1963 Dart 170 2 Door Post Resto

[Mineallmine]

A little more progress. Still waiting on shrinking disc to show up to do the needed work on rear of roof before putting car back on its wheels so I decided to start on the inside of the car floor while it was still at a nice level to work on. got the heater box rebuilt and the replacement drivers vent box soaking in PB blaster to free up one stuck pivot. Flushed out the heater core (lots of muddy crap came out) until only clean water came out. Has really good flow so I'm happy with that.

Cleaned up the drivers floor down to bare metal to remove the surface rust in the front floor pan. Only found one tiny pin hole so I'm happy with that. Bad thing is after welding I will have to touch up the bottom of the car again. Not a big deal but didn't see that one coming. Primed floor with etching primer and once the entire floor is finished I can hit it with epoxy or hi-build and then a coat of paint. Not sure if I'm going to go body color or just a good sealing coat as it will be under the carpet and this is after all going to be a driver, not a show car. also looking at adding sound deadening so paint really will never be seen again. Just want a nice layer of corrosion protection. The body is nice and clean and want to keep it that way.

Next week I hope to get the body outside and use my wet sandblaster to tape off and blast the engine bay. Then a good cleaning and drying and a coat of etching primer to protect it from flash rust before I can get it painted.

 

[Mineallmine]

Got the engine bay wet sandblasted. Took only 15 minutes and less mess... Not no mess, just less...lol. Came out good and worked great. Only issue was the flash rust. Easily taken care of with a wire wheel then a good coat of etching primer. A coat of sealer primer tomorrow, then paint on Thursday. Finally decided on color. Going with the 2019 version of F8 green with a gunmetal and black interior with steelies painted body color. Should look good.

 

[Mineallmine]

Paint applied. Got a few runs that I'm not happy with but good enough for an engine bay. High humidity made the paint take longer to dry thus run easier. Not bad for a driver though.

 

[Demonracer]

Before you go with the body color steelies, try it with the rally wheels as a contrast to your green. I think you may be surprised how it looks, just my.02.

 

[Mineallmine]

So got some time in the shop again this week. Making some decent progress on the rear roof area. When car was brought up from Nevada by the previous owner they lost control of the car during off load and it rolled under the front of a transport trailer damaging the roof and breaking the back glass.

The owner was a body man and straightened out the roof a bit but it was still really wavy and had lots of oil canning going on. Not to mention the inner upper roof brace/rear glass structure was badly damaged and subsequently thrown out. The sail panel inner structure was also not too good but was sort of repaired and reinstalled.

From what I gather they couldn't find a proper donor for the brace or back glass so the car sat until he gave up on it entirely, which is where I came in.

I bought myself a shrinking disc and went to work on the rear roof. I found a 65 dart and cut the rear rook section out. Luckily the upper brace is the same as 63. The sail inner is different however, but had what I needed to make it work. I got the roof pretty close with no more oil canning and pretty smooth. Still have a bit of a high spot near the front of the primed section that I have to work on where the metal was pushed up when the roof was pushed forward. Should be able to get away with next to no filler when I am done.

I cut out the inner brace of the sail panel again and reworked it into much better shape matching the original and have begun grafting pieces of the window opening from the 65 part I cut into it. Had to reshape the curve due to the different size back glass but that wasn't too bad at all.

At this point I have the upper brace all cleaned up and spot welds removed to remove old roof material from the 65 and ready to install in the 63. Have one small piece of the grafting complete. Just have to cut off excess material from the remainder and graft it in as well.

Once this is all done and the back glass is confirmed for fitment I can finally get the car back on its wheels and focus on body/interior/paint. Sorry for the long winded post.

 

[Mineallmine]

More pictures. I'm not a professional by any means. This is the first time I have ever tried a shrinking disc. I really like the results. Same for the roof brace repair. I'm not an expert but enjoy metal work so I decided to give it a go.

 

[abdywgn]

WOW!

 

[Malex]

I absolutely love having this rotisserie. I can't imagine doing this job without one. I can just sit on the rolling stool my son got me for Christmas and clean away. No wear and tear on my back. Flipping car over was real easy too. A one man job... Once I remembered to loosen the lock bolts at the tubes on either end... lol .

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They make the job far easier and better. Careful if you happen to be working inside the trunk while being on the rotisserie and the lock bolts don't hold.. Been there and it goes around real fast...lol. After that I installed a safety chain going both ways.

 

[Scamp Rhonda]

More pictures. I'm not a professional by any means. This is the first time I have ever tried a shrinking disc. I really like the results. Same for the roof brace repair. I'm not an expert but enjoy metal work so I decided to give it a go.

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Nice pictures of some nice work. I too like metal working. I get a lot of satisfaction from it.

 

[Mineallmine]

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They make the job far easier and better. Careful if you happen to be working inside the trunk while being on the rotisserie and the lock bolts don't hold.. Been there and it goes around real fast...lol. After that I installed a safety chain going both ways.

If you see the picture of the back of my car you will note the ring with the holes in it. I have one on either end that positively locks the car in whatever position I put it in with a 1 inch pin. I wouldn't trust getting inside with only the bolt at either end keeping my heavy butt from flipping it while I'm inside...lol. I can imagine the surprise that gave you.

 

[Mineallmine]

Nice pictures of some nice work. I too like metal working. I get a lot of satisfaction from it.

Thanks. I find it very relaxing, at least when it isn't a rush that needs to be done...lol. I just take my time and before you know it a couple hours have passed. I'm getting better bit by bit, never expect to be a pro, but am proud of the progress I am making.

Got a little farther today. Got the curve grafted in and cleaned up. Only have a 5-6 inch section to add to make it complete. Could get away with what I have but don't want to stop halfway when I've made this much progress. Should make for a better finished product. Even if you will never see it.

Did another test fit and really happy with how everything is lining up. Still have to get the inner brace remnants out of the drivers side brace, but the upper lines up perfect so far. Looks like I'm on the home stretch with this part of the repair

 

[Malex]

If you see the picture of the back of my car you will note the ring with the holes in it. I have one on either end that positively locks the car in whatever position I put it in with a 1 inch pin. I wouldn't trust getting inside with only the bolt at either end keeping my heavy butt from flipping it while I'm inside...lol. I can imagine the surprise that gave you.

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I sprawled out like a cat over a pail of water, ended up staying in the trunk face down looking at the floor when it stopped. Tools flew everywhere.

 

[Mineallmine]

Finally got some time to get back at the Dart recently. Made some really good progress. Worked with the shrinking disc I go the last bulge out of the roof panel. Looking from the rear and side it has the correct lines again.

Got the pillar brace finished up and welded it and the upper brace back in and for the first time in many years the rear window of this car is whole again (minus glass of course but that will come after paint). Actually went in pretty good and now the lines look proper. Not bad if I do say so for not having a 63 to see in person to know the exact shape of the window opening. I had a 65 to confirm roof line to know what I needed to do but the rear window brace and opening were all guess work. Happy with the results

Also did a little more hammer and dolly work on the pillar to get it ready for body work. Looks pretty good but will need a skim coat over most I figure, but will be pretty thin, probably less than 1mm with the exception of the weld seam

 

[Mineallmine]

Got the body work started too. Did a number of very thin skim coats to shape the pillar as close as I could to original. Chrome fits real nice now and it's almost ready for primer. Maybe one more very thin skim coat of fiberglass to get it perfect. (using short strand fiberglass instead of bondo as it's stronger. A little more difficult to work with but worth the results).

I'm slow doing body work but it's coming back to me. Still have the "feel" for finding highs and lows though. A little too picky for my own good. The last car I did was a beetle and kept feeling what felt like ripples in the body work and finally said the heck with it and had it painted and couldn't see any when it was done...just picking up on minute imperfections that wouldn't show up in paint.

Also got my new muffler today. Found this on Amazon and took a chance on it. Seems to get good reviews. I wanted something a little louder than stock. I had to get reducers to match the original pipe as the smallest diameter inlet/outlet I could get was 2". I may be upgrading the exhaust later anyway. Muffler looks great and welds are super clean and it looks to be very well built and heavy duty. We will see how it sounds and holds up. Not bad for less than $60cdn.

 

[Mineallmine]

First coat of high build. Still needs a little fine tuning, but not bad for not having done body work in 6-7 years

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Geez, I need to get mine done. You are making me look like a slacker!

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Curious if you had access to the wet blaster why not blast the bottom with it on its side?

 

[Mineallmine]

Geez, I need to get mine done. You are making me look like a slacker!

I highly doubt my progress could ever make you look like a slacker...lol.

 

[Mineallmine]

Curious if you had access to the wet blaster why not blast the bottom with it on its side?

Never had a pressure washer strong enough at the time to run my wet blaster when I was working on the bottom. Mainly used it on engine compartment due to all the tight spaces I couldn't have gotten to otherwise. I had never used one before and was amazed with the results. Mind you next time it will be done entirely outside due to the mass amount of sand and water. Only downside of it was the flash rust as soon as it started drying, even after being blown off with compressed air and wiped (due to high humidity of blasting process). Cleaned off super easy though.

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Never had a pressure washer strong enough at the time to run my wet blaster when I was working on the bottom. Mainly used it on engine compartment due to all the tight spaces I couldn't have gotten to otherwise. I had never used one before and was amazed with the results. Mind you next time it will be done entirely outside due to the mass amount of sand and water. Only downside of it was the flash rust as soon as it started drying, even after being blown off with compressed air and wiped (due to high humidity of blasting process). Cleaned off super easy though.

Would you mind showing us your setup for wet blasting?

 

[Mineallmine]

Would you mind showing us your setup for wet blasting?

Sure. It's just a blasting attachment that replaces the tip on the basting wand. I used a 3100psi pressure washer with a 7hp motor. It says it needs to be higher GPM but mine worked great with 2.3GPM. You just install the tip in place of the wand tip and run the hose to a bucket of media and away you go. It comes with the metal feed tube as well. Just have to make sure you keep the bucket as far away as you can to keep from getting the media wet and clogging tube. I had any issues. Just had to keep moving the tube around a bit as it uses media fairly quick. I just had my wife move the tube around as I worked and she topped up the bucket as we went. Went pretty quick and smooth.

here's a link to the one I used. Got it on sale for pretty cheap. Amazon sells them as well. Different name but looks to be identical setup

Pressure Washer Abrasive Blasting Kit | Princess Auto

I'll try to get a picture later.

Attached is a photo of the pressure washer I used

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Sure. It's just a blasting attachment that replaces the tip on the basting wand. I used a 3100psi pressure washer with a 7hp motor. It says it needs to be higher GPM but mine worked great with 2.3GPM. You just install the tip in place of the wand tip and run the hose to a bucket of media and away you go. It comes with the metal feed tube as well. Just have to make sure you keep the bucket as far away as you can to keep from getting the media wet and clogging tube. I had any issues. Just had to keep moving the tube around a bit as it uses media fairly quick. I just had my wife move the tube around as I worked and she topped up the bucket as we went. Went pretty quick and smooth.

here's a link to the one I used. Got it on sale for pretty cheap. Amazon sells them as well. Different name but looks to be identical setup

Pressure Washer Abrasive Blasting Kit | Princess Auto

I'll try to get a picture later.

Attached is a photo of the pressure washer I used

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cool I would have never thought that would work well but I guess I never thought the cheap HF dry blasters would work as well as they do.

 

[Mineallmine]

cool I would have never thought that would work well but I guess I never thought the cheap HF dry blasters would work as well as they do.

I was skeptical as well, but got the blaster attachment cheap on sale and pressure washer given to me by a buddy, just needed new pump. Pressure washer is obviously good all the way around but kept my setup cheap. Was super impressed with how easily it removed the paint with much less back in my face. Just got wet when I hit a corner and it sprayed right back on me. Only went through a couple bags of media and about 15 minutes work. If I had prepped a little better I probably could have caught a large portion of the media to dry out and reuse.

 

[Mineallmine]

No new progress to report as I'm taking a few days to get a shed built for the wife. It's a win win as she gets her shed, I get a bunch of garden/yard tools out of my garage to make more room to work. Had the garage door open as it was such a nice evening and couldn't help but take this shot of the back of the car. Super happy with how the roof lines look. If you saw this car when I brought it home you wouldn't believe it was the same car...especially since I am far from an expert at this. There's a small bow to the C pillar on the passenger side that isn't on the drivers side but it isn't apparent unless you are looking from side to side to see any difference so I am fine with it. Its going to be a driver anyway. Once it's painted and the trim is installed I don't think it will show anyway. I am just too critical of my own work is all.

 

[Mineallmine]

Finally got some time to get back at the car this weekend. I got the passenger side rear quarter sanded as well as the door. Pulled the tail lights and the upper rear quarter chrome and door handle, along with the side body stainless. used my stud gun to pull a couple larger dents in the lower corners and one smaller one in the rear quarter as well as smaller ones around the rear wheel well. Looks like previous owner drove by braille. There was a line on both sides where they side swiped something, not bad but enough to notice. Hoping if the week goes well I can get the passenger side finished and ready for sealer an high build by the weekend, but time will tell.