Some may have seen my other posts, some may not have seen them but I've been looking at a 71 Barracuda convertible that has been up for sale off and on for the past couple years. I finally flew out there to inspect it and it's even better than I hoped!
The sellers are super nice and very accommodating. It was easy to trust them early on.
The underside is very nice with no evidence of any corrosion. The body is very nice and straight and the paint looks fresh even though it is a 10 year old paint job. No chips anywhere and tons of shine. All body gaps are fantastic and the best part is the doors open and close nice and easy like a modern car. Same with the power top.
There's a couple small things that aren't perfect but easily fixed when it's home. Stuff like surface rust on engine brackets. The boot is original to the car and truly looks new but most of the clips have broken so that will be one other thing I fix.
It's not a perfect 100 point car but it's about as nice as anything I'd ever want or hope for. Just driving it around town, I was surprised how many people gawked at it or waved to us. I see that in my other cars but never to the extent I saw with this car.
Once home, I plan to go over it carefully checking for any issues and of course to put in fresh fluids. There's a couple tiny things that need to be corrected like a radio when there should be none but my focus is going to be making it and keeping it as close to original as when it left the factory.
Congrats, gotta love new additions! Enjoy! :bradsthumb:
Congratulations, she's gorgeous. :twothumbsup:
Congrats. Nice to find one so original.
Beautiful!!!! :1place: :perfect10: Congratulations. :congrats: :woohoo:
Absolutely gorgeous and no wonder why she's turning heads!! Congratulations!! :twothumbsup: What a great time to buy- you'll get to enjoy her all Summer long!
Congrats, that's a gorgeous car!!
Once I get her home, I'll get some really nice photos posted. It was a gloomy day in Connecticut.
That is a stunning Barracuda VERT :perfect10:
Well done, plane tickets are cheap when you consider your investment and looks like you did well
Quote from: 340challconvert on May 04, 2019, 04:38:05 PM
That is a stunning Barracuda VERT :perfect10:
I really can't believe no one ever bought it. He's had it for sale in various places for two years. I crawled everywhere on the car and I couldn't find anything wrong. It drives so nice and smooth too. I drove it with the top up and it was nice and tight and quiet. No air whistles along glass edges or anything. Once I go over it at home and give it a final certification, I plan to take it on some nice long cruises. The guy has only driven it 5000 miles since the total restoration. It needs some road time.
The guy wouldn't go a penny under $50k but I felt it was a real deal at that price for an all numbers matching convertible. It was so nice I would have bought it even if numbers didn't match. I've been scouring the Internet for quite some time and I've only come across a couple of these cars that haven't been cloned into Cudas, both at a much higher asking price and not nearly as nice in my opinion.
I think if he advertised it better, it would have been gone long ago. The pictures he had on eBay did not come close to doing this car justice. Even the pictures I took aren't as good as how it appears in person.
Great car!
Congrats and enjoy!
:bravo:
I'm glad it all worked out for you, I love happy endings :inlove:
Quote from: anlauto on May 04, 2019, 05:16:36 PM
I'm glad it all worked out for you, I love happy endings :inlove:
Me too! So many of us preach about inspecting cars before we buy and it's good advice but in this case, it was much nicer than I expected rather than worse. Probably the best thing that came from the trip was meeting the sellers. They turned out to be super nice people and it takes all of the stress out knowing I'll be wiring money to people I have actually met and now trust. I think if I had not met them, I'd be losing sleep until the car was on the transport worrying if they were trustworthy. I suppose the end result would be the same but now I can rest assured that it's all coming to come together nicely.
Many years ago, back on the other site; @MEK-Dangerous was in contact with an acquaintance/member of that site, who had a Gold vert.
I recall the owner was a retired Post office person? :thinking:
Was this that same car?
This seems too much of a coincidence.
The car and the plates indicate to me it was the same car.
Really nice car. Hope to see it in person someday.
Congrats on your new addition to the family! Sweet ride! :twothumbsup:
I love seeing an ebody with a flat hood! Convertibles are the best, enjoy!
E body vert's rock ! .... jus sayin' :ohyeah:
Quote from: Topcat on May 04, 2019, 05:58:20 PM
Many years ago, back on the other site; @MEK-Dangerous was in contact with an acquaintance/member of that site, who had a Gold vert.
I recall the owner was a retired Post office person? :thinking:
Was this that same car?
This seems too much of a coincidence.
The car and the plates indicate to me it was the same car.
Really nice car. Hope to see it in person someday.
The seller explained that he bought it in the early 80s for 1500 but it had some quarter damage and was already ready for a restoration. The seller then was the owner of a body shop and supposedly he was the second owner. The guy I'm buying the car from said when he was selling his house recently, a real estate agent looking at the place saw the car in the garage and commented that he was the original owner.
The car seems to have spent its whole life in Connecticut but it's certainly possible there's another owner in there somewhere who was a postman.
The seller said he was going to dig up all the old photos and papers he had connected with the car and hand them over. It will be interesting to look through it all.
Sweet , Good find !!
Quote from: Chryco Psycho on May 04, 2019, 07:58:41 PM
Sweet , Good find !!
A new member here, Playmor71 was considering this car but didn't actually see it in person or have it inspected. They were haggling on price but Playmor wasn't willing to go over 46k for some reason. I think if he had seen it in person, he would have found the extra 4K. I am certain that if I tried to flip the car, I could turn a decent profit. It's really that nice if you find the right buyer who likes the color combos. This is a bucket list car for me so I'll never find out try to sell it.
Congratulations. I was hoping to meet you at the spring fling on sunday, but I never did. Hopefully we will see this car in person at the spring or fall fling. Looks like you finally found the right car. Thanks for telling us the price because thats always fun to know. Did I miss the engine size of this beauty? Tranny?
Quote from: nsmall on May 04, 2019, 08:57:56 PM
Congratulations. I was hoping to meet you at the spring fling on sunday, but I never did. Hopefully we will see this car in person at the spring or fall fling. Looks like you finally found the right car. Thanks for telling us the price because thats always fun to know. Did I miss the engine size of this beauty? Tranny?
So it's a 318 with a console shifted automatic. Would much rather have a 4 speed but this really is the right car for an auto plus having bucket seats and a console gives it a nice sporty look inside. I've wanted a 71 Cuda for so many years and prices of these cars are such that I knew I couldn't walk away from this car or I'd forever regret it. I'll still have the big block four speed 70 Challenger so that can satisfy the go fast urges while this car satisfies the cruise needs. Plus the wife doesn't care for driving stick shifts or for loud exhaust. I have a feeling she is gonna want to drive it. Uh-oh, what Have I done?
I am definitely bringing this car to the flings! This car will look killer out there in the sun.
We can't wait to see it. I'm so happy for you. Sounds like you and the wife are lucky you grabbed this 71 even though it's been on the market for so long. :cheers:
A bit bored at work so I thought I'd throw up a few more pics of this beauty. I hope to get it as factory correct as possible so if anyone sees anything that isn't quite correct, please say so. So far, I know I need to paint the rear light bezels body color and remove the radio.
Guess it would help to attach the photos...
Couple more...
:twothumbsup: Congratulations, that is a fantastic car!! I'm seriously jealous. :banana: :cheers:
WOW just WOW, this is a beauty. Love the color. It is hard to believe it survived like this and that no one bought it and threw a Hemi and a shaker on it. Best of luck with it.
JS27
Quote from: js27 on May 07, 2019, 09:00:18 AM
WOW just WOW, this is a beauty. Love the color. It is hard to believe it survived like this and that no one bought it and threw a Hemi and a shaker on it. Best of luck with it.
JS27
I know..I keep thinking the same thing. I told myself that any future cars I bought would be ones I could feel free to modify to my own liking but this car is really neat just like it is. If I went back and time and ordered one, the only thing I might have done different is to get a 340 and a four speed. I'm definitely leaving it alone. No four barrel, dual exhaust, cam change, etc. if I can ever decipher the build sheet down to the last detail, I'd make every effort to put it just like it left the factory. I think the only exception will be the wheels. It appears the original ones were the saucer hubcaps and those are just too ugly to put back on. Not sure if the space saver spare is original either.
Gotta have one of the interior too!
ALL convertible came standard with the space saver spare :alan2cents:
space-saver is STANDARD on a convertible - :alan2cents: it's probably original to the car
steering wheel should be wood-grain :huh: the black wheel was STANDARD in 1971 Barracudas (BH)
Quote from: anlauto on May 07, 2019, 09:31:09 AM
ALL convertible came standard with the space saver spare :alan2cents:
Thanks! I was wondering about that. There is probably a ton of things unique to the convertibles that I'm going to have to learn.
Very cool! Congratulations.
Quote from: 6bblgt on May 07, 2019, 09:35:06 AM
space-saver is STANDARD on a convertible - :alan2cents: it's probably original to the car
steering wheel should be wood-grain
I was wondering about the steering wheel too. I'm not that great at the build sheet decoding thing but when I tried to decipher the codes, it looked like black was original after all. What am I missing?
:rubeyes: you are correct - the STANDARD steering wheel is "wood-grain S81" (bottom line) but it is not coded for it, it does indeed show a "BLACK" pebble-grain steering wheel on line 3 :takealook:
the black steering wheel was part of the A93 "lower-cost coupe" Barracuda package - & that's the only place I've ever seen one 8) now it's definitely 1 of 1 :D
I'll have to see if any others are coded for the black steering wheel - maybe there was a shortage of the wood-grain, or other scenario :dunno:
also the car has a 1970 Challenger speedometer, which is common during winter 1970/spring 1971 production
So the buyer wanted to save a couple bucks with the low cost group but paid extra for the map light and dash clock. I think the black wheel looks better in my opinion, especially against the black gauge bezels.
By the way, is the map light and switch supposed to be under the dash? The thing is in such an odd location that the seller forgot the car had it until we were inspecting the car. You can see the switch under the glove box in this picture and it was taken with the light switched on.
the A93 package wasn't something you could order on a convertible - the steering wheel in your car is "just" not normal/odd
the map light is correct under the dash, it's a convertible "thing" because you don't have a dome light
I didn't think about the lack of dome light so I guess it would make sense to have something else. Just not very functional under there.
So far, I'd like to paint the rear tail light bezels body color since everyone is saying they shouldn't be black, add the underhood pad, and redo some of the engine bracket stuff that was never painted and has a bit of corrosion on them.
The car did not have a shroud and it's a four blade fan but not sure it that is supposed to be that way. Still need to decipher some of the codes on the first couple lines of the build sheet. I'm used to big block stuff so need to get up to speed on small block things.
Get rid of the radio as well :alan2cents:
Quote from: 70 Challenger Lover on May 07, 2019, 04:34:47 PM
The car did not have a shroud and it's a four blade fan but not sure it that is supposed to be that way.
My 318 'vert came with an 18 inch rad, no shroud and a 4 blade fan...I'd have to say yours is correct.
found the answer to the Steering Wheel question - the BLACK "pebble-grain" steering wheel is STANDARD on the '71 Barracuda (BH) :huh:
BH - BLACK = STANDARD (including A93) & RIM BLOW = OPTIONAL
BP - WOOD = STANDARD & RIM BLOW = OPTIONAL
BS - WOOD = STANDARD & RIM BLOW = OPTIONAL
my '71 Barracuda had the wood-grain steering wheel, :thinking: I guess that didn't make production
So that makes sense...it still has its original standard wheel. And Alan, yes I forgot to add that I plan to ditch the radio. I got lucky that the seller did not put an antenna back on. He said it had one before so he assumed it came with the radio originally. The fender got switched out during the restoration and he chose not to have an antenna when the car was restored. Lucky me. If there was a hole, I wouldn't have much of a choice. I just need to figure out how to block off the dash radio hole unless someone makes a delete bezel.
https://forum.e-bodies.org/parts-misc-for-sale/9/cuda-challenger-radio-delete-plate/11031/msg151857#msg151857
As soon as I get the car, I'm ordering this plate. Thanks for posting it!
Really pretty car, so nice :clapping: :clapping:
Nice score and I know I couldn't afford a 71 so had to make a clone.
The 71 has always been a dream car for me and the last few years I've watched them skyrocket in price (probably because so many have been turned into hemi clones). I was getting to a point where I wasn't sure it would ever happen, even considered cloning a different year into a 71 myself. I don't see it as that much different than people who build cobra kit cars because real cobras are insanely expensive. Those kit cars sell for a ton of money too, as do other clones.
This one seemed to be within reach at $50k so even though it was before my timetable, I knew I should just go for it before it was gone. I think a deal does come around now and then but certain cars you just have to jump on them when the opportunity presents itself. The only reason things lined up for me was that the seller kept advertising his car so badly that it smacked of not being legit.
Quote from: 70 Challenger Lover on May 08, 2019, 07:19:19 AM
The 71 has always been a dream car for me and the last few years I've watched them skyrocket in price (probably because so many have been turned into hemi clones). I was getting to a point where I wasn't sure it would ever happen, even considered cloning a different year into a 71 myself. I don't see it as that much different than people who build cobra kit cars because real cobras are insanely expensive. Those kit cars sell for a ton of money too, as do other clones.
This one seemed to be within reach at $50k so even though it was before my timetable, I knew I should just go for it before it was gone. I think a deal does come around now and then but certain cars you just have to jump on them when the opportunity presents itself. The only reason things lined up for me was that the seller kept advertising his car so badly that it smacked of not being legit.
I agree. Now it has me wondering if other brand of cars that aren't popular will there price go up since people can afford those. Let say for example a 68 Buick skylark