So after many years it’s finally time to resurrect this project and give an update on what has happened.
In 2018 after putting the car back together it chronically overheated, I tried everything and eventually gave up and let it sit.
In 2020 a friend of a family members friend was given the car to try and solve the problem. The guy was apparently a mechanical genius and “could fix anything”. He removed the engine, pressurized the block, found a blockage in a coolant channel and a crack which was welded, and so the overheating issue was seemingly solved.
I collected the car and drove it home but it came back with the following issues:
-sticky throttle (details to follow)
-severely drained transmission oil, nothing on dip stick
-brake booster moved out with spacers so much that brake power was reduced
-cooling fan moved back from radiator reducing its effectiveness
-engine leaking considerably more oil than before
Apart from the sticky throttle I noticed the other issues on the way home but I figured the main problem was solved and the rest I could fix myself.
The following day was when disaster struck, I had filled the transmission and was test driving.
In an elongated roundabout I gave the car a full throttle blip to see how the throttle response was and the throttle stuck at full. I slammed on the brakes (didn’t help much) and immediately had to swerve to miss a car further ahead, to do this I took a tour over two very high curbs before finally coming to a stop.
It all happened in a couple of seconds so there was no time to reach down and turn the ignition off and just like that every single thing and more done in this build thread was destroyed completely. At the time the car was insured in my dads name with third party insurance, this means there was no money paid out to repair the car. The silver lining was that thankfully nobody was hurt.
I went forth and back about selling the car for a long time but finally decided that if I let it go, I would probably regret it a lot, it is my first car after all.
So, the time as come to fix it, I have been out of collage for four years now meaning I have a more flexible budget hence the change of title from:
1969 Dart budget Pro touring-Daily driver
to
1969 Dart Pro touring daily driver **Crashed**
As for the result of the crash I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, more to follow.
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