After 26 years....

[76orangewagon]

Hello FEBO, I've been along time FABO member and recently completed my Duster, and just bought back my 1971 Cuda' that doesn't have 500 miles on it since I sold it back in 1990. Here are some of the spec's... factory 1971 Cuda 340, 4 speed, Billboard, Shaker, EV2, Road Lamps, Center Console, manual steering, Manual Brakes. I added the go wing and rallye dash back in the day. I plan on a complete Rotisserie restoration but promised the Wife I wont start for a year or so, not to mention I will need to sell the Duster to finance the restoration. I look forward to using the knowledge of the members here like I did on Fabo to get this car right. I included a link to the Duster build and some pics if anybody wants to check it out.
73' B3 340 Duster pro touring build

 

[76orangewagon]

Here a couple more pics of the cuda I took when I went to see it, I plan on bringing it home in a week or so.

 

[DJ1967Dart]

The Cuda is awesome and that duster is killer. The Cuda looks to be in great shape - why not keep both? (I managed to keep my 67 340 powered dart even after I purchased my 70 RT Challenger). Good luck with the sale and the restoration. Beautiful mopars.

 

[moparleo]

Welcome aboard and nice cars !

 

[DetMatt1]

Welcome to the site from the Motor City! Is the Cuda unrestored at this point? The Duster looks great but I don't see one in B3.

 

[76orangewagon]

Welcome to the site from the Motor City! Is the Cuda unrestored at this point? The Duster looks great but I don't see one in B3.

Believe it or not I had Maaco paint the car back in 1990 for around $350.00. The suspension and bottom of the car are all unrestored, although the body looks good in the pictures I plan on media blasting it down to bare metal throw it on the rotisserie and starting all over. I feel that the car deserves to be done properly due to the it's rarity. I would like to know the actual production numbers of the car, I can narrow it down to the 340 with a 4 spd but throw in the high impact color, shaker hood and billboard I assume it's down to a few hundred or so. The Duster was originally B3 (Basin Blue) but my family did not like the color so I went with what you see now. The second pic is how the suspension looks today, the third pic is when I owned it back in 1990 and the first is...well the B3 Duster as it looked when I bought it.

 

[DetMatt1]

Nice stuff! If there were only 340 340 4 spd Cudas built in '71 I would think it's safe to assume that yours is one of very few with those options, like less than 10 I bet.

 

[340challconvert]

Nice build on the Duster!
It is cool that you were able to get your old 71 Cuda back.
Best of Luck with the Cuda resto.

 

[76orangewagon]

Nice build on the Duster!
It is cool that you were able to get your old 71 Cuda back.
Best of Luck with the Cuda resto.View attachment 29004

I have been in contact with the owner off and on since 1998 and told him If you ever decide to sell it, I would love to buy it back. It wasn't cheap but we agreed on a price I could live with. The bad part was it was the Monday after the Mopar Nationals that he said he wanted to sell...If I would have known I could have offered up the Duster for sale at the Nats.

 

[76orangewagon]

Nice stuff! If there were only 340 340 4 spd Cudas built in '71 I would think it's safe to assume that yours is one of very few with those options, like less than 10 I bet.

Is there a book or someone that might be able to narrow down the numbers for me ? I've already thought of contacting Galen but are their other sources out there ?

 

[76orangewagon]

why not keep both?

My pockets aren't that deep to both buy the Cuda' and then spend 30K or more in a full restoration without freeing up some funds.

 

[76orangewagon]

Nice stuff! If there were only 340 340 4 spd Cudas built in '71 I would think it's safe to assume that yours is one of very few with those options, like less than 10 I bet.

From what I found online it looks like there were 1141 340 4 spd Cuda's made in 1971. I couldn't find any numbers on shaker hoods, billboard stripes or high impact colors.

 

[340challconvert]

I had a copy of the 71 Challenger colors that I copied from Hamtramck Historical (Barry Washington has a lot of documentation)1971 Hemi Orange was selected for
about 6.5% of 71 Challenger production.
1970 RT Challengers had a similar percentage. Performance models always had a slightly higher percentage of EV2.
The 71 Cuda numbers might be close.
Just a thought!
Barry may have the 71 Cuda color breakdown

 

[DetMatt1]

There are no official Ma Mopar records that break down production numbers any further then engine and trans, unfortunately. The numbers can be narrowed based on known vehicles in the enthusiasts registries and as Paharamia stated, Barry's work on the HH project.

 

[Moparparts]

Very nice cars! That 71 Cuda brings back some memories for me had one almost like it, owned it twice. Looking forward to pics of the resto