desertmike Posted July 19, 2014 Share Posted July 19, 2014 Your Cuda is looking good. Just wish I still had my old stuff............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 So, I finally got the car back to my house today - a full five weeks after I dropped it off at the shop. They never found the correct drum. They just cleaned up the one I had and sent me on my way. The shop owner is convinced that its a Ford 9" and not a 8 3/4. I don't know enough about either to argue with him, but I know that the 8 Ford drums he tried didn't work. He told me that he adjusted the ride height when he did my alignment. I measured when I got home and the driver side is a full 1" lower than the passenger side. I have no idea how you can be that off. I tried to tackle some little things today. The first project was to try and fix my temp gauge. We put a jumper on the plug to ground and it moved to the first ticked and stopped - wouldn't go back down either. I know that the wire is pretty brittle and hard, so it could be that or the gauge. Next project - I decided to adjust the doors to get them to close a little better. When I pulled the driver door striker out, I heard a clunk (sigh). I pulled the back seat and the interior panel to fish the "nut" out and this is what I found: As you can see, there is no longer a captured nut and absolutely no adjustment possible. Not sure what I'm going to do long term, but for now, I'll probably just open that hole up a little more for adjustment. When I have the quarter panel fixed from the wheel coming off, I think I'm going to have my body guy fix all my visible paint flaking/rust/bare metal spots - hood, trunk, header etc. The goal is to get it down to two major colors - faded blue and primer gray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted December 2, 2014 Author Share Posted December 2, 2014 Small update from earlier. I got the rear quarter panel repaired (from the escaping wheel) and a little extra work done at the same time. All of the top surfaces of the vehicle had peeling, flaking paint/bondo with some surface rust. All of that was sanded down and primed. This is the before: I wish I could afford to have the whole car painted, but for now, I'm just taking care of a little bit at a time. It looks a little funny now, but at least I'm down to two colors now (primer and blue). Turns out not only was there a spoiler at some point on the car, but there was a scoop on the hood or something because my body guy found about 10 holes in the hood. Now to start saving for the rest of the body work and paint, but at least I don't have to worry about exposed metal and rust for the time being. The damaged wheel wasn't able to be repaired so I had to order a new one and I just got that a couple weeks ago. From the accident to everything being completely repaired took about five months. I'm currently in the process of swapping in a new steering column and a new B&M floor shifter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87sparTruck Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 I feel your pain and congratulations on the two colors. I had the same issue with my 71 AMX. It's painted now at least, but when I got it someone had spray bombed primer gray over the silver on most of the top half of the car. Most of the bottom was black, the quarters had some maroon after I sanded down the quarters to see how bad it was(I had to put new quarters, trunk extensions, inner and outer rockers), and then light green after the body work was done. Plus I had the hood off a black car on it to complete the hick bondo hotrod look. Would you put a scoop or spoiler back on the car or are you going for a different look? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted December 4, 2014 Author Share Posted December 4, 2014 Would you put a scoop or spoiler back on the car or are you going for a different look? The hood actually has a pretty cool shape to it with the two inserts, so I'm going to leave it as is. You can see it a little better in this picture of my red one: I won't do a trunk spoiler, but I probably will do a front lip spoiler like this one: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87sparTruck Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Oh nice. Rear spoilers are a tough call. Its easy to look like a ricer if you put the wrong one on. Your chin spoiler is way less obvious than mine. The Javelin ones tend to get smashed into curbs, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big66440 Posted December 4, 2014 Share Posted December 4, 2014 Those are some really cool projects :thumbsup: , my oldest brother used to have a 67 notchback, 318/904, 8.25 it was a really cool car and it ran really well for a little 318. Sucks what happened at the shop I'm sorry to hear you had to go through that, I'm not really sure if you know but there's a Mopar forum specifically for Mopar A bodies its called forabodiesonly.com you should check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 Those are some really cool projects :thumbsup: , my oldest brother used to have a 67 notchback, 318/904, 8.25 it was a really cool car and it ran really well for a little 318. Sucks what happened at the shop I'm sorry to hear you had to go through that, I'm not really sure if you know but there's a Mopar forum specifically for Mopar A bodies its called forabodiesonly.com you should check it out. Just saw this post. I've been on there ever since I bought the red car. It has been a wealth of info and some great vendors too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big66440 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Cool, I'm also a member on that forum ( even though I don't own an A body) they're a bunch of great guys and agree you can find tons of info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revmaynard Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 I'm loving seeing this build! I know it's been a loooong time since an update buy I like the work I've seen so far. I saw it mentioned earlier, but this wouldn't have come Petty blue. It was likely Electric or Hawaiian Blue. I'd love to see some updates! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted November 23, 2015 Author Share Posted November 23, 2015 Thanks for the interest. I wish I had more to update, but I really haven't made much progress. I converted the car to a floor shifter which I really like. I had to swap in a new steering column, but it was worth it. The car wasn't originally petty blue. The paint code was GG1 which was a very dark green. My biggest issues with the car is the fact that it runs hot. It will get hot sitting still, but even after about 20 minutes on the highway at 55 mph it starts to overheat. I just had the radiator checked out and it's fine, so I'm going to put in a new thermostat, test the water pump and install a new radiator cap. If that doesn't fix my problem, then my block could be plugged up, or I may have a bad head gasket. While I'm building a new house the car is staying in my brother's garage so I haven't had much opportunity to drive it and when I do, it runs hot. I really need to make it a more reliable vehicle and then I can start thinking about eventually getting the rest of the body work and paint finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted May 10, 2016 Author Share Posted May 10, 2016 The car is now at the new house and I swapped in a complete MSD ignition system. It seems to be running well enough for now, so I'm planning on getting the rest of the car painted this summer. Hopefully I'll have some good updates soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 The car went to paint this weekend, so this is the last I'll see it like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Are you sticking with the Petty Blue or going back to the original green? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 As much as I like both of those colors, the blue was a little light for my taste and the green was too dark. I had the engine bay painted three years ago in Cadillac Opulent Blue, so that's what the rest of the car will be. This was shortly after I dropped the motor back in: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Good choice. :drool: :drool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnj92131 Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 The Cuda should look great with the new paint. Looking forward to seeing the finished paint job. Mind if I ask more about the paint job? What paint system/type are you using? Single stage/two stage with clear? Paint brand? And of course, How much $$ for the paint job and the prep? I have an older car I will be painting in the next year with something other than Macco. So trying to collect information. Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted November 22, 2016 Author Share Posted November 22, 2016 The Cuda should look great with the new paint. Looking forward to seeing the finished paint job. Mind if I ask more about the paint job? What paint system/type are you using? Single stage/two stage with clear? Paint brand? And of course, How much $$ for the paint job and the prep? I have an older car I will be painting in the next year with something other than Macco. So trying to collect information. Thanks, It will be a two stage with clear. I had the engine bay painted three years ago. As far as the cost, I've paid him a little here and a little there as he did the rust repair on one corner, the collision damage on another quarter, etc. He told me to to finish the body work and paint would be about $2,500 since the only body work left is the doors and fenders (and a few other small parts). I'm going to have him replace the driver side door jamb, fill in the single exhaust cutout and antenna hole, so it will probably be slightly more than that. I imagine total with all the work that he's done it will be in the $4k range, maybe a bit more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rymanrph Posted May 15, 2017 Author Share Posted May 15, 2017 I'm still working on a couple pieces of trim (mainly the trunk trim), but here it is: This is obviously in the shade. It looks a lot bluer in the sun, but I'm extremely happy with the color. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOrnbrod Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 She's gorgeous. Perfect color for the black interior. Love the old school Cragar? wheels too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 Damn, that looks nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wiggilez Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: :drool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpnjim Posted May 17, 2017 Share Posted May 17, 2017 Car came out nice, you should be proud! Especially if you only ended up spending $4k ish in body and paint! I always loved the lines on that car :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyComanche Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Wow, that's really nice. Love that colour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kansashogan Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 You have great taste in vehicles and know what it takes to make them nice. Good job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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