68 GT convertible project

[burdar]

I bought a SS coolant overflow tank for the radiator. It came with two 1/4" tubes sticking out the bottom. One is an overflow purge and the other is the inlet to the tank. The overflow nipple on the radiator is larger than 1/4" so I needed to figure out a way to connect the two. I ended up cutting off the 1/4" inlet tube and drilled out the bottom of the tank. Then I installed a 6AN fuel cell fitting. I had some aluminum fuel line sitting around so I bent up a piece to connect the tank to the radiator. I'll just have a short length of hose from the line to the rad nipple.


Here is what the shroud and overflow tank look like when installed. The shroud hasn't been polished yet in this picture. You can see that the shroud fits over the radiator's side brackets. It will be held on with (4) polished stainless button head bolts. I replaced the metric rivnuts that came on the radiator with 1/4-20 ones. There are spacers on the inside so the shroud doesn't get compressed when the fasteners are tightened down. The overflow tank uses one of the shroud attaching points. For the second attachment point, I installed a rivnut into the shroud itself.


I started playing around with plug wire routing. I have some old Taylor wires that I used for mockup. I bought some cheap aluminum plug wire separators on E-bay. I really like the way they look. Most wires sets have the wires way too long and the finished product looks messy. I should be able to cut a set of wires to the exact length I need. These wire separators will make it really easy to get the look I want. I will be removing the logos before assembling them for the final time.

 

[burdar]

Since the K-member assembly is in, I'll be mocking up the brakes and measuring for wheels before the car is painted. The front stance has had me worried for along time. Hopefully I can get it as low as I want. I won't be cutting up the inner fenders for tire clearance. Here are the adjustable upper control arms I bought.


I grabbed an old 18" tire out of the junk pile to test. I believe this was a 225-50-18. It ended up being too tall. With the tire in this location, I had less than 2" of clearance to the top of the inner fender. I also measured the distance my headers would be off the ground with the suspension this low. The full length TTI's are going to hang too low. I'm going to have to sell these and buy the shorty version. The trans cooler lines don't clear the headers anyway. The shorties will allow me to use the reproduction hard lines I already have.


As for the rear suspension goes, a couple years ago I gave my 8 3/4 housing to a guy to have shortened. I never got it back. He stopped answering phone calls and texts. It was a freebie when I bought the car so I wasn't out any money but it still sucks. I talked to the guy I bought the car from and since scrap prices are still so low, he still had a small pile of 8 3/4s he hadn't gotten rid of yet. He let me come over and pick out another one. That housing is at another shop getting shortened as we speak. Hopefully the second time is the charm and I get this one back.

I just bought a pair of 0 arch MP oval track leaf springs. A good friend of mine works as a service manager at a Dodge dealer. He was able to sell them to me for $87 each. They were $110 each through Summit Racing. Once the rear end housing gets done, I can verify the length and order axles and hangers from Dr Diff. I originally wanted to run Wilwood brakes but they are ridiculously expensive. Not to mention the fact that Dr Diff said none of the rear Wilwood brakes fit a Mopar correctly. I'm just planning on going with Dr Diff's kits instead.

 

[burdar]

Here is the last update. Now you'll be all caught up.

I'm still working on fitting the B&M shifter to the factory console. It looks like I'll be able to use the automatic console top plate after all. It will be a very tight fit but it should work. After taking the console in and out a bunch of times, I got tired of looking at the rusty mess inside the storage compartment. As you can see, the interior filled up with water on more than one occasion.


I found a product called Iron Out under one of my sinks. It worked great for removing rust stains from a toilet so I thought I'd try it on the rust stained fiberglass of the console. It worked really well. Only a couple areas needed to be lightly sanded. Now all it needs is a couple light coats of SEM Landau Black.


I'll need to have the driveshaft shortened for the 8 3/4 upgrade. The original shaft has two tapered ends on it. Since I don't know the exact driveshaft length I need, I didn't want to spend the time cleaning up the original shaft and then not be able to use it. I parted out a 76 Newport about 12 years ago and kept the driveshaft out of it. It's longer then the A-body shaft as well as a larger diameter.(3.5" instead of 3") It only has one tapered end so it should work fine for shortening. Here's what it looked like when I started.


I put the shaft in a 5' piece of PVC pipe and filled it with vinegar. I checked the progress every 12 hours and gave it a light scrubbing with a scouring pad. It was in the bath for 36 hours. Here it is next to the Dart's original shaft.


The metal will start to flash rust right away as you can see. I put the driveshaft back in the PVC but filled it with EvapoRust. The EvapoRust quickly removed the flash rust and does a great job and preventing it from returning immediately. The driveshaft soaked in the EvapoRust for under an hour. Then I rinsed it off, dried it and sprayed it down with WD-40. It should keep like this for quite awhile. Once I get the rear end mocked up, I can take my measurements and have it shortened.


And finally, the other day I was looking for any other fasteners that needed to be cleaned up when I found this heater core tube plate that mounts in the engine compartment. It had seen better days so I made a new one out of some scrap.

 

[burdar]

I've been working on cleaning up all the window regulators and tracks. The regulators are in really good shape. All the plastic sliders look new. The only thing that I'll need to find is the plastic pieces that hold the side glass to the lift bracket. One of mine is broken and the bracket is loose. Might as well replace both of them.

I did have one problem but its been taken care of. After pulling the last mechanism out of the EvapoRust, I realized the coil spring was cracked. It must not have liked being derusted.

I found someone with a spring off of a 73 which looked the same in pictures so I bought it. While it was being shipped, I tried to figure out a safe way to replace the spring. The end "teeth" on the mechanisms are square. This prevents the "gear" from spinning all the way off that section of the mechanism. I simply ground the corner off at an angle. Here is an unmodified mechanism tooth next to the modified one.

With the gear off of the teeth, that section of the mechanism will spin all the way around to the other side which unloads the spring.

To reinstall, I mounted the gear section in the vise and used the other end as a lever. I installed the replacement spring with no tension, then spun the mechanism around until I could spin the gear back onto the teeth. That was it. Pretty simple install. The problem was that the 73 spring didn't end up being correct. It's smaller then my original one. I got it to work but it's not preloaded as much as the original. Right now I'm calling it good but I'll keep an eye out for the correct spring.

 

[burdar]

Last week I finally got my 8-3/4 housing back from being shortened. The overall length is 51-1/4 and with Dr Diff's 1/2" relocation brackets, the perch centers are 42". Last Sunday, I ordered axles, a rear disc brake kit, parking brake cables and spring brackets from Dr Diff. The last of the parts showed up last night and I was able to get the rear end all mocked up.

The brake lines are from Fine Lines. I originally told them I was going to use a Wilwood rear kit so they shortened the axle lines accordingly. This Dr Diff 11.7" kit must use longer flex lines because the axle lines are too long. I'll need to find someone with a flaring tool that will double flare stainless line so I can shorten them. I want to mount the flex line brackets to the back side of the axle tubes. I think it will be a cleaner install on the back rather then the top. The only thing I'm questioning is the shock clearance. How much clearance is there between the axle tube and the shock body? I don't want there to be and issues with the line/hose hitting the shock. I also need to add a clip to the PS axle tube for the E-brake cable. This 8-3/4 housing doesn't have one there. Once that stuff is taken care of, I can mount it under the car and measure for wheel/tires. Then it can come back apart so I can blast, smooth and paint the housing.

 

[2fine69s]

Darren your build is AWSOME. As I have said many times before,"The difference between good cars and great cars is the attention to detail", and yours is in the great category. By the way I checked with Rusty and he does not have anymore blue window rollers, sorry. Keep up the detail and if I can help, just drop me a line... Martin

 

[burdar]

Thanks Martin. Just to be clear, it's the plastic pieces that hold the lift bracket to the side glass. It's not really a "roller". I saw some listed at R/T Specialties but they looked different and said they were for hardtops.

Today I worked on the springs. The oval track springs use the larger B and E body sized shackle bushings. They make special bushings that will work but I already had new A-body bushings here so I wanted to use them. I decided the easiest and least expensive thing to do was sleeve the springs. I went to the hardware store and bought a couple 1" OD black pipe sections. The OD was too large to fit in the spring eye but the bushings fit perfectly inside the pipe. I went to my father-in-laws house and used his lathe to cut down the pipe so it would fit inside the spring.

 

[burdar]

I emailed R/T Specialties about the lift bracket clip/pin. He said that the one listed for hardtops is the one I need.

I mounted the springs and rear end tonight. I was worried how much clearance I'd have between the axle tube and the shocks.(brake hoses) I thought I'd better measure it to be sure so the rear end went under the car sooner then I planned. Here is a picture with the back of the car supported by the springs. It will sag a little more with the interior all installed but I doubt it will be much. Right now I've got 11" from the axle centerline to the wheel well lip. A 20" wheel should be 21" from lip to lip so, the top of the wheel should just disappear in the wheel well with the full weight on the springs. This is with the front spring bolt in the lower hole. I can still drop it lower if I need to. It all depends on how low I can get the front.

Here is a picture of the outer wheel well. I've got an arrow pointing towards a lip that sticks out. Is this a convertible thing or do all A-bodies of this vintage have it? This lip is even with the wheel well lip. It might even stick in a little farther. This is going to limit wheel width. I thought I'd be able to trim the lip somewhat for extra clearance but the tire is going to hit the wheel well before I even get out to the lip. I just took some rough/quick measurements but a 20x10 wheel with 5-3/4 backspacing will leave 1/2" gap at the springs and about 3/4" at the wheel lip.

 

[burdar]

I was playing around with the primitive "paint" program on the computer yesterday. I found a picture of the wheels I want to run and crudely mocked them up on the Dart. These are Coddington HR-01's. I think they look really good.

 

[JDMopar]

Those are very nice looking wheels! I think they will need the tallest tires that will fit without rubbing to look right though. I'm going to put the Year One 17" Rallyes on my Duster, and I will find tires that are the same height as 275/60-15's.

 

[burdar]

Wheel and tire specs will definately be critical. For the rear, I'm thinking about using a 255/35R20 or a 285/30R20. They are roughly 27" in diameter. For the front, I'm thinking about a 225/40R18 which is 25" in diameter. Those sizes would give me a 3" sidewall on both the front and rear.

I really need one of those adjustable wheel fitment tools where you can mount a tire and figure out all your wheel measurements. I doubt anyone around here has one to borrow though. Before I worry too much about it, I need to buy front brakes and get them mounted. Need to save up for a little while.

 

[JDMopar]

I'm with ya on the having to save up part! I think that tool is called a Percy's Wheelright tool. I'm looking at pretty much the same diameter tires for the 17" Rallye wheels. I may lean more towards a 28" back tire, and scoot the rear end back an inch or so to get more room at the front lip of the wheel wells. I will probably use a spacer plate between the front spring hangers and the mount for them on the body, along with a strengthening plate on the backside of the mount. I already know that I'm going to be better off adjusting the front edge of the wheel well openings on the fender. I'm being a cheapskate on the front brakes....lol. I'm using 73^ spindles, and 11.75 factory rotors, so my front wheels will be pushed out some. I may change my mind and use aftermarket brakes that wouldn't poke the wheels out.....but that gets me back to that having to save up some more part. I'd like to drive this thing while I'm still young enough to be able to get a drivers license....lol. Keep up the good work on your Dart.

 

[2fine69s]

Hey Darren & JD. If both of your cars are in roughly the same point of the build, there is another option. I lengthened my front and rear openings buy 2.5" and now I can run pretty much any size diameter wheel i want. If you're smart about it, it will take a die hard mopar guy to notice it. I lengthened my 69 Pro Steet Dart 4" for the 33" tires. If either of you has any question on how I did it, just drop me a PM. Here's a couple of pics...

 

[burdar]

This is exactly why wheel/tire fitment needs to be done before paint. Any fender mods can be done now so their aren't any surprises later. I previously test fit a 225/50r18 and it was too tall. It hit the front fender lip and didn't leave much suspension travel. The 225/40 should be ok. As far as the rear, the springs I'm using have a 1/2" longer front segment so the wheels will be pushed back that far already. The 27" diameter should work since the wheel well itself is 30" front to back.

The Dr Diff front brake kit widens the front track by 1/4" per side I think. Then the 73+ spindles increase it even more. It shouldn't make a difference since I'm planning on ordering a wheel with custom back spacing. Finding a wheel "in stock" that would fit though is probably not going to happen.

 

[burdar]

I ordered front brakes a couple weeks ago. Everything finally arrived this past weekend. The calipers are a little tricky to install. The 13" kit uses pretty thick rotors. Even with the pistons all the way in, there isn't much extra room between the pads. Everything went together though. Before I assemble the brakes for the final time, I'll paint the center of the rotors black so there isn't so much zinc showing.

It looks like I'm going to have a little clearance issue with the front ball joint bolts. The bolts stick out and hit the earlier style sway bar tabs on the lower control arms. I don't have the tie rods/center link hooked up yet but it doesn't look like the spindle turns much before making contact. I'll have to check everything with the steering hooked up. At the very least I'll have to trim the bolt. If it's really bad, I might have to look for a thinner nut.

 

[CudaChick1968]

Quality work and nice attention to detail sir!

 

[moparmat2000]

The car is in good shape. The worst part is the interior. The floor looked pretty crusty but I think it's going to clean up OK.

The trunk is in good shape. The spare tire well is solid...it just needs to be cleaned up.

The strikers are pulled away from the door frame but that seems to be an issue with a lot of A-bodies.

What i am working on with my 67 cuda is making 1/16" steel reinforcing plates shaped like how i drew on your pic. These will be placed on the inside or backside of the door jamb and spot welded in place to reinforce the thin steel, then the floating nutplates for the striker pin will get welded to the new reinforcement plates. Replace old saggy door hinges while your at it, as a dropping door catch smacking the striker pin is part of the problem

 

[autoxcuda]

I emailed R/T Specialties about the lift bracket clip/pin. He said that the one listed for hardtops is the one I need.

I mounted the springs and rear end tonight. I was worried how much clearance I'd have between the axle tube and the shocks.(brake hoses) I thought I'd better measure it to be sure so the rear end went under the car sooner then I planned. Here is a picture with the back of the car supported by the springs. It will sag a little more with the interior all installed but I doubt it will be much. Right now I've got 11" from the axle centerline to the wheel well lip. A 20" wheel should be 21" from lip to lip so, the top of the wheel should just disappear in the wheel well with the full weight on the springs. This is with the front spring bolt in the lower hole. I can still drop it lower if I need to. It all depends on how low I can get the front.
View attachment 1714985599

Here is a picture of the outer wheel well. I've got an arrow pointing towards a lip that sticks out. Is this a convertible thing or do all A-bodies of this vintage have it? This lip is even with the wheel well lip. It might even stick in a little farther. This is going to limit wheel width. I thought I'd be able to trim the lip somewhat for extra clearance but the tire is going to hit the wheel well before I even get out to the lip. I just took some rough/quick measurements but a 20x10 wheel with 5-3/4 backspacing will leave 1/2" gap at the springs and about 3/4" at the wheel lip.
View attachment 1714985600

Yes they all have a lip/ledge there.

 

[scampman]

Yes they all have a lip/ledge there.

View attachment 1715009269

View attachment 1715009270

have you gotten rid of the trim plate from the trunk? if not, would you be willing to part with it at a reasonable price? I have a 68 dart gt that I would like to put it on. thank you for your consideration, Brian (scampman)

 

[burdar]

Sorry everyone, I didn't get any email notification that I had replies to my last post. I usually get them. Don't know why that didn't happen this time.

"moparmat2000" the outer metal has been fixed but they didn't do any extra reinforcement on the inside. Thanks for the suggestions. If I don't do anything extra, I'm sure it will just break again. The "cage" that holds the nut plate should be easily removed and welded back on after the reinforcement plates are installed. When the car goes back to the body shop for paint, I'll definitely have them work on that area. I bought replacement lower hinges online. The original star wheels are seized and the high spots worn off. They definitely need work/replaced.

"autoxcuda" thanks for the clarification. I think I'll be fine with the tires I want to run in the rear without messing with that lip. I need to mock everything up first before ordering wheels. That's too big of a cost to just guess at.

"scampman" yes, I still have that trim panel. It's hanging on my wall. I'm not interested in selling it right now. It's not perfect. There is a dent in the lower left corner. It's a cool wall hanger. If I change my mind, I'll let you know.

 

[burdar]

The car originally came with power steering. I initially decided to change to manual steering because I don't like the feel of the stock box. I rebuilt the steering column with a longer manual box lower shaft/coupler. After thinking about it some more, I didn't like the idea of the increased turns "lock-to-lock" of the manual boxes. Plus, Firm Feel now has a stage 3 upgrade for the PS box that I didn't know about. So, now I'm going back to power steering. That meant I had to change out the steering shaft again. That's the latest thing I've been working on.

When I swapped out the manual steering lower shaft, I glued the two halves together with Gorilla Glue. It seemed like it would hold ok but the bond ended up breaking during installation. I had a hard time getting the shaft to go up through the upper bearing. I couldn't get it to go up the last 1/16" so I could install the snap ring. I tapped on the bottom of the shaft to get it seated and the glue let go. This time around, I wanted to come up with something else.

I ended up drilling through both shafts with a 1/8" bit. I tried finding a plastic bolt locally but couldn't find one. My father-in-law had some scrap Lexan that he thought might work. He put it in his lathe and turned a couple 1/8" pins out of it. After pounding the pins through the steering shaft, we heated up the head of a nail and melted the ends over to lock them in place. I think it turned out pretty good. I was still a little worried about the shaft being too strong and not wanting to collapse in an accident so I ended up drilling out the center of the Lexan pins with a 1/16" bit. I think this will work out good. This picture is before I drilled out the center.

The manual steering coupler that I was going to use came out of a 72 Demon. It had a hole in the side with a small pin to keep the shoes inside the coupler.(as a safety measure) The original 68 PS coupler didn't have this hole/pin. I thought it would be a good idea to add it.

Lastly, I thought I'd show how I held the coupler together while bending over the tabs on the cover. I just use two pieces of 1x4. The lower piece is solid...the upper piece has a large hole in it. I just clamped the assembly together with some wood clamps and then bent over the tabs. This works really nice.

 

[HemiMark]

Not sure how I missed this build but I'm sure happy I found it! Great work.
Mark

 

[burdar]

It looks like I have a lot of pictures to fix in this thread. I'll look for another photo hosting site and see if I can't get them to reappear.

Not a lot happening with the Dart lately. We adopted a little girl in May so she is taking up most of our time right now. I have been getting little projects done though. Basically things that don't cost much. Here's a small piece I worked on over the weekend. I think it turned out nice.

The air cleaner is very close to the under side of the hood. A standard wing nut is way too tall...and ugly IMO. I needed something short and custom looking. I had the idea of making a wing nut out of a button head bolt. I found some stainless 1/2x13 button head bolts on Ebay. I started out by drilling a hole through the bolt on my father-in-law's lathe. I just went slow and used a lot of oil and it didn't go too bad. Then I ran a larger bit through to get the "proper" sized hole to start tapping. That's when the problems started. That stainless did NOT want to tap. I ended up drilling the hole a lot larger then the chart said to but still it was fighting us at every step.

My father-in-law had a two fluted tap that wasn't quite 20 threads per inch. He said he's used that to chase a hole and then come back through with a 1/4x20 so we gave that a shot. We would use that tap until it got too tight, then follow it with the 1/4x20. We literally worked for hours trying to cut threads in a 1" piece but we finally got it done. The last thing we did on his lathe was to machine the threads off the outside of the bolt. Yesterday I sanded the top a little flatter and gave it a good polish. I had to drill out the hole in the air cleaner lid and cut 1/4" off of the carb stud. All in all it turned out decent and I have a wing nut that looks custom. It might even be a little harder for someone to walk away with my air cleaner as well.

 

[jtkaaa07]

Do you need rear interior panels for your car, I have a really nice pair for sale in the interior forum right now!

Jeff

 

[burdar]

Yes, Jeff I'll be needing new rear panels. Mine are brittle and cracked. I'll keep an eye on yours...I just can't spend the money right now.

I finished the air cleaner over the weekend. I painted the lid, base and filter cover with Eastwood's Extreme Chassis black satin. I really like the color. The air filter I bought from Summit was a generic brand that was half the price of a K&N. The quality looks really nice but the filter media is pink. I wanted that aluminum/stainless mesh look to show through the dimpled holes in the air cleaner but this filter had the mesh on the inside...not the outside. The pink color really showed through which I didn't like. I ended up cutting the mesh out of the standard paper filter that came with the Summit air cleaner kit. Then I wrapped the mesh around the outside of the new filter. It looks a lot better now IMO. The pink filter is a lot less noticeable.

Summit 1" drop base, 14" diameter air cleaner kit with custom dimpled filter cover.

Painted satin black...

I'm working on customizing the valve covers at the moment. I'm close to being done with them. I think they will look pretty good when finished. I'll post some pictures once they're done.