1969 Dart Street/Strip (Re)Build
Here's an update of what's been going on recently. After getting the car up and getting a real good look at what I had to work on, things looked worse than I had hoped. The headers hit the frame on the driver's side, the steering arm bolt hits the passenger side and almost wore a hole through a header, and the passenger side torsion bar was also hitting. The plan is to slightly notch the frame on the drivers side. Since I will be installing a frame repair kit from rust techinicians there and will only make things worse. I may have to bend the header right there as well. Other areas I'll just dent the headers for clearance. That should get rid of some of the rattling I would hear at times.
Here you can see the beautiful "patina" of the old drums, etc. It looks pretty bad, especially on the passenger side UCA aft mount. It is literally SHOT. I don't know how I am going to fix that just yet. It's just beyond bad and I'm lucky that I didn't lose the UCA at some point. It was completely unsafe to drive. One problem I ran in to taking the wheels off was the driver's side lug nuts. I got 4 of them off but the last one just wouldn't budge! Turns out there were 4 LH threads and 1 RH thread. I'm lucky I didn't twist the stud inside the hub. The UCA bolts for the most part were easy to get out EXCEPT the driver's side aft bolt. That sucker was seized really bad. I used PB blaster, acetone/trans fluid mix, soaked for over a week, tried prying a screw driver in between the bolt washer and mount, 3 lb hammer, an air hammer, a rivet gun that was more powerful than the air hammer, I even tried welding the bushing sleeve to the UCA and turning the bolt, but nothing worked. The bolt would turn 360 degrees, but the bushing sleeve was seized to the bolt. So I borrowed a sawzall and cut the bolt and cut the UCA as well to get an angle grinder in there. Due to all the bad welding, i couldn't quite get it out all the way out so the angle grinder was used to free up so room. Then it was on to the torsion bars. Apparently the driver's side was not installed with any grease or it dried out. That sucker was siezed up in the LCA too. I tried soaking it was PB and the acetone mix but it did nothing. I did not have a torsion bar removal tool so I grabbed the handlebar mount off my bicycle and it was a very good fit! I hammered on that sucker with a 3 lb dead blow and also hit it with the rivet gun over and over and over. You know if something don't move with a rivet gun, IT AIN'T MOVING! I said to hell with it and cut the thing in half. The fwd portion is still stuck in the LCA to this day. I've been soaking and soaking it and have yet to get the bar out. :banghead: I'm not sure it could have gone any worse.
I lifted the car with the hoist and removed all the jacks and stands and slid the mover's dolly under the k member which worked perfectly. It sat right under the K member and the trans bell housing at each end. I got everything unhooked from the engine and trans, and then went to remove the K member bolts. Wow, those were tough to get out. My buddy and I traded off loosening them. We used a 25" breaker bar and they turned HARD until the very end, every one of them. That dang near exhausted both of us. You better believe we had a beer in hand after that! With the rear axle on a set of jack stands as high as they would go, we lifted the car until the engine would clear out the side of the car which was pretty darn high. The car pivoted on the rear jack stands as planned and the hoist rolled back and forth on it's own when the car was raised and lowered to account for the change in height. I was worried about pulling the car off the rear stands but it worked perfectly. This method was very easy to do. I read that it was from several members on here from several posts. I could have done this by myself with no problem. I don't know how it is going out the top, but I thought this was a good way to go considering there was very little chance of scratching up the paint in the engine bay and it could be done without help.
Here's where the flex plate bolt contacted the starter plate at some point.
Popped off the valve covers for hoisting the engine and things looked pretty good at first. Nothing bad, but the valve lash was ridiculous. I didn't measure but the rockers were definitely loosey goosey. Then I noticed that some of the pushrods were actually striking the head at full lift! The head looked to have been clearanced but not enough. You could see the metal was slightly knurled up at the edges from the pushrods. Not really a good thing. Then found that one of the bolt holes in the block for a tranny bolt was completely stripped out. A heli-coil should take car of that. Hopefully I won't get any more big surprises.
Then I made up a little make-shift engine cradle to haul the motor off to the engine shop. Wasn't pretty but it worked nicely. It will probably be mid January before I found out how bad the motor is hurt.
And here is the motor sitting in the shop waiting to be pulled apart.
For now, I'll be trying to repair the frame, UCA mount, sand blasting/refinishing parts, probably re-wiring the car, converting the front to BBP, so I have quite a bit left on the plate to do yet.
Here's an update of what's been going on recently. After getting the car up and getting a real good look at what I had to work on, things looked worse than I had hoped. The headers hit the frame on the driver's side, the steering arm bolt hits the passenger side and almost wore a hole through a header, and the passenger side torsion bar was also hitting. The plan is to slightly notch the frame on the drivers side. Since I will be installing a frame repair kit from rust techinicians there and will only make things worse. I may have to bend the header right there as well. Other areas I'll just dent the headers for clearance. That should get rid of some of the rattling I would hear at times.
Here you can see the beautiful "patina" of the old drums, etc. It looks pretty bad, especially on the passenger side UCA aft mount. It is literally SHOT. I don't know how I am going to fix that just yet. It's just beyond bad and I'm lucky that I didn't lose the UCA at some point. It was completely unsafe to drive. One problem I ran in to taking the wheels off was the driver's side lug nuts. I got 4 of them off but the last one just wouldn't budge! Turns out there were 4 LH threads and 1 RH thread. I'm lucky I didn't twist the stud inside the hub. The UCA bolts for the most part were easy to get out EXCEPT the driver's side aft bolt. That sucker was seized really bad. I used PB blaster, acetone/trans fluid mix, soaked for over a week, tried prying a screw driver in between the bolt washer and mount, 3 lb hammer, an air hammer, a rivet gun that was more powerful than the air hammer, I even tried welding the bushing sleeve to the UCA and turning the bolt, but nothing worked. The bolt would turn 360 degrees, but the bushing sleeve was seized to the bolt. So I borrowed a sawzall and cut the bolt and cut the UCA as well to get an angle grinder in there. Due to all the bad welding, i couldn't quite get it out all the way out so the angle grinder was used to free up so room. Then it was on to the torsion bars. Apparently the driver's side was not installed with any grease or it dried out. That sucker was siezed up in the LCA too. I tried soaking it was PB and the acetone mix but it did nothing. I did not have a torsion bar removal tool so I grabbed the handlebar mount off my bicycle and it was a very good fit! I hammered on that sucker with a 3 lb dead blow and also hit it with the rivet gun over and over and over. You know if something don't move with a rivet gun, IT AIN'T MOVING! I said to hell with it and cut the thing in half. The fwd portion is still stuck in the LCA to this day. I've been soaking and soaking it and have yet to get the bar out. :banghead: I'm not sure it could have gone any worse.
I lifted the car with the hoist and removed all the jacks and stands and slid the mover's dolly under the k member which worked perfectly. It sat right under the K member and the trans bell housing at each end. I got everything unhooked from the engine and trans, and then went to remove the K member bolts. Wow, those were tough to get out. My buddy and I traded off loosening them. We used a 25" breaker bar and they turned HARD until the very end, every one of them. That dang near exhausted both of us. You better believe we had a beer in hand after that! With the rear axle on a set of jack stands as high as they would go, we lifted the car until the engine would clear out the side of the car which was pretty darn high. The car pivoted on the rear jack stands as planned and the hoist rolled back and forth on it's own when the car was raised and lowered to account for the change in height. I was worried about pulling the car off the rear stands but it worked perfectly. This method was very easy to do. I read that it was from several members on here from several posts. I could have done this by myself with no problem. I don't know how it is going out the top, but I thought this was a good way to go considering there was very little chance of scratching up the paint in the engine bay and it could be done without help.
Here's where the flex plate bolt contacted the starter plate at some point.
Popped off the valve covers for hoisting the engine and things looked pretty good at first. Nothing bad, but the valve lash was ridiculous. I didn't measure but the rockers were definitely loosey goosey. Then I noticed that some of the pushrods were actually striking the head at full lift! The head looked to have been clearanced but not enough. You could see the metal was slightly knurled up at the edges from the pushrods. Not really a good thing. Then found that one of the bolt holes in the block for a tranny bolt was completely stripped out. A heli-coil should take car of that. Hopefully I won't get any more big surprises.
Then I made up a little make-shift engine cradle to haul the motor off to the engine shop. Wasn't pretty but it worked nicely. It will probably be mid January before I found out how bad the motor is hurt.
And here is the motor sitting in the shop waiting to be pulled apart.
For now, I'll be trying to repair the frame, UCA mount, sand blasting/refinishing parts, probably re-wiring the car, converting the front to BBP, so I have quite a bit left on the plate to do yet.
