1966 Plymouth Barracuda finally home

This week, I finally got the Family Barracuda shipped over from my Dad's house in Alabama. It's been in the family since 1992. My dad bought it to replace the 1985 Mustang GT I took from him.

It's always been a pretty car. It was multiple show winner in the day. My dad has had it sitting for 12 years now. Due to bad health, he hasn't been able to do anything really with it and it's just sat unused and under the cover in the garage. I finally talked him into letting me have it fix it up.

The mechanicals on it were never really right. The motor has some issues with it. My dad got some of them fixed but there are still some there. It's running enough to take it around the block but it's definitely not right

The plans are to get it running good with the current 273 motor in it while I build up the 340 block that we have with it. Also, It'll need a real rear end under it and some quality shocks. He did add a front swaybar.

At the end of the day though, it will really just be a good cruiser to hit the road with and just have me and my wife enjoy.

Wow, I don't even like those cars and I like that car! It looks great.

One of my biggest regrets is selling the '67 Plymouth Belvedere II hardtop that my grandfather bought new. I look forward to reading about your progress. Good luck and keep it in the family.

Thanks Woody.

You know honestly, I kind of felt the same way about it originally. I've seen many single color barracudas and was never a huge fan. If it was the all black color that it was from the factory, it wouldn't look half as good I think. It's that little bit of silver in the middle that just breaks up the sight lines. Also, I would have never gone and bought ralleye wheels for it personally but now I really like the overall package.

I got it cleaned up yesterday.Got all of the dirt and grime from transport off it and just did a quick rub down with some mequiers #7 to get some oil in the old laquer paint and then a quick bit of wax on it just to protect it a bit.

Later this week, I'm going to rebuild the carb and set the valves. Then next week, Time to get under the car and hit the few small spots where the undercoating came off so that doesn't rust.

Unusual to see a two tone, I like it.

Good looking Barracuda!

My favorite american car hands down.

Sweet!

Automatic/stick?. Any pics of the engine?

I always liked the early Barracudas with the huge rear window.

HI Fujioko.

It's an Auto. A904 in it with the 2.93 cruising gears.It's the 273 with the Carter BBD 2 barrel on there. Not a power house but it will at least work for a year while I gather all of the good stuff for it.

I'm going to get some more pictures taken later this week and into next week. I've got all next week off so I really want to get a lot of stuff done.

I just got the insurance today for it. I need to get all of the paperwork down to the DMV so I can hang my plates on there. I've got a set of 1966 texas plates for it. I love the fact I can run year of manufacturer plates.

Well, one step forward and one step back.

Got the valves all adjusted and the carb. pulled so I can rebuild it. In the mean time, there was some coolant leaking into the interior so time to source a heater core to go with the radiator I'm getting rebuilt.

More pics!

So I got some time today to start my week of work on the car. I've got the week off work so the plan is to get the following things all done.

1. Get the radiator recored
2. Paint the new gas tank, the fan shroud, and the 7 blade fan.
3. Reinstall all of those parts.
4. Hit the few spots on the undercarriage that need touched up so it doesn't rust.
5. Replace the heater core and all of the rubber in the engine compartment.
6. Install the new carb.
7. Install the just refurbished exhaust manifolds
8. Get it inspected

I got a start today by sanding down the old fan shroud and fan and pulling the old radiator and hoses.

I forgot how easy these cars are to get to everything. It's awesome.

bmw88rider wrote: 2. Paint the new gas tank, the fan shroud, and the 7 blade fan.

While I will continue to enjoy this thread, this makes me want to cry. I sold my '67 Plymouth because I couldn't find a replacement for the leaking gas tank.

And now for some pictures:

The Dash is just so simple.

The joys of a toy car that is restored. Very little rust.

The new gas tank that I have to paint now:

Cool little touches on the older cars:

Hidden audio 1989 style:

Just a simple set of guages:

The exhaust manifold to install:

Couple engine pictures:

The radiator I pulled out. Gee just a couple leaks :)

Thats it for now. I'll have a few more once I get done this week.

Nice!

Really Woody?

I got mine from Rock Auto. They have been able to supply me with all of my parts so far. The only thing they didn't have is the radiator but I have a really good specialist 15 minutes from the house.

The was no Rock Auto when I needed to find one. Or if there was, I didn't know about it because there was no internet. I couldn't even find a place to send a self addressed stamped envelope.

Beautiful. I love the pure mechanical simplicity.

cool car man!

That car is simply beautiful.

Thanks for all of the kind words guys!

So today was just a prep day for the most part. I finished the sanding of the fan shroud, fan, and the water pump pulley. I also got the fuel tank down to get that painted as well. When I did that, I did find the only real spot of rust on the car. Looks like they didn't take the tank off when they undercoated. It's not bad...Surface rust really... but I'll get that taken care of too.

Got all of the new rubber hoses installed. So all the engine rubber now has been replaced in the last 3 months. As I was trying to find a home for the old radiator, It sounded like a maraca. I guess the scale and rust had broken loose.

Tomorrow, The radiator I'm installing goes to the radiator guys and hopefully I'll get a less humid day to paint.

So..more of the 2 steps forward and 1 step back this week. Not a lot got done as I'm waiting on a bunch of parts to come in now.

I got all of the painting done but found some more rust. I took care of it though. Got all of the paint work done that I needed. Got the gas tank, the new fan, and fan surround all painted. I'm just waiting for the radiator to get done and the new fuel inlet to gas tank gasket to show up.

Also found out why the throttle kickdown never worked right. It's actually a mix of 2 different sets of kickdown linkages and both are wrong. I just took it all off and I'm waiting for the new cable kickdown kit to come.

Friend of mine gave me an oddity to put on the car. A 2 barrel edelbrock intake for the LA motor.

With all of this and the new carb I just put on, it should run and cool correctly now. Fingers crossed.

NIce car. I love the two-tone.

Does it sit low in the back or is that just how it's sitting in the driveway?

Very nice!

My Dart currently has a big bolt pattern 7.25" rear that is getting swapped for an 8.75" sometime soon-ish. Just in case you need a rear axle cheap.

Hey Stan,

That is factory height. New spring and torsion bars just 2 years ago. The rear tires are covered stock and the driveway is slightly slanted.

Matt,

Thanks for the offer. I've actually got a 8.25" with the trac lock out of the grand cherokee and 3.55 gears at my buddies shop. I may also use the disc brakes off there too. Still undecided.

I'm hoping to get to drive it next weekend. The new radiator should be done next week and the new kickdown linkage will be here as well. It should run better than ever.

So....gees issues galore has held up everything.

Between the radiator shop upping the estimate on the radiator to almost double the original cost to nothing fitting at all on the transmission linkage.

Thanks to Rob Mopar on here, He got me taken care of on the radiator and I should have it here in a couple weeks. In the mean time, I got all of the rust taken care on the undercarriage and some fresh undercoating applied.

Now as long as I get the kickdown all figured out, I should have a running car in a few more weeks.