65 Barracuda daily driver

[barbee6043]

Love this car!! Those look so good with the right wheel/tire combo. That is right!!!!!

 

[Hyper_pak]

My wife is from Tarzana, we have been following all the fires and destruction.
We have been praying for the fires to stop.

I worked for the Army on the LA Firehawk Program years ago.
It was a joy to see it in action helping to put out some of the Fires.

 

[65barracudaLA]

My wife is from Tarzana, we have been following all the fires and destruction.
We have been praying for the fires to stop.

I worked for the Army on the LA Firehawk Program years ago.
It was a joy to see it in action helping to put out some of the Fires.

View attachment 1716356235

There are still new fires breaking out, but finally there is some rain in the forecast.

It's amazing what these firefighters have been doing non-stop since the fires started. These helicopters are quite a sight!

 

[65barracudaLA]

Finally some rain in the forecast. So the car is safe and sound in the tinitest garage, that I'm very grateful for.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Many, many thanks to @JDMopar and @RAT ROD AL for their combined effort to send me a vent tube for free, which was missing on my Barracuda. I really appreciated that. Too bad I had to take half the car apart to get it in there. Oh well.

I bought a used 500 cfm Edelbrock AVS from a local FABO member. Unfortunately the throttle lever was cut off so I couldn't attach the kickdown cable, so I robbed that off my 600 cfm Performer as well as the electric choke, which was missing on the AVS. Initially I saw quite quite a jump in gas mileage, but I'm still fiddling with it. Then somehow my throttle cable broke at the fire wall. When I replaced that I took out the driver seat because it's no fun to work under the dash with the seat in. I had noticed that it felt like I was sitting lower as usual and unfortunately two of the springs are broken. I used some zip ties as a temporary fix, but that lasted about 20 minutes. Now I need to find a seat frame bottom...

Speaking of seats... When I took stuff apart for the vent tube I had to take out the back seat bottom because I dropped some screws and they fell in the crack. While it was out I figured I could fix it. Most of it is in good shape, but the seams came apart in a couple of places. So I took the cover off and started going through the original holes with some upholstery grade thread.

Especially the passenger side bottom corner had a couple of rips, so I sowed a patch on.

I don't think it's going to be very noticeable and I plan on spraying them with Vinyl paint when I'm done. The frame has some rust that I want wire wheel and paint and some of the sleeves that the hog rings attach to are in bad shape, so I still need to figure that out. I have a very nice black top/ back cover where I already fixed the stiching, but I will put it on the frame first before painting that red too. That Duplicolor vinyl paint covers pretty well.

I got some pinging when I stepped on the gas, so I took out and swapped out the springs hoping that the full advance would come in a bit later. Luckily I didn't have to take the distributor apart at all. One of the springs didn't engage at all with the limited advance and the other wasn't very strong. There was still a little bit of pinging when I really stepped on it, so I reduced the timing a hair more and it seems fine.

Like the title of this thread says, this car is driven daily. So fun.

 

[JDMopar]

You might be able to poke around on Google and find replacement seat springs. I know that I have seen them at some of the restoration supply vendors that come to shows like Good Guys, The Turkey Run, etc. They look like the ones in your pic, but come in cut to length versions. I was glad to be able to work it out so you could have the vent tube. I got the fill tube from Al as an extra to do a science project for my own 65 Barracuda.

 

[65barracudaLA]

You might be able to poke around on Google and find replacement seat springs. I know that I have seen them at some of the restoration supply vendors that come to shows like Good Guys, The Turkey Run, etc. They look like the ones in your pic, but come in cut to length versions. I was glad to be able to work it out so you could have the vent tube. I got the fill tube from Al as an extra to do a science project for my own 65 Barracuda.

Thank you again! I feel much better driving the car with the vent tube in place. That's a good idea for the seat spring, I might also try to find a rod I can bend with my tubing bender?!

 

[65barracudaLA]

The back seat is finally back in the car. Fixing the bottom piece took quite a while, because other than the stitching that had come apart and the patches I put on the corners, the fabric that the hog rings tie into had disintegrated. I hope some of the crinkles will come out once people sit on there. The top I bought years ago - the vinyl is in pretty good shape, but the stitching had come apart as well. I sprayed both with Duplicolor Vinyl Paint, which covers pretty well even when you're changing from from black to red. It could use another coat probably, but for now I'm happy with it.

 

[65barracudaLA]

I've been driving the car without any issues lately. Didn't really do much to it other than fixing the ATF leak from the park lock cable. The cable had come to close to the exhaust and that melted the insulation. So I drained the fluid and pulled the cable out, put some high temp silicon tubing over it and secured the ends with hose clamps. So far no leak!

Like I said there aren't any real issues right now, but it idles a bit rough especially when cold. So I was going to hook up the vacuum gauge to re-set the idle mixture. This time I looked at the gauge before hooking it up and I noticed something:

It doesn't start at zero!!! I've always been worried because I couldn't get any more than 15 or maybe 16 inches mercury of vacuum. I thought I had to have a vacuum leak somewhere. I just ordered a new gauge and I will test again when it gets here. I love old tools, but in this case this gauge (that I think I found in the trunk of this car when I bought it) appears to be junk.

 

[LO23M8B]

Beautiful car. I'd like to get my 65 Cuda out of the barn and start working on it. My goal is to make it a daily driver also. She'll need a bit of work as I put her away in 88.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Salma Barracuda is 60 years old today! Built in Hamtramck, MI on April 29th, 1965! Drove the car up the hill from my house to snap a photo of it and there was another '65 Barracuda in the driveway. I ended up chatting with the owner for probably an hour or so. Happy Birthday, Salma!

 

[65barracudaLA]

I went to Spring Fling again last weekend and despite the weather I'm glad I did. So many rad Mopars!

My favorite thing about Spring Fling is usually the swap meet. Never spent this little money and scored this big. The rare Kelsey Hayes gravel shields were 10 bucks for the pair and they are in perfect condition. I have Kelsey Hayes discs on my Barracuda that I got out of the junk yard, but the shields were missing. I was told that they are not absolutely necessary, so I've been driving without them for years, but it's just one of those things that are nice to have. The heel pad of my gas pedal in the Barracuda had broken off, which does not really affect the function, but since reproductions are like 60 bucks, I was glad to find this one also for 10 bucks. Also bought a plain early Dart steering wheel for 5 bucks, which I intend to temporarily install while I fix my rallye wheel which has a crack and I have some ideas for reproducing the wood grain. I might actually test that on the Dart wheel beforehand.

Everything cleaned up very nicely! Not sure when I get around to installing those. It's a pain to get to the two little nuts that attach the gas pedal with the TTi exhaust in the way...

The Proforged lower control arm bushings on the car are already destroyed despite not being that old, so I ordered new Delrin ones including the pivots from Bergman Auto Craft. They're not cheap, but from what I read they are worth the money. This weekend I won't have time, but when I install them eventually I will also bolt on the shields.

 

[66fyssh]

Looking Good at Spring Fling!!

Can it really be 10 years since you first started posting about Salma !!!!!

You have come a long way from this:

 

[65barracudaLA]

Looking Good at Spring Fling!!

Can it really be 10 years since you first started posting about Salma !!!!!

You have come a long way from this:
View attachment 1716402356

I had no idea that I've been on FABO for 10 years! What a great site. Anyways, that photo was from the day I bought the car in 2009.

This is what Salma looked like 10 years ago:

But yeah, the car has come a long way. I guess I've touched almost every single bolt in this car at some point. The only thing I have not had out are the dash frame and maybe the fuel and brake lines?! A couple of things I've done 2 or three times already. Sometimes because I didn't know how to do it right, and sometimes I was too broke for quality parts. I somewhat agree with David Freiburger's statement " Don't get it right - just get it running", but that also means that eventually you will have to do it right and then you end up spending more time and money than if you had done it right the first time around.

 

[like_A_pike]

Preaching to the choir

Once in a long while a jury rig will work forever. They never look right though!

 

[65barracudaLA]

So I finally got my new vacuum gauge and I'm getting around 20 inches of vacuum! I've been chasing a non-existent vacuum leak and it turns out it was just the gauge.

The vacuum still fluctuates a bit and according to this chart I might have a sticking or burnt valve?!

 

[Richard Sweet]

Well, since you like fixing things and the gauge was made in USA, you might be able to take it apart and just move the needle, calibrate it, then tighten it up and seal it.

 

[65barracudaLA]

Went camping with the Barracuda for the 4th of July. Did a bunch of work on the car before and after - mainly on the suspension. I wasn't going to do a full suspension rebuild, so it happened in stages.

I started on the lower control arm bushings, because the Proforged bushings were torn. I did some research here on FABO and it appeared that people were most happy with the Bergman Auto Craft Delrin bushings. I got their pins too and they are very nice. I had read that you can use a 1-3/8" tap to get the shells out (the BAC bushings work without the shells). It sounded a lot easier than it was in the end. I don't have a press, which makes it even more complicated. I dropped a couple of washers in there before I started tapping. When I got it in far enough, I started hammering on it from the back with a punch. Didn't work that well until I got a bigger hammer haha. Eventually it came out a little at a time.

The instructions said to lightly press in the new bushing. I thought that could be done by hand, but no. So it turns out you can turn your engine hoist into a shop press in a pinch haha.

I noticed the boots were torn on the upper ball joints, so I decided to replace those too. These are the Mevotech Supreme, which were also recommended on FABO. It's easy to get them on cooked, so I took a couple of photos to double check that they were square.

To get the boots on I used the ball joint tool, some exhaust repair thing and a clamp. Worked great. Oh yeah, at some point I also installed the swap meet disc break dust shields.

The lower ball joints also had torn boots, so I replaced those too. I couldn't find any that were actually for disc brakes (one of the bolt holes is smaller on the drum ones), or they were crazy expensive, so I went with the ones from PST. Apparently PST doesn't make them, they just sell them and they arrived in unmarked packaging. I think someone suggested that they are in fact Mevotech Supremes.

Another reason that I wanted to get the suspension refreshed is that the front tires were almost down to the belts on the insides. Before going camping I had new tires put on.

I had damaged the passenger side tie rod boot and also broke of the grease nipple. On Amazon I found a Moog Made in USA tie rod for 12 bucks! Yay! When it arrived, I took the old one out, just to find out that it was the wrong side (it's reverse thread). I assumed that the shop that installed these put them on the wrong side?! That sucked, because I had to put it back together without replacing. I figured I could use that one on the other side and ordered one for the driver side. Somehow that one is 28 bucks... Anyways, it arrived and it was shipped just in a bag and the bag tore open and the nut was missing. I could have used the old one, but I'm stubborn, so I complained to get a new one. Finally got the replacement and to my surprise on the driver side was the same as the passenger side - also reverse thread. Anyways, luckily I had two of the ones I needed now, so I was able to put it back together. I noticed that the passenger one was actually bent! That must have been from the fender bender that I was in a couple of years ago (that's why that fender is black). And these are actually the beefier C-body tie rods.

I had just replaced that gasket (?) that goes between the idler arm and the center link, but it's already torn again. These were from DMT, which is the only place that I could find that had them. They are foam and I guess not made to last.

I wasn't even sure if these are needed, but the manual shows them below. Does anyone have a good source?

I still have to take the car to the alignment shop. I adjusted the toe with a tape measure and it's pretty good, but there is a slight pull to the right.

Anyways, I also took off the 500 cfm AVS and put the 600 cfm Performer back on. Turns out the gas mileage is better with the Performer. I watched a David Freiburger video, where he explains that a notch in the divider on the dual plane manifold could help with tuning the carb or instead of notching it, you could also just use a (square bore) carb spacer. Until now I was using this one, which is a 0.32" thick insulator gasket spacer:

I also had one like this:

Same thickness, but open. Installed it and indeed I was able to get the idle much smoother than before.

Now that the car is in great shape mechanically, will I finally paint the "new" deck lid, fenders and hood? We shall see...