Man, some of you guys are harsh. After reading some of the sanctimonious comments in this thread, you'd think that he was spending your money and making you do the work on it...

The man had a vision and he managed to follow it through before he passed. Have some respect for that.

Many of us will likely leave our families with a bunch of cars and car stuff that our families will have to deal with later... it's not uncommon. And our families will likely only get a fraction out of it from what we spent on the junk - I've seen some cases where it all just went to the scrap yard. A life's worth of collecting, all scrap metal to go into the next electric Hyundai... think about it.

Regardless... on the topic of the 4-door Barracuda itself, I'm sure the idea was tossed around at the product planning/styling dept. brainstorming sessions, even if it never made it to clay. Ford and GM were considering it, why wouldn't the Chrysler Corp.?

If I were brainstorming this project, I would have aimed the marketing at somebody who really wanted a sporty car like a Barracuda, and not a tall frumpy looking sedan (otherwise they could just have bought a Satellite and called it a day). The concept drawing that was floating around at the time of a 4 door hardtop with low roofline seemed like a more likely candidate, rather than where Dave ended up going. Just my opinion, but the end result looked like what might have happened if the engineers won their argument over the styling department, and upper management insisted on more headroom for back seat passengers (and perhaps better structural integrity as offered by a sedan vs a hardtop).

Here's the drawing that was floating around (which I thought would more likely have been what Chrysler would have pursued):


For me, it was interesting. I followed the build online and was amazed at the workmanship and attention to detail that was put into it... even if I didn't really like the final result aesthetically. It only adds to the hobby as far as I'm concerned, and I really have no time for anyone who wants to cut a guy down (especially after he's dead) for following his dream and vision, even if it's not what I would do (not that I would ever have the ability to take on a project like this, to such a high level).

Just my , FWIW.

[quote=ChryCoGuy]






If you do something wrong,no matter how much detail you put into it at the end of the day it's still wrong. The right way to do it was to use the Cuda roof,extend it using the center of a second cuda roof,cut the door window frames off the Coronet doors and have glass made to fit the roof properly. If anyone could have pulled this off correctly it was Dave,his company makes glass. He chose to do it the easy way instead of doing the pillarless model with the right roofline like the drawing. Then he got pissed off at everyone who called him out on the car for the roof looking effing goofy,well it does look effing goofy. The roof lines of the two cars aren't even close,and the curved A pillars that get wider as they go up look like crap against the Cuda straight windshield moldings that end six inches below the side glass height!

never saw it from that angle. my god that is bad. it really is the perfect example of just because ya can doesn't mean you should.

It's not meanness it is just stating the obvious facts on the build. All of Daves other restorations were top notch OEM gold quality builds as were the products he made and offered to our hobby. Dave's passing is truly a loss to everyone involved in the hobby. This build however was a swing and a miss.

The rear window is even worse.

HEY!! Serious question time, where did he get all the weather stripping for the doors? My wagon needs some......

If i had more money than brains I'd buy it, cut the roof off it and make it a proper 4 door hardtop. I remember controversy when it was being built but I never paid attention, looking at it now - man does it ever look wrong, and I assume the builder knew that but was too $$$ invested to turn around.

I just found out today that the car sold at the auction for $121,000. I didn't think it would sell for that much

I'm not convinced they had a bid at 100k. They opened around 300 and started dropping of course. They stayed FOREVER at 100k asking 110. As soon as they got 110, it was a pretty quick hammer. I was hoping it would get hung just to see what they'd do.