70 Dart Custom GT Package in Crazy Plum

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A numbers matching 318 or slant six car means nothing, and does, IMO, little to nothing for value. Best you could do is salvage a few pieces to modify a clean car back home in Canada, but the cost of shipping them back would probably make it not worth your while.
 
Thanks to all for sharing your thoughts and experiences with this crazy idea I had. I decided to leave it alone and find another project.
 
Hello,

I'm an owner of an matching numbers 1970 Dodge Dart Custom GT.

In 1970, Dart Customs with the "A65" code could be had with a GT trim package. For the '70 model year only 903 Dart GT's were produced and I would say that most of them weren't painted in a high impact color... So it's a pretty rare car. On May the 2nd, I saw a second 70 Dodge Dart GT (in blue), but they placed a Rallyedash in the interior, the spoiler was mounted inverted and so on. I think they try to create a 340 clone... Like some other users wrote, an original 1970 Dodge Dart 340 has a greater value, but nevertheless the GT of 1970 is pretty damn rare.

GT trim package included buckets and console.
 
Hello I am a proud owner of a 70 dart gt i did not know that they didn't make a lot in 1970 kinda a rare I guess good thing I've kept it I got it when I was 18 and beat the everliving crap out of the original 318 ,904,7/14 combo till it couldn't take anymore replaced driveline to a 318 .030 over with eddy 4 barrel 727 8 3/4 3.23 sure grip nice street able combo then life took over for 25 years got married had a kid got divorced got remarked I know didn't learn the first time lol had another kid who is now 5 that loves the car so a restoration to driver quality aka street beatable has begun brings back some good memories original b5 blue when I got it it was white to hide all the bondo orange is from me testing my new spray gun before painting my jeep
 
d55dave said:
A numbers matching 318 or slant six car means nothing, and does, IMO, little to nothing for value. Best you could do is salvage a few pieces to modify a clean car back home in Canada, but the cost of shipping them back would probably make it not worth your while.
Click to expand...

A numbers matching car is a BIG DEAL! Add on top of that that in 70 a Dart GT is pretty rare, especially if it's a bucket seat and console car
 
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70ronzdart said:
Hello I am a proud owner of a 70 dart gt i did not know that they didn't make a lot in 1970 kinda a rare I guess good thing I've kept it I got it when I was 18 and beat the everliving crap out of the original 318 ,904,7/14 combo till it couldn't take anymore replaced driveline to a 318 .030 over with eddy 4 barrel 727 8 3/4 3.23 sure grip nice street able combo then life took over for 25 years got married had a kid got divorced got remarked I know didn't learn the first time lol had another kid who is now 5 that loves the car so a restoration to driver quality aka street beatable has begun brings back some good memories original b5 blue when I got it it was white to hide all the bondo orange is from me testing my new spray gun before painting my jeep
Click to expand...
 
My uncle ordered one of those brand new in '71. He ordered it B5 blue, 318, 3 speed stick w/no console with black buckets. It was all blue with a black area along the bottom & the GT emblem down in the black area. Those are really cool & unique cars.
 
David Eldridge said:
A numbers matching car is a BIG DEAL! Add on top of that that in 70 a Dart GT is pretty rare, especially if it's a bucket seat and console car
Click to expand...

I think the point was that having a numbers matching 318, which is the best engine you could have in a '70 GT, is fairly meaningless for adding value. If the car is 100% stock it might add a little to the price, but really if you didn't have a numbers matching car you probably wouldn't do a 100% OE restoration on a 318 car anyway. If the car is modified much from stock it means pretty much zilch. Yeah, having a numbers matching 440, Hemi, or even a 340 makes a big difference to the sale price. And maybe someday it will mean more for a 318 car. Heck even the non A-body 383 cars aren't all that highly valued. From a collector's standpoint it would make more sense to have a matching numbers 318 car, since it might mean more later. But if you look at the market now it really doesn't make the car worth a heck of a lot more. Still just a 318, and if you want it to mean anything that means it's still got a 2 barrel manifold and carb because it would need to be all OE for anyone to even care.

And, all the 70/71 GT's were bucket seat cars. The buckets were pretty much the entire GT package for '70/'71. They got buckets and they got a GT emblem. That was pretty much the whole option package. According to the old registry information I got from Bruce for '70 only about half the cars had consoles. In '71 the majority of them had consoles, but there were still a few without. They also got the woodgrain dash trim option, and they didn't get the rallye dash.

For '70
70_Dart0016.jpg


For '71. They didn't show the rocker trim in the brochure, but the GT emblem went to the rocker and had a 1 year only emblem, unlike the '70 (which was the same as the '69 emblem, just on the quarter panel)
Here's the emblem
e0b0_3-copy-jpg.1714595722.jpg

71_Dart_Demon0006.jpg


71_Dart_Demon0019.jpg
 
72bluNblu said:
I think the point was that having a numbers matching 318, which is the best engine you could have in a '70 GT, is fairly meaningless for adding value. If the car is 100% stock it might add a little to the price, but really if you didn't have a numbers matching car you probably wouldn't do a 100% OE restoration on a 318 car anyway. If the car is modified much from stock it means pretty much zilch. Yeah, having a numbers matching 440, Hemi, or even a 340 makes a big difference to the sale price. And maybe someday it will mean more for a 318 car. Heck even the non A-body 383 cars aren't all that highly valued. From a collector's standpoint it would make more sense to have a matching numbers 318 car, since it might mean more later. But if you look at the market now it really doesn't make the car worth a heck of a lot more. Still just a 318, and if you want it to mean anything that means it's still got a 2 barrel manifold and carb because it would need to be all OE for anyone to even care.

And, all the 70/71 GT's were bucket seat cars. The buckets were pretty much the entire GT package for '70/'71. They got buckets and they got a GT emblem. That was pretty much the whole option package. According to the old registry information I got from Bruce for '70 only about half the cars had consoles. In '71 the majority of them had consoles, but there were still a few without. They also got the woodgrain dash trim option, and they didn't get the rallye dash.

For '70
View attachment 1715028384

For '71. They didn't show the rocker trim in the brochure, but the GT emblem went to the rocker and had a 1 year only emblem, unlike the '70 (which was the same as the '69 emblem, just on the quarter panel)
Here's the emblem
View attachment 1715028385
View attachment 1715028386

View attachment 1715028387
Click to expand...

There's a lot to be said for a numbers matching car. It's not about the value (not in a true car person's eye) it's about preserving the car
 
David Eldridge said:
There's a lot to be said for a numbers matching car. It's not about the value (not in a true car person's eye) it's about preserving the car
Click to expand...

Sure. But, if you're worried about preserving a 2-barrel 318 A-body in it's original form you're one of the few, and you're going to spend a whole lot more money than the car is going to be worth when your done. We only need so many cars in museums.

Look I'm not discounting preserving examples of these cars, but, there's more than one take on it. I'm all for having some original examples, especially if you can find a real, low-mile survivor. Having a few of those cars around as examples of the original car has value. But, here's the thing. If you're worried about truly preserving a car, you're not driving it. Because frankly these cars, in their original form, are barely safe on the roads today given the speeds and stopping distances that are generally needed to keep from trading paint with modern cars that accelerate, stop and handle much better that are driven by people that take that for granted. So if you want to drive daily, you've got to upgrade and that makes matching numbers moot. Frankly, if everyone preserves these cars in their original from in the very near future you'll only find them in museums. Because unless future generations of drivers see these cars on the road to even know what they are, they will disappear. The skills to even operate these cars are going to disappear (already are). They're already building self driving cars without a way for a driver to control them, that cat's out of the bag.

I used to worry that I would get legislated off the road in my pre-'75 daily drivers because of smog laws. That mileage would get limited somehow and I'd be unable to continue use them as daily transportation like I do, because the big money hot rod organizations don't focus on people daily driving their classics. And only being able to drive to car shows would suck. But I'm not worried about the smog thing anymore, it's fallen a distant second to autonomous driving cars. I think in the near future cars driven by a human operator are going to be on the chopping block, and the upcoming generations aren't going to see it as giving up a part of the culture.

So, chop them up and drive the crap out of them. Big brakes, big torsion bars, better tires, make them compete with modern while still keeping their souls. Numbers matching is out the window, have fun. Because every kid that sees my car at the gas station might think twice about voting my cars out of existence. I have younger kids come up to my car all the time and ask me what it is, and I try to be happy and explain and show my enthusiasm to try and convey how much fun it is. Museum cars are already dead. They're cars, they're supposed to be driven. If preservation is the only goal, it'll just end up being a few models in a museum to document how dangerous cars used to be. I'm happy to sacrifice "preserving" some lesser desired models to try to preserve the culture.

So maybe I dunno why a "true car person" is worried about making a museum car out of a plain jane 318 car.
 
72bluNblu said:
Sure. But, if you're worried about preserving a 2-barrel 318 A-body in it's original form you're one of the few, and you're going to spend a whole lot more money than the car is going to be worth when your done. We only need so many cars in museums.

Look I'm not discounting preserving examples of these cars, but, there's more than one take on it. I'm all for having some original examples, especially if you can find a real, low-mile survivor. Having a few of those cars around as examples of the original car has value. But, here's the thing. If you're worried about truly preserving a car, you're not driving it. Because frankly these cars, in their original form, are barely safe on the roads today given the speeds and stopping distances that are generally needed to keep from trading paint with modern cars that accelerate, stop and handle much better that are driven by people that take that for granted. So if you want to drive daily, you've got to upgrade and that makes matching numbers moot. Frankly, if everyone preserves these cars in their original from in the very near future you'll only find them in museums. Because unless future generations of drivers see these cars on the road to even know what they are, they will disappear. The skills to even operate these cars are going to disappear (already are). They're already building self driving cars without a way for a driver to control them, that cat's out of the bag.

I used to worry that I would get legislated off the road in my pre-'75 daily drivers because of smog laws. That mileage would get limited somehow and I'd be unable to continue use them as daily transportation like I do, because the big money hot rod organizations don't focus on people daily driving their classics. And only being able to drive to car shows would suck. But I'm not worried about the smog thing anymore, it's fallen a distant second to autonomous driving cars. I think in the near future cars driven by a human operator are going to be on the chopping block, and the upcoming generations aren't going to see it as giving up a part of the culture.

So, chop them up and drive the crap out of them. Big brakes, big torsion bars, better tires, make them compete with modern while still keeping their souls. Numbers matching is out the window, have fun. Because every kid that sees my car at the gas station might think twice about voting my cars out of existence. I have younger kids come up to my car all the time and ask me what it is, and I try to be happy and explain and show my enthusiasm to try and convey how much fun it is. Museum cars are already dead. They're cars, they're supposed to be driven. If preservation is the only goal, it'll just end up being a few models in a museum to document how dangerous cars used to be. I'm happy to sacrifice "preserving" some lesser desired models to try to preserve the culture.

So maybe I dunno why a "true car person" is worried about making a museum car out of a plain jane 318 car.
Click to expand...

You really are not a car person then. The whole point of having one of the old cars is for the driving experience. To feel it the way it used to be. And that is not true. I have no problem driving in traffic with an old car, and I live in the Washington DC area. They do fine with modern day driving. Apparently you are one of the people that don't have the driving skill to handle a real car, and need the modern technology to help you drive.
 
d55dave said:
Are you saying that "true" car people only like preserved original cars? I think you should tread lightly.........
Click to expand...

I didn't say only, I'm saying that they would appreciate a stock car. Even if there are more than just a few of them around. Not just have the mindset of "Oh there's a bunch so let's just chop them all up into something else" or "Oh it's just a 318"
 
David Eldridge said:
I didn't say only, I'm saying that they would appreciate a stock car. Even if there are more than just a few of them around. Not just have the mindset of "Oh there's a bunch so let's just chop them all up into something else" or "Oh it's just a 318"
Click to expand...
I beg to differ. I believe that a significant number of "true" car people would appreciate and value higher a tastefully modified slant six or 318 car that now has a warmed 360, 408 or even big block in it.

But......that is only my opinion.......and you know what they say about opinions, LOL.
 
d55dave said:
I beg to differ. I believe that a significant number of "true" car people would appreciate and value higher a tastefully modified slant six or 318 car that now has a warmed 360, 408 or even big block in it.

But......that is only my opinion.......and you know what they say about opinions, LOL.
Click to expand...

Hahahaha.
 
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