Well finally got started on the Barracuda last weekend after sitting in the workshop for a couple of weeks. Drove it home to strip the interior and trim prior to returning to the workshop to remove engine/trans before blasting and paint. Some surprises, both good and bad, with the strip – condition of floor/underdash etc in very good condition but more of the trim removed and replaced than I would have liked. Door panels have been recovered in white vinyl in lieu of the plastic (was this common?) so some of the trim around these panels doesn’t fit too well but generally in good condition. Same trimmer went crazy with the glue when adding new carpet which means a few hours of scraping in my future to remove. Dash/crashpad removal was time-consuming and still not complete (yet to get a chance to utilise the advice from the guys here).
Nice surprise last night when I received a letter from the original owner after taking a chance on an old address that came with the car. He confirmed it as a one owner car for its 34 years, done 230,000 miles over that time with the original engine rebuilt twice and confirmed only one negligible accident over that time. He even sent me a picture of the car from 1970 so the barracuda now feels like one of the family. Needless to say he was quite surprised to here that his car was now in Australia.
Rallye bonnet, replacement front and rear (with cut-outs) valance panels and 8.75 diff coming soon. Have 383/727 on offer but yet to go firm on this swap considering I have a good idea now of the cars history but probably most likely. Aim is to have the car done by the All Chrysler Day here in december. Cheers, Mark.
