So I put a last minute minimum bid on that Barracuda that was sitting in the back of Tim’s Gasser Cave that was in the Ebay UK forum in Feb (someone spotted it as a possibility for Ade but he passed). It was a bit of a gamble as it has no paperwork or reg number, but having checked with Experian that the VIN wasn’t coming up as stolen I handed over the money. I’m still trying to sort out registering it with the DVLA as they have told me to ‘restore’ it first then get it inspected to see if it can be registered. The VIN checks out as an original V8 four-speed car, so it’s not the sixpot one Dunc thought it was in the thread I don’t think - there’s every chance it’s never actually been registered here, which might be an issue.
Story is that the previous owner bought it about 10 years ago from a policeman who’d got it from a banger racer who never raced it as he couldn’t get it started. No idea if that’s true, but what is known is that the last owner (name’s Clare, she’s got a couple of Yanks I think) had a 360 rebuilt and a lot of work on the brakes done at Tim’s Gasser Cave five or more years ago, then lost interest. It was originally blue, but has at one point had a reasonable repaint in black with a gold dash, (though now pickling up again and scuffed from sitting about).
So far I’ve found the floors will need doing, and the bottom of the rear quarters are rotting on a previous repair. Also the bulkhead has been cut away at the corners so will need two small patches.
Other than that, it’s really not a bad shell at all and I think the paint can be touched in to avoid a respray, at least if you want to get it good enough for racing, which is the plan.
And by racing, I mean going round corners, not in a straight line, much in the same way as the CCK historic build will turn out:
http://www.moparuk.com/forums/viewtopic ... hlight=fia
Though mine will be more of a budget build! Great though the Dart is, I realised that I wanted an earlier car I could use for track days, hillclimbs, racing etc and a four-speed, and that the Dart was too original to continue modifying and I’d be better starting with something else.
The bits missing from the Barracuda - bumpers, interior - are mostly ones I’d remove for racing - I’ve got most of the grille, new headlights, some seats that will do. The main thing I need is a screen - Peter Jones has quoted me just under £500 - steep, but they do seem to be quite pricey in the US as well so might have to take the plunge.
It has a 360 in it that I won't be able to use because of the pesky rules:
but on the plus side has all the other glass (though I'll eventually replace this with perspex, and it's also a manual steer car (though this box will need to be rebuilt with a 16:1 ratio - the super slow manual steering being the only weak point of the handling of my old gold Dart)
First work is going to be to sort out the shell, fit a running 273 and screen, fix the brakes and then get it through an MoT so it can be inspected by the DVLA.
