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Hotchkis 76 Dart Build *Updated 20 March 2014 #1592870
03/14/14 05:02 PM
03/14/14 05:02 PM
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 841
Santa Fe Springs, CA
Dan@Hotchkis Offline OP
super stock
Dan@Hotchkis  Offline OP
super stock

Joined: May 2012
Posts: 841
Santa Fe Springs, CA
I think the cat is pretty much out of the bag as to Hotchkis building a 76 Dart for Kevin on this site. The guys working on the car are the same folks who assemble all of our components we sell as well. So I think it is time for some pictures!

Hotchkis Performance East is our all-new facility in Mooresville, North Carolina that specializes in custom fabrication, cooling system optimization, racing safety equipment design and installation, and race car prep in addition to manufacturing and installing Hotchkis Sport Suspension products. It is headed up by Kevin Bryde, a designer and fabricator with over 17 years’ experience in motorsports. Kevin’s career has let him work with some of the most talented drivers in the industry including Dick Trickle, Tony Stewart, Sterling Marlin, Dario Franchiti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Martin Truex Jr., and Jamie McMurray. Most recently Kevin worked for Chip Ganassi Racing in its Engineering Department where his duties included design, fabrication, and prototyping for NASCAR, Indy Car, and Rolex Sports Car race cars. Kevin also has over ten years’ experience in all aspects of driver safety, including seat, head restraint, and race car cockpit design.

Introduction:





Hotchkis Performance East's latest project is a complete buildup of this 1976 Dodge Dart for Kevin Wesley, creator of the Hotchkis Autocross Taxi and avid driving enthusiast. Kevin's goal for this car is to have a car that he can take to compete in events like Targa Newfoundland and Pikes Peak, so this car has to be fast, but it also has to be safe. It will be receiving a full FIA-based roll cage, a modern 6.4L Hemi and Legend GT-700 transmission transplant, full Hotchkis TVS suspension, and more. Stay tuned to this thread as we continually update it with new pictures of the build as we overhaul this former Mopar econobox.



As you can see, when the car first rolled in the shop it was already stripped down and had an old roll cage in it. Though it looked a little rough, it was in fairly good shape and the body was straight and mostly rust-free.



Even the roof was rust-free and only had the adhesive residue from the original vinyl top.
[SIZE=3]Step 1: Engine Mounts[/SIZE]

The first thing we had to do with the Dart was to get its new Mopar 6.4L HEMI and Legend GT-700 transmission into place. Once we determined how much clearance was needed for the oil pan, headers, steering rack, etc, we were able to begin to design the mounts.



Once we got all of our measurements, it was off to the drawing board. What we came back with was this beautiful piece:



Now we were free to create the frame mounts and test fit the mounts together. Here's the passenger side:



And here's the driver's side:



As you can see, the clearance is perfect and the new HEMI looks quite good in its new home.



More photos of the engine mounts here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotchkis/sets/72157639748590773/

[SIZE=3]Transmission Crossmember:[/SIZE]

The final step to marrying the modern 392 HEMI and Legend transmission to the car was the fabrication of a new transmission crossmember. Here you can see one of our master welders and fabricators working on the end plate to the new crossmember:



And here's a close-up of his steady hands at work:



More welding:



Here's the finished product. Gotta love the color of welding:



And now to fitting the newly fabricated crossmember to the car:







More photos of the crossmember here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotchkis/sets/72157639747282175/

[SIZE=3]Step Two: FIA-Based Roll Cage[/SIZE]

Now that the engine and transmission have been mounted, it was time to construct the roll cage. Because of the different races the owner wants to be able to use this car for, we needed to make sure that all of the safety equipment conformed to the necessary regulations so that it could be raced anywhere in the world. After consulting with the Rally America Competition Director Mike Hurst, it was time to begin the construction. But before we could do that we had to cut out a few sections of the existing cage.



Once the parts of the old cage were removed we began by constructing diagonal bracing and rear kicker braces that connect to the main hoop. Because this is going to be a leaf spring car, the rear kickers had to extend all of the way to the rear mounting points of the springs.





Now that the basics were covered it was time to add the increased protection required by the higher levels of motorsports. First up were the door bars, which help protect the driver and passenger from cabin intrusions from contact during wheel-to-wheel racing or from collisions with other objects. After laying out the design on the table, we bent the bars to match the pattern before fitting them to the car.





After the bars were tacked into place, we double checked all of the measurements and angles for compliance before fully welding all of the joints.



To make this cage as strong as possible, the main joints all received additional bracing and “taco gusset“ reinforcement.







A good roll cage will tie into the unibody structure in as many places as possible. Not only does this make the vehicle safer, but it dramatically increases the rigidity of the unibody, reducing chassis flex during hard cornering. Here you can see the installation of the A-pillar gussets that are critical for driver safety in the event of a roll over.







More photos of the safety cage construction here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotchkis/sets/72157639747044065/
But a proper safety cage doesn’t just end at the firewall. It extends all the way through the engine bay to reinforce the front clip and add stiffness to the front of the car. This added rigidity helps handling by allowing the suspension to do its work without having to control chassis flex while also delivering improved driver safety.





Regulations require the mounting points to be 18 square inches, so to maximize area we developed a compact mount with multiple fingers to better fit the unique curves at the corners of the engine bay while also helping to spread the load over a larger area.







The next step to reinforcing the front end was to tie these new bars into the upper shock mounts. Like the star-shaped mounts on the firewall, these mounts are fabricated out of 16-gauge sheet metal and are designed to disperse the tremendous forces the upper shock mounts will see during racing events.











Here is the finished product with completed firewall, frame, and shock mounts:





Now it was time to work on the bay bars that will tie the two shock towers together. But before we could start designing those we had to check how much clearance we had between the engine and the hood.





Even thought he clearance was tight, there was still ample room to fit the bars without contacting the hood or the intake manifold. Now it was time to take our measurements and begin constructing the bay bars (which act similar to a bolt-in strut/shock tower brace in street cars).











After creating the basic structure of the bay bars we reinforced them with new gussets.











Here is the finished product with the ends trimmed down for access to the bolts for easy removal:







More photos of the Engine Bay Bar construction here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hotchkis/sets/72157639746540665/

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: Dan@Hotchkis] #1592871
03/14/14 07:44 PM
03/14/14 07:44 PM
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 163
Speedway In.
I
IndyDave Offline
member
IndyDave  Offline
member
I

Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 163
Speedway In.
Uh, WOW!


Dave Dusterberg
1979 Aspen R/T (soon to be #19 CAM/T)
2002 Ram 1500 SLT
2005 Magnum R/T
2005 Mustang GT SCCA CAM/C #19
Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: IndyDave] #1592872
03/14/14 07:47 PM
03/14/14 07:47 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,575
The Netherlands
BigBlockMopar Offline
master
BigBlockMopar  Offline
master

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,575
The Netherlands
Some nice work in progress going on there!

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: BigBlockMopar] #1592873
03/14/14 09:42 PM
03/14/14 09:42 PM
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 14,889
up yours
Supercuda Offline
About to go away
Supercuda  Offline
About to go away

Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 14,889
up yours
Beautiful

If you guys has a TV/Internet show just showing this build in a professional manner (not clown like) it would be awesome.


They say there are no such thing as a stupid question.
They say there is always the exception that proves the rule.
Don't be the exception.
Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: Supercuda] #1592874
03/14/14 10:46 PM
03/14/14 10:46 PM
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,456
Fly Over States
P
PHJ426 Offline
master
PHJ426  Offline
master
P

Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,456
Fly Over States
Quality work there.

Keep the updates coming.




Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: PHJ426] #1592875
03/14/14 11:14 PM
03/14/14 11:14 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,323
NY NY
3
340duster340 Offline
master
340duster340  Offline
master
3

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 4,323
NY NY
awesome build. awesome welds.

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: 340duster340] #1592876
03/14/14 11:14 PM
03/14/14 11:14 PM
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 841
Santa Fe Springs, CA
Dan@Hotchkis Offline OP
super stock
Dan@Hotchkis  Offline OP
super stock

Joined: May 2012
Posts: 841
Santa Fe Springs, CA
Thanks guys. I'll post more as the build progresses.

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: Dan@Hotchkis] #1592877
03/15/14 11:56 AM
03/15/14 11:56 AM
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 723
Houston Tx
Uhcoog1 Offline
super stock
Uhcoog1  Offline
super stock

Joined: May 2005
Posts: 723
Houston Tx
Love the build!


-'02 Dodge Viper Ex-World Challenge racecar
-'73 Duster, 6.1 based 392 hilborn hemi, tko600, full floater rear 9", Hellwig custom bars, viper brakes, built for road course
Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: Uhcoog1] #1592878
03/15/14 12:55 PM
03/15/14 12:55 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 16,802
Between Houston & Galveston TX
SattyNoCar Offline
Smarter than no class Flappergass by a mile
SattyNoCar  Offline
Smarter than no class Flappergass by a mile

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 16,802
Between Houston & Galveston TX

I love the fact you're not gutting it to the outer skin and basically starting over with a tube chassis. You're working with the car as built.

I wish I had even 1/1,000,00th of the skill needed to pull off that kind of fabrication.


John

The dream is dead, long live the dream.......😥
Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: SattyNoCar] #1592879
03/15/14 02:44 PM
03/15/14 02:44 PM
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 699
Cooperstown, NY
jrlegacy23 Offline
mopar
jrlegacy23  Offline
mopar

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 699
Cooperstown, NY
Looks great. Is it going to done in time for Carlisle?


[color:"#00FF00"]68 Fastback Barracuda with some stuff[/color]

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: jrlegacy23] #1592880
03/15/14 03:24 PM
03/15/14 03:24 PM
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 553
Sac, CA, USA
N
ntstlgl1970 Offline
mopar
ntstlgl1970  Offline
mopar
N

Joined: May 2007
Posts: 553
Sac, CA, USA
So in one of the pictures of the roll cage fab, there is an electric steering assist motor - are you going to include that in this build? That would be cool to see how that is done

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: ntstlgl1970] #1592881
03/15/14 03:37 PM
03/15/14 03:37 PM
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 841
Santa Fe Springs, CA
Dan@Hotchkis Offline OP
super stock
Dan@Hotchkis  Offline OP
super stock

Joined: May 2012
Posts: 841
Santa Fe Springs, CA


You never know with these things. The biggest limiting factor is overall vehicle weight and forces put on the unit by ratio and tire size. Always fun to try something new.

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: Dan@Hotchkis] #1592882
03/15/14 06:00 PM
03/15/14 06:00 PM
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 4,302
Nebraska
72Swinger Offline
master
72Swinger  Offline
master

Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 4,302
Nebraska
Kevin has teased me with this hot rod for a while now and its also being shown on PT.com. Really good ideas from this build and to me that is the best part and why I appreciate you guys sharing what you do. Now if I could get David Barton to share a few details about his 850hp Gen III engines we would be golden lol...Oh and this thing is getting an electric assist steering setup from what Kevin has divulged in a couple posts elsewhere.

Last edited by 72Swinger; 03/15/14 06:01 PM.

Mopar to the bone!!!
Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: 72Swinger] #1592883
03/15/14 08:10 PM
03/15/14 08:10 PM
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 286
Catskill, NY
T
teflon Offline
enthusiast
teflon  Offline
enthusiast
T

Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 286
Catskill, NY
Awesome build and those welds are fantastic. It will be a shame to cover them with paint.

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: teflon] #1592884
03/18/14 10:27 AM
03/18/14 10:27 AM
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 6,005
Reno, Nevada
NV69B7RR Offline
master
NV69B7RR  Offline
master

Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 6,005
Reno, Nevada
Thanks for sharing! You have some very talented fabricators at Hotchkis East. I look forward to the updates on this build. Keep up the great work!

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: NV69B7RR] #1592885
03/18/14 12:17 PM
03/18/14 12:17 PM
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 813
Ontario,Canada
brads70 Offline
super stock
brads70  Offline
super stock

Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 813
Ontario,Canada
Cool stuff!

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: brads70] #1592886
03/18/14 01:35 PM
03/18/14 01:35 PM
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 294
The Netherlands, OV
D
dickdale Offline
enthusiast
dickdale  Offline
enthusiast
D

Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 294
The Netherlands, OV
Nice build!

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: dickdale] #1592887
03/19/14 10:36 AM
03/19/14 10:36 AM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,756
London, England
Gavin Offline
top fuel
Gavin  Offline
top fuel

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,756
London, England
Fabulous work, really looking forward to seeing this done and with Kevin driving too I expect it to shock a few people!!!

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: Gavin] #1592888
03/19/14 01:00 PM
03/19/14 01:00 PM
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 256
USA
C
Consulier Offline
enthusiast
Consulier  Offline
enthusiast
C

Joined: May 2005
Posts: 256
USA
Details on the electric steering conversion I posted on FABO.
_________________________
You shove the unit from a Vue/Cruze/Equinox under the dash and run a controller available on eBay.





I'm using a Hower 2:1 steering quickener between the column and the manual box. That will give me 12:1. If I want faster I can switch to a 20:1, or 16:1, box to speed it up more and even go to fast ratio idler/pitman to adjust even further.

Since $$$ seems to be a hot topic in the thread, let's look at how much is going into this solution.

Used Vue column $100
eBay controller $65
Howe Quickener $92
U Joints/Couplers/Steering Shaft $325
Borgeson Manual Box $380

Wow... $962 for a complete electric steering solution with steering box. Price out a new FFI box (or Borgeson), rebuilt column, pump, pulleys and it's pretty much a wash.

What really drove this decision? The headers... 2" TTI Gen3 will not clear any power steering box. It's a heck of a lot cheaper to put in this solution than have a set of custom headers built. Plus, better packaging, adjustable, etc...

Re: Hotchkis 76 Dart Build [Re: Consulier] #1592889
03/19/14 01:11 PM
03/19/14 01:11 PM
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 813
Ontario,Canada
brads70 Offline
super stock
brads70  Offline
super stock

Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 813
Ontario,Canada
Clever!

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