Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback

[SNKEBIT]

I know everybody has budget issues. But have you thought of ceramic coating the headers? It really keeps the heat down. I build headers for Vipers and wouldn't even think about installing them without some kind of thermal barrier on them. Within 5 minutes of shut-down, you can literally grab the headers and hang on. Amazing stuff!:burnout:

 

[1967 'cuda]

I know everybody has budget issues. But have you thought of ceramic coating the headers? It really keeps the heat down. I build headers for Vipers and wouldn't even think about installing them without some kind of thermal barrier on them. Within 5 minutes of shut-down, you can literally grab the headers and hang on. Amazing stuff!:burnout:

I've never checked into the cost of having it done but my guess is that it's more than I'd be willing to pay for this project. When I bought the Duster I hadn't planned on more than a spit and shine on it. I'm afraid that every buck I put into it is one more that I'll never recoup later.

A few guys had stopped over to look at some of the vehicles that we had parked behind the house. They asked whether or not any of them were for sale. I always figure that I'd sell any of them if someone offered me enough money. They focused in on the Duster - claiming to be 'race guys'. As they looked it over they commented on how rough it was. There wasn't any area of the car that they didn't find problems with. I wasn't insulted because I knew that it was no show car. - It WAS a RACE CAR. But it did make me think that I should give some attention to it.

So I replaced the bucket seats, cleaned up the engine compartment and did the graphics on the car afterwards in an attempt to eliminate some of the cosmetic issues. Mechanically it was fine.

It's been tempting to throw cash at it but I'm trying to keep costs down. I've seen some beautiful race cars for sale that the owners were taking big losses on. There have been plenty of pro-street and race cars for sale on this site that didn't gen up any interest even though they were being sold for less than what the owners had in them.

When I'm done working on the Duster I'm hoping I'll be able to get my money back out of it. I may not be in this hobby to make money but I don't want to have it bleed me dry.

After having said all this you never know, - I may end up dropping a blower on it down the road. LOL.

:banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

[SNKEBIT]

I hear ya. I'm guessing because they're bigger than Viper headers, they're prolly gonna run about 3-400 bucks to do them. I was just an idea.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.rayer:

 

[1967 'cuda]

I spent the day working on the headlight wiring harness. I want to route those wires beneath the aluminum panels. It involved removing the headlight bucket assemblies and drilling a large hole on the left side. I cleaned and scuffed down the original inner fenders and firewall before spraying them with a silver base. After a while I will hit them with that METALCAST paint from Dupli-Color.

As I was in the garage I began to reminisce about a 1970 Camaro I had years ago. Before you all start groaning about someone defiling this site and put your fists through the monitors, bear with me.

This was going to be a hybrid.

This was during the mid seventies and Camaros were the hot ride on the dirt short tracks everywhere. They were cheap and plentiful.

I acquired the car from one of my older sisters. It was a plain Jane showing rust and sporting a 350-2 barrel. Rather than leave it abandoned on the family farm I decided to turn it into a custom street/road racer.

I was already fully won over by Chrysler and wanted to put some Mopar touches on it. With some of the spare parts I had in the shop I attempted my first custom.

(I did not own a camera at the time so I do not have any pictures of the car I had. The best I can do to illustrate the mods I made is to search for similar images online)

I cut the center section out of a damaged '70 Roadrunner hood and grafted it onto the Camaro hood. It had the look of a cowl hood but retained the rear nameplate bezel. - An ideal spot to mount a digital tach.

My next step will sound really strange. After filling the original Camaro tail light panel I cut it out for a set of '70 Roadrunner tail lights. I discovered that if I put the tail lights on the opposite sides (the right on the left side & left on the right side) that they fit the body contour perfectly. Most folks thought it resembled a Firebird from the back. But unlike Firebird tail lights, the Roadrunner lights were recessed in a couple of inches.

I noticed that the Porsche Carreras had a similar shape to the Camaro. I liked the way they would sometimes flare the front fenders and rear quarters on some of their race cars. So I mounted a pair of 16 X 12 aluminum slots on the rear and a pair of 14 X10s on the front. Then I constructed a full set of flares out of steel to fit my tire/wheel combination. I didn't want them to look like add-ons. So I bulged the quarters and fenders to gradually blend into the flares.

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[SNKEBIT]

I just threw up a little in my mouth. It was ishy.rotest:

 

[1967 'cuda]

I had successfully made each of the mods. Everything looked right. Nothing had the appearance of being a clunky add-on - square peg in a round hole. I was amazed at how well it drove. I could take 25 mph curves at 70. It handled like a dream.

I wanted to do further customizing. It was still recognizable as a Camaro. But disaster struck. The tired 350 began to hammer on one of my test runs. It didn't explode but I was sure I'd spun a rod bearing. I was out in the boonies and limped it home. I was fairly certain that the crank had to be badly scored by then. It wasn't the worst set back because I had played around with the notion of installing a big block Chrysler in it, but it meant that I wouldn't be able to move it around easily any more.

My Dad was not too keen on the idea of having an inoperable vehicle on the yard. - So I stored it at an acreage one of my friends lived on. There were several old cars already parked there and he let me park it along side the rest.

A few months later the real disaster struck. The farmer that owned the acreage decided he was going to clean up the yard with a tractor and loader. I never went back to view the damage but I was told it was extensive. I didn't really want to see it.

Before the car was destroyed I had made a lot of other plans. I was going to install a whale tail spoiler next.

If I truly wanted to disguise it's foundation I needed to do more. I decided to imitate some of the side fins that were appearing on Ferrari's.

As much as I felt the combination of mods were going to look good, the front of the car was going to still make it easy to identify. It would need to change radically.

I'd seen some people adapt rectangular headlights on these cars but I never felt they fit the body lines. They needed to stay round. I devised a plan to add a second set and run 4 headlights. It would entail modifying the front sheet metal and the hood (again). The bodywork around the original 2 headlights flowed back into the rest of the car so if I added 2 more lights they would need to mimic that look. I imagined it would have been a bit like the Jaguar sedans of that time period.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda... I never got to complete that car but I really wanted to. With a Chrysler 383 in it I looked forward to the reactions I might have gotten. Anyone that could still identify it as a Camaro would have been shocked when the hood was popped.


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[1967 'cuda]

I just threw up a little in my mouth. It was ishy.rotest:

Aww c'mon now. It actually looked really good. At the time I was getting a lot of praise from some of the old skool body men that were big into chops, sectioning and stuff. Every now and then I'll run into someone that asks about whatever happened to the car. I really wish I had pictures of it. Most people that I've tried to describe the mods to have a difficult time imagining it looking like anything but an abortion.

 

[Cuda68Scott]

I always like that generation of Camaro. A friend of mine had a Z28 with a Lt1 that was just a little faster at the drag strip than my other friend's Duster 340, right around the 14 second quarter mile mark. I believe both of them were 71 models, have an old picture of them someplace.

John I see you got bitten by the car modification but in your early years. I would like to have seen the Roadmaro! Too bad the farmer cleaned up old his boneyard, almost seems that is unusual behavior as it seems to me a lot of them never dispose of any old vehicles or tractors by the amount of rusted hulks you often see parked around their properties.

 

[1967 'cuda]

I always like that generation of Camaro. A friend of mine had a Z28 with a Lt1 that was just a little faster at the drag strip than my other friend's Duster 340, right around the 14 second quarter mile mark. I believe both of them were 71 models, have an old picture of them someplace.

John I see you got bitten by the car modification but in your early years. I would like to have seen the Roadmaro! Too bad the farmer cleaned up old his boneyard, almost seems that is unusual behavior as it seems to me a lot of them never dispose of any old vehicles or tractors by the amount of rusted hulks you often see parked around their properties.

As much as I enjoy giving them Chebbie boys a hard time, the bowtie crowd did have a lot of cool cars to work with. I was really shocked when I'd found out what had happened to that Camaro too. What was even worse was the fact that he destroyed several 68-70 2-door B-body Mopars at the same time. He didn't consider any of the cars out there as having any value if they didn't run.

 

[SNKEBIT]

What was even worse was the fact that he destroyed several 68-70 2-door B-body Mopars at the same time.

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!rotest:

 

[1967 'cuda]

Two of the farmer's sons got heavily into circle track racing. One of them loved Mopars and the other loved Fords. They were both successful for a number of years at various tracks around here. Tom campaigned Superbees while Terry ran Mustangs. During one season when they were at the height of success they both decided to mount sprint car wings atop their cars just to screw with the minds of the racers that they were beating. Within a month almost half of the other racers copied them. They laughed about it for years afterwards.

 

[dcdriver]

Nice to know that someone else is "anal" about plug wires. I do the very same thing with mine and much prefer to make and run mine the same way. I like the looks of your loom and am now wondering if it will look that good on a small block. Duster is lookin good man.

Jim

 

[1967 'cuda]

Nice to know that someone else is "anal" about plug wires. I do the very same thing with mine and much prefer to make and run mine the same way. I like the looks of your loom and am now wondering if it will look that good on a small block. Duster is lookin good man.

Jim

Thanks dcdriver. I really do like these Spectre brackets. This is the first time I've ever installed them on the intake side of valve covers. I think that most of the other engines we've had were too crowded with carb linkage, coil, or air cleaner parts to do this way. I wouldn't have thought to try installing them inboard if it hadn't been for clearance issues with these headers.

I've seen some really nice cars that the owner ended up neglecting attention to the plug wires and installed a ready made set instead. They always look messy to me. One of the other reasons that I like this Spectre setup is that it's so much easier getting your plug wires in the right order when changing/checking spark plugs.

By the way, my uncle down in Topeka passed away and his funeral was today. One really really nice guy and a WWII vet. Al "Babe" Hermsen. I don't know if the papers down there will have much of a write-up about him in the obituaries.

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[1967 'cuda]

The UPS guy may have ignored me today but the mailman didn't.

The orange seat belts, AN 45' fittings and stainless rivets showed up. After examining everything I realized that I'd ordered the wrong rivets. I meant to order 3/16" large flange ones and these are 1/8" small flange. Oops. I'll have to order more and find a use for these elsewhere.

I draped the belts over the seats to see how they look. I wish the orange was a little darker but they're probably as close as I'll find for that price.

You can see here why I wanted those 45' AN fittings. BEFORE & AFTER.

I finished fabbing a few more aluminum panels. After buffing them they're ready to start fastening.

I didn't want to have to borrow Cleco fasteners from my buddies anymore (I feel like a mooch after awhile) so I bought a set of my own from JEGS.

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[1967 'cuda]

Yesterday I made the decision to paint the headers gold. I checked everywhere I could think of and it looks like no one is making it. VHT used to sell it with part number SP-105. But I can't find anyone that sells it and I didn't see it listed on their site anymore.

Eventually I found some 1200' gold stove paint from some chimney sweep business in Indiana. I hope this stuff has a better finish than the orange did.

 

[SNKEBIT]

Think 1200' will be enuff? Our lowest coating on our headers are 1400':???:

 

[1967 'cuda]

Think 1200' will be enuff? Our lowest coating on our headers are 1400':???:

I hope so. Most of the VHT header paint is rated at 1200'. I think their silver is the only one rated at 1500. I'm not running anything other than pump gas. - No fancy fuel mixes or nitrous. I've never checked the header temp with the gauge I've got.

 

[Abodybomber]

The new hardware, looks good...

 

[1967 'cuda]

I'm still jumping around from one part of the Duster to another. Until the larger rivets and Cleco fasteners come I'll have to let the panels stay on hold.

I pulled the sill plates off and polished them up. While I was at it I sprayed a coat of Dupli-Color over them. They might as well match the rest of the car.

My face is a magnet for the compound coming off those buffing wheels. Before I'm done I'll be able to apply for a role in a remake of Amos 'n Andy.

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[1967 'cuda]

The new hardware, looks good...

Thanks Abodybomber. I got to looking through some old threads and came across the really sweet '72 Duster Pro-Stock that dirtybird4408pack had for sale last January. I would have been better off having bought it. For anyone that hadn't seen it, here's a picture of the car he sold. It sold quick and after looking at the photos I can understand why. I'd have to dump a hell of a lot of cash into mine to have it look half as good.

I realize that race cars don't bring top dollar but I still think his car was under-priced. I don't feel that mine will ever look that good but I'll keep on trying to get it closer.




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[Abodybomber]

I'm still jumping around from one part of the Duster to another. Until the larger rivets and Cleco fasteners come I'll have to let the panels stay on hold.

I pulled the sill plates off and polished them up. While I was at it I sprayed a coat of Dupli-Color over them. They might as well match the rest of the car.

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My face is a magnet for the compound coming off those buffing wheels. Before I'm done I'll be able to apply for a role in a remake of Amos 'n Andy.

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Been there,LOL..... Wore(still occasionally, wear...) ,compounds, like that.

 

[Abodybomber]

Thanks Abodybomber. I got to looking through some old threads and came across the really sweet '72 Duster Pro-Stock that dirtybird4408pack had for sale last January. I would have been better off having bought it. For anyone that hadn't seen it, here's a picture of the car he sold. It sold quick and after looking at the photos I can understand why. I'd have to dump a hell of a lot of cash into mine to have it look half as good.

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I realize that race cars don't bring top dollar but I still think his car was under-priced. I don't feel that mine will ever look that good but I'll keep on trying to get it closer.

That's a sweet ride... And you are correct: anything personally done(custom modified, or race car ,personally done),tends to scare mainstream buyers away.
P.S : Love swoopy road race Camaros,seen a 440 powered Nova ,at the local street digs(late 80's..) In one night,beat seven different Chev's,one Ford.

 

[SNKEBIT]

I'm still jumping around from one part of the Duster to another. Until the larger rivets and Cleco fasteners come I'll have to let the panels stay on hold.

I pulled the sill plates off and polished them up. While I was at it I sprayed a coat of Dupli-Color over them. They might as well match the rest of the car.

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My face is a magnet for the compound coming off those buffing wheels. Before I'm done I'll be able to apply for a role in a remake of Amos 'n Andy.

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LMAO!!!! I HATE buffing for that very reason!!! In your nose and eyes, it sucks!rotest:

 

[1967 'cuda]

LMAO!!!! I HATE buffing for that very reason!!! In your nose and eyes, it sucks!rotest:

Hope my picture didn't scare anybody away. I'm usually camera shy. Ever since seeing how many people would call in when they recognized people on AMERICAS MOST WANTED I've been afraid they'd expand the show to include worst traffic offenders.

The crap that gets all over a person is bad enough but what I hate even more is that it tends to coat everything in the garage too. I should partition off an area for doing this but this garage is already too small to work in.

 

[SNKEBIT]

Try dealing with the other half of your shop is a body shop............... Sanding dust EVERYWHERE!!!!!rotest: