71 Barracuda EV2 H5XV

[Skdmark]

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.

[Skdmark]

Here is the car being loaded on the carrier and after it was dropped off in Wisconsin 2 days later.

[cuda hunter]

That is one cooool car!   Love the XV interior.  Not many of those around!  much less in the original skin. 

[Skdmark]

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.

[anlauto]

I know you had talked about removing some of the mods...What will be the first to go ?

[Skdmark]

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 

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.

[anlauto]

Well... ''that's a big 10-4 good buddy"

I'm sure the car is looking better already...

[Skdmark]

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.

[cuda hunter]

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. 

[Skdmark]

Here are the pics of the broadcast sheets and the carbon paper. The top sheet has the "B" scribble.

[Skdmark]

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.

[RUNCHARGER]

This is sounding like a pretty darn good car so far.

[BIGSHCLUNK]

I will be keeping an eye out for your car. 

[Solarguy]

Cool color combo.  I love the flat hood and side pipes. 

[Brads70]

What a fantastic score! Nice to see that " they are still out there"   Enjoy!