Cars For Sale...
Carman Custom is pleased to offer selected cars for purchase, with several vehicles for sale as listed below. Addional photos can be viewed by clicking on the car photo. If you have an interest in one of our cars, please contact us for more information. We invite you to check back often as our inventory of cars is always changing.
1971 Plymouth 440-6 Cuda Convertible: This car has been in Ed's collection for many years just waiting for the right time & the right people to bring it back to new condition. After watching his shop build more & more cars for customers, Ed decided it was time to take on the Cuda as one of the shop projects. Like all projects it began by stripping the body, media blasting & seeing what we were dealing with. This is the ONLY way to properly restore a muscle car or any car for that matter. The disassembly of this car was a little different though. We saved every old rusted bolt, every nut, washer, clip, clamp, lines, everything. We did this because we were "Going for the Gold" at the O.E. competition at the Mopar Nationals held in Columbus, Ohio. This is the highest level of restoration you can ask for. Every, nut, bolt, line, clamp, engine component is checked by several judges for hours for correct number, date code, color, mfg. number, head marking. You name it, it's checked.
The other reason for this over the top restoration is the rareness of this car. It is 1 of the 5 Cuda's built with a 440-6bbl, 4spd, in the convertible body style. Also the original drivetrain was intact & still complete a rare find these days. We saved & repaired as much of the original metal as possible, making sure no details were missed. The drivetrain was a painstakingly, but was rebuilt & restored to original looking, including over spray, paint markings, finishes & fasteners. After 2 years of phone calls, chasing NOS parts we needed, looking at survivors, asking a million questions, tons of books, a lot of man hours, we were done.
We arrived at the Nationals on Thursday night to a downpour rainstorm looking out the trailer waiting for it to clear for the next day's judging. Ed's car was first on the hoist Saturday morning at 9:00am. Judging was complete shortly after 12 noon. We had to wait until later that afternoon for the outcome. Jeff & a couple of the guys from the shop walked up to the results board, searched for the Cuda & there beside it were the words "GOLD". We had done it! First attempt ever at a restoration this extreme, what an honor. We are proud to have been given the opportunity & trust to restore a car of this level. Take a look at the pictures and follow the journey.
1950 Mercury: This car was believed to be in good shape but after a trip to the sandblast shop proved otherwise. This Merc once belonged to the famous customizer Joe Balion and had quite a few custom touches. After many restorations and lots of lead, this 50 needed some major work. We stripped it down to bare metal and frame. We had the frame blasted and painted and installed an air ride system from ASR Ride Technologies. After blasting the body we removed 150 lbs of lead from the car and began replacing and making new pieces for the sled.
We removed some of the old custom features like the molding (conduit pipe) on the sides of the front fenders. The old grill and dash were sent to the Mercury Museum and new pieces were made. The engine was fairly new and we added a new Holley carb and some NOS.
The interior was completely changed and customized with a flame digital dash, CD, Air and keyless entry. The paint was a DuPont Base/Clear with some glitter added to the front end in the flames. The wheels are Budnick Fatlip Gasser 17".
1969 Dodge Dart: This car started as a plain base model 6 cylinder with no extras other than a super solid body from the south. Yes another great body from the south. I'm still talking about the car here. Deconstruction began by pulling the engine, Trans, rear-end, interior & pretty much everything else until we were left with a shell. Not surprised by the perfect floors we began making plans for the rest of the body panels. The doors, front fenders, & hood were going to be replaced with the ones from the Dart GTS which I salvaged from the previous nightmare I spoke of earlier in this story. Yes they ruined a real 68 Dart GTS. I replaced the rear quarters for 2 reasons. We found some filler from previous mishaps that grandma had & we needed to stretch the wheel openings to fit the tires that I was going to use. Next, we fabbed & welded in a chrome-moly 10 pt cage, then removed the factory trunk floor with a custom one that doubled as a fuel cell location. We also wanted to fill the cell using the factory gas fill location, instead of those guys that try not to spill gas while filling their cells in the trunk. I had some custom wheel tubs made that gave me 3 extra inches per side. We also added a set of frame connectors that we fabbed at the shop to help hold everything from twisting. Listed below are some of the specs & other features of this show winner that was 20 years in the making.
- 471 cid engine
- 8-71 BDS Airlock polished blower
- Electronic fuel injection
- B1 Heads
- Crane Hydro roller
- Venolia pistons 8.1 to 1
- Eagle rods
- 4340 steel crank
- TTI 2 1/8 to 2 1/4 step headers & exhaust with 3 inch Flowmaster
- Custom built 727 reverse valve body trans & 10 inch converter
- Cheetah shifter
- Custom driveshaft
- Dana 60 4.10 gears with Moser axles, Wilwood brakes
- Centerline rims
- BFG drag radials & Hoosier front racing tires
- Be-Cool radiator & dual 13" Spal fans
- Rocky Mountain Dash insert with Autometer Ultralite gauges
- House of Color custom Brandywine
