Thought I'd post a few pics of my 68' Dart GT. My restoration/repair business doesn't give me much time to work on my personal projects. I thought I would have all kinds of time after retiring. What started as a hobby has now turned into a full time job. Oh well, it keeps me out of the bars and the wife knows where to find me. Someday I'll "get-r-done".
68' Dart
- Thread starter DartOS
- Start date
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I bought this car and drove it 75 mph home. The next day I started taking it apart. I built this engine/trans/k-frame stand to remove the engine. Surprising, it worked pretty good. All the mods have been completed. Everything fits. Now it's time to start taking everything apart. I don't like doing paint and body work and my shop really isn't set up for it. But it's alot cheaper than taking to a professional.
1968dartman
life is getting better!!
Damn I wish my 68 Dart looked like that underneath! Nice car and keep up the great work!
DARTGAME
SuPeRcHaRgEd
Nice car man! Good idea on the engine cradle, It gave me some ideas for when I pull engine and trans out.
Ian
Ian
Everything is adjustable. The two pins in the top of the legs are allen head studs. Just remove the two front K-Frame bolts, roll it under, let the car down, and adjust the height you need for the studs to go inside the front k member bolt holes. Then adjust the height you need for the transmission. I made it with the adjustable studs because I needed to move the engine/k-member slighty to the drivers side so as to clear the headers. Starting out the studs were set flush with the top of the k-frame. Not deep enough to go into the body frame rails.
One thing that I've run into is the type of primer I used. Being old school, I never thought twice about the after effects of using epoxy primers. I soon found out you need to top coat it within 48 hours or you'll have to sand it. Guess what? Sanding the underside of a car is a b----h.
yup you gotta love that epoxy resin that skins over after 48 hours ...i been down that road before too.
i love the GT ....nice way to start out with a fancy GT with all that pretty trim and fancy tail panel.....gotta love the factory bucket seats that come standard on GT and the nice GTS interior.
this car is looking great....im building a 68 dart also ....but mine started as a plain jane 270 model....with a bench and base model everything.....basically a rolling refrigerator. LOL
gotta love them 68 darts no matter what trim level :cheers:
i love the GT ....nice way to start out with a fancy GT with all that pretty trim and fancy tail panel.....gotta love the factory bucket seats that come standard on GT and the nice GTS interior.
this car is looking great....im building a 68 dart also ....but mine started as a plain jane 270 model....with a bench and base model everything.....basically a rolling refrigerator. LOL
gotta love them 68 darts no matter what trim level :cheers:
I don't know if you can see it but where I was sanding, the epoxy primer came off super easy and there was a bunch of tiny black spots under it. Doesn't appear to be rust but it takes sanding down to bare metal to remove them. The rest of the car was ok. The car was soda blasted a couple of years ago, washed, dryed with compressed air, wiped down and primered. Could this be soda residue that didn't get cleaned very good?
DARTGAME
SuPeRcHaRgEd
Looks arrow straight! Do you want to finish mine?
Ian
Ian
I should have gotten my paint and body man to finish it before he retired. Now when he comes by, he sits around, tells me what I'm doing wrong and drinks all my beer. Paying him his hourly wage would've been alot cheaper and a whole lot quicker than me doing it. You'd have to own part of Bud to get me to do it again. At my age, the sitting around, pointing and drinking someone else's beer is starting to sound pretty good.
DARTGAME
SuPeRcHaRgEd
HA! Yeah body work is not my strong point. If I do it they will end up burying me in it.
Ian
Why did you elect to go with a Ford 9"?
Your question and my response is gonna open up a can of worms that would probably be better addressed in a different forum. But simply put, and this is strickly my opinon,(opinons are like a--holes, everybody's got one) the 9" is a stouter rear end than the 8.75". Don't get me wrong, I've had some very reliable 8.75's, but there was a reason Mopar didn't install them behind the Hemi's. I broke one at the track years ago and ruined a good pair of drawers. The Dana 60 is the ultimate set-up, but have you ever tryed to change gears on a Dana at the track? I can take 2 or 3 9" punkins with me and have one changed before I can get the differential out of a Dana. Good 8.75's are getting harder to find and the ones I have i'm saving for the hard-core Mopar restorer's. Another reason is, I've probably got a dozen 9" punkins with vairous gears, splines, locker, open and spools laying around. For me it was a no brainer. $$$$
When I made the spring re-location boxes I designed them with three adjusting points. 1" lower, 1" higher and 1" to the rear. I ordered the Cal Trac springs with a 1" lower and 3/4" shorter. I moved the rear end back 1" to better center the wheels in the opening. I notched the rear spring mount so the spring shackles would clear. The car hooks up really nice. Once I get the rest of the glass, hood, bumpers(glass) etc installed, I'm sure I'll need to tweek the Cal Tracs.
NICE! keep us updated!
Now that the body work is done, the tear down begins. I'll be filling all the holes but two in the firewall. I really like the 2" TTI headers, but it is so tight on the passenger side that I cooked the paint on the inner fender. I guess I could go with Schumacher's (will probably choke 50hp-75hp) or use some of the "A" word material between the headers and the fender unless someone has a better idea?
Finally got around to shooting some paint on the Dart. Texas in the summer is not the best weather for painting. I started at 4:30 am and by 8:00am I had to quit. Base coat went on with little problems. Not so for the clear. It's going to take quite a bit of wet sanding to get the orange peel out. Started with 1000 grit, then 1500, 2000, 2500 and now 3000 grit. It's getting there. Now I get to start putting it back together. Got all the wiring in, running gear and suspension. I thought I had better see if it was going to start and run ok. Filled A/T, engine and radiator. Wouldn't you know it! Brand new Be Cool radiator leaking. I can hear them now, "Sorry, it's past it's warranty", Deal with it. I don't believe I'll be buying any more Be Cool products.
Ole well, it is what it is!
Ole well, it is what it is!
duster rege
Well-Known Member
Very nice looks great!
X-RACER
Well-Known Member
That thing is looking really nice, great job.
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