As soon as I get off work this morning, I am going to pick up my brother from the airport and start work on the Dart for my sisters 4 girls. The oldest starts high school next year so I want to get it out of the way.

The car as it sat Thursday:

The car is virtually rust free with just some bubbles under the top and minor surface in the spare well. It was hit in the front in a parking lot. I had picked up a front clip from a junkyard as a spare since I have a few 70-71 Darts and Demons.

I also had a pair of doors that a friend gave me to get out of his shop. I traded a fender and bumper for a Duster for some SPB rallys with decent tires. I paid $1200 for the car which had sat since 1988 in a garage. I ordered seat covers and top from Dante last year and weatherstripping and carpet this year. I just recieved the gaskets from Detroit Muscle Tech and placed a large Rock Auto order that came in last week. I also picked up Summits line of Paints and Primers. I'm using their Plum Purple single stage and clearing over it.

The car is a 225/904/8 3/4 combo that will just get a Krylon Rebuild for the engine, a rebuilt 904 and a re-finished 8 3/4.

My brother and I both learned to drive in my Grandfathers 1966 Charger. We have both been car guys since, however he has become a Camaro Freak and has all five generations including the 4th ZL1 built. He retired Monday and his first day of retirement he's getting on a plane in Louisiana and coming out to California to do this. One requirement was to bring Crawfish, so thats how Tuesday will be spent.

He's also anxious for a ride in the Biohazard Charger. He had the horsepower title with the ZL1 for a few months until I put in the new bullet. I wish I could give him a ride around the track at Thunderhill, but I'll just find some twisty hills around here and hope not to get caught.

He is staying about 16 days and our goal is:

Four Guys 16 Days

I restored a Pink Cuda for his daughter a few years ago
http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/featuredvehicles/e_body/mopp_1102_plymouth_1972_barracuda_340/
so felt it was necessary to do the same for my sisters kids.

Steve and I will be doing most of the work and since he is more of a "Waxer" (his idea of working on a car is cleaning it)this will be his first real complete car. He did come out twice to help with Steph's car, but this time I want to teach him how to do a bunch of things he's never done. He'll spray most of the paint and primers, recover the seats, and a lot of sanding.

I have a few friends that will help as well. Brian, who owns Golden Age Restorations in Orland,CA will help with the body work teaching Steve a little about it, and we will use his paint booth to paint the car. Evan from Affordable Headliners will teach Steve how to install seat covers.

I've already had the sheetmetal media blasted and epoxied. I sprayed the Summit epoxy on too thick and didn't reduce it so it really never dried. I scraped it off with a razor and heat gun and resprayed them with some Northstar Epoxy that I had. I spent a day at Golden Age and had Brian tap out the few dents and spread a little filler. I sanded the filler and put the parts in their first primer surfacer. I took a spare gas tank and radiator to be tanked and rodded. We are going to restore most components as they come off the car and put them on a shelf instead of taking everything apart and having to go back. I have made a worksheet and think this is possible and should come in under $4500 including the cost of the car.

I'll try to take a bunch of pics and some video as well and load them up at "Zero Beer Thirty"

Excellent, I'll be watching for sure. I wanted to do a /6 dart in pink for my niece until my brother went all nutty and monkeyed the plan.
Maybe I'll just do it anyway.

So things are going well. I've coined a new term...Forklift restoration. We're a little behind our schedule but will get back on track. Had to move some things around on the schedule. So we took off the fenders and hood and washed the bottom of the engine.

Using a hot water pressure washer

We rolled it back in the shop after washing the engine from the top to pull the engine.

So the motor is out with suspension and trans.

we then washed the engine compartment and underside

Then we pulled the rear end and suspension.

Then the vinyl top and ground out the filler at the seam.

I put some casters on the front but just used the forklift to get it back on the lift.

Day two we cleaned a bunch of parts ready to refinish. We brought out the hood fenders and doors to jamb.

I sanded the left quarter to get ready for epoxy and bodywork.

While Steve painted

Rear end painted

epoxy for jambs

And underside of hood

Added a little color to the jambs and hood.

Hood