I have disassembled a ’70
Barracuda Gran Coupe, 383, for restoration.
The seller, the son of the original owner,
assured me that, although the car is pretty
well “used up,” it was never in an accident,
and the paint all matches and seems original.
Yet, when I removed the fenders, on the
left side I found a homemade-looking chunk
of angle iron holding the fender on and a
very amateurish-looking “patch”. Is there
any explanation that would make sense,
other than the fact that this was collision
damage repair?
In a nutshell: Yes. 1970, and early ’71,
E-bodies suffered from a fender-attachment
weakness at the cowl area, this manifested
itself on cars that were driven on rough
roads. If the original owner complained
about rattles and flapping fenders at the
dealer, they would have performed the TSB-mandated
repair, which instructed them to
fabricate pretty much what you describe.
Curiously, this TSB never appeared in the US
that I’m aware of. Perhaps, in the early ’70s,
Canadian roads were rougher?
when driven on
rough roads, were
subject to upper
fender attachment
point failures (at the
cowl), reinforcement
for which was outlined
in a Canadian
TSB. This involved
reinforcing the OEM
bracket and fabricating
a second one
farther inboard.