Gills and shaker hood

[dvldwg89]

So eventually I will be putting the gills back on my 71 Cuda.
My question is will it be easier to put new oem quarters on it or have a pro install them on my current front quarters? How much is involved in either choice? Complete repaint ?
Replacing the hood back to original shaker will be in the future as well. I'm open to all ideas and or past experiences with this. It's an original 383 shaker hood car.

[anlauto]

What kind of documentation do you have with the car, is it an original rear window louver car as well ? Beautiful car

[dvldwg89]

Fender tag and 2 build sheets. Numbers matching.  Engine and tranny all numbers matching. Rear louvers and vynal top all original. It's missing the gills, shaker hood and a thin black vynal stripe that has thin chrome surrounding it. Wheel well chrome missing as well. I'm 95 % sure this car was robbed of its parts for one of the 4 Miami Vice Cudas. It still has the 2 pull handles inside for the shaker hood.

[anlauto]

WOW...very nice...

[dvldwg89]

So any ideas on my questions? I know you have restored many mopars

[70 Challenger Lover]

I looked into this on my base model 71. Spoke with a professional painter who was pretty known for good color matching. His advice was if I did the hood swap only, he'd do the hood and also the tops of the fenders so that no matter what lighting condition existed, you'd never notice any subtle color variation with the break occurring at the corners of the fenders going down.

On the gills, he thought he could make them look nice but he warned that without painting the whole car, there might be times when it was noticeable since there's a lot of fender area next to the doors.

Mine's a metallic color though so maybe that makes a difference?

[anlauto]

I don't think you're getting away without paint work...the patch panels, if installed correctly would be un-detectable to most in my opinion....

Years ago there was a guy stamping Barracuda fenders, TONY'S PARTS maybe, I can't remember, but still lots involved with shipping etc...

I would likely wait until you have the hood and fenders sorted out, then have the whole car painted at the same time to ensure a colour match..

[Mr Cuda]

Is that an automatic  or 4spd?
71's are not common,  but it's amazing how many 383 shaker , sassy grass, with louvers I've seen.  There was one here locally  that of course went national once sold.

[Marty]

I don't think you're getting away without paint work...the patch panels, if installed correctly would be un-detectable to most in my opinion....

Years ago there was a guy stamping Barracuda fenders, TONY'S PARTS maybe, I can't remember, but still lots involved with shipping etc...

I would likely wait until you have the hood and fenders sorted out, then have the whole car painted at the same time to ensure a colour match..

By the time the hood and gills were installed, the painter would be blending into the doors anyway. That's more than half that car. It would be easier just to paint the whole car than take the time and effort to do the blending process.

Really nice looking car by the way.

[dvldwg89]

Thanks guys. It's an automatic. It looks like I'll do some planning then. Might be awhile till I can do this. Money's tight right now.