The Cuda shows his age at some corners, the black color of the carpets is fading, the silver paint on the console and dash is partly gone and i would like to have a tachometer instead of the performance indicator. The heater box butterflies bind. It's time for a new carpet, chrome polishing and some silver paint and a heater box rebuild. All parts are from Classic Industries.
I startet over with the heater box rebuild, the main problem was the missing foam allover.
One of the best foam stripes, rusty doors.
I dipped the rusty doors in Evaporust to clean it, then i glued on the new foams with
spray glue.
Reassembling the box, painting the fan motor, ready for mounting. Check all the butterflies
for proper operation, i had one binding after torquing the heater element.
Next step was painting the trim from the console and dash board. I used flat silverspray for wheels, it looks really stock. Instead of masking the Barracuda fish, i used a brush and grease, i painted the fish with the grease, the i sprayed the flat silver, let it dry over night, then cut with a razor blade around the emblems and wipped the silver off!
Underneath the fresh painted console, you'll see the faded black carpet:
The new tachometer is installed, recognise the speedometer, i had to change it from mph to km/h, it's state law.
The tachometer from the backside, it fits perfect without any cutting. The red wire is wrong, i had to move it to the ignition key.
Stripping the interior shows nice floor sheet metal. The Cuda had a well live
I glued the carpet in the trunk compartment with contact adhesive, the same one i used for my vinyl roof on the 66 1/2 Satellite. It resist up to 300° F! Important for a long life in a hot car. Apply to both sides, let it dry until it ends sticking, then put the parts together!!!
It's important to align the parts and fix it before glueing.
The finished work looks like this:
Before you test drive, let your wife check the oil level ))))
I startet over with the heater box rebuild, the main problem was the missing foam allover.
One of the best foam stripes, rusty doors.
I dipped the rusty doors in Evaporust to clean it, then i glued on the new foams with
spray glue.
Reassembling the box, painting the fan motor, ready for mounting. Check all the butterflies
for proper operation, i had one binding after torquing the heater element.
Next step was painting the trim from the console and dash board. I used flat silverspray for wheels, it looks really stock. Instead of masking the Barracuda fish, i used a brush and grease, i painted the fish with the grease, the i sprayed the flat silver, let it dry over night, then cut with a razor blade around the emblems and wipped the silver off!
Underneath the fresh painted console, you'll see the faded black carpet:
The new tachometer is installed, recognise the speedometer, i had to change it from mph to km/h, it's state law.
The tachometer from the backside, it fits perfect without any cutting. The red wire is wrong, i had to move it to the ignition key.
Stripping the interior shows nice floor sheet metal. The Cuda had a well live
I glued the carpet in the trunk compartment with contact adhesive, the same one i used for my vinyl roof on the 66 1/2 Satellite. It resist up to 300° F! Important for a long life in a hot car. Apply to both sides, let it dry until it ends sticking, then put the parts together!!!
It's important to align the parts and fix it before glueing.
The finished work looks like this:
Before you test drive, let your wife check the oil level ))))