Finally , getting ready for the frame machine

I have no idea why some of my pics are always upside down ???

Looking good Tony!

How bad was the damage from that wheelstand Tony?

Hello , does this have front bars from roll cage ? Just wondering if it helped the damage control of your wheel stands . Gary

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theinner fenders are buckled right at the firewall. hard to get a pic because of the color of the car. The K frame seems to have taken the majority of the landing. WHen you open the doors, they are about 1/4" off (they drop )

THe cage stops at the A pillar. THere are no bars out to the front.

That's the reason i do not like wheel stands.

You'll get it fixed-up and working/looking right, no doubts here. Let's us know if you need any parts for the rebuild. If you are going to add bars into the engine compartment now, I'd run them Forward of the engine to aid additionally in protecting the engine in the event of a front impact.

I will put a lot pf pics of the process. AND im already cringing of adding any weight to this thing. With the tube K the car will finally be under 3000lbs and i can legally be 2975.....thanks for the offer of the parts

My son had to fix the same damage after Jbody tried to take flight in Irwindle a couple years ago. He did add snout bars, behind the inner fenders and had it on the frame machine to straightener her out again. Jay also needed a new K member built and got some wheelie bars too:)

I am sure yours like his will be good as new when you are done.

And …..

Special 7 at oil pan . Lots of ground clearance!

Ooofta , fixed the pics for you

Looks like it turned a 7 quart pan into a 5 quart.

Looking good man! Glad to see the ol girl getting fixed-up! Can't wait to see how it runs with the new powerplant man!

It was amazing that I had the car ready for MaTS that year…..

At least my wide pan only suffered minimal damage

Laser level don’t lie …. It pulled down 3/8 of an inch right factory specs . Both rails are exact
Same height
Next we see how the new K frame bolts in

Progress is looking good

Nice work! I love my lasers too.

At first the new K frame would bolt up . Only three bolts went in . Pulled the rails in about 3/16 pretty much where the motor plate was . I guess a two piece motor plate is not as strong as a one Piece and will allow that to happen . After that the K bolted right up

Man....this picture posting thing is not working for you is it?.......It's looking good tho Good with it.

I'll see if I can rotate those for you:

Getting there

Who's k frame

Tory Shellehamer and Hotchkiss upper arms. Im making my own shock mount

Looks like one of Tory Shellhammer's K Frame. I saw one of Josh King's Dart as well

I don’t know why these pics are flipped but …..it’s rolling again !

Good progress when it is a rolling chassis again.

Drop me a PM when you see yourself coming down to Cecil County. Since I'm actually starting to get to the track on occasion, I'd like to see your ride run again in its new config.

There's possibility my old car may be capable of being rolled by Sunday evening, too. It'll still look like a junkyard refugee, but it would be a step in the right direction. Slow progress, indeed...

Are you going to tie the motor plate into the snout bars? Though mine seems to be plenty sturdy I always wish I had, just to lazy.
Doug

Will do !

Yes running a 1.250 bar down to the frame behind the motor plate

Looks great. Thanks for the update!

Lowered the back so I can check the trans/pinion angles while mounting the engine /Midplate

Here. Thats hard on the roof, lol.

Looking great, Tony! It’s gonna run real good man!

Progress looks great. Love the ride height out back.

It can go lower, but right now the trans pan is 2.5" off the ground. Im in the process of removing the stock torsion bar crossmemeber. Then ill see how high i can get the trans into the stock tunnel. My cage is based on a "stock floorpan and firewall" so i cant cut out too much because im not adding a bunch of floor bars right now. I have the crank CL at 13.5 and thats with a 26" front tire. Again i can go lower but first im going to see what the trans pan ends up at....Right now its got a 3.5" pan on it, im thinking 2.25" pan. As far as engine oil pan....its going to be 5.5" deep.
Its getting there. Im getting the motorplate and midplate done, then im going to try and tackle these headers, not looking to cut up the firewall but.....its in the ay so..CHOP CHOP

CUt all the mild steel bars in the trunk area out, re mounting the shock crossmember into the trunk area, weight loss so far:
Trunk area 40lbs
Front suspension 65lbs
Steering column 20lbs
T bar crossmember 8lbs

Im going to weight the chromoly as it gets added back in the trunk, but the stock spare tire well (12lbs on its own) is not going back in

Looks like it'll be pretty stiff for a stock floor pan style car. It'll be nice to see it back out.
Doug

I know the Midplate mounting is overkill , but that’s what happens when you know w people that work in chassis shops and you ask questions lol . Well maybe it’s not overkill we will see . Thanks Doug

Trunk : took the mild steel out and replaced with chromoly , so far lost 25lbs to this point . Replacing the spare tire well with carbon fiber . Relocated shock crossmember to get a better installed ride height on the shock as well as lower the car . Pretty much looks better/stiffer and lighter . Fuel cell is getting reduced from a 5gal to a 1 gal and getting relocated to the front

It's coming along nicely Tony! I didn't see how/if you did do a mid-plate?

Midplate started out as generic mid plate from S And W , I made a pattern that fit the car and trimmed it down

The yellow tape was my pattern for 1” tube that tied into the frame rails and the dash bar in the car

It’s not fully welded because I have to take the engine out to get better access to weld . Plus the tubing will get 4-6 3/8 bolts to bolt the Midplate to it . Now this added about 12lbs …. But I removed the transmission/t bar mounts between the frame rails , that was 9lbs . So I gained a lot of rigidity for 3 lbs .

Very nice work . Well thought out

Getting carried away in the back here …. But the rear is way lower , made room for 15-16” ride height shocks , and lost about 25lbs

Looking good Tony !!!

Looking great, you are definitely not afraid to take the chopsaw to that beautiful Dart!

Unfortunately thats what it takes, and cutting out the spare tire well (12lbs) and the factory shock crossmember (8lbs) and replacing with much stronger and lighter chromoly is a NO brainer. Yes the car is clean as it was an old ladys car in 1979 when i got it. Just 6 years old and as she put it , i had never even been on the highway. She never really drove it over 30-40 mph..... Plus its just a 6cyl car so no shame in cutting it up for the sake of going faster !!

Looking good!!! It's turning out nice, well worth the effort!

Looks great! A build like this keeping the car still looking stock is no easy feat and very time consuming. Kinda like building a Ship in a Bottle!

Car is looking great looks like you are getting serious now. As FBS said it aint easy making a racecar and having it look like a "stocker".

Its come a long way ! I remember when it had the total " sleeper " look with the dog dish hubcaps and you still drove it on the street.

right side up

What length shocks are you changing to Tony?

15” ride height and 19” total extension. The current shock is 12.75 ride height and 16.5” total extension. The current shock was kind of a compromise what would fit under the stock floor and he somewhat low . Now we are going for the best shock package and making the room to fit it . The car can be way way lower now and fit a larger shock . Best of both worlds

Couple more diagonals

Excellent progress. I need to do that to my red car so keep the pics coming amigo.

Tony. Nice work man! It’s going to pay off.

Wes

Looking great.

I'm a firm believer of this stay at it.

That is coming along quite nicely! Looks good!

Time to really cut it



Pretty soon

Nice work!

Back on the ground

Looking good!

Nice!

+ +

Must be really hard to work on the car when it's upside down, too

maybe it's "down under" ? [i couldn't resist !]

I can't wait till thru fender exhaust go the way of a the bee hive hair do

They helped me win a round at the Valley, when I drove a buddies car with mufflers. I could here Compson chasing me, and knew exactly where he was...

Honestly i dont like them either....but its necessary to get the lengths short for this application. it was hard to cut that rust free virgin steel. (firewall and fenders) I have owned this car since 1979.
The best pro , there is massive room under the car and around the block, and its got some great ground clearance....

Plug clearance/access is unreal too

I KNOW.....

I like it

Looks good brother

That looks awesome. Love the wheels

Looks awesome Tony!!

Casey FJ

There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Doug

LOOKING GOOD!!!

Loving the ride height..Car is looking awesome.

Looking good Tony !!!

Thanks guys for all the compliments.

Finished header

You weld them up yourself?

My son has a tig welder , he has been doing all the welding

Very nice work guys!!!

beautiful welds !

Looks Good

Are you planning on running 8 02 sensors? Looks great!

Yes 02 in every primary tube plus one in each collector . 10 total

Very nice.
Doug

looks great

Thanks again for the compliments, the welding is a work in progress.
He is getting a lot of practice and honestly the “amateur “ looking welds are mostly my fault
Bad fitment/gaps and asking him to weld in upside down hard to get positions
We did backpurge the tubes and I am pretty happy that even the small gaps , the weld is very smooth on the inside

But hey for homemade stuff it’s coming out pretty good for me
I’m happy so far , and honestly I have saved a ton of money doing all this myself

Very nice work Tony.

Checking off more things , got rad support roughed out , mounting fuel cell

That's a pretty small cell...you tow to the water box and on the return road?

I'd almost bet the air is ballooned-out past the side enough that there is minimal or no drag from the bullhorns. Either way that's probably something I'll have in my future, if nothing else the cool guys are doing it!

Yes we tow up and back, sometimes drive back. Plus im only racing 1/8 mile

Got cha nice build.

Little more progress , dyno and picked up new engine . Sat it in for mock-up

right side up

Are you going over to Coil near Plug ignition Tony?

I ran coil on plug even with the carburetor. Yes still going to be COP . I was using a Holley dominator ECU for nitrous control and the ignition. Now it’s 100% EFI

Bad mofo!

Dyno results say …… yes it is
Can’t wait to see what it makes on the hose

I'm loving the progress updates. It was already badass before, and is even more badass now!!

Yes, exactly my thoughts. Tony, can you say what it dyno'd? Or what you think it'll make on spray? If not, I understand.

I have petitioned a weight break for mopar bb in ultra street for a couple years now . I have raced as much as asked to get the weight breaks I asked for . Now , a BB mopar nitrous combination can weigh 50lbs less than a Pontiac , and 300lbs less than a BB Chevy .
Now , that being said , let’s just say the field has been leveled !
The HP is GOOD and it will get 600? Of nitrous added
I will say I was surprised to see the hp keep going up from 7300 to 7800 as most B1 combos seem to stop making HP at 7300

Looking forward to seeing track results. Quality of the build is fantastic.
Doug

FWIW my last three B1 combos have made peak power well past 7300. Mylatest one peaks at 7800...But alot of Mopar guys just dont want to go there IMO

As Always bada$$ car and combo cant wait to see the end result.

Radiator and water pump mounted

I must be good …. Only took two licks of body filler (after epoxy primer )

The current version of Ultra Street rules have been released. A BB 588 Mopar can be 2925 with up to a .050 jet in a direct port or 2875 with a plate (unlimited jet) . So its looking pretty good to run a BB Mopar.....IF you dont like money...

Mopars to the front! That's interesting considering the NA 10.5 Pontiac gets to be 100 pounds less than a BBMopar. (hopefully that will be adjusted/corrected too) Regardless, I feel what you have lobbied for is fair!

Tony, would you post the rules here? I can't access them currently.