Okay, guys, since you asked for more details, here we go.
It's a '74, originally B5 with a B5 interior and white stripes. 318/904 car. The rallyes on it are original. If I remember correctly the car came out of a dealership in Buffalo.
It's a fairly earlier build car. The original owner bought it in February. I know this because I have a notebook the original owner used as a log for everything he bought for the car, the price he paid, and the mileage at which he made the purchase. I am now the fifth owner. The second owner kept up with the log, the third owner bought it to flip and never did anything with it, Pop bought it, now I have it.
Pop paid $300 for it minus the engine and transmission. He was looking for a Challenger at the time, preferably big block, but came across this car. He liked the round tail lights and the grille, and since he was going to build a 440-6 set up and four speed he really didn't care what happened to the 318 and auto.
Teardown showed us the truth about some of the hidden things. The front frame rails were filled in with tin over the holes and roofing tar covered the tin. The pans were eaten through in spots. The torsion bar mount was rotted out. Undeterred, Pop bought a '70 donor car, stripped out shell that was in worse shape, but had the front rails and torsion bar mount. We put the rails, mount, inners, and core support in as a clip and started assembling the car around it.
New: floor pans, quarter skins, trunk, outer wheel houses, valances. Good used: tail light panel, one door, and the aforementioned parts from the shell, plus the shell gave up the four speed hump, the clutch pedal set up, and a twin bulge hood.
Pop got it in paint and it was "good enough for who it's for" before we opened our restoration shop. A lot of folks saw the work we did on the car and wanted to know if we could do the same for them. Pop decided to redo the body work to show quality and got as far as it is now before he fell and busted his shoulder and retired soon after.
It's been outside since. Hence the rust that's showing.
He and Momma retired to TN to be near my oldest sister and her family when I got a call saying they had talked it over and wanted me to have the Barracuda. I was floored.
She still needs some work. I'm not thrilled with way Pop did one of the quarters skins so it's gonna wind up with a new AMD on it. Since the inner fenders weren't available when Pop got the car, I plan on new inners and an upper cowl. A quick turn on the rotisserie to clean her up and she'll be back in paint.
Sorry, Dan, no data plate and we lost the build sheet in a fire. Pop wasn't really interested in numbers, so when we clipped the rails and inners in the original plate went with the original sheetmetal: in the scrap heap.
I plan on staying with Pop's build ideas. Painted it an AMC color: Wild Plum Purple which has more red in it than Plum Crazy, and I plan on doing up the big block, but I'm gonna take it a step further: World Products new RB aluminum block will be nestled between the rails on XV's front suspension. The rear I'm looking into modifying a Viper set up. A T56 will allow me to row my own gears.
It's not gonna be a pro-touring car, per se. I'm wanna take it to Watkins Glen International and run hot laps, but drive it there and drive it home.
