Hello everyone, I am a new member here looking for knowledge and parts as I start the restoration process of my 1970 Barracuda. I thought I would start a thread to outline my progress.

The car in question is a 70 Gran Coupe car that I acquired a few years ago. I know very little about the history of the car as I acquired it without fender tags or a build sheet. From what I know, the previous owner restored the car back in the early 80's and added a 440 instead of the 318 it got from the factory. In 83 he blew up the motor in his drag car and decided to pull the 440 out of the Gran Coupe and stored the car in a storage unit. Fast forward to 2010 and he could no longer afford to store it which is how it passed to me. As I have looked over the car, I believe it was originally a black car with a 318 and a console shifted automatic. The car was painted white and then the engine compartment and trunk were painted black again. . I've grown up sort of a purist when it comes to restorations preferring the stock look, but this car was nothing special when new and the lack of fender tags would stop me from restoring it this way. I still haven't decided exactly what the plan is for the car, but I will outline what I have done so far and follow up with pictures for what I do as the build progresses. Im sure I will have lots of questions as I dig into this project, so any help is greatly appreciated!

Pictures will come shortly.

Here is the car as I got it, and a few as I was disassembling it for paint.

Stripping her down.

White interior is definitely going.

And on her way to the paint shop.

Looks like a nice start. I think I talked with you before when you were looking for a car you had a mustang to trade. Its kind of freeing to have a document less car. You can make it what you want or even how you would have bought one from the factory new.

Welcome. That's a great looking core to start with , that'll make the job a great deal easier!

I'm shaving most the trim and emblems for a slightly more modern look.

And another

Now that the car is in the paint shop, I've been trying to prep everything I can so the assembly goes quicker when I get her home. I've been spending an hour every morning before I head to work blasting and painting parts. If I were rich I'd have most of this powder coated, but this will have to do for now.

6 pak.. niiiicce.. I wish I could do some sand blasting and painting before work. Are you keeping it white? Definately a great staring point. I'll trade ya mine for yours, even up..

Haven't quite decided on the color yet, but I'm leaning towards some sort of orange. My paint guy is playing with some pearl mixed into vitamin c, so maybe it will be something sort of custom.

Are you Jeff Larson's son? Cool project!

Yes, I am. I believe we've met a couple of times down at spring fling. You were remaking the pistol grip shifters, correct?

Finally had a Saturday with decent weather, so I was able to take the car over and have the engine compartment and hood sandblasted. The black paint they painted in the engine compartment was almost as thick as undercoating, so blasting was the easiest way to get all of it out of there. The hood I'm using came from a different car, so I had to have the surface rust stripped off. Turned out nicely, but I forgot to take pictures. When the previous owner restored this car back in the 80s, he had all the body seems filled in with brass, and then cover with absurd amounts of body filler. Since I'm replacing both valences, they had to come off. It wasn't pretty....

Looks like the car still wears it's original drivers side quarter panel, but the passenger side is a mess. Whole lotta brass on this car. I guess that's just how they did things in the 80's?

And then there's this lovely piece of work on the passenger side rocker...

Only a few small surprises under the hood, nothing too bad though.

While the car is at the paint shop, I'm trying to get the motor all finished up. Things are going well so far.

First coat of primer is down so we can check for any problems. After that we'll be doing some more disassembly for the final prime and paint.

More

One more

And the last one

Looks like its coming along nicely! Keep up the great work!

And Vitamin C it is! Door jams, trunk, engine compartment, bumpers, bottom of the trunk and hood, and all of the little incidentals have been painted. We're going to assemble the front end this week and the rest of the exterior should be painted this coming weekend. Unfortunately this car had a lot of hidden nightmares under the previous paint job, so we have spent far more time and money getting this ready for paint than we ever expected.

Here is my biggest problem now. My paint guy retired from painting in a local Mercedes dealership and now teaches auto body and paint at a local high school. He is doing all the work at the high school after hours in his spare time. School gets out in two weeks and he will have limited access to the shop throughout the summer. It's kind of stressing me out because i'm afraid he's going to be cutting corners in order to finish it on time. So far things look pretty good, but I can see that he hasn't taped off some areas that I requested. We'll see how things turn out, keep your fingers crossed for me!

Under the hood

Bumper and other stuff

Car has been primed and blocked out three times. Three coats of color and five coats of clear. Just working on the final cut and buff and I can bring her home.

And one more.

Looks great!!!
Keep the pix coming.
When do you anticipate it being road ready?

Thanks. I have 99% of the parts I need to get it on the road, so i'm hoping it will be driving within a few months. The paint job cost me literally twice what I was expecting, so lack of funds may slow the progress.

Finally brought the car home from paint, now the fun begins!

Another one

And one more. Some of the details in the trunk and under the hood could have had a little more attention, but I couldn't be happier with the rest of the car.

Very nice.....

Haven't updated this thread in a LONG time. Cuda is getting close to being road ready. I need to install the exhaust, a windshield, and the front bumper and valence. I ended up using some SRT4 seats for now until I have to money to recover the stock original seats. I think they fit nicely in the car. Once I can get it out of the shop I'll finally be able to give it a proper detailing. The only this else left that I plan to do is add some modern wheels and wider tires and lower the rear end about 3" to give it a better stance. Cant wait to drive it this summer!

Finally out in the sun. Needs a windsheild, a few odds and ends, and some serious work on the ride height.