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| Any of us who have tackled an underbody-cleansing resto project know what a dirty job it is, so Todd Farrand, one of the metal fabricators on Zak’s team designed his idea of a body rotisserie. It looks hearty and it is, but nobody wants a heavy Mopar A-body with a mind of its own moving or turning when grinding and scraping handwork is being done. Farrand built the versatile “car flipper” from scratch with square and round tubing found at Industrial Metal Supply in Sun Valley, CA, and he grabbed a pair of 8-ton industrial jacks from Harbor Freight Tools and Grade 8 bolts from an industrial supply store. | While uncovering the previous lives of Project Fighting Fish we found that somebody glued in a circular piece of metal so the spare tire wouldn’t fall out on the highway. The indentation will be fabricated into a recessed rectangle for the racing fuel cell. |
Now that the Cuda is up in the air it’ll make working on the underbelly much easier. As part of the clean-up, body fabricator Jimmy Torre found rust behind both wheel wells in the rear, out of sight. Jimmy spent 18 years doing fabrication and bodywork at Kendall Racing, home of TV analyst and race driver Tommy Kendall who dominated SCCA Trans-Am Series Racing in the 1990’s.
Even though this was a California Cuda, they uncovered rust behind both rear wheel wells so with Jimmy’s metalworking skills he’ll replace the rotten metal with new sheet steel. While the Cuda is mobile it’ll also be sent out on a flatbed truck for media blasting so they’ll get all the way down to the bare metal.
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| As most Mopar A-body fanatics know, there are not a lot of metal patch panels available in the commercial aftermarket; Jimmy has the proper metal fabrication tools, including an Eastwood English Wheel and Planishing Hammer at his disposal. | When the A-body comes back from the blaster and is still on the rotisserie, the Mancini Racing supplied sub-frame connectors will be bolted and welded into place and the new torsion bars reinstalled. |
Well, Project Fighting Fish is headed down a different road than had been originally planned, but the finish on this Mopar Max project sure has changed for the better. In the next installment we’ll cover a dyno test of three 750 CFM carbs from three different manufacturers, and the crew will complete the bodywork, replace the front end with tubular, weight saving components, place the Passon Performance 4-speed, and install the S&W Racecars DOM roll cage. Check back with us next month.
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