Erik’s 1970 Barracuda convertible project..... update!!

[ErikR]

Finally got a few things sorted out with my Barracuda restoration project since it's been at Mike Ross's shop in OH. Mike @HEMICUDA and Jim @Slotts really stepped up like old-school Mopar guys and got me back on track with this project and on the road again, so a big thanks to them. I just got it back on Thursday and here I am driving home from Reliable in NJ, really excited about putting on some miles before winter.

[ErikR]

Mid-August I drove out to Mike's shop on a Saturday to see him again and meet Jim in person. Jim had driven out there at midnight and stayed until noon Saturday to sort out my electric problems.  This pic shows where Jim was set up and he got me squared away with a list of issues including a fuse/corroded board issue, installed a rebuilt headlight switch, installed a replacement key switch that was missing for the buzzer, and this resolved back-feeding issues with the clock and interior lights. Huge thanks to Jim for going out of his way to help me out.

[ErikR]

Jim's workstation

[ErikR]

Mike's shop tackled a list of things, however the main thing with any restoration project is going to be the body and paint and short of re-doing all of the bodywork/paint, they took care of the top half of the car witch had some serious checkering / cross hatching pattern and was a slap in the face. They also did the top edge of the doors and the rear decklid / quarter panel area where there was blending mistakes and paint buffed all the way through.
This video shows the cross-hatching pretty good, hard to capture from a picture. The entire top of the car had this problem.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iTOUosoqCMb_pgihFRMZNAgthmrvGq6h/view?usp=sharing

[ErikR]

The cross-hatching can also be seen in this photo that shows were the hood pin bezel was installed on wet paint and cemented to the hood.

[ErikR]

Same here the scoops installed on wet paint and they were pressed down into metal.

[ErikR]

rear rubber bumper in wet paint

[ErikR]

rear tail paint buffed all the way through

[ErikR]

chip on the top passenger side door

[ErikR]

The plan is that next fall I will bring it back to Mikes shop and have the body work taken to an appropriate level the car deserves. For now, the top half of the paint has at least been made presentable until it can be redone, a huge improvement from where it was.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7TyToO9ocKIRnUxYmtSOEk2akFnR3o1OVdub2ozbFVaX1FN/view?usp=sharing

[ErikR]

hood AFTER pic

[ErikR]

pic shows the the proper belt molding clip on the right from Tom at RT.
The clip on the left is not spec and what I had installed on my car so a loosing battle to begin with.

New clips installed but required ANOTHER set of properly-sized holes to be drilled in the doors so they clips and moldings will seat properly!

[ErikR]

driver belt

 

[ErikR]

pass belt

[1 Wild R/T]

I expected there to be some issues with the paint but wasn't sure it would be enough for dragging Alan through the court of public opinion...

All I can say after seeing that video is Holy Sh1t...

Alan, how could you possibly think that was acceptable?  I wouldn't have accepted that when I was eighteen & didn't know better...  I'm quite sure you know better...

For a guy who has a tag line "I taught you everything you know, not everything I know"   Looks like you need to go back to school...