1968 Barracuda Coupe Plans

[lantzn]

Hello All,
I just signed up. I'm in the process of building a new shop. When finished I have a few projects to start. My first is to build myself a car that will replace my 97 Neon as a daily driver. I'm 47 and grew up working on muscle cars. I've restored just about every area of these cars but never an entire project all at once because I was usually driving them. I've pretty much stayed true to stock but now I'm interested in this Pro-Touring stuff because I want the modern handling and creature comfort while maintaining the muscle car look. My project is a 68 Barracuda Coupe. I prefer the coupe over the fastback which is not the norm, I like the rear roof lines of the coupe. Here is a list of what I have in mind.

Body
1. Dark Maroon with black hood and tail stripe.
2. Bumpers painted body color and black out grille.
3. Replace vinyl top with some sort of textured durable finish.(LineX?)
4. Shaved handles and gas tank door added.
5. Modern telescoping antenna
6. Black out or body paint all chrome
7. U.S Body Source street quality fiberglass hood and fenders
http://www.usbodysource.com/

Suspension
1. Alterkation K-member with tubular setup.
https://www.reillymotorsports.com/store/product.php?productid=16161&cat=255&page=1
2. SSBC Brakes all around
http://www.stainlesssteelbrakes.com
3. Some better option to rear leaf springs. I read about some sort of air ride stuff to replace them. Suggestions??

Drivetrain
1. 360 with EFI
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/mpfi_chrysler.html
2. Keisler automatic trans
http://www.stainlesssteelbrakes.com/
3. 8.25" with 3:23 sure grip

Interior
1. Modern carpet, upholstery and headliner, NO vinyl!
2. Aluminum dash with Autometer gauges
http://homepage.mac.com/myti/rockymountaindashes/A/index.html
3. buckets and center console
4. Painless Mopar wiring harness
http://painless.r-catalog.com/pg-lkp/ymm.asp

Well that's the start anyhow. Any suggestion on whether to go with manual quick ratio gear box or powered steering? How about some modern buckets and console, what would fit nicely without to much modification? How about the vinyl top replacement, I want something that would look similar only would be a permanent material, durable to chipping and would complement the flat black hood paint. One of the biggest questions, about the frame strengthening. I don't want to loose the back seat room or trunk. What would you do to add strength to the entire body? Remember this is a daily driver, not a race car. Thanks for your thought.

[wegner426]

To be honest I would look elsewhere than the Magnum Force front end for a street car. There are other options. The magnum force puts all the weight of the car on the front fenders unless you brace it, and they were not designed for that. Check out the setup from Reilly Motorsports. You can see it on bigblockdart.com

[lantzn]

Thanks for the suggestion, I just saw that company in my latest mag. I'll check out big dart.

[Zee]

I love that body style. I had a buddy that had one with a 340 and a 4 speed. Great little car. IMHO, I would retore it, get the stance right, add some bars and decent period correct but larger wheels and leave it at that.

[lantzn]

I love that body style. I had a buddy that had one with a 340 and a 4 speed. Great little car. IMHO, I would retore it, get the stance right, add some bars and decent period correct but larger wheels and leave it at that.

Zee, I have in the past (the 80s) restored a number of Mopars. I currently have a 68 Coronet 500 convertible w/383 4bbl auto, 1 of 279 made. I plan on restoring that car to exact factory specs.
This car however is a slant six car that is 95% rust free from Texas but needs a complete restore on everything else. The dry weather pretty much ruin the interior soft trim. I knew when I went to look for a pro-touring candidate, I did not want to use a rare subject. I did however alway like the smaller 67-68 cuda notchbacks for their sporty look. I chose this car because it's basically a solid body to work from. I searched for months to find this car. I will be driving this car daily and on road trips so I want the feel of all the modern goodies because I've been driving many newer cars for the past 10 years and you just can't beat the feel of the new systems. I also don't want to half to worry about needing parts that are becoming harder to find and expensive to keep my driver on the road.