After 30 years of owning my first e-body, a '71 Challenger R/T that I bought when I was 16, I picked up this '71 Barracuda this past May.
Someday I might start a thread on the Challenger. For now, the Barracuda is what I'm wrenching on along with my teenage daughters.
How I found and bought it:
I found the car on a craigslist ad reposted here on ebodies.org. I contacted the owner and flew down to Orlando from Wisconsin to look at it. Worked out a deal, and had the car shipped up to Wisconsin about a week later.
History:
The car has been in Florida the last 2 years and was previously in Utah. It has had typical e-body body work and a repaint about 15 years ago. Other than some "Day 2" mods I'm finding that is still pretty original even with 96k miles.
Here is the car being loaded on the carrier and after it was dropped off in Wisconsin 2 days later.
That is one cooool car! Love the XV interior. Not many of those around! much less in the original skin.
As you can see by the fender tag in the first post, the car is an original EV2 with the H5XV orange with cloth insert seats. I first saw the H5XV interior in a 71 'Cuda that was part of a double feature in MoPerformance magazine back in 1990. I immediate fell in love with how unique it was - in a cool way. My Barracuda is an early build car and I'm finding a number of '70 specific parts that were used on it (console for example).
Other features are manual chrome racing mirror, PS, AC, console auto and a rim-blow wheel.
It still has it's original 318 engine, 904 trans and 7-1/4 rear end.
Check out the door decal with the error in the VIN.
I know you had talked about removing some of the mods...What will be the first to go ?
What are my plans for the car?
- Fix the little things that are not working, missing or broken. More on that later.
- Take off some of the "Day 2" mods
- Try to make it as reliable as I can. My wife and eventually my daughters want to be able to drive it when weather permits.
First thing to be removed were the interior mounted louvers from JC Whitney
Second, was removing the 3 pairs (yes 3) of mud flaps.
Third, fix the sending unit.
Fourth, install seat belts. Someone removed them and siliconed up the bolt holes :huh:
While installing the seat belts I found this cassette under the rear seat. I also found a pack of Wrigley Spearmint Gum with 2 sticks left in the pack behind the dash.
Well... ''that's a big 10-4 good buddy" :bigthumb:
I'm sure the car is looking better already...
Father's day came a day early last week. While pulling the rear seat to install a new set of seat belts, I removed the seat back too.
Look what was hiding back there. There were actually two sheets with the carbon paper still between them.
The owner's manual was still in the glovebox inside of it's plastic sleeve along with the consumer information sheet.
I have not seen one with the carbon paper. First I've heard of it.
Care to post a picture of that and the sheets?
That is a great score! Make copies and put them back in the springs.
Here are the pics of the broadcast sheets and the carbon paper. The top sheet has the "B" scribble.
The gas gauge was not working when I got it. So, I ran a ground wire from the sending unit plug to the frame and was able to get the gauge to jump from E to F. Which told me the gauge and wiring were good. Therefore, the problem was in the sending unit. After showing my daughters how to siphon 5 gallons of gas out of the tank of an old car, I pulled the sending unit out. It was impeccably clean and based on the part number and date code, I could tell it was still the original sending unit (sorry didn't grab pics). It turns out the brass float had a pinhole and was partially filled with gas. So I swapped the float with a spare I had lying around and checked the ohm range. All checked out on the ohms (10-70). I reinstalled the sending unit and checked the fuel level with what was left in the tank (about 1/2 tank). Then, poured the rest of the gas back in and saw the gauge go back up to about Full.
This is sounding like a pretty darn good car so far.
I will be keeping an eye out for your car. :wrenching:
Cool color combo. I love the flat hood and side pipes.
What a fantastic score! Nice to see that " they are still out there" Enjoy! :bradsthumb:
Very cool 71. Keep sending pics.
I noticed that I was getting antifreeze on the passenger floor mat. So... time for a rebuild on the neater core and and the AC box. Last weekend I had my girls give me a hand pulling the heater box out and strip it down. We dug out the FSM and I showed them how to look up the removal procedure and put them to task. I had my older daughter work under the dash and my younger daughter worked under the hood with me.
It's amazing how the foam seals just turn to dust when you touch them. Outside of the seals being bad and having a leaky heater core the rest of the box, vacuum pods and galvanized parts were in really good shape with minimal corrosion.
The 3 of us spent the next few hours pealing back the layers and scrubbing the box and removing the old seals and gaskets from the AC box. I'm contemplating doing a detailed write up with the pictures I have and the techniques I used once I get it all back together.
I had a master rebuild seal kit from DMT via Roseville already ordered up and on hand.
As I've discovered a common failure point in the AC outlet duct is around the mounting screws. Any of the ducts I've seen on eBay were broken in this spot, as well as, the duct on my Barracuda. Mine also had a stress crack along the back.
Fortunately for me, the broken pieces around the mounting screws were still bolted to the AC box. So, I sealed up the hairline crack and reattached the broken screw mounts with CA. I blended the seam with some 400 and 600 sandpaper and a quick wipe with black shoe polish to even out the sheen. Granted, you have to be a contortionist with a flashlight to see it under the dash, but I figured why not.
To prevent it from breaking again, I took a piece of steel strip stock cut it to length, drilled two holes and painted it satin black. I'll use it as a reinforcement to sandwich the AC outlet duct to the AC box.
Wanting to keep as many original parts as possible with the Barracuda I wanted to get the heater core rebuilt and while I'm at it have the AC evaporator pressure checked. Additionally, I just picked up a date code correct radiator for my Challenger that need to be checked and refurbished.
So being in SE Wisconsin and about 180 miles from Glen-Ray in Wausau... I contacted Bob at Glen-Ray via email and made an informal appointment during the week to run the parts up to him. This was my first time meeting Bob and his passion and knowledge for what he does was clearly evident. It turns out that in the mid 60's Bob's dad mentored at a radiator shop in Chicago that was 2 miles from where I grew up. The radiator shop that his dad mentored at re-cored the radiator and flushed the gas tank in my Challenger 28 years ago.
With the heater box finally scrubbed clean and all the old seals removed, I've begun installing all the new foam seals. After the seals were installed I reconnected the vacuum pods and checked their function with a hand pump. Once I get my heater core and evaporator back from Glen-Ray I can do the final assembly.
While I'm waiting for the heater core and evaporator to come back to finish the AC box...
I wanted to see how well I could clean up the crusty blower motor with orange overspray.
Worst case, I could send it out for refinishing.
Here are a couple of crappy before pics and some when I just started cleaning it yesterday afternoon.
Here it is after many hours of soaking in Simple Green, scrubbing with a nylon brush, scrubbing with a fine scotch-brite pad, scrubbing with 0000 steel wool and multiple polishing's with the Mothers mag polish. I think I'm all out of elbow grease at this point.
Is it a perfectly restored blower motor? Heck no. There are still some areas with "character".
On the bright side (pun intended) it's not spray bombed and still has it's original plating on it (albeit shinier in spots). In the end it cost me about 8 hours of elbow grease while listening to some tunes in the basement.
Should throw a coat of satin clear on it :alan2cents:
Nice job on the heater box and blower motor!
What process did you use to clean up the vacuum pods on the heater box?
Quote from: larry4406 on July 06, 2020, 03:18:03 AM
Nice job on the heater box and blower motor!
What process did you use to clean up the vacuum pods on the heater box?
Thanks.
Re: Vacuum pods.
Sprayed down and wiped with Simple Green. Then, lightly scrubbed with 0000 steel wool.
Masked the ports and rubber seals. Wipe down with lacquer thinner to remove fingerprints and dust. Coated with a clear lacquer.
I'm slowly piecing together an 8-3/4 rear end and S13 suspension swap.
The Barracuda currently has a 7-1/4 open rear end with 2.76 gears.
Already had on hand:
489 case with 7260 yoke and 3.91 suregrip
Will probably change the gear to 3.55
Already picked up:
Eaton Detroit HD springs (same as a 340 or 383 'Cuda) with a +1" ride height adjustment
New shackles, front hanger bolts and shock mounting hardware from Roseville
Rear sway bar with brackets and mounts
8-3/4 housing and axles (from a 70 Cuda) off of Craigslist
Correct driveshaft from
@blucuda (https://forum.e-bodies.org/mlist/blucuda_5797) (904 slip yoke, 7260 yoke and 47.89" long)
Still need to get:
U-bolts
Axle bearings, seals and hardware
Axle Brake lines and vent
Brake hardware kit
Shocks
Shock plates
Sway bar endlinks and bracket hardware
Excellent work with the heater and blower, so satisfying , even after 8hs of manual labour.
Brilliant to see your kids helping out.
Cool looking Cuda, have never seen that seat option, real neat.
About 2 weeks ago I got my AC evaporator and heater core back from Glen-Ray. So I was able to complete the rebuild on my AC heater box in short order. Then, I spent a few hours with my older daughter re-installing it. The last couple of weeks we've been taking it for night time cruises. Next up is to either install the new springs or do the springs and rear axle swap.
I'm also starting to be on the look out for lower control arms and a sway bar set up for the front end.
Here's a few pics of the finished box.
Very nice Barracuda! The flat hood look pretty cool! :bigthumb:
Been a few weeks so I though I would post up the latest updates.
I replaced
1. Front and rear shocks with QA1 single adjustable units, new bushings and mounting hardware
2. Rear leaf springs with HD springs (S13 grade) with +1 inch arch.
3. Rear shackles, bushings, hanger hardware and U-bolts
If the weather is good tomorrow I hope to get some new pics as the ride height and stance has much improved from the "butt drag" rake it had under the old springs.
Haven't been too many nice days left to grab a decent picture outside.
Here it is with the new springs and shocks. The back end is where I want it and the car is sitting level.
I'm probably going to drop the nose a about 1/2-3/4 of an inch for a slight rake.
Looking good and I would agree a slight rake would look nice.
I have qa1s on my camaro
Best aftermarket coil over shock I've ever had on a vintage car
It's been awhile since I made an update. Over the winter, I've acquired a few new and used items for the Barracuda. Most will have to wait until things warm up before I can start installing.
Ammeter bypass and headlight relay kit from Crackedback
Rallye Gauge cluster, light bar and a NOS clock off Ebay.
Repro light tubes, AC control bezel, cluster lens, oil pressure sender, Rallye harness conversion and knobs from Roseville
Sunpro volt meter from Walmart.com
Solid state IVR3 and tach board from RT-eng
After stripping the cluster down into it's individual parts..
I took the die cast housing, which was in great shape, and cleaned off what was left from the old gaskets. Hit it with some fresh flat black and installed new seals. DMT does not produce these seals. They come from premiumdashdecals. The quality was so-so compared to what DMT produces. Still better than the 50 year old ones turning to dust. The kit is not 100% complete. You still need to source or make the 2 felt seals that go around the trip and clock stems along with the seals that go etween the light tubes and the L/R/Brake lenses. Performance car graphics was doing the felt seals. I have given DMT the dimensions for them and they said they would look into making them.
Gauge wise I will be sending the speedometer, tach, oil, fuel, temp, ammeter out to be refinished. I have about 4 different colored needles and most have the white smeared from someone trying to clean them at one point (not me).
I did pick up a tach board from RT-eng to upgrade the tach. In addition, I got a Sunpro voltmeter to convert my ammeter over for about $11 from walmart.com. The package it came in looked like it was stuck on the shelf for the last 25 years too. I also picked up an NOS clock which just arrived today. I benched tested the clock and got the infamous twitchy tick tock.
I have another thread in the interior forum discussing the refinishing the AC bezel along with locating the rear speaker fader hole.
Nice piece, I toned down the black wrinkle as it was too heavy for my liking using some recommendations from Floyd.
Finish
https://forum.e-bodies.org/interior/6/finish-on-lower-dash-bezels/19161/
Fader location
https://forum.e-bodies.org/interior/6/rear-speaker-fader-switch-hole-location/19195/
I took the cluster frames and did some minor repairs to them.
The switch pod looks like it had several cigarette burns above the switches and below them. The main housing had some deep gouges from a screwdriver near the mounts. So I scuffed, wet sanded and filled the low spots. I followed that up with the SEM soap, cleaner, plastic prep and satin black. Just need to hit it with some low-luster clear to finish them off.
The ammeter to voltmeter conversion was really simple.
I spent most of my time peeling the cover off the voltmeter. No drilling, trimming required.
After grinding off the two rivets on the ammeter, the factory gauge face bolted right onto the voltmeter.
I did have to grind / file a little extra clearance for the voltmeter studs in the housing. That and a little black electrical on the bottom of the housing below the gauge for extra protection. I will change the needle over to factory one after I get it painted.
Awesome thread! I'll be checking as I'm getting geared up to update my 73 rallye gauges. You attention to detail is great.
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I had Mike at B / E and A strip, powdercoat and replace the lenses on a Rally light bar I picked up from eBay.
Inside the reflectors are powder coated white. The exterior is powder coated black. The tubular rivets were powder coated prior to installing too.
The lenses are from Parts Hound.
http://www.partshound.net/product/new-rally-gauge-light-bar-replacement-lens-kit-70-71-72-73-74-cudachallenger/
They are slightly thicker than OEM and are green instead of blue/green. He also supplies you with pop rivets and incandescent bulbs. As mentioned above, Mike used correct tubular rivets instead.
I picked up a set of LED bulbs off Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085W99H2F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
The bulbs I picked up are soft white with a temperature rating of 2700K which is along the lines of the incandescent, and a lumen rating of 50. s
So the bulbs should be brighter and they are dimmable. These were not inexpensive, but they had the features I was looking for. They fit in the housing without issue. Some LED bulbs are slightly bigger in diameter and will not fit into the housings. I put a few dabs of dielectric grease them and plugged them right in.
Just finished boxing up the Rally gauges and will send them out for refinishing. Quoted lead time is 10 weeks. Thankfully, I haven't removed anything from the standard cluster yet.
Here's the latest.
I installed a 100amp Tuff Stuff alternator and put the original alternator on the shelf.
Installed the ammeter bypass and headlight relay kit. I wrapped the wiring from both in the factory style vinyl wrap to make them less conspicuous.
The relays from the headlight kit hid nicely under the battery tray.
The ammeter is still connected. Once I do my rallye gauge swap I will tie up that loose end.
Yesterday, I recieved my rallye gauges back from Autoinstruments.com It was about 9 weeks turnaround, which is what they quoted.
They did the following services
Reface the speedo, tach, fuel, oil and temp gauges along with the divider
Calibrate the speedo, fuel, oil and temp
Installed the RTeng tach board and calibrate
Painted a loose ammeter needle so I can install it on the sunpro voltmeter.
Overall, I'm happy that they hit the turnaround time. A bit disappointed in the speedo and tach needle painting.
:dunno:
Here's a couple pics of the gauges back in the housing.
The ammeter face and needle are mounted on the Sunpro voltmeter from a couple posts prior.
A few more on the cluster reassembly. The lens that came with the used cluster has some cracks in it so I popped for a repro.
The 4 gauge divider that mounts to the lens needs the plastic posts melted over to secure the divider. I used my soldering station with a wide blade tip and had it set to about 500 degrees. Made short work of it . :bigthumb:
Here's a couple with the lens and light tubes mounted up.
About the light tubes...
The ones I got with the used cluster were in rough shape. Discolored, tabs broken etc.
So I picked up a set of the repros. What should be plug and play was not.
:verymad:
As has been noted before, the OEM tubes are unique based on the keys to orient the lenses. The repro "set" are 3pcs of the LEFT tube. So the OEM brake tube was put back into service as it was in better shape than the other two I had. I modified one repro to accept the RIGHT lens. The repro tubes I received were somewhat translucent. Not good when you are trying to contain light. So I broke out the small modeling brushes and some enamel paint. I then painted the insides of the two repro tubes white so light would no longer glow out of the tubes.
I gently cleaned the original lenses and placed them in their respective tubes. Instead of melting/bonding them in place, I picked up adhesive backed foam washers used on RC car bodies from Amazon. The OD of the washers matches the recess on the back of the cluster overlay frame. I just needed to use my leather punch set to open up the ID of the washers. With the adhesive side facing the lens, I affixed the washers and checked to make sure the lenses were secure.
:bigthumb:
After carefully wiping down the lens, I installed it onto the cluster housing.
From the factory the three lenses actually attach to the black plastic shroud, not the white tubes, but I see no reason why your method won't work :bigthumb:
I found it strange they were mounted to the plastic frame and not the tubes. The tubes are recessed and have the keys to orient the lenses. I was worried if I put them back on the frame and not in the tubes I would wind up having the lettering on the lenses cockeyed.
:looney:
If the foam seals I made turn out not to work they will peel off fairly easy.
Very nice job on restoring you Rallye dash. :yes: :twothumbsup:
Quote from: Skdmark on May 11, 2021, 02:13:43 PM
I found it strange they were mounted to the plastic frame and not the tubes. The tubes are recessed and have the keys to orient the lenses. I was worried if I put them back on the frame and not in the tubes I would wind up having the lettering on the lenses cockeyed.
:looney:
If the foam seals I made turn out not to work they will peel off fairly easy.
I would just hope the tubes line up perfectly with the holes in the dash... :thinking:
I dry fitted the gauge cluster to the plastic frame and it all lines up.
:bigthumb:
Looks very nice
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While I await my wiring harness and some other odds and ends to do the Rallye gauge install...
Starting on Memorial Day weekend I began installing an Edelbrock LD4B intake and a Holley Sniper setup on the 318.
I've been planning on this for awhile and had 90% of what I needed on hand.
Over the 3 day weekend I was able to get everything pretty much removed, drained and disassembled. It has gone fairly smoothly, except for the old cork valve cover gasket on the driver's side disintegrating on the head. I spent hours carefully cleaning that mess up. Before the weekend was up I (with some help) got the new intake, the Hyperspark distributor and the Holley OEM muscle electric fuel pump bolted up. I also started prepping the Holley wiring harnesses for the connections that I'm going to use.
At this point I'm most of the way there. The last mechanical hurdle is the linkage for the kickdown. Which I have a plan for, just need to do a little fab work. The balance of work will be the electrical connections, O2 sensor install and soft fuel line connections.
Any questions let me know.
A few more pics with the helpers.
Had my youngest pulling out the heater and radiator hoses.
My oldest removed the fuel sending unit and installed the new Holley electric pump with the hydramat.
Then, she started working on some of the fuel pump wiring.
That's very cool that the kids are helping out. Awesome!
Hey, nice work!
:bradsthumb:
How did you seal the pump? Do you have any leaks?
Was able to get the throttle and kickdown linkage sorted out. This gets into one of those being creative areas as things are moved to new positions.
Going from a 2bbl carb to 4bbl intake with a Sniper moved connection points higher, further forward and towards the driver's side inner fender.
I picked up a 71-73 340 4bbl throttle return spring bracket and the 72-74 340/360 4bbl throttle cable bracket from Roseville/Mega Parts. I also picked up new throttle and kickdown springs from Roseville too. From Holley I installed one of their 20-7 Chrysler throttle linkage brackets on the Sniper. From the original 318 2bbl I used the one piece kickdown lever, the linkage assembly and the throttle linkage stud. I did need to put a Z bend into the slotted bracket to get the new offset aligned. The kickdown lever was about 2 inches short so I picked up a Holley 20-41 Ford kickdown lever extension to fill the gap. All I need to do was drill one Let F sized hole a little further back to make it work. The kickdown extension has two ears that I'll peen over to lightly clamp onto the kickdown lever.
Next up will be to remove the linkage and brackets and hit them with some paint.
Awesome work!
I didn't realize you could pull the sending unit without dropping the tank. Or did you drop that as well.
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Quote from: 71383bee on June 10, 2021, 07:27:52 PM
Awesome work!
I didn't realize you could pull the sending unit without dropping the tank. Or did you drop that as well.
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The car has side pipes so there are no exhaust pipes or heat shield in the way, so it's real easy to get to the sending unit without dropping the tank.
Just need to make sure you are low on gas before you remove the sending unit.
Quote from: Skdmark on June 10, 2021, 07:52:19 PM
Quote from: 71383bee on June 10, 2021, 07:27:52 PM
Awesome work!
I didn't realize you could pull the sending unit without dropping the tank. Or did you drop that as well.
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Just need to make sure you are low on gas before you remove the sending unit.
It seems that mine is always low on gas! :notsure:
Been over a year since I made some updates to this thread.
That's not to say the car hasn't had any.
This past week I finally was able to install the Rallye Dash that I had started on last year. The biggest delay I had was waiting 7 months to get the M&H harness from Year One.
One addition I made that I had not covered in my earlier posts about the dash was going with a 4-switch setup instead of 3. Performance Car Graphics (now Instrument Specialties) only had the rear defog and top lift version of the face plates available. So, I went with a rear defog face plate. Which actually works out pretty well. I had a spare headlight toggle cover that I was able to adapt onto a SPST switch from Amazon to fill the slot. Then, down the road when I install an OD trans in the car I can use that switch to deactivate the OD. I'm having an OVERDRIVE label made up to replace the REAR DEFOG.
While I had the dash out..
I installed an AM/FM radio from Antique Auto Radio and chucked the 80s tape deck. Along with the radio I upgraded the speakers. The single speaker dash got a 4x10 dual voice coil speaker (after modding the speaker and making some spacers). This one is tricky to install without cutting up the dash. The dash definitely needs to be out of the car to make it work.
I also installed a 2 channel 600-watt AMP from Planet Audio under the dash just behind and above the parking brake. I wound up using some rare earth magnets that have a threaded stud to bolt them to the amp. The magnets stick to the underside of the cowl on the interior.
Out back I added a pair of 6X9 3-way coaxial speakers.
I wasn't looking to get too crazy just wanted a simple setup for the tunes that you could hear with the windows down.
I finally put a proper exhaust on the car and yanked the full-length tube headers and side pipes off. I added the factory style hangers and brackets to the driver's side and installed new muffler heat shields.
I'm about 17 miles from Kilpatrick Engine in Waukesha who is a TTI dealer. So I ordered up my exhaust from Kilpatrick and had them do the install. They take care of breaking in the ceramic coating on the headers to validate the warranty. I went with the small block shorty headers, had them add in O2 bungs on the head pipes for the Sniper. Out back I went with the turndown exhaust to keep with the Barracuda aesthetic. I was able to find a pair of "normal" pipe hangers from Walker instead of using TTI's hideously oversized pipe hangers. At the same time as the exhaust went in, I had them install a Powermaster hi-torque mini starter that I had picked up.
The guys at Kilpatrick are fabricating an insane '71 Cuda resto-mod and were happy to have my car there for a few days to take measurements off it for their build.
The one thing I have left from the exhaust conversion to complete is to cut off the brackets a previous owner welded on to hang the side pipes.