Dart Progress

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fredsmedina

6 Dart 7 MOPAR OR NOCAR
Joined
Aug 29, 2009
Messages
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Location
Sacramento / Elk Grove CA
Starting this thread to keep all of the progress on my dart in one place. i'll start with pics from when I got it

Alright, to start out, I’m 18 years old. I’m going to California State University, Sacramento to become a mechanical engineer.
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Here goes my story. My dad is the one that got me into mopars, and now I&#8217;m the one keeping him into them. He used to own a 69 roadrunner, but he had to sell it in the late 90&#8217;s due to a divorce.My grandma and grandpa bought a 74 charger SE in 1976 when it was just over a year old from a used car lot..my grandma drove this car for years and then finally in 2001, my dad decided that she was too dangerous driving such a big car(she is about 4&#8217;5&#8221; tall and literally sat on phonebooks to see over steering wheel!), so he bought her a little import and we got the charger. Ever since then, I&#8217;ve loved Mopars and learned so much about them. I was 13 years old when I started getting really interested in the charger and hoping that that would be my first car. My dad wasn&#8217;t really interested in the charger at all. I talked him into letting me get it running again though. So after spending days trying to figure out what was wrong, we finally got it running. And I love the car!! Since then its been an okay daily driver with just over 100xxx miles on the stock 318. But just about a month ago, the ignition wiring fried or something. So we have to go through that now and figure out whats wrong. And as money allows, we will get that back on the road. For now though I&#8217;m focusing my attention on my car.
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So I bought my 67 dodge dart dart with 1500 bucks of my own money from a guy off of craigslist. . I had saved up all of that money since I was 15 between working and doing various side jobs for cash. I bought it as a daily driver that just needed a front end rebuild and patching up the trunk that was rotted through and then it&#8217;d be good to go as a daily driver. Of course this never happened though. 5 minutes after buying the car, on my way home from the sale, the transmission went out on me! My buddy was following me in my truck, so we tied a rope to my dart and got it the rest of the way to my house. I had no clue about transmissions, so my first thought was take it to a transmission shop, &#8220;AAMCO&#8221; and see what they say. AAMCO was ridiculous and they wanted 1500 bucks to rebuild my old 904. So I decided to just take my dart back in the condition that they left it. I figured out that the stock 7.25 rear end had froze up which was what destroyed the transmission. My dad felt bad that I bought my dart and wasn&#8217;t even able to drive it, so he bought me a TCI streetfighter 727 transmission. I then went ahead and bought an 8 3/4 rear end with 3.23 suregrip gears. Also while going through the car, I've found sooo much rust, and i've started replacing everything. In the last month or so, I pretty much taught myself to weld by reading books and stuff on the internet. My dad helped me out learning to weld too. We're both novice welders though. I'm now pretty decent with a MIG welder(In my opinion).
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The car is in the garage on 4 jackstands right now. And I&#8217;ve owned it for a couple months now and only driven it for 5 minutes! As money and time allow, I&#8217;ll be fixing her up. The one reason i'm glad that the whole tranny went out and stuff is that i'll have an even greater appreciaton of my creation once i'm all done putting her together. And I&#8217;m still going to need to paint it next summer probably. I want to be driving my dart sooo bad! Cant wait til its finished. By the time its done I&#8217;ll have a brand new drivetrain and all new suspension front and rear. So far I&#8217;m into the project more than 4 grand(not including initial price of car). I probably shouldn&#8217;t be spending the amount of money that I spend on my car because I desperately need the money to be paying for my college education.

but here is the progress on my car. thanks for looking

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No. cluster was stolen while previous owner still had the car, and the shifter was just a B&M that i didn't like the look of. so i sold that and ended up buying a turbo action cheetah scs shifter now.

i wish it was an ex race car!

EDIT: its was a stock slant 6.

now its a mild 318
 
I love those turbines that are on the rear when you were towing it. I wish those were available in 18's. Looks like a good project.
 
I loved the turbines too!

unfortunately it has a 7.25 rear with small bolt pattern, and i upgraded to a 8.75. so I now have big bolt pattern and had to sell the turbines. so now i'm gonna have to throw on those Eagle Alloys wheels. they don't look bad, but the turbines would have been nicer!

and thanks swisswill
 
got the engine pulled saturday..

and here's some pics of my steering column. the column is from an 80's van.. has anyone else used a van steering column in an A-body?

notice that I have to use 2 keys to drive car. one for ignition(which is in the dash), and then the key to unlock the steering column. luckily its the same key. just have 2 copies of the key. guess its an added security feature..

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You have a good attitude, able to take a negative and turn it into a positive. Good luck with your project!
 
got the engine pulled..

new bolt-on 6 pack scoop..

replacement instrument panel..

and new plates for the dart. eventually i'll have that thing on the road..

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you have a good start, i think its awesome that you are teaching yourself to weld and also teaching yourself about these old cars, keep up the good work and keep the pictoral alive, love seeing improvement
 
Cool!
Keep up the fine work!
Good Luck.8)
thanks! I'll try. As frustrating as it is having my Mismatched dart, I love learning about this stuff though.

I've still got to figre out the enire front suspension and steering and everything

you have a good start, i think its awesome that you are teaching yourself to weld and also teaching yourself about these old cars, keep up the good work and keep the pictoral alive, love seeing improvement

thanks. I definitely felt accomplished welding..

I ordered my casters yesterday and am picking them up tomorrow. I'm building a chasis dolly so that I can move the car around in the garage and into the backyard for bodywork..

so thats my new welding project now. building a Chasis Dolly. Still debating whether to just do a simple dolly or make a rotisserie

will keep the pics coming though!!
 
thanks not sure exactly what negative you're refering too. lol. i've came across many negatives on this car. but tried to turn them into positives!
No disrespect intended ... what I meant was how you bought a car, it only ran five minutes, and rather than throwing in the towel you're making it into what you want.
 
No disrespect intended ... what I meant was how you bought a car, it only ran five minutes, and rather than throwing in the towel you're making it into what you want.
I didn't take it as disrespect at all! no worries. It was the only option i had at the time too. I spent 1500 on the car, and there was no way I could sell a non running '67 dart in the condition of mine for what I paid for it.

So now i'm over over 4 grand into the project and i'm going to have a bulletproof/solid car by the time i'm done! Cant wait!

heres a few more pics while i'm at it. found out about the weird '67 window gaskets and crap. so theres another expense that i'll have to end up doing to convert it to the '68 style seal and trim..

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First paintjob ever. May not be perfect. But Its done! and i'm happy.
 

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wow looks awesome bro. KUDOS to you. It takes a lot of hard work and motivation to do what your doing. I love the color by the way. You going to black out the hood?
 
to anyone following this build, I've finally finished rebuilding the front end.

first time doing front suspension on any car, and that wasn't even bad at all!

just putting on new brake shoes/bearings now and then the front is ready for tires. once i finish that, I'll be able to put together the rear end(which I've never done before).

hopeing that I will have her ready to go in a month or so..but as always, things take longer than expected.
 
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