Rusty's not very quiet cuda progress

After I posted last night, I was talking to my pal that works at AMD. A different fella, one of my old roommates, has pestered him repeatedly about trying to get AMD to make reproduction Mopar trim rings that both look right and fit, since apparently nothing available currently does both. It's not just the 14s, either--apparently some of the 15s fit OK but don't look anything like OE.
 
Well I've decided to hang onto the new ones till we figure out what Bob has & if he can part with them.
If that doesn't work I am going to try & grind off that inner lip on one & see if I can make it work!
When your at 30 grand throwing away 200 doesn't seem too bad anymore , time will tell!
 
fun fact on aluminum..the old go to was to wipe em down with wd40...stupid sure but it works...however..i found pledge worked better..yeah furniture polish, i actualy coat my "mud runner" rc cars with the shit, mud litteraly falls off and alot of these rigs have///raw aluminum
 
OK I will try to remember to pry the rings off and measure them

Um ... I just thought a little harder and I think I had to use the rings off those rims. I will check to be sure and also look in the big box o hubcaps there might be something in there..
 
OK don't go nuts, but if you find something let me know, in the next day or3 I'm gonna attempt the grind down & see what kind of mess I can make out of that ordeal!
 
Looks like I might be OK?
So I set up the grinder & was about to start when I looked at that nice slot I had to get down to, hmmmm maybe a cut off wheel will get me there a little faster.
Well it wasn't exactly fast but probably cut the time in half. 20240321_143238.jpgSo I took that one out & tried it on, went all the way in, a little less of a pry to get it off as compared to the 6" rim but pretty tight. 20240321_150549.jpg20240321_150605.jpgIt also gave me a nice line from the machine work to grind to.20240321_151001.jpg
same height as the old. 20240321_151651.jpgStarted on the second one, when I started grinding I noticed it wasn't a flimsy as the other if I left a little of that inner lip on, so I took that out & tried it, she cleared & seems a little tighter, so I'll leave the lip on the last 2, then wait & see what the first pothole does to them???
20240321_155211.jpg
I took the old ones out of the junk pile & back in the garage just in case, If I only have a problem with that 1st one I can buy one more & leave the lip in on that too!
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
Looks like I might be OK?
So I set up the grinder & was about to start when I looked at that nice slot I had to get down to, hmmmm maybe a cut off wheel will get me there a little faster.
Well it wasn't exactly fast but probably cut the time in half. View attachment 27333So I took that one out & tried it on, went all the way in, a little less of a pry to get it off as compared to the 6" rim but pretty tight. View attachment 27334View attachment 27335It also gave me a nice line from the machine work to grind to.View attachment 27336
same height as the old. View attachment 27337Started on the second one, when I started grinding I noticed it wasn't a flimsy as the other if I left a little of that inner lip on, so I took that out & tried it, she cleared & seems a little tighter, so I'll leave the lip on the last 2, then wait & see what the first pothole does to them???
View attachment 27338
I took the old ones out of the junk pile & back in the garage just in case, If I only have a problem with that 1st one I can buy one more & leave the lip in on that too!
Click to expand...
1711120269110.png
 
Those results are much better than I expected. A little work with a stationary belt sander and they'd be pert-near perfect. They look good installed nonetheless.

RUSTY Cuda said:
I took the old ones out of the junk pile & back in the garage just in case, If I only have a problem with that 1st one I can buy one more & leave the lip in on that too!
Click to expand...
Considering how hard they are to find these days, I don't think I'd be throwing those trim rings out, with the possible exception of the truly-bashed one. After all this, I have a new appreciation for the mildly-beat (but repairable) ones sitting on my 14x5.5 A-body Rallye wheels. It might be worth putting the decent ones on eBay for $40-$50 each.

To think: Two years ago, my chum told me the $225 I'd just paid for a set (four) of A-body Rallyes with center caps and trim rings was "way more than they're worth". Now his girlfriend's Duster 340 needs those same parts. They can't even find decent wheels, never mind trim rings. Too bad I need mine for a future project.
 
desperate times all for desperate measures!
I'm still upset, a set of 4 15" rally's came up on a board when I was doing the first car, in good shape & cheap, don't remember exactly but I think 100 bucks.
It was 10 minuets from my house someone beat me to them & them PM's me if I could help with the shipping!!!!!!!
I had no way to help , but even if I did maybe I would have lied.

this car should have 15's, the 73 was the base model & came to me with 4 14's, I bought the other 2, didn't even know they were 1- 5 1/2 & 1- 6 till I started cleaning them up.

Price on them went nuts so I used what I had.
 
You always post when I'm typing, anywho ask him how much he would pay now for that same set now!
I have a stationary belt sander, never thought of using it, I was going to try & even them out a little more.
Gonna get the other 2 cut up today & see where I'm at!
 
RUSTY Cuda said:
this car should have 15's, the 73 was the base model & came to me with 4 14's, I bought the other 2, didn't even know they were 1- 5 1/2 & 1- 6 till I started cleaning them up.
Click to expand...

15" wheels were not available on E-bodies after 1971, in either Rallye or plain steel, so the 14s are correct for your car. Per the 1972 Plymouth Dealer Advance Information sheet in the Barracuda/'Cuda section:

"The following options have been discontinued:
  • Front and rear spoilers
  • Two-tone paint
  • Pedal dress-up
  • Hood pins
  • Color-keyed bumpers
  • Deck-lid luggage rack
  • Engine block heater
  • Wire wheel covers
  • Trim rings*
  • Power windows
  • Microphone for cassette-tape player (now dealer installed)
  • Heavy-duty shock absorbers
  • All axle ratios above 3.55 to 1
  • Backlight louvers
  • 6-way manual-adjusting seat
  • AM/FM stereo radio with cassette tape player
  • Rim-Blow steering wheel
  • 15" wheels and tires
  • Shaker hood
  • 11" drum brakes
  • Power drum brakes (disc only with power for 1972)
  • Extra-heavy-duty suspension
  • 440, 383 and Hemi V-8s
  • 198 Six
  • Two-tone paint [again]
  • Road lamps
  • Collapsible spare tire
  • Air conditioning with manual transmission - six cylinder or 318 V-8
* This means trim rings on plain steel wheels with dog-dish covers.

Neither the 1973 nor 1974 information shows any 15" wheels available on Barracuda or 'Cuda models. I would expect the same situation existed on Challengers but there's less information posted online regarding Dodge for some reason.
 
Hmmmm, I could have sworn my orig. 'Cuda came with 15's, but that was 50 years ago!

no mention of size on the order form.

Pulled the old order form. a lot of extras compared to what was sold back then, too bad the 4 speed was switched to auto (my Dad stepped in, without telling me) & the color keyed mirrors came chrome!
I had at least a 2 tag car there!orig 74 order form color scan full size.jpg
 
So today I finished the cuts on the rings & set up my belt sander & smoothed em out a tad more.
I still have my doubts about these babies staying on, guess time will tell.

So we have some flash flood warnings for tomorrow, not sure how high the water gets back there, at the house it's 14" deep, the marks on the garage are around 11, & at the back of the door on the car the seem is at 11" so rather than take a chance I jacked it up yet again. Will leave it up for a while so I can spin the motor by hand if I have to for the distributer install.

Well for now we have rally's.20240322_161605.jpgAlso that low hanging exhaust has me worried, it's only 4 or 5 inches off the ground in the middle, gonna see if I can twist those front angle pipes behind the headers & get it up some???20240322_161740.jpg
So looking at my 4 way I'm like geeze I can't put it in the car like this. 20240318_163550.jpgSo while the grinder was out I started the cleanup process, should look a tad better in black! 20240322_162446.jpg
 
I had noticed my front end sagged a bit, measured it today it settled in a full inch & 1/2.
Kind of remember the car sitting pretty level (when new) so I'll bring the front up some more!
 
Well my grandson with the black car won best paint job, so at least he got a trophy.
My crooked wheels screwed up the speed pretty bad, not even as good as last years car.
The little brother got to cry a few times, so my wife bought him a trophy for the next time they are over.
 
Messed with the exhaust a bit, not sure till I drop her back down if I did any good, loosened all the clamps that go from the header flange pipe to the X pipe, hoping that angle pipe between them would twist up a bit, jacked it up & down a few times, figured I did as much as possible when it started lifting the car.
how it looked before20240324_145617.jpgThe way I think it should look, I did go out back & check the tips, they stayed good.
20240324_145141.jpgI checked the offset on the X pipe it's about 1 1/2, so if I tried to flip that it would go up 3", doesn't look like enough room to do that?
See what I have when I drop it back down?

chips are blue again, I think I'm making a bigger mess, I guess it's better than a chunk missing? 20240324_161301.jpg& some mindless putzing, wire wheeled the 4 way, ready to prime!20240324_163135.jpg
 
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