The valve covers looked pretty plain to me. I thought they would look better painted black to match the color scheme I'm going with. I still wanted a little something else though. I did some searching online and found a couple that I really liked.





I looked for something I could buy to attach to my existing covers but didn't see anything so I thought I'd try to make something myself. I cut some strips of 1/4" aluminum and sanded them to the shape I wanted.


After polishing the trim pieces, I painted the valve covers.


I really like the look. I drilled at tapped some holes in the bottom of the trim pieces and locktited some studs in the bottom. I was going to use some lock nuts to hold them on. Right now they are just sitting in place. I'm still thinking about another way to attach them.

There was a pretty large gap between the upper rad tank and the rad support that I didn't like the look of. I made up this trim piece with some 1/2" dimple died holes. It fills the gap and adds a cool detail to the engine compartment.

I rebuilt the steering column with the intent of swapping from power steering to manual steering. After the column was done, I changed my mind and decided to keep the power steering.

I pulled out the column shaft and swapped in the original lower shaft. I wanted to hold the two pieces together tightly but still allow movement in an accident. This is what I came up with...

The upper shaft just has indentations where hot plastic was injected into the assembly to hold it together.



After marking the correct location, I drilled all the way through the upper shaft with an 1/8" bit. My father-in-law had some scrap lexan lying around that he thought would work as a "pin" to hold the two halves together. He turned a couple scraps into "pins" and I pounded them through the assembly. We heated the head of a nail with a torch and used that to melt the ends to lock them in place. Finally, I drilled through the center of the pins with a 1/16" bit. The shaft is held tight but it should easily collapse in an accident.


Last fall I shipped the steering box to Firm Feel. They did a stage 3 rebuild on it. I was able to get it painted and installed on the K right before it got cold.

A couple weeks ago I got this next piece done. I'm going to use a reproduction Tuff wheel on this car. I bought an adapter at the Mopar Nats last year. The problem is that the 68 column was never designed for the adapter. The 68 column is smaller in diameter then the 70 column that the adapter was designed for. The upper column rubs on the inside of the adapter. I had to sand the adapter to clear the column. That wasn't a big deal. The issue is that the adapter really looks like crap on the smaller column. Here is what the adapter looks like on a 68 column. UGLY!!!!


I was looking at a Dart under a tent in the swap meet at the Nats last year and noticed it also used the factory tuff wheel adapter. That car had an aluminum trim ring on the bottom of the adapter to help transition the two pieces. It really looked good. The owner said he bought the car with that trim piece already installed so he didn't know who made it. I took a couple pictures of it and made my own.

I started with a 5x5 piece of 1/2" aluminum. After cutting out the center hole on my father-in-laws mill, we mounted it to his lathe and turned the outside to the correct diameter.


Then we readjusted the lathe and machined an angle into the piece.


Here is the trim ring test fit onto the wheel adapter.


I still needed to do some hand sanding on the trim ring when I took this picture but this is basically what it looks like installed. I really like it. It makes the adapter look like it was made for the earlier columns.

Looks like it's been 3 years since I added anything to this build thread. I've been working on a few things but the body has just been sitting. That's about to change though. The car went off to the body shop for paint on Saturday.

Since I have very limited work/storage space, the entire front suspension, engine/trans and rear end were installed years ago. It makes everything more compact so I can get another car in the garage. While the engine was in I decided it would be a good time to make some wiring harness modifications. I'd rather lean over an EDP coated fender then a freshly painted one. I laid the harness in place and routed it across the engine. I made some brackets to hold the harness up off the engine since the valve covers don't have the factory tabs. I used a couple intake manifold bolts to hold the brackets and some plastic wiring harness clips found on modern cars. After running an 8 gauge bypass wire from the alt output stud to the starter relay, I covered everything in a plastic braided mesh covering.(NOT convoluted tubing ) It looks really clean. Since the denso alternator is internally regulated, I was able to cut some wires out of the new harness and delete the voltage regulator on the firewall. I was also able to cut out the ballast wiring since the Pertronix coil runs on 12v.

I'm going to run relays for the headlights and for the convertible top. I previously mounted the headlight relays under the battery tray but wasn't totally happy with how that turned out. Since I needed to add a bus bar and convertible top fuse holder to the bottom I decided to just start over. I made a plate out of steel and put a few dimple died holes in it for strength. After drilling holes through the plate and battery tray I installed rivnuts on the plate to make attachment easy. After playing around with different arrangements I was able to fit everything under the tray so it's almost invisible.




I mounted the convertible top relays next to the pump at the back so they will be hidden as well.

I also made some frame connectors for the car. They are made from 1x2 tubing with 1/8" wall thickness. I cut into the torsion bar x-member and the back frame so the tubing could be slid inside instead of just being welded on the outside. Since the connectors don't weld to the floor, installing the brake/fuel lines and the e-brake cables will be a piece of cake. However, since they don't contact the floor they need a little something extra to increase their strength. This next trick was suggested to me by some of the guys on the E-bodies site who had done the same with theirs. Every 6" I drilled though the tubing with a 3/4" bit. Then I cut some 3/4" round stock(1/8" wall thickness) into 1" pieces. Those pieces were they inserted into the holes and the perimeter was welded top and bottom. Before I had them welded in, I reinstalled the torsion bars so the car was sitting on its suspension.

Here's another small project I worked on awhile back. It's nice to have a father-in-law with mill and lathe.

I'm using aluminum pulleys on the 360 for the Dart. I'm also using a Denso alternator instead of the factory style. The company that makes the pulleys doesn't make a pulley/cover for the Denso so I had to make my own. As you can see by the first picture, the alternator pulley sticks out like a sore thumb.


The pulley that came on the alternator had three round holes in the face of the pulley. I'm not exactly sure what their purpose was. Maybe a tool fit in the holes to hold the pulley while the nut was being tightened? Anyway, the holes looked like the perfect place to bolt on a cover. So, the first thing I did was to drill them deeper and tap them. To make the cover I started with a 3" or 3.5" diameter piece of aluminum. I marked out the location of the three mounting holes and drilled them in the piece. Then I counter bored the holes to accept some allen head bolts.


With the aluminum puck bolted to the pulley, I mounted the pulley onto the lathe and machined the outside diameter so it was perfectly round in relation to the pulley itself.


Once the outside was machined, I unbolted it from the pulley and mounted it in the lathe to make the next cut. I drilled out the center to take some weight away and to make sure the pulley cover would clear the alternator shaft and attaching nut.


The next thing to do was to machine a "step" on the back side of the cover that would fit inside the center opening of the pulley. This "step" centers the cover on the pulley.


Now the cover could be bolted to the pulley with the allen head bolts. Next it was back in the lathe to start giving it some shape. Now it's starting to look like something.






All polished up and mounted.

Nice stuff.

How long is the body shop supposed to have it?

I've been putting off working on the convertible top mechanism because it was intimidating. Finally got to the point where I needed to work on it so...

I started out by taking a lot of pictures and measurements. There are two main adjustment links at the back that have a lot of adjustability. Before taking the bolts loose, I staked both sides of the links so I could line up the marks during assembly. With all the measurements and pictures taken I took the mechanism to the back yard and power washed it.


Here are all the pieces of the top mechanism laid out after disassembly.


I started with the bows since those looked simple. The tack strip material on the sides were in decent shape but there were signs of rust underneith them so they had to be removed. The factory installed the tack strips into bare metal bows...then they were painted. The tack strip material in the rear bow was in bad shape so that was removed as well. I'll talk to a convertible top installer and see what they recommend before I reinstall any new tack strip material.




Original paint underneath a side bracket. SEM Trim Black looks like a perfect match to me.


After the three bows were sanded down and painted, I turned my attention to the front header. It looked like it was in really good shape with no sections rusted through. After taking out the old latches though, a bunch of scaly rusty crap came out of the hollow inner cavity. I bought a cheap endoscope for my cell phone so I could see deeper inside to assess the rust. It looked pretty nasty.

I found a good deal on EvapoRust at Walmart.com believe it or not. A 3.5 gallon bucket was only like $46. I bought three. Then I picked up some scrap 2x4 / 2x6 and OSB from work and built two boxes. One to soak the header and one to soak the side mechanisms.




I lined the long box with plastic and soaked the header in the EvapoRust for close to 24 hours...checking it and hosing it out periodically. The results were impressive.
before

after


After the EvapoRust bath I sprayed the inside with Ospho(actually Concrete and Metal Prep which is the same thing) which turned the remaining rust in the tight seams black. Then I masked off the latch openings and poured black paint into the cavity. I poured a lot in and made sure I got everything inside coated. Then let the excess run out the other end.

Somewhere(probably at a garage sale) I picked up a paint stripping wheel for a drill but had never tried it so I was skeptical on how good it would actually strip paint and rust. I wasn't looking forward to stripping the paint since paint stripping SUCKS! So, I thought I'd give that wheel a try. Wow, it worked awesome. I got the entire header stripped in about 15 minutes.






Then I hung the header panel on the garage door track and sprayed it with self etch primer and SEM Trim Black. Then I repeated the steps with the side mechanisms.(EvapoRust bath/paint stripping wheel/hand sanding tight areas around all the links/painting with SEM)




Just got done assembling everything. Sanded and polished the 6 side weather stripping channels and installing the weather stripping. I installed a new set of latches which didn't fit near as nice as the original ones...big shock I know. One side fit ok but the other side wasn't even close to fitting. I had to sand down the back side of the latch so it would bolt up. Some weather stripping needs to be trimmed and I just realized that I didn't installed the side wires(which I don't have anyway...they come with the new top)but it's basically done.
It's hard to get a nice picture of it since everything is black but it turned out nice.

I finished the console a couple nights ago. I bought reproduction top plates but had to send them back. They were warped badly and didn't fit. Luckily they were nice about it and sent a replacement set. I'm using an aftermarket shifter instead of the factory one. I modified the aftermarket shift handle to fit the console instead of modifying the console to fit the shifter. This way I can still use the original shifter some day and everything will still fit. The car sat with the top down for quite awhile and it looks like the console filled with water a time or two.


I used some "Iron Out" I found under the bathroom sink to clean the rust stains off the console.


The rest of the console body was cleaned in preparation for some SEM Landau Black.


After a few light mist coats of Landau Black



I wanted to add a tach to the Dart but I don't really like how they look mounted to the steering column or dash. On a race car that's fine but on a street car I wanted something not so "in your face". I like the look of the console tachs but original ones are very expensive and they only came with a black face. Since I changed to white gauge faces, that wouldn't match. I had a white faced tach sitting around from another project that I could use. The problem was that it was meant to be installed into a dash opening and didn't have a mount to it. That's when I decided to try and make a mount for the tach I already had. I wanted to make it look like a factory tach.(as close to a factory look as I could anyway) I found some pictures online of a factory tach and made a template out of construction paper. Then I picked up a solid chunk of 4" diameter aluminum for the mount.


The first step was to mount it in my father-in-laws lathe and bore a hole big enough for the tach insert to fit. This took awhile.


Once I had the tach insert fitting, I turned the aluminum around in the lathe and tapered the back side.


Then it was off to the mill to machine a "flat" area so the mount would sit at an angle on the console.

After making a base for the tach surround, this is what it looked like.




I put some of my daughter's Play-Doh in the bottom of the hole and inserted the tach. That let me see where I needed to remove material at the bottom of the hole to make room for the wiring.


I removed a lot of material so there would be plenty of room for the wiring connections and drilled a hole through the base and into the tach opening. I tapped the hole and installed a hollowed out piece of threaded rod to attach the tach to the console. After sanding and polishing it turned out really nice. It obviously doens't look exactly like a factory part but I think it has that factory vibe.




Here's the finished console. I polished the original clear plastic shift indicator lense with Meguires PlastX polish. It turned out really nice. The metal plate under the lense was repainted with SEM Trim Black.

The rear interior panels are in pretty nasty shape. They are extremely brittle and have some pieces missing.








The back of the panels is a little interesting. One looks like it was molded in a pearl white while the other looks tan. Both have white overspray on the back from where the top and bottom sections were painted.


In December I ordered new panels from Laysons. They were out of stock at the time but said they would honor their end of the year discount when the panels arrived. With everything back ordered due to covid, I didn't know when or if they would arrive. Well, it took 8 months but they showed up last week. They no longer offer them in white so these will need to be painted. I'll be painting the top and bottom white to match the inner door paint. The center section will be pearl white to match the door panels. There are some differences between the new panels and old so I need to test fit these to see how they fit. The biggest thing is that these aren't brittle so as long as they fit, they will be better then what I started with.




The original chrome moldings that go on the interior panels aren't in the best shape either. They have a lot of pitting in the chrome. The reproductions are expensive and Layson's even says they aren't a very high quality restoration piece. The nicest parts they could find to use for tooling weren't perfect. So, to save some money I thought I'd try to make some replacements myself. I put a piece of 1/4" thick aluminum in my father-in-laws mill and machined two grooves down the length to get the concave shape.


Then I cut them into strips and started sanding...and sanding...and sanding some more. I used sand paper wrapped around a deepwell socket to sand the concave areas. After a lot of sanding and polishing they came out awsome. They have the same profile as the originals. The only difference is they are about twice the thickness. I needed that thickness though, so I could drill and tap the back side for 6-32 screws. The extra thickess doesn't look bad at all.

Starting to make progress on the body. Door gaps being reworked...


Filler work, sanding, primer, sanding...sanding...sanding...more sanding...






I bought a reproduction gas cap and it sat a good 1/8" to 3/16" below the surface of the 1/4 panel. I looked at a lot of A-bodies at the Mopar Nats and most of them showed the same thing. I'm not sure if they were normally like that or not but I didn't think it looked right. The body shop fixed the issue. Not sure exactly what they did but it looks much better now.




bumper fitment. I bought some AMD bumpers when Tamraz had their 50% off sale. The front bumper fit ok. The rear did not. The top of the bumper was touching the body just below the tail light opening. There is supposed to be a 3/8" rubber filler under the tail lights so the bumper was up way too high. The bumper brackets were modified to lower the bumper.

Back on the rotisserie for some work on the bottom side.












I have quite a few videos of the primer/paint work done so far but they were sent by text so the quality really turned crappy. I strung them together into a video anyway. When I get ahold of the high resolution videos I'll redo this one. For now, it looks best when you view it in "miniplayer" mode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrOlEqRnY_I

I stopped by the shop this afternoon and took some pictures. The bottom side is sprayed with a single stage greenish/gray paint that is supposed to look like the factory dip primer.




The color in the engine compartment isn't correct yet. The computer got it wrong. It's way too light. It looks more like B5 than QQ1. That's still being adjusted.


The undercoating is sprayed inside the trunk.

The rear end is done. It's a 741 case 8-3/4 that was narrowed slightly from A-body width.(it started life as a C-body unit) I'm drawing a blank on the actual width right now but it's as narrow as Dr Diff recommends. Any narrower and the outer U-bolts would land on the housing ends. The perches were moved in 1/2" per side as well. The center section components, axles, perch relocation parts and brake kit all came from Dr Diff.

I picked up the center section cheap at a swap meet. The cone sure grip in it was junk so I bought a new clutch style for it. The case was blasted and powder coated clear.






The brake lines are from Fine Lines. They made the lines to fit a Wilwood disc kit which I thought I was going to use years ago when I got the lines. With the Dr Diff kit, the lines can actually go all the way to the ends of the axle tubes. Since my lines were short, I had to route the hoses differently. I drilled and tapped holes in the axle tubes for the stand-off brackets. I used thread sealer on the bolts so I shouldn't have any leaks there.


I stripped the housing and filled the pits before spraying with Easwood's Extreme Chassis Black satin.




Installed a drain plug into the bottom of the housing.


The completed rear...

I've got some MP Oval track springs with 0 arch I'm going to use. I cleaned those up and re-sprayed them in a semi-gloss black. I like the look of factory paint markings so I couldn't resist soaking the original spring ends in EvapoRust to see if anything showed up. To my surprise, they did.




Then, while I was at it, I put paint marks on the new 1.03 torsion bars as well.

You mentioned filling the pits in the axle housing. What did you use?

I welded up the bigger pits and ground them back down. On the small ones I just used a Bondo brand product I found at the local Walmart. It goes on like spot putty but is designed to fill larger areas. It was a bit of an experiment because I'd never seen the stuff before. It went on nice and sanded nice. We will see how it holds up.