70 Dart Triple Treat Build

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70Lawn_Dart

70Lawn_Dart

#moparlawndart
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
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102
Location
Cassadaga NY
This build originally started as an 80 d150 build for Roadkill Zip Tie drags last year and has transformed into a rotted 72 Dart Swinger Special then to the current 70 Dart Swinger. The 72 I started with needed more sheetmetal than i had the skills for, then comes in the current 70 i have now which i found rust free for $1500 on facebook. Hauled from lower western ny to NJ, 6.5hrs one way to bring this gem back. Car is pretty much a roller which is what i need due to the amount of parts needed to be upgraded to accomplish my goal. I bet a couple friends that i will beat them overall at Super Summit this year in autocross and drags. Car 1 is an EVO X and the other is a 90s BMW 3 series...lofty goal on the autocross part but im confident with amount of info and experience ive found so far.
I have an 89 roller cam 360 out of my truck which is going in the car. Shaved, ported, big valve heads, KB rods and pistons, under-turned crank, roughly 10 to 10.5 to 1 compression. Builder stated it will make atleast 450 with the intake and cam were going to run. Behind that is a TCI 727 trans, 8 3/4 rear end from a 66 satellite. More parts of the build will be listed later on.
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Parts sitting in my house as of now:

Lock right lunch box locker
US Car Tool spring relocation and mini tub kit
DrDiff wilwood stage 2 disk upgrade
Jaz 16G fuel cell
Summit racing seat
Auto gauge kit and tach
TCI streetfighter 727
Race star 15x10 rims
TCI fast-gate shifter
And a 72 Dart parts car
 
I got a little over ambitious with the new tools last night when i was pulling out the /6 K-member...guess its time to clean up and paint before throwing the front clip back on. More parts arrived yesterday and today. Assembly will start this weekend most likely.
 
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My friend broke my grill...I guess it's fixed now, going to go over the top with bondo to smooth it out and fill the missing spot
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Finally got a break in this crazy WNY weather to pull the V8 K-member and leaf springs out of the parts car. Time to degrease and start the front end assembly. Unfortunately the torsion bars had to be sacrificed...but my justification is that the adjusters were almost all the way out for the parts car sit level so it appears they were spanked anyways. I guess the slant 6 bars will do for now. Also had a chance for my buddy to rebuild and box the lower control arms.
 
More progress on the 70 Dart: got the k-memeber in and the suspension mocked up. A change in plans for the suspension...ordered coil over shock hoops from hemi denny and the qa1s came in today.
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UPDATE: Coil-overs mocked up, waiting for support hoops which are suppose to arrive tomorrow. Ran into an issue that i anticipated with the poly LCA bushings: when rotating through the suspension travel motion, the pivot pin back the control arm off itself. I know HDK sells the bracket to address this with his own LCA however i put time and money into rebuilding and bracing the factory lower arms so i will be attempting to come up with a solution for the factory arms before ordering his lower arms
 
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HDK coil over bracket installed. Tested full travel with and without coil. Need to do a small amount of clearencing at the bump stop on the frame rail. Looks like the factory lower arms will work fine. Spacing between the QA1 UCA and the spring is sufficient for full travel also
UPDATE: QA1 arms do not fit with coilovers due to loosing all adjustment on the right side cam bolt
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I guess one option you could do to hold the LCA in place is put the slant 6 torsion bars back in and just put snug the adjuster up enough to make contact. You just wouldn’t gain any clearance by having the tb’s gone.
 
75slant6 said:
I guess one option you could do to hold the LCA in place is put the slant 6 torsion bars back in and just put snug the adjuster up enough to make contact. You just wouldn’t gain any clearance by having the tb’s gone.
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75slant6, when I reassembled everything after installing the coilover brackets, the pivot pin actually seated and i was able to torque it down properly. When I had it together previously I must've not had the pin aligned right so I was having the issue stated above. After setting the strut rods to the proper length, I had a friend hit the LCA with a rubber mallet while i slowly cycled the control arm through it motion of travel arm the arm didn't budge. I know this will most likely be different with the weight of the engine on the k-frame so once the car is at weight and on the ground, I'm going to do the same process again to verify my findings and safety. That did cross my mind to just use the /6 bars as you said but I didn't like the idea for a few different reasons.
 
Installed the passenger side support for the coil overs and threw the rest of the suspension together and ran into an issue...looks like my passenger lca is twisted and bent which throws off the coil over positioning. ALSO, I've found the QA1 uca's will not work (won't allow any cam bolt adjustment without hitting the spring) without being "clearance" a significant amount. So I'm throwing in the towel and ordering the rest of the HDK torsion bar eliminator setup. On top of all of that, found the 17s I bought for the car also won't clear the uca ball joint cup (too much backspacing) without major grinding. All in all, it was a take 4 steps backward weekend.
 
You’ll get it lined out man, I know of some people who ground the shield on the QA1s.
 
Ordered more parts to sort out the front end:
the rest of the HDK coil over (w/ stock steering) conversion; UCA's and LCA's
New eBay 16:1 manual steering gear box
a few odd parts from summit
 
Everything for the front end came in. Have the driver side all set, passenger side tomorrow.
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3/16 wheel spacers are coming in today, hopefully that will fix my wheel fitment issue due to a small change in the center bore at the very outer part of the rim where the center cap mounts.
Ordered the front tires on friday: 235 45 17 Nitto NT555 G2's (approx. 25.4in diameter by 9.3in section width) My mock up tires are 235s but a taller profile and they clear through the full suspension range. Going for a Low and Wide Pro-Touring look/setup. Rear tires are going to be 255/45/17s most likely for the street and 25.5-26 by 10-11 wide for the strip.
 
Small win tonight, the wheel spacers was the missing link. The whole front suspension is together and the weight on the car is on the front suspension. It's going to have a really nice stance with the 235s. Also got the steering box mocked up, was going to have the steering done too but my centerlink is the my work truck that I didnt bring home.
 
Birthday was a couple days ago so that meant work on the swinger. Did the rear wheel bearings and wheel studs and found a never buy again brand. Race star wheels themselves are nice...however their matching lug nuts are garbage. The threads arent cut straight on 4 of the 10 lug nuts (the nuts wobble like the inner diameter is an oval not a circle) which led to me having to cut out a brand new wheel stud and ruining the knurl on the axle shaft itself. So instead of throwing the rear end back in the car, I installed the idler and pitman arms with the centerlink AND though the ebay steering box was jacked up when in reality the company that assembled it didnt return the sector shaft back to center and left it maxed out to the right.
 
looks good and thank you for your business.

I would change the poly shocks ends out to the spherical bearing. The reason is due to the factory anti-dive built into the UCA mounts, the upper and lower control arms swing in different arcs necessitating the spherical ends that allow movement. The poly ends can / will cause the spring to rub the shock housing.

as State Farm Insurance says.....seen a thing or two

Denny
 
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HemiDenny said:
looks good and thank you for your business.

I would change the poly shocks ends out to the spherical bearing. The reason is due to the factory anti-dive built into the UCA mounts, the upper and lower control arms swing in different arcs necessitating the spherical ends that allow movement. The poly ends can / will cause the spring to rub the shock housing.

as State Farm Insurance says.....seen a thing or two

Denny
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I actually ended up changing them when i order the rest of the parts from you after finding more posts and info about your setup. I gotta say it went together easier that any custom setup i've installed, granted my background is with jeeps but same deal pretty much.
 
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