1967 Barracuda Formula S 383 daily driver build

[marksmopar1]

Nice car!.. I have to say...I almost died when I saw that picture of the cut out fenderwell....Damn..not another car cut up was my thought. I know it's you car do as you will but.. I have repaired so many of these cut up A bodies that received fenderwells back in the day, sorry it made me cringe. The inner aprons looks in such fantastic shape. Oh well...If I were you I would hang onto those chunks of inner fender you cut out..It will be easier to re-install those original chunks instead of patches.....someday.....Just say'in Still Nice car!! What did you do with the shorty headers? Want to sell them? PM me if you do, much appreciated

 

[GRANCUDA]

Nice car!.. I have to say...I almost died when I saw that picture of the cut out fenderwell....Damn..not another car cut up was my thought. I know it's you car do as you will but.. I have repaired so many of these cut up A bodies that received fenderwells back in the day, sorry it made me cringe. The inner aprons looks in such fantastic shape. Oh well...If I were you I would hang onto those chunks of inner fender you cut out..It will be easier to re-install those original chunks instead of patches.....someday.....Just say'in Still Nice car!! What did you do with the shorty headers? Want to sell them? PM me if you do, much appreciated

Yeah, it was about 2 weeks of contemplating the options & under chassis just make it too cramped on plugs & starter. I like the idea of being able to pull the header with the motor still in car.

 

[GRANCUDA]

I wanted to run the unique '67 383 A-body unsilenced air cleaner but didn't want to pay the $400-500 price tag guys are wanting. I ended up buying one of the non-performance silenced versions that is the same stamping with the crank case tap on the snorkel. I cut off the snorkel, put a plate over it & smoothed it off. I got a 14" drop base for the Holley carb & it worked out great. I need to get the '67 Comando 383 pie tin, I had the orange one already from a past '70 'cuda.

 

[marksmopar1]

Nice on the air cleaner..I did the very same for my 67 383 auto car!
I wasn't about to drop the cash on an air cleaner..crazy prices on those!

 

[GRANCUDA]

One of the hardest things on this thing to find has been a pair of factory buckets, they were missing when I got it & it had some Camaro highbacks. Finnally after 8 months of searching I found some seats with no tracks here on the forum. When I got them it was awesome because they were way nicer than I thought. The paint on the seat frames was still shiny, no rust at all. Metal seat backs were not collapsed at all from kids pushing on them, all trim was intact with original hardware. Then after I unboxed & got over how nice they were I was nervous about the seat tracks I had because they were mounted to the Camaro seats. They ended up being the right ones for the car & bolted right up to the new buckets.

Front & rears are off at the upholstery shop for stock covers.

 

[GRANCUDA]

I decided against the 14" rear wheels because I just couldn't find a tire tall enough to make my 4.10 gears work. I ended up with 15x8 Ansen (new style from American Racing) w/ 275/60R15 & 14x6 ET V w/155R14 up front for header clearance.

 

[GRANCUDA]

All the wiring under the hood & to the headlights had been unwrapped & that hard plastic convoluted covering installed. I pulled all that off & re-wrapped with non-stick tape. It was actually good because I routed the wiring away from the header opening & added additional temp/tach/ground/main power wiring into the loom.

 

[67redcudavert]

Nice car! It looks like it cleaned up real well. Did you do anything to the rear of the car to get the 275/60-15 tires on there? I want to put some on my 67 Convertible, just wondering.

Something you might consider doing right now since you're working on underhood wiring is to install a headlight relay kit. I put one on my car a couple years ago. Not only does it take some of the electrical load off of your wiring system, your headlights will be much brighter. A member here, crackedback, makes up custom made to length kits that are well made of quality parts.

 

[marksmopar1]

Looking good.... Just a thought, you may want to build/ buy/ install a heat shield on the master cylinder, those headers have been known to cook the master cylinders

 

[GRANCUDA]

Looking good.... Just a thought, you may want to build/ buy/ install a heat shield on the master cylinder, those headers have been known to cook the master cylinders

I am going to use a blanket style starter heat shield I have below the master cylinder.

Nice car! It looks like it cleaned up real well. Did you do anything to the rear of the car to get the 275/60-15 tires on there? I want to put some on my 67 Convertible, just wondering.

I have super stock springs & will probably make bump stop brackets to make it not hit the tires to the 1/4's.

 

[swedefish]

Great progress, looks very nice.

 

[GRANCUDA]

I had a console already in storage that will work perfect & is the right year model top plate. The console in the car had the front cut-off for some reason.

Got the pans cleaned up with a wire brush & coated them in POR15.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Got the old AutoMeter gauges that were in the car cleaned up & rewired. Bought a new elec. temp gauge & it matches pretty good. Funny thing is that none of the gauges actually match, look at the style of light socket, they are all different.

I need to find a '67 shifter knob at some point, this one works but I want the correct one.

 

[GRANCUDA]

After the car sitting since the mid 80s I was really cautious about getting power flowing thru the system. I went thru everything & got it hooked up & surprisingly most stuff works. A few bugs to work thru but that was expected.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Got a Lokar transmission kickdown & it went on pretty good. The transmission end is kind of close to the shifter linkage adjustment bolt. I am thinking about putting a set-screw in there to make sure it doesn't interfere.

Need to get a taller throttle cable bracket but for now I added a piece of another bracket to make it reach a little closer & get it hooked up to the carb.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Looking good.... Just a thought, you may want to build/ buy/ install a heat shield on the master cylinder, those headers have been known to cook the master cylinders

This is what I ended up doing, just used a starter heat shield kind of rolled up around the master cylinder & the brake lines.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Finally found locally a nice, old bumper which will go better with the car than a new one. This one is very good shape but once you get up on it you can see some imperfections. It really makes the back look better, been looking at this car for over a year with no bumper.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Spent Friday night getting the plugs gapped & intalled, checked the dist. to make sure it's firing, timed the dist. to TDC, built / routed the plug wires.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Saturday I got some final parts to fire it up down at the local speed shop.

Got it all buttoned up & ready to fire under the hood. Couple things under the dash to still address before I can fire it up.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Spent the morning getting all the fluids put in the car & the battery charged up.

Pushed the car out of the garage because I figure the open headers will be too loud & running it for 20 minutes to break in the cam may stink up the house.

Got the cam broke in but it's leaking badly out the rear of the engine. I will be pulling it out tomorrow to try & see where the oil is coming from.

Lost about 2 quarts over running it for 20 min during break in. It had ran a while when I noticed it & I kept the rpm cycling 1800-2500 to but shut it off right around 10 minutes in to check/add oil. It was a quart low & I added 2 quarts to get it thru the cam break in period.

So it ran for 10 minutes at the high break in rpm, shut it off for 3 minutes to add oil & ran for another 10 minutes at the high break in rpm, shut it off 5 for minutes to add oil, ran a couple more minutes to set timing & idle speed.

It sounded good & idled nice after setting the timing. Hopefully shutting it off mid way thru was ok, I figure it's better than running it out of oil.

 

[famous bob]

Spent the morning getting all the fluids put in the car & the battery charged up.

Pushed the car out of the garage because I figure the open headers will be too loud & running it for 20 minutes to break in the cam may stink up the house.

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Got the cam broke in but it's leaking badly out the rear of the engine. I will be pulling it out tomorrow to try & see where the oil is coming from.

Lost about 2 quarts over running it for 20 min during break in. It had ran a while when I noticed it & I kept the rpm cycling 1800-2500 to but shut it off right around 10 minutes in to check/add oil. It was a quart low & I added 2 quarts to get it thru the cam break in period.

So it ran for 10 minutes at the high break in rpm, shut it off for 3 minutes to add oil & ran for another 10 minutes at the high break in rpm, shut it off 5 for minutes to add oil, ran a couple more minutes to set timing & idle speed.

It sounded good & idled nice after setting the timing. Hopefully shutting it off mid way thru was ok, I figure it's better than running it out of oil.

daaayuum. that`s a bad leak!--enjoyed your post, "real world!" I`m just outside Collinsville, hope to meet u sometime. I don`t have many mopar friends anymore, mostly chevy buddies (racers). P M sent-----bob

 

[GRANCUDA]

Pulled the motor & ...

I have pulled it apart. I came up with several things.

1st, I put the 1/2 of the seal in the block the correct direction. I put the seal 1/2 in the retainer block the opposite direction.

2nd, the seal surface is knurled, is that going to work with a rubber seal vs rope?

3rd, the rear main seal retainer block is .014 sunk into the surface of the block.

Not the way I planned on doing the 1st oil change.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Got the motor back in a couple weeks ago after getting a new viton seal & put it in right, I hope. Really glad I went with the fenderwell headers. The ability to get them out of the way easily when pulling the motor really makes accessing to the bell housing bolts a breeze & allows easy access to the starter.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Got it going but now I was smelling some antifreeze but couldn't find it, seemed to just start on the side of the block. So I sprayed brake klein & took the paint off & I have a hairline crack that's seeping a little. So I'll be pulling it back out to get the crack fixed using the lock-n-stitch method.

Drove the car for the first time even though it's seeping out a little coolant, about a mile, around the section to the back side of our land to stick it in the shop this past week so I could put the Challenger in the garage before the hail storm.

Drives good & nothing unexpected happened but it was just a little under a mile.

 

[GRANCUDA]

Pulled the axles & third member out to see what was in there. I knew it had the 742 case third member but didn't know what was in it to make it not an open diff. Lukily it turned out to be the stock 742 clutch type & not a spool or the cone type. It looks all fresh and rebuilt. I checked it with a dial indicator & it's good. I did the initial count of the tire rev vs driveline revs & thought it was 4.10:1 & that's exactly what it turned out to be.

Put the rear end back together & it's ready to go. The thing is super clean underneath, not sure what they painted it with but it's a glossy black from below the firewall back to the rear valance.

Just waiting on the seats to come back from the upholstery shop then I can drive it down to the muffler shop & start driving it.

I will drive it a little then pull the motor & get the crack fixed then start daily driving on dry days. I need windshield & rear window seals before it can be in the rain.