In And Out Of Barns, This ’69 318 Barracuda Is Reborn As A Slick Big Block Street Machine

By this time, the ’Cuda started showing rust in the inner fenders by the rad support. Bill stripped the car down to bare metal, sat it on cement blocks and spent an entire summer sandblasting the bottom of the car. There was more rust around the rear wheel wells and the rear window. Bill found a guy who still did leadwork to make the repairs. For some reason, Bill thought fiberglass fenders would be cool. He tried four times to get them straight, block sanding them and setting the car out in the sun. He finally painted them and they warped all over the place. Disgusted, Bill stuck the rolling shell in his barn in 1985.
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That’s where it sat until 2005, upstaged by his kids who were getting into sports, and work that was taking up his time. When his kids graduated from high school in ’05, Bill didn’t have sports things to do so his attention went back to cars. He picked up a second Barracuda identical to the first and dropped in his 383 drivetrain. And that became his driver. Bill took the rolling shell to a friend who had just opened a body shop to help him out with some initial business. Bill had planned to restore the car as he still kept the original 318 drivetrain.

Four years later, his body shop bud had barely gotten the ’Cuda into primer. All the car needed was strip, sand, prime and paint. At that point, Bill’s bud decided he wasn’t cut out to run his own body shop, so he closed up and went to work for someone else. Bill took his car back home and stashed it back in the barn.
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Bill bought an aftermarket K-member to work with a stroked and built 440 that he had sitting in his garage that would go into the ’Cuda. The engine wore Indy cylinder heads, and Bill says because of that there were no headers available that would fit. A local shop built him a set of custom headers in two weeks plus another two weeks to powdercoat them. Bill mentioned that he wanted to minitub the car and the shop said they could do that too. They came through in only a few days.

The 83/4ʺ rear would require some beefing to handle the stroker. Bill crunched the numbers and figured that he could buy a Dana for what it would cost to have a center section built. He picked up a Strange 3.54 Dana, had it narrowed and the shop installed it relocating the springs in the process. they also added frame connectors and a 6-point cage. The shop ended up painting the car 2001 Prowler orange with no flip-flop baloney.

The green interior didn’t work with the new paintjob, so a call to Legendary changed it all to black. Bill customized the dash with an aluminum insert and Autometer dials. There’s wood veneer on the dash and console to match the ’69 deluxe door panels.




Bill drives the ’Cuda to local shows and cruises but hasn’t run it down the strip. He says he’s one of those guys that if something bad is gonna happen, it’s gonna happen on his first run. And as far as Bill’s wife with the Camaro, he had her trade that in or, as he told her, he would trade her in. So, says, Bill, “I brought her over from the dark side.”
Like we always say, Mowife or Nowife.