New girl!

[moparrunner]

Thanks Arno! Are you from the Netherlands? I have a great story that's way off topic... has to do with
a Royal Netherlands P3 (C model I think) that landed and parked beside my Navy C130 in Manama Bahrain years ago.... oh gosh....

yes  laurie i am from the netherlands.
great story,s are always fun to hear or reed
greetings arno

['Cuda Hunter]

Welcome!!

Someone correct me if I am wrong.  I do believe there are only around two dozen of each year hemi cuda's made.
Not a lot of them.  And fewer accounted for. 
Pretty hard to get a real hemi, but not impossible.

I wanted a 71, Ended up purchasing a few 72-74's.  A challenger, 3 or 4 70's.
After just playing with the actual cuda's and selling them, I ended up with a 71.  IT took almost 10 years to find an appropriately priced 71.
It is just a simple ole slant six barracuda but I have plans for it.  After all, it is still a 71 barracuda.

Keep your mind in it and you can find anything you want. 

Good luck and welcome to the site!!!

[cudabeforeIdie]

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.

Hi Shane!
How much longer will you be in town? We should do lunch or dinner at Spanky's on the harbor and talk 'cuda!!!
Laurie!

[cudabeforeIdie]

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.

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.

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.

So a '70 with a bit of body work and an added hemi engine, or a non-hemi '71 with a new engine.... hmmmm....   I never knew such would be options.

Be realistic? A female? who WANTS something? 
You're probably right though, I think I need to spend more time looking for this needle in a haystack myself before realizing your wisdom on my own. And thanks for the header panel definition, like I said I'd be asking some dumb questions here! Thank you!

[cudabeforeIdie]

Welcome Laurie And good luck with your search

Thank you!

[cudabeforeIdie]

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!

Your story of success is one I hope to repeat here! I hope you're enjoying your car!
Laurie!

[cudabeforeIdie]

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

I'll be happy to PM it to you if you promise not to sue me for sexual harassment.

[cudabeforeIdie]

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

I've been to PR many times (Rosey Roads), the island is not that big, where do you park all those cars? 
What you're doing has been recommended to me here. Do you have any pics of the restoration so far?

[cudabeforeIdie]

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.   

Hi Dave! thanks! Is there a lot interest in these cars in Oz? They must have to shipped/flown there, yikes! Big money! I was only in Oz once, great people, beautiful country, awesome food!
Laurie!

[cudabeforeIdie]

welcome to the site

Thank you!

[cudabeforeIdie]

yes  laurie i am from the netherlands.
great story,s are always fun to hear or reed
greetings arno

At great risk of angering the moderators by going off topic, I'll make this brief:
I was in the US Navy for 8 years, I was a loadmaster on C130's (VR-62). We're on det in
Bahrain and just parked the bird for the night. As I'm doing my final walk around
with the mntx kids, a Netherlands P3 pulls up and parks beside us. There's as much
love between the C130 community and the P3 community as there is between Mopar
and Chevy BTW. Their crew door opens and out comes - Van Halen! Well not really,
but the crew all had LONG hair, being a metal-head myself, and being constantly surrounded
by the 'high and tight' hair cuts on the US males, I had a stroke. I couldn't talk. I was in
love with the other team now.

There was a casual hang out area near the mntx trailers where all the squadrons did their
paperwork. I'm sitting near these guys, my tongue on the floor, and my crew starts to rag
me. I said to my TAC "Boss, I'm resigning from the Navy and from America. Going to become
a Dutch citizen and fly as an AO on their P3s."  He smiles, takes a sip of his beer and says
"request denied".

They were only in town for the night, but they were staying at the same hotel in Manama
that we were at. Saw the guys later that night in the bar, did my best to promote good will
and military relations between the United States and The Netherlands. Your tax dollars at work!

Apologies to the moderators, now back to cuda talk!

[cudabeforeIdie]

Welcome!!

Someone correct me if I am wrong.  I do believe there are only around two dozen of each year hemi cuda's made.
Not a lot of them.  And fewer accounted for. 
Pretty hard to get a real hemi, but not impossible.

I wanted a 71, Ended up purchasing a few 72-74's.  A challenger, 3 or 4 70's.
After just playing with the actual cuda's and selling them, I ended up with a 71.  IT took almost 10 years to find an appropriately priced 71.
It is just a simple ole slant six barracuda but I have plans for it.  After all, it is still a 71 barracuda.

Keep your mind in it and you can find anything you want. 

Good luck and welcome to the site!!!

Thank you! Yikes, I didn't realize that number of hemi's was so small? 
I think my needle just got smaller in a bigger haystack. After only 48 hours on this sight,
it may be prudent for me to consider a 70 or 71 and dress it up a bit. I'm still going to look
for that little needle, but it sounds like I may have to be realistic at some point down the road.
Any pics of your '71?
Laurie

['Cuda Hunter]

http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=47941.0

Not alot to look at.  I am much slower than the majority of folk on this site.
Still, I keep turning one bolt at a time.

I think most of us on here are looking for a hemi cuda.
Or a hemi challenger for that matter.

The search goes on.  Just don't loose out on precious time not driving one while you look for your perfect needle.
At least I can say I have finally driven several over the last 8 or so years.  SSSHHH, I was a pontiac guy.

[dutch]

welcome     
go find a 70... and keep it 70   

[IMNCARN82]

You will pay less for a 72-74. And the grille is cooler (but JMO) ya I'm nuts!    And you will get more car for your money.   Work on it as you learn and can afford. 
WELCOME TO THE SITE!!
You have impeccable taste in vehicles...
R/T