Here’s your chance to own an affordable Hemi ‘Cuda! Well, sort of… Real Hemi-powered ‘Cuda’s go for big money today so this piece of lawn art may be the closest many of us are ever going to get. It needs everything and I mean everything, but this was once a very cool muscle car. It came from the factory with a shaker hood, 4-speed transmission, and a 426 Hemi! So, here’s your chance to get a fraction of your dream car at a fraction of the price. This ‘Cuda carcass is located in Alpharetta, Georgia and is listed here on eBay where bidding is really starting to heat up!
Sorry, I just don’t get it. You’re buying the VIN tag, that’s about it. Without the original engine, transmission, etc etc, it’s just another basket case that will never be worth six figures. And really, without all the original parts, is it still a true “hemi Cuda” or just a wanna-be with the only matching thing – the VIN plate.
Bid is over $15,000….are these folks nuts, or more money than they have sense….unreal…..
VIN transfer is illegal for a reason, why isn’t the government monitoring this more? It would be easy to keep an eye on the person who ends up buying this to make sure there is no hanky panky. I would like to see a substansial biting fine for this, maybe even some jail time, it is fraud after all. It is nasty people who do these things that have caused the crazy prices that have left so many of us out of the game. People who appreciate and want to drive these cars should own them, not trust fund babys and dotcom fools, and certainly not to be used as an investment like a stock or bond.
Vin transfer is not illegal. The illegal part would be if you were changing a stolen vin for a clean one, that would be fraud after the orignal theft. In the trucking world, vins move around, used to be more common than today, we even used to buy Glider kits with a new vin that would be built with parts from an old truck, the banks and insurance companies didn’t care…….they were licensed and valued as a new truck. If you put all new parts in an old truck, it would still only have the value of an old truck. If you own both vehicles legally and are not trying to defraud someone what part is illegal? However, that being said, this car will be built on a rotisory to a high quality restoration. It has too much value when completed even as a nut and bolt restoration to be fooled around with. We used to commonly “clip” Porsche cars, take one that had a bad rear and weld it onto another with to a car with a bad front…….no illegality. With today’s welding methods no one could ever tell.
Dave Wright, if vin transfer is not illegal, then why did the KC and State Hiway Patrol department shut down and arrest 12 people running a body shop in KC for it? They swapped the vin’s from a too far gone rotted 69 Charger 500 HEMI car, to a good 69 Charger SE body. Both cars had clean vin’s and titles in the body shop owners name. The owner of the car and shop is facing 5 years in prison for it, and my brother and the other workers got find $5,000.00 each for it.
If it was illegal, how could you buy a new Camero body and licence it for the street? The body is just a replacement part like any other.
VIN transferring is a felony. Period. Look it up. You simply cannot remove a vin from a rusted hulk and put it on a non rusted hulk. Making a 318 cuda into a hemi is fraud. Plain & simple!
Why do people pay this much for junk? ?
Deep pockets I guess. ..
VIN transfer is not illegal, but in my state (AR) failing to swear out an affidavit of reconstruction and misrepresenting the finished product as original is. To be legal here, the finished product will be a “clone” with a marked title, yet carry a correct Hemicuda VIN. Such a well executed clone is still worth much, however.
I have no problem with clones, so long as they’re not represented as genuine. I used to view them as an affront to the classic car world, but changed my mind when prices for some of my most admired machinery achieved low earth orbit. One cannot in good conscience drive an original Hemicuda in traffic today – at least not without something questionable in their character. A clone however can be taken out and passionately enjoyed sans paranoia – and without your insurance company having kittens as well.
I agree with Dave the body is just a part of the some total of what makes a car, in fact what it really is, is about 5 sheets of 22 gauge sheet metal. So if you bought a reproduction body also 22 gauge sheet metal and put the vin from this smouldering pile of $h!t on it and then crushed the $h!t pile where is the crime you guys are literally arguing about sheet metal. It only is a crime if in this scenario some part of it is stolen material. It’s like rebuilding an engine with new pistons and then saying it is not the original engine dispite the fact that it still wears the same vin stamping it had before the rebuild. I got to say that if I bought a car and later found out it got a new body I’d be thinking thank god it’s new metal and not some patch job.
Looks like it’s in better shape than the one that led to idea for Graveyard Carz
Not much left of it
This one will be at B-J in a couple of years, All done.
…so, I am guessing someone wants to buy what’s left of this car so they can turn their slant 6 barracuda into a hemi ‘cuda? Or is there enough there for restoration? I really can’t tell…
Rebuild the carcass or swap the VIN, either solution works depending on how tall your stack of $Twenties is.
I can’t imagine there are many slant barracuda left!
And that is a real shame. They were nice driving cars, handled like a dream. With a three speed and a 323 or355 rear end they were awesome. Too bad a four speed wasn’t an option and a two barrel, Chrysler would have sold a bunch. Lots of torque with the long stroke. A 318 wasn’t much more money and probably a better choice, but that six was more than enough, I drove a few over the years. Sixes and 318s were the lions share of the Challenger/Barracuda sales, few people could afford the insurance of even a 340. Today, the young people must think that we all drove muscle cars. If you find a slant six E-Body, please leave it as it came from the factory….please.
Check out the Daytona Charger that Ted Stephens of Stephens Performance in Alabama is resurrecting,it makes this Cuda look like a survivor compared to it… Any car can be brought back as long as the person doing so has deep enough pockets… As far as Vin Swapping, Any one who has ever swapped a new dashpad into an E-body has committed a crime by either changing the VIN number when they swapped the pad or if the removed the VIN tag from the old pad and replaced it on the new pad… Both actions are illegal… In the case of new bodies as somebody above mentioned, you go thru the DMV and have a NEW VIN tag issued, swapping the VIN from an old car to a new body is illegal… You can also apply for a lost or destroyed tag thru the DMV but the number will not match the original, thus negating the original vehicles value…
I know I can never afford a finished Cuda but that would never make me want to tackle this project.
There’s a ‘Cuda near me.It’s been sitting in a driveway for years.
Someone finally covered it up a few years ago,but you never see anyone
at the house,& the blinds are always closed.
Where is that at?
Eureka,CA
Even with a vin tag, it would need a trim tag also.
Not neccassarily, A Hemi Cuda is still a hemi cuda regardless if it was Vitamin C orange, Red, White, Blue etc, the fender tag only tells what options the car came with, unlike Chevys, the original motor and data plate don’t have to be with the car to specify what motor it came from the factory with..
Also Fender tags are a lot easier to replicate and come by than a dash or door well VIN tag…
Even though people swap VIN tags it is illegal.This is junk.
Your opinion has been out voted 15,000 times!!!!
A hemi car with NO power brakes???
Real Hemi ‘Cuda On The Cheap!
or,ummm,yea…..some of it, eer, very little….oh….never mind.
Real Hemi ‘Cuda VIN Tag on the Cheap !
Well, someone’s gonna pay dearly for it – wonder if the monkey/yard/backroad knew that someone will stump up more that 15 large for this landfill – what a world
Currently a $15,000 pile
You must be kidding
Advertisement is pulled.
When I looked at the picture, I thought the dog had pooped in the driveway.
This may be a shock/mystery/headscratcher/joke to some here, but that’s only because you’re naïve or you didn’t read the ad.
It’s a real R-code Hemi-‘Cuda, with the dash VIN intact, AND both hidden VIN stampings intact. That’s all you need. The fender tag can be reproduced, and no, there’ no law against that. More importantly, a donor ‘Cuda of any stripe can be used to graft on any and all parts of the unibody that are required. Same thing as routine grafting of a quarter panel or a new floor – the difference here is only quantitative, not qualitative. As long as those original VINs remain, it’s really not anything to tsk-tsk over, unless you’re trying to set yourself up as the arbiter of how much sheet metal is OK to replace, and how much constitutes fraud. It’s a silly argument – there’s no logical line to be drawn there. Rare and valuable cars often require unimaginable amounts of such work to restore, work that would never be done EXCEPT for their rarity.
Make no mistake, this will be restored to a concours Hemi ‘Cuda and it will be worth doing. It won’t be any more essentially “fake” than many, many of its rare brethren that have been restored the same way, to varying degrees. So put down the phone – there’ no need to call 9-1-1 to report this.
Well stated and how things work………………..
If you use this chassis it would be legal to change body panels. Putting the VIN on another chassis is illegal. This is what most do. It will cost more than it will be worth to rebuild this car on this chassis.
I’m sorry but I totally disagree with cyclemikey. If you weld all the numbers onto another body you no longer have the original car. As far as I’m concerned it is forevermore a fake. Just my opinion, Keith
So……..you wouldn’t buy a car with a replacement fender?
There’s a difference in just my opinion in a fender and rebodying an entire car
That is the point………where do you draw the line?
Yes, the original unibody needs to be utilized. I wished the prices on these would fall into the gutter so the people who don’t really work for a living (yet seem to have all the money) , get out of the market because it won’t be any fun to show off anymore.
Now at $20K …. Whaaaaaaaa?????
And yes, “Jeffro”, looks like a dog DID poop in the driveway!
Well the bid is up to $20k now………..
Building a car around the vin metal, a lot of spot welds to work
Well, on the bright side, it looks like the trunk has been re-wired. But I just don’t think I want a red car with blue seats. Still, it’s only 20 grand, so maybe I could get used to it.
To whoever buys this, I have a ski resort in south Alabama I’d like to sell. Give me a call at BR-749.
But seriously folks, I’m a die-hard Mopar guy. Nobody likes the brand better than I do, but this is ridiculous! Someone asked earlier, “Where do you draw the line?” I would say that common sense is a good place to start.
That sounds like a good standard on the face of it, Gopar. Who can argue against common sense? Or deny that there’s a difference between replacing a fender and a complete re-body?
Unfortunately, a lot of wars have been fought over “where to draw the line” and whose definition of “common sense” shall prevail. That’s the sticky part, and in this case I’m afraid that particular horse has already exited the barn.
No No Nooo!!
Wow, VIN tag sure has held up well compared to the rest of the body! Maybe they should make the entire car out of the same material.
Well my 2016 Ford F-150 is made out of Aluminum so hopefully the body will last not so sure about the frame.
Those are scary to me. I have owned a lot of aluminum bodied cars and they are fragile. The entire “military grade” ad program is laughable, the military is constantly changing and replacing body panels on everything aluminum. I can see a car, but a pickup where you are going to use it as a truck…….looks like a disaster waiting to happen. (Disclaimer…..I am not a ford guy in any event) I like the GM ad where they drop a tool box into the bed of both trucks, the Ford bed was penetrated, the GM had a small dent.
Maybe true but I read a automotive magazine article that said GM & Chrysler were already looking in to catching up on the aluminum body technology as gas prices will eventually start to sky rocket again. I’ll roll the dice with my 23 mpg F-150 aluminum 4×4 over GM & Dodge’s metal / rust / 17 mpg any day and I sure don’t baby my trucks. JMHO as I’ve always been a Ford truck guy but have owned a few Chevys.
Manufacturers are always looking at new things, it seems to me a composit material would be superior to aluminum. My dad backed his (now my) old fiberglass bodied Chinook motorhome into a light pole with no effect on either. I think a modern upgraded version of that would have better abrasion resistance and equally light weight to aluminum. I don’t find 23 MPG that remarkable either. My old 1993 Chevrolet 1 ton crew can flat bed 4×4 with a 6.5 diesel gets 17-19 mpg and weighs over 6,000 lbs with a 2,000 western mule bumper crane. My 07 one ton dually flatbed Duramax crew cab 4X4 gets 13 MPH pulling a loaded 10,000 equipment trailer. it will be interesting to see how these lauminum beds hold up. Also, oil is the second most common fluid on earth…….e fuel savings we have in other areas, like passenger cars and power production I can’t see fuel prices going crazy any time soon.
Alot of aluminum bodied cars??? Like what? What EXACTLY is your experience with aluminum body anything?
Well, I make most of my living in the marine salvage busisness……..I own and operate (occasionally build) workboats from 200 foot tugs to small workboats in both steel and aluminum. I have also owned many aluminum bodied cars from my Lotus 11 to my Maserati mistral, Mercedes 280SL’s, many road race cars, aluminum bodied Alfa Romeos, lots of aircraft including my 13 years in Combat Rescue with helicopters in the USAF. Aluminum just does not have the abrasion resistance to make good industrial surfaces. The other issue I have with it is it is only marginally lighter than steel when built to squalivant engeneering standards. (i am also a certified marine engineer) I own a lot of aluminum boats and like them a lot but we only usemthem to push, pull or transport people. not as every day freight haulers. it used to be steel was much simpler,to repair as well but with modern welders being so common these days, that advantage has mostly gone away with the exception of underwater welding that is still a mlstly steel domain. if you look closely at most aluminum bodied cars, you can see where someone leaned against it or slammed a hood oe wnatever. mlst are filled with bondo to make them fair enough for a high quality paint job. even from the factory.
Boy…….my mind and fingers weren’t in sync there…….and the edit bar never showed up.
I agree on the diesel mpg as my son owns 2 dodges with diesels but in my area diesel costs more per gallon than gas so that off sets the mpg some. I guess it’s all in your preferences to what your needs are. I don’t drop tool boxes from 5 ft in the air into my trucks as I’m no contractor, I just use mine as a daily driver and home projects and pulling a car trailer once in a while. I respect everyone’s choice and opinions as we all have one.
By the time this body is restored with sections of new sheet metal you will literally have a new body as none of the original sheet metal will be there or at least very little of it. Some of you think that just because you have the A pillars and fire wall that you still have an original car body! What a laugh, judging by the way that most back yarders build I’d be afraid to ride in it for fear of it breaking in half under the strain of that hemi block with the new pistons. That is asuming its welded together straight enough to hang the doors. IMHO the true crime hear is having something like this $h!t pile bubble gummed together just so we can say that the vin has never been moved only to later have it fall apart and kill someone. Why would you not want a reproduction body? Save all that welding and fitting and if the body still fails the liability is not on you because it’s not your work.
My best Hemi Cuda story is about a friend of mine that bought one new off the showroom floor. He owned a Forklift and equipment dealership in Oxnard California. He was not happy with the fit and finish. on the car, so with just a few miles on it had his crew do a nut and bolt restoration to improve what he saw as shoddy workmanship. All bolts were upgraded to torque rated, the body panel fit was made perfect, the engine was boosted to something like 600 HP. It was an incredible car. He did not drive it much but took great glee in street racing anything he could find that would participate with him. The car really was a work of art, it was a plain White car that he would drive to work maybe a day a week. One of those cars that I wonder where it is today, 25 years later. Maybe someone here remembers it? His company was Power Equipment, just off the 101 freeway near the Camarillo airport.
piece of s h i t.
22k and rising
I think some of you missed the point in my reference to the condition of the vin plate. Yes it is aluminum but it is not weathered, it has no rivet marks, and it came off that car? it is pristine in comparison to the rest of that hulk.
Thats an expensive VIN plate