ToastToAlmost
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- Aug 13, 2009
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I don't think I've ever given me or my car a proper introduction on FABO's, so here it is...
The backstory; me:
Ever since I was little, I was always fond of the underdog. I don't really know why, there's just something about the underdog in anything that I just have to root for them.
My dad ran his own autoshop, so from an early age I was exposed to a lot of cars, and a lot of car talk. All throughout his garage were calenders and posters full of car ****.
Among the car talk were many stories of yester-year. Stories through which people relive their youth. Stories of muscle cars, and mopars, and about how powerful they were. The hemi was like the be-all-end-all engine, and they had some of the most sought after muscle cars in existence, like the hemi charger, or hemi cuda, or charger daytona.
I wasn't into that. It was far too flashy for me. It wasn't underdog to me, so it's no surprise that, in my ignorance and naievity, I took to Chevy at such an early age. This was me at 5 years old.
Flash forward a few years, I'm 8 or 9... I remember the first time I laid eyes on a mopar and all on my own recognized what it was. It was a 1971 Plymouth GTX. Puke green with an air-grabber hood scoop. Despite knowing that mopar was the enemy, I couldn't help but admit that car was badass.8)
Yes, I felt the call of the darkside even at that age.:snakeman: My will was strong, but it would only be a matter of time...:clock:
That time would be about 9 years... During that time I had built a few chevy's, and fallen in and out of love with El Camino's - the ultimate underdog, lol. I wanted a new project, something different...
I became more open minded and started to appreciate all cars for what they were. I did more research on cars and I had revelation: The reason mopars are so expensive today compared other muscle cars is because back when they were new they were the underdog. I mean, ford sold 8 mustangs for every 1 barracuda. Suddenly it all made sense. I grew a deep appreciation for all things mopar and how innovative their design teams were back in the day. Always pushing the envelope and taking chances. They were the underdog all along.
I secretly always wanted a barracuda since probably the age of 12, but never thought I'd get the chance. Enter part two...
The car:
It's a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda notchback (I always preferred the notches over the more easily to find fastbacks. I think they're sexier, plus they're lighter) that started it's life as slant 6 car from Arizona.
Over the course of 40 years it went through 4 owners, and eventually found itself in the cold state of Maine, more than a far cry from the warm, desert plains it originated from.
Somewhere down the line one of the previous owners had swapped out the slant 6 K-member and put in a v8 one, as well as convert it over to disc brakes in the front and larger drums in the back with a bigger 8 1/4 rear end.
The guy we bought it from said he thinks the previous owner before him had a 383 in it, which would explain the upgrades mentioned above. He didn't know much about it's past besides that though.
He and his cousin had garages full of GM muscle cars that they were rebuilding and selling on auctions like mecum and whatnot. They were planning on doing a 440 build with it but Winter was coming and they didn't have room for it in their many garages since they were all stuffed to the brim with Chevy's, which is why they decided to let it go.
It was, and always will be me and my dad's car. We purchased the 440 they were gonna drop in it along with the car, but when we got it it was just a windshield-less roller.
Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the car when we first got it. We got it at the end of October and Winter was fast approaching, so we sprayed a little primer over some of it's surface rust before putting it away until next Spring.
That's when this pic was taken:
It had a clean Arizona title, and just as clean an undercarriage when we got it, unfortunately it's body wasn't as lucky. It's hard to see in this pic, but it looks like a real Barracuda took a bite out of the rear quarter:
Here's a pic of the interior when we got it, or lack thereof:
Despite all the dirt and the gaping hole someone cut out, they were some of the best 40 year old floors I've seen.
Doing a little sanding and filling on the hood, which I would soon swap out for a hemi hood:
A profile shot of it after a little bodywork and some primer:
Front shot of it awaiting it's hemi hood, notice the wonderful wheel alignment:
Side shot of it just before it gets it's windshield:
One of the biggest problems with all projects is lack of time, and lack of money, and this one was no exception. I was about to move to Florida in a few months, and where I was going all cars had to be running, so we weren't able to be as thorough as we would have liked. The top priority was just making sure it was road worthy.
The next step to tackle was getting this 440 into the tiny A-body:
We purchased Schumacher mounts and had to notch the K-member for oil filter clearance:
With the mounts in place the engine dropped right in with amazing stock-esque grace
Thanks Schumacher! :rock:
Being low on cash and time, we unfortunately couldn't invest in a set of Schumachers headers. So what we did was use some B-body BRB 440manifolds. There was a bit of clearance, to say the most: :-|
Due to the steering column, the driver's side was completely no-go, so what do you do when you're all out of room? You do this:
We notched the driver's side manifold to make room for the steering column
Here's a pic of it on the engine:
Yes, the manifolds are more restrictive than headers, especially with that notch in the driver's side one, but it flows better than expected. Remember, we had to work fast, this was only to get it drivable.
Even despite that, driving a big block in a light A-body is quite the rush. Before this I was used to building midsized, small block chevy's, and let me just say that after driving this car, there is no going back :twisted:
By this time I had to head off to Florida but the car wasn't ready yet. Luckily the car could stay behind for a couple more months so my dad kept working on the car. Unfortunately, since I wasn't there I don't have any pics of the work done during this time. A couple of the things he did was brace the uni-body into a full-frame, and put exhaust on it.
Flash forward a couple months and it was time for the car to head down to Florida. He hadn't gotten all the kinks out of it yet, as the charging system was a little wonky. The faster you drove the more it charged. Luckily it never popped anything during the few miles it was test driven.
Here's a pic of it up on the hauler:
The guys that hauled it told my dad they might have to take it off the truck a couple times to put and take some other cars off, which is understandable. However, when the car arrived, it had two extra miles on it, which seemed like a lot for just taking it on and off the truck a few times. Upon further inspection, I noticed that one of the coil-overs had been yanked down off the driver's side rear shock and the brake line right near it was leaking. I can only imagine what that car was subjected too during shipment.
I fixed the coil-over and brake line and solved the charging problem. I'm dying to cut the rear quarters out of it and put some fresh ones on, but I can't really do much work on the car where I am here, so I have to stick to the little things. Here are the two most recent pics of it:
It runs like a top, if only I could afford to put gas in it...
Like most projects, they're never done, and this one is no exception. I plan on tearing it down to scratch and completely redoing it from the ground up when I can. Anyways, this was way longer than it should have been. Time for me to jet, keep it fresh guys. :cheers:
The backstory; me:
Ever since I was little, I was always fond of the underdog. I don't really know why, there's just something about the underdog in anything that I just have to root for them.
My dad ran his own autoshop, so from an early age I was exposed to a lot of cars, and a lot of car talk. All throughout his garage were calenders and posters full of car ****.
Among the car talk were many stories of yester-year. Stories through which people relive their youth. Stories of muscle cars, and mopars, and about how powerful they were. The hemi was like the be-all-end-all engine, and they had some of the most sought after muscle cars in existence, like the hemi charger, or hemi cuda, or charger daytona.
I wasn't into that. It was far too flashy for me. It wasn't underdog to me, so it's no surprise that, in my ignorance and naievity, I took to Chevy at such an early age. This was me at 5 years old.
Flash forward a few years, I'm 8 or 9... I remember the first time I laid eyes on a mopar and all on my own recognized what it was. It was a 1971 Plymouth GTX. Puke green with an air-grabber hood scoop. Despite knowing that mopar was the enemy, I couldn't help but admit that car was badass.8)
Yes, I felt the call of the darkside even at that age.:snakeman: My will was strong, but it would only be a matter of time...:clock:
That time would be about 9 years... During that time I had built a few chevy's, and fallen in and out of love with El Camino's - the ultimate underdog, lol. I wanted a new project, something different...
I became more open minded and started to appreciate all cars for what they were. I did more research on cars and I had revelation: The reason mopars are so expensive today compared other muscle cars is because back when they were new they were the underdog. I mean, ford sold 8 mustangs for every 1 barracuda. Suddenly it all made sense. I grew a deep appreciation for all things mopar and how innovative their design teams were back in the day. Always pushing the envelope and taking chances. They were the underdog all along.
I secretly always wanted a barracuda since probably the age of 12, but never thought I'd get the chance. Enter part two...
The car:
It's a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda notchback (I always preferred the notches over the more easily to find fastbacks. I think they're sexier, plus they're lighter) that started it's life as slant 6 car from Arizona.
Over the course of 40 years it went through 4 owners, and eventually found itself in the cold state of Maine, more than a far cry from the warm, desert plains it originated from.
Somewhere down the line one of the previous owners had swapped out the slant 6 K-member and put in a v8 one, as well as convert it over to disc brakes in the front and larger drums in the back with a bigger 8 1/4 rear end.
The guy we bought it from said he thinks the previous owner before him had a 383 in it, which would explain the upgrades mentioned above. He didn't know much about it's past besides that though.
He and his cousin had garages full of GM muscle cars that they were rebuilding and selling on auctions like mecum and whatnot. They were planning on doing a 440 build with it but Winter was coming and they didn't have room for it in their many garages since they were all stuffed to the brim with Chevy's, which is why they decided to let it go.
It was, and always will be me and my dad's car. We purchased the 440 they were gonna drop in it along with the car, but when we got it it was just a windshield-less roller.
Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the car when we first got it. We got it at the end of October and Winter was fast approaching, so we sprayed a little primer over some of it's surface rust before putting it away until next Spring.
That's when this pic was taken:
It had a clean Arizona title, and just as clean an undercarriage when we got it, unfortunately it's body wasn't as lucky. It's hard to see in this pic, but it looks like a real Barracuda took a bite out of the rear quarter:
Here's a pic of the interior when we got it, or lack thereof:
Despite all the dirt and the gaping hole someone cut out, they were some of the best 40 year old floors I've seen.
Doing a little sanding and filling on the hood, which I would soon swap out for a hemi hood:
A profile shot of it after a little bodywork and some primer:
Front shot of it awaiting it's hemi hood, notice the wonderful wheel alignment:
Side shot of it just before it gets it's windshield:
One of the biggest problems with all projects is lack of time, and lack of money, and this one was no exception. I was about to move to Florida in a few months, and where I was going all cars had to be running, so we weren't able to be as thorough as we would have liked. The top priority was just making sure it was road worthy.
The next step to tackle was getting this 440 into the tiny A-body:
We purchased Schumacher mounts and had to notch the K-member for oil filter clearance:
With the mounts in place the engine dropped right in with amazing stock-esque grace
Thanks Schumacher! :rock:
Being low on cash and time, we unfortunately couldn't invest in a set of Schumachers headers. So what we did was use some B-body BRB 440manifolds. There was a bit of clearance, to say the most: :-|
Due to the steering column, the driver's side was completely no-go, so what do you do when you're all out of room? You do this:
We notched the driver's side manifold to make room for the steering column
Here's a pic of it on the engine:
Yes, the manifolds are more restrictive than headers, especially with that notch in the driver's side one, but it flows better than expected. Remember, we had to work fast, this was only to get it drivable.
Even despite that, driving a big block in a light A-body is quite the rush. Before this I was used to building midsized, small block chevy's, and let me just say that after driving this car, there is no going back :twisted:
By this time I had to head off to Florida but the car wasn't ready yet. Luckily the car could stay behind for a couple more months so my dad kept working on the car. Unfortunately, since I wasn't there I don't have any pics of the work done during this time. A couple of the things he did was brace the uni-body into a full-frame, and put exhaust on it.
Flash forward a couple months and it was time for the car to head down to Florida. He hadn't gotten all the kinks out of it yet, as the charging system was a little wonky. The faster you drove the more it charged. Luckily it never popped anything during the few miles it was test driven.
Here's a pic of it up on the hauler:
The guys that hauled it told my dad they might have to take it off the truck a couple times to put and take some other cars off, which is understandable. However, when the car arrived, it had two extra miles on it, which seemed like a lot for just taking it on and off the truck a few times. Upon further inspection, I noticed that one of the coil-overs had been yanked down off the driver's side rear shock and the brake line right near it was leaking. I can only imagine what that car was subjected too during shipment.
I fixed the coil-over and brake line and solved the charging problem. I'm dying to cut the rear quarters out of it and put some fresh ones on, but I can't really do much work on the car where I am here, so I have to stick to the little things. Here are the two most recent pics of it:
It runs like a top, if only I could afford to put gas in it...
Like most projects, they're never done, and this one is no exception. I plan on tearing it down to scratch and completely redoing it from the ground up when I can. Anyways, this was way longer than it should have been. Time for me to jet, keep it fresh guys. :cheers:
