1969 Dart Pro touring daily driver **Crashed**

[purplehazenils]

Progress is looking good.
The springclamps you made will make for an uncomfortable ride if you tighten them too much. The stock 'clamps' were designed to only get the leafs together and on top of each other.
I made my own from a few simple strips of iron which I cut to length and wrapped/folded around the leafspring and secured with a weld.

Thank you! Ok so they dont have to be particularly strong its just to hold things in place? I might actually do what you did, what thickness were the strips 2mm or 0.078in should do the job?

 

[BigBlockMopar]

1.5 or 2mm would be enough indeed.

 

[purplehazenils]

1.5 or 2mm would be enough indeed.

Great, thanks for the tip.

 

[purplehazenils]

I got the control arms finished off, just have to prime and paint them before installing the bushing, shell, pivot arm and bump stops permanently. I re-welded the plate that holds the bump stops and put two 3mm plates across the moving part to really remove all the play.

 

[Evan Dutch]

Looking good

 

[Pacoloco]

Nice work

 

[purplehazenils]

Unfortunately I dont have access to a tube bender so I had to make the J bars out of 3 pieces but it should still be strong enough. Like in the last photo Im going to build down from the tubes to the shock absorber to tie it all together.

 

[Evan Dutch]

Great work!!

 

[purplehazenils]

Great work!!

Thanks glad you think so.

 

[purplehazenils]

So the tires arrived today, they are Michelin pilot sport 4 size 235 45 17. Like I said I am going to get these installed on a pair of rims and make sure they fit up front before ordering the second set. Worst case scenario I will have to go down to a 225 for the front and run these 235 out back.
As you can see the tires are not particularly square which is good news for fitment on the front.

 

[purplehazenils]

Got them mounted, balanced and had valve stems installed today.

 

[Tadams]

You are making amazing progress. Keep up the good work

 

[purplehazenils]

I finally finished welding the k member after getting the new gas. Because of the big dents underneath I made a big skid plate in 3mm steel. Although some would be burnt off when welding I painted the inside of this plate section before putting it together.

 

[purplehazenils]

Got the J-bar mounting plates finished off today. Just have to build the part that ties in the shocks and sand down the filler before permanently welding them to the car.

Something I forgot to mention earlier is that the K-member actually sounds so much more solid when moving it around or putting in down on the floor after welding, you can actually hear the difference in its rigidity.

 

[purplehazenils]

I finally got the k-member and control arms finished off. I added some pictures of the parts primed because you can actually see where they are reinforced unlike the old photos. I sanded everything thoroughly, hand painted them with primer and then sprayed them with a strong black paint.
In the last photos you can see the pst greasable pivot shafts, the polygraphite lower control arm bushings and shells that Im installing.

 

[purplehazenils]

So the engine bay supports are mostly done now. I decided to tie the J-bars down to the outsides instead because it would be easier probably as effective. I have built down to where the shock supports (that run up the other side of the inner fender) end.
Since I have converted to an electric fan I had plenty of space in front of the engine. Instead stiffening up the front with a lower radiator support upgrade I just put a bar in the space as shown. I made it removable so it couldn't get in the way when taking the engine in and out.

 

[BigBlockMopar]

Nice progress.
You're also adding a lot of weight. Make sure you upgrade the Torsion bars to more manly sizes... ;)

As for the added crossbar, I'm not sure yet how you think it will help strengthening the frame rails if you keep it removable. Isnt' the crankpulley in about the same place as the bar?
I think a bit of creative work and an added homemade 'shell' over the existing lower radiator support would be more effective.

I would personally add a larger/thicker plate behind the support bars coming from the cowl.
It's only sheetmetal up there and won't do much in supporting the frame rails down below imo by itself.

As you can see on the white Duster Hotchkis project, they added a mounting plate with 'fingers' spreading out, making the area where the support bar are being welded, stronger.
Personally I would not use 'fingered' plates, but just a nice thick plate instead. I also would try to move the support bar mounting a bit more to the outside of the cowl box, where it will be more rigid near the corners.

 

[purplehazenils]

Nice progress.
You're also adding a lot of weight. Make sure you upgrade the Torsion bars to more manly sizes... ;)

As for the added crossbar, I'm not sure yet how you think it will help strengthening the frame rails if you keep it removable. Isnt' the crankpulley in about the same place as the bar?
I think a bit of creative work and an added homemade 'shell' over the existing lower radiator support would be more effective.

I would personally add a larger/thicker plate behind the support bars coming from the cowl.
It's only sheetmetal up there and won't do much in supporting the frame rails down below imo by itself.

As you can see on the white Duster Hotchkis project, they added a mounting plate with 'fingers' spreading out, making the area where the support bar are being welded, stronger.
Personally I would not use 'fingered' plates, but just a nice thick plate instead. I also would try to move the support bar mounting a bit more to the outside of the cowl box, where it will be more rigid near the corners.

Thanks! I will eventually go for larger torsion bars but for now I`ll just have to accept the penalty, its not thaat many kg`s after all.

As for the cross bar as you probably guessed its going to be bolted in. My thinking was that the lower radiator braces/bars people install are after all mostly just keeping the frame rails from moving closer and farther away from eachother, since the frame rails are actually pretty far apart I guessed that it couldnt help much when one or both frame rails move up or down independently of eachother since the distance is so big and the moment from the force would become very large. Please do chime in and correct me this was just how I looked at the problem.

The crankpulley should clear, I planned it while the engine was in and there was a surprising amount of space there, my radiator is not a thick as original.

Having the bars farther towards the corners would make them more effective, the reason I put them where they are is that a few years down the line I hope to have a mild 6 point cage installed which will tie on the the back of these.

 

[BigBlockMopar]

The lower radiator braces don't really keep the frame rails from widening or getting narrower, that job is taken care of the K-member. The lower support counters the frame rails from twisting and moving up & down in relation to each other, when engine torque and/or cornering forces caused from the wheel under load puts a lot of force to the suspension and frame rails.
Those forces cannot be controlled with a simple bolt-in bar mounted in between the frame rails.

 

[purplehazenils]

The lower radiator braces don't really keep the frame rails from widening or getting narrower, that job is taken care of the K-member. The lower support counters the frame rails from twisting and moving up & down in relation to each other, when engine torque and/or cornering forces caused from the wheel under load puts a lot of force to the suspension and frame rails.
Those forces cannot be controlled with a simple bolt-in bar mounted in between the frame rails.

Hmmm, yeah and this should be taken care of by the J-bars.. I was thinking that the bar might help in an angled non head on collision but again this would be marginal, I might just skip the bar, I assumed it was for keeping the frame rails in place side to side..

 

[replicaracer43]

Very nice work!

 

[bentdart47]

The plates behind your j bars that weld to the cowl need to be thicker steel and larger to better distribute load. I tired to use as much cowl surface as possible with mine.

 

[Darren]

Great work.. keep it up

 

[purplehazenils]

Thanks guys. So I thought about what was said and decided to make the J-bar support plates bigger despite what I said about the plan to install a cage in the future. Its probably worth it just for the next few years and even with a cage it could be good to distribute the loads to the cowl so thanks for the advice! The plan is just to weld the old plates on to the new ones so there is an extra thick area near the bar.
I started sanding the engine bay and patching some holes, I noticed a pretty big dent in the sheet metal near where the top of the shock mounts. Really have so idea how this could have happened, maybe during an engine removal/placement in the past?
I also painted the chrome section on one wheel with plasti dip (non permanent removable paint) just to see how it will look.

 

[purplehazenils]

The plates behind your j bars that weld to the cowl need to be thicker steel and larger to better distribute load. I tired to use as much cowl surface as possible with mine.

Looks awesome! What thickness is the steel on the cowl?