1972 Cudas w/ Gills

[Moparal]

hte Gills on the Fenders...


Of course you do. I see a challenger in your avatar.  Fishes have gills

[hotrod98]

Hey, thanks for the new pic.
I built this car for my wife about four years ago. The nicest thing about this car is the fuel injected 360 and A518 overdrive. We drove it 400 miles that week and averaged 29 mpg. I wanted to go with the shaker hood so that it would look more like my '71 but she liked the original style hood better. She designed the car herself and decided what all she wanted done to the car. She wanted gilled fenders, recessed side markers, gull wing, painted grille and recessed, painted bumpers.  She also has cruise control and Boyd wheels. She stole the Boyds off of my car. 

[426HEMI]

Nice!!!!  Really Nice!!!!  That looks so cool. 

[cudadave72]

Very nice indeed!!!

[miamivice]

here is a 74 with gills i came across on the net


http://www.plymouthbarracuda.net/featured/1974/1974-plymouth-barracuda-4.shtml

[hotrod98]

The purists hate the gills on the 72-74 cars, but I think they break up the sides of the car. What I don't like is '71 gills with '70 hockey stick stripes.
Seems to be too much for some reason.
Note...I installed the gill panels in my wife's car which was a real pain. I've seen a car where the guy just cut the holes out and mounted the gills into the non-recessed holes. They stick out just a little but they look very good and you don't have the cost of the gill panels or the headache of trying to get the body work to look right around the gill panels. Welding in the gill panels tends to distort the fenders no matter how careful you are. I've done several sets and they all had to have a few hours of work to make them look right.
By just cutting out the holes, all you're out is the cost of the gills and the retainers and a couple of hours of your time.
There's a guy in Illinois, I think, that will punch your fenders for you but that too would be cost prohibitive with shipping both ways, etc. unless you lived nearby.

[miketyler]

whats the cost of the patch panel, gills, and retainers these days?

[hotrod98]

P.G. Classic sells a kit for $369 that includes the gill panels, the gills, the gill retainers and the gaskets. That's the best deal that I've seen.

[miketyler]

The pics of that lime green Cuda have inspired me. Am putting gills on my carwish there was a easy to do the side markers. Sounds pretty labor intensive (X4)

[hotrod98]

I happened to have a few panels lying around with the side marker recesses. I cut them out and built boxes around them, bolted them to the inside of the fenders and quarters and then tacked them into place. Then I cut out the orignal side marker recesses out, welded the new boxes in place and finished out the body work. And yes, it was labor intensive but I would do it again.  Most non mopar people assume that they're supposed to look like that.
To me it looks better than simply filling them in.

[miketyler]

Cool - I bought a set of original 71 gills yesterday. Still neeed to get gaskets, patch panels and retainers. Who has the best fitting patch panels for OEM style gills? PG or ?

[hotrod98]

I bought mine from Tony's Parts. Don't know if they're better than P.G.'s or not. I mentioned previously tht I trimmed them down to keep from welding too close to the top edge of the fender and the body line.

[miketyler]

Got the gill panels yesterday. I only need retainers and some nuts now (to slice into my beautiful fenders)

[hotrod98]

Did you see the episode of Musclecar that was on Saturday Feb 28. They showed in detail how to install the gill patch panels. They did them exactly like I did. They were smart enough to do them with the fender bolted into place. I made that mistake...once. Never again will I do them with the fender off of the car. Too much distortion no matter how careful you are.

[miketyler]

I missed that one! Will have to see when it runs again. Can you give me any dims on how far from the edge the aft most gill slot should be? Any other advice on this other than staying away from the top fender line?