Hi Folks, Been a member here a little while and don't post up much, but thought some of you would like to see one of the mods I've been working on lately.
Brief history on my Dart(s). Got a "driver" after the owner took out a deer and got frustrated with the damage since he'd done a mild restoration, and decided to sell. I got his sister in a package deal. She's actually a straighter car than him, but no engine and been sitting many years. Both are factory AC cars, and she has a good grill, but my driver had no teeth thanks to the deer. I do have a 71 grill that I only need the headlight bezels to be complete (someday). Anyway...custom work time.
I searched around and found very few custom grills for the early 70's Darts. I also really liked the look of the new Challengers with their dual lights. I live in the lower south of Arkansas and work nights sometimes, so I also wanted some more light on the road while I was coming home at night.
I started by looking for some large driving lights to match the 7" headlights but found very few that didn't bust my very limited budget. In comes Harbor Freight offering the 6" off road lights for 11 bucks each at 55W. With a simple bulb change these are 100W lights and cheap enough if I screw them up, I'm not out a lot of bank.
I wanted the big lights to act as blinkers and running lights as well as driving lights for the trip home. After modifying the lights to accept the factory turn signal/park sockets, and wiring the 100W up to work on a switch, or to come on with the high beams, I went ahead and started making a grill to fit the lights. I still have to finish the corners, but am happy with what it looks like so far. I had an old "tubular" grill off an 80's Chevy truck I modified to fill the grill space. After about 40$ in parts (the rest I had laying around) my daily driver almost has teeth again. Sorry for the poor picture quality, my phone is old and sucks. The first is no lights on, the second is with running lights on. The picture with the driving lights on was a wash out.
View attachment 20150103_012206.jpg
View attachment 20150103_012308.jpg
Brief history on my Dart(s). Got a "driver" after the owner took out a deer and got frustrated with the damage since he'd done a mild restoration, and decided to sell. I got his sister in a package deal. She's actually a straighter car than him, but no engine and been sitting many years. Both are factory AC cars, and she has a good grill, but my driver had no teeth thanks to the deer. I do have a 71 grill that I only need the headlight bezels to be complete (someday). Anyway...custom work time.
I searched around and found very few custom grills for the early 70's Darts. I also really liked the look of the new Challengers with their dual lights. I live in the lower south of Arkansas and work nights sometimes, so I also wanted some more light on the road while I was coming home at night.
I started by looking for some large driving lights to match the 7" headlights but found very few that didn't bust my very limited budget. In comes Harbor Freight offering the 6" off road lights for 11 bucks each at 55W. With a simple bulb change these are 100W lights and cheap enough if I screw them up, I'm not out a lot of bank.
I wanted the big lights to act as blinkers and running lights as well as driving lights for the trip home. After modifying the lights to accept the factory turn signal/park sockets, and wiring the 100W up to work on a switch, or to come on with the high beams, I went ahead and started making a grill to fit the lights. I still have to finish the corners, but am happy with what it looks like so far. I had an old "tubular" grill off an 80's Chevy truck I modified to fill the grill space. After about 40$ in parts (the rest I had laying around) my daily driver almost has teeth again. Sorry for the poor picture quality, my phone is old and sucks. The first is no lights on, the second is with running lights on. The picture with the driving lights on was a wash out.
View attachment 20150103_012206.jpg
View attachment 20150103_012308.jpg
