test your knowledge 64 cuda

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Garry

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I have 10 hubcaps, 4 originals and 6 from various swap meets. They have the valiant logo in the center cone (those are hard to find that are not all crazed), I had them all apart before I realized that 6 of the center most surfaces of the outer ss ring are high polished and the other 4 are clearly the brushed look, Which is correct for 64 ? Also does any one know the trick for getting that black and argent in all those details ?
 

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I am well aware of the argent color and its location, I am referring to the finish on the ss center of the outer hubcap ring I have some polished and some with a brush finish see additional picture.
 

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I bet those were buffed....the ones that are polished, did you get those together as a set? How many do you have like that?
 
Polished was original for 64 and 65 Barracudas. I'm not sure that I've ever seen the brushed finish on the wheelcovers. May have been for a later year or may be someones custom touches. I don't know of a trick for the black. I used thin matte black paint, an art brush and times to paint when I felt steady.
 
I never knew the difference, thanks for the info! My dad has a mint 14" set on his 66 Barracuda that are close to NOS, and lucky enough to have a extra set of 4 that are NOS....all are 1966 and the center part is brushed.
 
of the 10 that I have, 6 are polished and 4 are brushed. However it is just that center part, the rest of the same wheel cover is polished. Unfortunately I had them off the car and all apart before I noticed it., so I do not know which 4 were on the car originally.
 
Excuse me but the original wheels on 64, 65, 66 Barracuda were 13 inch thank you as I have had both a 65 Formula S currently and a 66 Barracuda my first love. I upgraded both to 14 inch wheels over time so as to have better bigger tires. My current love the 65 Formula S has 14 inch rally wheels on it that look very nice. It has been upgraded with front disc brake kit and rear end 8 1/4 inch. So it is far from original but runs good and much safer on todays roads with dual brake set up also. Actually in todays market finding small 13 wheel inch tires is not so easy if I recall from when I had the 66 before upgrading the wheels and the rear on it.

65Cudalover
 
65cudalover said:
Excuse me but the original wheels on 64, 65, 66 Barracuda were 13 inch thank you as I have had both a 65 Formula S currently and a 66 Barracuda my first love. I upgraded both to 14 inch wheels over time so as to have better bigger tires. My current love the 65 Formula S has 14 inch rally wheels on it that look very nice. It has been upgraded with front disc brake kit and rear end 8 1/4 inch. So it is far from original but runs good and much safer on todays roads with dual brake set up also. Actually in todays market finding small 13 wheel inch tires is not so easy if I recall from when I had the 66 before upgrading the wheels and the rear on it.

65Cudalover
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14" wheels were available on all 65-66 A-body cars, my dads 66 Barracuda Formula S came factory with them. They made that same wheelcover in 13 and 14"......not sure if the 64 cars had 14's as an option but definitely was on 65-66 models.
 
64 only came with 13", and I believe only with 9" drums! In 65-66, 14" rims were available, and I was always under the impression that it was necessary with the disc brake option which made their debut in 65! 10" drums also were available in 65-66 as well, and were standard when ordering the 8 3/4" axle!

Ill be calling you Garry to answer your inquiry! Geof
 
Out on a limb here: probably there was no specification for a particular year but my guess would be that different manufacturers either brushed or polished. 14" was part of the rally pack or formula s and may have been a check off on a standard. It is easy to tell 13 from 14. The 14 has the valve stem on the ridge, the 13 in the valley. Also, the 14 has space between the spring clamp and the main body of the cap where the 13 is nearly flush. I will post some pictures of how I modified my 14" set to be used on a big g bolt pattern. Ha!

Oh, and the black can be accomplished to a certain degree of niceness with a paint pen.
 
64s were available with 14s too. I was with my dad who was at the dealership dealing on a car in 1964 shortly after the Barracuda was released. They had a new yellow Barracuda with 13s on it on the show room floor and a guy was dealing on it. He told the salesman if they would trade out the 13" wheels and tires for the 14" wheels and tires on the blue Barracuda he test drove on the lot he would take the one in the showroom. The dealership did it too!
 
yes my original 64 barracuda( that I have shown these hubcap pictures) are 14 in, 4 drum brakes and a 7& 1/4 posi rear. sounds like from your input, so far, they may have been polished in 64 with that brushed center coming later
 
I believe that is correct. I think 14" wheels on a 64 are a very small percentage of what was produced as almost all of the 64 cars I've seen were 13" wheels and hubcaps. I have seen 14" wheels on a much larger percentage of 65 cars. The polished centers on the outer ring would be correct for 64/65.
 
Thanks Grim that's what I like about this site.....its awesome...you have a question ..you ask.... and can get an answer with a lot of people's input.
 
Garry,
Wow you have a score there buddy. Your brushed hub caps are very, very rare, they were put on only the first 3 months of Barracuda V-8 cars. These came on the real early cars that had the really long Barracuda script on the front fenders. These fenders had 5 pin mounting holes, the B was really large and the a at the end had a really long trail on the a. Plymouth stopped the brushed look and the other things like the fenders (more like 65) and the Valiant emblem on the right rear tail panel. Unknown why Govier told me there could have been a tooling issue and made the change.

14 inch rims with the rally sport hub cap's didn't come out until 65. They where an option for 14 inch rims and caps unless you got a Formula S then they were standard. Verdict is still out if they were standard on Commando Cars.

9 inch brakes where used all the way through the 1964 model year, I actually have one of the last 64 cars made, this was done because there were so many /6 cars for Valiant and Dart. 65 10 drums were standard unless you ordered a Formula car then they were standard in the package.

Granted almost anything could have been ordered and deleted in 65-66. 64 you didn't get much except a V8 and Sure-grip rear.

Hope that helps. As for the painting, maybe a pin-striper?
 
The ones you have with the brushed centers are 14" aren't they? Anything on the very early 64s would certainly have had 13". I've got three 64 Barracudas and a 64 Valiant Signet 200 convertible. I'm very fortunate to have aquired these cars from the original buyers (who are all still alive) except for one of the Barracudas and I know the original owner on that one too. So I have the luxury of confirming how they were originally equiped. All three Barracudas came with the 13" polished wheelcovers. The one I bought in 1970 with a build date of 0327 came with 13" polished. It does have the Valiant script on the rear panel too, as a side note. The original owner of the Valiant liked the look of the Barracuda hubcaps so he ordered a set for it in 1964 and those are 13" polished as well and the ones I currently have on it.
 
65cudalover said:
Excuse me but the original wheels on 64, 65, 66 Barracuda were 13 inch thank you as I have had both a 65 Formula S currently and a 66 Barracuda my first love.......

65Cudalover
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Pardon me, sir. All 65 & > A-bodies, to include the 65 & 66 Barracudas had 14" wheels if they had disk brakes. 13" wheels will not clear the calipers. Also, A-bodies with Goodyear Blue Streak tires had 14" rims. Not saying it couldn't happen, but I haven't seen a factory Formula S car with 13" wheels or without Blue Streaks as original fitment.

As for brakes, in 1966, the V-8 cars had 10" drums F/R. The /6 cars had 9" drums unless they were equipped with HD (10") or disk brakes. I have no info on the 64 & 65 models.
 
2 Darts said:
Pardon me, sir. All 65 & > A-bodies, to include the 65 & 66 Barracudas had 14" wheels if they had disk brakes. 13" wheels will not clear the calipers. Also, A-bodies with Goodyear Blue Streak tires had 14" rims. Not saying it couldn't happen, but I haven't seen a factory Formula S car with 13" wheels or without Blue Streaks as original fitment. As for brakes, in 1966, the V-8 cars had 10" drums F/R. The /6 cars had 9" drums unless they were equipped with HD (10") or disk brakes. I have no info on the 64 & 65 models.
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True statement 13 inch rims will not fit on a disk brake car.
 
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