1964 Dart Owner - In Over My Head

Buying an old car is like a box of chocolates....you never know what you got until you bite into it.

1964 Mopar suspensions are inherently good designs and will handle reasonably well as long as the components are in good shape.

First order of business should be to check the front end components. 4 ball joints, 4 tie rod ends, 4 upper and 2 lower control arm bushings, shocks, idler arm, steering box tightness, etc. Do this before changing anything.

Didn't notice, but if you have manual steering the ratio is 24:1which means the effort is low but it's slow, meaning you have to crank the wheel more than you're used to to make a turn. Power steering ratio is 16:1.

If all the components check out it's easy to change the torsion bars to thicker ones effectively stiffening them up. Good gas shocks help out too. A front sway bar can be added to flatten it out in the turns.

Don't forget the rear suspension. Slightly stiffer springs and poly bushings in the rear spring shackles and good quality shocks tighten it up like Archie Drell.

Make sure the slanty is in good tune. There are lots of posts on this subject but bumping the timing to 10 degrees or so will make it seem peppier. The auto trans also sucks power.

Unless modified, a 64 Dart will not handle or drive like a modern econobox so sit back and enjoy the ride and the sound of the 2 watt AM radio.