I ran across this very solid 1966 Barracuda last May, at the Iowa City cruise-in–and there was something amiss about it. Okay, yes, those are 1962 Impala wheel covers, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
Yes, that appears to be a 1949-1950 Mercury grille.
For reference, here’s an image of a stock 1966 Barracuda; I guess the owner of the Iowa City car must have had a Mercury grille hanging in his garage. Grille aside, it was a pretty nice car. I can’t remember the last time I’d seen a 1964-66 Barracuda before spotting this one. By the way, at last month’s cruise-in, I saw the same car sporting Mopar Rallye Wheels. Maybe there’s an NOS grille in this car’s future…
Gives it a rather different look doesn’t it? It does look a little off like a mustache that sits above the nose rather than below it.
Exactly. Still, I like it better than stock, that body-color middle looks like a furnace vent to me. Maybe this car’s original grille got damaged. Anyway, extra points for a good old-fashioned custom grille swap.
A mustache above the nose is not a mustache, David. It’s a unibrow.
I need to start finding more of these car shows. It’s been years since we have been to one.
No, I don’t like the grille on the “Baccaruda” at all, but it’s really no worse than the factory one if you ask me. Thing is, if the owner could copy and put that middle step area on the grille opening bottom, you could almost mistake it for a Kia!
You’ve got it backwards, Zackman. Kia copied the dumbell-shaped grille from 1965-66 Dodge Polara/Monaco. 🙂
LHIW
It didn’t work, but I did post some shots of a ‘Cuda I saw parked on a New York City Street on the CC Flicker pages
Ditto me, don’t like it but don’t like stock either.
I passed a rough early Barrracuda for sale in Vermont the other week while on vacation (no I didn’t stop to take photos, I am a negligent CC’r)
I must have seen a dozen old interesting cars for sale at the side of the road in a week, want a project car in the US, just drive around in the country..
” I can’t remember the last time I’d seen a 1964-66 Barracuda before spotting this one.”
That’s interesting, because in my area (Massachusetts), I do see these occasionally. They’re not extremely common, and the examples I see are enthusiast cars that only come out in the warmer months, not daily drivers. But I definitely wouldn’t put them in the “can’t remember the last time I saw one” category.
From the first side view, I spotted the plain rubber windshield and rear backlight gaskets. A replacement, perhaps? The brochure picture shows the inlaid plastic chrome strip. As for the Mercury grille, uh…different. A friend in college had one of these, a ’65 I think. He was a pre-dental nerdy type, somehow this car fit him. A Valiant in sheep’s clothing.
I think the Impala wheel covers work nicely with their fake knock-off hubs. The grill I can forgive on the possibility that the car was repaired and original parts weren’t handy.
A different grille might had helped the Barrcuda to be more distinctive from the Valiant I guess.
Barracuda history gets distorted by ‘casual’ fans at car shows. They assume “all came with Hemis” and only came as the E body version.
I see by the color chart for the 66 Barracuda that you could get Light Turquoise but this one looks more like Ford’s Tropical Turquoise, the color of my friend’s new 65 Mustang, one of the first to arrive in our state. Those were the days for colorful cars.
I know, what happened to those colors? What federal standard says cars can’t be colorful?
I can’t decide if it looks angry or annoyed.
It just needs a shave!
The 67-69 models, especially the coupe, were gorgeous. Too bad they had to change it into the Challenger’s twin.
Is that a factory convertible? Never seen one before, it looks great.
Yes, it’s factory. The 1967-69 Barracuda came in convertible, notchback hardtop, and fastback hardtop body styles.
I had a colleague years ago who had a pristine 68 Barracuda convertible she had purchased new. Burgundy with black top and interior, gorgeous car. In 79 she traded it for a new Accord with the crappy manual/automatic due to the fuel crisis (the Cuda liked to drink premium at a rapid pace).