I didn't do much work on the car over the winter. Now that the weather is warming up, I've gotten some things done.

If you remember, I'm adding engine compartment braces to the Dart. I made some aluminum brackets in order to attach the braces to the factory pinch weld.



I sprayed the brackets with a matte clear but wasn't happy with them. I stripped the clear coat and decided to polish them instead.


I test fit them with some nuts on the bottom side of the pinch weld. The nuts were more visible then I thought they'd be and they looked cheap. I ended up making another bracket to go on the bottom side. The lower brackets are threaded. Basically, the pinch weld will be sandwiched between the two aluminum brackets. I think this looks much nicer. I'm going to use some polished button head bolts to attach them to the car.


I liked how the gas/brake pedals turned out but I wanted something that would give me some traction. Plain aluminum might get slick in certain conditions and not be the safest on the street.


My father-in-law cuts up old tires and uses them for traction around the yard during the winter. That gave me an idea. I used an old socket(with the edge ground to a sharp point)to punch holes in an old tire sidewall. The rubber plugs it created will go inside the holes of the pedals.(rubber will stick up higher then the aluminum)