67 GTS 4-Speed: Daily Summer Driver

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Well this past weekend I went back home to get some more work done on the GTS. I wound up going into a junk yard to find a few pieces I was missing. I Managed to find the heater barn door, glove box light switch, ash tray light, dash speaker mounting bracket, front bumper brackets and a drive shaft. It was a fun time. within 30 minutes of us being there it started to storm. Then proceeded to turn into a hail storm. So my dad and I took cover in a 74 dart swinger that still had its interior in it to stay dry. it was an adventure to say the least lol

I also managed to get the dash board, steering column and glove box door painted!

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I am very happy with how everything turned out. I would of gotten more done but I helped my dad paint the hood to the charger and reorganize the cars in the garage this weekend.

I did also manage to find and purchase the infamous 67 Dart GT rocker trim!! it has a few holes drilled into them (which I am guessing was someones way to mount them), but other than that they are very straight. Not to sure if I am going to cover the holes up (I dont even know how I would be able to do that), but I am pleased with them.
 
4spdragtop said:
Awesome work! That is a beautiful color too. Whats the purple beast? Road runner?

If you do a search, there is a thread on here about replacing lower column bearings. Very good thread!

EDIT: here is the thread

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=228103&highlight=column+bearing
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Thank you! and that purple beast is a 70 Charger. My dad picked up the rusted body back when I was 11 or so, and has slowly been working on it and accumulating parts since. It runs but still has a ways to go before it can hit the street. Hopefully by spring it will be mostly together with only the interior needing to be finished.

And thank you for that thread!! That sounds like a more robust (and cheaper) solution to that lower bearing issue of mine. I ran into a guy at Chryslers at Carlisle that sells a lower bearing rebuild kit for the 67 columns for a 150 bucks. Didnt really want to spend that kind of money for that bearing.
 
So it has been a little while since I posted and actually got some work done (too long). But for the past two weeks or so I got the heater box completely disassembled, cleaned, new heater core installed and put back together as well as it wanted too. The old degraded plastic was fighting the entire way. The plan is to put an aftermarket A/C unit in there some day, so hopefully this would only have to last a few years. But I also got the clutch/brake pedal assembly disassembled and cleaned. Finally this past weekend I got it painted in POR15, bearings greased and assembled.

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It turned out very well, operates nicely. I am thinking I should add in those stainless pedal trim surrounds (always liked shiny things lol). I also got the lower column to firewall bracket and rear bumper brackets painted

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I also tried my hand at polishing some stainless steel trim. I got the head light rings and interior door trim polished

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I am happy with the results

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It isnt flawless, still some small scratches here and there, but definitely a lot better than what it was.
 
That's pretty awesome. Do yourself a big favor before you put the dash frame back in. You can reverse the clips on the screws up by the windshield. You may have to buy some shorter screws or grind a bit off the ones you have. That way, if you decide later to re-do the dash you can get it out of there without a bunch more work.
 
67Dart273 said:
That's pretty awesome. Do yourself a big favor before you put the dash frame back in. You can reverse the clips on the screws up by the windshield. You may have to buy some shorter screws or grind a bit off the ones you have. That way, if you decide later to re-do the dash you can get it out of there without a bunch more work.
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That is very interesting. I never thought of that. I guess that would save a lot of time by not having to take the windshield out just to get to the dash mounting screws. Thank you for that!
 
You are doing a killer job and you picked a great color for that body style. You will be glad you took the time to do it right once.
 
69conv said:
You are doing a killer job and you picked a great color for that body style. You will be glad you took the time to do it right once.
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I appreciate that thank you! I have been trying to do things once the right way so I dont have systems failing on me in the future.

it has been a while since I posted but over the past week I have gotten a good amount done.

I went home for Thanksgiving and took some extra time off so I could get some work done. before I left I managed to get the front bumper brackets painted and the windshield trim polished. I could only find 4 pieces (there is five), so I am hoping that the last piece is at my parents place

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I did manage to find the missing piece of windshield trim at my parents place and the rest of the rear window trim!:cheers:
 
So the first order of business was to prep the interior for this spray insulation I wanted to try out. Its called lizard skin. Its water base, so clean up is a snap, and they have their own spray gun and mixer. I strongly suggest to anyone to get their spray gun, the insulation is thick. There isnt much of a cloud or over spray so my masking is way over done

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however the front part of the interior was probably masked off the right amount

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They suggest you scuff painted surfaces, so I did. It went on in two steps, first I sprayed the sound deadening than the thermal insulation. Went on very quickly. However it was below 60 F in the garage so the drying times were a little too long. They do recommend to spray above 60 F. They come in two colors, black and white, I went with black. It really does deaden the sound when you wrap on the coated surfaces, but I really wont know more until this thing actually gets on the road.

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However it is sand-able and paint-able! but since all the surfaces I painted are covered by the carpet, I just leave it bare.
 
The next thing I had planned to do was to tear out the front suspension and steering. Everything went smoothly until I got to the calipers. The bolts were rusted fast and were rounded out once I put the impact gun to them. So I ended up cutting them out. I also broke a dust shield bolt off using the impact gun, so that will have to be drilled and tapped. But everything else came out with ease. I labeled everything and now have a list of all the parts I need to rebuild the front end

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So I loaded all of the front end parts and hauled them out to Pittsburgh so I can paint everything out here and next time I am home go bolt everything back in
 
The last thing I wanted to do was to start putting parts back on the car! over the summer I got the firewall insulation kit out at Chryslers at Carlisle. So I installed that

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It was dark so it was hard to get a good picture

I then installed the brake/pedal assembly and heater box. I rebuilt the heater box out here in Pittsburgh using a seal kit and a new heater core. I disassembled the pedal assembly, painted, greased the needle bearings and reassembled. So I brought them home to put them into the car.

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Then I also installed the dash! Starting to look more like a car (on the inside anyway lol) Had to drill out and tap a broke bolt, but it is in and secured

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Since the front K-frame didnt need anything done to it, I painted it and reinstalled it. It was amazing how much dirt I cleaned out of the inside of that thing. I can only imagine what types of roads/tracks this thing was used on

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you can even see the blower motor and studs for the master cylinder on the firewall. Adding a little more color here and there.

But with progress comes set backs. My father had a lead on a 400 sitting in a friends garage that had 20,000 miles on it and ideally be a direct drop in so I wouldnt have to spend a couple grand rebuilding the 383 sitting in our garage (initially anyway). Basically a way to get the car on the road quicker. So we went to pick it up thinking it should have the bosses for the left motor mount. We get there and of course the engine is sitting in the back corner of a garage on the bottom shelf. I was about to start climbing around the engine to see how we would get it out of there, and that is when my foot went through the floor. The engine was sitting on wooden planks that were over top of a mechanics pitt. It looks like the wood had water/oil damage and couldnt support me. So we figured it wouldnt be able to support a crane moving an engine. Thankfully I didnt hurt myself and the engine didnt fall through. The only way we could think of safely move the engine is with a wrecker. However in the end, the engine didnt have the bosses for the left motor mount so it wouldnt of worked anyway. It just means I will have to rebuild the 383 sooner than I had planned. Oh well.

The second set back was found while we were moving the car back into the corner of the garage. The metal on the bottom third of the passenger torsion bar mount was rusted through. It looks like a small piece can be made and welded in. The kicker is that we dont think our welder would have enough juice to weld a plate to the cylindrical torsion bar mount. So we will have to do a little research on our possibilities.
 
Starting to look a bit more like a car. That's when it gets exciting. Great work.
 
Nice work so far:finga: Keep plugging away and the final result will be something to be very proud of:coffee2:

Dave,
 
About the gas mileage. I've had the same 67 GTS 4 speed 3.23 read end since it was 1.5 years old. When it was bone stock at 55 mph I would be 18 MPG and 12mpg around town.
 
69conv said:
Starting to look a bit more like a car. That's when it gets exciting. Great work.
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Yes it finally is!! its exciting when parts start going back on the car

COdartman said:
Nice work so far:finga: Keep plugging away and the final result will be something to be very proud of:coffee2:

Dave,
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Yea I cant wait for the final product!

buck351 said:
About the gas mileage. I've had the same 67 GTS 4 speed 3.23 read end since it was 1.5 years old. When it was bone stock at 55 mph I would be 18 MPG and 12mpg around town.
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That is nice to know that I wont go completely broke paying for gas lol. But still thats not bad at all for a big V8

But really havent gotten much done over the last month. Things were kind of crazy with Christmas parties and Christmas shopping. But oh well, got some stuff done when I got a little extra time. I got the Lower and upper control arms painted, as well as the lower ball joints. Then right before Christmas I got the Front disc brake shields, struts, and steering center link painted. Within the next two months I hope to get the piece for the torsion bar mount made and welded in, get the rest of the bushings for the front suspension and steering, Then hopefully get the front end on the ground and the back end raised up to paint, bush the rear end and see what needs done with the rear axle. I am hoping to get the car stripped and painted this summer/fall and get the engine tore down and hopefully rebuilt and in next winter. So we will see how that goes!
 

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Happy New Year to All!

With the extended weekend came some work on the car and new year resolutions. I have decided that I would like to have the car in paint, and the engine and transmission installed by the end of 2016. Its a pretty hefty goal with money and paint prep being the biggest hurtles to over come. I have a second job that I work on some weekends to get a little extra cash so that should hopefully help. I kinda figured the longer this stays in pieces the greater chance life has of getting in the way. I wanted a hot rod ever since I was 8 after seeing the Dukes of Hazzard, so I figured I waited long enough lol.

As for the work. I tried measuring the brake rotors to see if they are usable and couldnt find a thickness specification in the manual or online. But I found that they do have new ones for a reasonable price, so it looks like I am getting new rotors! lol. I also hammered out the bearing races to get a part number for the inner and outer bearing since I couldnt find any part store listing bearings for the disc brakes. They only list bearings for the 9" & 10" brakes. However I did not see a part number on the inner bearing seal... So I dont know what I am going to do there.

I did get the steering knuckles painted

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And I got the lower seat cushion trim pieces cleaned, polished and the back side painted.

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I was impressed that these pieces are metal with a vinyl covering. I was expecting them to be plastic. I also got the four trim pieces polished that surround the deck lid trim panel. They came out pretty nice

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I also got the rear trim piece for 70 Charger polished and attempted to polish the rear trim panel for the GTS. The polishing wheels that I was using for everything I polished to this point didnt seem to work to well. So I went about polishing that piece according to the sticky posted on this site about polishing trim pieces. Where you start out with something like 400 grit wet sand, work your way up to 2000 then hit it with some polishing wheels. Thats what I did in a small area and I was very impressed with the results. So I started sanding the entire piece for 400 grit.

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I took this picture to show the beginning (on the left) and after the 400 grit (on the right). It took a couple hours to get the whole thing done with 400 grit... So this is a very, very long process. Kinda sucks because this is what I am going to have to do for the two sets of head light doors and two grilles (one for the GTS and one for the 68 Convertible). I want to be able to paint the inside of the doors in spring (which is black) and at that point I would want to be able to shoot these trim pieces that need black in that run as well. So when the car starts to come together next year those pieces can just be installed (hopefully over winter).
 
This past weekend I managed to make it out to my parents place to address the rust hole I found near the torsion bar mount. Sadly both sides had this issue but it was only a very small spot. So I opened up both sides and the surrounding metal looked to be okay and the inside only had light surface rust.

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The driver side looking from the rear of the car forward

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The passenger side looking from the front rearward

After cutting the holes in the bottom and seeing how much dirt was falling out, it became clear that this was driven on dirt roads/tracks and the dirt never had a way to escape. So it would just stay wet, rust and weakened those areas. Since it did spend some time down in the Carolina's and with all the dirt I am finding in the frame, I am going to say it was used for running moon shine, it gives it an pretty cool back story lol.

Seeing how small the areas were, I made a few patches and welded them in

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I left drain holes in the bottom of the rail in hopes to prevent this from happening again. Down the road I am going to rust proof the frame rails and rockers to also keep this from happening.

I also got some plastic laid in on both quarters. Didnt get a chance to sand it down and shape it, ran out of time on Sunday. So I helped my dad get a spare 727 out of storage so we can rob the case for the Charger. Next time I make it back I want to install the front suspension and steering with new ball joints and bushings and get it on the ground. From there we can rearrange the garage so I have easier access to both sides for paint prep.
 
Sadly I havent been making much progress on the GTS. I tried my hand at polishing the rear trim panel for the convertible. Finally got the sanding done on that and started using the polishing discs now. It is a very slow process but the results are great! I have about eighth of it shining nice.

Since I got most of my suspension parts in I finished up painting the steering components

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I used the old tie rod ends to get the general length

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My whole plan was to get the front suspension in so I can get the front of the car back on the ground, but... My lower control arm pivot shafts from Hotchkis didnt come in. So it looks like other areas of the car will get addressed this weekend, like sanding.

I also got new rotors and wheel bearings. I got the bearings in the hubs, and the rotors most of the way secured to the hubs. I am going to have a shop press the studs in the rest of the way. I cant safely do it at work and trying to draw them through with a lug nut and an impact gun just strips the lug nut.

This is the thread I used for part numbers on the front disc rebuild:
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=266225
 
The initial plan for this past weekend was to get the front suspension in, but since I didnt receive all my parts in I had to put my time to other use. I got the bushings installed in the upper A-arms and got those installed. Needed a little bumping with a mallet to get them settled, but they are in place awaiting the rest of the front suspension.

I also got some shaping done on the rear quarters. I would of taken a picture of how they are coming out but by the time I thought of taking a picture I already applied more plastic.

I did manage to get the glass out of the doors and the doors removed. That was a big thing because I need to get these things sanded and back to my parents place by April in order to to spray the interior face black (well that's the plan anyway). The doors are in great shape, no cancer what so ever. So it would just be completely disassemble, rust proof and sand.
 
This past weekend I got some good work done on the GTS. Since I brought the doors out to Pittsburgh my main goal is to get them sanded so I can paint them come april (as well as get the rear trim piece for the convertible painted then as well). So I finished stripping the doors and chipped away all of the sound insulation. I then POR'ed the inside

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I also cleaned up the front bucket backs and painted them

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Since I was painting I also painted the splash shields

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With the little time I had left over I continued polishing the rear trim piece for the convertible, which is taking forever!
 
Looks like you've done a lot of work in a short amount of time! Everything you've done so far you've done really good work on. This will be a really nice car when you get her finished. Keep chipping away a bit at a time and you'll get there soon enough.
 
Love this build, and love the color! I too have a convertible that color, it looks good on your car!! Nice work too, you should be rightly proud, and getting more excited by the day!!!
 
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