After a long hiatus, i decided to document my Peruvian 1970 Dodge Dart Custom's restoration here since i believe will provide interesting information.
I bought it back in 2017 from it's original owner who still calls me and wants me to send him photos of his beloved car. It was parked for about 6 years with only turning it on once a month.
Car is Low mileage, only just in June of 2023 i got it to 100k km/62k miles.
First thing that happened after i signed the papers was the Holley 1920 flooding and needing a complete rebuild.
Engine bay looked rough but nothing a deep cleaning would fix.
After that, i wanted to check the VIN and the engine code.
i got help from SlantSixDan here but it still had a lot of interesting things.
They put in the VIN that the car's engine is a 198, but it is indeed a 225. From what i asked when i was in Peru to an old factory worker, they would just put anything that was available at the moment.
I wonder if that's the reason why this car has the oil bath air cleaner, which i have yet to see another dart with.
Another particular thing, but this comes from the owner himself, is he changed the car from a manual transmission to an automatic one. He, too, worked in the Chrysler plant in Peru and was given the car as a form of payment.
This is why the 904 in it is from a later date, if i remember correctly either 72 or 73.
That transmission is another story. I don't even want to touch it at this point but will very soon.
As of now, the car runs silk smooth. It's got a new pump, cleaned the gas tank in 2019 (though it needs another cleaning now), and it's got everything.
From the Logos
To the whole car itself
I'm even taking it to events now.
But it's nowhere near done. I still need to check the transmission. It now has started making an awful clanking noise whenever i put it in reverse and that's my next objective.
I want this car to be as close as it could have been when it first left the factory.
I bought it back in 2017 from it's original owner who still calls me and wants me to send him photos of his beloved car. It was parked for about 6 years with only turning it on once a month.
Car is Low mileage, only just in June of 2023 i got it to 100k km/62k miles.
First thing that happened after i signed the papers was the Holley 1920 flooding and needing a complete rebuild.
Engine bay looked rough but nothing a deep cleaning would fix.
After that, i wanted to check the VIN and the engine code.
i got help from SlantSixDan here but it still had a lot of interesting things.
FW225R L 3066 0643 is the engine code, which Dan also helped withL: Dart
L: Low trim/price class
41: 4-door sedan
B: 198 cubic inch engine
0: 1970 model year
8: Vehicle build factory identifier—"8" is not within the North American factory network; given the body plate it would seem to indicate a Peruvian build plant.
178867: Vehicle serial number
F: 1970 model year
W: Engine built at Windsor, Ontario Canada
225: Engine displacement
R: Passenger car engine
L: Low compression ratio (for export to countries where the available gasoline had lower octane than was available in North America)
3066: Engine built on 19 December 1969
0643: Not relevant outside of factory
They put in the VIN that the car's engine is a 198, but it is indeed a 225. From what i asked when i was in Peru to an old factory worker, they would just put anything that was available at the moment.
I wonder if that's the reason why this car has the oil bath air cleaner, which i have yet to see another dart with.
Another particular thing, but this comes from the owner himself, is he changed the car from a manual transmission to an automatic one. He, too, worked in the Chrysler plant in Peru and was given the car as a form of payment.
This is why the 904 in it is from a later date, if i remember correctly either 72 or 73.
That transmission is another story. I don't even want to touch it at this point but will very soon.
As of now, the car runs silk smooth. It's got a new pump, cleaned the gas tank in 2019 (though it needs another cleaning now), and it's got everything.
From the Logos
To the whole car itself
I'm even taking it to events now.
But it's nowhere near done. I still need to check the transmission. It now has started making an awful clanking noise whenever i put it in reverse and that's my next objective.
I want this car to be as close as it could have been when it first left the factory.