First car I ever painted was in black, it was a trans am, but it turned out perfect, so for the hard shooting part, I don't see how. To me its much easier to see where you missed, plus base/clear all ya gotta do is make sure its all black, clears what makes it smooth and shiney.
I suppose they meant it was more difficult with respect to the bodywork because black shows every little imperfection... and my Barracuda had a lot of them. Interestingly enough, they seem to be having the most difficulty with the brand new Goodmark trunk lid. One day it was painted, a few days later I noticed it stripped down and them reblocking it. They said it looked wavy.
Hi, Your car looks great, and black is wild!!!! I'm from Australia and I've just put a deposit on 73 Barracuda and want to clone it to a 70 Cuda. Did you find it hard converting the grill and the back end to a 70. Quite a few people are warninig me against doing this as it is going to be way expensive and very difficult to achieve. Would appreciate some advice from you ie do I need to cut at the car or does the front grill/header etc just bolt on? I can get hold of a whole 1970 header/grill for $2200 (do you think this is a reasonable price considering parts are now becoming hard to come by? Thanks Con
The hardest part was finding the parts. Months and months and months of searching. Looks like you are half way there. I spent $1600 for a grille w/ the bezels and trim, but it is far from perfect. It sags a bit actually, and I know I will be on the lookout for a nicer one once everything is together. I found a decent header panel for $300. If the grille you found is in good shape, I suppose that is a reasonable price considering what I've seen them go for. Even better if you are talking Aussie dollars.
The tail light panel is probably a bit harder to find, and I don't know how many people are willing to ship out of the US. I found mine on ebay, and I've seen them go for anywhere between $300 and $1400. As far as being difficult, I think that panel looked easier to change than say a quarter panel. It looked like it was only held in place with spot welds, at least around the top where the quarters wrap around it. The actual tail light assemblies seem plentiful on ebay.
To complete the look, you will need side marker cut out patch panels, the side marker light assemblies, '70-72 bumperettes & the rear bumper brackets, '70 bumpers (I think the front brackets are the same & you just have to unbolt the bumper reinforcement.), '70 only side mirror(s), and a '70 only hood latch (actually need that for more than just looking correct; the '71-74 one won't work w/ the header panel.)
There's actually a ton of more give aways that the car isn't a '70 that I don't care about. (Hood hinges, rallye wheel centers, the interior, fuel tank vents, trunk lid torsion springs, etc.)
In all, the parts ran $5000 (USD) for me, and I'm guessing about $2000 in body work. That plus the price of the car was still a bit cheaper than what the 1970 Barracudas in the same shape seemed to be going for. Would I do it again? No. At the time, I could only afford the 1972-74 models and I wasn't planning on doing a complete restoration anytime soon. Had I known it was going to unravel like this, I would have just saved up for a '70 or '71. The biggest hassle so far has been the NYPD because they suspect that I'm going to tamper with the VIN, drop a Hemi in it, and pawn it off to an unsuspecting buyer for a boat load of cash. I had no idea that there was so much fraud out there. It's crazy.
