My first car was a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda that I bought when I was a junior in high school. It was nothing fancy, just a 2 door coupe with a 318. It did have a "Slap Stick" floor shifter for the automatic transmission, though, and a really nice coat of Hemi Orange paint. Unfortunately, it was a cheap paint job, and started to fade within a year. I also discovered that it had a lot (I mean LOTS) of bondo hidden under the paint. I drove it for a couple of years, but it was never very reliable, so when I went to college, I bought a 1973 Duster. The Barracuda languished in my parents driveway for a few years, and I eventually sold it.
Fast forward to the year 2000. I needed a car for my wife to drive (she didn't want to drive the Valiant), and we didn't have a lot of money. We were looking for a used, late model station wagon. I'd found one, but when I took it to my favorite mechanic to get it checked out, he found a rod knock, so we took it back to the dealer. Later in the day, he called back and asked if we'd be interested in an "older" car. I said it depends on what it is. It turned out to be a 1966 Plymouth Barracuda. We went to take a look, and it was love at first sight. The body and paint were in beautiful shape. There were a few mechanical problems I noticed, but I reasoned they would be cheap and easy to fix on an older car, so we bought it for just $2000 and drove it home. I should have taken it to my mechanic. It turned out to be in very poor mechanical condition.
Before we could even drive it safely, we had to spend about $2400 rebuilding the suspension (which didn't make my wife very happy). It also had serious carburetion problems, to the point where it eventually wouldn't even drive. One night, I had to be towed home and the tow truck driver broke the front brake line. I got that fixed and rebuilt the carburetor, but it still didn't run right. I bought an Edelbrock Performer intake and carb, but when I took off the old manifold there was so much burned up oil in the lifter valley that I wasn't too sure about running it without pulling the engine and dissassembling it to clean it out properly. I decided to just put it together and drive it, only to find out the new manilfold didn't fit the old 273 heads. Since then, it's been sitting in my garage, waiting... I did buy a few things for it over the years. I have a Flaming River steering box to replace the stocker, and also a Keisler 5 speed manual transmission conversion kit.
This year (2009), I finally decided to do something with the car. I talked it over with my wife, and she agreed to spend the money to get a new engine rebuilt. I also found a shop that will handle the transmission conversion for me. I found e set of headers, bought an intake (Edelbrock Performer RPM Airgap), and started cleaning the garage. Not sure when I'll start with the engine (that is on hold for now, pending my job situation), but at least I'm finally making some forward progress.
The hardest thing has been trying to decide how strong to build the engine. On one hand, I'd really like to drive a fire breathing monster that can rip off low 10's in street trim all day long. On the other, gas is getting pretty expensive so something milder could be driven a lot more, and I want my Barracuda to be a driver, not a garage queen. I'm kind of leaning towards a fairly hot 360 (stroked to 408). Transmission will be the Tremac 5 speed (I already have it), and I'm going to run 17" tires and a posi rear end with 3.73 or 3.91 gears. Body and interior will be restored to stock. I'm lucky it came from the factory with a color that I really like.