I pulled the motor out, had the front buckets re-upholstered and then due to other projects I just stored the Cuda in my brothers garage. We then concentrated on getting the Demon finished. Now with the Shadow almost complete I can concentrate on the big block Duster conversion to get it so we can run it on the street. So, in the mean time I will be picking up parts for the Cuda. So far I have purchased a 380 horse 360 CID crate motor.

The other thing I wanted to do, is to convert to a 4.5 inch bolt pattern for a better choice of wheels, so I purchased a wilwood front disc brake conversion kit. The one thing I now must get is 10 inch front drum spindles as my Cuda came with 9 inch drums and the hubs only work with the 10 inch drum spindles.

I'm still continuing to gather parts for the Cuda. Next thing on the list is exhaust manifolds, I looked at all possibilities for the narrow a body that I didn't have to cut up the fender well and any thing that wouldn't kill my ground clearance. That didn't leave much, after searching what flowed best I was down to magnum exhaust manifolds or spitfire headers which Laysons is remaking. So I went for the shorty headers from Laysons, these are similar to Spitfire headers.

Next I had to mount my Wilwood disc's to 10 inch drum spindles so that was the next thing to pick up. They don't look any beefier but they are 20% stronger than the 9 inch drum spindles. (9 inch spindle on left)
I have got to move the springs inboard so I now have a spring relocation kit. I only need to move them in 1.5 inches, but its 4 inches or nothing.

I'm still waiting for parts. Parts I have now that I don't have pictures for are upper and lower ball joints and 2 X 3 box steel for connecting my sub frames together. Parts I'm waiting for are Axles from Yukon , motor mounts, and front end rebuild kit. Hopefully, they arrive soon. I'll be buying more parts but only as I can afford it!

I’m still gathering parts, my Yukon axles have shown up with the green bearing kit. I now have the complete front end polyurethane rebuild kit from energy suspension. The Hellwig front and back sway bars have also shown up. I have also received the Schumacher engine mounts.

The work has now begun. I have pulled the motor, trans and the torsion bars out. Next was the K member and steering box. The Upper control arms are out as well.

It looks like the previous owner painted the K member with it still in the car by the over spray on the frame. While I have all this out the first thing I’m going to do is make a relief in the trans mount for the exhaust. All early a bodies were not made to have dual exhaust, so when I had the duals put in, the pipe under the passenger side always dragged on the ground due to 2.5 inch pipe with a ¾ inch clearance under the rear trans mount make the exhaust only 3 inches from the ground especially with the 13’s on the front of the car. I’m hoping to gain 1.5 inches by notching the frame. So first thing I did was to cut the frame back to make room for the notch in the trans mount. Next thing I did was to cut a piece out of the trans mount and to keep the strength up I welded in a piece of 3 inch exhaust pipe, I flared it slightly so its about 3.5 inches wide to give a little more room for the 2.5 inch exhaust I plan on installing.

Next thing on the list is to put the front disc’s together since I now have all the parts gathered. I’m installing new upper and lower ball joints and complete front end rebuild kit as well. Might as well do it right the first time. The picture below shows a comparison between the stock 9 inch drums and the Wilwood 11 inch rotors. With the Yukon axles and the Wilwood front discs, the car will have the 4.5 inch bolt circle all round.

The next line of business is to move the spring in on the Cuda. I  will leave the back section of the frame intact, so this will move my springs in 3.5 inches. You must support the car really well before doing any cutting. The next thing is to cut the frame and get ready to tac in the new frame sections.

After making the cuts I wire brushed all the rust off and gave it a coat of weld through primer. I shot POR15 onto the frame as far as I could where I knew I couldn’t reach again. I made 3 plug welds on the back side of the frame to make sure it's strong enough.

We then bolted both springs in place, from there new positions. I used an angle finder on the carrier to make sure it went back in the same position as original made 2 front spring positions for the front spring eye. This is so I can change the height of the car if need be.

Next thing we had to do is weld on the spring perches on the rear end, with the new spring spacing. We are just going to tack them on at first to make sure the rear end was centered in the car and the put the angle finder on to make sure the rear is sitting as it did originally. Then cut off old perches, and then go back and finishing welding on the new ones.

The next job is to rebuild the K member and clean up all front end parts. I purchased a complete front end rebuild kit, and put in all polly bushings and new upper eccentric bolts. I cleaned up the K member and did some reinforcing of the week spots. One common spot for the frames to crack is where the steering bolts to the K frame. All possible spots were reinforced, then cleaned up and then a fresh coat of paint on the K frame.

I cleaned and painted the rest of the front end parts and then assembled them to the K frame. The next thing was to finish up the front disks and get them ready to go on the car. The Wilwood kit is really well designed kit and the instructions are great. I have the rear Wilwood kit as well with the rear parking brake incorporated into the ear disc hat. So that will be the next thing to do.