The bleeder that HF sells is name brand. No need to spend a lot of money. All the bleeder is is a fitted hose and a collection jar.

The jack and jack stands lowes sell is a good set. I've had mine for three years no eproblems.

A little bit of an update today. I'd like to thank JDMopar for his easy step by step procedure for fixing the rear view mirror. Worked like a charm.

And I'd like to thank Shoozy (and Tom) for a little gift I got in the mail 1-2 weeks ago...


I love it! Representing!!! It was the first time I put on a decal, but I think it looks ok.


O, and tomorrow is my first cruise in the Dart (off Arrow Hwy and Grand Ave, in Covina). It's technically hosted by Beach Side Cafe, but everyone ends up going to IN N OUT. Hopefully, it's a little fun and not too boring. If anyone's nearby, feel free to join me.

Hey I was going through your list of wants and needs....I have a 68 /6 270 dart that will be a LO23 clone but had AC originally. Your welcome to anything from the system I have. It's all still there. My car was from LA so everything removed perfectly. Have a smooth shifting 904 trans too. Pm me if your interested.

Went to my first cruise in with the Dart. Overall it was good. With exception of one guy who brought his early 80's Nissan pick up, low rider, with Cadillac wheels I was the youngest guy who brought his car by a good 30 years.

I did talk to some passer bys. First guy who saw it pointed out my missing door molding and told me to contact a mopar resto shop, then he advised me to get some cragars. Second guy asked me if my Dart was a 66 and then realized it was a 68. We then talked about the different engines that came in the Dart. Next guy asked me about transporting old cars from the Philipines. As I was sitting on my trunk lid just hanging out I hear someone at the front of my car yell, "Now this... This is a car! Mopar!" My response, "Hell yeah!" We talked a little, he used to own a 68 Satellite. The last persons was a guy who was only a couple years older than me and his grandpa. The guy had a friend who had a 67-69 Dart so I showed him around. He actually pointed out that my car was one of the only 60's muscle cars there (there were like 5 total out of 40-50 cars).

Most people liked that my car looked stock and wasn't hot rodded. That was actually surprising. Of course I was the only mopar their besides a 50's Petty Blue Panel Van that's there almost every week. The jerk with the yellow 65 Satellite was a no show. This cruise primarily consists cars from the 1930-50's. They're almost all Fords with Chevy's as a close second (I prefer Chevys over Fords).

As I figured the usuals who brought their cars didn't care for my car at all. I actually sat by my car the entire time as the usuals just park their cars and huddle in a big group off by the fountain or by one person's car. I'll bring my car next week and see how it goes. Overall it wasn't that bad. Here are some pictures.

Getting prepped at home...


A shot from where I was sitting...


And my "neighbors"...


I have pictures of some other cars but they're pretty much Ford and Chevys and I don't think anyone here is really into them.

O, and tomorrow I will take my car to work and go to the Garden Grove cruise afterwards.

Took the Dart to work and to the car cruise in Garden Grove today (overall about 60-70 mile round trip). She drove nicely at an average speed of about 65 mph. The 2.94:1 gears and 26.1" (205/75/14) tall tires really compliment each other. The ride was a bit bouncy due to the soft shocks. I'll probably get some Blisteins in the Winter. It was really easy to drive. At the cruise OzHemi noticed I had a little bit of a fuel leak so we replaced the hose later that night. After that, I decided to order all new hoses on Rockauto tomorrow to replace my old ones. Also my driver side window fell off the tracks so I am going to pull the door panels tomorrow and reset it. My shifter button fell off while reversing today, it took me a while to find it. It has a threaded member inside the shifter, but I'm not sure how you are suppose to thread it completely with the stop on the button.

I actually got to drive my car in the dark today. All exterior lights and signals work. Most the dash lights light up except for the speedometer (probably just a bad bulb). Only thing was the crappy alternator (which I know is typical for mopars). It's the whole headlights and dash lights fading when gas isn't applied thing. Speaking of the dash, gas gauge never worked but I did notice the temperature gauge started to work. It never got passed the halfway mark (it mostly stayed at the 1/4 mark). So I'm sure the radiator with the fan and the shroud are working well.

On another note... Apparently I already have front disc brakes. OzHemi looked under there and noticed it, then I took a look under there and wallah! Disc brakes! Last time I checked I just took a quick peak, saw the dust shield and thought it was the back of the drums. It still doesn't stop as quickly as I would like it to so maybe I'll get some larger drums or rear discs when I do a rear swap (which won't be for a while since I have discs in front now). I'm just glad I don't have to worry about brake fade as much anymore. But when I get the proper tools to lift the car I will definitely change the pads and do the proper maintenance on the drums.

Here is a pic of my car there today...


I got a lot of flyers for all the car shows for the next 3 months. Someone threw them in my car when I wasn't looking...


We wanted to see what bolt pattern I had on there so we removed my hub and measured it. Unfortunately I have a small bolt pattern so a swap will be conducted in the future. But how do you like these dog dishes? Courtesy of OzHemi! We were just curious if they fit and we thought they looked better (too bad he only had a couple).

Glad you are getting out and enjoying it!

Thank you!

I ordered some of the engine bay hoses this weekend and I got the window back on the regulator Saturday night. Unfortunately I am probably going to need a new door skin soon since half the clips are gone/bent, some of the clip slots on the wood are stripped/ripped off, and I cracked a little bit of the cardboard/wood that holds the skin. I was able to put it back on and it still fits ok so I'll keep it the way it is for now.

However, the door fitment is just perplexing me. The driver window will not roll down straight. Even when I straighten it out and close the door there is a huge overlap between the door window and the rear window. I tried adjusting and pushing in the rear window and even though it is loose it is sitting in as far as it can go. As far as the door goes, the body lines are pretty decent. I know I need to grease the hinges but it's still not closing as nicely as the passenger door. It keeps hitting the striker peg. And you can tell that the car has been in an accident because around the peg there is a big crack that almost semi-circles the peg. I'll post pictures tonight.

Glad to hear the cruisin went well.
Gotta say that you are all over the map on this, which is typical for a young new owner.
Brakes - early style, right? Small pattern indicates that these are not the late style.
Get the whole front end lubed, and do the wheel bearings. Check the rotors and turn them only if necessary. They are not cheap to replace!
Check over that suspension while you are under there and make sure everything is good.
Electrical - flakey fuel gauges and lights out are typical for older Mopars. Set aside a weekend when you can to go through and clean every ground, the bulkhead connector, gauge connections and each light connector and ground. The sending unit has a little ground strap that connects over the hose between the unit and the fuel line. This is the path to ground and is often missing, damaged or just corroded to the point where it doesn't provide ground. If this doesn't fix it, you will probably have to pull the sending unit. Set that aside for another day and continue with electrical. Do not be surprized if the electrical cleanup is needed again a couple weeks later. This thing has been assembled for a long time and between years of dirt and corrosion and driving vibrations, it will tend to have interesting circuit connections. I pull the fuses and clean the clips too. I use a dist. terminal brush to clean the fuse clips and all the bulb sockets. Disconnect the battery first!

Thanks John. I definitely want to clean up the electrical system, especially in the engine bay.

As for the door and window here are some pictures. First picture is the window rolled down about half way. As you can see the glass is leaning towards the rear of the car and the clear plastic sleeves that go between the window glass and the door are pretty much worn out. Is that hole in the windshield suppose to mount to anything?


There's also another hole at the bottom rear corner of the door...


As for door alignment, the passenger side is pretty crisp and opens/closes perfectly. Here's a picture of the fitment on the door.


Now here's the driver side. The door overlaps the rear window. by a good amount. This is with the front glass moved as far forward as possible as well as the rear glass pushed back as far back as possible.


And here is where I believe my problem is. You can see the rust circling around the striker. Basically the inner part of that rusty circle caves into the body approximately the length of the tip of a finger nail. That could shift the angle on the striker causing the interference as well as the misalignment. The driver's door doesn't close nearly as well as the passenger door does.


Edit: I was just thinking, since my upper radiator hose is coming in this week and I will be ordering my lower radiator hose this weekend, why don't I just take the radiator out when I plan on changing them, flush it, and put in all new coolant. Kill two stones with one bird.

Oh you get to learn how to fix the windows. Let me look in my junk to see if I have some slides. Long story short you need to pull the A frame window to fix this issue. There is a plastic sleeve that usually disintegrates as well. Tom at rtspecialties sell everything new for around $100 a side.

He's got you covered on the window. The holes are for that stainless part that is along the back edge of the window.

The striker is an A body issue big time. Best thing to do is get the door adjusted so it is aligned properly WITHOUT the striker. Then make sure the striker is adjusted properly and the supporting metal will withstand the force.
This is where it gets tricky. They originally had a captured nut back there so the striker could be removed and installed. A body sheetmetal in this area is thin and it's commonly cracked around the captured area. So, you need to remove the Dr. quarter interior panel. This is so you can reach in and make sure of what is back there. It looks like it's been patched and painted. If so, you need to figure out what was done before you just go unscrewing the striker. It is quite possible that you will need to repair this area properly.
I don't go over to A bodys only forum, but I bet they have at least a dozen threads on this.

Agree from above.

You don't need to take the rad out to flush it either. Just drain it and cycle the hose through for a bit without the lower hose.

Well I went to the local car cruise today. Really light turnout due to the heat. Only about 20 cars showed up when around 50 usually come. I didn't mind the 100+ degree temperature. It was a good dry heat.

Well anyways I had a couple more folks come and ask me about the car. One guy rushed all the way through the parking lot in his minivan, parked right next to it and started asking if it was for sale. I told him I just bought it, so he asked me what I paid for it. I told him and he flipped out. He couldn't believe it. I gave him a walk-through of the car and he was amazed. He then gave me his business card and told me if I find another one like to give him a call. Then he told me if mine is ever up for sale he is willing to give a "reasonable" offer so long as I am "reasonable." Too bad I'm keeping it till either of us die! He said he was going to bring his 64 Dart later but never did (or maybe it's because I left a little earlyish due to boredum).

Then a Filipino guy and his son came by (around my age). They loved the car. The kid seems to like mopars since he was talking about a 69 Charger down his street and that one of his buddies put a 360 in his 72 Duster. His dad and some other guys were also talking about Coronets and Super Bees. The other guy kept on saying they made some Darts called "Baby Bees" that had the tail stripe with a bee logo on it (it could be what he called it). But overall, I had a fun talk with them about cars in general. A couple of other passer bys came by and asked if the car was for sale or if I actually came to show the car. Of course I came to show the car, there was no for sale sign...

The old men sitting in the shade in the middle of the centerpiece/fountain area (you can see some of them in the background of the first picture) didn't even bother including me in their group. It didn't really matter because I enjoy sitting by my car and talking to new people and not the same old guys.

While I was at the cruise I noticed a very small leak coming from the steering box from the hose I just changed. I am 95% sure I just didn't set the O-ring on the fitting properly. Anyways, I went home and found little puddles of fluid on the floor. I took a cleanish rag and just patted on the ground to see if I can see what color it was. Most of it looked dark brown so I'm guessing oil. And one very tiny puddle was red so I'm guessing I have a tiny trans leak.

I did get some of the engine bay hoses. The upper radiator hose looks kind of cheap and eh, so we'll see how putting that in goes. Plus the fuel filter came with 2 hoses that were only like 1.5-2 inches long so I'm going to need to order fuel lines again. I'll be ordering the rest tomorrow or the day after. Man does rockauto sucks at shipping things or what? So far out of receiving 3 packages, 2 were crushed when I got them.

All in all with the 100+ degree weather and the various leaks, I think the Dart will stay home tomorrow.

Just rewatched Dazed and Confused last night. After seeing that Duster now I just want to just Hot Rod the Dart throwing on some 15's and some fatter tires with a decent 340/360.

Just went back into my garage. I haven't gone in there much because the car has a couple leaks. I went in just now and it's a little worse than I thought. I think it has a tiny trans leak. The power steering is leaking a bit because I think I set my O-ring in wrong, and there is one big spot that is leaking that I am trying to locate the source. Yay...

And I'll probably be swapping out my fuel filter, upper radiator hose, and water pump hose tonight after I get home from school and a baja meeting so any tips and pointers would be nice.

If you want meats under there mini tubbing is the way to go.....not much room.

A can of brake cleaner can clean off oil, run the car and shut it off and check for leaks. The highest furthest forward wet point is usually the culprit

If it's the trans pan try to get the reusable rubber coated metal gasket

Here's a car I know of.....remind you of anything?

dont forget the "Drips Oil Drops Grease Everywhere" isnt just for fun. if it's not marking it's territory, it's not a dodge!!