The moment I spotted this Barracuda here on eBay, I thought it looked like the perfect Mad Max style road machine! If you haven’t seen any of the Mad Max movies, they take a look at what things would be like if there were a societal breakdown. Cars, highly modified and grungy ones at that, play a significant role. Most of the cars in the movies are upgraded for speed and mayhem! Given the condition and rough look, I think this Barracuda would be the perfect candidate to build a road warrior that will shock and scare passersby!
This thing has a lot of issues, including rust, unknown engine condition, and the lack of a title. The rust could be fixed, but if it isn’t too serious at this point, I would try to stop its on going march and keep the grungy look.
With any luck, the engine will be free and can be made to run with minimal work. Of course, if you’re going to go with the Mad Max theme, you’ll want more power than the 23 horses that the 318 churned out when new. You could do an engine swap or just tune this one up, if it runs that is. I would hate to cut holes in the hood or do anything too radical, but wouldn’t this thing look killer with a blower sticking out of the hood and side pipes letting the exhaust out?
As a restoration project, this one is going to be costly and time consuming. It has decent bones, or at least it appears to. I’m worried about the rust in the door jambs, as there is likely to be more rust elsewhere. I would be extremely careful buying this one and would definitely have an inspection done. I think it would be a great project, but it could also be a terrible nightmare. One thing is for sure, it would be scary to see it coming down the road! So would you save this one or is it just too far gone?
If the rust is as bad as I think it must be, 23 horsepower is probably way too much for this ‘Cuda. I foresee it splitting right across the middle one day.
230 horse power
Not from that 318
I don’t care what engine is in it as long as the back tires are huge and a 671 blower is exploding out of the hood
That would be a 6-71 blower. It’s name comes from its original source, which was the GM Detroit Diesel Supercharged 2-stroke 6 cylinder engine with a 71 cubic inches per cylinder displacement (6 X 71 = 426 cu in or 7.0L). A friend has a 1947 Greyhound Silversides bus with this powerplant and it is a force to be reckoned with (especially if you like A LOT of black diesel smoke).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Diesel_Series_71
I knew that
Honest
It will sell. Being a TX9 car will help the value a lot.
That car is not that bad. As soon as I saw the first pic, I said 8-12 grand. The ebay ad, is priced right. I could restore that car and sell it for 25K. If I spent a little more time and money doing it, it could go way up. Rust is no problem if you know what you’re doing. That car is worth saving. I’d do a modern Hemi driveline in it. Somebody should buy that car and save it with smoky burnouts.
Pretty much what I was thinking. Not really sure what Josh was thinking about when writing this. Has he seen the values these Mopars are getting these days? Shoot, put some lipstick on it (quick paint & some crap 20″ wheels) & some d-bag at a Mecum auction will snatch it up for $40K.
Rot in all the right places.. Get out your air chisel & mig.. Lots of rust chasing ahead..
Nice find but not for this guy..
Not a bad price for a original black Ebody. Some of the pricey parts like the dash, plastic interior panels and the grille are nice. There are dents under the vinyl top but that can be fixed. I also think the rust is not bad at all for that body style. It will sell soon.
I would tackle only the drivetrain issues and drive it as is for a few years collecting offers along the way until I could unload it for a profit to some chump.
These are very desirable. It’ll sell and, in the right hands, be a really cool car when restored.
This is in nice shape considering how badly rusted most are after sitting so long. I’d redo it as is, freshen up the drivetrain with a few upgrades but keep the original parts and stuff as much tire as possible out back, Cudas look wrong without big rubber. I don’t often say this but I’d leave it mostly alone and just drive it endlessly.
It’s over $12k at the moment (which, these days, means nothing on Feebay with all the buyers who back out after winning). Don’t gloss over the fact that there’s no title. Not sure about other states, but in New Jersey if a car doesn’t have a title and it’s a privately owned vehicle (i.e. not left at a repair shop, dealership, or something like that), you can NEVER get a title for the car, EVER…from the state of NJ. Trust that from someone who’s been down that road a few times
UMyself and a few friends have all bought cars without proper paperwork(after checking with State Police for theft) and tracked down last registered owners and usually after a polite conversation or a bribe of a gift certificate to a nice restaurant they’ve been more than willing to apply for a duplicate title, especially if you do the legwork. Yes one POS wanted a thousand dollars to fill out the paperwork, we parted the car and made money anyway. There’s always a way to handle it if you want the car bad enough. Even register it in another state then re-register it at home. As long as its not stolen there’s a way.
It used to be possible to run titles through TN or KY then back up here but NJDMV got wise to that. Now, cars without titles (or car titles from out of state) are subject to visual inspection by the DMV before they will issue the NJ title. Such a pain over here. I have gotten titles for cars here that were abandoned at repair shops, but it takes months and quite a bit of leg work.
This one is just so damned elegant and understated sans the broadcasts, scoops and spoilers. Just goes to show they don’t all need to be AARs or Hemis.