O, I forgot to mention. After I emailed Firm Feel on Thursday, they got back to me in a couple hours and shipped my part out (have the proper invoice and tracking number). So I should get it early next week.

Ok, so it's update time. The update is I haven't done anything yet because school and my internship take up 95% of my time. But good news, school finishes in a week; however, I may be working full time this summer. Which is good and bad because it means more money but less time.

So, I still have the TVS sitting in my garage awaiting to be put in. Only problem is I need a welder (may have to go shopping in a couple weeks) to install all the little brackets here and there. I was also thinking, I might as well go bbp and big disc brakes on all 4 corners. So to do this I was thinking about going Dr Diff 13" Brembos on the front and 11.7" Cobra on the back. Only thing is I'd need new axles and probably a new carrier that's more fun (like 3.55 or 3.91s with a Eaton TrueTrac). For wheels I already know what size I'm going to go with and I know what tire I'd like to use.

My thing is, I really don't know what the most cost effective way of doing this is. Is it doable to take apart and assemble a differential in my garage or is it best to send it out? Also, there's the question of buying a new carrier or just getting the ring and pinion with the diff separately and installing it into my carrier? The suspension doesn't seem too hard nor does the disc brakes.

I'm for sure, at the base minimum going to need to fix my head on the 273 unless it's something worse. Then I'll have to replace it. There's also little odds and ends here and there. But if possible I'd like to get all that done over the summer. A friend from work offered to help any time and I may have another friend who may help later on in the summer. All of the parts though is going to set me back quite a few thousands of dollars (maybe $6-8k depending on how I do it) but the Dart should be a more fun car after that.

Well, I got some progress done Saturday and today. I tore apart my 8 3/4 and am getting it ready for a rebuild. It's the first time I've ever done something like that and I'm happy I was able to do it alone. I'm slowly facing my anxiety complex. Anyways, I've got it down to a bear housing. The carrier was a bit tricky pulling out on my own and I accidentally spilled almost all the spare diff oil.

Now the next step is to clean the housing and get it painted or powdercoated before a friend of mine reassembles it. I just am not sure how at the moment. But, once it's powdercoated new bearings, bbp axles, 3.55 gears, and a Eaton TrueTrac is going in. My friend has been rebuilding 8 3/4 for 30 years or so, so I'll have him put it together. While he's doing that, I'll order my brake kits from Dr Diff. Once that's installed I'll be able to measure my custom wheels and hopefully get a 275/35/18 to fit all the way around. My goal is to get rear end, brakes, wheels, tires, and Hotchkis TVS done by the last weekend in September. If there's time and money, maybe a new engine and/or trans will go in. This GT is going to stand for something new, "Gran Turismo." I'm excited!

The center section was actually pretty clean. I bet it hardly felt anything in a Slant Six Dart.

Baby, mini update. I'm still cleaning the housing. It's tough to get all the little 40 year old dirt and grease clumps off of it. I'm going to my diff builder friend's this weekend to drop this stuff off so maybe I'll clean it there because I know he's got a proper cleaning station. I also ordered my entire rebuild kit from Dr. Diff and man is it pricey, but hopefully this diff will get built before the end of the month. Then all I'll need to do is order my brake kits from him next month and I'll have 95% of the pieces to put this car together. The 5% is for the unknown.

Keep plugging away.

Thanks. This morning I took the housing over down to OzHemi's place and we pressure washed it to get all the grease and grime off. After that I brought it back home, made a trip to Home Depot, rubbed it with a fine steel pad and some mineral spirits, and shot a couple coats of primer over it. It's just a light coat for now to prevent rust. I'll clean it up, sand it, touch it up, and paint it when I get the housing and diff back.

Tomorrow I'm going to take the housing, carrier, and other parts down to my friends place. I don't want this to be one of those, "Get to it when you can projects," that end up dragging on for a year so I'm going to ask him if he can get it done within 2-3 weeks. The nice part is he's doing it for free. But, I made the big order with Dr Diff a couple days ago and they should be coming in soon. So, I should have one bullet proof 8 3/4 soon.

I got my rear end back, but it's still not done. My friend did a great job putting together the carrier and the Eaton TrueTrac. It looks awesome. He was also nice enough to paint everything. I've just got to install the axles and carrier into the housing and get started with the next project. Next thing on my list to buy is brakes and I should be ready to tear the Dart apart. I'm still debating between Dr Diff stuff or making my own set with Brembo calipers, but I might just go with Dr Diff as it will probably be faster.

Luckily, my uncle, who's done body work for 50+ years, is bored now that he's retired and has been anxious and really wants to help working on my Dart.

I still haven't forgotten about the rear end. I was going to finish it up this week but realized I needed my brake kit before I could put the axles in. So, I ordered my brakes and now all I'll need, besides the little stuff, are the wheels and tires before it all goes together. I need to really start to get moving on this as my deadline to finish it as school is going to start in 7 weeks. I'd be happy if it's done in 3 months as that's when Fall Fling is. Sounds like a lot of time but I don't want to count on it.

I don't drive the Dart much at all anymore. Last time I took it out to a show it left me with a flat tire (leaky valve stem) and that kind of gave me a bad vibe (I wouldn't want something to happen to me while I'm on a long road trip). So, hopefully most of its bugs and worries will be worked out with the new suspension, brakes, wheels and tires.

So, things are finally moving with the Dart. First things first, I bought a sweet flip top gas cap from a FABO member that I hope to put on my Dart with an adapter ( http://fliptopcapadapter.com/about.html )...



Next on the list... I purchased the Dr Diff front and rear brake kit. I got the 13" rotors up front with the Brembo looking calipers and in the rears I got the 11.7" kit with the Mustang calipers.

Rough mach up of what the fronts would look like:



Today I did a lot of work putting the 8 3/4 together. In the past weeks I've managed to install the carrier onto the housing. Today I installed the axles, adjusted for play (with help from a friend), and bolted on the brakes. I still need to do lines but was tired and gave up for the night.









Ignore the mess...

So, hopefully during the week I can manage and finish up the lines.

Next weekend, I guess, would be the start of installing the front brakes and Hotchkis TVS. It's kind of a scary thought. I definitely don't want this to be one of those eternal never ending products. I need to get the car driving again (after the suspension, brakes, wheels, and tires replaced) before the start of October. I think it's doable. I may need some help along the way.

Keep it up! Glad you stuck with this car and hopefully you get it going quick. If only you were closer, I would help. Just keep plugging away at it.

If you open the link at the bottom of your post, there is another link at the bottom. Here is that link

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=53282

It states to drill holes:

1.I placed the adapter on my cap. (with the cap open and on the bench)
2.Clamped it in place.
3.Drilled the 1st hole.
4.Placed a screw through the hole.
5.Lined it up and clamped it again.
6.Proceed to drill the rest of the holes.
7.Used the original screws that hold the filler neck to the Quarter panel to put it all back together.

So I got a lot of work done today. I called my friend over, he's got a '71 Demon, and in 4 hours we tore apart the entire front and rear suspension. The car is a hovercraft now. Anyways, when I was taking apart the front, I noticed the LCA bump stop was just chilling on the driver's side and the spot welds that held that bracket on the LCA had broke. Luckily I've got extras or could have my friend reweld them on. I figure since the LCA's are out, I might as well get stiffening plates. We also are going to have to make new lines in the front. The fittings that connect to the front brake hoses were rounded off so we had to cut the line. The way we're probably going to do it is run the line around the core support to clean up the firewall a bit. We might even add a line lock just for fun. Besides that, there were really no bad issues. I just got to make sure that most everything I order this weekend gets here by Friday. Everything was pretty straight forward. I've got a lot of degreasing to do under there because it's disgusting. We were black afterwards.

A friend of mine also has some Bullit Mustang wheels lying in his garage. They're 17 x 8" and have 245/45/17's on the front and possibly 275/40/17's on the rear so they'd be good wheels for a mach up.

Next weekend, we'll probably install the rear end and leaf springs.

So things on the To Do List...
1) Degrease/clean
2) Plate and install new bushings in the LCA's
3) Redo the front lines and possibly add a line lock
4) Install 8 3/4 rear end with leaf springs.
5) Cut and balance driveshaft
6) Install front suspension and brakes
7) Borrow friends Bullit Mustang wheels and measure wheel size.

I didn't get as much done as I wanted to today, but any progress is better than no progress. We started just checking everything on the calipers and making sure everything cleared. I ended up removing all my caliper spacers as we noticed that the rotors would hit the inside of the caliper. After that we started working on redoing the rear lines. My friend's flaring tool (manual/mechanical) didn't like the plastic coating it's got on the lines. We even sanded it off and tried it but the flares were sub-par. So we're going to borrow another one of my friend's hydraulic flaring tool and hopefully that should do the trick. We also decided to throw the rear end under the car. It was actually quite a bit more work than expecting but we finally fit it.

Tomorrow our goal is to finish the lines that go on the differential and start the lines up front. I decided to just copy the factory lines and have it follow the path on the firewall. The new proportioning valve and line-lock (burnout button) came in today as well as some bump stops and other small goodies.

Another one head on. I know... that exhaust has got to go in the near future.

Got a little more work done today. We finished the lines on the differential, installed the shocks, and torqued everything down. We were having trouble removing the lines from the distribution block up front. There's not much room to clear a wrench between the steering box and the exhaust. So, we may just end up cutting it and going over to the original idea of bringing the line around the frame rails and core support with a T-block. While we're at it we're going to have to redo the lines that go from the front to the rear to the car as they cross the path of the subframe connectors.

I also am going to start cleaning the LCA's sometime this week. I've still got to remove the strut rods (don't have the tooling to get enough torque to remove the nut), weld on a bumpstop bracket (the spot welds broke off), weld on the stiffening plates, and install the pin and bushings. Once the front lines are done, the front suspension can slowly be assembled.

All the work isn't going to get done before the September 25th, but hopefully we can finish it off before Fall Fling, October 25th.

You are just moving right along. You and your pals need to come help me with mine.