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More on his blog at http://evbcblog.blogspot.com "I grew up in a MoPar family. Dad drove a white 1966 Barracuda and a red 1964 Valiant (my first car), Mom drove a 1967 Barracuda fastback, and my uncle drove a 1969 Roadrunner. I used to sit and listen to my Dad and Uncle tell stories of how they could take a Mustang from a light every time in the Valiant... I remember riding in his Roadrunner, thinking how cool it was to have the Roadrunner cartoon on the inside of the door panels. Way Cool! Hearing the stories my dad and uncle would tell kinda got me started into cars. As I got older, I drove the 66 to my High School prom, racing a guy in a 65 Mustang and beating him to the exit ramp. He had a new respect for the "odd shaped" car after that. I did wreck the car in the rain one night doing only suspension damage and I felt awful for doing it. I drove my Mom's Barracuda a lot and even had one of the girls at school tell me I looked good in it and I should drive it more often (hint, hint, wink, wink). The 64 Valiant was very rotted and my daily driver through high school until the left rear spring shackle was too much for the frame and found its way into the trunk. The car met its final doom at my high school grad party where we painted it demolition derby style, beat it with sledge hammers and rolled it down a hill three times.
When I got out Army, the 67 and 66 Barracudas were still at home but one of the torsion bars on Mom's car had spun in the rotted frame section where it was mounted. We ended up stripping it of all useful parts and cutting it into easy to carry pieces.
He said he was restoring it and it wasn't for sale. About a week later, he was driving past my parents house and he spotted my Dad's Barracuda and stopped to see if it was for sale. My sister was at the house that day and talked to the guy. I had told her about the green cuda near the store and she told the guy Dad's car was not for sale, but she knew of one nearby. That's when he realized we were talking about the same cars. In the end I won. 6 months later he has a "For Sale" sign in the window. Seems after getting it thru inspection (somehow) the engine started to have a bad rod knock. I bought the car for $500.00 and attempted to drive it to my parents house, a 15 mile drive. The 225 /6 was knocking BAD and we got about one mile from the house when #5 connecting rod decided to do some block remodeling and put a large hole in it.
January 2008. Well that was a while ago. Since then I have made 4 trips to Carlisle and gotten so much work done. I have converted the ignition to electronic with scavenged components. I have replaced the 9 inch drum brakes with 10 inch drum rear and 4 piston Kelsey Hayes disc brakes up front. This car stops when and where I want it to!
I rebuilt the front suspension. Welded in new rear frame sections where the rear springs attached and installed new bushings and shackles as one was welded to the frame. The more I get into I find that this car was a mess! Life has a funny way of changing the priority of things and for awhile the car was on hold. I got divorced and re-married. My attention turned to our house. We needed to blend two families, so we built an addition to my wife's house. Since the Barracuda is part of the family it got a room too. The biggest one in the house! I had the car towed to to it's new home where I found it much easier to work on indoors. Its finally over the "Holy Crap, when do I get to drive this thing" stage. I have since completed many minor projects to get the car road ready and ready it is. It is insured, registered, and driven to its 1st car show.(not the prettiest car there to be sure).
There is more to do before I chance the log trip to Carlisle, but it may be there this year. Right now I am enjoying just driving it around town on the weekends and finally fulfilling a promise I made my kids years ago. I told them "When I get the Barracuda on the road, we can go for a ride in it and get ice cream". That's one big thing I finally crossed of the list. February 2009 Another year has passed and so much more has been done. The car was prepped and all systems checked for the trip to the All Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle PA. last July. It was a long rough ride mostly due to the route I took. The car ran great! A little on the hot side, but ok. What a joy it was pulling into the parking lot at gate 3 to register and to finally pull onto the show field. A dream come true! I had painted the car all in gray primer and the hood was flat black and didn't look half bad. A real fun weekend of driving around and hanging with old friends. And making some new ones too. The ride home was a little tense. Halfway through New York the transmission started slipping. I stopped and toped it off, but not more that 100 miles later it was slipping again. So I'm thinking there is no way we lost that much fluid that fast and the tranny was going south fast. In 2nd gear it hooked up so I drove most of the way back in 2nd gear. Fortunately it was after the sun went down and things were cooling down. no overheating and I still could keep up with traffic at 65 mph. Soon, it was slipping in 2nd gear too. OK, I'm thinking, 1) the tranny is shot and 2) I'm close to home now and within my towing mileage. So I stopped and checked the fluid level for ha ha's, LOW! It wasn't the tranny losing its clutches, it was leaking. I bought 3 qts of fluid, poured them in, dropped it in "Drive" and off we went! We got home with no other issues and no tow bill.
Later in August I found that by gas tank had developed a leak, so that pretty much ended my cruising for the year. But now It has a new gas tank, I replaced the cracked engine damper, fixed a few other oil leaks and have rebuilt the spare transmission I have. All I need to do is swap the tranny and I'm ready for the return trip to Carlisle this year. There is so much still to do on the car, but being able to get in, turn the key and go for a drive is a great feeling. Even if it is in primer.
June 2009 Well a few months have gone by and a lot of work completed too. The transmission I rebuilt was installed along with some new U-joints. My 1st transmission rebuild and it went very well. I found a pair of good front door panels and sill trim for the car. I also had a spare set of interior metal trim that I cleaned up, primed and painted as well as polishing the A pillar trim. Its all glossy now and looking good. I polished some interior trim, cleaned the dome lenses and installed some newer bumpers that were 100% better than the rusted ones I had. Oh, my wife loves me. She remembered last years trip to carlisle being loud and hot due to the only thing on the floor being a cheap set of floor mats.
She said that if I wanted her to go again, I would have to put a carpet in. Well, not wanting to upset her, I put in a carpet! I used Dynamat Extreme on the floor first for some added noise dampening, then laid down the ACC carpet. It was a challenge having a console car, making all those cuts, but it looks good. Now at this point, the cargo area is looking pretty shabby. Did I tell you how much my wife loves me? She said I should get new cargo area carpet so it doesn't look so bad with the new front carpet. Well I love my wife and heeded her good taste and installed that too.
So other than a new headliner, seats and dash re chrome the interior is done. I did a little detailing in the engine bay too. Painted the water pump and front of the engine. I detailed some small parts and made an air cleaner from a stock part. I even painted the brake master cyl. I had the original radiator from my fathers 66 Barracuda re-cored. It is the larger AC radiator and it now keeps the engine cool. Going even further, I added a fluid cooler for the transmission. Hopefully this will help with keeping the transmission temperatures down and extend its service life.
The rear springs need to be replaced to level out the rear end then I really need to focus on finishing the bodywork. I have a few dented areas and a mildly rusted and tweaked trunk lid. I found a good straight trunk lid with some rust but the rust has been repaired and its almost ready to be put on the car. Ill be focusing on the exterior from this point on, moving closer and closer to a paint job. I may start picking up weather stripping and seals along with tail light bezels and a new outside mirror and just put them on a shelf, waiting for the day I get re-assemble the car when it comes home from the paint shop. A few more years to go, but I'm getting there. Roger Kizer Aug 2009 Another trip to Carlisle has come and gone and it was a good time as usual. The car ran pretty well the whole trip, but I did have some pinging uphills under load, but backing some advance out of the timing helped that when I got home. We averaged 18 mpg again this year and the ride with the helper springs and carpet made for a nice ride.
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Later while serving in the Army, stationed
in Colorado, I owned a 1968 Barracuda Fastback until
I shipped out for Italy. I could have bought any car, but got that bomb
instead. No front bumper and the left rear 1/4 panel was bashed in.
I bought pin striping for it before I got antifreeze and the block froze popping the freeze plugs out. Hey, it looked
cool.
The
white 66 Barracuda remained for a while and brings me to a story on
how I have my current car. We would go grocery shopping at a store where
my Mom works and one day parked at a house near the store I spotted
a green 1966 Barracuda. I stopped to look and ask if it was for sale,
thinking about a parts car. I told him about Dad's car and my plans.
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