Brian's 67 dart

The first thing I discovered was impatience and a lack of forethought creates many future problems.

I had had the idea that I would like to build another Dart for some time. Nothing concrete or urgent, just something I would like to do “someday”. I wasn’t looking for a new project but one sorta fell in my lap. A V8 67 Dart GT with no rust on the main body offered at a decent price was proffered by the Snap-on tool man that comes by our shop. I started asking some questions and found out that it was a rolling chassis that had been a project car that someone else had started and lost interest in. Bobby had bought it to do himself but had recently discovered a 68 340 survivor for a price that was too good to pass up. He assured me of two things if I bought the 67: 1. All the parts were there and useable, 2. He knew where a 340 was that he could get for a song. (Lesson 1: all the parts are NEVER there. Lesson 2: Don’t believe anything about any rare part unless and until you have it in your hands.)

I went and looked at it at night (Lesson 3: Night time is not the right time to look at anything.) It looked good and a quick survey in my mind accounted for all the main body parts and the stacks of other parts looked impressive. The bolts and attaching pieces were in plastic baggies and labeled, most of the main subassemblies were not disassembled – just removed from the car (the dash, doors, etc.), and the other subassemblies were boxed together with their pieces in one place. (Lesson 4: Don’t let yourself be rushed and take a very detailed inventory when you can see everything clearly).

We agreed on a price and Bobby promised to deliver everything but the engine and transmission (which was at a different location) to my house the following evening after work. True to his word, he arrived with a helper at my house about dusk the next day. The three of us had the car and parts quickly unloaded and Bobby, his helper and trailer were soon gone – leaving me and my new treasure alone in my yard. (Lesson 5: Only accept delivery in the daytime when you have plenty of time to supervise the unloading of each piece yourself).

I went to bed that Friday night with visions of Chevy-eating Darts on my mind. I had a hard time getting to sleep, like a kid at Christmas. The 5 lessons that this night would teach me were yet to be manifested -- the coming morning would begin the revelation that being overeager sows poor seeds.