New girl!

[cudabeforeIdie]

Welcome to the site!   

Thank you! So far I'm having fun and really learning things already , I was afraid most wouldn't like a GIRL invading the carmancave. Judging from all the posts and PMs, I was wrong. Thank you SO MUCH to all who are willing to educate and dream with me, its very warm and fuzzy!

Laurie!

[cudabeforeIdie]

>If you found a 70 and wanted to convert it to a 71, you would need to swap out the grille and front fenders >(or just add gills to the fenders) not sure if you would need to swap out the header panel or not.

First of many dumb questions: what's a header panel?

>And depending on the motor you might need to swap out motors. If you found a 72-74, you would have to >swap out the grille, header panel, front fenders, rear quarters (they have different side reflectors), tail >panel, and tail lights.

Sounds like a lot of time, money and body work to 'make' the car? Question on motors: wouldn't the "ideal" be to restore the original hemi engine that came with the car? matching numbers et al?

>And crazily enough, that would still probably be cheaper than buying an original 71 hemi cuda. Converting >any other year to a 71 hemi cuda would probably cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $60k. >Assuming you could do some work yourself, but also assuming you splurged on some parts like a crate >motor and such. If you found a 72-74 the original cost of the car would be less than a 70 or 71 as well.

Excellent information, definitely food for thought.

>The easiest thing would be to find a 71, that was not a hemi cuda and convert it. As then it is just a matter >of an engine and some badging. But it can be done with any 70-74 cuda/barracuda. The cost for conversion >would be about the same for 71-74, because the 71 would cost more because it was a 1 year run only, but >you would have to get a lot more parts for a 72-74. A 70 would be the most expensive way to convert, >because it also demands a higher price being a 1 year only run, but you would still need to buy all the parts >to convert it.

hmmmm..... dressing up a base 71? That's something to consider if I can't find The One. So many times in my life I've become impatient, I wanted a certain thing badly and now. Only to find out if I had been more patient I would have got what I wanted and been far happier with it. I'll absolutely take your advice on non-hemi 71 as an alternative... but I really want to give my search a fair amount of time, thank you!!!

[cudabeforeIdie]

Welcome!  I've only been on this site for a week and I'm already learning a ton!  Good luck on your search

Thank you! Its been so great so far!

[Topcat]

Welcome to CC.com

Where are you located?

Maybe someone here can take you for a ride to inspire you.
Do you ever make it to any of the Big Mopar Car shows? Some really cool iron to go check out over the Summertime.

[cudabeforeIdie]

Welcome to CC.com

Where are you located?

Maybe someone here can take you for a ride to inspire you.
Do you ever make it to any of the Big Mopar Car shows? Some really cool iron to go check out over the Summertime.

Hi Mike!
I'm on beautiful Cape Cod, MA.  Beautiful until you realize how corrosive this lovely ocean air can be...
Never been to a mopar show, but regularly attend World Of Wheels in Boston at the Trade Center every winter. REAL nice cars there. And I've attended the Father's Day car show downtown in Hyannis. They block off Main Street from Barnstable Road to the Sheraton rotary, quite a distance. If the weather is good its a great show, if there's the threat of a cloud over head the field shrinks considerably. Wussies. Last year there was a '71 hemi cuda there, I think it was "real". I bought a sandwich, sat down on the sidewalk in front of the car, and didn't move for quite a while. I should get to more local car shows, make some more contacts, "networking" is the phrase I believe. 

[Topcat]

You live in a wonderful area.
I've been to Nantucket. Would love to return there someday.

[cudabeforeIdie]

You live in a wonderful area.
I've been to Nantucket. Would love to return there someday.

"There once was a man from Nantucket..."   

The Islands (Nantucket/Martha's Vineyard) are wonderful as long as you drip money! Living on the arm
as I do is a bit more reasonable.  It is pretty, I'm very blessed. And there's a lot of CA seashore that ain't
too shabby either!

[aris_unlimited]

First of many dumb questions: what's a header panel?

The header panel is the piece on the nose of the car that goes in front of the hood, above the grille, and in between the fenders.

Sounds like a lot of time, money and body work to 'make' the car? Question on motors: wouldn't the "ideal" be to restore the original hemi engine that came with the car? matching numbers et al?

It can be expensive and time consuming to convert a non 71 cuda into a 71 cuda. But it will most likely be a lot cheaper than buying yourself a 71 hemi cuda. As for the motor if you found a car with a hemi in it, by all means restore that hemi. But sadly not a lot of cuda's came with hemi's. They had 6 cylinders ( still can't believe that lol), 318, 340, 360, 383, 400, 426 (hemi), 440 sized V8's. So 8 different motors that they installed in cudas. Then you consider that the 426 was only an option for 2 years, so the last 3 years the cudas were made you couldn't even get one. Add all that up, and finding an old hemi isn't easy to do, let alone cheap. Whereas if you do manage to find a 6 cylinder or 318 cuda, it really isn't a big deal to put in a different motor. Some people like the big blocks or the higher cubic inch small blocks to stay numbers matching. But not really anyone out there looking for a 6 cylinder or 318 numbers matching cuda. Replacing either of those motors with a hemi will do nothing but add to the value of the car. And chances are you won't find a cuda with a motor in it (mine didn't have one), or if it does have a motor, not likely to be the original.

hmmmm..... dressing up a base 71? That's something to consider if I can't find The One. So many times in my life I've become impatient, I wanted a certain thing badly and now. Only to find out if I had been more patient I would have got what I wanted and been far happier with it. I'll absolutely take your advice on non-hemi 71 as an alternative... but I really want to give my search a fair amount of time, thank you!!!

Glad I could help. It's not a bad thing to wait for what you want, but I think you should be a little realistic too. Original hemi cudas aren't cheap, far from it. Looking at NADA value near me of a 71 cuda they would be worth $200,700 as a average value. And that is without any other options marked off. I don't know your financial situation, but if you can afford that then I would wait as long as it took to find one. But if you can't... Might be easier to have a non 71 hemi cuda, turned into a 71 hemi cuda.

[hezzel]

Welcome Laurie And good luck with your search

[shadango]

Welcome!

Good advice so far from everyone, and thats not surprising.

You will find that the people of this forum are the BEST resource you could possibly have for advice and info on e-bodies and mopars in general.  And its a great bunch of folks!

A hemi cuda is the holy grail for many.

Me, I went a simpler route......

Having an unlimited imagination but limited checkbook I decided to find a fixer-upper.

I decided that while I could learn the mechanical stuff I needed to learn to make a car run safely, I would have a harder time doing bodywork and paintwork the right way (I have no patience for it...LOL).

SO I set out to find a car that was fair as far as body and paint.

I ended up with my 72.....fresh coat of paint, original floors, clean frame....interior was gutted but parts there, 318 engine (non matching) sitting in the engine bay but no idea if it ran or not.....underhood electrical a mess, not even a battery tray...LOL...no tranny or shaft.

But it had shiny limelight /sublime paint.   

SO I bought it, trailered it home and with the help of folks here (that's an understatement for sure)  I had a runner in a few months time.

I never installed a tranny by myself in my life.....but I have done it twice on this car (longer story...LOL)......learned a LOT working on it so far and I am sure I will learn much more in the future.  Since then I have been slowly making changes/upgrades.   One day a hemi or big block may be in the cards but for now I have a lot of fun with my tweaked 318.

If you have the bucks to go full bore from the gate, do it!  But if not, don't let that slow you down. Start small and work up.

While I really love driving my car, I think I get as much fun or maybe more out of wrenching on the car myself, even with its ups and downs and occasional frustrations.

Good luck, and hope to see you posting pics of your car here soon!

[shadango]

"There once was a man from Nantucket..."   

I swear I don't think I have ever heard the whole actual joke for this one......always just that beginning and people laughing....LOL

[06Daytona]

Welcome

I was looking for a 71 Cuda myself but I found a 72 instead. It's rough, but I'm changing all the sheetmetal but the roof in the near future to change it into a 71 clone. I was lucky enough to have someone give me a grill that started the whole clone idea. While looking for a shaker hood I found a guy with not only the shaker, but the quarters and tail panel for the 71 and it's kind of snowballed from there. As soon as the credit card payment clears I'll be getting a hold of E-body products and ordering the rest of the sheet metal I'll need. I live in Puerto Rico so finding parts and specific cars can be tough and shipping here is pretty high but in the end I'll have one of two 71s on the island and I won't feel as bad when I park next to the plum crazy AAR at the shows

[Aussie Challenger]

Welcome from down south   
This site has a few girls on and they all hold their own, this site seems to have a greater tolerance to girls who want to share their love of cars, everybody is friendly and equal.   

[FJ5_440]

Hi Mike!
I'm on beautiful Cape Cod, MA.  Beautiful until you realize how corrosive this lovely ocean air can be...
Never been to a mopar show, but regularly attend World Of Wheels in Boston at the Trade Center every winter. REAL nice cars there. And I've attended the Father's Day car show downtown in Hyannis. They block off Main Street from Barnstable Road to the Sheraton rotary, quite a distance.

Welcome!
I am travelling for my job right now and am actually sitting in the hotel in Hyannis looking at the road you are talking about.
Been kind of rainy, cold and windy this week, but a lovely place overall. 
Most of us would love to have a 71 Hemi Cuda, but the problem is mostly financial.  There were very few of them made, and everybody wants one now, so the price for a real one is pretty high.  I wanted a 440 sixbarrel 70 Cuda, but they command a premium also and I like to drive it alot and numbers matching , so I just built one from a less desireable 70.
With the market the way it is right now, there are some deals to be had.  It will still take some patience to get a real 71 Hemi Cuda, but this is a great place to read and learn while you look.

[hpe600rt]

welcome to the site