66 dart convertible

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Yeah I get a copper pipe from hardware store and beat it flat with a hammer and stick that behind what I am welding. It acts like a heat sink to keep the metal a little cooler. And weld does not stick to it. Really helps a lot.

Those door gaps look great. I like to let the high build primer set for a week and then block. Gives it time to settle. That way when you paint it sand marks don't show up later on.
 
340sFastback said:
Yeah I get a copper pipe from hardware store and beat it flat with a hammer and stick that behind what I am welding. It acts like a heat sink to keep the metal a little cooler. And weld does not stick to it. Really helps a lot.

Those door gaps look great. I like to let the high build primer set for a week and then block. Gives it time to settle. That way when you paint it sand marks don't show up later on.
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yup using the copper backing I pop riveted it onto a handle because the darn thing got HOT! the only problem I really have is that I have to plug weld so many of em, of course it exactly how many I had to use a spot weld cutter on. yeah the gaps look pretty good on the body cart and even better when I put it back down on jack stands where the wheel would be. I only have the first coat on it now and have found a couple of places that I did less than stellar body work and the wife's car is getting a new trunk lid so I get her old one which is 3 times better than mine but still has rust on the bottom edge. I'll fix those first and then put on the second coat of grey/gray hmmm i like gray (sp). The car is going to be painted "cool vanilla" from ma mopar color chart so I''ll be shooting 2 or 3 blocking coats in Buff primer and let it sit until I get the money flow to get the paint right before paint I'll block it and seal it, then jamb it. wait a week or so and then scuff and shoot (hopefully all in 1 day so I won't miss my recoat window)
 
rapidtransitric said:
been quiet here
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yeah I'm working on getting the wiring updated and drilling most of the holes needed for the relay's before I think about paint. I'm doing the headlight relay upgrade and changing to electronic ignition and later model charging system. just grunt work right now. now that I have the tail lights on both sides of the car working (I wanted ALL of the lights to be brake/tail/turn)
Since I did a major bit of re-construction I'm test fitting all my trim to go back on. the cowl that I put on came from a 4 door car and didn't have the holes in it for the convertible trim, door looked to be from a barracuda or valiant(it had trim on the top of the door by the window hmm I kinda liked that) and extra holes here and there from parts off of different year's
plus I'm working on molds for the tail light (with bezel attached)
first coat of test
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mold coated 4 times for full coverage
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part pulled from mold
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mold put back in the plaster to cure some more before making the bondo plug to fix and finish perfectly
does it work? sort of using regular tube silicone for a molding rtv sucks. but I can't see spending $100.00 on casting RTV until I get a working finished plug that I do want to spend the money on and get good parts out of.
I have my dart I'm working on and the wife's is next, so I'll at least make 3 set's of lights . yah 1 set as a backup set in case I damage one set sometime in the future,
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since bezels(good ones) are hard or next to impossible to find or too expensive if you do find them. I came up with an idea to make a mold of the whole thing and cast it out of acrylic, but since my bezel's are so bad I have to make a bondo plug to fix the bad spots (*dang more body work)
then I can use the good rtv molding rubber to cast a couple of good parts, just have 3 more to do.

later on I am thinking of using the D part of the lense as a testbed prototype by adding yellow led's in the d ring you see in the last picture and using a convertor to fire off the yellow led's. I've cast a red lense and added a yellow/amber led section to it for my friends motorcycle and it looks great. you even see the yellow/amber leds excellent. the red doesn't seem to filter out the yellow for some reason. anyway that's for later
 
as the title say's I'mouta parts money right now so I'll get some of the wiring and mold work out of the way, I went down to the painters supply and picked up some more hi build, hmm no gray.I'm doing a vanilla (off white color and I'll seal it with white sealer so I picked up some nason buff hi build. I shot the rear quarter and top of the new trunk lid (from the wife's car since I purchased a rust free one for her's) I'm putting on the car GAHHHHH!!! buff shows EVERY little bit of the mistakes I made. :banghead: mostly near or on the bodylines. I's going to be an easy fix but Buff primer really does highlight my mistakes. I think I'll use that color for the rest of the build
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as you can see the right led light is at an angle(my bad) and the right one is better, I never noticed it when I did the prototype board and found out later that it's a 9 inboard 12 degree outboard tilt off square setup to get them to line up.
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I still have a lot of metal work to do on the bottom edge of this trunk ,but it's half the work needed on the original(wrong model 270 not gt) on the car now

I started wiring the headlight relay's and tested it out against the other car WOW it made a world of difference. I rewired the headlight to 14 and 12 gauge wiring (12 to lights and relay,14 to ground all connectors soldered adn using silicone grease on the splices under the heat shrink tubing ) I used a lawn tractor battery to test with on the dart and a normal battery in the other car
with the other car off and a full charged battery cleaned factory wiring I had a 2.8 volt drop, made some nice yellow lights, with this setup of relays and heavier wiring it made awesome bright white lights with a .2 volt drop. now all I have to do is find some of those uhhhh hmmm Nighthawks(gotta search for the number now) to replace the 15 year old lights in there now
I ordered some of the non adhesive tape wrap to redo the wiring harness since I've tore it apart, I finally found it at an affordable price. there "ain't no way? I'm paying 7-9 bucks a roll for 69 cent 1 inch wide electrical tape WITHOUT the glue. 70 cents a roll minimum 10 rolls isn't too bad. now to fint the cloth friction tape for the tape wrap ends.
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I also welded a plate to the firewall to bolt on the updated voltage regulator that I'll be using for a late model alternator a square back one
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I wanted Led's in the front also and using a test bunch of low(read cheap china and not a very good color match)power leds 20Ma only I filled up the whole cavity with then a achieved a nice light pattern doe just parking light and the turn signals show a nice diferential when blinking(darn turn signal relay!@#!$#$@$# had to get a 12v electronic flasher) . Once I'm sure that it'll work I will order some of the Good orance/amber @ 70MA led's and fill out the new boards that I'll cut out and have some GREAT light, My little sharps 12v regulators haven't come in so I have to be carefull of voltage (I hooked up the big battery charger and forgot to turn it down from 100 amp boost to this battery and promptly blew out a row of led's in the tail light :protest:) luckily I have the design for the better leds in the cad program and can get them cut out when the new led's come in.

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Now I have to splice in the trunk light harness since ma mopar didn't want to make the inboard light in the trunk lid work as turn and brake light also. wires are run and made but not spliced in yet.
 
rapidtransitric said:
glad your sticking with it
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Thanks.
I was just thinking about the time and money spent on the car and was wondering if it was going to be worth it. what helped me was when the wife came into my messy garage and said the car(which she didn't like because it was a junker to begin with) was looking good. made all my work worthwhile. plus it doesn't hurt when she said to get going on this one and get her's going. of course she get's the best parts on hers.plus it's all together, not like mine. I brought it home on a trailer because it wouldn't drive over 10 miles an hour and not stop at all.
mine was
power top
/6
and rusty as all get out. and in pieces
going to be "cool vanilla" with black or tan (1999 sebring convertible if I can find some)interior.
her's is
power top power steering
V8
definitely not as rusty and all together (I drove it with the top down the last 60 miles home when I had a flat on the trailer and didn't have a spare.
)
paint,top and interior except the foam is already bought for her's (1995 dodge neon metallic blue) with pearl white top and interior stock


both darts will be converted to electronic ignition,late model charging/starting systems and the relay's for the lights. Mine get's led's her's might too.

have a great one
 
Since I live out in the sticks it's hard to find a paint booth to spray in so I'm working on a positive pressure pvc knockdown booth(in miniature right now)
it should be able to fold down into 2 sections that I can slide against the wall or put outside. here's some pic's of the basic layout. I'm thinking I can use the back portion to put T's in the one side to fit in some filters for the whole back wall on one side. each section will be 20 ft long 8 ft high and the doors will be about 7.5 wide giving a total of 15x20 booth(gotta measure the challenger to see if it's fit.)
side view
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back wall where filters would fit on one side
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strting to fold it up
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one side folded back
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detached from each other
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I got tired of how dirty and greasy the wiring was and wanted to clean the connections.
so I made a bath of purple power and soaked the harness in it. I'm re-wrapping the completer harness so I didn't bother to cover anything.
after the purple power bath the ends and connectors went into a vinegar bath to clean the contacts (2 hours) then back into the purple power bath to neutralize the vinegar. another 2 hour soak to be sure.
that really cleaned up the wiring and the connectors look FANTASTIC even the dash connectors came out really nice
now that I have the grease and gunk off I'll bead blast the light
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removed most of the corosion off the fuse box too!
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mmmmm purple power mix
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cleaned those contacts right up
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these too!
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of course my little girl pug Lola want's to be fed. (not happenin, she on a diet) she is half as bis as all the other 3 pugs but weighs as much. she's a food snitch. she scoots her bowl over to the others and then snag's food from them. we kept on giving her less and less food but couldn't figure out why she was gaining so much weight until my grandson caught her doing that trick. now we have to watch her at feeding time to make sure she can't get the others food. she's down a pound so far and 8 more to go to get to her 12 pound limit.
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air drying the harness on the next in line project (wife's dart)
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Whew just finished doing some welding and double checking the fit on the trunk and door's. the darn doors were the best that i could afford at the time and both needed work done in the latch areas. plus I purchased a new(better trunk for momma's car) so I snagged hers, it was way better than mine . only 2 patches instead of MANY
this is the patch needed on the out side and the inside was the usual patch right around the bumper and I still have to clean out the opening.
before patch
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after patch
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trunk on and testing fit
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right side
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left side
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passenger door
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and after the fix testing the fit
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drivers door after patching needs a little more to fill the holes I burned through
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and the trunk with a first coat of primer on top to start the blocking process.
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I just finished printing out and ironing on the layup for the copper on the
"C" ring section of lights sonce the wife likes it better than the full version, I'll be etching it tomorrow and hopefully soldering on a test set of leds to check the lighting(hope I've got it aligned ok. here's a shot of the right outer/left inner tail light board and the turns and backup light
tail light,turn and backup waiting to etch
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tail
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backup and turn
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I'm getting there, I should be able to test the light output next week after I get the luxmeter and paper for the grid
 
rapidtransitric said:
wow you have really stayed busy very cool
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whooooeeeee! Rapidtransitric I just looked up that car your doing in your avatar, man that's going to be sweet. looks like I'm slacking compares to your work. that's AWESOME.

I love the way you worked the hood, I'm to chicken to go that extreme for right now. but sometimes I think it'd be easier to go full custom instead of back to semi stock looking.
I like to keep busy. keeps me out of trouble
 
I just etched a couple of test boards , using a new (to me) process I like the new process!
here's a pic of the boards
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I'm getting excited about these things now,
I just found out I don't have a drill bit small enough to drill out the holes !@#$@#%#$% I have to order some .040 x 1/8 shank bits for my dremel.
 
66Dvert said:
whooooeeeee! Rapidtransitric I just looked up that car your doing in your avatar, man that's going to be sweet. looks like I'm slacking compares to your work. that's AWESOME.

I love the way you worked the hood, I'm to chicken to go that extreme for right now. but sometimes I think it'd be easier to go full custom instead of back to semi stock looking.
I like to keep busy. keeps me out of trouble
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hey thanks alot!!! but what your doing is fantastic don't sell yourself short
 
I just started working on the dart again after making a quick trip up north to michigan(did score some sebring seats for the dart) to stay with a friend whose wife suddenly passed away.
anyway I have one side mocked up and discovered that the scarebird dosc brake conversion uses toyota previa rotors that have a 114.3 bolt pattern!:cheers: that means that I can redo the front's in either bolt pattern, hot diggety dog!!!=D> yeah I'm going BBP rally's 14's
here's the stuff I'm using. I am still waiting on my 73 master cylinder and hoses to come in.
Plate with the drum hub attached
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Plate with the drum hub attached
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Rotor on the hub But no spacer in it to center it
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Caliper on and the little bump on the caliper ground down to fit
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here's the bump I had to grind
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whew lotsa drilling to get those baby's out. darn swedge cutter costs about 80 buck, so it was drill time
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now another couple of hours to clean things up and see how close I am to putting the dart back down onto wheels! (fronts at least)
 
This is a great thread Kurt, keep up the great work - you are a true restorer in the old sense of the word. Love your work mate. and the pics
Regards
 
I have another thread going for the led conversion I doing but here's a couple of pic's of the tail lights

ok here's with the full brakes on. turns will look like this too
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ahhh and here's the C-ring section for just tail/running lights
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I'm still setting up the front led turn signals but I do have all the power feeds regulated to stay at 12 volts. ain't gonna burn these baby's out
tails are driven to only 8 milli amps and turns/brakes are only at 50 milli amps
the led's are rated to run all day at 70 milli amp so it should be good to go.


I have to find the guy that had a bad pin in his top and wanted a replacement, I have a guy that is going to turn some for me since I see I have one messed up to(sat under that darn tree to long) I was able to save 1 good one and will have them made for me.
 
I'm getting ready to put the lat couple of coats of hibuild on the dart, but I had to do the paint booth first. I'm just about done with it now. I still have to get the fan mounted in the wall (removable) and plastic the top above the fan but it shouldn't take more than another couple hours to get going. here's what it looks like now
I still have to figure out how to seal the door(maybe a rubber flap)
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an inside view
"lotsa room" even though I still have to tape down the bottom plastic all around.
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back view "got a couple of extra feet in there to move around in
and you can see how high the back seats from the sebring are when mounted with the crossmember from the sebring. it'll actually help me in making a new boot for the dart since I now have something to mount the metal piece that holds the front part of the boot to the body.
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there is that big old fan I'm going to mount. It blows to much so I'm going to put it on a speed control (fan dimmer) to get it down to a good level. right now it blows the doors open when I turn it on.
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DANG I could have made it even bigger!
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man I can't wait to get the sealer on it and then back on wheels. I scored a GREAT deal on some Road wheels 5 on 4 1/2 from pastortom1 (thanks Again)I can convert my 5 on 4 to the bigger pattern since I'm converting over to disc on front using scarebirds conversion and the rotors are already 5 on 4 1/2 just gotta drill the hubs and weld in the old holes. anyone know off hand where to get the screw in 1/2 studs
so I don't loose to much meat on the hub?
thanks
 
I just got rained out and decided to show you where I'm at, I finished the paint booth and sprayed some hi build to block down last night. IT came out GREAT. no darn bugs and no dirt. it was awesome spraying tin that area.
here's some pic's on my partial blocking (I haven't hit metal anywhere so far)
So I'm almost ready to change to 220 and move up a grit.

dang it's starting to look good
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passenger side ready to block (door is already done and sealed)
the door took longer to get straight than the rest of the body it was wrinkled bad.
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blocking on the drivers side center (this area is where the waves showed up) hopefully I got em this time
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So far so good no waves as of yet and I haven't broke through to metal anywhere yet
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Got the whole center section mostly done and it looks good in the problem areas that I had
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I still have to hit the body lines ,upper and lower sections, but those looked good even in epoxy
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passenger side done and it's starting to rain darnit time to go in.
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almost looks bare in there
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waiting to go into the booth
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now if it'll quit raining I can finish the first round of sanding.
 
I'm just finishing up the 320 guide coat and decided that I might have enough primer on there to do 400, :banghead: nope got 2 little places down to the metal. Ahh well I'll epoxy those little places and finish up the 400.
here's where I'm at now
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except for the hood(I'm putting this one on the wife's dart, it's in better shape. and of course I get the rusty hood)
maybe I'll get it in sealer this week!:cheers:
 

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I just had to pull it out into the sunlight to see where I screwed up, not to bad !! 1 spot I missed in all that sanding on the duchmans panel that will require some glaze to finish. I can't believe that I'm { } this close to paint AND no damn lovebugs in the paint.
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I too have a red 66 Valiant slant six convertible. The body is almost completely rust free and needs little work (I bought it when I lived in California) but the interiror is a mess. Did you have trouble finding seats, carpets, etc.? I've checked with Year One, Legendary, and so forth and most have stuff for a 67 and newer Valiant. I was wondering if 66 Dart seat covers would work. Mine are toast and so is the carpet.
 
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