What Paint Would YOU Do?

I agree with you clemintine, about the second gen rear looking bulbous. I think stripes have a lot to do with changing that effect. Some women clothing is designed to make larger women look skinnier by incorporating vertical stripes or the opposite to make a skinny woman look fuller.
It called the Helmholtz illusion.

How to apply this to the barracuda is beyond me. A lot of that bulbous looks comes from the frame rake too. Some people like it. I don't. Get that rear down and maybe do vertical slash marks in the rear quarter area of a body side stripe and maybe even a lighter color than the car.

It would be cool if someone could Photoshop a before and after of something like that.