In the meantime, my “Glendora Barn Find” ’66 Cuda is also moving along. After the DMV surprises of re-registering a car with a missing title that had not been on Non-operational status in the State of California just gave me more insight into the reason government doesn’t work. Three trips to the Auto Club office in Van Nuys seems to have resolved all the issues and there is now a beautiful Certificate of Title stuck to my bulletin board as a monument to bureaucracy -- oh and my $380 check to the DMV.
Since I am new to the A-body craze I’m sure some of you are aware of Mopar-oriented bulletin boards and how helpful the members of those communities can be. I joined FABO, For A-Bodies Only forabodiesonly.com and received help from other members who’ve been through the troubleshooting and obscure parts-hunting drill and are all eager with solutions.
My Cuda needed a replacement AM radio. Found that on eBay, but the only antenna I could find was $159.00 retail. One of the FABO members shipped me a cool, used replacement for $28 bucks and another one has a replacement radiator he’ll ship to me for $88 bucks from Florida. Gotta love the Internet!
After digging into the paint on my red ’66 there were some areas where the paint had been bubbled, so it was time to grab the scraper and orbital sander out of the shop. After an evening of peeling and sanding I found a couple of body filler patches that’ll have to be dealt with before heading to the paint booth, but all in all this “Barn Find” was worth every penny of the $1,000 price tag, some elbow grease and a couple of cans of red primer.
But one of the best things I learned in the past month was to add another accessory in the trunk of my Cuda. I drove up to Ventura, CA, for the sprint car races last weekend. The Slant-6 ran great and got a lot better mileage than my 4.8-liter GMC truck gets at $4.58 a gallon. Made a couple of stops along the way, but when it came time to leave at 10:00 p.m. there wasn’t a click when I turned the key to start; I thought the battery had been stolen.
So, I called the Auto Club (the classic car owner’s best friend) and had it flatbed towed 58 miles back home to the San Fernando Valley. Got home about 1:30 a.m. and managed to wake all the neighbors with the clanking, clunking and banging as the flatbed was unloaded. So, the next morning while talking with a Mopar friend about my adventure, he asked, “Where was your hammer?” I now know that a couple of taps on the starter housing will awaken a Chrysler solenoid from its slumber. Indeed, three taps and it fired right up!
Happy Mopar motoring to you all!