Lemons Rally in an a body

[69moredoor]

Checking to see if you guys have interest in hearing about the upcoming lemons rally. If accepted this would be our teams third race. First year we did it in a $500 scion. Last year we did it in the 69 dart. That led to my love of a bodies. If you guys are interested I’ll post up pics and yous can follow along
(First race was about 3300 miles, last years was about 2600...)

 

[Professor Fate]

Heck yeah! Give us the blow-by-blow of the whole thing- a lot of us have our A Bodies in hibernation right now, so we're hungry for some Mopars dicing it up on the road! At least I am...

 

[69moredoor]

Well ok then. Didn’t think about needing corona entertainment.
It all started when a buddy read an article in a car mag and I happened to watch the road kill video. So, myself and two buddies I’ve known for decades....who are getting close to retirement ...decided to do something stupid...so another coworker was going to donate a scion with 334k miles on it. So? $500 later it was ours. (I promise I’ll get to the a body)
2019 lemons rally car. It’s a scion...it’s Japanese...so scion-ara was born

 

[69moredoor]

Yea it was made to look like a Japanese zero. Even had a propeller on the front. The darn car ran flawlessly for about 3300 miles round trip. Only had to reset the check engine light occasionally and we were glad we put snow tires on the front that rally was Moscow,Pa to Birmingham in 4 days
Check out 24hoursoflemons.com

 

[69moredoor]

Here’s the vid that got me wanting to do it

 

[69moredoor]

So after that race I was looking for the next years car. I had been watching a 69 dart four door for sale. It was way overpriced (3k). It sat for a year. When I went to look at it, it barely ran, the carb leaked and the gas tank leaked. It had been sitting since 1997. The seats were missing a ton of stuffing. The seller said his sisters 3 grown special needs children would pull clumps of stuffing and eat it... I knew that was our car. So..he was sick of looking at it and I got it for $500 plus a $125 tow home. And I went to work

 

[TT5.9mag]

Excellent. I love the lemons races. One of my bucket list items for sure is the 24 hours of lemons. Keep it coming.

 

[KosmicKuda]

Having fun with old cars, nothing better!
What is the route this year? There are FABO people everywhere so if you need anything during the "race", let us know.
Oh, and try not to lap the field or they'll start handicapping Mopars so other cars will have a chance. Ala NHRA and NASCAR.

 

[roccodart440]

I was working on a car for the lemons race a few years ago with a team of guys. We had a Napoleon among us and the whle thing fizzled.

Definitly keep us posted

 

[69moredoor]

We do the rally’s instead of the races due to $$$. Don’t get me wrong the races look awesome but roll cages and safety stuff..$$$. So we did the rally. Taking back roads and seeing stuff you never knew existed was awesome and cheap ...
So the car was a low optioned weird car
225/904 power steering but radio delete.
We rebuilt the carb/new gas tank/ pertronix/ redid the brakes (9”) and some Walmart padding and Mexican blankets. We were ready..and as you saw In The photos the theme was “lawn dart”. The darts had magnetic tips. We left those things everywhere we went and on other rally racers cars.

 

[69moredoor]

This was my first real mopar. (I’ve had a LOT of jeeps but no real mopars//lots of old chevys) and my first slant six. The car was SLOW but we thought that’s how it was. We figured out eventually it was starting out in second unless you shifted manually to first. Whatever. Adapt and overcome. We were pulling about 24mpg average anyway. We started the race and she was doing great. Cruising along watching the speedo needle bounce all over. Just humming along. The 9” drums were terrible but adequate...just had to plan stops...

until we left PA and hit West Virginia ..

up mountains
Down mountains
Ice fog
9” brakes

 

[69moredoor]

Notice the “disk brakes are for cowards” bumper sticker. Yeah. It got sketchy

 

[69moredoor]

This years route:

 

[69moredoor]

So I’m sure you owners of 9” drums know they are meh at best. The road conditions meaning downhill were really taxing it. It started pulling to the left halfway through the day. Basically we had one front 9” doing most of the stopping

 

[69moredoor]

But screw it. We kept going and had a blast. I tell you what. Doing the tail of the dragon with one brake doing most of the work. Interesting. And those skinnytires with no sway bars was great. When we got to the bottom the drivers side drum was THROWING some heat

 

[69moredoor]

Ended at barber in AL...we never place close to the top but we always have fun. We care more about hanging out and having a few beers. Making memories and laughing. Well remember these days until we die

 

[69moredoor]

So on the way back to VA ..about 2600 miles in we had a failure. We were 136 miles from home...

 

[spl440]

Failure, engine , brakes, trans or person?

 

[Mouse action]

Lawn dart ! Love it .

 

[Princess Valiant]

Here’s the vid that got me wanting to do it

Several rare cars in that video. Towards the end I spotted a lada niva. That is a very rare car in north America, getting insane prices these days

 

[69moredoor]

The failure was....the water pump. The what appeared to be original water pump crapped itself. I felt it go, and punched it to the next exit. Pulled into a federated auto parts parking lot at 12:30 In The afternoon. No big deal, right?


Nope—- apparently everything in Covington , VA closes at noon. Everything.
Called around. No one that was open and within an hours drive had a slant water pump. The nearest water pump we could find was farther than my house. So?
Triple AAA platinum to the rescue. I get one 200 mile and under tow per year so that’s what we did. I was pissed. Had the water pump off before the tow arrived. ...
Stay tuned

 

[pishta]

I got a '83 B2000 rust bucket, too new? Basic truck....bullet proof @85hp. Heater works! Would do the west coast race if it exists. Maybe put a fake hot tub in the back with a few inflatable women in it for flash. Call it "Haulin A$$"...Drove one from LA to Canada and back, never even coughed.

^^ we were camping north of Malibu and a guy had a Cortez with the radiator out, he was replacing a slant water pump too. Had to stop and ask if I could help as I recognized the motor but not the Cortez. He said it was under control, pump was getting delivered and should be up and running within an hour.

 

[69moredoor]

There was a team that did a west coast race in a convertible and the whole interior was turned into a hot tub lol. I wasn’t on that one but saw the pics.
So the wrecker gets there and the guys a trip. This Chevy wrecker could haul azzzz it was a crew cab and he was doing 80 on back roads with the dart on the back. Honestly it added to the trip. He was just chain smoking and hauling ***.
Amazon had the water pump at the house and she was fixed three days later.
But——we all fell in love with that car and that engine. It did nothing well. But did everything we asked. We decided to take the dart on the next race so I started cleaning her up a bit...more to come

 

[69moredoor]

So when the weather warmed up this past spring I wanted to preserve what was left of the paint. I got some cheap eBay clear and sprayed the car. Came out pretty nice actually

 

[69moredoor]

I always check the local pick a part. They had a 76 dart fancy edition. The seats were actually pretty nice. And way better than the bed padded with Mexican blanket originals. So out they went
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