''I'm going to fix it up someday'' The resurrection of a '74 Dart Sport......
That is the first thing that I noticed. The whole driver's side of the car took the worst; the other side was much better.
I was wondering if the orientation of the car to the elements had something to do with it.
Perhaps the left rear caught the brunt of the northern plains climate? The other side was sheltered from the storms or had a southeastern exposure.
I wanted to ask about the input shaft on the transmission. Was the 360 crank drilled for it?
How was this handled if it was not?
And the flywheel, did you have to rebalance it?
I run 215 70r 15 tires and have no trouble with clearances on my Dart Sports.
If you are going to drive this car, why not keep the tall gears?
Better fuel economy and doing over 100 mph sounds reasonable to me.
I think there should be some type of award for what you have done with this car.
Thank you for the compliment.
To answer your questions, here goes.
-The rust on the driver's side i can attribute to a car that was driven in the winter with a lot of highway miles that had a lot of salt wash from other vehicles and not a lot of washing the car off to get the salt off the side coupled with rock chips to let the rust take off. It also had some bad body work on the rear of the quarter which didn't help matters.
-The 360 crank was factory drilled for the input shaft bushing, all i had to do was install a new one. It was very easy.
-The flywheel was a factory 360 one, the balance ''balancing holes''were already in it.
The engine runs well with no vibration, so i guess it's right.
-As for the gears, i would prefer a street car that has a compromise between street and highway. I plan to run a 255 60 15 on this car with a factory 15X7 rallye wheel with a b-body 8 3/4 rear end with the spring perches moved in to the factory location. I have a friend with the same set up and the tires are more centered in the wheel wells and the tire size suits the look i am trying to achieve.
The gears will be probably 3:55s.
The 2:71s coupled with the 235 70 15s are hard to drive on in the city. You really have to slip the clutch to get it going off the lights.
I'll do 90% of my driving in the city!
100 mph on the highway is cool too, but the cops don't like that! :D
-As for an award, i really think that the real reward to me is actually driving the car after the big sleep, but thank you anyway! :burnout: