1972 'Cuda (FY1) - 5.7L Hemi, T56 Magnum

[GoodysGotaCuda]

This will be a similar thread to what is running on other sites, I will try to post periodic updates here as the project progresses. For those that do not know me, I am a 29 year old fellow in Dallas-Fort Worth that has had this Barracuda for 11 years or so. It was a daily driver for a while, my Wife and I dated in this car and in August of 2014 I took the car [voluntarily] off of the road to restore it.

It lived its life as a 318/904 car, factory FY1 Lemon Twist car with the black stripe. It had some drag racing time on it with the rebuilt 318 Warlock1 and I did [my first rebuild]. I nearly quit driving the car completely because I was tired of it, I had a highly modified Wrangler that I built from stock and the Barracuda was slow and just plain tired. When I decided to start my Master's, I needed a new daily, either the Wrangler went or the Barracuda did. The Barracuda won. From there I tore the car down completely and have been doing all of the work, with the exception of body/paint, from within my standard 2 car garage. It's cumbersome, but it works.

Since 8/2014 I started the project as a Hemi swap with a 6 speed, which rapidly turned into a restoration and repaint. In that time I have started a new career, started and finished an MBA, bought a house and became a Dad...I have been busy! Needless to say, the project is behind its original schedule. Today, 12/2016, here is where I stand...


So let's get into the car:

- Rebuilt 5.7L Hemi, comp cam, TTI headers, standalone ECU
- T56 magnum 6speed manual transmission with the conversion parts from SST
- 8-3/4" rear, 3.91s Dr. Diff shafts, Wilwood 12.2" 4-piston discs
- Hotchkis front end
- Borgeson steering box w/Coleman 1.5:1 quickener
- Wilwood 12.9" 6-piston front discs
- Vintage Air Conversion
- Painless Harness
- Tanks Inc EFI tank
- American Racing 17s and 18s


Obligatory "BEFORE" photo




DISASSEMBLY
















The car had typical rust issues in the "Tee" section, trunk floor, etc. All of which has either been treated and topcoated, or replaced entirely.

To help stiffen things up, the car was given a US Car Tool chassis kit

[GoodysGotaCuda]

I smoothed out the engine bay and epoxy primed it, soon after the Hemi was dropped in for mock-up.





Soon after, the sawzall met the car to make room for the T56 Magnum. Keeping torsion bars requires pretty significant reinforcement to that area to ensure structural integrity.







I did some high level blocking on the car to see what I had to work with. The car had been painted yellow many, many times!





The trunk was in need of serious work. I replace the floor, trunk extensions, tank supports and the rear rails completely.



The interior was treated to epoxy primer, single stage Lemon Twist, topcoated with tinted RaptorLiner [bedliner] for noise reduction, heat reduction and some durability in the trunk.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

After working on my back for hours, under the car, I surrendered when it came time to coat the bottom of the car. I made up a <$100 tip-over rig out of wood...it worked very well!





The bottom of the car had Eastwood rust encapsulator sprayed in every crevice and rail hole I could get to. It was then sprayed with the rust encapsulator and topcoated with Lizard Skin ceramic coating. I also took this time to spray the bottom of the roof with the stuff has well, to help keep my melon from cooking in the Summer. Here you can see the modifications I made to the chassis, front and rear torque boxes, subframe connectors and the completely new forward member between the front rail and torsion bar crossmember. I did not care much for all of the 90° load paths up there. That crossmember will help take some load out of the rocker and redirect it through the new subframe connectors. I hope that it will help keep the doors/gaps more consistent and the car more rigid over time.



Fast forwarding a little more, the car was fitted with a 70-71 AMD deck lid [which fit terrible], Goodmark front fenders, an AMD door skin and an AMD header panel. I also took the opportunity to add a 'Cuda rear valance and 'Cuda hood to the car. Oh, and I did fork out a few more bucks for all new AMD door hinges as well, a seemingly small investment can help the car hold its lines and feel more solid [to me], with those in place.







Two years after taking it off of the road, it went to the body shop. [Ward's in Krum, TX]. While the car was out, I could finally get the garage clean enough to rebuild the engine.

Valve springs were swapped with PAC racing springs


I was able to get all of the accessories together before assembly, then got after it!




***VIDEO***


I sprayed the engine with single stage acrylic enamel Hemi Orange after epoxy primer.

[GoodysGotaCuda]

I finish assembled the engine and trans together and had it setup on the powdercoated K-frame.





with the drivetrain and powertrain together, the car progressed at the body shop behind the scenes.












Wilwood Brakes



Steering quickener


Vintage Air

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Home from paint!






Engine reinstalled




Finally got some parts from the laser cutter that I was able to get on the car. This bracket started with a rough concept in Solidworks.




From there I printed the concept in 1:1 and built a rough prototype off the drill press.



Once I honed in on the dimensions I was able to send off the DXF and have it cut out of 1/2" mild steel. I also used this same mount to provide a spot to anchor a torque strap. I've been wanting to avoid a solid driver's side motor mount but struggled to find a clean torque strap mounting location. 3 bolts to the head via 1/2" steel ought to do it.




Mounted up



Done

[GoodysGotaCuda]

Not much "done" but I am pecking away at progress.

After fighting with the Vintage Air a bit and their assembly process I was finally able to get it in there in a manner I accepted. I wish it was better, but it will be as good as it gets. I ended up mounting it differently so that I did not have to drill through the smoothed firewall. I installed the dash frame so that I can reference it for wiring and component locations [Fuse box, relay box, ECU, Wideband controller, etc.]



Not much to see here, but I wrapped up the hard parts of the rear brakes. I have yet to tackle the parking brake or hydraulic lines.



The upper control arms I ordered were backordered around 4 weeks and held me up from putting the car on the ground. Regardless I assembled what I had of the front end, Hotchkis lower control arm pivots, strut rods, and sway bar. I have the Hotchkis tie rods ready to go as well.






and finally to where I am today. The car was set on it's own wheels for the first time in 2-1/2 years this week.

[Brads70]

Beautiful job as always! Never get tired looking at your build! 

[anlauto]

Looks great, you should have no problem cruising by this Summer

[cudaragtop]

Great thread Goody!
Will follow it here too! 

[303 Mopar]

What a great build!  @GoodysGotaCuda where did you buy your wilwood kit?  I'm looking for bigger fronts and swapping to discs on my '70.  I have the drum spindles on their way too.

[72hemi]

Great progress! The car is coming together nicely!

[Moparman82]

Awesome build @GoodysGotaCuda 

[GoodysGotaCuda]

What a great build!  @GoodysGotaCuda where did you buy your wilwood kit?  I'm looking for bigger fronts and swapping to discs on my '70.  I have the drum spindles on their way too.

I actually bought the brake kits from Matt's Classic Bowties, they had very good pricing for Black Friday. -$200 or so versus Summit

[ToxicWolf]

Looks great. 

[Cuda Cody]

Super impressive @GoodysGotaCuda       You should be very proud.  And that wood jig was pretty slick thinking!  Looks like it worked well.  Good luck and thanks for sharing it with us Mike.  Looking forward to the seeing the finished photo and video.