1969 dart rebuild !

[RogerRamRod]

Looks good, I wish I made such steady progress.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Got a deal on Legendary seat covers from a guy over on Moparts. Installed the rears today and waiting on seat buns for the front high back buckets.

 

[5.7 hemi]

The tail panel is redone, but it could use a new sticker, but at 75 bucks, I'll wait.

Also have the Borgenson power steering box on the way, can't wait for that.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Installed.

 

[Darren]

Very nice work.. what's your plans for the exterior, Is it a factory yellow car?

 

[5.7 hemi]

Haven't decided on a color. Factory color is the lighter green, F something.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Got the Borgenson power steering box installed and had the shim the drivers side engine mount up 3/4 inch. Might take the TTI headers out and put the hp manifolds back on at a later date.

The front seats got new foam bottoms and I built up the foam for the back rest. Getting all the wrinkles out is a pain in the ***, and there's still a few of them but I can live with them.

Last pic shows what I started with.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Been a while since my last post, so I'll catch everyone up to date. I took the car out for a spin and got on it after a down shift from 4th to 2nd and all of the sudden, metal screeching sound from the engine. I limp it home and park it cause my uncle is dropping off his 70' RR for a new trunk pan and drop offs to be installed. So that takes me some time to do as he doesn't want the paint on the quarters messed up....too badly.

Anyhow, I finally finish his car, and get to pulling the 383 out. Drained the oil, don't notice anything wrong with the color or metal shavings. Pull the pan, still nothing out of the ordinary, windage tray comes off and BINGO! All sorts of bearing material. It had spun the #1 and 2 rod bearings.

Now this is totally my fault as I forgot to set the record limiter on my cdi box, checked that and it's set at 9k! I'm pretty sure it didn't rev that high, but it got up there for sure.

So I pull the 400 block I have sitting in the corner, take it to the machine shop and get it back about 6 weeks later. It's now 470 cubic inches of hard hitting, snot knocking, Mopar power. Heres some pics....

 

[5.7 hemi]

The 470 is up and running with the Holley Terminator set up. Serpentine conversion is done. Now I’m working on a Dana 60.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Pinion angle set and perches welded on. Tomorrow the tubes get cut and new ends welded on.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Ends are tacked on. Will finish welding tomorrow as my buddy is coming over so the housing can be turned as it’s welded for one continuous weld.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Ends are welded on and everything remained straight.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Took me quite a while to set the gears up in this. They are the original Dana 60 gears, 3.73’s. Here’s what I ended up with........I’m calling it good. I’ve got .010 backlash, 25 inch pounds of rotational torque, which falls into spec.

 

[67redcudavert]

The welding on the housing looks nice. Are those still the original axle tubes?

 

[5.7 hemi]

Thanks! Yes, they are 3/8 thick so we got the cut offs and did some test runs for the heat range, once happy with how the weld penetration was, it was tacked then the ends were welded, heated the center up, tacked, welded then the ends got a second weld cause the chamfer was deep and wide. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.

 

[5.7 hemi]

The Dana 60 is in! Since I can’t use a pinion snubber cause there is no provision for it, I’m using these Assassin bars. Still have some tweaking to do, but for the most part it’s ready to rock.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Brake lines are done. The are stainless braided 3AN. Also made a hold down out of TIG rod, will make it out of stainless TIG rod now that I’m happy with it. Also got the drivers side Assassin traction bars installed.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Got the Assassin bars adjusted and put on the dog dishes. Went around the block a few times, still need some tuning on the Holley Terminator, got a buddy handling that.

 

[67Dart440GT]

Cool car and good job. Was neat to read from start to now.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Installed new gauge cluster which led me to modify the original dash.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Cooling issue has finally been fixed. I ended up with a 26” ECP radiator and Derale dual fans. Had to mount the radiator forward to get the clearance needed for the fans.

 

[5.7 hemi]

The Intellitronix gauge cluster was a POS! Sent back 3 times to be fixed and finally said I wanted a refund. So I got a Dakota Digital VHX gauge cluster. Had to cut the dash out, again, and redo it. It’s finished and looks pretty good but more importantly, it works correctly. I tested it before sheet metal began to fit it in the dash.

 

[Evan Dutch]

How to you like those electric cooling fans? Thought about getting the fans with the shroud for my truck.

 

[5.7 hemi]

They are damn nice! Derale makes some good fans, and their PWM (pulse width modulation) controller works very well with their new temp sensor that sticks on the bottom radiator tank. I’ve got zero complaints.

 

[Evan Dutch]

That’s great to hear! Do you recall what CFM they are? I think the whole assembly can be bought on summit for A few hundred bucks.