I'm Heartbroken. Time to face reality that my Cuda is a parts car.

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A-pillar. I'm thinking replacing the whole thing from a donor would be better than piecing it together.

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Yep, that may just be your first project to get your feet wet. Concentrate on making that solid, and dont look at the rest. Fight the war one battle at a time. Once it's in primer, then head for the next battle.

ALL A bodies from 67-76 use that same part. Your right forget splicing. Just change the entire part out. Look at my posts in 67/68/69 cuda dilemma about removing rust. Your gonna find surface rust between that part and the sheet metal underneath it. Pretty typical. You want clean it out, and treat it before covering it up with a new piece as you reassemble everything you cant get to the inside once reassembled.

I have found that a good 2K epoxy primer on clean sheetmetal is what your gonna want to use. I have been using PPG 512X310 urethane compatible epoxy primer. Of course areas where you have to weld, you will have to grind down to bare metal, spray on some 3M weld thru primer then weld up. Self tapping screws help to hold this stuff in alignment before welding it up, then remove the screws and weld over the screw holes, grind your welds smooth, primer, and rock on.

Remember when welding or grinding, that those hot sparks will embed themselves into glass, stainless steel, aluminum, vinyl and plastic and **** it up. Remove anything and everything that can get damaged from that, or at the very least cover it up with welders blankets, and aluminum tape. It's a ***** finding 50 year old trim and window glass, especially since the only trim and glass you can get new for this car is for the windshield, and possibly the vent windows.
 
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The totality of the rot is....a lot. How long do you think it will take you to get it fixed and up and driving. I restored a 1946 cj2a in 2010. I spliced 3 tubs together to get one good tub. Won’t do that much rot fixing again...
 
anyone close by in central WI with a car they're cutting up? help him out a bit?
 
The totality of the rot is....a lot. How long do you think it will take you to get it fixed and up and driving. I restored a 1946 cj2a in 2010. I spliced 3 tubs together to get one good tub. Won’t do that much rot fixing again...
Yeah, I know I'm biting off a lot here. That said, I've had the car 10 years, sitting in my garage.. what's a couple more. My time and cash situation has gotten a little better the last year.. don't really have any money to throw at it now as we're going full bore on knocking down our debt load.. but there's light at the end of the tunnel on that front.
It's what I got. Do what I can. At least I'm not just looking at it anymore. Yeah, maybe I'll find a good stripped roller notch cheap I can just throw everything into someday, and I'll do that. But this is what I have now. If nothing else, I'm learning a ton.
 
The totality of the rot is....a lot. How long do you think it will take you to get it fixed and up and driving. I restored a 1946 cj2a in 2010. I spliced 3 tubs together to get one good tub. Won’t do that much rot fixing again...
I'd fix that in a heartbeat. It's a challenge, but then again I must like pain lol.
 
anyone close by in central WI with a car they're cutting up? help him out a bit?
Thanks for this. I'm not one for going hat-in-hand to anyone. That said, I do have some skills I can barter.. computer stuff, also run a photography business on the side.. mainly youth sports stuff, but I've done more than a few senior portraits. I've done a few weddings.. but not going there again.. rather pull my toenails out with a vice grips.
 
you doing dave ramsey stuff?
I've only heard his views briefly, but kinda sounds the same. I like to tackle the high-interest stuff first, get that paid off, roll that payment into the next highest interest rate, etc.
 
you doing dave ramsey stuff?
We got a few loans payed off last month. $500 more a month this month that we can use to pay down stuff. We went shopping today, filled up 2 carts (we plan out meals two weeks in advance. Big shopping once a month, minor shopping ever other week.) and didn't have to use a credit card for part of it.. that hasn't happened in a long time. Going to KFC for a $5 lunch is a luxury. Once in a while, still will grab some nice steaks on sale, grill em up, wife makes her world-famous mashed potatoes, corn on the cob.. just not often.
 
Thanks! I had planned on bracing the crap out of it before I start tearing parts out. I was wondering if those pillars were all pretty close, thanks for answering that.

My valiant is about this cancerous. I was going to brace the hell out of it. I'm wondering if I should do so while it's on the tires or on jackstands. I don't have any particularly level concrete.
 
My valiant is about this cancerous. I was going to brace the hell out of it. I'm wondering if I should do so while it's on the tires or on jackstands. I don't have any particularly level concrete.
Welcome to the rust-bucket gang! This is a good question for @moparmat2000
 
Use jack stands and thin steel shims and shim them between the jack stand and car frame to level the car. No concrete pad is level. Once level and the door gaps look good, brace the **** out of the structure and start on it. It's a good idea to work and finish one section at a time this way your not weakening it too much.

Take the engine, trans, rear, and suspension out of it "before" jacking and leveling the body. This will get excess weight out of it that may make parts like framerails shift and bend because its weak with rust.

Ideally if you can place the front stands on the framerails behind the rad support, and at the rear shackle areas that's what you want to do. Once its level and you cut into it, do NOT move the body until you have all your structural repairs done and it's got its strength back. Since this may take some of you months to do, figure out where you want the body to camp out while you do this.
 
Let's see what Joeychgo can do on that one. That would be a perfect forum for major rot repair cars in one easy to look at location. Kinda like the super stock forum lol.
 
It probably should be in the body forum.. I didn't really intend on it getting this technical.. hence the 'general' forum.
 
Dr Victor von FrankenCuda
Fits. Back from the dead, with parts from others, lol. When I get it running, I'll have to find a pic from the old b/w move, and photoshop the cuda on the lift over the castle getting hit by lightning to revive it.
 
Doing a little more looking at the car, and this worries me. There's a noticeable crease at the bottom of the post coming down from the roof, and the bottom windshield trim is pulling up. That, coupled with the rear brace bent, worries me that the car is bent, 'diamoned' for lack of a better word. Should this worry me, or should I put down the beer, quit worrying, and get busy welding when I can?

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Quit worrying. That car was obviously apart once before. The green paint was OEM. Somebody probably grabbed an pulled on it. That spot at the windshield base is about where the leaded in seam for the cowl is. These things weren't expertly put together. When I reworked the cowl on my sons car I body worked the opening to fit the trim. It fit like **** prior to that, also you may have some rotted trim clips letting it stick up a bit.
 
Fabo member Lee Robinson parts out the sheetmetal on these old A bodies. He drills the spot welds and surgically dissassembles them. He is in So Cal. Land of rust free cars. He may not have a barracuda, but he may have darts. These are parts that are the same from ALL other A body cars that will fit your 69 barracuda. It's by no means a complete list, but covers major parts this includes more door donor cars. Dart, demon, duster, scamp, valiant, dart sport, barracuda.

BTW all A body transition pans 67-76 are the same. Ditto for inner wheel houses.

Main floor pan, rockers, and outer wheel houses on 67-69 barracuda are the same as 70-76 duster, demon, dart sport

67-69 trunk pan is the same, gas tank filler pipe hole changed in 70 to 76. The AMD trunk pan is stamped with the 70-76 hole. Will fit, just need 70-76 floor grommet

Front and rear frame rails are all the same from 67-73. After 73 the ends are different for 5mph bumper shock mounting

Trans torsion bar crossmember fits 67-72. 73-76 fits but uses a different trans mount. Earlier mount may also fit later crossmember.

Front nner fender wells are the same 67-72. I believe they changed em in 73 to accommodate a charcoal canister on the right side.

Rear framerail tie bar 67-76

67-76 A pillars ALL 2 door hardtop

Rear shock upper crossmember. 67 one year, 68-76 all the same (all interchange)

Spare tire mount bracket 68-76

Radiator upper , lower, side supports. Later models came with a 26" radiator 67-72 were made for a maximum width 22" radiator

Cowl plenum w stand pipes, and FWD door hinge support panels are all the same 67-76.

Upper cowl panel is the same 67-76 for everything except demon, duster, dart sport.

Firewall fits from 67-72 non A/C and a different one for A/C cars.

Barracuda specific sheetmetal that you can buy new.

Trunk extensions
Quarter skins (year specific)
Rear valance
Front lower valance.
Dutchman
Inner fender splash shields
 
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