Mopar Muscle Association UK

Fascinating, thanks Martin! The day-two route sounds like a fun build and should please a few others on here too!
So what's the plan for the cuda when it's finished? Is it coming here to join the rest of the collection?

I absolutely love this thread and story. I've spent some time today just re reading it all as there is so much fascinating info in there to digest.

I sent it to my pal in Winnipeg (Brent who is into fusie C bodies in particular) and he has done the same.

These cars are amazing and any one of them would stop the crowds dead at a car show or event. Great stuff and thank you again for sharing it with us all

Cheers Steve

The body shell was disassembled and sent out to be stripped back to bare metal. As you can see apart from a little rust in the bottom of the rear quarters it was in pretty good shape. There were some strange strengthening plates welded to the front chassis rails, probably from it’s drag racing days and these needed to be removed and the rails tidied up.There were also some ugly repairs on the inner rear wheel housings from where the flared arches had been removed and patch panels welded in.

The engine was now with the engine builder and turned out to be in good order internally with no damage and still on it’s standard bore. The heads had obviously been worked on at some stage and this appears to have been carried out to a high standard. According to a previous owner the engine had been freshened up by Keith Black during its drag racing days but we have no evidence to back this up. The plan has been to rebuild the engine with a decent hydraulic cam, sensible compression and a stage V inlet manifold with a pair of worked Edelbrock Thunder series carbs from Tim Banning at “For Hemis Only”. With headers and a decent exhaust system we should be looking at around 500 hp, but more importantly the Cuda needs to be user friendly, relatively maintenance free and able to run well on modern fuel.
Here are some more photos of the bodywork as it progressed and also some of the engine being prepared.



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Thanks Martin I'm really enjoying this, I've read it a couple of times now.

Thanks Derek, plenty more to come !

Yes excellent read and photos. Thank you for taking time to do this Martin.

Derek wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 20 7:19 pm Thanks Martin I'm really enjoying this, I've read it a couple of times now.

Me too! I'm going to go through it again on my laptop so I can see the detail in the pictures better. I'm loving the welding and spray booth shots. Lovely work

I concur. I haven't enjoyed a thread as much since Brian Bodensteiner's build of the Daytona tribute that Andy R now owns.

Thanks for sharing Martin

Here are a few more photos of the body shell as it progressed. While it was with the bodyshop Mauro started sourcing missing parts and restoring some of the ancillaries in preparation for reassembly. As mentioned earlier in the story we only had a photograph of the original fender tag which allowed us to have a reproduction made, I have included a clear photo for the decoders out there. Originally the car came with quite an unusual interior trim combination H6XW and I have included a photo from another car for reference. It also came with the A32 super performance axle package which included the Dana with 4.10 gears. This will be changed to more street friendly 3.54 ratio.

That looks superb.
Nice touch with the repro fender tag to put the fold line in it, and one screw when being painted. Proper detail.

A couple of shots of the Cuda back from the bodyshop and now at Mauro’s ready to start the re assembly.

Stunning. The shut lines etc look perfect!

(Ashamed to say I like the wrongun 80’s look before the car got messed around )


Thanks for taking the time to write this up, absolutely epic story and well documented. Seeing the more recent restoration pics of the Hemi Cuda shows the insane detail that goes into a top resto.

Looking forward to seeing updates,

While the Cuda was at the bodyshop the engine build was completed. Here are a few photos of what went into the motor, nothing super trick but all quality parts, the aim being to build a strong reliable motor.