'66 Barracuda from a dealership in Hawaii?

[cudamark]

Does anyone know anything about Universal Motor Company LTD. that was in Honolulu in the mid '60's. I have a '66 Barracuda that was originally sold there in late '65. I'd like to find someone who worked there that may know something about the car and/or maybe who the first owner was. The only thing I find on a google search is a business that dealt in marine equipment. Maybe they were a multibrand wholesaler?
This car has a real early build date.....8/17/65. I haven't seen an earlier one in 25+ years of casual looking. How many of you have a "V" model? From what I've been able to determine, they were only made the first couple of months before the "fish" replaced them. The latest VIN I've seen is around 10000. Anyone have one later? Mine is 499. Anyone have one earlier?
Thanks, Mark

 

[djpearce]

I don't have an info on the dealership but I too have an early build 66 Barracuda with the "V" grill emblem instead of the fish. It was build in July 65 but I'll have to check the VIN number. I also found one a few years back in a salvage yard that was also a "V" grilled car and I was able to get the info off that car before it was crushed. I'll check on that one too.

 

[cudamark]

Thanks DJ,
I've had two other "V" cars in the past and have seen 8 others that I know were correct. Not that many in 30 years of looking! There were some subtle differences from later ones and some carry-overs from the '65 model year. The 273 cylinder heads are another curious thing. I've seen both the early casting (315) and the late casting (920) in the '66 model year but what's strange is I've also seen the 5/16 and 3/8 intake bolts for both castings! When I first started looking at these heads, I thought when they went to the 920 casting that they also went to the later intake and 3/8 intake bolts. They must have had the new bare castings before they changed over the tooling jig and the heads must have mixed in the "bin" to get both castings machined both ways. Do you know of a '66 Barracuda registery that might help figure out how many of these early ones were built and how many are still around?
Thanks, Mark