I bought some LEDs for the cluster as well as some new bulb holders. I hooked up the dash lights to battery power and took a picture. It's not this bright in person. Some LEDs are dimmable. I'm not sure if these are or not. It should look pretty good once the bezel is installed.

Very cool. I like that so much better than any other "custom" gauge cluster I've seen.

Thanks Steve. I'm anxious to get this dash assembly done. I don't want to move on to another large assembly until this one is completed. The stock AM radio is at Ward's right now getting an FM conversion. Once that's done, I just have to get dash bezels, a new glove box lock and a voltage limiter.

The spoiler I ordered showed up today. I really like the look of these. It attaches with only three bolts. One on the hood latch bracket in front of the radiator, and one in each bumper bracket.


Here's what they look like installed...
http://www.spoilersbyrandy.com/Pages/6769Dartspoiler.aspx

The radio is done but I'm waiting on it to get back. That's the last thing I'm waiting on for the dash. I've got new dash bezels here ready to be installed.

I want to get the car into the body shop ASAP. I'll have the car blasted and the few rust issues fixed. Then it will come home for engine/suspension and wheel test fitting. Yesterday morning I started stripping the few parts still left on the body. I got the rear end out along with the front E-brake cable and the fuel/brake lines. I still have to remove the glass and the top mechanism. Then it's ready to head to the body shop. I mounted my body stands to the rear of the car. They fit without any modifications. The front stands will require drilling new holes to line up with the holes in the frame.



I also started making brackets to mount the fender braces to the firewall pinch weld. They are just rough at this point. I still need to drill mounting holes and machine some material off the bottom side. The braces and the brackets will get painted matte black.

Finally, after slowly working on the dash for a few months, it's done. I got the radio back from Ward's yesterday.




The new bezels are from BE&A and they fit pretty good. I had to drill some new holes in the frame for the radio bezel but that wasn't a big deal. I did paint one area of the gauge bezel so the white gauges would look nicer.




Now all you see behind the lense is white.




before...


after...


before...


after...(added toggle switch for parking lights inplace of lighter and added white overlay on radio)


before...


after...


finished...

Nicely done sir

My wife worked today so I took the opportunity and worked on the car all day. I got the fender brace brackets done. They just need paint.


I scraped off the solidified oil in the engine compartment and on the floor pan where one of the top cylinders leaked. Then I wire wheeled the area. Then I started scraping all the seam sealer out of the trunk. After that, I blew out the dirt between the rockers and the quarters. I vacuumed it out and followed it up with a good power washing. The pinch weld drains are now clear. The car is now ready for the body shop.

I started working on the LCAs. The suspension I'm using is off of a 72 Demon 340. The LCAs were pretty clean but had a layer of rust on them.


I tried using an 1 3/8" tap to remove the outer LCA bushing sleeve but I wasn't able to make it work. I don't know what I was doing wrong. The tap was just too big to thread into the sleeve. I ended up having to use an air chisel to split the shell. After the bushings were out, I soaked the LCAs in acid. After removing them I saw traces of black paint. I don't think these were dipped in cosmoline. I also found a blue inspection mark on one of the torsion bar sockets.


I had a friend of mine help me weld the stiffening plates on the arms. He also added some extra welds to the sway bar tabs. Finally, we champed the torsion bar end together and added a small strap to keep it in position. Adding that strap took out 99% of the slop in the arm. Now the LCAs are off to the powder coaters.


I also took apart all four seat tracks. They were very rusty from sitting against wet carpet for years and didn't slide any more. One of the slider assemblies was also missing. I had to drill out one rivet on each track in order to get them apart. After scraping out all the old grease, I dipped them in acid.




The heavily pitted areas will be up against the carpet so you won't see them. The lighter pits are mostly covered in paint. Hopefully the paint dulls a little. They are too glossy right now. I used allen head bolts to replace the drilled out rivets.


I also played around with one of my 20" Durango wheels. I pulled one of them out of the shed and stuck it up under the Dart. The tire is WAY too tall but the width is right. It's a 265-50 tire. I've got 5/8" clearance on either side. The 1/2" Dr Diff spring relocation kit should put the outer edge of the spring in line with the inner wheel well lip. The back spacing is also WAY too much on these wheels but at least I can get a feel for what 20's will look like on the back. A 35 series tire should let me tuck the wheel up into the wheel well a little more.

I ordered a headlight relay kit from a member over on FABO and it arrived on Saturday. At first I mounted the relays on the inner fender below the battery tray. I thought they would be hidden there but I was wrong.


I thought about building a cover that would hang down underneath the tray but didn't think that would look very good.


With some advice from other online friends, yesterday I remounted the relays to the underside of the tray itself.


I like this a lot better. You can barely even see them now. With the rest of the engine compartment assembled, you probably won't be able to see them at all. I'll be mounting a bus bar to the underside of the tray as well. I'll run a wire from the starter relay to power the bar. When I install relays for the convert top motor, I can tie right onto the other terminals on the bar.


While I was at it, I also mounted the oil vapor separator to the PS inner fender. The PCV breather will be at the back of the PS valve cover. The hose will go right into the tank and then go right into the carb. It should look clean this way. I will be removing the lettering from the tank before it's installed permanently.


I was a little quick to get the K-member powder coated over the winter. There are some more modifications I want to make so it will need to be coated again. I bought a torque strap for the engine but ran into an issue with the K-member bracket. The pinch weld lip on this K isn't wide enough to mount the bracket. The holes that need to be drilled would be right at the edge of the lip. I thought about widening the lip but decided just to have the bracket welded to the K instead.

I also decided to add a skid plate to the bottom. I made one out of cardboard just to see what it would look like.


Then I made it out of metal.


The back curved section is open right now. I wasn't sure how to make that section. I ended up just cutting out a strip of metal and bent it to fit the area. It will be welded onto the back side once the rest of the plate is tacked on.

Exceptional work! Inspiring me to go out to the garage now.

The car is now at the body shop. It should be blasted before Carlisle so I know what pieces I need to buy.

I bought a set of slightly used Magnumforce 2" drop spindles. I cleaned them up in the parts washer and then gave them a quick bath in EvapoRust. Today I RPMed them and installed the LBJ's. The LBJ's were also RPMed.

I also gather up the zinc plated parts once again. I'm taking them back to the platers tomorrow. I think they were put in the yellow zinc tank for a short time by mistake. I called them on Friday and said they needed to be redone. We will see what they have to say tomorrow.

The car got blasted yesterday. It doesn't look like the front end or underside got touched yet though. Just enough was blasted so I can see what panels need to be replaced. I'm going over there tomorrow morning to check it out and discuss things. From what I can see, there isn't anything that I didn't know about.

I found the quarter patch panels I needed at Carlisle this past weekend. They were discontinued last year but I found a pair at Stephen's Performance. I saw a lot of variation on the Q1 paint code at Carlisle. Paint spray outs will be done this week to match the paint still on the A-pillars.

Work is getting started on the car. The door strikers have been fixed and bracing is being added. As soon as the rest of the bracing is done, it will go on the rotisserie.








The doors and fenders are off as well. The rockers look good. The back side of fenders even look good. It looks like the rust was just limited to the outer metal.

Thanks for documenting and sharing this project with us Darren. I'm really enjoying watching its progress.

Documenting it seems to keep the momentum going. I don't want this one to drag on like the Challenger did.

It looks like we are going to replace more metal. The trunk drop offs have some pin holes in them. They aren't very expensive so we will be ahead in the long run if we replace them. Same thing for the front fenders. The lower patches are expensive. It will be cheaper to replace the fenders than to fill all the trim holes, install patches and straighten them out. Hopefully I can find all that stuff at the Nats in three weeks. Here are the updated pics.

Lead cleaned out of the quarter to rocker joint.


Bad spot cut out.


Someone butchered the firewall above the bulkhead connector. Here is the patch that will fix the area.


Tacked in place.


The car is on the rotisserie.

The car is blasted and in primer.










I also got the K-member back. The skid plate turned out nice. The torque strap bracket was welded on since the K-member lips weren't wide enough to bolt it on. The K was completely welded and the steering mounts were reinforced.





Last week I cleaned and detailed the transmission. I rebuilt it back in the late 90's. It only has a couple hundred miles on it. It's a 904 with a TransGo TF-2 shift kit and a manual valve that fills the convertor in PARK.

It's painted with a cast coat iron paint. The engine will be getting painted the same color. I wanted something different. I'm tired of the orange engine w/black MP valve cover look.

I always love getting a car to the 'blasted and primed' state. Mainly because it goes from being a nasty old car, to a nice clean project! So, is the 904 a transmission you've had sitting around, or did you own the car earlier and get it back?