It's time to start a build thread on my next project. Like, the Challenger, it will be build over the coarse of a few years as money allows. I still haven't decided exactly what I want the finished product to look like. I know, that's not the right way to start out. The problem is that I like a lot of different styles. I like the stock look as well as the Pro Touring look. I keep going back and forth between these two looks.

Option 1. Stock looking engine, body colored steel wheels with dog dish hub caps and redline tires. I'd keep the GT body side mouldings as well as the DART letters on the quarters and the finish panel on the trunk lid. I'd return the interior to stock except for a volt meter conversion and a small tach on the front of the console.

Option 2. Newer aluminum master cylinder, aluminum intake and fabricated valve covers.(basically try to make the engine not look like a typical SBM) Large diameter wheels. Remove GT side mouldings, DART letters on the quarters and finish panel on the trunk. Interior close to stock except custom gauges in the dash and maybe an aftermarket shifter in the stock console. Rear disc brake kit.

OK, here's the car. It has a 318/904, PS, manual drum brakes, no sway bar, 7 1/4 rear, white bucket seat interior with center console.




I got a GTS hood with the deal. That will be going on the car no matter which option I decide to go with.


I found a complete disc brake front suspension on craigslist and bought it. I'll most likely do a BBP conversion with the Mustang rotors. I also have a C-body 8 3/4 rear that will be narrowed. I'm going to fit the widest tires on the back that I can. I'll move the springs in with the Dr Diff relocation kit and role the quarter lips if I have to. I don't want to do a mini tub although that would probably give me a nicer look.

The car is in a lot better shape then the Challenger was. The door bottoms look good. Check out the nice mask job.


The door panel cardboard is pretty nasty and the vinyl is torn. I did take some 0000 steel wool to the upper door panel trim and it looks like it will clean up really nice.


The metal is cracked around the door strikers which I guess is very common on A-bodies.


The upper dash pad will be replaced but the lower two pads look good. The interior of this car is the worst thing about it. It has some newer seat covers but the seat frames are very rusty. I hope they can be reused. The floor looked nasty too but I think it will be OK. The metal under the sill plates was perfect and once I vacuumed out the inside it didn't look as bad.




The trunk is in good shape too. The spare tire well is very solid. There is just some surface rust that will clean up. The picture makes it look worse then it is.


I haven't checked any of the engine stampings but there has been work done to it. The block, intake and valve covers are orange and the heads are turquoise. It really doesn't matter to me if it's original because a 360 will be going in its place.


A little power washing made things look a little better. The engine looks red in the picture but it looks more orange in person. Maybe the factory red fades to an orangish color?


There are labels on either side of the firewall with timing instructions, spark plug numbers, points gap exc...

The hydraulic lines for the top are split, so fluid was leaking under the back seats. It soaked into all the dirt and made a mess.


The interior is starting to come out.


The windshield was broken already so I just broke it even more and pushed it out. The original gasket is in good shape.


Dad came over and gave me a hand with the dash. The interior has been completely removed. I'll work on the heater box and steering column this winter. Then when I decide what I want to do with the gauges, I'll start working on the dash assembly. There's no point in removing all the side glass and tracks right now. I'd just have to find a place to store them. I'll disassemble everything in the doors before the bodywork starts.

That looks fun to play with.

Something thing to keep the mind busy, good for you.

Quote:

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Something thing to keep the mind busy, good for you.

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Exactly...I need something to focus on so life doesn't get overwhelming.

My friend Paul came over yesterday and helped me get the engine out. He's helped me a lot this year with everything that's been going on. He's never seen an engine removed this way so it was exciting for him.



I didn't have much time out in the garage today. Most everything is out of the engine compartment except for the brake lines. The grill came out today too.

Be very careful with the pot metal transition moldings near the quarter windows to the stainless pieces, those are almost impossible to find! There is a tab underneath the quarter window stainless that has a tendency to break. I sold one side this year for $125! Also, the door and quarter glass are unique to a convertible too.

I haven't started removing any of the trim. I'll make sure to be extra careful. If I'm not sure how something comes apart, I'll ask.

nice soild car ,good luck with it

I still haven't found any surprises. Everything is looking very clean. Here's a good pic of the rad blackout.

Very cool car. Makes me want to get my butt in gear on my GTS. You seem to be moving right along.

I think that is the most haphazard black out picture I've seen yet, thanks for posting.

I did a sedan pro street a few years ago that we painted viper silver then laid out the butt stripe. Took the viper silver put in couple drops of black then put two light dust coats on it. Then cleared the entire car. It just shows up but at times blends in that you can't see it. Customer loved it. I took a scrap piece of metal and colored it in viper silver then tried various ideas with tinting the actual color with blacks & various pearls. Gave them it and let them decide. Wish I had a picture on my phone I could up load. Maybe I'll try from wife's computer tomorrow. Just an idea for you.

I'm toying with the idea of taking the GTS tail stripe and moving it between the tail lights...inplace of the trim panel. A friend is going to photoshop it for me.

Still slowly taking it apart. I got the tail lights and bumper removed today. All I basically have to do yet is remove the rear end and convertible top.


The upper control arms came off today too. I figured the cam bolts would be rusted solid inside the uca bushings but they came right out. Then I test fit the disc brake suspension I bought. Everything bolted right up.

The Challenger is back from the bodyshop and now I have no where to work. Remind me why I bought another project when I have no room for what I already had. I can't work this way. The Challenger needs to find another home for the winter.


I started cleaning up the 11" backing plates that came with the 8 3/4 I got. They are heavily pitted from sitting on the ground for who knows how long. I don't feel comfortable useing them. The one on the right is decent except for the pitting on the bottom. That doesn't affect the function but it looks awful. The one on the left cleaned up nice on the outside but the inside is very bad. Some of the contact pads are almost completely corroded away.

Darren, You can store it at my place if you want...:) Just make sure to leave the keys in the ignition... You knew it was coming

Word has it that my aunt has a nice big shop that she isn't using. I may have to give her a call and see if I can store the Challenger there.

The headlight buckets cleaned up nicely. A 20 minute soak in EvapoRust and a light rub down with 0000 steel wool did the trick.

Any chance that car is from Northern California? I owned one exactly like it!

It was from Nevada. The story was that is sat under a lean-to for 20 years. I think that's a bit of a stretch but it is in really good shape.

Funny thing was I had a GTS hood bolted on mine as well, the car looked to be in nearly the same shape as well (back around 1989)

The inside of this car is just covered in a thick layer of surface rust. I cleaned up the bracketry under the dash tonight. It's pitted but you'll never see it. A few things need to get zinc plated so they will be set aside. The brake pedal needs to dry before I RPM the pivot end.

What's the original finish on the front parking light housings? Are they galvanised? They aren't' cleaning up very nice. They have a dark gray look to them. A few spots under the mounting flange are shiny. What should I do with these?

The insides are sprayed with a reflective paint. What should the back sides look like?

I have an old registration from the original owner. The car was from Nevada. I believe I'm the 4th owner. Jeff bought it from the guy who bought it from the original owner.

I just saw that Classic Industries sells new housings. It looks like theirs are zinc plated. Is it possible to remove the sockets without damaging them...and then reinstall them after the housings are replated? Probably not.

I've been cleaning up all the zinc plated fasteners, getting them ready for a replate. I think I've perfected my method. These are completely clean and will stay this way for at least a month without flash rusting.(probably longer, but I had the Challenger fasteners sitting inside for a month before I had a chance to get them to the plater)


I also cleaned up the throttle pedal assembly. The end of the rod was rubber dipped so I reapplied it.

I picked up the zinc fasteners yesterday and I'm not happy. When I picked them up, the guy said "These are going to have a little yellowish look to them because our solution is stronger. It resists a 100 hour salt spray vs the normal 40 hour spray."

When I got home, I remembered that I had gotten a call that morning confirming I wanted everything yellow zinc plated. I said NO, I want them silver zinc plated. They said "OK, no problem, I thought you wanted them yellow." I think everything was already in the other tank when he called. He probably pulled them out right way after talking to me but the color had already started to change.

Some things will be OK. I'm not going back stock with this thing anyway...but some things in the engine comp are going to look like crap next to other things I have planned. I sorted everything out today so I didn't forget where anything goes and I'll deal with the engine comp stuff later.

I don't think they were in the yellow tank long but you can really tell the difference when you hold a silver zinc part up to them.

Here are some more parts I've been working on...

I put together the kickdown linkage today. I'm going to try and make it work on a 4-barrel. If not, no big deal. I just threw the rods in with the rest of the fastners so it didn't cost me anything.






Parking light housings before EvapoRust soak.


After EvapoRust soak. The sockets looked really bad so I just hit them with the buffing wheel to polish them up a little.


shifter before


shifter after




DS fresh air door before






Even after spraying the door with multiple coats of high build primer and sanding it out, it still looked like crap. So...I sprayed it with wrinkle paint. I don't think it look bad at all.


E-brake mechanism before


The bracket on the right wasn't originally plated. I didn't have a way to easily install a new rivet so it got left together and was plated. I still need to get a different handle.

I bought some Wood Bleach to try. I was curious what it would do to aluminum so I did a test. I took some old spring spacers I had and put one in the Wood Bleach. I put about a tablespoon full in a half gallon of boiling water. This is after a three hour soak with only a few scrubbings with a tooth brush.


I thought I'd try it on the wiper pivots today.

Here are a few parts that showed up this week. It's just a prevew of what the engine will look like.

Here's the engine that's going in the Dart. As you can tell, it has been sitting for awhile. I think I pulled it out of my Cordoba in 06. It's a 360 MP short block(roller block)...the 10-1 compression version. It has home ported 360 heads with 1.88in 1.60ex valves. My Cordoba ran 12.70's with this engine. It's going to come apart for all new gaskets and to make sure everything still looks OK. It has very few miles on it so I hope it only needs gaskets.

The trans is a 904 that I built in 98. It has a 10" 3500 stall convertor and a TransGo TF-2 shift kit.

I started to mock up the new parts. I'm going to get everything fitting before I tear the engine apart. It looks like if I run a thermoquad, I'm going to have to make some kickdown linkage extensions and extend the throttle bracket. If I run a square bore carb, that will get rid the the adapter and lower things a little. There are already two valve cover gaskets on each side and covers are still very close to the intake. I think I'm going to look into those spacers I saw advertised on here. I don't want to grind on the valve covers or the intake.



The pulleys are an underdrive version. I plan on running relays under the battery tray for the headlights and make sure the cooling system is designed properly.

Looking good Darren. Evaporust is a wonderful thing.

I ran a 380 crate 360 with a 904 in my Dart convertible, it really scooted! The new owner finally put an 8-3/4 in it with 3.55 gears, I bet it was MUCH faster than the 274 geared 7-1/4!

Still working on small parts.

I got done rebuilding one of the horns yesterday. Only one of them worked when I tested them. I used Mike Ross' post on how to rebuild a Prestolite horn for reference. It was basically the same procedure rebuilding(just cleaning really)my Sparton horn.

First I drilled the heads off of all six rivets and separated the two halves.


Once they were apart I drilled and tapped the rivets for 8-32 allen head screws. This wasn't fun because the rivets wanted to spin inside the cone housing. I had to remove them and glue them in the housing.


I made two new gaskets from a Christmas box my wife had been saving....don't tell her. I used some C-clamps to hold the horn together while testing. Just like Mike said, all that was needed to get it working again was to sand the contacts.


Once it was screwed back together I tested it again just to make sure the center piece hadn't shifted. It still worked so it was ready for paint. Since I'm not going back stock with the car I didn't bother sanding on the allen screws to make them look more like rivets. I'm going to use allen head fasteners on the engine so it will all tie together.




This picture was taken right after I sprayed it. It dried slightly less glossy then what it looks like in this picture.


I also cleaned up the shifter pivot bracket that bolts to the trans. It cleaned up nicely.


I still have to buy a new bushing...the original was in two pieces.

I got the heater box done today. It didn't go too bad. It helped that I'd already done one before this. A good cleaning in the bath tub and a coat of semi-gloss clear got the box looking good again. I bought a new heater core since it was only $35 but of course it didn't fit well at all. It took some grinding and trimming to get it to work. The metal blower motor plate had a really bad rust spot on it. I put some filler on the bad spot and painted it black.

I've turned my attention to the dash assembly. A couple weeks ago I went over to my father-in-laws house and he machined me some switch bezel removal tools. A couple of them wouldn't budge by hand...they came loose right away with the correct tools.

I bought a dual speaker bracket and some 4" speakers to replace the rotten original one. It turned out nice. At the beginning of the year I plan on sending the original AM radio to BigMoneyLewis for an FM conversion.

Nice work Darren. Is that all before and after with evaporust? I have never used it.

Muriatic acid(pool cleaner) for the big stuff. EvapoRust for more delicate stuff and stuff that's not rusted as bad. The blower motor mount was soaked in EvapoRust.

I've been working on the gauges. I still need to get them calibrated and buy a sold state voltage limiter.

I was a little too aggressive when I removed one of the connectors from the printed circuit and damaged two of the pins. I read where I could fix them by inserting a paper clip as reinforcement so I thought I'd give it a try. I coated the inside of the pins with flux, inserted a paper clip through the pins and soldered them in. Then I cut off the excess paper clip from either end. I had to grind a little on the back side so the repair would clear the gauge cluster housing. It seemed to work and the pins are now solid.

The two pins on the right were loose.


You can see they are now filled with solder.


The car didn't come with an oil pressure gauge...just and idiot light. I wanted to add an oil pressure gauge but I don't like the look of extra gauges under the dash. I thought about adding one where the idiot light was but there wasn't enough room.(plus I like the idea of the idiot light)

I was going to bypass the AMP gauge anyway so I thought an oil pressure gauge would be more important than a volt gauge. I ended up buying a 2" SunPro electric oil pressure gauge and gutted it. I took the mechanism and mounted it in the gauge cluster housing in place of the AMP gauge. The + and sender terminals were the same distance apart as the factory AMP gauge. I had to drill a hole through the cluster housing and the printed circuit for the ground wire. Luckily there was a blank area in the printed circuit where I had to drill the hole.

The mechanism just barely clears the blue lense.




I removed the SunPro gauge face and used it as a template. I had to cut away some of the original gauge face so it would clear the new mechanism. I also cut off the AMP gauge needle and glued it onto the oil pressure gauge needle.


Here is what the back of the gauge looks like mounted in the cluster housing.



Next, I cleaned and repainted the inside of the cluster housing. I also made some new gaskets for the turn signal lenses and idiot light lense. Scrap foam from DMT gasket kits comes in handy for things like that.


I tried repainting the gauge faces but I didn't have any luck. My plan was to paint the faces white, then spray SEM trim black over it. Then I was going to wipe off the black from the raised areas with lacquer thinner. I stripped the faces and painted them with single stage Centari with a Prevail sprayer. After four days I sprayed them with trim black. Four days wasn't long enough because the white paint lifted as soon as I sprayed the pieces with the trim black.

I stripped the faces back down to bare metal and purchased a white overlay kit. I'm not sold on the white gauge look so this may just be temporary. Since the interior is white, there's a chance it may look OK.




I also bought an odometer reface kit. Originally I bought one for a standard dash E-body since they didn't offer one for the Dart. The size of the overlays was correct but the Dart's odometer spins in the opposite direction so the numbers were reversed. They sent me an E-body Rallye gauge kit as well as a B-body kit to try. The E-body Rallye gauge kit worked great.




Here's what the gauge cluster looks like now. I'm going to wait for final judgment until I can see what it looks like with the entire dash assembly together. I've seen a picture of the gauges at night and they look cool with the blue light on them. I'm just not sure about how they'll look in the daylight.

I think that'll look great. It works with the theme you've chosen for the car.

There is so much black on the dash it kind of looks out of place with white interior. Hopefully this will look at home. I've got all my switches boxed up and will be sending them off to JS Restorations today.

A few months ago I took a bunch of parts to the powder coater.(K-member, swaybar, bumper brackets, splash shields, trans x-member, seat frames) I got everything back from the powder coater a couple weeks ago. I took the seat frames, new foam and new seat covers to the upholstery shop. It will probably be late March or April before I get them back.

I sent in my dash switches to JS Restorations. Jim worked his magic and they all look great and work again. I just got done with the steering column so now it's time to turn my attention back to the dash assembly.

Here is what the steering column looked like when I started.












I soaked the outer column jacket, the lower steering shaft and inner tube in acid to clean them up. I'm converting the car to manual steering so I separated the inner and outer steering shafts and replace the lower one with a longer manual piece.


I used a $12 insert bearing on the bottom of the column instead of the $85 stock style bearing. I needed to grind 3/16" off the bottom of the inner tube and use the plastic housing from the original bearing to make it work. It took awhile to figure it out but it's going to be an improvement for sure.

This is what it looks like with the plastic housing now acting as a bushing for the inner tube. The actual bearing parts were removed from the original bearing and the locating tab was ground off so it would slide into the column farther.(it was also installed upside down) The plastic supports the bottom of the inner shaft......there is a step in the plastic for the spring to sit on.......and the spring puts upward pressure on the inner shaft to keep it from rattling around.


The turn signal switch was reused but the wiring connector was replaced. The mounting brackets were heavily pitted so they were sprayed with high build primer and sanded before being sprayed with gloss black. The upper column pieces as well as the column jacket were sprayed with Rustoleum fine texture. I installed a new coupler kit and painted the shaft gloss black.

Can you give more info on that lower column bearing?
What did you use on the parts after soaking in the muratic acid?

Here is a thread about the bearing on FABO. There is also one on CC.com
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/show...+column+bearing

After the rust is gone, the acid is neutralised with baking soda and water. The parts will flash rust imediately after being cleaned this way. I found that if I soak them in EvapoRust for maybe 5-10 minutes, they won't flash rust. I rinse off the EvapoRust and dry them with compressed air. They end up looking like the one picture I posted. After that, they were sprayed with SEM self etching primer.

Just a small update. There is a company called Illumin8s that sells a multi function LED parking light kit for Challenger, Cuda, Charger and some GM products. You may have seen this video before but here's how they work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nactAwM4Wtw

They didn't make a kit for the 68 Dart so I contacted them about making me one. I sent them one of my parking light housings and they designed a kit that they are now going to offer. Here is what it looks like installed in the housing. The LED just plugs into the existing socket...there is no modification to the stock wiring.


What I'm going to do is rewire the parking lights and hook them up to ignition "RUN" power. They will act as a daytime running light this way. Since I'm concerned they may be too bright at night,(they sit so high up on the grill)I'm also going to run the power wire through a toggle switch. I'll install a stock switch and bezel in place of the cigarette lighter. This way, I can turn them off at night.

Now I just have to come up with something for the tail lights. There is an LED kit available for the 69 Dart but nothing for the 68.

Very impressive work you are doing! I dont have the patience for all of this, I just make them go faster haha. Keep it up, i'll be watching.

Here's an update on the dash assembly...

There was a bad spot in the dash frame.


I separated the outer skin from the lower frame so I could clean out the rust that had formed in between. Then I cut out the bad section and made a repair piece.


I had the frame blasted. Weld through primer was used between the outer skin and the lower frame before it was welded back together.




I sprayed the frame with self etch primer, Rustoleum fine texture black and satin clear. It's just slightly more texture then it had originally. I wasn't happy with how the top looked. I thought the texture would hide some minor pitting but it didn't. I stripped the top back down to bare metal, applied a thin layer of filler and sanded it back down. It looks good now.


I sprayed the two lower pads with SEM Landau Black. If reproductions were available I would have replaced them. The vinyl is wavy in a few spots but there are no cracks. It will do for now. Having them redone will be a winter project down the road once the car is driveable. The upper pad is a new BE&A piece I bought from Dave at Roseville. It fit pretty good. There is a slight hump in the middle where it isn't sitting down against the frame. It should look fine in the car though.


All the switches were sent out to JS Restorations for a rebuild. The ash tray was hanging very low. I had to add some spacers between the dash frame and ash tray bracket to lift the tray up tight to the lower pad. The dual speaker bracket fit great and there is plenty of room between the speakers and the heater controls.


I cleaned up the dash harness and replaced a few wires and terminal ends that were chewed up by mice. The harness was really dirty but was in good shape otherwise. Right now I'm at a stopping point. I have to send the radio out for an FM conversion and I have to buy new dash bezels. I'll post more pics once it's completely done.

I've read that there is a lot of flex in a convertible. I want to stiffen things up, but I don't want to do anything that can't be reversed. I decided to add the fender to cowl braces found on the 74+ cars. Any time you can triangulate something, it should make it stronger. I'm going to have to make some mounting brackets for the pinch weld. The factory widened the pinch weld when these braces were installed.

I set them in place just to make sure they were going to work. I thought there might be some interference on the DS with the washer bottle. That wasn't the case though.

I love this build Darren!! You do fantastic work. That lower column bearing trick is really cool, I'm gonna do that on my Dart! Keep up the progress, I look forward to your updates.

Get the frame connectors or make some to stiffen the body. I had a 67 barracuda convertible that we stuffed a 440 into. Took it to the track and ended up breaking the case on the auto trans because of the body flex. Broke where the speedo cable goes in, all the way around.

I don't think I can bring myself to install the welded on connectors. I do plan on installing some bolt-on ones though. The K-member has also been completely welded and the steering box mounts gusseted. Of coarse it already has the torque boxes from the factory.

Last night I worked on a white overlay for the radio. A guy over on FABO sent me the layout file he made for his Barracuda. I modified it for the Dart. I had an extra piece of vinyl left over from the gauge overlays. I was able to get the vinyl fed through the printer but unfortunately the ink didn't dry and it wiped right off. Next is to try and find some adhesive backed photo paper...not sure if that even exists.

I started modifying the console to accept an aftermarket shifter. I've always liked the Pro Stick shifter but it doesn't lend itself easily to being used with a console. I've come up with a few different ideas but scrapped them. My latest idea should work but it requires removing a lot of material from the top plate. Modifying the original pitted top plate is easy...grinding on a brand new $350 part will be a little more stressfull.

Here's what I started with...a well used and pitted automatic top plate. I think that's a 20 year old piece of gum sitting there.



First I started by cutting off the center divider. I also removed quite a bit of material on the bottom side of the top plate. Then I cut a groove in the center recessed area for the reverse lockout lever. Once everything else is fitted, I will be making an extension for the reverse lockout lever. I made the first rough template for the shifter cover out of cardboard. (The rough notch in the side of the template is just temporary. It allows me to slide the template on and off the shifter easily. I'll have to remove the lever from the shift arm in order to slide the final piece onto the shifter.) So far so good. I think it will look good when it's done. I just hope I don't destroy a brand new top plate when it comes time to modify it.

Still working on the console.

I cut the factory bracket off the floor since the new shifter requires a much shorter bracket.


I used a steel plate and some wood to mock up where I needed the shifter to be. I ended up moving it about an 1/8" to the passengers side from where I originally intended to put it. With it slightly farther to the right side, I can bolt an extension onto the side of the reverse lockout lever. Otherwise I would have had to weld an extension onto the top of the existing lever.


With my measurements taken, I started building a template out of cardboard. My father-in-law calls that a CAD system.(cardboard aided design)


I reinforced the template so it would support the weight of the shifter and made sure the design was going to work. Then I started making the bracket out of 18 gauge sheet metal.


I cut the cardboard template apart and transferred it to the sheet metal. I bolted a 30" sheet metal brake to my work bench that my father-in-law had given me a few month prior. This was my first time using it but I think the bracket turned out nice. Once I have the final shifter position marked, I'll drill the holes and have nuts welded on the bottom side.

I wasn't happy with the way the gauge cluster turned out. The vinyl didn't stick to the raised numbers/letters very well. The worst looking piece was the large outer panel. I decided to redo all of the pieces using a matte vinyl instead of gloss. The matte material will hide any imperfections better.

I took the upper panel to my father-in-laws house and we machined off all the letters/numbers. I put a thin layer of filler over the area to cover the machining marks.


I sprayed it flat white.


Since I was installing the vinyl on a flat surface, I had the wording changed to reflect the change I made to the cluster. I had the "OIL" wording moved over to where the "ALT" wording originally was. Then I had "WARNING" placed above the idiot light.


Here are the gauges after replacing all the vinyl overlays. I also ground off the "D" and "C" from the alt gauge face. I had "0" and "100" put in their place for the oil pressure gauge. The graduations on the original face match the graduations on the aftermarket gauge face, so it should read accurately.

I also picked up the seats from the upholstery shop. If you remember, I decided to have them redone right away since they were so nasty. Now I can store them in the house until the rest of the car is done.

The car spent a lot of its life sitting with the top down. The seat frames were in bad shape and mice had eaten holes in foam.




I had the upholstery shop strip the seats down to the frames so I could have them powder coated. The bucket seat frames were pretty rusty. I had the powder coater fix the issues before he coated them.(the upholstery shop replaced one spring as well)


The rear frames were fine. They just needed to be blasted and coated.


The frames turned out nice. The weather was nasty when I got them back from the coaters so I don't have any good pics of the frames by themselves.








I still need to buy new seat back cardboard pieces, find two hinge covers and restore the seat tracks.

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?

The engine and trans have been sitting around. They used to be in a Cordoba I had. The Dart originally had a 318. That won't be going back in.

Yesterday my father-in-law and I built a K-member dolly. I used a small wooden cart to install the Challenger engine but it wasn't very stable. The engine wanted to tip side to side. I wanted something that would be solid that I could store an engine/suspension on long term. We started with a crude stand my dad and I had built years ago for the Challenger. The original stand didn't have any wheels on it and used the sway bar mount to attach the K. It did the job but I wanted something nicer this time around.

I used the outer frame mounting holes to attach the K to the dolly so it would be stable. The four arms that support the K are attached to the bottom of the main "T" so they can be unbolted and removed during installation. I didn't want to guess when making the trans support so I'll add that once the engine/trans are on the dolly.

There are better designs out there but this one didn't cost me anything and should do the job.

Last Thursday I went and had a look at the car. So far everything is going good. There aren't any real surprises. How do you like the 4x4 look?


The patch panels go a lot higher then I thought they would.




You can see the pin holes in the trunk drop offs. If the car hadn't sat around with the top down for 10+ years, I'm sure these wouldn't need replacing. Last I knew, they were just going to section in the lower part since everything else is real solid.




Here you can see the previous damage from possibly rubbing a guard rail. The old repair involved drilling a bunch of holes in the quarter panel, pulling out the dent and applying filler. You can see the filler oozing out of all the holes.(just above the initial cut line) The repair patch will cover a lot of this.


That's it for now. Hopefully they will get started on the floor patches this week.

HOw is the area under your sail panel for rust?? After your comment about trunk pinholes and if the top had been up got me thinking.

When I did my car ( in pic) after I had it blasted on a rotisserie and primered, a body man looked at my sail panel and told me to remove it. Got out my torch and removed the lead/spot welds.. I found alot of rust ( surface) issues.. I removed most of the body/convertible pieces under the sail panel, blasted and painted them, then reinstalled..

Just a thought

All that I saw was just light surface rust around where the convertible top attaches. I'll look over the area very closely next time I'm at the shop. Thanks for the heads up.

I don't think the filler panel to quarter seam has been stripped yet. There were no outward signs of rust there...no bubbles exc. The PS quarter was stripped the other day. You can really see the previously drilled holes.






So far, it doesn't look like there is any filler on the DS.

A lot of work has been done in the last three weeks. I bought trunk extensions, both front fenders and a hood at the Nat's. The truck was pretty full on the way back to the hotel.


We spent an hour in the parking lot on Sunday rearranging things so the 10 hour drive home would go smoother. We ended up taking the fenders out of their boxes and laying them flat in the bed. The hood sat on 2x4's above fenders. The top of the hood box was flush with the box sides. We got an extra 1.5mpg on the way home due to the better aerodynamics.

On the way home we dropped everything off at the body shop.


They got right to work on the car Monday morning. The lower trunk extensions had some pin holes but the upper section was still perfect. They replaced the bad lower sections but left the upper pieces intact.










They also welded patches in the rocker panel to quarter area.






One of the nuts in the end of the rocker that holds the splash shield in place pulled out during disassembly. That area was repaired.

The existing quarters were straightened and then the patches fitted and installed.

























The D A R T emblem holes were filled as well as all the holes from previous body work.




The doors were sanded down. Man...this car had a ruff life. The only straight panel on the car is the trunk lid.






The GT emblem holes were filled along with the rear trim panel holes. This car won't be cluttered up with a bunch of emblems.




I worked on the wiring harness tabs last weekend.


I burned off the existing rubber coating that was damaged during blasting and straightened out the tabs.


I put some heat shrink tubing over the ends before dipping them in Plasti-Dip.

I gave them the go ahead to get the seam sealer done, straighten out the doors and start the filler work.



























Once the car was back on my stands, the front end was test fitted. The DS fender needed a little persuasion with a block of wood and some hammer taps at the very front next to the hood. The body lines seemed to line up pretty good with the doors too. Some work will need to be done to get the door, fender and cowl to all line up better.


Some material will have to be added to the door to get the contour to match.


The AMD hoods have an extra line down the center that the stock hoods don't have.






Another Dart was in the shop for some mechanical work so they put the two cars side by side to compare the body lines.




Filler work started. Still a long way to go before it's straight.










The car came home last night. Now I need to test fit the engine/trans/suspension in the car so I can measure for wheels/tires. I also need to see how much hood clearance I have. I've got a cool idea for an air cleaner if I have enough room. Once that stuff is fitted(and once I save up some more money) the car will go back for paint.

I worked on a couple things a few days ago. I found a couple nice hinge covers at the Nats. I knew two of mine were completely junk. I thought I could reuse two of them. I was wrong. I still need to find two more.


I picked up some Pearl White interior paint from Herb's. I sprayed it on the new black covers but it didn't cover well at all. It just turned them silver. So, I sprayed them with SEM Super White first....then sprayed the pearl on them followed by a clear. The picture isn't very good but you can kind of see the difference. The pearl is on the left and the SEM paint is on the right.


I also cleaned up the brake distribution block.




After the first cleaning.


I tried getting the brass plug out of the bottom but it didn't want to budge. I ended up just flushing it out and making sure the internal valve still moved freely. After polishing the block with steel wool, I RPMed the bracket and lubed the inside with DOT5 brake fluid. I think it turned out nice.

Bummer it needed front fenders too. I didn't realize the originals were that bad.

The bottom of the fenders needed patches on both sides. The DS was tweaked from a minor accident. The patches themselves are $117 each. Fenders were only $432. With the labor to weld in the patches and to straighten out the dents, I think I probably saved some money this way. I'll see if I can sell the original fenders. Maybe someone that can do their own bodywork will have a use for them.

Great progress. Are you going to use the hood as is? Seems strange that AMD would do that.

I was talking to a guy at the Nats that mentioned that extra crease. The 69 that was in the shop had previous work so who knows what it was like originally. It didn't have a definite line down the center like the AMD hood but it wasn't completely flat either. Maybe some other people with original hoods will shed some more light on the subject. I think some of it can be hidden with bodywork but it won't completely go away.

The fenders also have a couple differences. The main one is that the inner brace that goes from the wheel lip to the inner structure is welded in place on the AMD fender. The factory braces are bolted on. I need to check tire clearance with this brace once I get to that point. The braces might have to be removed and modified.

I haven't posted anything in awhile but I'm still working on some things. I started working on the engine last month. I think I mentioned earlier that the short block is a MP piece I bought back in 2000. The short blocks were made from reconditioned non Magnum roller blocks. It's the 10 to 1 compression version. I believe there was also a 9 to 1 version. The engine has been sitting since 2004 or 2005.


I previously ran a Weiand X-cellerator single plane intake on the engine. Last fall I bought an Edelbrock RPM Air-Gap for it. I pulled the Weiand and started mocking up the intake and carb but ran into an issue. The secondaries on the carb would hit the intake. It looked like the intake was cast wrong. After talking with tech support a few times, they had me send the intake in for them to look at. They ended up sending me a new intake but by that time it was the middle of winter and I had moved on to other things.

Last month I moved the engine over to my place. I pulled the plastic off the engine and found a mouse next in the valley. The nest was made from grass clippings so I knew it hadn't been there long. It wasn't there last fall when I was test fitting the new intake. I vacuumed up the nest and put the engine on the stand. I pulled the heads, water pump and front cover.


I didn't want to spin the engine on the stand incase there was crap in the pan. I pulled the pan with the engine upright and removed the windage tray. Sure enough, there were some grass clippings and mouse foot prints on the tray. There wasn't much of anything in the pan though. I think I got lucky and caught it early.


Other then the nest, the engine looked really good inside. Everything still looked clean without any rust from sitting.






Then came the task of cleaning up the block. There were a couple layers of orange paint and layers of dirt, saw dust and oil to remove. What a nasty, crappy job that was. I think it took at least four cleanings to get everything off. Even after wearing gloves and goggles, some paint stripper would end up on my skin and start burning. I'm glad that job is over!






I installed the timing cover and put a new water pump on. Then I primed the everything. After that I moved on to the oil pan. The pan that was on the engine had seen better days. The sides were heavily pitted and would have taken a lot of work to refinish. A friend of mine had a 360 pan he wasn't using so he donated it to the cause. I saw and old Car Craft article on making a baffle for the stock oil pan. It didn't look too difficult so I thought I'd give it a try. I made a template out of card board and taped it onto the pan. I test fit it a few times onto the engine to make sure it cleared the pickup tube, then I transferred the template to a piece of metal.


I taped the metal baffle to the pan and test fit again. So far so good. I had clearance around the pickup tube and nothing was hitting.


I soaked the baffle in EvapoRust and then added some drain back slots.


Here is the baffle welded in place. It works really good on deceleration but doesn't seem to do much on acceleration. I could have gotten the clearances tighter to the pickup tube if I would have had a bare block to test fit it on. I would have been able to look down through an empty cylinder and see how close it came to hitting. The pan isn't installed yet so I guess I could still add some metal around the back if I found someone local with a bare block I could borrow.


That's all the progress I have on the engine right now. I need to take the heads in and have them looked at. They only have a few hundred miles on them but I did the valve job and guides when I was in school. I want someone to double check my work so I don't have any issues down the road. I also need to get the intake surface of the heads milled down a little so the intake sits a little lower on the engine. I could barely get the intake bolts started when I was test fitting things.

I've also been working on a bracket to mount a trans cooler in front of the radiator. I picked up a scrap piece of 1/8" aluminum and started cutting. I was surprised how nicely aluminum cuts on a table saw.


I bolted two vertical pieces to the rad support on either side of the hood latch bracket. After temporarily attaching the cooler, I tried to come up with an optimal location to mount the cooler bracket. I had planned on mounting it a lot lower but that wasn't going to work very well. The Dart has a tall bumper and no front valance. If I mounted the cooler towards the bottom of the opening, it wouldn't have received any air flow. The bumper would have blocked all of the air. I set the grill in place and decided to put the cooler up high so it would get direct air flow. The hood latch blocks a little bit of airflow but I didn't have much space to work with.




After I had the location figured out, I drilled three 1.25" holes through the bracket on either side of the cooler. These holes are so I didn't block air flow to the radiator.


I tried finding someone local who had some dimple dies so I could flare the holes. I wasn't able to find anyone though. I ended up buying a 1.25" dimple die and flared the holes myself.




I slightly polished the bracket with some steel wool and wadding cloth. I'm not sure what finish I want on it yet. I might polish it or I might paint it black. I think it turned out nice.


As far as hooking up the cooler lines, I didn't really want to drill extra holes through the rad support. Directly below the frame rails, there were some existing square holes I decided to use. I drilled out those holes a little larger and installed some 6AN bulkhead fittings. Now I can hook everything up with AN fittings for a clean look. Once I buy a radiator, I can work on hooking up the other side.


I also started making an aluminum gas pedal cover. I'm probably about half way done with that. Then I can start making a brake pedal cover.


About half done...

Nice work!

I don't know if anyone is following this or not but here's a small update. After waiting more than three months, the fasteners finally came back from the platers. I had then done at a local shop but the color turned out wrong. They came through with a yellow tint. I sent them to another place to get coated the correct silver color. This past week I dropped off the cylinder heads at the machine shop to be checked over. I'm also having some material removed from the intake surface of the head because I could barely get the intake bolts started. The intake needs to sit down a little bit lower.

Since the fasteners came back, I was able to mount the LCA/strut rods to the K-member. I also temporarily put the 2" drop spindles in place.




I got some work done on the aluminum pedal covers. I did some sanding on the gas pedal cover and mounted it to the original pedal to see what it would look like. Right now you can see the plastic gas pedal through the holes in the cover. I'm going to paint a thin piece of aluminum and put it between the pedal and the cover so it doesn't look cheap.

I also got the brake pedal cover made. I was able to put a curve in the aluminum so it matched the curve in the brake pedal arm. I think there needs to be some more grip on the pedal so my foot doesn't slide while applying the brakes. My plan is to put some 1/2" rubber pieces in the holes. The rubber will stick up maybe 1/8" from the surface of the cover. That should give me the grip I need and not change the look of the cover. I think they are turning out good so far. The best part is I only have a few dollars in the attaching screws. The rest was free.

If only I had half the skills and attention to detail as you have. Keep up the good work.

Thanks but...no real "skills" here. Just cleaning up components and bolting them back together. I've learned more by screwing up than anything else. When something goes wrong, fix it and try not to make the same mistake again.

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)

The engine is now back together as well. I had the heads looked at by a machine shop. The valve seats left a lot to be desired so they ground those and machined the top of the guides for positive valve seals.

I also had them machine the intake face of the heads. The heads have been worked on a couple times and the block has been decked. This added up to having intake fitment problems. Having the heads machined should have let the intake sit down lower on the engine. Previously, the holes in the intake were too high and it was hard getting the bolts started. After having the heads machined, the intake still didn't fit. To make a long story short, I tried two different Edelbrock intakes with the same result.(Air Gap and a Performer) I tried a Weiand X-Celerator and it fit perfectly. I ended up having my Air-Gap machined to fit the engine.

I bought a new set of rocker arms/shafts and reinstalled the cam block-off plate I had made years earlier.




Before I installed the intake, I bought a Pertronix distributor and checked to see how it fit. After reading multiple posts on this site, I made some changes. First of all, there was a lot of up and down movement in the dist shaft. I took the collar off the bottom and added another shim. This took most of the movement out but still left a little bit for thermal expansion.


Next, I looked at how the drive lug fit into the intermediate shaft slot. There was a LOT of slop between the two. I noticed some wear on the edges of the intermediate shaft slot so I bought a new one. The fit was slightly better but there was still way to much slop. With advice from this site, I peened the four corners of the dist drive lug with a punch. This expanded the metal and tightened up the fitment. Lastly, I installed a shaft collar onto the bottom of the dist shaft to keep the gear from "bouncing".


Then, I installed the intake manifold. At this point though, it had gotten cold so I couldn't paint the engine. I test fit my TTI headers and ran into a couple issues. The main issue is that my 360 came from a truck. The truck blocks must have an extra boss on the PS that the car blocks don't have. This extra boss interfered with the center header tubes. Some work with my angle grinder took care of the interference.




On Saturday, it was finally warm enough to paint the engine. On Sunday, I attached the trans and dropped the engine onto the K-member. I'm tired of seeing orange engines.(unless they are in stock restored cars) It's kind of like seeing a small block Chevy in every hot rod. I decided to go with a cast iron looking paint. I'm not 100% sure about it yet but I think it will look good in a blue engine compartment. The natural aluminum valve covers don't look the best IMO. A friend of mine photoshopped them black for me. I think they look a lot better black. I plan on running black accessores as well so it should all tie in together.






The trans cooler lines interfere with my aftermarket shifter bracket and the TTI headers. I think I'll need to make some custom cooler lines out of braided hose. Once I get the radiator fitted, I'll be installing the engine to test fit some things. I think the headers will be too low. If that's the case, TTI makes a shorty header that should give me more clearance.