Thought I'd share with you the work on my 66 Barracuda. I bought it localy about a year & a half ago. Car apparently came from New Jersey orginaly. Now in NC. Biggest project i've taken on yet. Will need some encouragement along the way. It want be a rotiserie, but I still want it to look as nice as I can. Its the dark green car in the pic. Gold car is an allready striped parts car with not much left.

Car is a 273 V8 auto with what loks to be factory air. 273 engine came with car dissasembled. Car has a running 318 in it now.

Floors look bad. May need to replace them all. Gonna be fun.

Back window was cracked badly & was leaking a lot of water when it rained. In fact the day I went to look at the car ir was raining & I watched the water run in. The car was full of parts so I was not able to get a good look at the floors, but I expected it was bad. I was able to get the rear glass off the parts car. So far the only thing I've used from it.

Trunk floor looks pretty good, other than a lot of surface rust. I began grinding it al down to the bare metal with a wire wheel on a drill. Vacumed it all up & wiped it down with laqure thinner. Then applied several coats of rattle can primer. I think it will be ok. There where a few very small holes it the spare tire well. After getting it down to the metal & primering it I filled those with 3M seam sealer. Seems to have worked.

More grinding, priming of the trunk area. You can see on the rear floor section under the glass. It has a lot of pits. This piece is removeabe & I figured my parts car one may be in better shape. However I decided to use this one since it will be covered with carpet. I took it down to bare metal. Primed it good with several coats & time between coats. It was the wet carpet that did this I'm sure.

While the old broken rear glass was out. I cleaned up the channel down to bare metal. I primed it with rattle can epoxy primer. I also decided on the color I wanted to aint the car. Its a late model Chrysler color. Called Flame Red or Poppy Red. Very popular on Rams, PT's, Mini Vans. I got that color from a Dart that was in Mopar Muscele. It was a similar color with black carpet & black & white interior. Looked good in the mag so I went with it. So I began trimming it out with Dupli Color rattle can as well. Also removed the metal bolt in floor section under the glass to paint it. Every thing looked good underneath so since it will be covered I left it the factory green.

Rear glass from the parts car installed. I got the new gasket from The Paddock. Good price & timely delivery. However we (had friend who's done glass work before help on this) had a hard time with the gasket. It was very soft & fit pretty loose. Had to tape it on so it wouldn't fall off when we turned the glass over to install it. Got it on, but it was tough.

Saw an add on Craigslist for a 65 Barracuda parts car not to far away. Went to check it out. I dont like the front end styling of the 66 & since this is a resto mod I want to use a 64/5 front clip. So this car would help there.

$500 bucks later & the "new parts car " is home. Its rough too & I think I paid too much. However it was close by & had some of the stuff I will need. Lots of thanks to my buddy Mike Miller who taged along. It was raining buckets in the wet old junk yard. The car didnt have a rear end under it either. Somehow we got it loaded???

Went back to work on the 66. Sanded down the tail panel section. Primed with Dupli color rattle can epoxy. Removed both bumpers & brackets too. The tail panel is creased in. Going to have to try to pull it out. Maybe a little hammer & dolly work as well.

Decided to continue to strip down the car. Removed the front clip. The car didnt get much done on it during the July-early September time due to my bracket racing schedule & just needing a break. So it had a decent engine oil leak. Came in the shop one day and it had run all over the floor. What a mess. Not real sure where it was comming from. Engines comming out soon along with the tranny. Will clean floor better after that.

Looks like you're making some good progress. There is a local Challenger painted that color of red and it's of my favorite cars at the local shows. It really stands out nicely. Great color. Look forward to seeing more progress pics. I restored the 65 in my sig with my Dad in the mid 80s. It was in Wilmington, NC. It needs a full resto now but will have to wait until the Challenger is done. Your post makes me look forward to starting on it.

Joe

Thanks Joe Your Challenger will be fun. Looks like you have a nice collection of cool Mopars

I love these cars. I knew a guy in college who had one. I always parked my 72 Charger next to him. I bet a lot of people stopped to look at those cars But some doofus with a Saturn kept messing up the car show

Oh no not a Saturn...plastic car from another planet. Just kiddin. He was trying to be cool, parking next to your Mopar.

Dont think it would have mattered. This gasket was way too loose. I need to do the front windshield also so I guess we'll look into your tip. As for the lock strip. I was hoping to reuse the old one, but it looks kinda bad. After installing the new gasket decided to get a new lock strip. I have not decided if I want black or chrome. Thanks for the info. Learning as I go.

Got a lot done on the car today. Got the engine & trans out. Sitting on the shop floor. Also got the master cyl out as well as removed al of the rest of the under hood A/C stuff. I had to break one metal hose as I just could not get it to release. I tried everything I know. It was slowly bending so I decided to just let it go. Plan on new ones anyway just wanted to remove as much as I can with out damage for reference.

A look at the engine bay. Dont know what I will put back in it yet. Got lots of time to think about that. 5.7 Hemi would be sweet, but I think thats a bear of a job. The old 318 had 11/75 stamped on the side. It had two bad looking freeze plugs & the oil smeals burnt. If I decide to use it I hope its ok.