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Steve Been and David Waldan 4-door Barracuda

Myrtle

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Hi everyone,

Would anyone by any chance have any contact information for Steve Been? Dad and had some questions regarding the 4 door project Cuda and wanted to pick his brain and get his opinion on a few things. If you could kindly pass that along, that would be great.
 
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I did and they don't.

Is there context here I should know about? Not aware of any history??
 
The car is goofy looking,the roofline doesn't work with the rest of the car. It looks like an old model T with the tall roofline. The concept drawing I saw showed a stock Cuda roofline with pillarless doors. Using the 4 door third generation B body for the platform was the right idea,but the top of the cowl should be swapped to an E body piece. The A pillars and front section of the roof should have been a Cuda piece. The b body should have been cut right after the rear seat and the rear clip of the Cuda should have been grafted on with the rear window and remaining section of the Cuda roof. Then the missing section of the factory Cuda roof should have been cut out of the middle of another Cuda roof and welded together to complete a longer factory looking Cuda roofline. The post car window frames should have been cut off all four doors, and the b pillars cut down like on a pillarless 4 door hardtop car from the 60s/70s Era cars were. It would have required having 4 pieces of side glass made,but it would have been worth doing to get the correct look,especially since ECS has a company already producing window glass for them, it would have been easier for them to do than anyone else. That's my take on the car, others might not agree, but most can plainly see the roofline doesn't work on that body. The workmanship on the car is incredible, but using the taller B body roofline was an oversight on the design end.
 
The car is goofy looking,the roofline doesn't work with the rest of the car. It looks like an old model T with the tall roofline. The concept drawing I saw showed a stock Cuda roofline with pillarless doors. Using the 4 door third generation B body for the platform was the right idea,but the top of the cowl should be swapped to an E body piece. The A pillars and front section of the roof should have been a Cuda piece. The b body should have been cut right after the rear seat and the rear clip of the Cuda should have been grafted on with the rear window and remaining section of the Cuda roof. Then the missing section of the factory Cuda roof should have been cut out of the middle of another Cuda roof and welded together to complete a longer factory looking Cuda roofline. The post car window frames should have been cut off all four doors, and the b pillars cut down like on a pillarless 4 door hardtop car from the 60s/70s Era cars were. It would have required having 4 pieces of side glass made,but it would have been worth doing to get the correct look,especially since ECS has a company already producing window glass for them, it would have been easier for them to do than anyone else. That's my take on the car, others might not agree, but most can plainly see the roofline doesn't work on that body. The workmanship on the car is incredible, but using the taller B body roofline was an oversight on the design end.



In other words, it's a high quality mess
 
Here’s a couple of pix. I believe this is the car in question.View attachment 1332531View attachment 1332532View attachment 1332533
Look at the picture of the car from the right rear and look how much taller the side glass is compared to the rear window! In the picture of the front of the car, the A pillars look terrible they don't flow with the Cuda windshield moldings at all! I tried to find the concept drawings, by typing in 1970 Plymouth Barracuda 4 door concept drawings and they came up,but I couldn't get them to download. The drawings look like the red photo shopped one. There are pictures of the pillarless 4 door hardtop with the factory Cuda roofline, and a wagon version with woodgrain sides that is reminiscent of an AMC Hornet sport about wagon in the back.
 
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To me the entire side window sections and roof side profile are disproportionate to the body area.....making the car look like a bomb went off inside.

I do however have admiration for the workmanship that went into transforming and constructing the new parts, as in the methodology and execution of the work involved to put the car together. But like many here, I am not comfortable with the story behind the build.
 
To me the entire side window sections and roof side profile are disproportionate to the body area.....making the car look like a bomb went off inside.

I do however have admiration for the workmanship that went into transforming and constructing the new parts, as in the methodology and execution of the work involved to put the car together. But like many here, I am not comfortable with the story behind the build.
I must have missed the story. I thought people just felt it was ugly. But I agree with you, the effort and craftsmanship is amazing.
 
Here’s the artist rendition from the Chrysler studios.View attachment 1332540
I still don’t like it. :)
Yes that is the drawing I had seen, and although I don't care for it much either, it looks far better than the red one they built. There was also a drawing of the car as a wagon with woodgrain side panels on it. Personally I am glad they never built either of them. The original Barracuda was Valiant based and Valiants were offered in two door,four door, wagon and convertible models so I can see why they toyed with the idea,it just doesn't work on that E body platform.
 
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