Clearly appearing to have spent its life in the big state of Texas, this Barracuda is a sweet deal just waiting to be reeled in! Equipped with a 273 V8 and air conditioning, this driving and stopping project seems too hard to pass up for the opening bid of $2,895.00! Check out this dry fish here on eBay out of Dallas, Texas.
With obvious signs and age and debris from sitting, this 273 V8 has a rebuilt carb, a new gas tank, and a fresh sending unit. The automatic transmission is functional, but it would seem that it has only been tested in low speed operation versus highway speed. The air conditioning appears to be complete and in place, and the seller has confirmed that the compressor is functional. I am certain the brakes were gooey after years at rest, but a new brake master cylinder was fitted, as was fresh lines and wheel cylinders.
I am surprised by the interior as I was expecting much worse from an old Texas car. The carpet looks to have been peeled back to reveal the floors, and the upholstery and door cards overall are quite reasonable. Modern speakers have been fitted to the doors, so I do cringe a bit at cutting the factory door panel for better tunes, not that I am against good music while cruising. There are obvious signs of surface rust on the floors, but as a whole the floors appear very solid with no evidence of rot.
While some may disagree, I do find the exterior of this old Fish quite charming. These early Barracuda’s aren’t all that common, and I dare say that most of the ones I have seen are restored. The body is quite straight, but the back end looks to have been bumped in its past. The rear bumper is dinged, and the trunk line gaps look a bit off to me. Perhaps the lower valence where the key cylinder is located has been bent in a bit? While there is obvious surface rust present on this Plymouth, there appears to be no rot whatsoever; which I find exciting. The only notable rust appears to be in the trunk space, which I think indicats that the rear hatch fits a bit wonky possibly from being bumped in its past. I think the panel gaps allowed moisture into the trunk space to cause the current rust issue. Or it could simply be coincidence? For the cheap asking price, I think this Barracuda could be a fun and affordable project to enjoy and improve upon little by little. Would you reel in this cheap Fish?
I blame Hemi-Under-Glass, for my love of the early Barracudas.
I used to have a 65, comando V8 with a 4 speed. I sure miss that old thing.
Ive restored 2 of these. Strange but cool cars.
Always like this style and don’t understand why it isn’t better liked. Great cars.
Not a 67 but i love it
late 80s I bought a 65 or 66. It had the commando 273,4sp and had a 8 3/4 rear.Looked silly since it had cragers in the back that stuck out something like 6in. oh,it even had side pipes LOL. and jacked up in the rear. $150 ,drove it home. I do still have the front fender emblems for some reason Commando v-8
I think that was a rare car. What a look !!!
I remember a friends neighbor had a 65 with high performance 273. I may be in the minority but I like these as well as the 70 up E-body. Personally i would take one of these over an early Chevy 2. Other than AMC i don’t have a favorite brand. Had Fords, Chevy, and Mopars.
It will be a nice car when restored, nice to see a reasonable price tag on it.
Would be cool to have one of these and a Marlin in the driveway
This car, a 69 Torino, a 65 Marlin, and a 66 Charger…call it a slant-4.
Why would the floor be white while the body is blue?
Probably had a repaint at some time in its life, Miguel.
These are fun cars to own a drive. I helped build a Formula S with a buddy of mine, which we uprated the suspension (Konis, etc.) and dropped a balanced and blueprinted 340 in front of the 904 Torqueflite and an 8 3/4″ rear (3.23/Sure-Grip). It already had front disc brakes, which we freshened up.
The ol’ ‘Cuda was great to howl around canyon roads in and started my buddy’s love affair with road racing/circuit racing that he’s now doing in his WRX STi daily driver.
Looking under the hood you can see white paint underneath the blue in various locations. I’m going for color change as well.
I had three of these. (I wish I still had the last one.) I sold it to buy a tow vehicle for my Pro-Rally Scirocco. The first thing to do to one of these is to
UPGRADE THE BRAKES!
Even with the slant six you can easily go faster than the brakes can handle. 2 feet on the brake pedal pulling so hard on the steering wheel where you butt is no longer touching the seat. (and you have your seat belt on!) And all you have is smoke pouring out of all 4 wheel wells and you are still at 80 MPH and your rate of decent is only marginally decreasing as the occupied train tracks are getting closer and closer. Makes my heart race all over again just reliving the moment.
The very next day there was a Dodge Aspen missing it’s rear diff. and complete front spindles and brakes.
But as I said before, I wish I still had it.
That sounds like solid advice. A lot of these older drum brake equipped cars were a handful to stop under duress, to put it mildly.
Seems like a reasonable price for this car as well.
In the early 90’s I had 6, I had 2-65’s, (one parts car and one builder) and 4-66’s, (one with a 318 2bbl/automatic console, all the chrome and optional interior, one all original 273 V8/4spd and 2 other builders). All were stolen except for the 4spd car. I’ve still got it, upgraded with Duster ft. disc brakes, a bored/bal. 318 with exaust manifolds from a 340 with X heads and track bars on the rear.
Back in my high school days one of my classmates had one. Nice car. Heard he crested a hill and there was a bull standing in the middle of the road. Both the bull and car died from what I heard.
In high school, a friend’s father considered one of these or a 1964 Chevelle as my friend’s first car. He got the Chevelle due to it’s six cylinder engine vs. the Plymouth’s 273 V8. It was OK… we still ran the wheels off that little six.
Fred in Summit City, California had one of these 273 with 4 speed manual back in the early 70’s. He always teased me about driving an old mans slush box which my 69 Firebird 400 had. It was a turbo 400 trans. His brother-in-law had a 72 Judge 4 speed manual. Great times, don’t know how I survived.
My first car was a ’65 in white that had been repainted with lots of fish eyes in places.. black interior.. slant 6..3 on the tree.. power nothing. I loved it and miss it. Bought it in 1972 for $150 the previous owner had hit a tree and it needed a hood, water pump and a radiator. Everything else was straightened out.. somehow the rather fragile directional lights were spared any damage. It needed a ring job..man did that thing drink oil..
I like these early Barracudas, They are more like a Valiant with a glass fastback instead of a real Pony car. I wonder how expensive it would be to replace one of those rear windows? I had a ’71 Buick Riviera with a similar type window. I would definitely consider a Barracuda like this.
Not a pony car ? Only Ford’s marketing guru’s beat the Cuda out by a little….a 64 1/2 Mustang is just a Falcon with a different shell. There are more back windows out there then are needed….only sold one of the many I have in stock and that was due to a painter’s sander getting too close. Good price for this one.
A friend of mine back in the middle 70’s was bumming around the country and saw a sky blue Barracuda like this in a parking lot. Tinted glass, bucket seats, AC, 318 (or 273?), and in a southwestern state. The car was near perfect. An older couple approached the car and upon learning it was their car, he complimented them on it. They told him that they were retiring and moving in with the wife’s sister and didn’t need the car anymore, would he like it? They GAVE him the car and sent him the title. Sadly, it met the kind of end you’d expect it to at the hands of a 19 year old nitwit. I believe eventually he abandoned what was left of the car.