This car is being built for a long-term client who has a penchant for things that are 'different', or 'distinctive'. Jeff, our client, whether suffering from temporary insanity or the effects of terrible air quality due to his close proximity to New Jersey was having delusions of grandeur! With venues like SEMA, Kruse and Barrett Jackson in mind, he wanted a car that was perfect in every way.

Here is what arrived at our shop. A 1973 Barracuda, 360 originally now missing the driveline. A far cry from a 1971 HEMICUDA.

We received the base car and are able to get started. First item on the list is complete stripping and inventory. However, by the end of the day, our inventory sheet was one word long, 'body'. Nothing except the sheet metal was usable for our project.

Another problem we found was the car needed and had already received sheet metal repair. While the previous repairs were fine for driver condition, this would not work for our intended outcome. I am not a fan of seam sealer.

The engine? Well, a simple 426 HEMI wouldn't do for our project, so Jeff took out a second mortgage and sprung for the 528c.i. Keith Black ALL-Aluminum polished HEMI.

By the way, did you read the starting date? I should mention several thousand at this point has already been spent on reserving a spot in the June Kruse auction.... sure, no pressure.

We starting by glass beading the chassis, engine bay, trunk and passenger compartment. What we found was alot of previous body work done with plastic, or filler, and a number of light cancer areas that quickly developed into gaping holes in our steel.

We put the car on the twirler and finished disassembly. Mike spent the next week solid buried to his knees in 'black beauty' particles while he attempted to remove the tuff-stuff bed liner the previous owner had used to coat the entire underside, trunk and passenger compartment.

With the blasting done, we were able to turn our attention to the extensive metal work required to turn a 1973 barracuda into a 1971 Hemicuda. The first part of this task was changing the car from an automatic to a manual transmission tunnel housing.

The second part: a little known fact is that all HEMI cars started life as convertibles. Odd to think the convertibles are some of the worlds most valuable cars today. The convertible bodies were reinforced by hand at the factory to make up for the lost structural rigidity of the missing roof. This same work was done to most 'police' package cars of the same era, which explains their desirability as well.

The engineers at Chrysler designed 'torque boxes' to strengthen the unibody subframes. These were put on in a special little room in Detroit, and then roof sections were added to the HEMI cars, (except the ones that remained convertible of course.)

Below you can see placement of the rear units, and how after some blending and shaping, they appear factory. We still have smoothing work to do, having only completed our first pass so far.

More fun. Whoever did repair to the car before did a few things that I have only seen done on trailers. One major part of the fabrication on this project was replacing the rear tailpanel section.

While trying to remove the 1973 tailpanel, we discovered on entire side was simply held in place with SEAM SEALER!

And if you will notice, was not even rust-proofed before installation.....

(What I didn't realize at the time, this was but a taste of things to come)

A lot of measuring and alittle 'gentle' persuasion...

... and Presto! A 1971.

The company we trusted our most important grill with, who shall remain nameless, (WORLDWIDE CLASSICS IN HUMBLE/HOUSTON TEXAS) totally dropped the ball. Basic overview:

BK: "Here is your ridiculous $550 check."

Them: "Here is your grill, 100% isn't it?

BK: "Are you shitting me? I have to redo the entire thing!"

Them: "Why, I don't understand?"

You be the judge. What do you expect after 3k for the grill and another $550 for what should have been minor fracture repair? I don't think they have heard of plastic welding. Bottom line is, I'll be refinishing this grill with my own hands, and hope it doesn't screw the schedule. Not to mention they didn't touch the chrome as promised, and said in the beginning the bill should be "a couple hundred dollars."

Hood, yet one more disappointment,.. (that's a word becoming common with the parts suppliers on this build). The unfortunate thing is, alot of items are simply unavailable for a 1971 Barracuda.

The hood arrived needing easily a solid week to finish. It was correct enough, for original. Lines slightly off and you can see how the underside was left. Our car isn't original, and we needed something cleaner looking. We spent another week finishing.

Next to the other big blocks, this thing is still massive.

Tell me this picture doesn't make you want to do improper things. (Involving chickens if your in Alabama)

The engine builder, the designer of the custom HEMI mounts, and Keith Black all said the same thing: " It just wont fit, you'll need NHRA engine plates for mounting, and you'll have to redesign the block with only a hammer and duct tape. We have built the same setup with the same engine and it took 2 months of reconfiguration."

I guess they never heard of Hufco or Home Depot... one strategically placed flush mount plug, one drilled hole, and alittle sandpaper and VIOLA!

Jeff, don't worry, your still getting billed for about 36 hours of 'custom engine mount' work. :)

Since we started with a '73, there is alot to modify, if you haven't figured that out for yourself already.

One of the major body mods was changing the large 1973 barracuda marker lights into the sleek 1971 'Cuda design. On the rear, we decided just to change the entire lower quarter to make sure they were perfect, and in the correct spot.

First, we mark out the cut lines, then remove the panel, first by taking out the original factory spot welds and then by cutting the panel short, and trimming until the replacement fits.

For our section, we ordered a lower quarter replacement panel and cut out a smaller section around the marker light opening.

Finally getting material on the body. Here are photos of priming and painting.

All of the panels were primed several times, and taken down to 600 grit before painting.

We sent a few test 'drop' panels to the customer, because he was unsure about the color. Either Dodge: Sublime or Plymouth: Sassy Grass....

He chose Sublime. We got to work.

Just when you thought everything was going smooth.....

2:30 am. Central Time.

::RING, RING::

Thomas: "Hello?"

Customer: "Hey, been thinking about it,.. I'd rather stick with the Plymouth color, so lets make everything Sassy Grass."

Thomas: "Well, we just painted the entire chassis Sublime..."

Customer: "OK, well it shouldn't be a big deal right? maybe an extra 30 minutes??"

Thomas: ::CLICK::

Customer: "Hello?....

So the customer decided to change the color a few hours PAST the last minute,... big deal. It still beats construction work.

Here are the panels getting final wetsanding before paint.

The complete steering and suspension was provided by Firm Feel in Washington state. I was very interested in using them, but was disappointed in the service.

Good quality parts though, when you can get the right stuff.

In 1971 Elastomeric (urethane) bumpers came on the HEMI Cudas', and were optional on the Challengers. Currently, there is only 1 place to have these made, and the cost is about $1000 per bumper.

Even still, we had alot of shaving and working to do in order to get them smooth and to fit correctly.

The HEMI was installed, sort of. Turns out we have to further modify the K-frame because of that damn oiling system,... rebuild and run our own longer oiling lines, and HOOKER sent us a set of headers that COMPLETELY do not fit.

And then, opened another box to discover Firm Feel sent us the wrong steering box. This after they forgot shocks, then forgot the rear sway bar, then sent brackets that don't fit...

We really got stuck, can't get any further without the gearbox.

Back to work, gearbox installed, trunk finished lines ran, shocks in, fuel tank in, pedals in

Now we are in the final push to make the show, running double shifts, some of us working 40+ hour stretches before getting only a few meager hours of sleep, things look like they are finally falling into place... and then STOP.

We must be mistaken for a Funky Flex Master shop because our starter is still spinnin'....

Turns out Keisler sent us a 130 tooth flywheel where we need a 143... and our high-torque starter failed to engage.

You could literally feel the room run out of steam. Everyone stopped what they were doing, and let a huge sigh, knowing the engine had to come back out for the FOURTH time due to incorrect parts. That shut us down for the weekend and ruined any chance of making the Kruse auction with a complete and finished car.

Rally Dash install, aluminum radiator with dual electric fans, rear bumper and tailpanel emblems.

We left for Kruse in Tulsa, OK. with a half completed HEMICUDA. The front was left at the shop, paintwork not finished, no billboards, and missing on very minor interior parts.

We ran into minor first run problems, a radiator hose leak and a flat tire.

Still, without a doubt this car drew the largest crowd out of the 600+ cars at the event, making driving around a real hassle as I was mobbed every time we started the green giant. She rolled over the auction block, swarmed by people snapping photos and asking all sorts of questions, and even incomplete, to a state that I told the owner I was embarrassed to even show up with the car, she still ran up to a whopping $85,000 worth of bidding.

Back in Texas, grill assembled.

Front bumper installed, paint wetsanded and polished, and billboards applied.

We loaded the car up and took it over to our friends at UTI for a Dyno run.. The all aluminum HEMI pumps out 650HP at the crank.

The students really enjoyed the car, almost as much as the instructors.

Thanks to a parts vendor sending us a completely wrong pinion snubber, which by the way hit the driveshaft upon deceleration and shattered into pieces, showering the dyno room with sparks and chunks of metal, and shooting the retainer pin into the parking lot, we only managed to get one good run in that read on the computer.

We replaced our Holley system with something alittle easier to mount in the rear, an Aeromotive A1000 model with inline filters and a Mallory regulator.

The exhaust system is 3" all the way from the collector, going through Magnaflow exhaust for a mellow idle with mean acceleration. The 3" dumps in the rear past the Strange-60 but is forked to provide functional exhaust through the original 1971 tips.

Here are some photos taken at the LEAKE / KRUSE auction. We certainly received the most attention, even though our car was incomplete. We were also mentioned in the Hemmings weekly, using our car as an example of the astronomical prices people are willing to pay for HEMI replicas, even those incomplete at auction!

Pictures taken outside the shop.

Photos taken for Hemmings and EBAY.

With the car finally at a state of completion that can be considered finished, (I say that because no car is ever really finished), I would like to take this opportunity to thank certain people and companies who were a great help during the construction of this vehicle.

-Keisler Transmissions for their excellent 5spd trans
-Firm Feel for their top quality suspension components
-Paul Wright for his guidance and quite a few parts
-Mopar Engines West for the massive 528
-Legendary for again providing a fantastic interior package
-Gene Gregory for the very difficult to get hood and bumpers
-Wheel Vintiques for yet another stunning set of reproduction wheels
-Strange Engineering for their amazing Dana 60
-Auto Instruments for their superior gauge services

And a special thanks to a few of my guys: Kody, Mike and Russell who poured alot of sweat and long hours into the car.