Recent Acquisition - What to do with it?

[HP2]

I'd buy a complete, running short track stock car chassis and skin enough of the Plymouth to cover of the stock car chassis, and take it hot lapping at open track days. Sell of any left overs that are salvagable

Like Hot Rod's Nascarlo, https://www.hotrod.com/news/roadkill-ep-46-brings-you-nascarlo-the-street-legal-stock-car-body-swap-youve-been-waiting-for/

[Dave]

The quick right to the point update is the car is not done, but it's not too far off. It runs and yard drives and is 98% rust free now. It could be road ready in a couple weeks if I was in a hurry, which I'm not.
Here is some background - I bought the car to repair/save it and make it into a fun project, not restore it. I stayed pretty close to my original plan which was:
- chassis swap it for the practicality of it.
- keep it all Mopar of a similar vintage.
- use as many OEM used parts as I could find.
- use aftermarket parts only as a last option.
The first picture is the donor car which is a '73 4-door Dart, slant 6 automatic, 36K original miles, almost completely rust free and sat in a garage untouched for 28 years. In about 2 hours, I had it running and idling off the original 28 year old gas that was in the tank. More to come.

[MoparLeo]

Take it to a auto parts swap if you have any car shows in your area and leave it on the trailer and take  offers.

[Dave]

These are some build photos. The first ones are test fitting some sheet metal on the dart chassis. Then there are some with the sheet metal work a little further along. The outside pictures are the first time it drove out of the garage with all the sheet metal hung.

[pschlosser]

I once owned a 1970 barracuda gran coupe that was that very color, the maroon red.  the pictures of your pile of rusty metal brings back memories, and I even wonder if its the same car.  It was hauled away to a salvage yard, and I presume crushed in Northern California back in the early 1990s.  I still have the dash pad bearing the BH23G0B VIN number.

I gotta say I am impressed by your ambition to rebuild that thing.  For me, it's too far gone to consider rebuilding.  But your idea to use a frame from another car is clever, and should save you quite a bit of work.  In all practical terms, you're building an e-body from scratch.  I'll be watching with interest as you continue to report your progress.

It is sooo cool to see that valiant instrument and steering wheel in your barracuda body.  Well done.

[Dave]

The car is on the lift right now and I tried to get some pictures of the underside but they just wouldn't come out good, but the chassis retains almost all of it's original thick factory undercoating and the car looks stock from underneath. One other bonus of using a dart chassis is the tracking width on a dart is quite a bit narrower than a cuda (can't remember off the top of my head what the dimensions are) so, with the rear springs in the stock mounting location on the body, you can fit at least a 15" x 13" wide rim underneath the factory sheet metal. There is currently 10" wide rims on the rear and there is about 4" between the spring and the rim. The front rims are 8" x 15" and I think I could go as wide as 10" x 15". One other important dimension on a dart, if anybody considers doing something like this, is the pinch weld width at the rockers is close enough to a cuda to make it do-able without changing the width. One more thing, the latest outside pictures that I posted are about a year and a half old now and the car is further along. I'll try to post some recent pictures before too long.

[Katfish]

Really cool, looking forward to the updates!

[ec_co]

soooo .... what happened to that low mileage /6? .....

[Dave]

soooo .... what happened to that low mileage /6? .....

The slant 6 is still under the hood looking a little crusty and very original. It's very handy for moving it that it runs and drives.

[RUNCHARGER]

This is pretty cool. I like the offset of the wheels. The Darts are 111 inch wheelbase I think?

[larry4406]

WOW!

I didn't see this coming.

So the wheelbase of the 4-door dart and the cuda are the same?

Looks like you put a cuda roof on as well.

What will you do for the dash?

[Dave]

WOW!

I didn't see this coming.

So the wheelbase of the 4-door dart and the cuda are the same?

Looks like you put a cuda roof on as well.

What will you do for the dash?

I shortened the dart chassis by 2 or 3 inches, but it's been about 2 years so I don't remember by exactly how much. One of my original goals was not to change any body dimensions of the cuda.
Yes, the original roof was cut off the cuda and re-used.
The car has changed some. The pictures you are looking at are a year and a half old. It now has the original cuda dash in it. I'll get some current pictures at some point and post them.

[cuda hunter]

If there is any interest, I could do an update on this car.

Definitely some interest. 

[Dave]

The last pictures I posted are from about a year and half ago. Since then I got a windshield, seats, dash and some other odds and ends done. I decided I should put some sealer on the car, so when I get the glass in it, I can park it outside. The color you see on the car is one thin coat of some leftover sealer that I had that I tinted to look like 1970 Plymouth purple. At some point, I may want to change the appearance but I like looking at it the way it is for now. Being an ex-body man, I could finish this car at any level I desired. My mindset was kind of, to me the car will always be what it is, an American icon of an old muscle car that's been to hell and back and survived. I didn't want to hide all of its history with a shiny paint job, so I left the battle scars alone. The billboards are there just because I could. The deck lid is because now she has been built in America twice. The billboards and deck lid are done with a rattle can.

[pschlosser]

That decklid is subtle and bad ass.