1966 Barracuda - Finished?

Chuck Bushey · Jun 17, 2026

Well, I haven't been a vociferous member of this site, but have appreciated the info available here and responses to questions I've posed over the past several years, so I thought I ought to provide an update of my 20+ year restoration project. Am I finished? Are any of us ever really finished? I have a few small things to complete but essentially after 20+ years of work I consider my project complete. I have had it on the road for a few small excursions to town and a car show. I have just recently finished the interior with seat belts installed inside door panels and hardware. I am still working on repairing arm rests which hopefully will be done soon. Anyway, here are a few details and pictures of my ride.

It is a 1966 Barracuda all original matching numbers car. It had 32K original miles on it when I started on this, and Yes, it is not 132K. This car was last registered in 1987 and had sat in a field for 17 years when I purchased it. It still had the original break pads in it and most of the bolts with paint marks were still in place. Because originally I thought it was 132K miles the first thing I did was send the engine out for rebuild - didn't need it - original hash marks on cylinders were still visible, but was completely rebuilt anyway.

It has a 273 2bbl automatic on column. I switched out the shifting with a center console and floor shift. The car had an original under dash A/C unit which was installed at the dealership and has the original Chrysler Air decal in the rear window. But, because I wanted the center console, I was not able to reuse the under dash A/C Unit even though I had taken the time to restore most of it. I opted to get a factory A/C unit, rebuilt it, and installed it having to do slight modification to firewall to fit the larger heater motor. This is not complete as I need to get hoses made up for it.

I don't want to drag on about this so I will stop here for now and add a few pictures of it's current status. Maybe later I can come back in here and add a few before and after pictures of the restoration process. No two parts were left bolted together - everything was disassembled, cleaned, and repainted as needed. I've only put 192 miles on it since registered so I still have a little more break-in driving to do and flush out small issues.

Miranthis · Jun 17, 2026

Nice. Post the fender tag and the build sheet if you have them.

I can't quite tell form the pics (old eyes) but did you have the slimline factory AC with the three vents spread across the under dash (red car below) or one of the dealer installed rectangular AC units (Cool Aire or Cool Comfort in the catalog pic below from 66)? It was tight, but our 4 spd with console had one of the dealer installed ones and I am going to use the interior unit for vents and replace the rest of it including the compressor with a newer classic air unit. But if the console precludes the use of the slimline under dash unit that would be good to know.

or

Did you keep all the engine bay AC stuff as original or go to a R134a or R1234yf unit?

mopowers · Jun 17, 2026

Nice Barracuda! Every car guy I know would agree that they're never finished.

Chuck Bushey · Jun 18, 2026

As for the A/C unit, originally it was the dealer installed under dash complete box similar to the two pictures you showed. My console appears to sit higher than the one you showed in those pictures and thus why the under dash one won't fit on mine. I currently do not have the distribution vent piece for the in-dash factory air which I installed. I have been looking for that slimline vent distribution but have not been able to find one so that is not currently in place. As for the under hood A/C parts, yes I have all the original parts there. The compressor is in place as well as the condensor and my intent was to maintain the R-12 system.

I am attaching the decoded VIN tag and Fender tag pictures. I am also going to add the pictures of the build record and build card that I received from the Chrysler Historical site. The build card was a copy from micro-fishe so its not real clear. When cleaning out the car originally I did not come across an original build sheet - the carpets were mostly decayed from having been wet and I didn't find anything stuck in the seats.

Miranthis · Jun 19, 2026

Wow, late model year. I have a November 10, 65 Hamtramck 66 model year Barracuda with serial number 555048

Thank you VERY much for the info. I have been collecting them.

Miranthis · Jun 19, 2026

Chuck Bushey said:
As for the A/C unit, originally it was the dealer installed under dash complete box similar to the two pictures you showed. My console appears to sit higher than the one you showed in those pictures and thus why the under dash one won't fit on mine. I currently do not have the distribution vent piece for the in-dash factory air which I installed. I have been looking for that slimline vent distribution but have not been able to find one so that is not currently in place. As for the under hood A/C parts, yes I have all the original parts there. The compressor is in place as well as the condensor and my intent was to maintain the R-12 system.

I am attaching the decoded VIN tag and Fender tag pictures. I am also going to add the pictures of the build record and build card that I received from the Chrysler Historical site. The build card was a copy from micro-fishe so its not real clear. When cleaning out the car originally I did not come across an original build sheet - the carpets were mostly decayed from having been wet and I didn't find anything stuck in the seats.

View attachment 1716557074 View attachment 1716557073 View attachment 1716557072 View attachment 1716557071

Also, to round out your fender tag:

b4 is bucket seats
PAINT is as you say: PAI is body color PP1 (bright red), N is blank so no racing stripe, and T is the upper door color, P or bright red in this case.

If your car had had the black stripe from the factory, the PAINT would have been PP1BP

The Plant Production Sequence number (shipping order number, or SO Number) is a bit of a mystery. Maybe I am reading more into what you write than you meant, but the SO Number is likely not the production number, as in the 505th Barracuda made in your car's case. The Early Valiant & Barracuda Club fender tag decoder says this:

"SO NUMBER”, or Shipping Order Number, is the birthday of the car and shipping order number (all numbers are together) all we are really concerned about are the first 3 digits. The first 3 are the Birthday of the car, A =October, B = November, C = December, if there is a number for the first digit, than that is the month, 1 =January, 2 = February, etc..... The other 5 mean nothing as far as the car is concerned. So A11 would be October11th, and 502 would be May 2nd."

For my 66 Barracuda (BP29D62555048) the 'born on date" is B10, or November 10, 1965. the SO Number is 00116. As our cars are at nearly opposite ends of the production window at the same plant, with SO Numbers of 00116 and 00505, and there were over 38,000 barracudas produced (and many more than 505 at Hamtramck), the SO as the production number is not likely, in my opinion.

I do wish we knew what it was.

Miranthis · Jun 19, 2026

did some digging on the late production and such. Preliminary findings:

"Based on the available records, the most likely explanation is that Barracuda BP29D62679301 was not originally assigned to a retail Plymouth dealer, but instead to Chrysler's Region 16 distribution system (Pennsylvania, NJ, Del. and Maryland) under dealer code 92763, which appears to have been a zone inventory, sales bank, or other Chrysler-controlled account. The car's very ordinary equipment—a 273 2-barrel, automatic transmission, 2.93 axle, and few options—suggests it was built as a dealer stock unit rather than a customer-ordered vehicle. Its late August 12, 1966 ship date, near the end of the 1966 model year, further supports the possibility that it was held in regional inventory before being allocated to a retail dealer. The low-option configuration and reported extremely low mileage when rediscovered are consistent with a car that may have spent an extended period in inventory before its first retail sale. While no surviving documentation definitively identifies dealer code 92763, the evidence presently favors a Chrysler regional distribution account rather than a conventional retail dealership."

Do you have the certicard or any of the warranty docs, or even the plastic card in the glove box door that may say when/where it entered service. If it was a dealer sales bank car, the dealer code on the certicard would be for the SELLING dealer it was provided to and NOT that regional distribution account number, if i understand correctly.

IF the certicard has the same 92xxx dealer then it may have been a loaner, fleet car or something like that. Any way you get there, an original survivor with less that 40K actual miles is a seriously great find.

Chuck Bushey · Jun 19, 2026

Miranthis said:
Also, to round out your fender tag:

b4 is bucket seats
PAINT is as you say: PAI is body color PP1 (bright red), N is blank so no racing stripe, and T is the upper door color, P or bright red in this case.

If your car had had the black stripe from the factory, the PAINT would have been PP1BP

The Plant Production Sequence number (shipping order number, or SO Number) is a bit of a mystery. Maybe I am reading more into what you write than you meant, but the SO Number is likely not the production number, as in the 505th Barracuda made in your car's case. The Early Valiant & Barracuda Club fender tag decoder says this:

"SO NUMBER”, or Shipping Order Number, is the birthday of the car and shipping order number (all numbers are together) all we are really concerned about are the first 3 digits. The first 3 are the Birthday of the car, A =October, B = November, C = December, if there is a number for the first digit, than that is the month, 1 =January, 2 = February, etc..... The other 5 mean nothing as far as the car is concerned. So A11 would be October11th, and 502 would be May 2nd."

For my 66 Barracuda (BP29D62555048) the 'born on date" is B10, or November 10, 1965. the SO Number is 00116. As our cars are at nearly opposite ends of the production window at the same plant, with SO Numbers of 00116 and 00505, and there were over 38,000 barracudas produced (and many more than 505 at Hamtramck), the SO as the production number is not likely, in my opinion.

I do wish we knew what it was.

Thanks for this additional info, especially Region 16 being in the northeast. I was led to believe that this car was an East Texas delivered car and lived all its life down here. Still may be a true statement and was later shipped down here to fill a specific customer request I suppose. May explain why the vehicle didn't come with A/C and was put on as a dealer install under dash. I agree based on what you have provided that the SO Number may be more related to an ordered group of cars and not the sequence of the Barracuda models (n of 38k+ made). The cert card was not in the engine compartment and the glove box card didn't have anything written on it - totally blank. I guess it will remain a mystery as to what number it is, but truly late model year clearly from the numbers. What I used to decode with was something I had found on the Early Valiant and Barracuda club website back when I first started on this project.

Thanks again for the additional information. Wish I could find out what the dealer number went to (92763). Oh, and just a side note, I do live here in East Texas now for 33 years but I was born and raised in Vermont - this car was clearly not driven in the northeast area

!

Miranthis · Jun 20, 2026

If it was one of the dealer pool cars late in the model year it is certainly possible it was traded out of Region to a dealer. I am in KS and i know what 200K miles looks like on a 66 up here and that is nothing compared to the NE.... Yours is a wonderful looking survivor.

The Dealer that sold my Car in Kansas City, Kansas ran ads in the local paper that I found that said "every car has Cool Aire", so mine, without factory air, got one of those dealer installed under dash AC units and the big 2 piston compressor. It made it about 10 years and then something expensive broke and dad just took it all out. Mine is Dark Turquoise with the black interior, so AC was really only for looks anyway...I think I can probably still feel the burns on the back of my thighs from trying to drive in shorts during Kansas Summers in that car.