Canucklehead
Well-Known Member
I lucked out and found one from the San Francisco area, it came up north in the early 90s.
Maybe the saddest M-Code Cuda you will ever come across
- Thread starter jimharvard
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Cruisingram
Well-Known Member
What is the value of a stock restored M Code these days anyway? Not barn find perfect orginal mind you?
Just needs the notchback roof to be put back on and trunk lid.
Its a very late built car
This car is all noted of in The 440 cuda M code registry
Its a very late built car
This car is all noted of in The 440 cuda M code registry
mcodecuda
Senior Member
The worst part is that the trunk rail will not have the original partial vin number on it.
I believe it has some of the trunk gutters, the fastback is splice in. The numbers might be there
Hyper_pak
Old School Chrysler Fan
I can almost guarantee that a clean Barracuda with a New Hemi, Vintage Air, modern suspension and tires will bring more at auction than this car totally restored. Resto-mod cars are the hot sellers.
i did not know the m cars had the 440 dropped into them from the start. i'm still searching for that article i read from a guy who swore Plymouth didn't build those cars on an assembly line to see why he believes that. do you happen to know which chrysler factory built the m cudas? i think chrysler had separate factories for Dodge and Plymouth back in the day so the m darts would not have been built in the Plymouth factories. do you know where the m darts were built? like so many things Chrysler did back in the 60's and early 70's, they just built cars with parts and configurations that they just "pulled out of their ***." Ford and GM executives wouldn't let the design and engineering guys pick out what they were having for lunch without having a big meeting first. some of the nutty stuff that went on "behind the scenes" at GM just for some of their muscle cars to be built at all is a fascinating read.
thank you for those kind words. i've been a mopar guy now for over 50 years and knew these cars when they were "coming off the truck" in the late 60's and 70's. i'm also a retired lawyer so i follow the financial aspects and market valuation of old mopars - although i've never engaged in the "flipping" world. i just love having and driving these old cars. looking at the car landscape now in "the year of our Lord 2021", todays cars and car manufacturing seem like they are on a different planet than the planet that produced 69 A-12 Road Runners and Superbirds and Hemi Cudas. in a lot of ways, the muscle cars of the late 60's and early 70's strike most people today as having been designed, marketed and sold by INSANE LUNATICS. THAT view is EXACTLY what makes old mopar muscle cars so appealing today - at least to me. Mopar DID build INSANE cars back then - just because they could.
I was gonna say if they were SMART, they left enough with the numbers there.......but if they were SMART, they'd never have done that in the first place.
there isn't even any debate any longer over the value of a "perfect" factory restored original muscle car and the same car turned into a "resto-mod." the resto-mods are where the big money is going now. yes, there are a "few" original cars that are still worth a lot like: the Boss 429 Mustang, the rare Shelby Mustangs, a "real numbers matching Hemi" Cuda or Superbird/Daytona Charger, Road Runner, GTX or Superbee. the COPO/Yenko/ZL1 69 Camaros are still six figure cars and you would still probably have to shell out $100k plus for a "numbers matching" 455 Ram Air Stage IV GTO. but as to every other "muscle" car you always dreamed of owning - you can fulfil your dream now for between $25-40k dollars. think i'm kidding? i just watched the Mecum "Spring" auction from Phoenix AZ and a beautiful Plumb Crazy 1970 Challenger "convertible" with a Hemi and a 4 speed sold for $79,000. the car was a clone but 5 years ago you couldn't get close to buying that car for less than $110,000. think about that price - $79k. a "decent" donor car 70 Challenger will cost you $25k. a 70 426 costs around $25k. the rest of the drive train would be $5k. resto interior would cost at least $5k. the top would be at least $5k. and the final paint will come in at at least $15k. throw in a LOT of stuff i've left out for at least another $10k and your into this nice Challenger build for around $90,000. i have NO doubt that at $79,000, the consigner lost a ton of money on that Hemi Challenger. but at the same auction, a couple of resto-mod mid-60's Corvettes went for around $120k; various hot rods and hot rod old pickups went for near $100k. this new market of buyers want cars that "look" like old cars but have modern engines, drivetrains, brakes and creature comforts. i've actually considered building my 69 M-Code cuda as a "minor" resto-mod with 4 wheel disc brakes, a six-speed with hydraulic clutch, and maybe fuel injection on the 440. i would not change anything major on this car that couldn't be put back to stock, however, i'm thinking a more modern M-Code would probably be more valuable now than one more "factory stock" M car.
Oh sure.....and would be nicer than a restored one......but not a better EXAMPLE of a car. If that makes sense.
SLOPAR72
Well-Known Member
If the car had a racing Pedigree and could be put back together as it was campaigned before trying to make a voyage back to Mother earth it will fetch more than someone trying to put it back as factory. These cars will never command the type of money commensurate of the time, effort, and money it takes to put something like this back together so it's OEM. Nope, it's a pipe dream otherwise.
It's no different than today. People modifying their Hellcats and doing their thing. 40 years from now and assuming the world doesn't explode from how the human race acts someone will be posting a thread just like this about some hacked up Dodge lol....
I like it as is myself....
JW
It's no different than today. People modifying their Hellcats and doing their thing. 40 years from now and assuming the world doesn't explode from how the human race acts someone will be posting a thread just like this about some hacked up Dodge lol....
I like it as is myself....
JW
i can tell you ALL about that zebra striped M car - i missed buying it by an hour.
this car was sitting on concrete blocks in a driveway about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, PA in a "rural" section of a small town. about 8 years ago i learned of this car and started to try and buy it. i met some "local" mopar guys down in the car's area that knew of this car and they set up a meeting with the owner and myself. the guy wanted $5000 for the car. i went to his house once and he wasn't home. i left a note with my name and phone number and about a week later, he called me - on a Friday i believe. we agreed to meet the next day, Saturday, so i went to the bank and got the $5k cash and then at the agreed time, showed up at his house that Saturday morning.
the guy was an "interesting" person. he had purchased this 69 Cuda back in the late 1970's and had driven it around town and drag raced it basically in stock condition. then around the mid 1980's, due to a romance, or a family argument - or "something" - this guy decided to move to San Francisco. but he had been working on the car and it was on blocks in his parent's driveway AND THAT'S HOW HE LEFT IT - for ALMOST TWENTY YEARS!! he came back to the Pittsburgh area in the early 2000's and the car was still sitting in the driveway. by this time, the car had "rusted in place. the uni-body structure of the car had rusted and "sagged" on the blocks, the motor and trans were all torn apart lying on the floor in rust in his old garage and the interior was just about shot from the Pennsylvania winters and summers. if you have been a Graveyard Carz fan since that show started then you know about that orange 1970 Hemi Cuda that had been wrecked and was almost folded up in a ball and that was the car Mark Worman started the show with - saying he was going to "save" that car. well, the zebra striped m car was in worse condition due to rust and neglect than Worman's orange Hemi cuda. Worman at least had "something" to work with with the orange cuda. the candy striped m cuda was more like what's left of the H.M.S. Titanic now than it still being "a car."
so i show up at the cuda guy's house with a pocket full of cash, he comes to the door and says: "i'm sorry, i just sold the car." being both shocked and pissed off, i said: "you just sold the car, i thought you were going to wait till i got here?" then the guy said that "some guy from up-state New York" showed up with a box trailer and i sold it to him for $2000." well, i've got to say, i've missed some deals on cars in the past but never quit like this one.
as it turned out, the guy from New York took that car home with apparently an idea of saving it but decided it was too far gone. AND THEN, a fellow FABO member ended up buying the car off of the New York guy. i won't disclose who the FABO guy was, i'll let him disclose that information if he wants to. i will say that i talked to our fellow FABO member a few times about buying some parts from this car after i acquired the m car i have. the present FABO owner has all the final and sad details about this car as, i believe, he still owns it.
i know most of the m-code Cudas and Darts led a hard life being drag cars from their birth. many of them were wrecked because they would go very fast in a straight line but they wouldn't go around curves very well NOR could they stop with the old four wheel "non-power" drum brakes. these cars were designed from the factory to be used in "sanctioned drag racing" and little else. yes, the cut-up drag car i've posted that was "converted" from a notchback to a fastback is a pathetic end to a wonderful car. but can you imagine putting an original m-code 440 fastback cuda on four concrete blocks in a driveway in a small rural Pennsylvania town and then just leaving it - for twenty years? loving these old mopars as i do, the story of the "candy-striped M-Code Cuda" is a sad one indeed as far as i'm concerned.
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i know the M code fastback the red fender came off of. i tried to buy that car - twice.
This car is getting restored. It was very rough but fixable. It still was together, Just missing a few parts that the guy in Pa sold to a person out west. Dave in NY (RIP Buddy) never took the car apart, he alway wanted to fix it, now its getting done.
This car is getting restored, A lot of work but getting done.
all these cars I believe are all restored now.
JDMopar
Well-Known Member
"So i show up at the cuda guy's house with a pocket full of cash, he comes to the door and says: "i'm sorry, i just sold the car." being both shocked and pissed off, i said: "you just sold the car, i thought you were going to wait till i got here?" then the guy said that "some guy from up-state New York" showed up with a box trailer and i sold it to him for $2000." well, i've got to say, i've missed some deals on cars in the past but never quit like this one."
If I were you in that situation, I would have wanted to punch him in the face and then hired myself as my lawyer! The way he did you was shitty.
If I were you in that situation, I would have wanted to punch him in the face and then hired myself as my lawyer! The way he did you was shitty.
From the first time to the second time Jim showed up, the guy sold a lot of parts off the car."So i show up at the cuda guy's house with a pocket full of cash, he comes to the door and says: "i'm sorry, i just sold the car." being both shocked and pissed off, i said: "you just sold the car, i thought you were going to wait till i got here?" then the guy said that "some guy from up-state New York" showed up with a box trailer and i sold it to him for $2000." well, i've got to say, i've missed some deals on cars in the past but never quit like this one."
If I were you in that situation, I would have wanted to punch him in the face and then hired myself as my lawyer! The way he did you was shitty.
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pishta
I know I'm right....
Imagine what a non raced garage find 2021 Hellcat Redeye will be worth in 2071...assuming gas is still legal. Maybe pennies on the dollar if electrics get mainstream and were doing 1/4 miles in the 6's with no tire spin..and no hands on the wheel
!
The Cuda that started Graveyard cars was not a Hemi It was a 71 cuda 440 six barrel 4 speed
66340SEDAN
FABO Member #3649
"So i show up at the cuda guy's house with a pocket full of cash, he comes to the door and says: "i'm sorry, i just sold the car." being both shocked and pissed off, i said: "you just sold the car, i thought you were going to wait till i got here?" then the guy said that "some guy from up-state New York" showed up with a box trailer and i sold it to him for $2000." well, i've got to say, i've missed some deals on cars in the past but never quit like this one."
If I were you in that situation, I would have wanted to punch him in the face and then hired myself as my lawyer! The way he did you was shitty.
LOL! well, yes... i was mad at this guy. and at the time i missed this car, i was still practicing law so i could have filed a suit against him myself. but the guy that had this car struck me as kind of like a "senior citizen hippie." he was a mild guy and the kind of guy you could imagine attended Woodstock. and i had looked at the car the first time i was at the guy's house and the car was VERY rough. i would have been extremely upset (and probably would have sued him) if the striped car had been in "decent" shape and he just wanted to get rid of it and he sold it out from under me. actually, one of my 68 Barracudas that i have now restored came from Portland, Oregon and the owner out there tried to back out of that sale. i did file a lawsuit against him here in Pittsburgh and because i had secured a signed sales contract from him and had paid him a deposit, i was able to tell the lawyer that he got after i served him with the papers that i would proceed with the suit and he could either travel from Portland to Pittsburgh to defend the suit or he could hire local Pittsburgh counsel - which are not cheap. so that guy's lawyer "advised" his client that it would be to his benefit to go ahead and sell me the car, which he did.
davescuda.... for some reason i never put "two and two together" to realize that the guy who an hour before had just left with the striped car that i was suppose to buy was "Dave" from here on FABO who passed away. that kind of makes me feel better even after all this time that Dave was the guy who i lost out to. i never met Dave but i did talk to him a couple of times about buying his white m car and he was always nice. it was your comment here that set off the bell in my mind that the "guy from up-state new york" was Dave. i'm glad to here the striped car is being worked on. all these cars that can be saved should be saved. hope you had a nice Christmas and best wishes to you for the New Year.
I have
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