1969 Dart Street/Strip (Re)Build

Over the last couple months, I keep chipping away every now and then for a little more progress. So far I've had to repair one torsion bar mount with reinforcement plates, had to reinforce the frame where the UCA mounts are. The passenger side was defintely the worst. I had to cut the top of the frame completely out and rebuild it, added reinforcement plates, etc. I bought a Competition Engineering anti-roll bar kit and just got that installed last week. I'll add some pictures for proof later!

Update on the engine. After getting it apart, everything looked good except the rings. He said the rings were shot. I don't know how or why, but they were. Also he checked the CR and it was not 15:1 as I was told (which I am very glad of). Turned out to be 13.9:1. Only thing I can figure is that the guy who originally calculated it did not account for the -6cc valve reliefs in the pistons. Take that out of the equation and it puts the motor right at 15:1. The motor has been torque plate honed and I'm awaiting the results to see if new pistons will be required or not. If not, we'll see how much we can mill off of them to get the CR even lower. If we could get down to 12-12.5:1, I'd be happy with that. We'll see. Also decided to go with a solid roller setup instead of the flat tappet. Should be able to squeeze some more power out of this sucker with the new cam and E85. If it doesn't make over 600hp, I'll be disappointed. Maybe I am dreaming. We'll find out sooner or later though.

The next order of business is wiring. Since I've had so many problems with the dash lights going on and off, dome light staying on sometimes, tail lights never working right, charging system overcharges, I've decided to pull it and start over. And since I don't like the factory gauge cluster, I'll be fabricating a new one. And in this new dash, a full set of Speed Hut gauges will be going in that I ordered. The speedo is a 4" 160 MPH GPS unit that will read out 0-60 time, 1/4 mile time, direction, elevation, time, speed, peak MPH, etc along with turn signal and high beam indicators. Tach is an 8K unit with built in shift light. Also got the rest of the small gauges in 2-5/8" for the water temp, oil pressure, fuel level, fuel pressure, and voltage. All of which have settable warning lights built in to them. They were not cheap but do have a lifetime warranty and will look really nice and will be functional for street and strip driving. The other big plus is that they will be much easier to wire in to the new harness than the old dash would have been. More to come later!