Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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SNKEBIT said:
John, tell me there are jack stands under that car with the jacks!!!!!! Those puny aluminum jacks give out all the time. Go through them like cord wood. Pieces of ****. :protest:
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I second this comment!!!! I've had a few give out the day I bought them.
I don't have any of them any longer.
 
sireland67 said:
You are doing a sweet job on the house, are you going to rent it or sell?
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sireland67 said:
Don't make it nicer than the rest of the homes in the neighborhood or you will never get your money out of it if you sell.
You always want to be the 2nd or 3rd nicest house on the street.
Words of advice from somebody who has been there.
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Thanks Sireland. I understand the concern about getting in too far to recoup the investment. It's part of the daily discussion in our home. Housing prices around here are all over the board. Some really nice places are priced really reasonably while they're asking big money for some of the crappier ones. It's hard to know what the real market price for the house would be. My goal is to get the house done for around a $50,000 investment. If I can pull that off I'm pretty sure I won't take a loss.

Ideally I'd want to move back out to our farm place where I'd be freer to work on projects without having to worry about neighbor issues or storage problems. - But this renovation is getting me burnt out already and I'm starting to doubt I'll really want to start on another after I finish the one I'm working on now. Renting the property is out of the equation. I had gotten burned pretty badly by bad renters before. We're not certain if we'll sell that house or the one we're living in now. Currently the plan is to put them both on the market after we get done and sell the first one that we can and then live in the other.
 
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ariffle said:
I second this comment!!!! I've had a few give out the day I bought them.
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ariffle said:
I don't have any of them any longer.
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ariffle I understand the concern about those jacks. I haven't had any catastrophic failures with them yet but I have one that tends to bleed down. I've got 3 of them and despite quality concerns they're still a vast improvement over working with bumper jacks like I used to (back in the day). I've used some pretty ramshackle methods for supporting vehicles but I always try to find material that won't crush or tip.

As you may have been able to ascertain from some of the photos I've posted, I'm organizationally challenged. Half of the work I've done has been out in the driveway because the garage tends to fill with parts. Usually there's at least 2 or 3 slow moving projects going on at the same time. Amongst the clutter I'm always hunting for stuff. - Usually something I had in my hands just a few minutes before. :banghead:
 
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That buddy of mine from Seward, Nebraska stopped over last night. He's the guy that I helped find a '69 Coronet to restore. Although I didn't make it to the Mopar Nat's - he did and he brought me a few photos.

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He spent the majority of his time checking out other Coronets and Super bees for ideas.

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He liked the blue on the suicide door coupe and thinks he may go with it on his car. It's a Ford color.

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You can see HemiDenny's Duster behind the Motown Missile 'Cuda.

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CRIPES! I talked to my son on the phone the other day and he's planning on coming next week to work on his cars. That means I'll be working on them too. As much as I've been jonesing for garage time, it's gonna put a delay on the house.

We had been trying (off & on) to get that FAST fuel injection setup dialed in on his Roadrunner but never dedicated the time needed to finish it. He talked with a couple of dyno shops that have had experience with them and was told they think it's likely an issue with his ECU unit. We'd considered it a possibility but had no way to test it. After a conversation with COMP (that now owns FAST) my son had me pull the ECU and send it back to them. Apparently they've got an upgraded version (for $300 more) called a Sportsman XFI that is more customizable and is supposed to cure an problems we've had.

Before tearing the car apart I swapped my battery out of the truck into it and took it for a test drive. The car worked great except for low throttle response. It wasn't a total pooch below 2000 RPM but it didn't exactly throw you back in the seat. I was tempted to think that the system was OK but we've gone through this process several times before and had the problems creep back in the more we drove it. Rather than delay sending the ECU back, I parked the Roadrunner in the driveway and tore it down. I'm hoping the new unit will be here about the time my son shows up.

The driveway is full of Mopars again.

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In addition to the work lined up with the fuel injection, my son is debating whether or not to rob the Edelbrock heads and TTI headers that were earmarked for the Charger. He keeps saying that the Roadrunner is just a 383 and it isn't very impressive. I don't know how much more power we'd squeeze out of that 383 but I'd think we'd see a noticeable improvement.

Now that Trick Flow is supposed to be producing heads for the big blocks my son's thinking about getting a set to run on the blower motor. I gave Summit a call and was told that they do not offer them so I'm not sure what direction he'll choose.

I imagine we'll spend some time working on the new k-frame assembly while he's back. I think I've got all of the needed components here now except for the shocks.
 
Problems, problems, problems. I took the 'Cuda up town today to renew the plates and it was running hot. I'm used to it running warmer after changing to that Evans waterless coolant but this was way over 200'. It won't boil over but the gauge scared the crap out of me. When I got home I saw that my electric fan wasn't running. - Not sure what's going on yet. The fuses and wiring look good so I'll have to dig up my meter and check things out.

I called up Mike at MRL seeking advice on the Charger build. He told me that those heads from Trick Flow might not be available yet this year. When I told him what our horsepower goals were for the motor he said that neither the Edelbrocks or Trick Flows would get us there. Looks like we'll have to start looking at the Max-Wedge designed heads instead. It's starting to sound more and more like we may be doing a head swap on the Roadrunner next week now.

Teresa's not home yet. Hopefully she won't get too upset about needing to park behind the house. I guess I better think twice about using the kitchen counter as a workbench for awhile.

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I was working in the garage when Teresa came home so I didn't hear her pull up. I'm not sure if she's more upset with me because she had to park behind the house a half block away or because I didn't help her carry in the 20 bags of groceries. That pouring rainstorm didn't help matters any either.

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ariffle said:
at least you have the other house to stay in if the dog house is to tight.
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Actually, we don't have a dog. - or a dog house. We do have cats... - but if I'd have suggested I was spending the night at a cat house it probably wouldn't have evoked as much sympathy.
 
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1967 'cuda said:
I was working in the garage when Teresa came home so I didn't hear her pull up. I'm not sure if she's more upset with me because she had to park behind the house a half block away or because I didn't help her carry in the 20 bags of groceries. That pouring rainstorm didn't help matters any either.

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Looks like a "the other side " comic, lol..
 
Abodybomber said:
Made a decision ,on the 383 top end swap yet?(lol...)
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I'm just the 'pee-on' over here when it comes to decisions on the Roadrunner & Charger. My son makes the decisions and then I get to mock him for them as I'm working on the cars.

The last word I got was a GO on the head swap.

Mike at MRL has been giving advice on the component selection for the Charger's 512 build. Many of the parts we'd accumulated for it were based on a restricted budget. Now that my son has decided to open up his pocketbook even farther, some of the components are being re-purposed on the Roadrunner.

When discussing the build with Mike he asked me what the horsepower goal was. I told him my son was shooting for as close to 1000 as he could get. After a second or two delay over the phone he asked me 'Why so much?'. Although I couldn't say for certain I told him that up to now I was winning the HP battle over here with the 440 in the Duster and the 408 in the 'Cuda. Spencer's 383 Roadrunner and 6.1 Challenger seemed mild in comparison. I felt that he didn't simply want to be faster than me. He most likely wanted to be able to totally annihilate me.

I'm not too worried. - I've still got the funnycar and it will weigh only half as much.
 
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Ya know, you could mess up the engine work and make the kid disgusted and want to sell the RR really cheap. Ya know, a good buddy would do that. :D
 
Trying this twice. :protest: Last post didn't upload. I spent another 45 minutes or so reshaping the pass side. Decided to ditch the splitter idea and round everything up more. I really wish my phone took better pics. It looks really good in person. The voids and the colors kind of mask the shape and visual. I will get my gauge set and make the dr. side match to get a good visual of the whole thing.
It looks really good in person. I wish you guys could see it. It will be awesome!!! :glasses7:
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SNKEBIT said:
Trying this twice. :protest: Last post didn't upload. I spent another 45 minutes or so reshaping the pass side. Decided to ditch the splitter idea and round everything up more. I really wish my phone took better pics. It looks really good in person. The voids and the colors kind of mask the shape and visual. I will get my gauge set and make the dr. side match to get a good visual of the whole thing.
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SNKEBIT said:
It looks really good in person. I wish you guys could see it. It will be awesome!!! :glasses7:
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I'm liking it more than I thought I would. It stays pretty true to a factory look without looking bastardized.
 
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I told my son I'd hold back from fully assembling the k-member & brakes but I decided I'd need the jacks and blocks for part of the house project. The kits were easy to put together. I know we'll be disassembling and reassembling these parts a few times so I still haven't bothered putting a finish on any of the components.

It's probably a good thing I went ahead and started the assembly. My son's time here will be limited and he is hoping we'll get the heads and headers on his Roadrunner before he has to return to Des Moines. I ordered the gaskets for it yesterday. - Haven't heard back from FAST since I sent off the old ECU.

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I'd ordered some new upper control arm/camber bolts & eccentrics from the local NAPA store. When I went to pick them up I saw that they only shipped 2 instead of 4. The other pair should be here tomorrow.

The pair I received were enough for me to attach the passenger side control arm and mock up the ride height. The initial setting about made me crap my pants. She was really down in the weeds. When I chose the 3rd (highest setting) it looked nasty mean but was still too low to allow for driving without worrying about bottoming out.

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I gave HemiDenny a call and asked him whether or not I could go to a taller shock than the 3 he'd recommended. He said that would be no problem so I mocked the car up at the next height. Looks damn good there so I guess we know which shocks to order now.
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The back of the car is still sitting too high. I realize it'll come down as we add weight to it with interior, gas, ect... but I think we may have to do some suspension mods to get it where we want it.
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I've also been keeping in touch with Mike at MRL. He's recommending that we ditch the 6-71 in favor of an 8-71 now. Apparently our horsepower goals are too high for the old blower to hit.

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!

It took me forever to get the 6-71 to work with our distributor, wiper motor, engine accessories, pulleys, and hood. The intake and blower snout had to be notched for distributor clearance. We had to purchase a different wiper motor to clear the back of the supercharger. It's normally a pain in the a$$ to align the pulleys when you're running power steering, alternator, and an aftermarket compressor. - It's a bigger pain when you're dealing with a 3" blower belt setup.

I have to do a lot of measuring to figure out whether or not we'll need to switch intakes. The Weiand intake we have positions the blower over an inch further forward than some of the other ones available out there.

I've really got my doubts that the hood I modified will line up with a larger blower. I REALLY, REALLY doubt it'll line up if we switch intakes too.
:banghead::banghead::banghead:
 
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