67 Barracuda convertible, suspension rebuild

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Indyducati

Steve
Joined
Aug 17, 2016
Messages
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Location
Indianapolis IN
Folks,

We've got a 67 Barracuda convertible. Nice, 15 footer. It's a fun weekend car.
Non numbers matching obviously. I'm not afraid of modifications.
My wife LOVES to drive this car. It's gotta stay friendly to her.
Safe, Fun, easy to drive.

It'll never see the drag strip or concourse field. It will see a twisty road.

It's got a 360, 727, 8.75 with an unknown gear. Power steering.
Front discs, rear drums. Small bolt pattern 14" front Cragars, 205 tires,
15" rear Cragars, 225 tires. We'll be keeping the power steering and brakes.

I'm planning to jack it up and refresh the suspension. There's not much rubber left...
Steering's really loose. Has front discs in dire need of rebuild and bleeding.
Shocks of unknown age, certainly worn out.

So many questions. I search and find some answers.
My main question. Can I upgrade to 73+ upper control arms, with big ball joints, and keep my current spindles ? Seems like a no, but gotta ask you experts first.
If we stay with stock discs and small bolt pattern wheels, is there really any reason to
have big ball joints ?

I'm trying to stay with a simple refresh, modest improvement without too much
project creep. Maybe a bit larger torsion bars, .940 ? Welded, stiffened K frame and
control arms. Bigger, hollow sway bars. Bilsteins. Performance tires at a later date.

Let's say $2500 budget.

Thank you,
Steve
 
Look for a later Kframe and rebuild it, 73 to 74 will work. There is a spacer for the ball joint stud to reuse the earlier spindle if you need to use it. Make sure the sleeves on the kframe for the lower control arms are good, no cracks and the pins fit tight. The 67 kframe has a one year only idler arm, not the best design. I used a 68 kframe on mine and reinforced the steering box and lower control arm sleeves then did the R&R in one weekend. Leave the lower control arm pins loose till you get the ride height set then tighten them to spec.
 
The ball joint spacer is for late spindles and early ball joints, not the other way around. If you are happy with the K-H discs don't worry about them. They are a very good brake with the only weakness being a thin rotor.
 
I own a '68 Barracuda. One of the first things I did was weld in the complete chassis stiffening kit from US Cartool. Its relatively easy if you have a mig welder, but not so much if you don't. First things first will give you a solid platform to build on.

There are plenty of mobile welding guys that can weld up the parts in a few hours in your driveway once you get it all prepped and ready for them. It will take the better part of the day to prepare, longer if you pull the front fenders off to install the under fender bracing, but that is not necessary. (you can skip this part and just use the subframe connectors and tie the front frame rails together until you are ready to prep and respray the inner fenders due to burning off some paint.) It's not that hard of a job, but takes another weekend.

When installing the under fender braces its also the time to weld the shock towers solidly to the inner fenders. Mine had a few spot welds and about half of them were tearing loose. That was with a slant six in there.

The prep is easy and consists of have the undercarriage steam cleaned or do it your self with some elbow grease and some Castro Purple Power cleaner, removing the seats and carpet, grinding down to bare metal the areas that the parts will be welded to. I used a large rubber mallet on the floor and an angle grinder on the subframe connectors to help close up the gaps for welding in a few hours.

Once you do this, the car will be ready for a suspension and brake rebuild. The difference in how solid the car feels going down the road is epic, and it really contributes to how well the car feels while driving.

1" torsion bars, two driver's side 2800 lbs Super stock Springs, sway bars and Bilstiens will take care of the suspension. I used Koni's.

For the brakes, you have to decide if you are going to switch to the big bolt pattern wheels or not. If you do, you may want to find an 8 3/4 for the rear. call Dr Diff and order up his econo rear disc kit that uses the Mustang GT rear discs. For the front, the '73+ spindles and the police/taxi rotors match the rears well. I use a cast iron master cylinder with a less than 1 inch bore. The bias is perfect just like that. No proportioning valve is needed.

Later put in a 408" EFI stroker motor and a built 200r4 OD trans and let the fun begin. It took me 14 years to get to this point, but the ride along the way was not bad.

Project creep at its best!

Santa Cruz'ing (Large).JPG
 
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