Another 76 Brazilian Hardtop

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

Introduced myself here more than a year ago....and not much progress has been achieved.
Life is definetly gettin in the way...at least I'm having some progresso on other "work fronts", like buying my own house and stuff.

This is a brazilian Dodge Dart, they were built here from 1969 to 1981, having minor cosmetical changes from year to year.
Mine is from 1976.
They were all 318s, both Dart and Chargers (wich were also A-bodies here!), 2bbl carburetors (a really crapy one), 7,5:1 compression ratio (Charger RTs from 1971 to 1976 had 8,4:1 CR) and options were power disc brakes, power steering, "four on the floor" gear boexs, 3 speed auto (904), air conditioning.

Mine came stock with 4 speed, power disc brakes and power steering.
It was originally white with brown interior.
I changed it to black on black.
I've been restoring it since 2001.
Going to post pics by year, since I have a LOT of them.
First years are bad quality because I only had an "analogical" camera...remember those?
So...here are some pics from 2001.
First 6 are before restoration started...apearently very solid, but lots of hidden cancer.
Previous owner stated the car had 200.000 miles on it, engine had been rebuilt only once.
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The other 4 are from the begining of the resto, tear down and first work on metal...almost no metal around front and rear glass...lots of rust on tail lights housings, front fenders, rockers, floor pans...

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The car is painted, engine is out waiting to be rebuilt (040 over on cilinders, probably 020 on crank, 010 right now), bumpers rechromed, tinted green windows.

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

After being totally disassembled and striped to bare metal, more metal work was done, and this fase took around 3 months.
Not many pictures of that.
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It than went to the painter, who took no less than FOUR YEARS to do the job.
It came out just perfect, my patience was actually worth it.
In 2002 there was a lot of priming, filling and sanding.
The only part that got "done" was under the car, with the rubberized coating and black Urethane over it (this last part not pictured).

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[goldfish65]

Thanks for showing what it takes to do the job right. Your love for your car shows...will be looking for more photos as you post them...

 

[jaimus]

Nice Job.

 

[clhyer]

:thumleft:
C

 

[cudavert]

Oh that's smokin'!!! I love the care and attention to detail! BTW, I'm REALLY tripping on that floor hump for the 4-speed!! WHAT THE HECK??! I wonder what type it is?! Looks like a T-5 might pop right in there.

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

Thanks for the messages guys!

I have to be honest here, I wasn't the one behind metal and paint work!
Metal work was done by a senior "Chrysler Dealership" repairman, he retired right after Chrysler Brasil closed its doors, but is still working on his own.
Paintwork was done by another professional, who works exclusively with classic cars. This was his first Mopar, and he had quite a handfull to get those lines straight...but he exceeded expetations on that, I assure you.

That floor hump is actually our stock hump, our four speed gearbox was different from yours.
(and all brazillian four speed cars came with the console between the front seats, identical to yours)
It was a "Clark 260F", have no idea if you had anything similar on other cars.

This is NOT my gearbox pictured, I have no pics of it here (I´m at lunch at work).
The original pivot points on the shafts used bushings and had not much adjustment, this is an "improved" gearbox.

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[V-100]

Alex, I could tell by the location of your trans hump you definitely had a different manual trans supplier in South America. I'm no guru/expert, and the only thing that rings a bell when you state "Clark" as the manufacturer is the forklift/ industrial equipment maker up here in the North-end of the Americas (Oh, they also made the "Clark Cortez" motorhomes in the 1960's and '70's). Maybe somebody else would know. Neat car, looks like you are taking your time and doing it properly-and I for one am liking this thread.

 

[340duster]

Interesting 4speed, great job on the car so far.

 

[OneOfMany]

That is one funky linkage setup. Your car is really cool looking. I love the grill and tail panel treatment. Never seen anything like it. Of course, it would be one heck of a road trip to get this far north ;)

Grant

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

V-100, I really THINK it was the forklift manufacturer Clark that built our gearboxes!! It is actually a pretty good gearbox, takes a lot of abuse and using parts from the same manufacturer but for gearboxes originally built for other cars (mostly trucks), you can get some pretty "nasty" gears ratios!
(I've actually never done anything like this, my mechanical skills are PRETTY limited)

OneOfMany, there actually IS one Brazilian A-body in Canada! I don't know where, but take a look at this posts, they are from a guy from Canada also.
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=751284&postcount=6

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=751450&postcount=8

The car pictured is one of our "Charger RTs", from 1976 (same year as my Dart, note the same taillights).
1976 was the last year for the 8,4:1 compression ratio 318s...after that, only 7,5:1.

Its been hard to post, LOT of work...been reproducing some interior sailpanels and polishing roofrail trims, real time consuming shores.
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My wife is great...she not only "allows" me to work inside the house, but she also helps working on the car!
There is she in the trunk, giving the lid springs a little talent retouching the paint where the painter missed it.

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Soon I'll get back to the "restoration history" pictures.

 

[ocdart]

Great thread, Alex!
Looks just like '69 Dart sheetmetal with different front and rear trim. BTW, I really like the styling of the front trim. That look would get a lot of double-takes here in the states.
More pics!

 

[YY1]

I've really loved the A body cars from Brazil since I first found the "dodgenews" site in the mid 90's.
Nice to have a member from there on the forum!
There used to be a "for sale" section on that site, and NICE cars were about 10,000 real, which was about $6000 US.
What do they go for now?

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

Ocdart, I like our front trim a lot too, it is just a shame so fez wrer produced and just a "handfull" survived...

Hey YY1, nice you knew "dodgenews", I visited that site a lot myself!

Well, brazillian a-bodies have gained a bit of value over the last ten years.
A NICE Charger RT wouldn't cost you less than R$50.000 or somethig close to 30 grand.
There are rumours of some RTs being sold for over R$80.000, US$45.000.
Thats why so many US Mopars started apearing down here, even with 60% import taxes plus duties and fees, sometimes it is still a good deal.

Darts are a bit "cheaper", a nice one costs something around 15 and 20 grand.

All I can say is I'm lucky I bought mine more than ten years ago..I paid the equivalent to US$ 3.300 for it back than, today it wouldn't change hands for than US$10.000.

You can see some here: http://carros.mercadolivre.com.br/antigos-carros/dodge, todays exchange rate is around R$1,78 = US$1,00.

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

Some more pictures of the resto process, now from 2003.

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[Alex "Berkowitz"]

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That texturized part is an rubberized coating we used under final paint (two stage urethane)

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

And now 2004...I lost count of how many times the painter removed EVERYTHING from this sides and started it all over...I believe at some point, it just became a matter of honnor to him.

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

At this point the car had been at the painters shop for two and a half years...so the "metal work sir", who disassembled it for me, asked to take the rest o the parts home, as it seemed the car would still take some time to get done.
I still remember my Mom's reaction when she got home and saw her "barbecue area" full of dusty/greasy old parts...what a joy.

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

Some more sanding, priming, checking, aligning, priming again...

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

And than, on June 3rd, 2005, the miracle happened: PAINT!

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

The next week the car was being sanded to get the stripes and clear coat.
The car actually got 6 coats of paint, being sanded every two coats, and than 4 coats of clear, also sandind every two coats.

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

And clear...funny how it all went pretty fast after the "preparation" fase...four months since first coat of paint on june to it totally polished on october, painted stripes and all.

 

[Demonracer]

That is going to be one "trick" ride when you complete it. The paint looks deep enough to fall into. Please keep us posted as the reassembly process proceeds.

 

[Alex "Berkowitz"]

Last october's weekend we took it to have its powertrain reinstalled, and on decembers first weekend, it was back at my parents house.

And it has basically been sitting since.
I'm working on the parts, cleaning, painting, polishing, buyng some others...

Last november we removed the engine, it failed one year after reinstalation.
Eaten camshaft, lifters contact face were rounded, rings on four pistons were cracked (pretty bad scratches on the walls), eaten main bearings...too many defects to even start wondering where everything started failing.
Now I'm studying about camshafts, pistons, heads...can't go too far, but would really like to improve its "breathing" a litlle.

 

[alex_borges_br]

shining like a mirror!