|
How many of you believe in fate?
When I was a kid my mother always said "things
happen for a reason". I truly believe this to be
true and I am constantly reminded of this each and
everyday. Well last summer while driving my AAR
home from a local car show, I decided I would take
the long way home because I didn't want to get out
of my Cuda just yet. As I committed to my extended
drive home, I began shifting the gears 1-2-3 then
just as I went to pull into 4th the entire shifter
mechanism fell through the floorboards and landed
on the transmission cross member. Quickly, I
engaged the clutch and rolled safely to a stop on
the shoulder of a country road.
Initially, I thought I blew the
tranny, and began to wonder how the heck we would
get home. I decided to start taking apart the
shifter boot to see the extent of the damage. It
was a good thing Sam "my ebody guru" and best
friend was with me, because within seconds he told
me we dropped the bolts out of the shifter plate
that mounts to the side of the tranny. Trying to
find the missing bolts on the highway was not
exactly my idea of fun, so we were going to have
to call one of our wives to come and pick us up to
grab Sam's shifter mount bolts from his Cuda. As
soon as I got out of the car I saw a guy walking
down the shoulder towards us. His name was Mike
and he owned the house about 100 yards up the
road. He saw the doors open on the Cuda and
thought maybe we dropped a roach down between the
seats. Yes I am serious he really thought that!.
LOL
When Mike learned about our
problem he instantly offered us the use of his
driveway and tools. So we began pushing the Cuda
down the shoulder and up the driveway of Mike's
house. When we got to his house he immediately
went inside to grab some beers. Believe it or not
this perfect stranger was now treating us like a
bunch of old friends. I was very shocked and
amazed at his hospitality and generosity. Sam
quickly started scanning the Cuda for some donor
bolts to get us rolling.
As I was speaking with Mike he
began ripping bolts off his lawn tractor and Jeep
Cherokee which blew my mind. At that moment it
seemed as if he didn't care about his missing
bolts, all he wanted to do was help us get my Cuda
fixed. Mike was very impressed with my car and
seemed somewhat knowledgeable about Cuda's. Just
as he was backing off a bolt from the lawn tractor
he said the words that this article is all about!
"I love Cuda's, this car is just like mine!"
Instantly both Sam and I stopped dead in our
tracks.
 |
We both looked at him and with
the same awe struck look on our faces said "Where?
here?" He began to tell us he had a 1971 440-6pack
4speed Cuda sitting in his shed for 20 years.
Completely blown away that the exact house I broke
down in front of was the secret hide out of none
other than a hidden billboard big block Cuda. I
asked him how long he owned the car and he told me
he bought it in 1983 and parked it in 1984! This
mysterious car became more and more interesting as
he told us more about it. I asked politely if I
could see this awesome car that he was describing.
He said "sure" even though I could tell he was a
little reserved about showing us his car. He
disappeared for a few minutes and when he came
back he said he couldn't find the keys to the
metal shed at the back of his property.
I want to say I didn't doubt
him, however; considering he was unable to show us
the car I began to wonder if he was just making
this up. We both get a chuckle about this even
today as he agrees, he would have thought the same
thing if the tables were turned. Nonetheless, Sam
managed to remove 2 door hinge bolts from each
door. they fit perfectly and would enable us to
get home. After thanking Mike for his help we
began our journey home.
The next week I grabbed a case of
beer and headed up to Mike's place again to say
thank you for his help. Greeted with a smile he
said he managed to find the keys and offered me
the opportunity to see his ebody treasure. We
walked to the back of the property to a metal
shed. Once inside the building he opened another
door and there she was. I was blown away at the
shear site of this rare and low production Cuda
just sitting there covered in junk. The first
thing I noticed was the absolutely perfect 71
Grille that we all know will cost many of us a
small fortune to buy. The original numbers
matching 440 engine was sitting on a skid right
next to the car. The car was converted over to an
automatic back into the 70's because the women who
drove the car couldn't push the clutch down. Even
though the car was converted, it still retained
it's original 4 speed hump and pedal assembly. As
I climbed over mountains and mountains of junk to
get close to the car, I noticed the two fenders
tags were still attached to the inner fenders and
I began to decode the car in my head.
 |
Unable to get to the back of the
car because of the amount of stuff piled around
it, I was awestruck at the condition of the
original black vinyl top and the mint original
rear window louvers still on the car. I managed to
open the passenger side door to witness with my
own eyes the awesome H6T5 2 tone tan interior, a
first for me. It looked like someone bought the
car and parked it inside the building a week later
because the interior was bone stock and untouched.
It even had the original radio still in the car.
Obviously the car has been sitting for an extended
period of time since the interior looked like it
had been driven down a dirt road with the doors
open. Over all the interior was really impressive
however it was really dusty and dirty. I continued
to try and make my way to the back of the car.
Once I got to the back of the
Cuda the rear license plate on the car still had
the 1985 plate sticker on it, confirming this car
was taken off the road back in the year Mike said
he yanked the engine out. Covered in dust, crap
& more crap the car looked so majestic and
screamed for attention. I asked Mike if he would
ever part with it and he said "no way, man!" He
made me promise not to tell anyone about the car
and until now I kept my word.
After staying in touch with Mike
over the past year, he finally called me and told
me he was going to sell the Cuda. Even though it
came as a shock, I immediately called one of my
closest friends and we arranged a time to go and
see the car. Once in the shed we closely examined
the car from front to back. We analyzed the
numbers to ensure the car was indeed a real 440-6
pack. Mike had all the documentation to back up
the car, even though we managed to find a second
broadcast sheet taped to the top of the glove box.
The only item Mike didn't have was the original
numbers matching 4 speed tranny that was changed
way back before Mike bought the car.
 | After checking over the car
thoroughly an offer was made. After owning a car
like this for 20 years, it was not an easy
decision for Mike to make. He took some time to
think about our offer and after some negotiating
back and fourth he agreed to sell the car. About a
week later we arrived at Mike's house with the a
truck and trailer to begin the daunting task of
extracting her from the steel shed that she called
home for 20 years. It was no surprise that all 4
tires were flat and the brakes were seized. After
pumping up the tires and gently rocking the Cuda
back and fourth, she eventually broke free and
rolled smoothly to the awaiting trailer.
As a matter of fact the Cuda
hasn't seen daylight in 20 years and only saw
about 4 feet of it as it was wheeled into the
awaiting trailer. After Mike said his goodbye's,
the Cuda began it's trek to an awaiting shop where
we would begin the painstaking chore of cleaning
the years of crap, crud and dust from the car. We
took the Cuda to a near by shop and had it up on
the hoist to inspect the undercarriage. We removed
the 70's Hill Billy style trailer hitch that was
mounted to the tow hooks as well as the remnants
of the original exhaust system and gas tank.
In closing, I would like to
thank Mike for considering me to represent his
beloved and rare Cuda. I know he feels he is
helping to give back to the hobby a rare and
collectible Cuda that was hidden all these years
in his shed. It is stories like this that inspire
me to continue looking in every field, barn, open
garage or virgin dirt road in hopes of finding
that missing Cuda. I hope you have enjoyed all the
images and this article as much as I enjoyed
writing it. Keep checking this site for updates on
the planned restoration of our newest member to
Cudaworld.com!
Chris
Picco
Cudaworld.com
chris@cudaworld.com |
Some of you may or may not remember
this beauty from last year when I discovered her
sleeping in a barn near my house. After
resurrecting her, we had plans of fully
restoring the car and featuring it's restoration
on Cudaworld.com every step of the way.
Ironically we were inundated with offers for the
car and the owner at the time elected to sell.
The new owner of the car has asked me to
advertise the car once again because he is far
too busy to restore anything else right now and
decided to let someone else have the chance.
