Canadian 73 Cuda Restoration; Project Sassy.

[twalker]

Hey folks, after searching for a few years I finally found my cuda.  I've looked at so many in Ontario and saw so many rotten cars, or over priced projects, I lost count. I even drove all the way to Chicago (8hrs) to pick up a cuda off of ebay only to find that the seller had advertised the wrong VIN (and sent me the wrong title copy) and I couldn't bring it back across the border.  ... Anyway, it's a 1973, Barracuda - 318 (project) car. I was focused on finding a 72-74 because I prefer the round tail lights and grill of those years.   Of course with the restoration I'm steering away from the original trim a bit - to make this car 'my own'.  I've picked up a 440 already, and will be going with a 4speed.  It'll be finished with sassy grass, black billboards and rally rims.  Interior will be in the original black finish with console, and I've already picked up a set of rally gauges for it.

I picked it up in August and am just beginning to really work on it now.  I just got it back from media blasting and of course, it revealed the "easter eggs" I thought (but hoped wouldn't) might be there...  

No big deal, the car is pretty solid, just weak in the usual spots - especially for a canadian car.

Anyway, looking forward to sharing my restoration in the restoration story forum area and pulling on you guys for advice as I make my way through this - so thanks in advance 

some starting pics below.  see the one with the uhaul and trailer, I bought the car disassembled and all the parts in the uhaul truck 

[blown motor]

I love what you're going to do with it. I live just north of you at Mitchell. Will you have it done in time for Moparfest?

[twalker]

I love what you're going to do with it. I live just north of you at Mitchell. Will you have it done in time for Moparfest?

Thanks a lot, I'm pumped to drive it.  I won't have it done by this year's moparfest    Next year's moparfest maybe, but I'll have to see how the money flows.  If I sell my 68' camaro, it'll be done by then for sure, but not sure I'll sell it.

I was at this year's moparfest - great weather, great day, picked up lots of parts.  You?

[blown motor]

Ya I was there. I thought that was a Camero in your garage. Where did you find the Cuda?

[johns cuda shop]

Looks like a great start. 

[twalker]

Nice - hoping to make some mopar friends around here.  There are so few around here.  All the cruise nights around London are primarily ford & chev.  I love my 68 camaro, it's a convertible RS, but there is just something about mopar that really gets me going.

I found the cuda near windsor, it went up on kijiji on a sunday and i was there monday to see and buy it :-)  I learned over the past few years that you have to move quick on these things, they don't stay up for long - if they do, there's a good reason for it :-)

I'll put some more pics of my progress so far later today. 

cheers!

[twalker]

Here it is coming back from the media blasters.  Local guy in Mt. Brydges that does a great job, he's usually at the local swap meets/shows to promote.   I'll post some of the 'easter eggs' revealed by the media blasting next.  Always wanted to do this to a project car, I didn't with the camaro and should have.  So nice to have the car down to bare metal.  I had them lay down a coat of epoxy primer on to protect it while i do the metal work.

[brads70]

Looks pretty solid!

[twalker]

here is the majority of metal work ahead of me.  you can see the previous owner thought it was a good idea to patch the rear rails

I have new rails on the way right now, been working the past couple of nights cutting these out.  will post 'after' pictures when i'm done.  Although the trunk isn't bad, it does have a few pin holes - so a new AMD trunk pan is going in now too.

unfortunately the previous owner also didn't replace drop downs when he put the new quarters on    so, i haven't made a decision on repairing them or replacing them yet - it's the right time to do it, but I also don't want to tear into the brand new quarters so, bit of a dilemma.  open to anyone here trying to push me one way or the other :-)

[moparman82]

Great project man!  Good luck!

[CUDA JAS]

Looks like a nice project.

I am just east of you in Cambridge.  I was at moparfest this year too!!

If the quarters are new, I would try to replace the drop downs.

Look forward to pictures.

Jason

[twalker]

Needed to do some work on the front of the rear driver side rail, since i'm only putting in new rear rail sections.  Removed the section that had a few pin holes, internally braced and put a new patch in.  Once I expoxy prime and skim it with a little filler, it'll look great. 

The underside of the car will be sassy grass as well - so the metal work needs to be clean.

[twalker]

Wanted to share what I worked on a few weeks ago while my car was away getting blasted.  I decided to work on the main interior panels to see if I could restore and re-use them - some of them were pretty rough, and faded.  So, with a little research I turned to SEM products to prep and paint the panels.  Pictures of the products I used are included below.

I'm extremely happy with how they turned out, I'm confident the paint has good adhesion and will be durable and the landau black is a perfect black for interior pieces.

[usraptr]

Wanted to share what I worked on a few weeks ago while my car was away getting blasted.  I decided to work on the main interior panels to see if I could restore and re-use them - some of them were pretty rough, and faded.  So, with a little research I turned to SEM products to prep and paint the panels.  Pictures of the products I used are included below.

I'm extremely happy with how they turned out, I'm confident the paint has good adhesion and will be durable and the landau black is a perfect black for interior pieces.

X2 I just painted some of my interior trim pieces with exactly the same SEM products.  Looks like new again!

[blown motor]

Twalker, where did you get the SEM products? I'll be going through London on Monday, might pick them up.