Canada Trip

Mopar related chat and bench racing

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SAV@RPM
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by SAV@RPM »

So on to the resto mod. This car started as a really clean rust free 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible, 318 column shift auto with factory air. It was originally an EV2 Hemi orange car with an unusual H6XV orange and black interior with a black power top. It was also matching numbers with the correct broadcast sheet so a really nicely optioned car. It seems a shame that so many of the original small block convertibles have now been cloned as they are becoming increasingly difficult to find and make for a really practical Mopar.
Personally, I don’t really get the resto mod thing although it’s massive in the States as witnessed by the prices seen at auctions for this type of car. On paper it all sounds good, the look and style of a classic with modern running gear and reliability, but in reality I don’t think it works that well. Putting big wheels with modern low profile tyres and coil over suspension under a fifty year old chassis, particularly a convertible can make for a harsh ride. I’ve put quite a few miles on this car and on smooth roads it drives really well but it’s a different story on some of the bumpier backroads despite experimenting with tyre pressures, softening the shocks and optimising the steering geometry. Anyway back to the story, the car arrived at Mauro’s half finished so there was still a lot of work required to finish the car including installing the 6.1 Hemi and five speed Tremec gearbox. It retains an original 8-3/4 rear end with a sure grip and 3.55 gears. It has a Control Freak front suspension set up with disc brakes all round and rack and pinion power steering. All credit to Mauro as the car went together really well despite a few minor issues along the way as you would expect with a project of this magnitude. When it was finished the motor was dialled in on a rolling road and produced more than the 425 hp that Chrysler claimed for the 6.1 Hemi, probably as a result of running headers, an open air filter and no catalytic converters. The Cuda was finally finished at the end of 2016 and having gone to so much effort it was decided to ship the car to the UK. I did have one interesting moment in the car when the heater matrix burst as I was accelerating hard down a dual carriageway resulting in both feet being soaked in boiling hot coolant !
So with a rebuilt heater matrix and a few teething problems sorted the Cuda was back on the road and we covered quite a few miles in the car including a trip to Brooklands and Santa Pod for the Mopar Euro Nats. The car runs really well with no overheating issues and everything works as it should including the air conditioning which is a real bonus on a hot summers day. I will let the pictures show some of the work involved, there’s also a short video of the car courtesy of my son.
Final instalment, The 1970 Hemi Cuda.

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MattH
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by MattH »

When i first saw the orange pic I thought it was Lauren's 71 from years ago, then spotted its a rag top.
I agree about the loss of basic small block cars for clones.
An un-restored six pot Challenger convertible would be a real find.

Long time members will remember the car as a regular in Fishtails articles in the club mag before it was called Connected.
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Cannonball
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by Cannonball »

excellent thread Martin,, why has Canada been the chosen place for the cars to be at for restoration,, and even to sell them,, as i see through the media canada seems to scare of even usa buyers etc ????
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gmopar59
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by gmopar59 »

A fish with no head, works for me!
SAV@RPM
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by SAV@RPM »

Thanks Duncan
There are some advantages to having the cars restored in Canada. Labour rates are often lower than in the US and the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar works in our favour compared to the US dollar, certainly over the last few years. It’s true that some Americans are unsure about buying a car from Canada, although I’m not sure why as it’s fairly straight forward to send a US built car across the border with no duties applicable. Three of the cars did in fact go back to the US without any problems. Parts can be more expensive in Canada than in the US but still considerably cheaper than we are used to paying in the UK !
We chose to use Mauro as he has an excellent reputation (his restorations have won gold) and he is a really straight guy to deal with.
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Adam
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by Adam »

I'm a bit of a rivet counter, but I love that resto-mod Cuda.
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by SAV@RPM »

Finally the 1970 Hemi Cuda
We need to go back to the beginning and the first meeting with the shop owner.

Before leaving for Canada I had been shown a contract / receipt dated a few years previously for a restored EW1 white 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda but other than that there was very little information. So where was the car ? It was certainly nowhere to be seen at the shop and the conversation concerning it became increasingly awkward. It turned out the the car had been bought as a dismantled project and the shop owner was planning to restore It for the owner, same old story. According to him the car was in storage and he produced a couple of photos of a body shell painted purple, a dash, some seats and a copy of the title. This was not looking good so I said we needed to see the car before we left so where was the car stored ?, this is where things went from bad to worse. Apparently the shell was stored with a friend of his in California, so what about the motor, it seemed the previous owner had held onto that and wanted three thousand dollars before he would release it. He was also holding on to the original title, and as it turned out he registered that in his own name six months after he sold the car. Obviously the shop owner had been dealing with a seriously dishonest individual. By this stage we needed to get back to England but it was made clear that this was a situation that needed to be resolved and we would be looking for a refund of a not inconsiderable sum of money.
This was the beginning of a long saga as needless to say it turned out the shop owner was in no position financially to pay the money back. What followed over the next eighteen months were numerous phone calls and e mails in an effort to get the car, motor and title all back together in one place. I did at least discover some of the history concerning the car which makes for interesting reading. At one stage the Cuda belonged to a guy named Alan Yedlin, it was a complete running car and quite well known in the Mopar world. Apparently the car was featured in a hot rod or muscle car magazine back in the eighties as a show car with a pearl paint job and flared wheel arches. By all accounts Alan Yedlin sold the car to a sheik who then took it to several restoration shops to gather quotes for a restoration (he also wanted it painted purple). One of the shops involved was Restorations By Julius in California who turned out to be really helpful later on in this story. Somehow the Cuda ended up with a guy called Jack to be restored, unfortunately he turned out to be a complete crackhead and this is where the problems really began. The car got stripped down (I believe this was when it got painted purple) and a lot of parts ended up being sold off without the owners knowledge.The carbs, exhaust manifolds and gearbox went missing and even the fender tag was advertised for sale on Ebay. At this point the car was sold on yet again and passed through a couple of people before it finally ended up with the guy who was now holding on to the engine and title. Sadly it seems there had been some really shady dealing going on between some pretty unscrupulous people and unfortunately the shop owner ended up at the tail end of it all. Here are some photos to be going on with.
To be continued !
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morgan
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by morgan »

The HemiCuda story is not starting well - alarm bells all over it !
Very much looking forward to the 'to be continued'... Hoping for a happier ending.

Great thread
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mopar_mark
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by mopar_mark »

Great read, the Hemi Cuda could of been a real nightmare, especially if it was bought by someone with considerable less experience .....
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raven68
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by raven68 »

Fascinating story and thanks for sharing it with us. Love reading and seeing this sort of stuff which is impossible to do on the likes of social media and one of the main benefits of having a forum like this. Staggers me though as to how someone could trust so many cars to this 'restorer' over a period of time and get into this awful situation, but looking forward to the outcome for the 70 Hemi 'Cuda
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SAV@RPM
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by SAV@RPM »

So what possessed the shop owner to buy the car, bearing in mind it was bought with someone else’s money ? I can only think he was told a complete pack of lies and ended up buying it sight unseen from someone who was basically a crook. I never really found out the full story as to what went on, such as who collected the shell, why was it still in California and why were the motor and title not collected at the same time. I also couldn’t understand why he hadn’t done anything about the situation over the previous couple of years. The prospect of taking the shop owner to court was discussed but realistically there seemed little point as he claimed to have no money, although the threat was enough to spur him into some action. Fortunately he did have a receipt for the purchase of the car so it was decided we needed to get the police involved as the previous owner had not released the title following the sale. Surprisingly the local Canadian police took the situation seriously as obviously a large sum of money was involved and they saw this as a possible fraud. I believe they then got in touch with their Californian counterparts who paid a visit to the previous owner who eventually agreed to hand over the motor and title to a third party. This is where Julius Steuer comes back into the story, he obviously knew the car from quoting for a restoration and was willing to send someone to collect the motor and title on our behalf.
A day and time was arranged and two of Julius’s guys turned up as agreed to collect the motor etc but there was no sign of anyone to hand it over. A phone call was made and apparently this character said he was in Mexico and wouldn’t be back till late that night. He was told “that’s fine we’ll wait and the police are on standby to see that things go smoothly”, he turned up twenty minutes later !
So to cut a very long story short we now had the car and motor in our possession along with the title and various parts. The motor was photographed to verify it was matching numbers and all that now remained was to get everything crated up and shipped to the shop in Canada where Mauro could go through it all and see what we had. If this all sounds fairly painless and simple it really wasn’t, in fact this whole process took place over two years with everything finally getting to Canada in November 2015.
So what happened next, stay tuned.
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Jeff
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by Jeff »

Just saw this..... There really is only one place in the area that is excellent at restoration, and NO! not the one you see on TV.
All very interesting. I really should visit this site more often, you were in my backyard!
I am keeping this Mopar....... SOLD!
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RobTwin
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by RobTwin »

Jeff wrote: Thu Oct 29, 20 2:27 pm and NO! not the one you see on TV.
Didn't your son work there Jeff? Not any more, I take it? :-k
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Jeff
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by Jeff »

Yes Rob, Both my sons worked there... They got out as soon as they could. I can tell you stories about that place. It is closing up soon. The amount of cars they are selling is silly.
I am keeping this Mopar....... SOLD!
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Re: Canada Trip

Post by SAV@RPM »

With everything safely in Canada a decision needed to be made as to the best way forward with the car. Sadly there were a lot of parts either missing or incorrect but on a positive note we did have the original dash with the vin tag, the correct matching numbers Hemi engine and all the body numbers were in place. As was mentioned earlier the fender tag was at one time advertised for sale on Ebay and this was now missing. We have tried to locate it by posting on the various Mopar forums in the US but with no luck to date. Someone did produce a photo of it though, taken from the Ebay ad which has proved really helpful as it allowed us to have a reproduction made with all the correct codes. The car had obviously had a life, as the body showed signs of having been drag raced at some time and there were some poor repairs to the rear quarters from when the flared arches were removed by the previous “restorer”, however it was rust free which was a bonus. There was no gearbox (the car was originally an auto) no carbs, exhaust manifolds, no shaker assembly and sundry other parts were long gone. So as there were so many original parts missing it was decided not to try and restore the car exactly as it would have come from the factory back in the day but to do something different, so a plan was put in place to restore it as a “day two” car. The body would be repaired properly and put back to the original EW1 white, the motor would be rebuilt with an aftermarket cam, intake and carbs and it was also decided to take the opportunity to convert the car to a four speed using a period correct 18 spline gearbox. In keeping with the day two theme the car would run headers and period aftermarket wheels and tyres.
The aim was to build the car to a very high standard using as many original Chrysler parts as possible, obviously this was always going to be expensive but done correctly it should reflect in the cars value when finished. Personally I felt it was important to salvage something from what at one time looked like a hopeless situation. So it was now down to Mauro to source as many parts as possible and oversee the first stage which was to deal with the the bodywork and get the motor to the engine shop.
As of today the work is well underway and I will continue the story as the build continues. Thanks for all the positive comments, it’s been quite a challenge to remember some of what went on over the last seven years. Here’s a picture of the car probably taken in the late eighties early nineties when it sported the pearl paint job and flared arches. Thanks to Nick Panaritis of Nicks Garage fame who found the picture somewhere and sent it on.


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