to the weather much longer than those floor boards were. I suppose it has something to do with that. Maybe the wood will become better preserved if the varnish gets deeper into it. These shots are of the backsides. I didn't sand them as smooth as I did the backs of the floor planks so there is still evidence of the weathered discoloration.

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[sireland67]

Those boards have nice color to them, the light and dark areas really show the grain.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Those boards have nice color to them, the light and dark areas really show the grain.

Thanks Sireland. That backside looks blotchy to me. I guess I'm not too concerned because it'll never be seen. The camera tends to 'wash' a lot of details so it's difficult to see all of the grain pattern in the photos.

I started applying the third coat on the backside this afternoon. It'd be great to be able to do the fronts and backs at the same time but I don't know how I'd ever be able to do it without the saw horses messing up the finish. I thought about leaning the boards against a wall but I was afraid that I'd risk getting runs in the varnish.

The wood is still sucking that varnish into it. I'm starting to see a slight sheen to the finish but these side boards are way more absorbent than the floor boards were.

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[1967 'cuda]

We had great weather here today. After finishing the third coat of varnish on the exterior surface of the wood I went outside to take the Barracuda and Roadrunner out for a drive.

The Roadrunner balked a few times within the first few blocks but settled down and behaved afterwards. I took it out of town and ran it through the gears. It ran great. I didn't try making any adjustments yet.

The Barracuda is still way too loud. I don't regret having bought those Purple Hornies because I know we'll use them on other projects that need to be test driven. - But I do want to put something quieter on for daily driving. I pulled the 'Cuda into the garage so that I can finally get to the shock swap.

With temperatures in the 50s the snow has been disappearing fast. I had some brush on the trailer that I wanted to haul to the dump so I backed the dually up to the trailer but it was too sloppy in the backyard to pull it out. The next few days are supposed to be warm so I'm hoping things will dry out some more.

 

[Cuda68Scott]

Thanks Scott. When I bought the 'Cuda it had a pair of new Eaton springs on it that were labeled (+2). I assumed that meant that they had an extra couple of inches of arch in them. I bought a used pair of springs from a racer friend of mine. They came off of his '69 440 Barracuda. He was switching to a single leaf setup with Caltracs.

It dropped my back end down to where I wanted it to be. I've been running the shocks that came with the car. I don't know much about them other than that they're gas charged. I used to think that the ride was too stiff but after I swapped in the Dana and added the sub-frame connectors it's seemed to ride smoother. I still haven't gotten around to installing those CE drag shocks yet. With all 4 on the car including the 90/10s on the front I imagine the ride quality will suffer.

Thanks on that, I am trying to decide on what leafs to get or if I should just rebuild my original set and install them. Not really sure if my originals have lost their "spring" or not. I am leaning towards getting a +1" from ESPO. I like a little rake but not as much as I did back in the 70's with my air shocks maxed out!

 

[1967 'cuda]

Thanks on that, I am trying to decide on what leafs to get or if I should just rebuild my original set and install them. Not really sure if my originals have lost their "spring" or not. I am leaning towards getting a +1" from ESPO. I like a little rake but not as much as I did back in the 70's with my air shocks maxed out!

Scott, if I was to give you advice it would be to keep your stock springs in place until you get the rest of the car done and on the road. I honestly didn't know which direction to go with mine until I had my car back together with the tires and wheels on it that I wanted to run.

Between torsion bar adjustments and the possibility that your springs may have developed a sag, it's hard to give much better advice. If you ever think you'd like to try those (2+) Eaton springs that I have, give me a buzz. I'd make you a deal that'd be hard to pass up. I've got them all cleaned up and pretty and wrapped in plastic. I think they've got too much arch though.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I talked to Spencer on the phone tonight. He's thinking about going mono leaf and Caltracs on the Charger now. On another site he'd read that the Caltracs would make his car ride 'like an empty dump truck'. Is this true? I know they're designed to limit the rear end's torsional twist by preventing the front portion of the leaf springs bowing up. - But I'd always thought that the front section of the spring mainly served as a locator for the rear end and that the rear section of the leaves controlled the ride suspension. I wouldn't have thought they'd make a car ride rough.

 

[1967 'cuda]

Well I finally stopped dragging my heels and installed the shocks. I'd bought them from dragondan64 back in October and kept putting off the swap. They are all 3-way adjustables. I set the front to 90/10 and the rear to 50/50. In case I neglected to say it before, - Thanks dragondan64.

I try to keep the car pretty clean but it doesn't take long for dirt to accumulate. It looks like I've got some paint to touch up on the suspension from gravel too.

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[1967 'cuda]

I did some online searching for a bed cover for the 'Lil Red and couldn't come up with anything. One place said they'd custom make one for me but their Velcro tarp was close to $600 and their hard cover was around $1900. Unless someone has any other advice I'll probably have one made by the lady that does our upholstery.

 

[ariffle]

I did some online searching for a bed cover for the 'Lil Red and couldn't come up with anything. One place said they'd custom make one for me but their Velcro tarp was close to $600 and their hard cover was around $1900. Unless someone has any other advice I'll probably have one made by the lady that does our upholstery.

I used some grey/black colored indoor outdoor carpet in my Dodge Ram 2500 until I finally ended up getting one made to fit my truck. I think I paid about $400.00 for mine to get made.
Of course it was 8 years ago though. Good luck with all of your projects and two thumbs up for your Li'l Red truck wood.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I used some grey/black colored indoor outdoor carpet in my Dodge Ram 2500 until I finally ended up getting one made to fit my truck. I think I paid about $400.00 for mine to get made.

Of course it was 8 years ago though. Good luck with all of your projects and two thumbs up for your Li'l Red truck wood.

Thanks ariffle. I still haven't figured out what to put on top of the wood flooring for protection. The black colored indoor/outdoor carpet doesn't sound like a bad idea. I know that stuff breathes really well so it wouldn't be as likely to trap moisture and because it's made from a non-absorbent plastic it wouldn't act like wet rags on the wood.

I called Lynn Cox (the upholsterer) and talked to her today about the custom tarp. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to make it out of one piece or if she'd have to seam two pieces together. I need to get her some better measurements yet and decide if I'd want any emblem work done on it. My first thought was to go black but I've been running other ideas through my head. A gold might tie in with the stripes and decals, but might be ugly too. Red might be another option.

I don't know if it's possible to have embroidery work done that would be out of a material that didn't absorb moisture or dirt. The truck is going to spend a lot of time out in the weather. I want the tarp to protect the truck and don't want to have to stick the tarp inside the truck to protect it. I think I'll have to make a bow or two to keep it from sagging. Hopefully I can come up with some lightweight stainless tubing.