1970 Barracuda Reanimated.

[YellowThumper]

That is looking really nice!

[Marty]

  Thanx!

[Marty]

I went over to my buddy's shop to apply a stripe kit on a 1969 CJ Mach1. He had just finished up a 1970 "V" code 'Cuda. An older restoration. It was there for an engine rebuild. The cam bolts had backed off and the cam pin sheared off. It didn't surprise anyone due to that most of the bolts holding the engine together were not torqued properly. Nice car. It was a rare time for me to look the car over for future reference.

[Marty]

Here are the fender tags for anyone interested in them.

[Marty]

Putting the build off to the side for a short time, in the meantime, I've been adding parts to my inventory.

I ran into a friend of mine who bought my 1966 GT-350 clone I had built years ago. We were at a car show and I noticed that he had a regular spare tire mounted on top of the rear seat delete shelf. I had equipped the Mustang with a space saver in the trunk. I asked him about it and the next day he brought it to me. He said he had no use for it and it was mine if I wanted it.

I was doing some paint repairs at my buddy's shop and I wandered out back to where he has a few parts cars. Snooping around I found a 1966 4 dr. Coronet. In the trunk, there was a jack assembly. It was in really nice shape. He said he didn't want it so...

I dug up an Inflator and a bracket off the internet. So now, I just about have all the space saver parts, less the jack hook.

Picked up a 3431077 wiper motor.

A complete set of interior trim. I needed the two pieces on the lower back window since my set was incomplete, and a 2863216 fan and fan clutch at a swap meet.

[Marty]

In a 1970 Super Bee parked out back in Rat Row at my buddy's shop, Brown's Performance, was a set of bucket seat back panels tossed into the stripped-out interior. Since the Super Bee was set to be restored sometime in the future, I ended up with them. I think the reason was, they were covered with an ugly Diamond tucked velour, as new ones would replace them. Probably glued on sometime in the '70s is my guess.

Actually, it was a blessing since that velour protected the panels from scuff's, scratches, and the Sun. I peeled off the dried-out cloth (I didn't think to get a picture at the time.) and what I saw under the dried glue was a very well preserved grained surface.

To prep them, I started out by spraying them down with Easy-Off oven cleaner. This released the old contact cement and with some water and a brush, the glued came right off without damaging the plastic. The panels looked almost new at this point.

Next, I scrubbed the panel with Ajax and a red scuff pad to remove any leftover residue and most importantly, the Release Agent, if there was any left.

NOTE* I highly suggest if you have new seatbacks, that you scrub the surface with a scuff pad, Ajax or Comet, and water to remove the release agent or the paint will eventually flake off. This will also prep the surface for paint. I'm refinishing some seatback panels now from a 1970 Coronet R/T with that problem. The paint is falling off the plastic. When the water does not bead up on the surface, you're good to go. This is for any plastics that will be refinished.

Once the panels were scoured and wiped clean with a water-based surface cleaner, they were ready for paint. The water-based cleaner will reduce static electricity on plastic.

I decided against primer that would just add another layer of paint to fill the grain, I went with an adhesive promoter and sprayed on two separate coats. After flashing, I applied three coats of Landau Black paint spraying the edge on the back of the panel first. Set aside to cure.

The hinge covers were media blasted then painted black.

While I was in the painting groove, I media blasted, primed, and sprayed on some activated single-stage Semi-Gloss black on the engine fan. The fan clutch was cleaned up and reinstalled.

[Marty]

I rounded up all the parts I needed to re-build the front seats.

The seat bottoms were first to get back in shape. The bottoms had the wrong seat tracks that were fastened with junk, rusty hardware, which included missing the square nuts at the front of the frame. Installing the correct, new sliders, I welded on new square nuts. Filled the holes with weld. Finished up the bottoms with a bit of smoothing and media blasting.

The spring baskets and miscellaneous parts were removed from the vertical frames. The left vertical seat frame was missing the center support bar. Using a 1/4" bar stock, I fabricated a replacement. I used the other seat frame rod to make a template to help form the "L" shaped ends. Cutting and welding small pieces together, and with some shaping, I came up with a replacement. The rod was welded on the pre-marked spots on the frame. These frames were also media blasted.

The frames were epoxy primed and sprayed with an activated semi-gloss black single stage.

Once the frames were dry, the spring baskets needed to be reinstalled. I had new springs that I was going to use on another project but I decided not to bother with it. Installing the springs was a  . The spring ends just didn't want to slip back into the pockets. These were aftermarket springs, so I thought maybe they are different than the OEMs in some way. (I overlooked this detail when I removed the springs.) No surprise, they were. The difference is pictured. Using a cutting wheel, I cut off the curved ends. The modification helped quite a bit but it was still a fight to install them. They aren't popping out that's for sure. The tabs will make sure of that. Just to clarify, I only cut the spring ends on the four center springs. The other springs need that curved end to stay in place.

Since this job had parts collected from different seats. I had to make sure everything fits together before upholstery work. The seatback panel fit well, but the hinge covers needed new holes drilled into the hinge arm to line up correctly.

The seats are assembled and ready for new foam and covers.

[Marty]

Refinishing the Shaker.

First thing... scrub down the Gelcoat with some Comet, water, and a red scuff pad to remove the release agent. Cleaned up the inlets to make sure the grills fit with some 80 grit. Sanded the complete scoop with some 120grit. Drilled out the holes for the badging while double-checking that the dimples in the fiberglass were correct first. Wiped off the surface and sprayed on two coats of polyester high build primer. Once it dried, I smeared on some guide coat then sanded the scoop again with 120 then 220 grit.

The scoop obviously needed to be fitted to the adapter before the final paint. The first thing was the drain holes. I used a Dremel tool with a carving bit and molded the extended drain hole to fit into the adapter so that the scoop would sit flush onto the adapter ring. Once that was done, I used a chamfer bit to countersink the drain hole in the fiberglass.

I fit the two parts together by bolting them down at the drain holes making sure the scoop was centered in the adapter ring. Next, I drilled the holes for the Scoop fasteners. Checked to make sure all the fasteners fit and lined up then disassembled the parts, prepped, and applied two more coats of high-build primer. Set aside to cure.

[Marty]

To finish up the Scoop.

Standard procedure when it comes to painting. Applied the guide coat and sanded the primer starting with 220,320/dry and finished it up with 500/ wet. Cleaned off the sludge and tacked off the surface.

One little detail I did before painting was to get a small brush soaked with a black base and painted the inside of the drain holes. This hides the unfinished fiberglass. I'll let the argent overspray do its thing after that.

I applied the Dark Argent from a spray can, wet with 75% overlap till coverage, alternating the spray pattern after a few minutes of flashing. The last coat which in reality will be two will be from side-to-side then immediately front-to-back. I pull back a bit on the front-to-back coat to give the finish more of a rough surface.

[YellowThumper]

Shaker looks real good. What argent spray did you use?

[Marty]

Thank you.

I used Dark Argent Gray mixed at...

https://8774paint1.com/

[YellowThumper]

Thank you.

I used Dark Argent Gray mixed at...

https://8774paint1.com/

Thank you.

[Marty]

Not the most interesting post, but after 6 months since ordering, the Six-Barrel installation kit finally arrived.

[Marty]

Installing the Door/Quarter Top Edge Molding on my non-equipped doors and quarters.

Drilling into the sheet metal can be a bit nerve-racking especially when alignment is critical. The first thing I needed to figure out was where these holes should be. I couldn't find any direct information so I searched out pictures of project cars and I found a couple. From there it was locating reference points and educational guesses. I think I got the drill points close after playing with the measurements a bit.

What I figured was from the jamb working forward, 3/8", 9.5", 9.0", 9.0", 9.0". 6.0", 2.5". +/-. The quarter was 3.0" from the jamb and 7.0" from that. +/-.

The molding is 3/4" wide. So I ran a 3/4" wide piece of tape alongside the door to window edge. Digging through my metal scrap pile I cut out a small 90* piece of metal and placed some 3/4" tape along the top edge. This represents the molding. I found the center and drilled a pilot hole. Now I have a drill bit guide that will keep my holes lined up as I drill along the top of the door and quarter. I do a dry run to make sure the template and the door tape line up. Once it checks out, I drill the pilot holes then step up the bits till I get to the final 13/64" bit.

Install the metal clip on the jamb end of the molding then... snap on the rest.

                                                                                              EXCEPTION.

When the molding does not follow the contour of the door. 

At the door handle area, I had about a half-inch space in between the door and molding and I just didn't trust the nylon clip to hold that much tension. This is what I did and it wasn't easy. I had some extra trim molding clips usually used for body side molding or rocker molding. The reason I used these was, the stud was longer than the one on the clip provided. I clipped off the tension wire, smoothed down the top, and shaved the sides till the clip slid inside the molding. Placing the molding onto the door with the window up, I had to hold the molding down and, run my hand up into the door with the nut barely held in between my two fingers and thread the nut onto the stud. I'm working blind, dealing with the inner structure of the door and my fingers are about one inch too short. Eventually, I got the nut(s) threaded on. Tightening them with the 1/4" ratchet with extension was also a huge challenge. Determination and patience.

The issue was that the nut would lock against the inner structure and turning it was a balancing act in getting just enough space in between the nut/stud and the inner structure to turn the nut to grab a thread. I don't know how I did it but it's done and the molding fits against the door as it should.

[Tony 73]

Fantastic Marty, love the detail