1973 Dodge Dart Custom

So a couple months ago (2/22/2016) I bought a 1973 Dodge Dart Custom, 318/904, Power Steering, Power Disc Brakes, AC (Still factory charged, no joke) and drove it home quite a distance all for $800. The catch, no title, but later acquired a perfectly clean title through the DMV which was seriously cool.

This is my 8th A body I've acquired in my crazy Mopar time. Currently own this '73 Dart, 2x '65 Barracudas, a '66 Barracuda, and a '01 Ram Sport 1500 (5.9L) 4x4 truck.

So the story, saw it on a ad, texted the guy, went to check it out, instantly wanted it, so only talked him down $200, these 2 young guys said some people moved into a house down the street and the previous owner apparently just abandoned it, so they bought it for $600 from the new home owners, did some work to it, said the starter was falling out so they "fixed" that (Oh that was hilarious the type of bolt, spring, nut configuration they used to barely attach the starter) believe they changed the oil, looks fairly clean, and made quite a mess of random stuff on the inside.

When I bought it, took it 1 block away from their home to fill it up at a local gas station, went through the gears on the auto-column shifter and it hung up between 1st & drive, couldn't even get it to move past drive to get it into neutral, reverse, or park. Called them, said they were literally walking there, showed up in 2 min, he got under and said there was a wire hanging up in the shift linkage, so he pushed something and I heard a rod pop, then I could throw it in park again.

There was a starter & ignition bypass switch, don't believe the ignition bypass to be hooked up, but he said to push that button on the bottom of the dash to get it to start with the key in the run position/ign and it would go. I just naturally cranked at the ign switch and it cranked no problem, thinking to myself at that point that maybe someone put that bypass starter switch in cause they didn't know how to fix a neutral safety switch - That wasn't the case. Reason I ran it threw the gears in the first place was, if you were in P-Park, you were actually in reverse, then if you shifted it over in the N-neutral position, it was actually in Drive - everything was 1 off, so no trans P-park. Anyway, I carefully & cautiously drove it back as I followed my buddy who was driving his Dodge ram in front of me, all the way home.

Noticed the transmission was acting strange, I could be starting off in 1st naturally in Drive, go to 2nd no problem, but the transition between 2nd and 3rd, it felt like it (slipped?) went into neural for 1/2 - 1 second and then went into 3rd. Later on I added more ATF+4 fluid thinking it might help, but nope, believe to have the kickdown adjusted correctly cause it downshifts just fine when I floor it. Before I added fluid, the color on the stick was a very very light pink, and smelt really nasty. So that's one of my main issues at this point, can still drive it, probably ruing the trans though, probably have to pull it and do an overhaul, have no experience with working on the insides of 904's, took a valve body off once to replace a shift shaft seal - that's about it, so this seems like it's gonna be more work than that.

Anyways, so far what I've done to it is, pulled the starter bypass switch out, did some rewiring to the starter, actually replaced the old stock starter and threw a mini starter in (was actually surprised how fast the stock starter cranked) and threw the proper starter bolts on. Assessed the shifter problem, initially the red neck starter bolt held up the shifter linkage past neutral. So... Had taken the rod out that has a length adjustment block & set screw that goes to the shaft selector on the trans, and to the other linkage to the column shifter. That adjuster was so rusted on, had to use WD-40, smacking it back and forth forever till it finally broke free and could slide it all over the shaft no problem, had to move the adjuster to the end of the shaft so Park, would be Park, and wouldn't have to use the E-brake anymore...

Added power steering fluid since there was little to none in the reservoir when I got it, no leaks. Put a correct air cleaner in it instead of the tiny little air cleaner they had in there that literally didn't filter anything cause it was so small. Replaced the old ballast resistor, cleaned cap n' rotor up, pulled side molding off - de-granny-fying it. Changed the brake fluid in the reservoir so it's clear n' clean now. Cleaned the interior up & got rid of a lot of stuff in the trunk, lot of random stuff. Replaced the throttle return springs with some that actually do something, same for kickdown rod. Adjusted idle, played with mixture screws a little, found out the wipers don't move, gotta replace the grommet that holds the rods onto the wiper motor under the dash.

Found out the driveshaft is possibly bent cause it really moves like it's out of round, like, bad, even at a very low speed. Passenger floor pan is shot, driver's getting there, front bench seat needs to be redone. Still gotta get a new set of tires.. Gotta figure out why temp gauge doesn't work, removed front bumper bumpers, don't think I'll be getting the rears off anytime soon. Gotta cut out the aftermarket trailer hitch. Waxed the back end of the car for fun, dramatic results. Gotta get some paint made to shoot over the ugly black someone decided to never finish.

Main intentions with getting this Mopar is/was to fix it up, make it look nice, drive nice, then sell it to help pay off the rest of my car loan.

So that's pretty much the '73 Dart, here's a little video on my YouTube channel of it:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU7E417e83k"]1973 Dodge Dart Custom - YouTube[/ame]