Old Man's 66 Cuda Funnycar build

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I used 1x1 18 guage tubing for the frame work for firewall and trans tunnel . It gives you strength so u can hang steering column support bearing and brake petal assembly on it . Wanted to use as much of the stock dash as possible but had to move it out about 2 inches on the face of it , Found a guage pod on Ebay from the DashMan , that would hold 5 guages , four 2 1/16 and one 3 1/2 . made a flat panel and set face of dash 2 inches by using scrap pieces of 2x3 tubing for spacers , and capped the end's creating a smoothe dash , wanted to use OEM dash pad and had to trim bottom edge until it would fit tight . I looked at getting it redone at Just Dashes but $400.00 was the quoted price , I found a plastic cap that would go on it for $100.00 so I will probably go that way . I used one on a friends Demon with good results . To keep with the old school theme I use plain chrome Auto Meter guages , They have a 3 1/2tac that has 8000 rpm on it , this is a 6000 rpm motor . NOTE : after installing roll cage had to modify the dash again , needed to remove it to work on sorting out wiper assemblys . with cage in place could not clear the ends . Did two things , cut end caps off and made removabe ones , I shortened the bottom of the dash a inch to start with but ended up cutting about 5 inches total off the bottom of it , only had about 1 inch of clearance with the firewall moved back .. The tin work was do inhouse my me . Made cardboard patterns and cut them out of 20 guage cold roll sheets . Rolled 1/4 beads on all the panels for keep noise down .

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Before doing the tin work I welded a 1/8 piece of plate in between the trans tubing to mount the shifter on. The shifter being used is an old school set of Hurst Lightning rods . Again Ebay at work , picked up just the shifter for $250.00 later found the plactic cover for $45.00 and then the back plate came up and I got it for $30.00 .. The shifter works real good with a reverse pattern manual valve body . Just grab a lever and pull the next gear .
The black thing behind the shifter is the turn signal assembly comes complete with everything needed to work except for a flasher . Signal Stat part for a truck , dimmer switch button on top , and has 4 way flashers also . The switch panel is another Ebay buy , has starter button , ignition switch , and 5 other togle switches for 2 fans ,fuel pump , running lights and head lights . Bent up a 20 gauge box with lid to house relays and fuse boxes when the car gets wired up ..... Used short back seats for the old style look , also put pic of tac in this post missed it in last one .View attachment cuda-afx 018.jpg

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After calling a couple of roll cage builders on line about getting a main hoop bent so I could get measurements for the rest of the cage and was told that they wanted to do the whole cage at one time and not in pieces , I tried in town and got the price of around $2500.00 average for the work so I bought a JD Square tubing bender with 1 5/8 die for $700.00 and 3 pieces of 1 5/8 roll cage tubing . With a 14 point cage did not take long to run out of tubing ! NHRA spec cage goes for about $100.00 for 20 ft . This not being a racecar I looked around at 1 1/2 mild steel black pipe and found that it was a few thousands smaller in outside diameter but thicker than regular tubing . At $44.00 for 21 foot this is what I used for the door cross bars and front frame braces ... There were four of the tubes that had to be bent in more that one angle . so not wasting tubing I cut and welded it together with a inner sleeve piece of tubing for strength ... So Guy's any one that lives around the Tucson area and needs a cage bent drop me a PM . you welcome to use the bender free of charge . P.S. I ended up with 7 more pieces of NHRA approved tubing , 140 ft worth that will be a whole lot cheaper that buying new ..... More fab next week , Hood made from 3 junk ones , and lets not forget those wipers and the motor placement ! !@#$%^&*():"> 7 days worth of HELL !!! :banghead:


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Pic's of engine fixture with ratchet straps to keep it from moving back , The oil pan hangs down a little to far in the pan pic's , changed out ft. tires out from 24 1/2 tall to 26 inch tall picked up 3/4 inch , will change out pan to shorter Milodon unit and will pick up about 1 1/2 . and can adjust coilover shocks and get 1 more inch .... just worried about speed bumps , almost 30 inches from c/l of ft. wheels to the oil pan , wheels go over but still have to clear the pan ....
 
That is some really nice work :cheers: What a great project! Thanks for sharing....

Dave,
 
Thanks Dave it's been a long road getting here . My wife asked me when I was going to quit playing with cars, My reply was when you throw that first shovel of dirt in my grave .... I refuse to grow up !!!
COdartman said:
That is some really nice work :cheers: What a great project! Thanks for sharing....

Dave,
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Just trying to get an idea of what it would look like with blower in place .....

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Started on the hoods . Used 3 junk hoods to make one . cut bottom edge of the best of the three and left just the top skin . took the second one had a big dent on the ft. edge and cut it off at 15 inches , only needed 13 inches but would give me overlap material . bolted the first short one in place and layed the long one on top , drilled and pined it together , when fit was ok took pins out and layed on table , cut the short one into and repined back together , using 1 inch tubing clamped together . used over 30 clamps . welded them together and did the same to other side . As you can see in pic had a small alignment issure and worked some of it out with a small strip of metal welded to the edge . . filled in the under side of hood opening where tubing is . Filled in the opening around blower with sheetmetal and tacked into place . This thing is heavy . still have to work on bracing still a little flex in the center of blower opening .

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Hood was rubbing every time I opened hood at the edge of blower opening so I cut out the vent area and made a pie slice and pulled the edge back a little and made and welded in a filler strip on both sides . No longer rubs . Then I bent up some 3/16 rod to go around blower opening and on the cowl area , this will help with the flexing up front . Still need to fill in front edge and have cut out part of old hood bracing to weld in the bottom area . need to finish up soon ...
Last pic is my wall of shame , Petty's 43JR cuda . I found this car 28 years ago and sold it to Ron George . Ron and his brother Rich kept it all these years and had it restored to Perfection .. Great Job Guy's !!!!
 
Man Barracuda is gonna be killer when done. Looking forward to what's to come.

I'm building my 65 barracuda into a Prostock style build myself.
 
ProStocker273 said:
Man Barracuda is gonna be killer when done. Looking forward to what's to come.

I'm building my 65 barracuda into a Prostock style build myself.
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Thanks , your build looks great . I know what you are going thru with headers and rear end stuff . I have had over 8 early A bodies great little cars , I have built 2 sets of headers , 1 for my brothers tube chassis glass body Camaro and one for a set for an old retired prostock 2000 tbird with a chevy 400 in it , had 2 inches of ground clearance had to go out side of fenders with collector . Your header work look great ...
 
I had to change the shop around and move the cuda over to the side to take the rear tires off and start installing the tubs and rear sheet metal , I loaded it on the trailer and moved it out side and put it on the ground , cuda had not been out side for 8 years and this gave me a chance to see it from all angles . took a few pic's to see what it looked like . it was a nice day out 85 degree's !

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Will adjust the front coilovers to raise the ft. end about 1 inch
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2 lines are for the Milodon oil pump assembly will have to tie up and will have to get the shorter oil pan for more ground clearance .
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I can see it now , pulled over by an officer , he walks up to me and I look at him and say .WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE PROBLEM OFFICER .. TEP officers are cool guy's there will be no problems....
 
rmchrgr said:
Gonna radius the rear wheel wells?
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No I am going to leave wheelwell openings as is , I am not a fan of radiused openings , tires are tucked in , worked hard to keep it looking stock , I have a small fortune in the quarters , $650.00 in 2 patch panels , had to cut up and use only 1/3 of it to stretch ...5 inches and move wheel well opening 8 inches forward .....look at pic's of Ramcharger's 66 dart stock style opening .
 

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funnykarman said:
No I am going to leave wheelwell openings as is , I am not a fan of radiused openings , tires are tucked in , worked hard to keep it looking stock , I have a small fortune in the quarters , $650.00 in 2 patch panels , had to cut up and use only 1/3 of it to stretch ...5 inches and move wheel well opening 8 inches forward .....look at pic's of Ramcharger's 66 dart stock style opening .
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Oh well.

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The TTI headers have 2 1/8 inch tubes with 3 1/2 inch collectors . the exhaust will go into the 3 inch reducer that came with the headers , I am going to try and work in 3 inch X pipe into the 3 inch exhaust system just after it comes out of the headers . The mufflers will be placed as far back in the car as possible . With the rear moved up 8 inches there is plenty of room behind the rear tires . I have a set of 50 series flowmaster mufflers that are 5 inches thick and 23 inches long , the application is for a big block RV , and then I will use 3 inch turn downs out of the mufflers . When viewed from the rear the turn downs are coming out from behind the tire and not in the middle of the car . Hope this will keep it a little more mellow ....
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rmchrgr said:
Oh well.

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I would go to Piedmont drag strip and watch Ronnie run his AFX cuda ,watching the Man go thru the gears it was a rush . Later in life I had a 67 fastback cuda that I had the tire hanging out of the wheelwells , OK for 2 people in the car but put someone in the backseat and in a hundred miles I had 1/2 wide and 1/4 deep cut on the tire , go into a drive way and the car twists on it's suspension and you get a cut tire , I admit it looks great but in the real world a cut tire at $500.00 each plus maybe a mess up quarter panel not so great .... Again thanks for the thought ....
 
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