1965 Dodge Dart Charger

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Also ordered carpeting for my 87 D100 from another company and it too came in an Auto Custom Carpet box.

Best vendor I've found is stockinteriors.com . Highly recommended.

Thanks SSdan for jogging my memory. That's the vendor I used for the carpet for my 87 D100. Great service and they were quite a bit less than the other guys.
 
After seven hours the first quarter top moulding is ready. After polishing so much I started to wonder how shiny was the mouldings from factory??

I downgraded my work a little so it is not mirror shine.

What do you guys think? I don't know how shine it was back in the days!
 

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Looks good Ulf! The trim was shiney when new but not perfect, I will post up some pics of a NOS left rear trim moulding I had, I polished it up by hand and it looked great!

BTW, those little NOS moulding nuts I have are smaller than the 3/8 size you were asking about.
 
Here are the pics, it actually looked pretty shiney to me. :glasses7: I know some stainless trim looked good but not sure if they were over polished to a perfect mirror shine. I know this trim had some small flaws in it, but still looked awesome!
 

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Here are the pics, it actually looked pretty shiney to me. :glasses7: I know some stainless trim looked good but not sure if they were over polished to a perfect mirror shine. I know this trim had some small flaws in it, but still looked awesome!

Thanks Keith for bringing the pictures. It gives me an idea how the stainless steel mouldings were back in the days! I will give the last moulding some massage so it's get that factory look! Earlier in life I would never thought that I will argue with myself about the luster on the mouldings!!!!!!!
 
While polishing some mouldings tonight I found the kick-panels. They are in great shape but needs to be reproduces. BUT, look at the plastic moulding that goes on the front towards the door opening.It is sewn in place from the backside.

Question is, how did the make the stiches without going out on the front side through the plastic moulding???????

I even found the factory insulation taht goes behind the kick-panels. They are in such a great shape that I will reuse them is they are.
 

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My guess at how the process might've been done to arrive at a 1-side stitch like this: Plastic starts out as flat strip. It's overlapped onto the hardboard panel, sewed, then the plastic is heated and bent into a channel shape around the edge of the hardboard. Perhaps more clues will present themselves when the plastic is removed from the hardboard.

Reproductions here and here (and likely made by REM and available thru Dante's). Don't know if any of these repro sources would include the plastic channel, though; you'd likely have to remove it from the originals and transfer it to the new ones.
 
My guess at how the process might've been done to arrive at a 1-side stitch like this: Plastic starts out as flat strip. It's overlapped onto the hardboard panel, sewed, then the plastic is heated and bent into a channel shape around the edge of the hardboard. Perhaps more clues will present themselves when the plastic is removed from the hardboard.

Reproductions here and here (and likely made by REM and available thru Dante's). Don't know if any of these repro sources would include the plastic channel, though; you'd likely have to remove it from the originals and transfer it to the new ones.


Dan! Thanks for the input. It seems like the plastic flip was bent away while they were stiching the kick panel. These pictures is how it looked when I took it apart. It does not seems like it is some glue there!

Re the polish dept the upper left moulding is done. I started with the upper inner moulding around the rear window and after sanding it down I found two extremly small dents, one on each side. After some thoughts I started to figure out where it came from. I went and checked on my old Dart 270 that my buddy Johan bought and after a closer look those mouldings have the same small dents. My guess is that the stainless steel moulding was attached with a hammer made of plastic or hard rubber. Does it seems possible?
 

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Here is the valve off of my 65 convertible made in L.A. Ulf you know the date my car was made. Thought i would add the other valve cover also.

dglearns! Thanks for the input. This is what I found in the latest issue of the Mopars Collectors Guide. Frank Badalson which is a athority of Mopar muscle cars has found out that the big chrome nut was avialible on the hemi 67-69 and that mean that they were on the early 273 HP engines too! So if someone has this nut for sale I would be more then glad!
 

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Forgot to tell you Ulf but you have a package on it's way!!!! Shipped it a few days ago.
 
Forgot to tell you Ulf but you have a package on it's way!!!! Shipped it a few days ago.


Great Keith! I forgot about it!!!!!!!!.At least I found the factory clamps for the return hose!

Re the stainless steel mouldings the inner mouldings for the rear window is ready! It only took about 30 hours!

Now it's the upper outer mouldings around the rear window. There is a lot os stress in the corners. They need to be hand polished there. On the inside of the moulding is somekind of tape. Not sure what is's for but it's a little thicker than standard.
 

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Thank you so much bhwm1972. That was a great site. I will dig into that asap. I found some decals that I have bought from Ebay re battery warning decal and antifreeze decals. THis is what I came up with. All my cars have had their decals removed or just small pieces. I know where the antifreeze decal should be but I don't know where the battery decal should be.

Which of the decals is right? Any input is appriciated.

Today arrived my NOS candy canes that I bought from davescuda. Thanks my friend. Now I have a complete set for the frontincl the hood. Those candy canes isthe first in 25 years that I have found! The last set I bought is on the convertible.
 

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Battery warning tag: Yes.

Coolant decal: top or 2nd from top, not 3rd from top.

Thermostat temp decal: really bad "reproduction"! Uppercase letter O used instead of numeral 0, corners rounded instead of sharp.
 
Battery warning tag: Yes.

Coolant decal: top or 2nd from top, not 3rd from top.

Thermostat temp decal: really bad "reproduction"! Uppercase letter O used instead of numeral 0, corners rounded instead of sharp.

Does anyone have a copy of the thermostat temp decal? Ant where whould it be in the engine compartment? I have never ever seen it!
 
I started to measure the carpets. First out was the one that I bought from Legendary Auto Interiors. Great carpet in super nice condition. First look is that the insulation is wrong compare the factory carpet. The heelpad is slightly different compare to factory specs. Insulation is 3/8"thick compare to 1/2" on the factory carpet.

I will continue to measure the factory carpet this weekend.
 

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After some measuring of the assembly line carpet it is abvious that there are many errors compare to a replacement carpet.

The factory carpet was two pieces. The front and the rear carpet. They both had different part numbers.

The front carpet had four versions for 1965 Darts.

Bodyline L (Dart)

sedan, sta.wgn, conv.coupe Part#1764xxx

Bodyline H (Dart 270)

sedan, sta.wgn, 2 dr ht, conv.coupe Part#1770xxx

Bodyline P (Dart GT)

Auto trans w/console Part#1759xxx

Bucket seats, auto trans, w/o console Part#1766xxx

4-speed manual, floor shift Part#1760xxx

The rear carpet were different too;

Bodyline L (Dart)

sedan, 2 dr ht, conv.coupe Part#1707xxx

Bodyline H (Dart 270)

sedan, 2 dr ht Part#1707xxx

conv.coupe Part#1708xxx

Bodyline L+H (Dart + Dart 270)

wagon only Part#1709xxx

Bodyline P (Dart GT)

2 dr ht Part#1713xxx

conv.coupe Part#1714xxx

After the work was done there is several things that needs to be corrected for a new carpet. The way the carpet should be mounted is by mounting the accelerator pedal bracket to the floor. That will center the carpet so the carpet covered the whole firewall up to the firewall insulation. At the end of the carpet was the rear carpet. It went over the rear carpet with
about 1/2". The rear center of the front carpet has a sewn end because that was visible between the front bucket seats.

For my hardtop the rear carpet has small strings on each side of the carpet. That is to cover the area between the rear seat and the inside quarter panel.
On reproduction carpets there is no string at all!

I was lucky to find another Cragar S/S wheels on Ebay. It arrived yesterday and this means that I have two spare wheels!
 

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Keith! I'm so grateful for helping me out with the NOS power steering return hose. Those are super rare and very hard to find.

What I didn't know is that the return hose has a large yellow tracer! Never seen it before.

The hose is mounted to the power steering box. BUT, how was the routing to the pump????? Does anyone have a picture of how your untouched car has the hose?
 

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After some thoughts it was abvious how the assembly line workers mounted the return hose.

I checked on my convertible and on the stationwagon. The hose is not hooked up to the body. It's free and goes in a loop to the power steering pump. The loop goes outside the power steering pressure hose towards the body. That prevents the return hose to get in contact the fan.

The clamp that holds the return hose in place should have the ears towards the body. Otherwise no one could add it!

The return hose is the same as the hose between the breather cap and the air cleaner. It has the same grooves and the same diameter..
 

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Wow! Very cool project. Look forward to seeing how it turns out. Looks like you had the same amount of body work as my 64. I like seeing what you did under the rear fenders.
 
Wow! Very cool project. Look forward to seeing how it turns out. Looks like you had the same amount of body work as my 64. I like seeing what you did under the rear fenders.

Thanks! I checked out your thread. Great work on your car.

I found a picture on how it looked both in 1964 and 1965 re the routing of the hose.

Re the trunk mats. Does anyone know who were the supplier of the trunk mats? Was it the same in Hamtramck, St Louis and Los Angeles?
 

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