My 64 Barracuda Progress

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fadingfastsd

fadingfastsd

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Well I'm getting to work on the Barracuda, so I'm gonna document my progress here for anybody to follow.
I'm not sure with the long term direction I'll be going with the car, it certainly won't be a full restoration any time soon, but I plan on continuing to build a badass, reliable daily driver out of this Barracuda.

Just to get everybody up to speed, its a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda, which I bought a couple weeks ago here in San Diego for $4k.

I bought it off a lady who was recently divorced and the husband had done the work on it. She originally had it advertised as "fully restored", and was convinced the car was worth $10k. I went to look at it, and it was nice, but lots of rough spots. The driver side door is completely jammed shut, exhaust was just plain horrible (It was an original /6 car, but now has a 273 in it... and has the original tranny crossmember. It was not notched, and the pipes were VERY low, as well as the ridiculous mufflers were way too low, and the whole exhaust system dragged just turning corners), the tires are all just about completely shot, front end needs an alignment badly, interior needs lots of little work.

Anyways, I told her I would offer $3k for the car, which she was not happy with. I received a call the next day to get the car for $4k. I happily picked it up that night, filled up the flat tire, and drove her home. Clean title, cost $45 to transfer & register, and the project begins!

On the bright side, it has a nice clean 273 in it, with a 4 speed and Hurst shifter. Engine runs like a top, but has developed a knock from #1 cylinder that needs some looking into. Clutch seems to be in pretty bad shape as well.

Here are the initial pictures to show what I'm working with:

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So I'm off! First things first, get that horrible exhaust fixed!
Next post coming soon.
 
Ok first order of business. Shes a daily driver, and the exhaust is so horrible, it drags on turning, or hitting any sort of bump that flexes the rear.
Like I said above, it was an original /6 car, and the PO didnt notch the crossmember for the exhaust. They also hung HUGE box side exit mufflers (no idea what these came off of) just ahead of the rear tires, and they drag as well. I don't have a great pic of the old exhaust, but it was done horribly. The pipes off the headers rub on the shift linkage, tie rods, used 2.5" & 3" pipe all the way back, changing diameters like 3 times. Pretty ridiculous!

I don't have a good pic showing how bad the exhaust was under the car, but heres a pic kind of showing how low the cans were:

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So I took the car down to Bob Napolitano's Discount Muffler & Brake in downtown San Diego. Bob Napolitano is a badass old New Yorker, who is a straight shooter with good prices and honest work. For $400, he built a whole new exhaust system, with clean bends up front clearing the tie rods, 2" pipe off the collector, 2 1/4" duals all the way back to 2 Flowmaster 40 series, dumped under the car just ahead of the axle. I opted for this as the pipe would be pretty low to run under the axle all the way back, and I wanted to minimize any clearance issues. He also notched the crossmember on the passenger side, and then plated it back in for strength.

I forgot to take pics while it was up on the lift, but I got a few under the car yesterday. I'll take better ones next time I have it jacked up.

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I'll post up a clip of how it sounds tomorrow too.

What do you think!?

Next up: rims & tires.
 
That is some good lookin exhaust work there. I bet it sounds bitchin!:snakeman:
 
Thanks Mr2.4! It does sound good.
Its perfect volume, sounds pretty mean, but not obnoxiously loud at idle unless you really stomp on it!
 
Your muffler shop notched the crossmember while it was on the car? Cool idea, I hadn't thought about that. I found these plans (maybe on this website) for my future exhaust, but it's kinda a pain in the a&&.
Keep us posted, good luck on your project, can't wait to see where you go with this!

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Yup they notched it while on the car. Whenever I'm under there soon I'll take a better pic of the notch.
They did a good job, and welded it up to reinforce it. Looks pretty good, is solid, and lets the pipe tuck up there pretty well.
 
I was also gonna say, I love the sound but there is a couple drawbacks to this setup.
There is quite a bit of interior resonance from having the pipes dumped at the axle. Also, the exhaust smell is pretty noticeable in the cab if you're sitting at a light for awhile. Its fine while driving.
 
Well needed some new tires and rims real soon.
Picked up some awesome slotted mags off of member Vic Storm on here, Great guy!

They're small bolt pattern, 14" rims, 7" in back, and 6" in front.
Heres a couple pics I got from him:

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Can't wait to get them mounted up on my fish.

Also, I'm doing some web design work for a couple of guys who are mopar mechanics. They were on the bullrun TV show and need a website for their blog of the show.
They're going to go through the engine and trans on the cuda for me and get it sorted out. Its developed a bad knock, and the trans is hard to get into first & second.

More coming soon!
 
Hey, just curious if those exhaust dumps will pass state inspection. I had an old Chevelle with exhaust dumps in front of the axle like yours many years ago while I was living in SoCal. I had to get cheesy tubes tacked on for side dumps before they would even smog it. Of couse I took them right back off!:toothy10:
 
Nice barracuda=P~ Keep us updated :-D
 
Hey man! I guess great minds think alike on this site :D I didn't see you were on this site until I did a search and came across it! I look forward to meeting you on Saturday when I come into town!

Tony
 
Nice score. I've been watching that on CL for a while. I never called though because, like you said, she seemed convinced that it was worth $10K. "I'm scorned, not stupid" is what she said in the ad...sounds pretty stupid to me. Anyway, good job and maybe I'll see you at a cruise once I get a Barracuda of my own.

RedScampi-there isn't any inspection or smog on anything older than I think '75 out here. Whoohoo!
 
RedScampi said:
Hey, just curious if those exhaust dumps will pass state inspection. I had an old Chevelle with exhaust dumps in front of the axle like yours many years ago while I was living in SoCal. I had to get cheesy tubes tacked on for side dumps before they would even smog it. Of couse I took them right back off!:toothy10:
Click to expand...

Hey Red, no inspection is needed in CA. No smog either if older than a 76. So it really doesn't matter :).

Tony, great meeting you & your Dad today! Looking forward to working with you guys. I'll talk with you soon!

And JohnnyB, yep the lady was pretty crazy.
I went and looked at it the first time with it being "fully restored" in mind. Upon seeing it I was pretty disappointed. I offered $3k just to see what would happen. She said she wanted over $5k minimum. However, a couple days later she called me and needed it gone. Said she'd do $4700, but I countered with $4k no more, and gave her a list of what it would need. A couple hours later I was driving it home :)!

So an update -

Car is over at the shop, and it will be getting a new engine, clutch, possibly a trans but we'll see what kind of shape its in when they tear into it.
The rod knock was horrible by the time I got the car there, so rather than deal with the 273, it'll be getting a 318.
Gonna go with a nice used 318, intake, cam, 4bbl carb and probably stock headers. Should be a nice combo and wake the car up a bit.

I'll keep you guys updated.
 
Is it my perception as a New Yorker, or is the west coast just full of nice, rust free old cars and specialty shops that work on them?

Love the 2-tone colors. Good luck with it!
 
kcoyle said:
Is it my perception as a New Yorker, or is the west coast just full of nice, rust free old cars and specialty shops that work on them?
Click to expand...

Nope it's true! Much less salt on the roads on this side of the world since we typically have fairly mild winters. The cars just last longer. As for shops - you have to know where to go. They're not on every street corner, that's for sure. Getting an old car painted well can be a real challenge!
 
Just picked up my rims & tires.

Here's a couple pics:

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I'm headed down to the shop to drop them off this afternoon.

An update on the engine, talked to Paul Wagner of Wagner Racing &
Team Dart on Bullrun (check out www.team-dart.com, the website I traded them for the engine work on the Cuda). The new 318 is in, and he said its sounding killer and running great. Ended up with a NEW 318, hot cam & 4bbl carb. I'll have more info on that later.
 
those are gonna look great on your barracuda! can't wait to hear the new motor with that exhaust.
 
clifftt said:
Your muffler shop notched the crossmember while it was on the car? Cool idea, I hadn't thought about that. I found these plans (maybe on this website) for my future exhaust, but it's kinda a pain in the a&&.
Keep us posted, good luck on your project, can't wait to see where you go with this!
Click to expand...

Hehe. Those hands look familar.

Nice job on the exhaust
 
Ok another quick update.

Paul Wagner (www.team-dart.com) finished up the engine swap.
He said the new 318 is killer, runs great and hauls ***.
I haven't seen it yet with the new engine, but I can't wait.
I'll post tons of pics and specs on the engine as soon as I have the car back.

The new rims & tires are on the car. I had a holdup, as the rims came with mag lugs ( I was coming off stock rims and lugs), but they were all right hand threaded. ( I assume the guy I bought them from had swapped his left hand threaded studs to all right hand thread). So thanks to help on here from everybody in the early A forum, I found the mag lugs I needed by Cragar and got them overnight from Summit.

So, the car is back together, and at the alignment shop as of yesterday.
Just as I was expecting, the front end is too worn out to align.
I knew the camber was horrible but I was hoping some of the alignment shims fell out or something.
Nope...looks like the camber problem was a destroyed ball joint.

So they gave me a quick quote of $750 to rebuild the front end (all new bushings, ball joints and labor). I think I'll just have them go ahead and do that.
I priced out front end kits from PST at about $500 for parts anyways, so $750 including labor doesn't sound too bad.

She'll also be getting a set of air shocks on the back to free up room for the tires. Paul said the rear tires rubbed the top of the fenderwell at any sort of compression.

So thats the latest, more coming soon. I should have the car back next week!
Can't wait!!
 
Thanks alot!
Ya the color looks ok in pics, but if you see it in person up close its not too hot.
The gold/silver color is pretty faded and scratched up. The black is not done well at all.

The black is flat and not a good quality paint.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do as far as repaint. Once all the mechanical stuff is sorted out I'll figure that out.
 
Paint and Body are usually the most expensive,I,m saving that for last on my 66 Dart.Ive swapped to disc. up front and a 8 3/4 s.g with moser axels.I replaced my driveshaft with a73 swinger 318,904 auto.The length was perfect just changed mmy u-joint to bigger 7290 to match the .489 chunk.What rear are you running in your car?Are you upgrading?
 
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