Finished! Brutal 'Cuda

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nates68

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
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Location
Puyallup, WA
Here's my build that I already have in progress.

Stock Stats:
'68 barracuda fastback
-318/904 column
-original paint, lots of rust
-filthy interior
-will need a total resto

I bought this car in Seattle from the daughter of the original owners for 1K!
I drove it home (barely) and tore into it the next day! It's been about 8 years now and there have been long periods of inactivity due to house remodeling (never done!), family life, etc...
I am hoping to finally stay moving forward and will be sharing the mods as I go. My goals are to build a resto mod but as all projects go it may change to more road race, or more modern comfort. One thing for sure is that it will not be a stock restoration, I want this to drive like a modern performance car.



So here are some pics and descriptions to bring it up to speed!
 

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More pics:
 

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More pics:

Lots of cutting and welding! Learned to use a mig on thin sheetmetal. Also learned that a small rust hole can turn into half of a panel!
 

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Nice solid project. But how do you sleep at night knowing you stole that car?

I wish I could find something like that for a grand.
 
And yet more pics! There are huge timeline gaps on some of these, like years!
My excuse for that is every time something more important or pressing came up I had to put the car on hold! (like putting a new 454 in the class A motorhome, hardest install EVER:angry6: Residing the house, and other such small annoyances. Such is life...

-Pulling motor and trans out the right way (note the blue rope!)
-smoothed engine bay, painted up with epoxy
-K all seam welded and gusseted
-cleaning and prepping underside
 

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...Getting closer to current
-Note rare 'trim' option on roof (I finally built a rack in the garage rafters to store the trim, since it's not actually in the house yet :D
-Starting to block out highbuild primer, skinny guy is me, I run long distance competitively (10k, 1/2 marathon, etc...)
-68 taillights look strange huh, I powder coated the metal and painted the reverse lenses matte black to match. I want it more aggressive looking than the stock lenses; the trim and lenses never matched that good anyway.
 

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And lastly...
-rear spoiler aka 'duck tail'. Used 18 ga. sheet metal, 6 separate pieces, a bazillion little welds, duraglass, and finally skim of filler. Epoxy primer and onto high build primer.
-Welded in subframe connector, notched rear of square tubing to match rear frame
-Powder coated 4 speed pedal assy.

I have other stuff that I powder coated in matte black like:
-wing window frames
-hurst shifter


Hopefully you can get an idea of the 'theme' of this car. I really like cars like Steve Strope's 'Hammer', etc...

-I will be running a 408 stroker/833 4 speed/8-3/4 rear
-17 or 18 inch wheels
-lowered stance with suspension mods for good handling, corner carving
-4 wheel disc brakes
-modern bucket seats, interior

Enjoy!:burnout:
 

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Hmmm, the color. I am torn between something bright like rally red, hemi orange, maybe even white -or- charcoal, silver, etc...
It will have matte black accents on the trim (may anodize the driprail/window trim black) rear of trunk, maybe hood. Looking for something that says this car is serious and menacing, little to no chrome or shiny stuff (a few chrome/polished accents are good though) hence the 'Brutal 'Cuda.
 
Nice job on the duck tail, looks like it came from the factory that way. Cool build, looking forward to more.
 
Great project I'll be following this build.That spoiler looks great it reminds Me of the Savage GT barracuda's !
 
Yeah, there was tons of money, wrappers, some tools under that seat. It was like a time capsule.

Got the underside coated w/3M paintable undercoating and proceded to paint it matte black. It is more of an orange peel finish than the factory stuff that is like dried lava. Will get some pics up.

Also took a break from bodywork and recovered the dash! Had to cover it with a thin layer of dense closed cell foam since it was cracked a bit. Used a good auto grade vinyl (uv resistant, etc..) stitched up a seam across the front. I used a super strong contact adhesive we have at work, not the home depot stuff. The trick for me was to lay the seam down first w/vinyl inside out and then get the rest on. Careful use of a heat gun helped on the corners. Now I just need to do the lower 2 since it's a 68. Will try to get a better pic.

View attachment DSC07500.JPG
 
That is easily the cleanest broadcast sheet I have ever seen.
 
Nice work! Gonna be a cool build! Take a current pic of the young lad by the pass door, to get an idea of a timeline for the progress. Keep up the good work!
 
Looks like your boy is growing up fast. Better keep moving on the car so it will be done before he gets his license. You need time to enjoy the car all to yourself.
 
That is easily the cleanest broadcast sheet I have ever seen.

I thought the exact same thing when I saw that photo.

It looks like you have a really cool plan that you are executing methodically. The fact that you started with a 1k on a really decent car is laudable.

I will follow this build. Looks great so far.
 
The young boy in the earlier pic is the 12 yr old sanding w/ me in the current pic. We have 3 boys; 7,10 and 12 yrs old so it's busy around here. Time waits for no one! :clock:

The broadcast sheet was amazing, I put it into a plastic sleeve for safe keeping.


One thing I haven't mentioned about this build is that I want it to be an exercise in smart planning/spending. What I mean by that is not throwing money at it just to feel like I'm making progress. Not buying a crate engine when I can build my own. Learning to weld so I can repair panels and open up a world of fab possibilities, stuff like that. Doing as much as the work myself as possible if the outcome is what I am happy with. Of course the problem with this plan is how much time do I have in my day to keep things moving forward.

Really, if I am not enjoying working on it now, will I enjoy it when it's done?
 
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