1963 Dodge Dart 270 Convertible for the Wife

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Thought Saturday was going to kill us, bit off way to much to get done in a day.... Stripped the undercoating till the Harbor Freight heat gun died (amazing it lasted as long as it did with 3 cars running for hours at a time)...

Favorite tools to strip the under body.....

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Done with the wire brush and DA sander.

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Now Sandblasting... I hate doing this without quite the right setup.....

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Finally done after the gun was plugged after shooting the clear a few days ago. Not sure what I did not clean well but it fought me till the sun went down....


Remaining parts that will get Seymours Stainless Steel eventually

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And the under body from the rear seat back is wrapped in SPI Epoxy Primer for another 55 years of life. Need to strip the trunk and paint it then it is time to weld in the patch panels. This is the side where the Duster extension was grafted onto the original. You can see where things don't line up right and the drain hole is not in the original '63 position but it was easy to do and now there is solid metal. No-one will know it is there unless they crawl under to look. The other side has some swiss cheese but I blasted front and back and epoxy primered it. Should last forever as I won't drive it in the rain in purpose for as long as we own it.

Amazing how the spare well is almost spotless but the quarters went. Says a lot how the design of the body lines can make a big difference in places a car will rust.

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With each new restoration I hit the wall earlier and earlier.... It is a roller coaster of emotions restoring a car and I am on a low with the Dart.... I just want the body stripped and the patch panels welded in ready for epoxy. If we do another I am going to take the body to have someone else do this part. Or I need to have a real blasting booth and real blasting equipment.... Just need to get through this....
 
If I was closer and in my off time id come give you a hand. Just remember if you need to step back, do so. You can always take the Coronet out for a cruise to help with perspective.
 
Stephen Hotz said:
If I was closer and in my off time id come give you a hand. Just remember if you need to step back, do so. You can always take the Coronet out for a cruise to help with perspective.
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Yea there is just more metal work than I was anticipating for an Arizona car. These early A-Bodies where designed to rust no matter where they lived, horrible design as it like to trap mud in lots of places.
 
Jim your an inspiration to the rest of us that hit that wall on a more frequent basis. Keep up the great work, remember the Mrs.' **** eating grin will be twice as big when finished and there are only a handful of people left that can truly say "Built not bought"!!! This too shall pass.
 
Jim Kueneman said:
Yea there is just more metal work than I was anticipating for an Arizona car. These early A-Bodies where designed to rust no matter where they lived, horrible design as it like to trap mud in lots of places.
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Looking pretty good, just be thankful you didn't start like this pic. I pulled 22 lbs of newspaper and bondo out of the cowl area. the center grill was the only "metal" left in the cowl. and only the front core support and passengers side inner fender didn't need work..

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66Dvert said:
Looking pretty good, just be thankful you didn't start like this pic. I pulled 22 lbs of newspaper and bondo out of the cowl area. the center grill was the only "metal" left in the cowl. and only the front core support and passengers side inner fender didn't need work..

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Lord was that a Florida car?
 
Jim Kueneman said:
Lord was that a Florida car?
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It was going to be a parts car, Got it cheap with new black top and all the interior seat skins and door panels new on box $1500.00 worth of new parts cost me $800.00 . But some jackwipe just had to make a comment on the way home at the gas station about "the scrapyard is the other way about 15 miles back" pissed me off enough to make sure I fixed it. The car was in Miami under a palm tree for 4 years without a top. But it did drive and brake The frame rails and rockers were solid on it. I blew 2 trailer tires out 25 miles from home. The wife drove the truck after I got the car off it and moved one tire over to the other side so we could get it home and I drove the car (top frame was down too, hadda look cool ya know)..... just think about opening the fresh air vent on a car that hasn't moved in 4 years. then multiply it 20 or 30 times that when I got up to 55MPH the palm leaves started flying at me like ninja knives or throwing stars. I wore bandages for 3 weeks after that fiasco. the wife though I was having a seizure and stop to make sure I was okay, then had the gall to laugh all the way back to the truck AND home.
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Nothing accomplished this weekend either. Colorado and Utah dirt bike trip. Frank sent the restored dash parts yesterday. Can’t wait to see them.
 
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I got away..... to Utah and western Colorado. I needed that and about another 2 weeks of it!

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Chad Sperry hit it out of the park on the for the mid 60’s Mopar dark Turquoise in Automotive Arts Motobase I am loving this color. Hope the wife loves it. This is the color of my late dads 67 Belvedere, no question. This is a HARD color to find a code for. Chad had to go to the Automotive Arts rep to get this one. You can’t see the metal flake in the photo because it is 1am with halogen lights after returning from the Utah motorcycle trip.

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Its good to relax. I need to take my wife to see the aspens when the are changing.
 
Jim Kueneman said:
Chad Sperry hit it out of the park on the for the mid 60’s Mopar dark Turquoise in Automotive Arts Motobase I am loving this color. Hope the wife loves it. This is the color of my late dads 67 Belvedere, no question. This is a HARD color to find a code for. Chad had to go to the Automotive Arts rep to get this one. You can’t see the metal flake in the photo because it is 1am with halogen lights after returning from the Utah motorcycle trip.

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Chad's a great guy. I got my paint from him also.
 
Vacuum Orna-metal parts came today. All I can say is WOW.

They are to nice to touch. I’ll post some photos once we start assembly.
 
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Ok I had to mock it up. No one advertises decals for the faded gauges for a 63. That sucks.
 
That looks great! Did he redo the ribbed grey portion at bottom also or just the chrome?
 
63DropTop said:
That looks great! Did he redo the ribbed grey portion at bottom also or just the chrome?
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He completely restored everything. Even painted the raised letters on the heater control housing after chroming and painting the silver. He researches the best he can to make it original.

Almost want to send the daughters duster trim now.....
 
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