Finally got my M-Code Cuda

-
Cool project you're doing. Should be a lot of fun. After rebuilding the rear body structure back to stock dimensions are you going to be able to get enough tire on it to handle the power you're going to have, or you're not worried about it?
 
If you're a serious Mopar guy in Pittsburgh, when you get it driving you'll want to cruise it over
to Somma Pizza in Plum, have some fantastic food and then ask for the owner HemiMark.
 
hi mopar92...

i fully appreciate what you are saying. when i saw the M car i just bought had been cut up and made into a drag car i almost started crying. but give me a minute to try and convince you that i'm not committing "Mopar Blasphemy" with my intended "the M-Code Plymouth should have built" idea.

the alterations to this car for drag racing included cutting up the rear floor pan and all the original suspension. then drag slick tubs were installed. after that, the builder welded massive "frame rails" under the entire floor section to the front frame rails. then the drag guy cut out the rear wheel wells for the slicks. finally, the front suspension was "up-graded" to modern disc brakes with the "tubular" a arms conversion.

so..... this car needs a lot of work to bring it back to "stock." AMD now has the car and they have all the sheet metal to bring it back to stock. however, AMD is not OEM stuff. i am considering buying a donor car just so AMD can use all OEM Chrysler floor pan sheet metal. i can actually buy a non-title, no rust body section out west and have it shipped to AMD for about what their repo parts will cost. AMD and i have not reached a final decision yet as to which way to go.

either way, this M-Code is not going to be a "virgin" M-Code. more importantly, the only real alteration i'm going to make to this car is the installation of a floor hump for the 4 speed shifter. the original hood is long gone so the hood i buy to cut holes in for the intended "ram air" addition will not be an original M-Code hood - not that there is any such thing as a special "M-Code hood." the final car as i see it will look EXACTLY like a "regular" M-Code 69 Cuda except it will have a 4 speed shifter two red screens on the A56 hood scoops for the ram air (and i WILL NOT use original A56 scoops, i have a set - i will cut up repo scoops). the 440 will have a six pack set up instead of a single 4 barrel but that could easily be changed. all in all, i am not making any significant changes to this car. i did want to build this idea out of a real M-Code because of the value of those cars. i now have 4 Cudas and i have managed to buy and restore them within the current price values of the cars. when i get this M-Code done, i expect to have less than $35k in a final restored running car - that happens also to have an "M" in the VIN. while i love mopars and i do have some extra money to play with, i am not one of those guys who invests $60k in a car that is only worth $45k and then puts in his sales' ad "have to sell, will lose thousands on this car."

so again, i understand your argument about altering rare cars. but as noted, i don't think i'm going too far afield on this build and if i ever do sell this car (which i seriously doubt) the next guy can do a weekend's worth of work and have an "original" M-Code again.

thanks for your thoughts though...

jim coster
 
got an email from craig at AMD today - the car made it there in one piece from bartlesville, oklahoma.

i shipped this car with Passport Transport which was recommended by Hagerty Insurance. they picked the car up immediately in an enclosed truck with a winch. there are only a few car transport companies out there that have their own trucks, Passport is one of them, Reliable Transport is another (they have all the big orange trucks at all the big car auctions). Passport was very professional and easy to work with. i must have received 20 different emails and phone calls from various "dispatchers" saying they knew all about collector car shipping. i was not impressed by most of them and one guy i actually told off. he was trying to pass himself off as an "agent" for Reliable Transport. so being the attorney that i am, i called Reliable and ended up talking to the owner and CEO and he was not happy with this other guy. Reliable actually got their attorney involved and i don't think the idiot guy will be saying he represents "the big Orange truck shippers" again any time soon.

the shipping offers i got ranged from $500 to $1650. most of the offers were for "open trucks" and a lot of them were just idiotic "bait and switch" emails and calls. after getting annoying phone calls for a few days i just decided to spend some money. it was NOT cheap to ship this car but Progressive put the car in an enclosed trailer and picked it up and delivered it within a couple of days of hiring them.

my advice to car buyers out there in FABO land... if you are going to spend some money on a prized mopar, expect to spend another $1000 on getting it shipped to your front door safe and sound.
 
jim congrats on the purchase. I remember this car from when it was posted on eBay a while back. I was cool with the hemi...wonder what happened to it along the way. Is there a fender tag on the car? I assume it is long gone with the conversion.

I am 99% sure that I passed the VIN along to BB-Dave to include in the registry.

Good luck, and I look forward to the progress you make.
 
spoke to craig hopkins (shop manager) today at AMD Restoration shop in Cleveland, Georgia. he's getting my car into the repair cue at the shop and thinks they will be starting on it in the next couple of weeks. he believes that car will be done by late may. so i could be starting the paint/body work by june. it looks like i will have plenty to do this summer working on this car.

craig and i had an "interesting" discussion about AMD working on the orange cuda that mark worman of graveyard cars sent to them. as expected, from the looks of the car when it appeared on GYCs, the car needed a LOT of work. i think in some ways, AMD viewed that car as "a challenge."

since it is getting warm now in pittsburgh, i picked up another "mopar" to drive to car shows when i'm not driving my 68 formula S. i think it will be fun...
 

Attachments

  • DSCN0761.jpg
    53 KB · Views: 250
jimharvard said:
spoke to craig hopkins (shop manager) today at AMD Restoration shop in Cleveland, Georgia. he's getting my car into the repair cue at the shop and thinks they will be starting on it in the next couple of weeks. he believes that car will be done by late may. so i could be starting the paint/body work by june. .
Click to expand...

I've spoken to Craig at the Mopar Nats several times when he makes it up to the Mopar Nats. I used to bug him all the time about when they would have quarters for the 67-69's. It took a couple years until they were ready for production.

He's practically told me his whole life story. I bought some of his how-to videos and he asked me to review them. Not a real professional video job but they have a lot of useful information. If he is overseeing the work on your car, you'll be pleased with the end result.

Good luck with the car.
 
NICE! IM a proud owner of a 67 383-S automatic and a 69 383-S 4speed both fastbacks.
Us 67-69 Barracuda people sure do need some fenders for our cars!! You guys with connections with AMD hit them up to make these for us! Darts, Dusters ETC all are being made...the poor 67-69 Barracuda cars are in need of some fenders! :)
Good luck on the "M" code car!!
 
i my conversation with craig at AMD he told me that he had taken a trip to Taiwan (i believe) to set up a production source for repo parts. he told me that they had put in a large order for 67-69 barracuda quarter panels and planned to keep a number of them in stock once they arrive. he also noted that since they opened up a restoration shop, they are swamped with cars waiting to be repaired. right now my car is about 3 weeks from getting into the shop to begin work. i'm glad that they are busy. people making money on restoring these old cars keeps the resale market and reproduction parts business healthy.

my M-Code needs the entire floor pan from the back seat back replaced and AMD has all new parts to do this. i was really kind of surprised that they had every part listed on Chrysler's original "body shop repair manual" that shows the "exploded view" of the under body sheet metal sections.

i asked craig how he felt about the quality control of the parts they are getting from Tiawan and he said that they have had no problem installing the parts on the cars they are working on. one of the cool things about AMD is that they invested in a "mobile" spot welding machine that puts the panels together the same way Chrysler did on the assembly line. when i get my car back from them, i'll post some close-up pics of how well they put the panels together.
 
Jim,

Be aware that if the trunk floor is going to be replaced they need to cut the old fuel filler pipe area out and graft it to the new trunk pan. The one they have is for the later A-body cars and uses a different gasket than 69. Funny they sell the correct gasket for 69 (Rectangular) but the floor plan is cut for the 70-up style. The extensions and quarters fit nicely though. Also the left extension does not have the tabs for the rear harness, so they have to be salvaged or new ones made.
 
hey gerald...

thanks for the heads up on the fuel filler tube. i have read stories about issues around filler tubes. i was very serious about buying a good donor car from out west and have it shipped to AMD to use for parts but craig thought it would be easier for them to just install new parts. i understand that they want to sell their parts to make more money, but after i estimated how much labor would be involved in cutting old parts off of a donor car, the "new parts" prices seemed reasonable. i'm sure after they get my car into the shop and start cutting it apart, craig will bring up the issue of the gas filler tube.

craig told me that they will have to take the back glass out of the car to do all the welding. i ask him how confident he felt about removing that glass without breaking it and he said they have a good glass guy and thinks they can get it out without breaking it.

craig did convince me that it will be easier to put new quarters on the car rather than try to weld in "inserts" around the wheel openings where the "drag guys" cut out the fender openings for slicks. when this car is done, it's going to have most of the sheet metal replaced from the front seats back - excluding the roof section. i told craig that i would do all the body work on the car and for them just to clean the slag off of the welds and that i would finish the seams. when i finally get the car back and start working on it, i'll have to find a good "OEM" sheet metal seem filler.

as to my other cars, i bought a set of repo "red-line" tires from vitiques for my 68. i'm taking the cragars and "big tires" off this year and installing 8" chrysler OEM steel wheels with the new tires with no hub caps - just turbine bronze painted wheels. i also bought a set of original black side rally stripes from phoenix graphics. i want to "freshen-up" my favorite car for the summer!
 
First, I am glad AMD is make repair panels for are cars. I have use some of their stuff. But I do not understand why they didn't make the panels correct to 67 to 69 cars that are worth the most(generally speaking) and these people will spend more for the correct parts. Wrong trunk floor (70 and up), wrong full floor(70's) wrong cross mender for torsion bars(73 and up), Possible more. At least Darts got fenders

NO 67 to 69 Barracuda Fenders WHY???? Probably Because the didn't make a 73 A Body barracuda

Back when AMD first started making parts BBDave and I offered AMD 67-69 NOS Barracuda Parts fenders, inner fenders, rear quarter panels fastback and Notchback, inner and outer wheel houses, rear valance, trunk drops, trunk floor, torsion bar crossmember and a full used floor. Yes we had all these parts. All we asked for was them to give us 2 to are one and are parts back. We told them we just wanted to parts they make to be correct. They said they could not do that. They would buy used ones. They said the parts did not need to be perfect. So that why we ended up with this stuff. But still better than nothing.
 
Jim,
What are you doing withe the inner panels. where the regulator bolts up, the C piles support and the trunk hing support
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5717.jpg
    66.6 KB · Views: 157
jimharvard said:
hi mopar92...

i fully appreciate what you are saying. when i saw the M car i just bought had been cut up and made into a drag car i almost started crying. but give me a minute to try and convince you that i'm not committing "Mopar Blasphemy" with my intended "the M-Code Plymouth should have built" idea.

the alterations to this car for drag racing included cutting up the rear floor pan and all the original suspension. then drag slick tubs were installed. after that, the builder welded massive "frame rails" under the entire floor section to the front frame rails. then the drag guy cut out the rear wheel wells for the slicks. finally, the front suspension was "up-graded" to modern disc brakes with the "tubular" a arms conversion.

so..... this car needs a lot of work to bring it back to "stock." AMD now has the car and they have all the sheet metal to bring it back to stock. however, AMD is not OEM stuff. i am considering buying a donor car just so AMD can use all OEM Chrysler floor pan sheet metal. i can actually buy a non-title, no rust body section out west and have it shipped to AMD for about what their repo parts will cost. AMD and i have not reached a final decision yet as to which way to go.

either way, this M-Code is not going to be a "virgin" M-Code. more importantly, the only real alteration i'm going to make to this car is the installation of a floor hump for the 4 speed shifter. the original hood is long gone so the hood i buy to cut holes in for the intended "ram air" addition will not be an original M-Code hood - not that there is any such thing as a special "M-Code hood." the final car as i see it will look EXACTLY like a "regular" M-Code 69 Cuda except it will have a 4 speed shifter two red screens on the A56 hood scoops for the ram air (and i WILL NOT use original A56 scoops, i have a set - i will cut up repo scoops). the 440 will have a six pack set up instead of a single 4 barrel but that could easily be changed. all in all, i am not making any significant changes to this car. i did want to build this idea out of a real M-Code because of the value of those cars. i now have 4 Cudas and i have managed to buy and restore them within the current price values of the cars. when i get this M-Code done, i expect to have less than $35k in a final restored running car - that happens also to have an "M" in the VIN. while i love mopars and i do have some extra money to play with, i am not one of those guys who invests $60k in a car that is only worth $45k and then puts in his sales' ad "have to sell, will lose thousands on this car."

so again, i understand your argument about altering rare cars. but as noted, i don't think i'm going too far afield on this build and if i ever do sell this car (which i seriously doubt) the next guy can do a weekend's worth of work and have an "original" M-Code again.

thanks for your thoughts though...

jim coster
Click to expand...

I see you are planning on making the A56 scoops functional. I did that on my car (not a real A56) , since the used scoops I bought had already had holes drilled through the face of them. I carefully opened them up with a jig saw and die grinder. I had to mount them about 6 inches forward of the stock location to get past the hood bracing. I then drilled the holes in the hood the same size as the Dart scoops used, and I used the factory rubber rings to finish it off. I intended to make a ram air system out of it, but so far it is just letting some fresh air under the hood the same as the factory dart scoops did. I don't have any really good pictures on this computer, but here are a couple.

View attachment Cayuga pits.jpg

View attachment IMG_1194.jpg
 
Hey Jim.......almost 2 years since last update. Anything happening?
 
KosmicKuda said:
Hey Jim.......almost 2 years since last update. Anything happening?
Click to expand...

I believe there is another post by Jim showing a lot of pics of the car. But he hasn't updated it in awhile? I'll try to find it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top