68 Barracuda Notchback

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Well the last month and a half the Barracuda has been neglected.. Trying to get the 64 D100 road worthy for the summer. Pretty much re-wired the whole truck. Cleaned up the inside floor and seat and new rubber seals on almost everything. Defiantly leaning a few thing along the way that will come in handy on the 68.
The wiring was really bad. AMP gauge melted wire, scary..
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Invested in a wall of wire. May try and make all new harness for the 68 after this.
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Used some Eastwood Rust encapsulator Plus and really like the results.
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Now June is Barracuda month. Need to get the paint striped and the car ready for body work and paint.
 
Well the 64 is now done for the summer and driven most day to work. Waiting for the snow to fly to do some suspension work on it.
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Spent some time this weekend on the 68 getting some paint stripped off. Picked up some of the Cooper's Stripper online. Very happy with the results. Picked the worst quarter that i know had some filler in it and tried it out.
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Yes, i am sticking with the original color. I may even stick with the original white over black interior.. Still on the fence on that one.

Also noticed that Sunday was the one year anniversary of bring the car home.. Wow how time flies. I better pick up the pace on this build. Need to try and get it into epoxy primer before the snow flies..
 
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A little more paint stripping this weekend. The surface rust on the roof was not a bad as i thought after removing the paint.
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Not much work on the car over the winter, life gets in the way now and then.. Ready to get back at it now that i can open the garage and enjoy the weather again.

Did talk the wife into a new shop for when i retire some day (she doesn't want to move). Some garage condos popped up not far from home. Kind of a blank canvas, so working on getting it set up the way i want. Bathroom and mezzanine roughed in.. Time to get the floor done before moving anything in.. Should be a fun summer..
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Trad68 said:
Not much work on the car over the winter, life gets in the way now and then.. Ready to get back at it now that i can open the garage and enjoy the weather again.

Did talk the wife into a new shop for when i retire some day (she doesn't want to move). Some garage condos popped up not far from home. Kind of a blank canvas, so working on getting it set up the way i want. Bathroom and mezzanine roughed in.. Time to get the floor done before moving anything in.. Should be a fun summer..
View attachment 1716405247View attachment 1716405248
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What size is this? If I ever want a work space probably have to do something like this or just open a shop of some sort.
 
Great job on the documentation. A big thanks for doing it, as it's always entertaining to see a job done right.

Do yourself a favor and closely inspect the front shock towers where they attach to the inner fenders. There are only about 6 spot welds attaching them. Mine were partially torn and the car only ever had a slant six in it at the time. It is a convertible with no rust and was very flexible and had significant cowl shake over washboard type road services until the full US Cartool Chassis Stiffening kit and a Monte Carlo bar were installed.

I also welded the shock towers solidly to the inner fenders, which of course messes up the factory engine compartment finish at those spots. I also highly recommend adding the US Cartool under fender braces and the lower radiator support, especially while you are at this stage. I also welded the seams of the torsion bar crossmember to the floor along with a few other major structural seams including adding a Firmfeel K-member gusseting kit and welding those seams up.

I went one step further and added my own version of a Monte Carlos bar, which eliminated the very last bit of cowl shake the car suffered with until all the rest of the bracing was done.

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Finally the buildout on the shop is done. time to start working on cars again. Happy with how it turned out. Not happy with how much it cost. Building materials and permits are crazy expensive these days.
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Nice progress on the shop! The lift is such a useful tool in addition to be great for storage in the winter!!
 
Good to be back working on the car. Stripping the last few big panels before off to media blast for the final once over. Would love to get this into epoxy primer soon. Cant say enough good things about the Cooper's Stripper. Paint just about falls off. Not so much for body filler. Good thing i didn't have much.
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After stripping some paint last year we had very humid weather this summer and the car started to flash rust. Used Eastwood fast etch and was very happy with the results.
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Worked on the trunk area yesterday. Trunk extensions were a little rusty but not bad, decided to removed them knowing what may be hiding behind them. Glad i did. Also wasn't sure about removing the sound deadening but also grad i did.
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Car is getting ready to go off to media blast to get all the hard to reach spots clean. Then off to epoxy primmer and the start of the bodywork. I am on the fence on adding any body stiffening after it has been blasted. Frame connectors, front core support? Thoughts? not going Big block horsepower or drag car with this so not sure its needed.
 
You are at the perfect stage of restoration to do it. The parts are hard for the untrained observer to even notice, so unless you are going for a 100% bone stock appearance, go for it.

The full body stiffening including the frame connectors, core support, under fender braces, weld the under-fender shock towers to the inner fenderwell and last but not least torque boxes. Heck, I even welded the seams of torsion bar cross member and the K-frame with added bracing kit from Firm Feel. I also added a home-made Monte Carlo bar.

Granted, I have a convertible, but I've been slowly upgrading the car over the past 20 years with a Dutra built slant 6, then junkyard Magnums with top-end work and lately with a soon-to-be-fired-up, 820hp supercharged 408 Magnum. I added the full Stage 2 US Cartool Chassis stiffening kit (less the torque boxes, as it came with those) when it had a slant 6 in it. I'm glad I made the choice early on, and have enjoyed the feel of a more solid chassis from the beginning.

It transformed the feel of the car. It felt so much more solid and planted on the road, especially on rougher roads. The Monte Carlo bar virtually eliminated the rest of cowl shake. Again it was a virtually rust free California car, but even the coupes and fastbacks would greatly benefit from adding these components as far as seat of the pants feel goes.

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Well the doors, fenders, truck and hood all off for media blast.
Thought it would be easy to get the rear quarter glass and regulators out. Well they are a pain. First one took me an hour to figure out the sequence of what parts get removed first. The second one was 15 min. Hope i can get them back in. haha. The shell is completely stripped now. time to load up an get this thing to the blaster..
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Now that the car is out of the garage for a bit. Time to work on the small stuff.
Ignition switch brkt was cracked so kept the one off the old rusted dash. Time to weld it in. and off to powder coat.
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Started digging into the 8-3/4 sure grip i pick up. Looks like original ring gear, dated 7-8-69. Has 3.23 gears. and is a small bolt pattern axels 5x4. Would like to convert to Dr. Diff 5x4.5 Can i use the same 11" drum backer plates? Also was thinking of upping the gear ratio. Any ideas for a Small block 318 with auto trans. Was thinking 3.55 or 3.91?
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