Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

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It was a slow go changing the engine color over to orange. I tried to reach everything I could using a very small artist brush. Even though I thought I'd done a good job of scrubbing it down and degreasing it I still had a heck of a time getting the new paint to cover. I think I must have 4 or 5 coats on some places. The block, heads, front cover, oil pan, and harmonic balancer were all black. After applying orange to the block, heads, and front cover I left the balancer black and painted the pan gold.

I couldn't find any pictures of the engine from when I first bought the Duster but here are a few before I painted it orange.

BEFORE
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AFTER STARTING TO PUT ON THE ORANGE
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I shaved off some of the inner fenderwells around the upper control arm mounts and used a flapper disc to remove a bunch of the undercoat from the frame rails and firewall.

The clear coat came for the headers. As soon as I could I started spraying the left header. I don't know what's going on. The first coat turned blotchy hazy as it dried. Even though I'd hoped the second coat would remedy the problem, it didn't seem to help. The third coat which was heavier did help some of that disappear but they're still blotchy.
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They say to cure the paint with heat so I set up the shop heater to use as a dryer. Then I test fit the driver's side to see what it would look like.
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I do like the look of the orange on the collectors underneath.
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Two full cans of orange paint on the headers was close to enough but the paint is pretty thin in some areas. I still may end up trying a gold color instead but I want to get it all put back together before I decide.

I'm probably going to try to form some aluminum panels and see how they look. I'll try to shorten up some of those fuel lines and try to decide what I want to do with the plug wires too. A nicer air cleaner would help while I'm at it.


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I was working on the first template. I like to use poster paper because it's relatively firm. The size of the sheets is too small to make the patterns I need here without using multiple pieces. I'll have to make a run out to the farm to pick up some aluminum. The sheets of aluminum I have to work with are 4'X8'. I don't know if I'll have any bead rolls put in. I haven't got a bead roller but one of my friends does.

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I had to put the headers back on to see where to cut the openings for those headers to pass through. I still haven't decided if I want to change the paint color on them.

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I spent most of the night continuing with the sheet metal templates. One benefit I can see I will have with aluminum panels in place is that it should brighten the engine compartment. I've closed up the openings for the headers to pass through so I'm considering some Dzus fasteners to make removal quicker.

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It wouldn't be a disaster if I used screws or pop rivets. I don't foresee the need to remove them very often. After looking things over I think I'll need the bead rolls to keep the panels from rattling.

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The rest of the original sheet metal including the firewall will probably get repainted a silver aluminum color.

My next step will be to finish trimming the panels for a little more header clearance. Then I'll lay out the templates on the aluminum sheets and transfer the patterns. I've already marked the position of the bends that will need to be bent. As long as I don't make any mistakes it shouldn't be too hard. None of the aluminum I have is polished and I'm not sure if I want to take the time to buff it.

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Powder coat them. Much easier to keep clean. You can pc some type of mirror silver finish on them.:cheers:
 
SNKEBIT said:
Powder coat them. Much easier to keep clean. You can pc some type of mirror silver finish on them.:cheers:
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As I was looking at this one picture of the car it occurred to me that I might want to put the same finish on the panels as what I've got on the wheels and grill. It might look even better still if I did it on the air cleaner and valve covers too. It's also supposed to resist corrosion, gas and oil.

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Loving that color combo my friend! Looks great in the car! And airwoofer has a lead on an older b-body im looking for!!!!

On a side note, you remember I told you my dad wasn't feeling well and canceled the Vegas races? WELLLLL come to find out my mom and uncle talked him into getting a flu shot!!!!!!!!!!!! It gave him the flu!!!!!!! Its like the 5th story I have heard about the flu shots actually giving people really bad flu symptoms! So anyways he is feeling better but not 100% his old racing self lol!
 
airwoofer said:
How's getting the stroker in the fish running right coming?
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I think the 408 is running great ever since I swapped out those plugs at the track. I still haven't gotten around to swapping out the converter or shocks. It's been setting for quite a while. Today I went out to start it but the battery was low and it didn't fire. With other things I was working on, - I decided to ignore it a while longer.
 
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dragondan64 said:
Loving that color combo my friend! Looks great in the car! And airwoofer has a lead on an older b-body im looking for!!!!
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dragondan64 said:

On a side note, you remember I told you my dad wasn't feeling well and canceled the Vegas races? WELLLLL come to find out my mom and uncle talked him into getting a flu shot!!!!!!!!!!!! It gave him the flu!!!!!!! Its like the 5th story I have heard about the flu shots actually giving people really bad flu symptoms! So anyways he is feeling better but not 100% his old racing self lol!
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I wasn't thrilled with the look of the grill after I'd applied the copper coat to it. It's been growing on me. I thought it might have been too much. But maybe it wasn't enough. I'm anxious to see what it will look like if I have the engine compartment panels, valve covers, and air cleaner tinted to match. I know it won't affect the exterior view of the car but I think it'll look great with the hood off.

It's too bad that most of the cars turn out to be less than advertised. Without seeing them in person it's pretty risky making a purchase. Every one of our online purchases ended up needing more work than they disclosed. I got burnt the worst on that '69 Chevelle I bought out of Texas. Instead of claiming it was mud free they should have said it was a bondo replica. Good luck. Take a camera with you when you're checking out the prospects. Often it's cool to look back and see the winners and losers.

Those flu shots are sort of a crap shoot. I've known them to make a lot of people sick. They say that if you get the flu from them that it's not supposed to be as severe as it would've been had you contracted the flu by other means. - And there are so many different varieties of flu out there that a vaccination doesn't guarantee that you're protected from all the variations. I spent a number of years working in a nursing home where the shots were free for employees. It was optional and several staff members would refuse them because they didn't want to risk getting sick from the shots.
 
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Like the tin work concept, cleans up mess you don't like. Orange headers pop, I like different.
 
Abodybomber said:
Like the tin work concept, cleans up mess you don't like. Orange headers pop, I like different.
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Thanks Abodybomber. You hit the nail on the head. I am definitely trying to hide some messes here.

If I wasn't trying to do everything on the cheap I'd gut all of the inner fender structure and extend the cage into the engine compartment. Like so many of my other projects - this one feels like it's already getting out of control. I feel like I'm digging for band-aids to make this thing look respectable. As much as I realize that it's the details that make each car stand out, the Duster is likely to remain closer to being a sow's ear than a silk purse.
 
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1967 'cuda said:

Thanks Abodybomber. You hit the nail on the head. I am definitely trying to hide some messes here.

If I wasn't trying to do everything on the cheap I'd gut all of the inner fender structure and extend the cage into the engine compartment. Like so many of my other projects - this one feels like it's already getting out of control. I feel like I'm digging for band-aids to make this thing look respectable. As much as I realize that it's the details that make each car stand out, the Duster is likely to remain closer to being a sow's ear than a silk purse.
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I appreciate the work, you are doing. Did this, with low buck lowrider mini trucks,( early 90's , clean up my driving record, from street racing..}.
 
Abodybomber said:
I appreciate the work, you are doing. Did this, with low buck lowrider mini trucks,( early 90's , clean up my driving record, from street racing..}.
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Did this? Did this? I hope you haven't given up on this stuff and are still messing with it a bit. LOL. I think when I get to the point where I can't spend time out in the garage anymore, I'll redirect my attention to model kits. I feel your pain on the driving record stuff. (I still swear that half of my tickets were undeserved when I was young)
 
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1967 'cuda said:
Did this? Did this? I hope you haven't given up on this stuff and are still messing with it a bit. LOL. I think when I get to the point where I can't spend time out in the garage anymore, I'll redirect my attention to model kits. I feel your pain on the driving record stuff. (I still swear that half of my tickets were undeserved when I was young)
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What kind of intake is that on the duster? looks like an indy dual plane.-----bob
 
One of my pet peeves is messy spark plug wiring. The Duster had it's wires routed beneath the headers when I bought it and I never liked that because the wires had a tendency to get grimy down there.

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I ran them over the valve covers but without separators they looked like spaghetti.

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I'm not a big fan of most of the spark plug wire holders on the market but I do like these cheapo ones made by Spectre. We used to get them for $15-$20 but now they sell for around $26.

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We've used them on several motors already.
Our Charger's 512.

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The 340 in my old '74 'Cuda.

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The 318 that was in my '67 Barracuda.

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The 408 that's in the Barracuda now.

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The 402 that was in my son's '68 Chevelle.

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The problem that I ran into was that the fenderwell headers kicked up too high off the heads to be able to install a set. I know that I could run a series of wire separators to tidy things up but I wanted to figure out a better way if I could.

After looking over photos of the engine it looked like I might have enough room to use those Spectre separators after all. Instead of attaching to the outside of the valve covers I thought I'd try the inside. So I temporarily robbed the set off of the 512 to see if it would work. I didn't want to buy another set until I was sure.

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I'm liking it a lot. But I'll have to order another set of spark plug wires too. The current ones are too short to route them this way.

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With the addition of the aluminum panels I'm going to re-route a lot of the wiring that used to go over the engine. I believe the original owner had chosen that path to keep them away from the headers. Now I should be able to route them beneath the aluminum.

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It should be a cleaner look and I don't want the old wires running next to the spark plug wire brackets I'll be installing.

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SNKEBIT said:
Who made the fenderwell headers? I have to ask.
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The Duster was already built when I bought it. I think that they're HOOKER headers. I'm not sure because there is not a tag on the left set that I'm used to seeing on other headers from HOOKER. It's possible that the tag popped off or was removed when the previous car they were in was wrecked. The welded sections on the left header were the result of the repair work they did after the accident. I tried doing a Google search for images to compare and these do look similar to the 5215 that they sell.
 
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I've got the aluminum panels cut for the engine compartment.

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Years ago I worked at Timpte Manufacturing. They were a company that made semi trailers and generated a lot of scrap sheet aluminum. Most of it was pre-painted white on one side and any imperfections would mean that they wouldn't use it. I had purchased several sheets of it and several sheets of polished stainless steel that they also used. Most of what I'd bought I used when I was making signs for people.

It's a harder grade aluminum and I'm not sure if it will be possible to use with a bead roller. I've never tried before. I may skip the attempt and use it as is.

I've got two small bench mount sheet metal brakes here. - An 18" and a 36". Unfortunately the panels that I need to bend are too long so I'll have to go elsewhere to form them.

I decided to polish the panels and should get that done before putting them in a brake. After bending them I'm not sure that I'll be able to access the entire surfaces. The bad thing is that my buffing wheels are too worn down to be much good and I'm almost out of buffing compound. I may have to make a trip to Harbor Freight.

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