1969 Dart Street/Strip (Re)Build

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As I said im obviously a little biased to the 69 Dart... yours is just mean.. Excellent job dude
 

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clinteg said:
I just wish it had the quality body work that was put into yours
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I think your being overly critical of yours my friend (although I believe we all do that, as I could point out about 10 things right off the bat that are wrong with the bodywork on my Dart) but yours looks nice and straight... Keep us posted on your track times this season...
 
Here's the only interior pictures I have taken so far. These were with my phone so not the greatest.



 
mopowers said:
How often do you listen to your stereo?
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So far, only to test. The car is still somewhat of a newborn to me so I'm still nervous driving it. I'd like to be able to listen to every little thing, get to know the car up and down, until I get more miles on her and get more comfortable with the car before I start blaring the stereo while cruising. I may not use it that much, but I'd rather have it and not need it than the other way around. Some probably think it's retarded to have a stereo in this type of build, but I built it to not only take out to the track, but to drive around town as well.
 
I don't think it's ridiculous? I've got an Alpine head unit, dedicated iPod, big amp, small sub and six speakers in my stroker Dart. But I'm like you, I always have it turned down cause I'm listening to the engine or just the wind rushing by my window.

At cruise nights, with the trunk open, that's when it's time to rock! Especially if the DJ at the show is stuck on his American Graffiti and Good Morning Vietnam CDs. I seriously don't want to hear that music all night long. Last weekend we listened to the baseball game on my buddy's stereo.
 
I don't think it's ridiculous either Brian. Sometimes people just raise an eyebrow because they think it's strictly a drag car.
 
clinteg said:
I don't think it's ridiculous either Brian. Sometimes people just raise an eyebrow because they think it's strictly a drag car.
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Its your car. A build of this caliber is an extension of who you are. Make it your vision and be proud! You did one hell of a job and anyone would be proud to call that car there own.
 
younggun2.0 said:
Its your car. A build of this caliber is an extension of who you are. Make it your vision and be proud! You did one hell of a job and anyone would be proud to call that car there own.
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Thanks younggun. Means a lot coming from someone like yourself.
 
Found a better place for the throttle cable to be placed so that I can get full throttle. As I was tightening the Lokar bolt, it never really got tight and all of a sudden the bolt sheared clean in two. So now I have no throttle. At this point, I don't expect things to go any other way except like this. I have another one ordered and on the way to hopefully be here by weekend.
 
clinteg said:
Found a better place for the throttle cable to be placed so that I can get full throttle. As I was tightening the Lokar bolt, it never really got tight and all of a sudden the bolt sheared clean in two. So now I have no throttle. At this point, I don't expect things to go any other way except like this. I have another one ordered and on the way to hopefully be here by weekend.
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Sounds like you have luck like mine... I remember 2 years back I went to put my new superstock springs in.. I bought new shackles from summit..(mine were the originals, bushings were hosed, and the bolts I new would break trying to come apart.. and they did) anyways, put the drivers side spring in without incident.. passenger side was just about done, went to tighten the shackle bolts, one tightened up fine, the other, just as it was starting to get tight, the head snapped off.. It was nowhere near torqued to where it was supposed to be... oh was I pissed.. Summit got an earful, and I had to wait another day for the replacement to arrive.. lol
 
Update for the day, got the center chunk out of the car to take in to the shop and get those whining gears taken care of. Hopefully they get it right this time.

Since I seemed to be having launching issues at the track, I was really curious to know what was going on with the suspension. What I had observed from the videos is that the front tires started to lift about an inch off the ground, but as soon as they did, the rear tires started spinning, the front dropped, and the 60' was killed. I didn't know if the tires were getting unloaded, if I had too much squat or anti-squat built in, too stiff of springs, etc. So I took some measurements last night, tried to get as best of a guess as to where the camshaft was located vertically to get the anti-squat line and here's what I came up with. I modeled it in CATIA to get a better visual to show what's going on.

This is how the car is currently set up. I thought that I had the top bars angled downward when I first set this up, but they aren't now. They are horizontal with the ground whereas the bottom bars are angled upward. Opposite of what I had intended. I wanted the bottom bars horizontal and the top bars angled downward. So anyhow, the current setup yields less than optimal results with the instance center about 220 inches forward from the rear, twice the wheelbase length! It's way out there, way off the anti-squat line.



Now if I raise the bottom bars to the next position up in the relocation boxes, I can get close to the anti-squat line (somewhere around 2 inches above the line) and the instance center is toward the front of the car. This could possibly be a good setup and will be the easiest change to make, but may tend to make the car want to wheelie more than if I had the instance center back further.



This is the more optimal setup. With the lower bars in the current position, I can get right on the anti-squat line IF I angle the top bars down 5 degrees from where they are now. This will get the instance center back a little further as well. The bad part about this is that the top bars are NOT adjustable. I will have to cut the mount for the top bars completely out, relocate, and weld it back into place. This is where a fully adjustable 4 link would come in handy.



So for now, I'm kinda hosed on getting an optimal instance center. I'm going to try moving the lower bars up and see how that goes. If that doesn't get it, it may be tear down time again.
 
FYI, I changed the one on my 67 Dart when I had it..... All of the rod end brackets had 5 adjustment holes in them. More adjustment. You could do the same by drilling some holes in all of your brackets. and doing an over lay on your spring boxes for the lowers to add more holes there. As far as the upper bar at the shock tower...... I would have to put some thought into that one.
 
clinteg said:
Since I seemed to be having launching issues at the track, I was really curious to know what was going on with the suspension. What I had observed from the videos is that the front tires started to lift about an inch off the ground, but as soon as they did, the rear tires started spinning, the front dropped, and the 60' was killed.
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Might want to head over to the Race tech board on Moparts. This is not a new issue. Do some digging over there. Sounds like you might be reaching a travel limit. I have read a post in the last few months on that board about this exact issue. I do not remember off the top of my head the resolution. I actually think it had to do with reaching a travel limit on the front too quickly, don't remember all the details right now. I could do some digging, but better that you do and maybe post question or even video over there. Pretty knowledgeable and helpful group in the Race / Engine Tech section.

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/forums/21/1/unlawfls-race-engine-tech.html
 
Over the past couple weeks I've taken the third member out to get the gears adjusted so that they do not whine. When I got them fixed by the shop and put back in, they STILL whined. I think this is just something I'm going to have to live with. Drew some straight lines on my axles so I can keep an eye on twisting. I also adjusted the lower bars up to change the instant center. It should be just behind the rear wheel as shown in previous post. With the bar adjustment and 3 people in the car, it hooked very well. Did the 4th engine oil change it's had with only 220 miles on the odometer! My M-I-L was in town and I took her and my wife for a ride before she left town (her first ride in it). It was quite comical to watch them both when I was on it. My wife says it's hard to breathe and for some reason has to close one eye so she doesn't get sick. She also found my roll bar with her head! Will have to get some foam for that. My M-I-L said it felt like everything was coming at her really fast and she wanted to get as far away from the dash as possible so she stuck her foot up on the dash as I'm in the throttle! I didn't even know she was doing it until I watched the video later. That was not the reaction I was expecting! It cracks me up when I watch it.

[ame]https://youtu.be/zqRytr0zcdw[/ame]
 
That vid was great! Great production. You must be a film editor and grease monkey!
 
Man that thing must be fun wish someone came up to you at a red light that would of been fun to see.
 
bvt69dart said:
That is what I call an "a-body mothers day"!!!
Thanks for posting this video!
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She very much enjoyed it! It was the fastest she said she'd ever gone in a car.

subcom said:
That vid was great! Great production. You must be a film editor and grease monkey!
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Thanks! It actually only took a few hours to get this video together. With the new editing program that I have, I'm starting to learn better and understand so it doesn't take quite as long as it used to to make a video. I also built a whole new computer to run the editing software faster than my old computer. It's hooked up to my HD TV so I have a 52" "monitor" for it :cheers:. You can't have a slouch of a computer to edit videos, especially when you're dealing with 1080 or 4K videos. The only problem with my hobbies is juggling them. Between the car, editing videos, brewing beer, and whatever little stuff I like to get into, it's sometimes hard to juggle it all! Unfortunately my brewing time has suffered greatly. I usually have something new on tap at the house but not so much over the last year or two. Home brews have been pretty sparse! I hope to change that soon.

limegreen70 said:
Man that thing must be fun wish someone came up to you at a red light that would of been fun to see.
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I know right?! It almost never happens when I have the car out. Always when I'm in my truck or something else. I had a new Camaro pull up behind me this morning on the way to work. He never came around me so I guess he didn't want to play lol.

famous bob said:
great video ! you coming back to Tulsa this yr. ?
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Yep I'm sure I'll be coming back this year at some point, if not at least make it to Mopars at the Park.
 
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