1966 Plymouth Barracuda - Commando 273 V8

Well..........3 months later... a few weeks ago I decided to go crazy and clear coat the whole car as it is, looks so much better. Still have to weld the new floor pan in, currently slowly getting some side projects finished off before I start attacking the interior some more. May be getting a '66 Valiant here in a couple weeks to use for parts, fenders, quarters, etc.

Currently my main issue with it is the rear brakes like to hang up when I barely tap the pedal, so I threw the whole car on jack stands, inspected all drums & wheel cylinders, looked pretty darn good. Haven't seen any leaks, had taken the drums, washed them out, dried, then gone over with brake cleaner, same for the shoes. I never popped the bleeder valves open to bleed the system or get any possible crud/old fluid out, was able to self bleed the system through the single master cylinder surprisingly. Afraid to open the bleeder valves on any cylinder cause they will most likely break off due to being too old & too small. Newer wheel cylinders they made the bleeder valve nut bigger to help this potential problem not happen, at least so easily. They're all 10" brakes, no self adjusters, so adjusted them to where the shoes barely touch the drum. Cleaned front wheel bearings & regreased. Slapped it all back together, took it for a drive, didn't help one bit...

So that's where I'm leaning at right now, sticky old wheel cylinders on the back that need to be replaced, hopefully there isn't built up gunk somewhere along the lines or in the proportioning valve. I have new wheel cylinders that I bought from crackauto (rockauto) where they sent me the wrong wheel cylinders that I needed for a 9" drum setup on another A body project. Still gotta check the hole upon which the wheel cylinder recesses in on the backing plate to make sure it gibes with the same oval shape as these new wheel cylinders (1A-BMC-00072).

Work's been a big headache + lots of projects, recently bought a 1973 Dodge Dart Custom - 318/904, power steering, power disc brakes, AC (surprisingly still charged with the old stuff) and drove it home quite a distance, all for $800. Had no title, went to DMV, gave me a packet to fill out + had to take pics, took it to them then got a clean title which was really awesome. Thinking lately if this is all really worth it, keep telling myself it's just a harsh point in time that I gotta get past and to see better days in the future. So this year is definitely gonna be an off year for me, got my original '65 Barracuda to get back on the road again, almost finished with it's 318 Magnum drivetrain, my other '65 Barracuda that's 90% restored I've decided to leave the 273 drivetrain alone for now, got my brother's '65 Valiant with a 318 magnum where I had to pull the trans out to replace a bad seal to deal with, got this '66 barracuda that's gonna sit for a while and ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........... Too much. Maybe it's work stress, too many projects stress, lack of exercise, combination of both, I dunno.

What I ought to really do is just fix my '73 Dart up & make it look good, then sell it, thought I could take all this in at once but I think it's finally catching up with me.

Anyway, that's what's going on right now, hope for better days...