1973 Dart Sport

[mguner]

For some reason the later model K frames seem to have an issue just like yours. I've had several 74 & up A bodies that had the lower control arm shaft sleeve either wallowed out or shoved up through the top. Like your dad said no biggie but it helps to have the torsion bar and k frame installed to get correct alignment.

 

[Deceus]

Looks great. What product did you use to refinish the rear seat?

Duplicolor vinyl and fabric, Semi-Gloss black. It did turn out pretty good I think. Time will tell if it lasts, hit with their prep spray and adhesion promoter before applying any coats.

For some reason the later model K frames seem to have an issue just like yours. I've had several 74 & up A bodies that had the lower control arm shaft sleeve either wallowed out or shoved up through the top. Like your dad said no biggie but it helps to have the torsion bar and k frame installed to get correct alignment.

Oops didn't think of that throwing off alignment. Hopefully we luck out or I might just pull the trigger on a tubular one.

 

[Abodybomber]

It works well, sold a ton of Dupli Color... The touch up paints suck, the detail /wheel /engine stuff,kicks ***. Sold it ,for a decade plus....

 

[Deceus]

Had a mildly productive weekend on the car considering I only had a day and a half on it. Got rained out on Saturday. Got the block from the shop on Friday. Had to buy new rods as the ones from the block looked like they came from whatever was laying around and were junk.

Got got the old valve covers and oil pan cleaned, the steering column out and the rear end dropped. Was in the middle of removing the brake pedal assembly to get to the driver side fresh air box that's leaking water but a storm rolled through so that was that.

 

[Deceus]

Was able to get the driver side fresh air box off and clean out the vents under the cowl. I'm hoping this solves the issue of the water getting inside the car on that side. Got the wiper motor and master cylinder off the firewall as well. Had to hold off on any major purchases to pay for some dental work that had to be done since a crown on my front tooth decided to bail on me. Still waiting for cooler weather to finish the interior.

 

[Kevindc]

A bit off topic but what picture size are you using to post?

 

[Deceus]

A bit off topic but what picture size are you using to post?

I'm not sure really lol. I've taken all the pictures with my cellphone (21 MP), I upload them to a Facebook album from there and then host them on Imgur to post here or anywhere else. If I upload directly from my phone to Imgur they come out ridiculously huge so I think the sizing is done by the facebook portion.

 

[Kevindc]

Good to know thanks.

 

[Deceus]

Was a frustrating weekend, got the 8.8 apart without much trouble but getting it back together was a huge pain. Couldn't get the pinion bearing pinion preload right with the solid spacer for some reason. Going to buy a second one and give it another go when I have time again. Did manage to get the passenger door jambs painted though did some touch up work on the interior.

 

[Deceus]

 

[Deceus]

Took a trip to Hawaii to visit a friend for Labor Day. That kinda wiped out the car fund for a bit and also killed any motivation to drive down to my parents to work on the car the next weekend. Ordered everything to finish the rear but the fancy differential cover. Going with leaf springs from http://www.springsnthings.com Decided to get the heavy duty springs with a 2" lift and poly bushings. Everything should get delivered by the middle of next week and I'll probably get a few solid days of progress in. Gonna try to knock the rest of what I can paint before temperatures start dipping below the 70s. Here's some pics from Hawaii for now:

 

[Deceus]

Well the hurricane kinda messed up my plans to get the leaf springs on and get some painting done. I did manage to get rear end most of the way put back together. The backlash and carrier preload are good. Didn't have a way to check the pinion bearing preload so had to hold off on that and checking the pinion depth/wear pattern. No pictures this time around. You'll just have to use your imagination.

 

[Deceus]

Fairly productive weekend. Got the driver side door painted, the hole from heater blower welded up and a few other misc holes by the passenger fresh air box. Got the front and passenger side of the engine finished and finally took my car cover to the laundry mat to get cleaned so I can put it back on after it got blown off the car into the dirt.

The firewall and where the driver side fender mounts still need work before I can start finishing up the engine bay. Still waiting on my shackle mounts to come in before I try to hook up and my new leaf springs but everything else looked good. Will be finishing up the rear end and starting the port and polish soon hopefully.

 

[Deceus]

Only got a couple hours in last weekend but I managed to paint the underside of both the hood and trunklid. Next up should be finally getting my floor pans welding in along with my new leaf springs mounted and new spring perches welded to the 8.8

The hood got a few more coats of black, i just didn't get a chance to take another pic of the final product. Still doesn't look as good as I want it but I plan on dropping it off and having it painted to match the body eventually.

 

[Deceus]

 

[DusterDaddy]

Looks good Dude! How are you painting the sassy and with what?

 

[Deceus]

Looks good Dude! How are you painting the sassy and with what?

Just a rattle can, it's a really good match but definitely not show quality. I'm using the AY1FJ5, J5 Lime Light from http://www.automotivetouchup.com with their clear coat. Getting rid of the doo doo brown is all I really care about at the moment.

 

[DusterDaddy]

Mine was brown too. I painted the bottom, trunk and engine bay of my Duster with SprayMax base/clear, but had the body painted at a shop

 

[Deceus]

Took the past 2 weeks off from working on the car and was to lazy to post the work I did over the Halloween weekend. Was a pretty productive weekend, I got the head work port and polish started and had my cousin over to weld the new spring perches to the 8.8, was also able to get the correct pinion bearing preload with the second solid spacer I bought so the rear is ready to go together after I check the pattern and get the right pinion shim. Finally I got the new leaf springs on the car and called it a day.

 

[Deceus]

Haven't done a whole lot so there wont be much to this post. Still have yet to check the pattern on my gears to verify the final measurement (pinion depth) is on but the port and polish is going well. Should be done towards the begining of next month and then I'll be ready to assemble the long block.

Had my cousin over for a couple hours trying to get the new pans in and plug the leak that was filling my car with water. Got frustrated with the whole ordeal and was looking at the rest of the body. I'm strongly considering picking up a new car to put my goodies in. Everytime I take the cover off I feel like there's another place or 2 that's starting to rust, there's more bubbles under the paint than I care to count and now a gaping hole in my drive side rear quarter. Put an ad out for a new body and will likely be saving for that for a while.

 

[DusterDaddy]

Take a step back and breathe my friend. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't.
Who's to say a different body won't leak in the exact same unknown place?
It's never a good idea to make a decision with a fresh load of frustration on your mind.

 

[Deceus]

Take a step back and breathe my friend. The devil you know is better than the devil you don't.
Who's to say a different body won't leak in the exact same unknown place?
It's never a good idea to make a decision with a fresh load of frustration on your mind.

Oh I finally found the leak, it was from one of the dozen or so small holes in the firewall. After dumping water into the cowl I noticed it was draining just fine. But when I poured water on the wiper arms it started leaking from the box. That hole must've been directly above the opening for the fresh air box and the run off from the windshield and hood where going straight there.

The floor pans still don't fit very well and I'm just kinda over losing weekends to it. There's pretty bad rust under both doors, behind the rear wheel wells and around the rear windshield. I just feel like an idiot bolting $16,000 worth of drivetrain upgrades onto a decaying body. I don't want to deal with bodywork just yet, so my best options does seem to buy another half done project that started with bodywork and complete it using my parts.

I'm mostly getting a feel for what's out there in the area at the moment. A member on here messaged me with a Demon that looks to be in decent shape. It's torn down to the same level as mine but the previous owner started with body work so it's perfect really and only 4 hours away. If I get the Sport back to being a roller I could probably even get a chunk of my money back. This move will hopefully end up saving me a ton of time and money down the road.

I do agree that frustrated decisions are generally bad decisions, this one won't be made for a bit I'm sure but I think I have my heart set on ditching this body.

 

[Deceus]

Had a really good weekend on the car last week. Spent Friday doing work on fitting the floor pans so my cousin could hit the ground running on Saturday. The biggest problem I was having is that the floor got tacked in without making sure the fit was perfect. The side closest to the door had a decent gap between the pan and car. Couldn't get a good hit on it because the lip was right against the car. Even with a punch, the pan just seemed to flex and spring back where it was. Sheet metal screws weren't helping much either. I should have just cut the welds and trimmed the pan but I decided to just hack it up to make it easier to hammer flat. Doesn't look pretty but it worked. Doesn't both me none because it's going to be under a layer of sound deadening and carpet.

Put the housing on the leaf springs to make sure everything looked good and it was perfect. Checked the gear pattern and it looked good too. Was super happy about not having to deal with swapping in another pinion shim. Took everything apart on the rear, cleaned the housing out real good with degreaser, brake cleaner and a toilet brush. Started the final assembly and realized the axle bearings I had were definitely too small for my rear. I suppose something had to go wrong at some point. Did some measuring and ordered the right bearings and seal. The axles will go in the next time I'm down and then it's just a matter of filling it with oil and getting under the car.

 

[Deceus]

I also decided to keep the car. People want to pay $500 and sell for $5000. Got so many hits for so many half baked drag cars and "special" 1 of 3567 cars. I even specifically mentioned I didn't give a **** about what the car came with 40 years ago and someone still tried to sell me a duster with original carpet, as if I wanted to give someone a **** ton of money to drive a car with carpet from 1970. Maybe I'm too young to appreciate that kind of stuff but I got sick of seeing cars worse off than mine trying to be sold for twice what I'd even get for mine.

I'll just get new rear quarter panels eventually and steal the front from off a 70-72 Dart that's not worth saving. Seen one on Craigslist this week for $1200 that a guy was willing to part out. The fenders looked a little too beat up to consider jumping on it at the moment. Seen another on Facebook for $4000 that was painted just like my car and had a solid performance small block in it but the back half of the car was bad. I was thinking of swapping the front end with my car and reselling it $2500-$3000 but the car was too far. Definitely gives me hope on the Demon swap some day.

Just going to bondo the hole by the bumper, grind down all the rust bubbles, mask off the areas and spray it. That sublime green touch up paint is a damn good match and I'm sure it wont look perfect close up but this car was never destined to win any kind of show.

 

[Deceus]

Had another crappy weekend last weekend. Drove down Thursday night excited to finally get the engine and rear end together. The trouble started with the wheel bearings, I was hoping they wouldn't be too difficult but I'm definitely going to need a bearing driver to get them in. I did a lot of work Friday to get the floor pans ready to be welded at the firewall but my welder bailed on me to pick some overtime. The pan wasn't really lining up with firewall very well so I had the bright idea to use sheet metal screws and a couple small plates to hold them together for the welding. The good news is he showed Monday up and got a lot done but I haven't been back to check on it yet.

Saturday morning came and the guy coming to help supervise the engine build couldn't make it because part of his house collapsed or something. No problem, we were going to reschedule for Sun but then my dad pointed out I had 4 groove valve keepers. My valves all have 2 grooves. No problem I'll go pick some up... nope not a single place carried them. One place said the closest store that had any was in Georgia and they had 5, it takes 32 to do a set of heads. I'm not sure how these plan to stay open, it's 2016 I don't need a store to order parts for me. This is twice now I could find a single place in the entire state that carrier a basic part for an engine build. They really should just stop calling themselves auto parts stores and just call themselves "Oil n things".

Anyways I shrug all this **** off and reschedule things to this weekend ... and we have a history making blizzard rolling into town the night I'm supposed to leave and lasting until the day I bought tickets to a hockey game. I'm tempted to just leave everything until the Spring when I'll have ample time, money and decent weather. It would be nice to have a few days in a row to devout to making good progress instead of these half-assed weekends.

I was able to (lightly) take a flap wheel to some of the rust on the body so I could prime it and get ready to touch everything up when it's warm. The hole in my rear quarter panel was about 5x as bad as it looked. Still hoping to put a screen behind it and use bondo as a short term fix.