71 Dodge Dart Swinger in England

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Actually pepboyz and vatozone (autozone) are overrated. Ideal with rock auto, summit, or evilbay on everything unless its an i got to have it right now part because my car is broke and i need to get to work.

Check out www.tuxedomotorsport.com thats my friends shop in New York state. That's really cool on the Volkswagen camper I very rarely see those anymore
 
Maybe I've been watching too much Roadkill where they go in and buy a NOS kit and holley carb. You couldn't do that over here.

The camper is rust free too, with just one patch on the floor near the sink drain.

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The thing with roadkill tv is a lot of that stuff has got to be staged for tv drama. Sure it makes for good tv. That chip foose overhaulin show was a bit extreme too. I mean 5 days to restore a car. You got 50 people all asses and elbows. It seems like everything they do takes a crate motor 350 and TH350 trans. Oh and everything he does takes a 2 tone paint job. With that kind of speed quality has got to suffer. I told my wife dont ever write to this guy to "steal my car and redo it" i'd prob shoot him and then shoot her on general principles lol.

My local pep boyz has a speed shop, but everything in there is BBC and SBC other than some mopar valve covers, and the usual generic 4bbl carbs in multiple sizes and air cleaners that fit everything. I do have a summit racing warehouse and storefront in Arlington Texas about 3 hours away from me. I went there for an AMD floorpan for my sons 69 cuda save $100 on shipping. Now their store is bad ***. Got top fuel dragsters cabled up and hanging from the ceiling, and lots of cool stuff. Some more mopar stuff on display. I dont blame these places for having mostly chevy and ford stuff. I mean you gotta display what sells the most.

Most of the time though i am not in a hurry for a project part so i order online, or hit evilbay and have it delivered. So not too much different than you, except your across the pond.
 
Heres one of those idler arm repair kits i was talking about. Its for 67 and older not 68 and up, but you get the idea. You may be able to do something with machining the idler arm and using bearings you have available over there.

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Thats why the 67 A body idler arm was a 1 year only arm. I modded a 67 K frame to use a 68 - 72 idler arm because of that.
 
Dizzy pickup and reluctor arrived today. Fitted, timed up and still running rough.:( So im going to put a fresh post on the tech section re this and forge ahead with other bits on this thread. Next up brakes and steering :steering:
 
just a thought mate, have you checked for dizzy shaft runout. a mate had a ford 302 that ran rough and it turned out the dizzy shaft was bent very slightly but enough to cause the rough running. a new dizzy cured it immediately.
neil.
 
Yep the shaft seems ok, I can get an even 8 thou reluctor clearance in all positions. Im now rethinking the headers, which I have had off but still have a slight leak at the head gasket. Could this cause this symptom? They are hedman headers and fit badly seems to hit everything in the engine bay and are poorly made. I'm tempted to go back to cast stock manifolds. if I can find some in UK.
 
I've moved onto sorting brakes, wheels and tyres.
Re bled all the brake with fresh fluids and got a nice firm pedal. As with a lot on this car, discs, calipers and all rear shoe gear looks new.

I've sorted through my stock of tyres and come up with 215/70/14 rears and 195/70/14 for the fronts on 14 x 7 rims. I'll upgrade to 15" when I find a decent sets for sale at a swapmeet.

Steering arms reconnected and all 4 wheels back on the ground, first time in about 3 years.

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sadly you cant pick the UK registration number , it will be age related. So 3 letter, 3 numbers and then J for 1971.
 
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Over here in Texas, if you have matching plates same year as the car, you can reuse them as long as the tag number you have is not currently in use somewhere else in the state. They have to be restored to new condition in the correct paint colors for that year plate. I have a set of 1967 Texas plates i restored for my 67 barracuda. If nothing else maybe you can put em on at shows, or hang em up as wall art.
 
My truck turns 25 this year. Owned it since new. I will be eligible for Texas antique tags this year. Got some perks that come with that including no more yearly inspections.
 
In the Uk if the vehicle is over 40 years old its road tax and inspection exempt. So my 58 GMC Apache, 68 VW camper and 71 Dart all road tax and MOT free, if they weren't i wouldn't be able to have them all on the road. However the 2000 Boxster and 99 Discovery arent tax free and that costs me about £600 per year for both
 
So about $800 U.S. per year for both. Thats rough. My vehicles average $74 each for registration per year, and $7.00 per vehicle for inspection. I have 4 registered. So $324 or about £250 for 4 cars. You only pay state tax at the stealership one time when you buy it new, or off the lot used, or to the county tax assessor one time if you buy it private sale used.
 
I decide to re do the wiring to the alternator as I wasn't happy the wiring was just sat in the engine valley touching the rocker cover and intake manifold. I've ran a new power wire from the alternator to relay near the battery and extended the other wires with solder and heated shrink joints. The wrapped in a woven material cable sleeve.

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Looks great. You should also ditch that rubber fuel line and bend some steel lines.

I think you mentioned that the engine was a 360. The balancer outer could have slipped on the rubber and is out of balance. 360s are externally balanced. The outer balance weight ring has some metal missing from it in order to help with the external balance. If the outer ring has slipped then that may be a cause of vibration.

A second cause could be a torque converter in the car from a 318 without an external balance weight. I think B&M makes a flexplate that allows you to use a neutral balance torque converter (no weight) on a 360 as the B&M flexplate is set up as an external balance flexplate.
 
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moparmat2000 said:
Looks great. You should also ditch that rubber fuel line and bend some steel lines
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Yep that's also on my radar for sorting out. Not happy with the glass fuel filter right next to the alternator. Going to run a new copper line from pump to carb and put filter before pump.
 
Id recommend staying away from copper line. Over time vibration will make it brittle, and you will have to anneal it to make it soft again.
 
Inline tube sells a preformed tubing kit from pump to carb. Not sure if they got one that will work with the edelbrock carb.
 
Went to a hot rod swap meet in Essex 500 mile round trip But found what I needed 2 off dodge rallye rims. Couldn't believe only £5 each. It was a rare find and super cheap. One on left given a quick clean with a scotch bright to get crappy black paint off. RIght hand one needs rim edge straightening. This will be the spare.

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Super nice. And a great deal too. A little sandblasting and a coat of silver, be as good as new.
 
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