1968 Barracuda Restomod
I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with my 1985 D-150 project, so I can start working on my 1968 Barracuda. When I lived in Arizona I found this car in California. Car was/is a basket case previous owner started parting it out, and I didn't know better at the time and bought it anyway. At the very least, hopefully there won't be to much rust on it. Never worked on it in AZ. Then I moved to Pennsylvania brought the Cuda with then moved to Tennessee and the car followed again. Now is finally the time to start workin on it.
I decoded the fender tag and the VIN, just for fun cause I'll be modernizing it for better handling and driveability. Some cars should be restored, but cars never stayed stock for long people modified them and made them their own. Technology has improved over the last 49 years and I don't want a "new" 1968 Barracuda that drives and handles like a 50 year old car. I want this car to handle like it's on rails. I keep telling my Dad I'll run circles around his 2009 Challenger SRT, lol.
I want to autocross the car. So I'm going to upgrading the suspension but keeping the torsion bar setup. I really want a big block, I know a big block isn't supposed to be able to go around corners, but I'm going to give it a shot. I want this thing to put down some power, Basically I want Hellcat power. The Barracuda has a weight advantage over the Hellcat, so it should still have a better power to weight ratio than the new Challenger Demon.
I thought about putting a turbo on it, but since trying to lighten the front end is one of my goals that would be counter productive. All of the turbo setups I have seen the turbo is in front of the front wheels and I don't think there is any room under the car for a remote mount setup. So I think I settled on building a 451 or 470 for it, 400 block, Trick Flow heads. 700 hp at crank.
I'll be putting my Jeep's 408 in the car to get it on the road. The big block will take some time to build and I have that engine just sitting in the Jeep, until I get around to that project.
I'll be keeping it a floor shift auto. 8.75 B-body rear. 18" wheels and good tires. Pin type 11.75" disc brakes in the front, disc out back, spool type K-member, manual 16:1 steering, manual brakes,
Car was originally gold with gold interior, its now going to be still an original 1968 color QQ-1 Electric Blue, with a black interior.
The 408 is a magnum block, Eddy heads, aluminum 1.6:1 ratio roller rockers, compression is around 9.5:1, cam duration @ 0.050" 210/220; 0.512" lift, lobe separation 112*, Hughes Airgap intake manifold for fuel injection.
So here is the VIN and Fender Tag Decoded:
Price class: High
Body Type: 2dr sport H/top
engine: 318 2-bbl
assembly plant: Hamtramck
A6- Console
B4- Bucket Seats
K7- Passenger outside manual mirror
M6- Driver outside remote operated mirror
R1- Am Radio
X2- Tinted windshield only
19- wide sill mouldings
25- drip rail mouldings
30- body belt mouldings
78- wheel lip mouldings
axle- 2.76 rear axle ratio
interior- Deluxe Trim Grade, Vinyl, Gold
other- Medium Gold Metalic upper door frame; black horizontal sport stripe
Build Date: September 15
So here is how it sites right now, disassembled some of it:
The rust I knew about was a hole in the firewall under to cowl, the floor boards under your feet on the passenger and driverside, and a spot on the rear window, the rear window gasket had been leaking and rotted out the sheet metal around it.
I had started to strip the paint off of the driverside fender, when I was in PA. Looks like it was in a fender bender at one time, found lots of bondo. Painted over it with a rattle can just so there wouldn't be exposed metal when I brought it to Tennessee on the car trailer. I'll try and pull the dent out first, if that doesn't work I'll get a new one from AMD, or I have a set of fiberglass fenders that I may put on. The fiberglass fenders only weight about 5lbs a piece.
I had noticed a little rust coming thru the primer on the rear quarter panels, so I wanted to take a look and see how bad it was. So tonight I took the DA to it, I could see the layers of paint as I went, they put bondo right over the original gold pant then painted it with the grey primer. Ended up using my cheap harbor freight soda blaster to finish it off. The Soda blaster worked better than I thought it would.
I'm thinking about getting the car dipped. That will give me a clean slate to work with and remove rust and paint everywhere. Or should I just keep soda blasting/ abrasive blasting it? Should I worry about all of the little spaces that you can't get to with blasting it and as long as its not heavily rusted it should be fine? What do you guys do around the rear wheel wells and the tight areas inside the trunk?
That's it for now.
I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel with my 1985 D-150 project, so I can start working on my 1968 Barracuda. When I lived in Arizona I found this car in California. Car was/is a basket case previous owner started parting it out, and I didn't know better at the time and bought it anyway. At the very least, hopefully there won't be to much rust on it. Never worked on it in AZ. Then I moved to Pennsylvania brought the Cuda with then moved to Tennessee and the car followed again. Now is finally the time to start workin on it.
I decoded the fender tag and the VIN, just for fun cause I'll be modernizing it for better handling and driveability. Some cars should be restored, but cars never stayed stock for long people modified them and made them their own. Technology has improved over the last 49 years and I don't want a "new" 1968 Barracuda that drives and handles like a 50 year old car. I want this car to handle like it's on rails. I keep telling my Dad I'll run circles around his 2009 Challenger SRT, lol.
I want to autocross the car. So I'm going to upgrading the suspension but keeping the torsion bar setup. I really want a big block, I know a big block isn't supposed to be able to go around corners, but I'm going to give it a shot. I want this thing to put down some power, Basically I want Hellcat power. The Barracuda has a weight advantage over the Hellcat, so it should still have a better power to weight ratio than the new Challenger Demon.
I thought about putting a turbo on it, but since trying to lighten the front end is one of my goals that would be counter productive. All of the turbo setups I have seen the turbo is in front of the front wheels and I don't think there is any room under the car for a remote mount setup. So I think I settled on building a 451 or 470 for it, 400 block, Trick Flow heads. 700 hp at crank.
I'll be putting my Jeep's 408 in the car to get it on the road. The big block will take some time to build and I have that engine just sitting in the Jeep, until I get around to that project.
I'll be keeping it a floor shift auto. 8.75 B-body rear. 18" wheels and good tires. Pin type 11.75" disc brakes in the front, disc out back, spool type K-member, manual 16:1 steering, manual brakes,
Car was originally gold with gold interior, its now going to be still an original 1968 color QQ-1 Electric Blue, with a black interior.
The 408 is a magnum block, Eddy heads, aluminum 1.6:1 ratio roller rockers, compression is around 9.5:1, cam duration @ 0.050" 210/220; 0.512" lift, lobe separation 112*, Hughes Airgap intake manifold for fuel injection.
So here is the VIN and Fender Tag Decoded:
Price class: High
Body Type: 2dr sport H/top
engine: 318 2-bbl
assembly plant: Hamtramck
A6- Console
B4- Bucket Seats
K7- Passenger outside manual mirror
M6- Driver outside remote operated mirror
R1- Am Radio
X2- Tinted windshield only
19- wide sill mouldings
25- drip rail mouldings
30- body belt mouldings
78- wheel lip mouldings
axle- 2.76 rear axle ratio
interior- Deluxe Trim Grade, Vinyl, Gold
other- Medium Gold Metalic upper door frame; black horizontal sport stripe
Build Date: September 15
So here is how it sites right now, disassembled some of it:
The rust I knew about was a hole in the firewall under to cowl, the floor boards under your feet on the passenger and driverside, and a spot on the rear window, the rear window gasket had been leaking and rotted out the sheet metal around it.
I had started to strip the paint off of the driverside fender, when I was in PA. Looks like it was in a fender bender at one time, found lots of bondo. Painted over it with a rattle can just so there wouldn't be exposed metal when I brought it to Tennessee on the car trailer. I'll try and pull the dent out first, if that doesn't work I'll get a new one from AMD, or I have a set of fiberglass fenders that I may put on. The fiberglass fenders only weight about 5lbs a piece.
I had noticed a little rust coming thru the primer on the rear quarter panels, so I wanted to take a look and see how bad it was. So tonight I took the DA to it, I could see the layers of paint as I went, they put bondo right over the original gold pant then painted it with the grey primer. Ended up using my cheap harbor freight soda blaster to finish it off. The Soda blaster worked better than I thought it would.
I'm thinking about getting the car dipped. That will give me a clean slate to work with and remove rust and paint everywhere. Or should I just keep soda blasting/ abrasive blasting it? Should I worry about all of the little spaces that you can't get to with blasting it and as long as its not heavily rusted it should be fine? What do you guys do around the rear wheel wells and the tight areas inside the trunk?
That's it for now.
