Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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733404spdCuda said:
The Purple Hornies are going to rattle your fillings loose...
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#-o LOL! I hope not, but I'm afraid you might be right. I'm planning on doing whatever it takes to ensure that the car won't become a rattle trap. If I'm lucky and this exhaust works out, I'll keep it but it's getting replaced if it's too loud, creates exhaust fume smells inside the car, or I can't stop it from bouncing against the undercarriage.
 
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Even if you change the exhaust those cherry bombs may be useful. I have 8" long ones between my X pipe and the flowmaster 40s and they really make the sound much less raspy.
 
NEW PROBLEM! Getting everything ready for my EVANS waterless antifreeze meant getting as much of the old coolant out of my system as I could. I had flushed the radiator and the new motor was shipped to me dry by MRL. That left the heater core to be flushed.

I cranked the pressure down on my compressor to 20 pounds and blew through one of the heater hoses while I caught residual coolant from the other. As I left it blow for a few minutes, I went inside the car to listen. I could hear an air leak from the heater housing. So, it looks like I need a new heater core.

If I can't get one soon, I'll plug the hoses until one arrives. - I'm off to the parts store again.
 
Just read through the whole thread! Great work and thanks for sharing. The road trip part was awesome, I'm glad you endured and came home safe!
 
The heater cores were over $60 here in town so I ordered one from Autozone for $40. It'll have to be installed after I get the car on the road.
 
Heater? You gonna drive that thing in the snow? Make a heater delete plate and 4 bolts, you're done.
 
trebor75 said:
Just read through the whole thread! Great work and thanks for sharing. The road trip part was awesome, I'm glad you endured and came home safe!
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Trips like that one sure aren't enjoyable at the time but they do remain memorable. :banghead:
 
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airwoofer said:
Heater? You gonna drive that thing in the snow? Make a heater delete plate and 4 bolts, you're done.
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Yup. - Gonna drive it in the snow. I know I've said it before. All of our cars are daily drivers. (except the drag Duster) We might not drive them when it's really nasty out, but we do drive them year round.
 
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I had considered attaching the wheelie bars to the rear end but when I slid them under the car I could see that they won't clear the factory fuel tank.

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The hood support that I had made does clear the oval air cleaner, but not by much.
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In an effort to reduce the amount of wiring that had been attached to the wiring I added a pair of remote terminals. I'm still considering fabricating a formed channel to cover the wiring.

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One of the concerns I've had for awhile is that I'm afraid of accidentally dropping the 1/4" nut (that holds the air cleaner base in place) down the carb. It sits under the lid and it might eventually vibrate loose.

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To prevent it from happening I've decided to install an aluminum screen on the base.
I bought some screen material from one of the local hardware stores for 91 cents.

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I cut a piece of it to fit and put a hole in the center for the air cleaner stud to slip through.

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After setting everything in position, I fiberglassed it onto the base.

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Abodybomber said:
Looks good and simple,the air cleaner screen. Hate spending coin.Those aluminum U.J blocks: did you drill the yoke for them? And was it an original Mopar yoke ? Inspired Mopar crazy ,needs to know....(Edit: no nuts. The old Moroso has longer studs & lock nuts,never mind)...Apologies,' 67.....
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Thanks Abodybomber,
It seems as every time I manage to save a few bucks in one area something else pops up to keep the wallet slim. I've been having a hard time finding a suitable drive shaft to have modified. The guy that is making/balancing the new one has raced stock and super stock classes for years. He wanted me to come up with a 3" diameter donor that uses the big u-joints on both ends. I ended up buying a Mark Williams billet front yoke for $200 to get this thing back on the road asap.

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1967 'cuda said:
Thanks Abodybomber,
It seems as every time I manage to save a few bucks in one area something else pops up to keep the wallet slim. I've been having a hard time finding a suitable drive shaft to have modified. The guy that is making/balancing the new one has raced stock and super stock classes for years. He wanted me to come up with a 3" diameter donor that uses the big u-joints on both ends. I ended up buying a Mark Williams billet front yoke for $200 to get this thing back on the road asap.

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This makes ABSOLUTE SENSE .I have ridden in nine second street cars,helped with ten second cars for learning(Thank you ,S.G.!!), the one time I felt mortal,was losing a drive shaft on Christmas Eve. My own fault (396 El Camino),ignorance on what I knew. I didn't hit anything/anyone,,t hank God...
 
A buddy of mine had a '64 Nova with a 283. He was running 513s, and a powerglide with a Vega converter. I saw him twist off the back of a shaft once while testing the car on the highway. After the drive shaft dropped out, - the back end of it bounced back up and caught the floorboard. It 'pole vaulted' the back of the car about 2 foot into the air and put one hell of a dent in the rear footwell. A year later he twisted off another one at the track. He runs custom shafts now in all of his race cars.
 
I'm still waiting to hear back about the drive shaft. Meanwhile I've been working on that heater core. In an effort not to mess with the control cables I tried splitting the box first to gain access to the core.
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The new core looks like a good match to the old one.

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I couldn't gain enough access to all of the screws without dropping the box. - So I unfastened the nuts holding the fan to the firewall. I was still able to leave the cables and wires connected though.

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airwoofer said:
I want a pic of that fish being driven out in the snow!
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I've never taken any pics of it in the snow yet. During winter I'm usually taking pics of whatever I'm working on in the garage. It's rare that I take pictures of anything outside during winter. You'll have to wait until next winter, - I'll snap a few.
 
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My drive shaft guy says he had to order more parts so the shaft won't be done until next week.

Well the heater core is swapped out. I can see that I should try to extend the carpet farther up the firewall.

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I decided that I needed to re-do the air cleaner lid again. The orange that I had painted it was different than the orange Mike had put on the engine. I hadn't scuffed the chrome surface before painting it the first time and I'd noticed some very small chips on it already. Another issue that I had was with the decals I made for it. I had printed them on an adhesive backed paper that tended to soak in water when it got wet. The ink I'd used had begun to fade within a week after being exposed to the sun. So I'm going to re-print some new ones on an adhesive backed vinyl and use the more expensive ink I've got. For now, I've stripped and scuffed the lid.

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Well, the lid is orange again.

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I finally started putting fluids in today. The rear end, transmission, radiator, and engine were still dry since the rebuilds. Now that the heater core has been replaced I don't have to hold off on the coolant. I started to add oil to the motor. After I'd gotten about 5 quarts in (from the 2&1/2 gallon jug) I figured I better take a look at the dipstick. ???? There aren't any marks on my dipstick. I tried calling Mike but he hasn't answered yet. I know it's a custom dipstick that Mike sent with the motor, but I'm not sure where to reference the full mark on it.

I guess I'll go ahead and put the coolant in now. I won't be able to do the tranny fluid until I get the park rod fixed and the driveshaft installed.

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airwoofer said:
Heater? You gonna drive that thing in the snow? Make a heater delete plate and 4 bolts, you're done.
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I guess I do have a short video of the car running outside during winter.

 
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I'm still running into delays but everything is getting closer to being done. My rear end guy now informed me that he needs to order me a different yoke for the rear end besides the one purchased for the transmission. I decided to change out my transmission cooling lines to braided stainless steel so I just got done ordering the parts from JEGS.

I ran out to our farm to get a replacement 727 park rod out of a spare transmission to replace the one I had bent before. It turns out that someone has apparently stolen my extra 727. I called up a buddy of mine that believes he's got some extras on hand, but he won't be able to get them for a few more days. Fortunately he's got an extra 727 dust shield that I'll pick up too.

I'm hoping on getting the headlight relays from crackedback soon. It'd be great to have all of the wiring done when the car finally makes it out of the garage.

I think I'll spend some time tonight spraying some satin black on the undercarriage. There's still quite a bit of oversprayed primer on it from when the car was painted. It's hard to show in a picture with the camera flash going but the inside of the wheel wells look closer to gray than to black.

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I decided to mount the shift light on the column. I wanted to make sure that it would stay in my line of sight.

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I got a call from my painter friend yesterday. He says he's ready to take on the Lil Red Express. Before the Barracuda was wrecked I was working on it and had it almost ready for paint.

It's been parked out at our farm for the past few years while my efforts were elsewhere. I went out to look at it today and I see that it needs to be cleaned up quite a bit. I had left it in bare metal and a fair amount of surface rust has formed.

So now I'm hoping I can get the Barracuda back on the road asap so I will have garage space here in town to move the truck into.

My dream was to get both done this year and use the Lil Red to tow the Barracuda to a few shows. I don't know if I can still pull it off.
 
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