Changing the rear quarters on my Dart conv. from a 69 to a 70

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Swinger 340 said:
I looked at the photos belmateo sent and it appears the cut was done at the spare tire seam and just behind the wheel well. You can see the tire seam was resealed and the extra support was added at the wheel well and rear trunk at the opening. Nice job on the transformation from 69 to 70, except much of the hardware was painted that should not been painted. Tire well is also aftermarket, missing plugs.
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belmateo said:
The build you are looking for is here.
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I looked at the "birth" article but each photo had to be opened one at a time and it was super time consuming. I had planned on going back to it but been super busy and haven't yet. I have seen a fair amount of cars done as a 70-up but haven't run across any articles done showing where they spliced the quarters. I have seen cars that have the full quarters replaced from 67-up to 70-up quarters ( hardtops ) but that's it. The quarters on my car are in good shape and I don't feel the need to splice in any larger of a piece than necessary. Thanks for all the info so far.
 
You might want to take a look at this post.

www.forabodiesonly.com

Dart Hemi Convertible

So a very talented friend of mine drew this rendition for me. It's a 1971 Dart convertible. It will have a 426 hemi, with a 4 speed and a shaker hood, Dana, 15" ralley wheels, black top, black paint, black interior, black carpet and a flat black bumblebee stripe. I have a donor convertible that...
www.forabodiesonly.com www.forabodiesonly.com
 
fueliedart said:
I looked at the "birth" article but each photo had to be opened one at a time and it was super time consuming. I had planned on going back to it but been super busy and haven't yet. I have seen a fair amount of cars done as a 70-up but haven't run across any articles done showing where they spliced the quarters. I have seen cars that have the full quarters replaced from 67-up to 70-up quarters ( hardtops ) but that's it. The quarters on my car are in good shape and I don't feel the need to splice in any larger of a piece than necessary. Thanks for all the info so far.
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The thread is older so the pics have been archived. To get to your point, I agree with you that you do not need to cut and replace the entire quarter panel as the side body lines are the same.
If I were doing it the cut would be just in front of the side marker housing and modify the front of the trunk lip area and do as you wish with the trunk.
 
belmateo said:
The thread is older so the pics have been archived. To get to your point, I agree with you that you do not need to cut and replace the entire quarter panel as the side body lines are the same.
If I were doing it the cut would be just in front of the side marker housing and modify the front of the trunk lip area and do as you wish with the
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belmateo said:
The thread is older so the pics have been archived. To get to your point, I agree with you that you do not need to cut and replace the entire quarter panel as the side body lines are the same.
If I were doing it the cut would be just in front of the side marker housing and modify the front of the trunk lip area and do as you wish with the trunk.
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I looked at the thread that SRT-14 did on changing a convertible over to a 1970-up. His article is mainly focused on building a shaker hood but one of the first pictures he shows is the rear section of the car mocked up with the 70 rear on the convertible. It looks like he made a vertical cut straight down the quarter about 4 or 5 inches ahead of the side marker but it's kinda hard to tell because the vert and the donor appear to be the same color. That was kinda the route I was thinking about and seems to be the most logical. I would love to get a more detailed look at that part of the build but it looks like that is the only picture he included on that part of the transformation of the rear quarters.
 
missing linc said:
Maybe @STR-14 will give some of the details on what he did.
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I'm hoping that we can exchange notes if I can contact him. I have communicated through PM with another member that has done the conversion. He did a vertical cut down the quarter between the wheel arch and the marker to do the splice. I'm pretty much convinced that that would be the most logical way of going and at the same time minimizing the work to join the quarters. The rest of the the rear conversion is pretty much just fitting and plug welding all the spot welds that I cut to tear everything apart. The front group is simply putting on fenders , hood ,valances ,bumpers ,grill and other misc. parts in which I have a 2 door I can reference if I need.
 
fueliedart said:
I'm hoping that we can exchange notes if I can contact him. I have communicated through PM with another member that has done the conversion. He did a vertical cut down the quarter between the wheel arch and the marker to do the splice. I'm pretty much convinced that that would be the most logical way of going and at the same time minimizing the work to join the quarters. The rest of the the rear conversion is pretty much just fitting and plug welding all the spot welds that I cut to tear everything apart. The front group is simply putting on fenders , hood ,valances ,bumpers ,grill and other misc. parts in which I have a 2 door I can reference if I need.
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If I recall correctly, my 70 340 Dart Swinger had the same head rest as the 69' GTS, not the 69' Swinger ones, that are more squared off. If your finish project is to be a 340 convertible, then I would say it would be called a GTS, which also was not a 70' option.
 
Swinger 340 said:
If I recall correctly, my 70 340 Dart Swinger had the same head rest as the 69' GTS, not the 69' Swinger ones, that are more squared off. If your finish project is to be a 340 convertible, then I would say it would be called a GTS, which also was not a 70' option.
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Going to put 70 style bucket seats in it possibly with a 4 speed.
 
fueliedart said:
Going to put 70 style bucket seats in it possibly with a 4 speed.
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When you are doing the body work, don't forget the floor hump if you are going with the 4-speed and the metal strap for the tiedown on the console if using one. Also there is the "Z" bar mounting plate that needs to be welded to the frame (wheel Well) on the driver side and frame strengthening plates on the undercarriage, under front seats and front of rear springs.
 
Swinger 340 said:
When you are doing the body work, don't forget the floor hump if you are going with the 4-speed and the metal strap for the tiedown on the console if using one. Also there is the "Z" bar mounting plate that needs to be welded to the frame (wheel Well) on the driver side and frame strengthening plates on the undercarriage, under front seats and front of rear springs.
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Not putting in a console. Car came with boxed rear springs ( convertible). Have had the bucket seat strengthening plates sitting in the garage since I bought the seats. I will be using a hydraulic TO bearing because I want to bypass any linkage issues and it seems that they work pretty smoothly compared to mechanical linkage. Another member also informed me that I will have to replace the trunk extension panels because they are different for 70-up, which I do have from the 70 I parted and they are beautiful shape. I like the 69 Dart GT emblems that originally came on the quarters just behind the doors so they are going back on. I have 3 floor humps that I had cut out of cars in the last 30+ years including one where I actually took some of the surrounding floor pan so that I would have a template if I ever wanted to cut the floor exactly like the factory did. I actually will convert my granny 6 cylinder column shift, bench seat 2 door into a factory MPFI 5.9 magnum ( will be running the stock injection system ) with a 4 speed and bucket seats before I get into the convertible project.
 
fueliedart said:
Not putting in a console. Car came with boxed rear springs ( convertible). Have had the bucket seat strengthening plates sitting in the garage since I bought the seats. I will be using a hydraulic TO bearing because I want to bypass any linkage issues and it seems that they work pretty smoothly compared to mechanical linkage. Another member also informed me that I will have to replace the trunk extension panels because they are different for 70-up, which I do have from the 70 I parted and they are beautiful shape. I like the 69 Dart GT emblems that originally came on the quarters just behind the doors so they are going back on. I have 3 floor humps that I had cut out of cars in the last 30+ years including one where I actually took some of the surrounding floor pan so that I would have a template if I ever wanted to cut the floor exactly like the factory did. I actually will convert my granny 6 cylinder column shift, bench seat 2 door into a factory MPFI 5.9 magnum ( will be running the stock injection system ) with a 4 speed and bucket seats before I get into the convertible project.
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Sounds like you have a plan, but if it was me, I would add the SWINGER/flower emblem under the rear-side windows (one each side). If you cut and replace the rear section just before the rear side marker, it will hid any imperfections of the repair, under the swinger stripe. I could be wrong, but I think the GT emblem was installed on the front fenders, next to the front doors.
 
Swinger 340 said:
Sounds like you have a plan, but if it was me, I would add the SWINGER/flower emblem under the rear-side windows (one each side). If you cut and replace the rear section just before the rear side marker, it will hid any imperfections of the repair, under the swinger stripe. I could be wrong, but I think the GT emblem was installed on the front fenders, next to the front doors.
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Mine came with the Dart GT emblems below the quarter windows behind the doors. I'm reasonably sure that when I do the splice that the repair will not be super noticeable plus I will cover that area with the same type of spray on coating as the factory did in the trunk.
 
Maybe someone posted this already, to much to backread.
Every inner fender is flat on top for convertible as opposed to rounded for hard tops. At least all the ones I've worked on. Top won't close flat and rear glass widow will break.
 
fueliedart said:
Mine came with the Dart GT emblems below the quarter windows behind the doors. I'm reasonably sure that when I do the splice that the repair will not be super noticeable plus I will cover that area with the same type of spray on coating as the factory did in the trunk.
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1970 Dart GT had the 'GT' emblem just below the quarter window, but 1971s had it down low on the quarter IIRC.
 
64 AAR Valiant said:
Maybe someone posted this already, to much to backread.
Every inner fender is flat on top for convertible as opposed to rounded for hard tops. At least all the ones I've worked on. Top won't close flat and rear glass widow will break.
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I am only changing / splicing the very rear section of the quarter . Everything forward doesn't change.
 
fueliedart said:
I looked at the thread that SRT-14 did on changing a convertible over to a 1970-up. His article is mainly focused on building a shaker hood but one of the first pictures he shows is the rear section of the car mocked up with the 70 rear on the convertible. It looks like he made a vertical cut straight down the quarter about 4 or 5 inches ahead of the side marker but it's kinda hard to tell because the vert and the donor appear to be the same color. That was kinda the route I was thinking about and seems to be the most logical. I would love to get a more detailed look at that part of the build but it looks like that is the only picture he included on that part of the transformation of the rear quarters.
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Hope this helps. Just to be clear. I have an excellent bodyman who performed this work. I do not possess the talent for this type of work.

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STR-14 said:
Hope this helps. Just to be clear. I have an excellent bodyman who performed this work. I do not possess the talent for this type of work.

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The pictures help a lot. It looks like the cuts were done along the same way I thought would be the most logical way to go. I was going to leave the trunk pan and cut the quarters, put on the deck lid and trunk drop off extensions and then start putting it back together. Thanks for the pictures and if you have any others I wouldn't mind seeing them.
 
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