I actually heard about the first two Plymouth Barracudas from my Father. He was across the street at a restaurant and saw them sitting in back lot of a body shop.
He told me that they looked like junk, and not to do anything about them, just let them be. And I of course had to go and see them. On a day off, I made my way out to Park Ridge, Illinois and went searching. I was able to locate the cars fairly easily.
I walked into the office of the body shop and talked to the shop foreman and he said I could go look at the cars, and they were for sale. He gave me the guy’s number and I went to take a look.
At the time my old trusty Sony P72 camera had died. I was still waiting on my new Sony P150 to come in. I had my sister’s old Vivtar 3.3 MP camera, which was a complete piece of junk, but it was better then nothing.
I finally saw the two Barracudas up close, and they were a sorry sight. The better of the two, was the blue/green/rust colored one. It was missing many parts, but was a legit slant six,70 Barracuda. Very rusty, very rough, but it was still a 70 Barracuda.
The second one looked like a 70 Barracuda, but I later discovered it to be a 71 Barracuda. This was the worst of the two, floors, firewall, trunk, everything was severely rusted. It was the same, it was still a 71 Barracuda, so I couldn't pass it up.
I contacted the owner and over the next few weeks we discussed the two Barracudas, and told me that there was infact a third! He had left it in a farmer’s field in Wisconsin, and for $2,000 I could have all three.
I jumped at the deal. I couldn't pass up three 70 Barracudas for $2,000.
The gentleman also had some spare parts at his storage area a few blocks away from where the Barracudas were at. So once everything was settled, I met him up at the storage spot and picked up all the spare parts, a Cuda dual scoop hood, fiberglass fenders, and some miscellaneous little parts.
Sadly my 93 RamCharger couldn't handle the car carrier for this little adventure, so I borrowed my mother's Trailblazer to get them to their temporary storage spot, my Grandmother's driveway and garage.
My Father, a friend and I were all that was needed to get the cars loaded.
Since the cars were basically stripped out shells, loading them was easy. I aired up all the tires, got some momentum and popped them up onto the trailer.
Taking them to my Grandma's was funny. Every stoplight we were at, people were asking us what the cars were or what I was doing with those junkers. One guy asked if they were for sale, I said sure. He offered me fifty bucks. I told him to keep going!
We got the cars unloaded without much problem from the trailer. We put white 71 in the garage and the blue 70 outside since it was in the best shape.
Over the next few weeks I worked out what I was going to do. The white one was way beyond my ability to fix, the blue one was pretty bad as well, and the orange third one in Wisconsin was beyond all help.
I went up to Wisconsin and picked what I could off of the orange Barracuda, then called a scrap company to come pick it up. My buddies and I had sawzall fun all day. I was able to get a whole bunch of usable parts off of the car. It was so bad, when the scrap guy came and got it, it broke in half!
Back in Illinois, the remaining two Barracudas sat and sat. Bills were coming for school, so I decided to put them up for sale. I knew I would regret it, but the Challenger needed cash, the RamCharger needed work, and other things were more important.
So I reluctantly put the Barracudas up for sale. The white 71 sold first, to a guy in Colorado. He drove all day, got there, loaded it up with his buddy, and drove all night back. I couldn't believe it. He keeps in contact every once and a while. He is restoring the car, with everything available nowadays for the 70/71 Barracuda, it shouldn't be too hard.
The blue 70 went next; a guy from Chicago came and looked it over. Made me a decent offer and I accepted. He loaded it up and away it went.
A week later I saw the Barracuda on eBay, the guy primered the entire car and threw it up there. He sold it for less then he bought it from me. So that was interesting.
I almost regret selling the cars, knowing what I could do with them now. I know that I wouldn't be able to work on them for a long time, and I knew that someone could do better with the cars.
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