It’s Back! – Hemi In The Barn: 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda
Update 3/13/20 – This ‘Cuda quickly disappeared after we featured it, but it’s back up here on eBay with a little more info. Apparently, the seller did some research and figured out that the car was re-bodied at some point. The VIN does the match the title so you are basically paying for a coveted letter R!
From 3/11/20 – One of our holy grails here at Barn Finds is the Hemi ‘Cuda! They are rare and valuable and we would all love to find one parked in a barn. Well, if you haven’t found one yourself, here’s your chance to buy one that someone else has already discovered. It had been parked in a lean-to for 35 years but has since been pulled out so you can see what you’re getting. It’s located in Mansfield, Ohio and is listed here on eBay with a $10k starting bid.
What a sight! This photo was taken the day the car was woken from its long term storage. According to the seller, they have listed it for an older guy who purchased the car from the guy who parked in this shed. The only problem with desirable cars like this is that everyone will try to make a buck who can. Still, it’s not every day that you get to drag a muscle car like this out of a barn!
And I’m sure everyone in attendance got even more excited when they wiped the dust off to check the VIN. The fifth digit is an R so we can assume that this car left the factory with a fire-breathing 426 Hemi under the hood!
It was probably a bit of a let down when the hood was lifted though. The 426 Hemi is long gone… The seller mentions that it came to the previous owner with a blown up 440. I’m not sure if Mopar guys just enjoy removing their engines, but we sure seem to find a lot of engineless Mopars these days.
The lack of an engine is not the end of the world though. Someone with deep pockets could restore the body while hunting for a replacement Hemi. It won’t be cheap, but the end result will be lots of fun. What do you think – is a Hemi ‘Cuda your dream barn find?
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Comments
That VIN tag looks mighty suspicious…..
Big time discussions about this over on Facebook. Many well known collectors and historians agree this is very suspicious.
The tag itself or the rivets that appear to have been ” manipulated”?
If it’s a true Hemi car those who know will look for the various body reinforcements that make those cars unique. Looks like someone in the game decided that the price was right and jumped on it. Caveat emptor!
Absolutely 100% FAKE!!! Really VIN stenciled enough said. I Win everybody else who believes otherwise already lost! Thanks Everyone…
Just the fact that the last 4 digits are covered over leaves me to believe this was no Hemi from the factory. I think someone’s out to make a quick buck.
If a slant six was installed in this car, would the DMV/authorities STILL be upset? lol
It certainly does.
tag does not look factory Chrysler used a reverse stamping and the vin is raised plus those are the incorrect rivets……
Missing engine, transmission, rear end, hood and fender tag. Rear quarters have also been replaced. Pictures are brutal. What could go wrong here. Oh wait… “ I’m selling it for a guy…”.
Oh dear I bet this was expensive.
ended said ten five. Good luck to the new owner.
Cheers
GPC
you mean, good luck to the chump that paid for it. NOTHING about this shell seems legit. I smell a BS story here……
It didn’t sell through eBay. The seller marked it as no longer available so maybe they worked a deal offline before the auction ended?
I sense a fool and (a lot of) his money have said their heartfelt goodbyes if this is indeed a fake as many on here are speculating.
I’m not sure why so many people here always misread these auctions and think that auctions ended early or no longer available means that the item sold.
It’s at $20,600 with 1day 17hrs left before someone gets robbed! Misrepresenting can still be grand theft if knowingly done.
This car doesn’t have the noticeably bigger torsion bars of a big block/Hemi Cuda. Hemi Cudas all had Dana 60 3rd member this has 8 3/4 mopar.
Me thinks the only hemi part this Cuda never had was the dash pad with the R code VIN on it. Bet VIN on radiator support and on trunk don’t match.
Sorry to disagree with you but, I had a 70 hemi cuda automatic cars had 8 and 3/4 rears. All 4 speeds had Dana rears.
VIN looks way to clean…
VIN looks way too clean…
fixed it!
Bob
While I risk a little hate in saying this…Honestly, while hemis carry a lot of mystique, the 440 was probably a better engine.
It was. No one who knows anything about Mopars should argue about that. The Hemi was very expensive when new. About $780 in 1970 dollars, which translates to about $5,200 today. Plus, it guzzled oil (a quart in less than 500 miles), got God-awful gas mileage (even by the standards back then), was touchy about tuning, and really wasn’t much quicker than the much cheaper 440, and probably slower than the 440 6-pack, which was also a lot cheaper.
That’s why they only sold a handful each year. It’s taken on legendary status now, which has of course driven prices into the stratosphere.
Besides the dual-point distributor, solid lifters, and dual four-barrel carbs what else was left to not love in a daily driver? The minimum wage bought you ten gallons of gas so that wasn’t a real problem.
The problem was that the Street Hemi was only really happy at full throttle. That’s how people blew them up. Hemis didn’t show up in trucks like the Street Wedge did. You weren’t going to pull a trailer with any Hemi car and the relative lack of low-end torque and hair-trigger throttle response made driving it to work way too exciting.
Owned/driven numerous B body Mopars with either a Hemi or 440-6 pack they all ran 2-3 tenths of each other.
The 440 – 6 had more usable bottom end torque but slacked off half way through 3 gear.
The Hemi were hard to get hooked up which resulted in over revs and blown motors ( for the inexperienced) . 200 lbs of lead offset to the left over rear axles helped a lot.
ALL of them were a pleasure to drive. he he he
Badest Mopar I had was a built 440 with 2 700 double pump Holleys and a cross ram manifold off of a 300K. It would reaffirm ones belief on a higher power. Kept toilet paper in the glove box!
VIN looks hokey pokey. Rivets look rounded off and why cover the last few digits. They tell you nothing if a Hemi or not. A guy in Colorado makes fake VIN plates. This car is a total scam. Cheap aftermarket quarters. Total POS.
Not really my dream barn find, too serious a motor. Kinda like the R code 427 Ford, a race engine on the street…serious stuff isn’t always a good time but look out when they’re set up.
If this is bogus so be it, let some fool spend all his money, that’s always the potential problem when things become highly expensive treasures. If it really is the rare fish, well, there’s a big part of it missing.
What do you call a 71 Hemi Cuda without the Hemi?
>
>
>
> A “71 Cuda”.
Signed,
A Holiday Inn Express club member
(IMO) I think that the first two letters of the VIN describe this listing perfectly! :-)
Absolutely 100% FAKE!!! Really VIN stenciled enough said. I Win everybody else who believes otherwise already lost! Thanks Everyone…
Lets pretend its real. 69 and older Hemis, solid lifters. 70-71, hydraulic.
I will research 71 with serial numbers 296 and newer at plant B, Hamtramck.
I bought a 69 Hemi Charger 500, the Dodge Public relations car in 1976 for $50. It was common to find a Hemi less Mopar.
Plus, all were driven hard when cold and put away wet.
Fun but sad days. Plus, lots of disconnected speedos showing few miles, and ad said fresh rebuild.
Cool Joe! Always got a “been there done that story.” Lived the life!
This takes me back to high school. There were nice cars back then, then there were the engine less beaters like this that might be purchased on a $1.60 hr gas pumping wage. A quick run to he wrecking yard for a $50.00 440 and you were in business. Used tires for $2.00 and endless burnouts ensued. Working on back seat moves at the drive in. Cruising 4th Street on 2 bucks worth of gas. Then the insurance bill came…
I’d throw in a 383 with 440 heads and a purple stripe cam and drive it today, just to get grey hairs like me reminiscing.
Agreed Will. The frequency he mentions his name is a bit unsettling.
Not a HEMI in a barn, it’s a hemi VIN in a barn!
Whats those letters on the console mean ? It might have been a HEMI at one time but now its just an empty shell that needs work, worth as much as some aficionado is willing to spend.
No, it’s showing ‘ended’ with zero bids what I’m looking at. This thing is worth about what the real seller paid, you know, the guy that’s listing it, at for what’s listed exactly on the new title itself, $1200. I don’t buy the 3rd party ‘I’m selling for the neighbor who is either old, handicapped, divorcing & wife don’t know he has, no internet, out of the country, friend that just went in the Army’, etc excuses. God, I read them all. This screams phony all the way & that is why it’s on Ebay & not on Craigslist or Facebook market place. He want’s a sap impulse buyer to look, see all the ‘watchers’ that may buy it (of which 99.999% don’t, just curious) He doesn’t List on CL or FB as much harder to be selling for the real owner thats who knows where & doesnt want someone with a trained eye to expose the fraud, point it out & then be shut down from trying to sell to another as someone would post in a followup ad “BEWARE OF The XX*&^ CAR for sale, etc ”
This is just a usual flipper that bought it for $1200, makes it look authentic by mysteriously hiding the whole VIN so a sap buyer will think it’s a real desirable rare one. Or hide so someone doesn’t supposedly clone it or what ever paranoia they have by showing it in full. It’s not a Bearer Bond numbered certificate FFS lol. Just a VIN tag that’s useless without the real title. If I had $100 for every sale ad like this, I could buy a REAL one. With an engine!
@ Al,,,,,,,,YUP
Al, you said it perfectly. Lots of bogus stuff. Hard to buy something on line and come out clean. I’m resigned to the fact that if someone doesn’t take good photos and include them in the listing, that means the suspect damage is really bad. I know of a number of guys who got screwed big time on fleabay because of Defects that weren’t pointed out. Caveat Emptor- get a good pro appraisal, and don’t use ebays’ inspection service. Friend had an appraisal by ebay, and they missed a huge crack in the frame near the upper control arm on a 69 Goat. Paid good $$ for the car, had 2 dead cyls, blown tranny and rust where it shouldn’t have.
Cheers
GPC
Last 6 of the vin are 296385. He hid the vin but not the title number, which is searchable on the Ohio BMV website.
Previous owner would know a LOT if someone’s interested! Lin Gunderson on bottom of title is 52 yrs old & resides in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Number is listed.
These days, engine and transmission are key. Sure you could find the components. But it would never be a numbers matching car. So good luck with this one. Looks like alot of work for just a car
It’s gone. I wonder if Mark Worman bought it.
VIN tag looks completely hokey to me. “printed” letters and numbers, wrong rivets, an asterisk on the tag?? Bogus.
Yes the Vin plate is flat without the raised letters and from what I see it doesn’t have a Hemi K-frame……..
It’s motor probably lives on in a fake slant nose car. I hope whoever eventually gets this shell finds a nice 383 four barrel and builds it into a nice cars and coffee machine. If it ever was a Hemi-Cuda, it isn’t anymore.
The best looking Cuda was the quad-headlight and louvred fender 71, IMO. Sure, a Hemi example would be exotic, but its celebrity would make it a terminal collection car that really could not be driven anymore. The value, theft and damage potential took that reality away years ago.
The E-body cars have a claustrophobia-inducing interior, compared to Mopar muscle from five years earlier. Something that always bothered me. I like more glass and open interior space. In the 80’s I came upon a stripped out hulk of a 71 convertible. The tags said it once had been 440 six-pak car with a 4-speed. At least the top went down to allow more light into the cabin, but even in its barren state, what was left was worth stupid money and it probably sits in an air conditioned warehouse now, fully restored and never driven. Just not my idea of what I want in my car hobby.
The ’71-74 chargers have smaller side windows top to bottom, i believe.
& you should sit in a new challenger or worse, camaro(or for that matter many new cars with the tail way up in the air & tiny side windows) & especially note on new chally & camaro the silly tiny side rear seat windows that could, but of course, do not even roll down. & the HUGE windshield pillars.
back up on ebay this morning
Let me get this right . . . A “rebodied” Hemi cuda (less the Hemi), a fake looking vin tag, and a new duplicate title . . . What do you have??? A rusty old Cuda????
No title and suspicions on tag means owner under pressure to state lost title and sell for a non hemi price of parts.
Its a shame but it is what it is…
Who knows some folks love to remove tags and reapply but also some like to illegaly play games…..
Salvage title with some states making a new vin and placing on car…
Sell it as a parts car or a hot rod and leave the Hemi part gone… or try to retrace ownership.. I would assume/ guess the owner looked the tag up in the registry to see if its already on the road in another location..right?
I hope this slant six, 318 ,340, (hemever ) gets back on the road..
Take 2–here’s a cuda body that has been rebodied?? Huh???
SMFH.
Cheers
GPC
The hot looking E body muscle inspires to this day, this old beat up hunk of junk should have died off years if not decades ago but it is and always will be a favorite amongst us gear head/motorhead types. The word “Hemicuda” is all it takes to raise a few eyebrows and hairs on the neck. One of the most famous rides that ever existed that so few people actually bought.
That’s what brings us to this….contraption. The money thing? Well…..yeah I guess, but it’s the brutal reputation, the stories of a well tuned Hemi powered ‘Cuda edging out an L88 powered Camaro late at night for big bucks, things like that, that make it so highly prized. Those cats who bought and stored away their Buick GNX back in the eighties looking to cash in will Never have it this good, no way.
Haha its gonna get sold and rebodied again.
I love the way the first two of the VIN are “BS.” That’s exactly what this piece is. Should be done with the $200k restoration in just enough time for the musclecar market to tank.
Absolutely 100% FAKE!!! Really VIN stenciled enough said. I Win everybody else who believes otherwise already lost! Thanks Everyone…
I got a box of the special rivets by accident back In the 80’s .I ordered regular and they shipped me vin rivets. I used them not knowing what they were. My boss say them and said they were worth 200$ a pair and told me what they were. I took the torch and melted them. I never support fraud and this looks like a fraud waiting to bite someone
Absolutely 100% FAKE!!! Really VIN stenciled enough said. I Win everybody else who believes otherwise already lost! Thanks Everyone…
why dont you say it a few more times ?
That’s not “rebodied” (except for the rear quarters) — but “re-tagged.”
SOLD for $25,400.
VIN is obviously a poor fake but the asterisks were used on 1971 tags both before and after the VIN.