Ignition switch and radiator repair: I brought the leaking radiator to a local radiator repair shop, replaced the ignition coil, and finally rebuilt the ignition switch. I kept postponing this job, but now all switches on the dash are rebuilt. A lot of patience was required to bend the tabs back without destroying them, but I am quite happy with the outcome.
Radiator back in service again: A local shop, Woody's Radiator Agricultural & Vintage Industrial repaired the radiator. Very happy with their work, great customer service, and fair prices. The owner also bead-blasted the brass fittings and toured me through his shop. For longevity of the radiator, he suggested to operate it with less pressure. So I gave it a try and changed the radiator cap - the cooling system works absolutely fine. Hopefully, the rest of the summer is without technical problems and I can finally end the test phase.
Rocker Panel Moldings: Original Rocker Panel Moldings in decent shape are very hard to find, and therefore quite pricy. The same goes for the mounting clips, which are even rarer. Not willing to continue searching and spending a small fortune on those parts, I decided to go with an alternative solution, which I saw in the convertible restoration thread from @RealWing. I hope you don't mind copying your idea . I ordered a set of aftermarket rocker panel moldings for a 71-74 Dart/Duster form 392-71 Mopar 1971-74 Dart/Duster Rocker Moldings. They are a bit longer than the original panels for a 69 Barracuda and needed to be shortened. Since my car still has the original paint, I could clearly see the marks, where the original moldings have been located. This helped a lot in finding the correct position and length. Using a piece of wood and a plastic hammer, I slowly shaped the new ends on the aftermarket panels. Rubber well-nuts from ACE Hardware fitted perfectly in the existing holes on the rocker panels. They also seal the rocker panels and provide the mounting surface for the new moldings. To glue the moldings in place I used Loctite polyurethane adhesive. Et voila!
Floor mats: Yesterday I closed the chapter floors and carpeting. There was a few weeks waiting period on them, but finally, they arrived - freshly made! I ordered them through DMPS-6933-FMCU00 Mopar Vinyl Custom Vintage Floor Mats 1967-1969 Barracuda - dantesparts.com - quick responses and generally good customer service. What I really like about them: - MADE IN USA - easy to clean Cheers, Wolfgang
Headlight "upgrade": I actually wanted to convert my headlights to European standards, but it appears that an H4 conversion is not street legal in the US. Vice versa, US-style sealed beam headlights are not street legal in some countries in Europe, at least not in Austria. If someone has other legal information about H4 headlamps in the US, please chime in and correct me. So, I just replaced the old sealed beam headlights and did the "Daniel Stern - upgraded headlight circuit". Mr. Stern provides quite useful information on his webpage Daniel Stern Lighting Consultancy and Supply - thank you very much for sharing. Buying a quality relay installation kit from "DanielSternLightning" would have saved me a lot of time and is not really more expensive than buying all the parts by yourself - I ordered some wrong parts, than forgot something, and had to shop again. Anyways, besides the headlight harness, I wanted to replace several terminals and wires on the car, so I did it by myself. I got most parts from CE Auto Electric Supply – Automotive Electrical Solutions - fast shipping, very honest, and friendly staff - perfect. My requirements were to drill no additional holes, keep the engine bay clean, and have easy excess to the relays and fuses. The option to mount them hidden under the battery tray was tempting but does not really allow easy access. There were already two holes close to the alternator, so I decided to use those two to mount the 15A fuses. The mounting bolts for the original headlight ground wires, were my choice for the two "waterproof" relays. It would have been slightly easier two use relays with two 87 terminals, but the relays I used worked well too. Since the "upgrade" I drove around 70 miles (highway and country) during night hours. The difference is distinctive, way brighter lights, and hopefully safer than the original harness. Cheers, Wolfgang
Headlight relays are a great update. Not only far brighter lighting, but takes a major load off the bulkhead connector and the headlight switch. I've had both burn in some Mopars. I sourced everything individually for the 6.1 Hemi Cuda convertible project, but I bought Crackedback's relay harness for the current Cuda fastback project. [FOR SALE] - Plug and play - Headlight Relay Kits This is a very high quality kit. I'll hide the relays under the battery tray. I've used Daniel Stern Lighting as well. Excellent resource. Based on Dan's recommendations, For the current project, I'm using Kioto Headlights (pr) 08-3033 08-3033-Koito European Spec (E-Code) 7" Round Headlamp High output bulbs 60/55W Tungsram +120 Jim
Jim, thanks for the info regarding the headlamps. Most probably, I will move back to Europe, so eventually, the Barracuda will get European Spec. headlights. Cheers, Wolfgang
AC Rebuild: That is the project I am currently working on. Upfront, AC is absolutely new to me, therefore I am thankful for useful inputs, and please do not hesitate to chime in, if my assumptions are incorrect, or if I am not doing the job right. According to the parts manual from 1969, for the Barracuda (with LA318) two AC options were available: - factory AC (Thermo clutch fan 18”) - field-installed AC adapter package (direct fan 18”) Mopar used two different AC compressors, RV2 and V2. To the best of my knowledge, the V2 has less cc than the RV2 and was used on 6 cylinder engines. Since my car was born as a factory AC car, I am trying to restore/rebuild/upgrade the AC system. It took quite some time and effort to find a rebuildable RV2 compressor (in my case two attempts), and all the missing pulleys and brackets. Eventually, I acquired almost two complete AC sets and will sell some of the parts I have double. The shop manual covers a lot of the AC components and for the most part, I will try to follow the directives given by the service manual. I also got me a "more correct" air cleaner assembly.
AC brackets and new Aircleaner: After inspection and removal of burrs, the brackets and air cleaner got sandblasted and powder coated at a local shop in Dayton: Custom Powder Coating LLC - a small business but very capable and fair prices. Even though the brackets don’t have numbers stamped on them, the attached picture should show the “correct” parts for a 1969 factory AC System. A little detail on the side: An old picture from my Barracuda showed, that the breather cap hose was attached at the back of the air cleaner and not at the air cleaner snorkel as I had it. Now, this little detail is corrected.
AC clutch: Pulled/pressed out the clutch bearing, taped the bearing seat surfaces with aluminum tape and got both AC clutch parts bead blasted. Primed and painted the parts, carefully sanded off some burrs on the clutch surface, and installed a new bearing. Bearings are available from different vendors, here one example: Timken Air Conditioning Compressor Clutch Bearings 5206DD I left the bearing overnight in the freezer and heated up the pulley assembly. The bearing then actually fell into the bearing seat. When pressing in the bearing, the bearing seat has to be supported otherwise the pulley assembly might get bent and damaged. The hub and shoe assembly spent also one night in the freezer before it got pressed into the bearing and pulley assembly. Two snap rings secure the bearing and the clutch parts. I still don’t know how critical the condition of the clutch surface is, but the surfaces on the hub and pulley I am working on looked ok to me. The shop manuals states, that hub and pulley assembly should never be changed separately because the parts are mated. I hope there will be enough friction to create accurate torque for the compressor – will find it out!
Semi gloss black + primer (ordinary spray can from ACE). No powder coating on those parts. Tapeing the clutch surface was time consuming.
AC clutch field assembly: Acquired two of them, but there was not much to restore. Just cleaning, roughening the surface with Scotch‑Brite and a thin layer of paint. Cut off the old broken wire, spliced in a new one, and removed some paint around the bolt holes to achieve good ground. The testing procedure is described in the SM.
AC Compressor part#1: As mentioned above, I acquired two RV2 compressors, roughly cleaned and disassembled them. Then, most of the compressor parts got hot tanked by my trusted engine builder http://www.kammerracing.com/. Pistons, Oil pump, and crankshaft were cleaned in a bath of "simple green.” After hot tanking, I thoroughly inspected all parts and soaked them in Evapo-Rust Evapo-Rust Rust Remover 00001 | O'Reilly Auto Parts. A few months ago, I also used Evapo-Rust but was quite disappointed with the results. I gave it a second chance and was amazed by the results I achieved this time. The compressors look like new! I guess it was a user error the first time, because the parts were not thoroughly degreased. Hot tanking does not remove rust, but it cleans and degreases parts very well – and that was the key to success. Even though it was quite a time-consuming job, I am very happy with the outcome. Since both compressors look good to me, I have to decide, which one to rebuilt. I am not going to rebuild both of them, so one will go for sale. Finally, the better part of this job (assembling) can start.
I decided on one compressor, taped it, applied some black primer, and brought it back to the engine builder, who just slightly honed the cylinders bores. The installation of the crankshaft was again very time-consuming. @Jim Kueneman gave in his Duster restoration project very detailed information regarding this subject - Sir, thank you! The service manual also provides clear instructions on how to install the crankshaft front seal, therefore I won't write much about this subject. Just wanted to mention, that its two mirco surfaces need special attention. Those surfaces should not be touched and therefore careful handling starts with unpacking. After installation, I checked the endplay and free rotation. According to the SM, the resistance on the crankshaft should not exceed 10 inch-pounds or 1.13 NM torque. The pistons and rods look ok to me, but I would like to install new piston rings. I just don't know where to get them or if there are alternatives available. I am sure plenty of small engines or compressors have the same cylinder/piston specifications.
Oil pump and rear fitting installed. According to several tech articles on classic Mopar AC systems, the EPR valve is not compatible with R134a and was therefore left out. So far so good... Cheers, Wolfgang
Do you really need rings? What is the end gap if you put them in the cylinder? Rarely did the AC work long enough to actually need any ring/cylinder work if they are not gouged NOS Mopar 2275207 A/C Compressor Piston Ring 1961-75 | eBay I am really interested in how this system cools.. I can't get the Duster to work worth a darn. The Coronet forms icicles but the Duster can barely blow 50 degree air.
Ok now I know what people think when they read my threads (this guy is nuts), it is like I am looking in a mirror... Awesome Wolfgang! I love how the 318 did what 318's are for, the torque curve is already maxed out where they started to dyno run! That is what the 2 barrel gives you and what you loose with with the 4 barrel.
Thanks for the link Jim, yes I could put the old rings back in, but they are shiny. The black coat on the outside is all gone. So I would like to have new once. Thanks, Wolfgang
Waterpump: Unfortunately, I had to change my actually new water pump. It has three inlets, therefore, the AC compressor front bracket would not fit on the existing water pump. Thanks to the info and pictures posted by FABO member @RealWing in his Formula S restoration, I found a correct water pump of good quality https://www.summitracing.com/parts/bra-1701/make/dodge. Changing the water-pump was again very time-consuming and definitely not enjoyable.
