First drive after 2.5 years 71 Cuda

[n9671x2]

This site sucs!!!  LMAO  all you guys post is stellar looking cars.. make me SICK!!!!!   

N96 - congrats.. you now own one of the nicest cars in the world. If pics do that car justice.. there can't be many nicer. Man,,, if my cuda comes out 38% to your black paint job, I'd be REAL happy   

Is that base / clear PPG? Can i ask ballpark for the body / paint?

Anyways, you own an AWESOME car. I'd put that one against any I've seen. Well - there's CC.com's 2007's cover car.

-71fish

Thanks for the kind words.  That was one of the very nice things about the car, I didn't have to paint the exterior outside of the shaker hood I added.  I do know the car is actually painted in single stage dupont 99, no clear.  Needs a little polishing now and then, but it is about the blackest black you will ever see.  I attached a picture of the paint when I got it.  The guy I bought the car from bought it in 1989 as his High School car.  He bought it from a gal who I spoke with who was probably the 2nd owner and bought it in 1974.  The guy I bought it from was a great guy, but not necessarily maybe as into the cars as most people on this site.  HOWEVER, his best friend since they were little kids grew up to own a body shop.  So they got together and reshot the exterior of the car and redid the interior, but didn't really address the mechanical issues of a car with 108k miles.  The car spent its life about 2 hours south of St. Louis where I got it.  I hope to get to Monster Mopar weekend in September and hook up with the guy I got it from and let him take it out for a spin.

[chevyconvert]

  beautiful car as is....360 billboards?

[Mopar73340]

WOW!!!  Nice looking car. You did a great job putting everything back together.  I also had the sane exhaust issue with the Keisler, TTI makes 6* offset collectors just for this issue. Like said before I also like the white billboards on a black car.

[Triple Black hemi]

N96...........AWESOME!  your cuda looks great! 

I got the shivers when reading the post.......like looking into a mirror...

You have done an outstanding job....Enjoy!





White Billboards would look awesome on your cuda.

[Carlwalski]

Holy crap!!!!  How'd I miss this thread!?!? 
That car is sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! 

Lovely restoration job mate. 
So, what's the plans next? Any other projects, perhaps a nice stable mate?


 

[PasiR]

  You have done excellent job!!

[n9671x2]

Triple Black Hemi, I would consider my car your cars little brother   Your car has to be one of the most popular cars floating around the internet.

NZ  In January I tore into this car as it needed a clutch.  Original idea was pull drivetrain, reshoot underhood/clutch etc..   The paint was from 1980 so it wasn't showing just too great up close.  THANKFULLY, I got a great connection on paint.  Talked to my buddy who owns a body shop, we snuck the gutted rolling shell into his shop in January.  He let me do most of the work on it, which really wasn't that much.  We reshot the rolling carcass and brought it home last month, freeing his shop space pretty quickly.  Pulled dash and redetailed as well as rear end.   The underhood area is ready to go, need to detail motor/tranny and get those back in probably in the next 2 weeks.  From there he will panel paint the doors and front clip and we will hang them and finish off the redo that way. 

My first car was a 72 Barracuda, and to me the 72-74 Cudas are no less cool than the more popular 70 and 71s.  I bought this car off of this board about a year ago from the gentleman who had owned it for 30 years.  It is a numbers 74 360 4 speed with 45k miles and no winters (no rust).  The numbers motor is built with w2 heads and rear has 4.30 gears, so she really scoots!!  I will do some before and after pictures when it is wrapped up.   It is a white interior, no console rallye dash car.

[RusTy/SE]

  That's what it's all about isn't it n96 ? She's beautiful 

[Robb]

on the angle of your Kiesler, did you use the aluminum spacer that goes between the mount and the tranny ?  its about 1.5 inches thick and corrects the angle of your block and puts it back to "normal"

Reason I ask is that I had to create my own as the 1.5 was a little too much, and I used about 1" (made my own) and it corrected the geometry and I think if you didnt do this, you may want too.   Its very simple and I did it while on my back with the front of the car on ramps.    Ill be under my car later, I can take pics if you dont know what Im talking about.


enjoy your ride !!!

[n9671x2]

on the angle of your Kiesler, did you use the aluminum spacer that goes between the mount and the tranny ?  its about 1.5 inches thick and corrects the angle of your block and puts it back to "normal"

Reason I ask is that I had to create my own as the 1.5 was a little too much, and I used about 1" (made my own) and it corrected the geometry and I think if you didnt do this, you may want too.   Its very simple and I did it while on my back with the front of the car on ramps.    Ill be under my car later, I can take pics if you dont know what Im talking about.


enjoy your ride !!!

Love to see a picture of what you are talking about.  I do have to say though I have NO room between the top of the tranny and the tunnel, especially on the passenger side.  Did you do anything with pinion angle on rear end?

[crcarch]

  Well worth the wait!  Unbelievable job. 

[js27]

One word for your car
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Personally I would go with black billboards. White would be very nice but just a little to much contrast for me.
It will look great either way ..
JS27

[Robb]

Love to see a picture of what you are talking about.  I do have to say though I have NO room between the top of the tranny and the tunnel, especially on the passenger side.  Did you do anything with pinion angle on rear end?

no mods to the rear end.   I also have the "Factory height" springs, so my rear 8 3/4 is tight to the body compared to a lot of folks who put lifted springs/shackles in their ride.

With a Keisler you have to cut in the normal manual tranny hump  AND you have to cut out an additional part of the tranny hump on the passenger side/top of the tranny tunnel.   The kit comes with the manual hump and a 16"x16" square of sheet metal to accomodate this mod (though I think that mod was only required for some 70's).  The kit comes with a template specially for it.

see page 4

http://www.keislerauto.com/mopar/articles/mopar_action_200408.pdf


in this pic from my install last summer, you can see how much of the tranny hump I cut away (per instructions), you can also see the sheetmetal flat that was provided, that I had to form fit into place and seal up the passenger side.

[Robb]

now I realize yours is a '71  and you in theory didnt have to make this mod, however maybe this something you might have to consider doing to get your alignment ?



here this pic from the article shows more detail of the cuts on a '70 eBody

[n9671x2]

Thanks for those pictures, I had heard the 70 tunnels were a little different.  It is tight on the passenger side, but I did not have to alter anything there to get Keislers tranny mount to work.  I don't see changing anything at this point, exhaust is done, I ended up making a custom baseplate to go with the stock outer shaker ring to get bubble to sit right.  Took it out again today for a while, seems to go down road fine.