Mopowers' 66 Dart Build

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Well, I finally got the doors mounted and aligned good enough for me. Also installed some 3" wheel studs on the fronts.

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I also cleaned up the taillight assemblies and hardware. I painted the inside of the buckets with white paint hoping it would make them brighter. We'll see if it works...

Before:

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After some wire wheel action:

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And a little paint:

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Polished up the lenses and chromed potmetal.

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Got the decklid mounted and aligned. I also got the rear bumper cleaned up and mounted along with the fresh taillight assemblies.

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Polished up the "D-A-R-T" and refurbished the acorn nuts. I sealed them up with a dab of butyl rope.

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The trunk looks pretty decent now. I just have to start running some wires so I can reinstall the fuel cell, battery tray and kill switch. I still need to install the trunk seal.

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Speaking of wiring, I swung by Kerndog's house a couple weeks ago for two massive helpings of spaghetti. He generously donated these old harnesses for me to pilfer the connectors off of. About five minutes after getting home, they were reduced to a pile of connectors/terminals and other spare goodies. Thanks again Greg!

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A buddy of mine runs those through the dishwasher at home. Another one uses his clothes washer...the type for low water use that has no agitator. His harnesses come out looking amazingly clean.
 
Kern Dog said:
A buddy of mine runs those through the dishwasher at home. Another one uses his clothes washer...the type for low water use that has no agitator. His harnesses come out looking amazingly clean.
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That's a great idea. I spent some time snipping the old dirty cloth wiring loom covering from the trunk harness and cleaning it up. It's amazing how filthy that stuff was! My jeans were disgusting afterwards. Once the cloth was snipped off, I cleaned off the wiring with some purple power and an old scotchbrite. I'll be covering it all with some braided covering once I get all the wiring finalized.

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Fun little bench project on a rainy day. The keys for this ***** have been long lost so I taught myself how to re-pin the door lock cylinders. I bought a new ignition switch lock cylinder that came with new keys, so I used those keys to re-pin the door locks. It was a little tedious, but I enjoy learning new skills. They work like a charm now.

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mopowers said:
Fun little bench project on a rainy day. The keys for this ***** have been long lost so I taught myself how to re-pin the door lock cylinders. I bought a new ignition switch lock cylinder that came with new keys, so I used those keys to re-pin the door locks. It was a little tedious, but I enjoy learning new skills. They work like a charm now.

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I know I say this to you all the time, but you gotta show me how to do this. I also bought the new ignition lock cylinder with keys and need to key the door locks to match. Good job man!
 
MidnightSwinger said:
I know I say this to you all the time, but you gotta show me how to do this. I also bought the new ignition lock cylinder with keys and need to key the door locks to match. Good job man!
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Sure man! It's not hard at all. It's kind of a fun little bench project. You just need an assortment of different length pins. Luckily, I had a few old lock cylinders to pilfer from. I only had to file down a couple longer pins. I'll keep what I've got for when you need them.
 
It's been a while. Figured it's time for a quick update.

I spent a little time making the parking lamps pretty

Before:

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After:

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I also made some replacement headlight adjuster nuts since half of them were either cracked or missing. There's a member here that sells 3D printed reproductions, but I try to use every chance I have to play with my lathe.

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I also got all the door/quarter, and vent glass installed and adjusted. Also installed the latches and such, and got those all adjusted nicely. I've never had an old car that had such nicely closing doors.

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After stepping away for a bit, I finally figured it out. Funny how taking a break can help clear your mind when it comes to this type of stuff. I still have quite a bit of work to go, but it's getting there.

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Nice job on all that.

What lathe do you have? I’d like to get one and I look often but just haven’t followed through yet.

Headliners are a PITA for sure, especially with a cage. I’m re-doing the one I put in a few years ago because I installed it with the windows still in. Got it close but was never happy with it. Have to have one though.
 
rmchrgr said:
Nice job on all that.

What lathe do you have? I’d like to get one and I look often but just haven’t followed through yet.

Headliners are a PITA for sure, especially with a cage. I’m re-doing the one I put in a few years ago because I installed it with the windows still in. Got it close but was never happy with it. Have to have one though.
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Thank you!

I ended up picking up an old 12" Atlas/Craftsman unit a couple years ago. It's not the most precision unit around and it took some work completely disassembling and cleaning it up, but it's been very handy to have around.

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I've decided that I'll be okay with any remaining wrinkles in the headliner. I'm just glad I opted for one from Legendary. If it was a thinner/cheaper material, I'm pretty sure it'd be torn in many places by now.
 
Yep, mine was wrinkled because I couldn't pull it tight enough to get the material hooked on the cleats front and back. It's not possible to install an OE-style perforated cloth headliner with the windows in. Not sure about the later '72-up cardboard ones.

I remember laying upside-down with my upper back on the package tray while prying up the window gaskets and shoving the headliner material under it as far as I could. It just kind of laid there bunched up and gluey halfway under the gasket lip and would move when you pulled on another section. There were a couple spots where I cut it too short too. It was a mess. I was really sore and pissed off afterwards.

I took that first replacement one out pretty recently and it looked like it was 53 years old, even though I bought it like 6-7 years ago. The edges were trashed from fighting with it. My windows are out now so I will get a better result this time. Lesson learned.
 
rmchrgr said:
Yep, mine was wrinkled because I couldn't pull it tight enough to get the material hooked on the cleats front and back. It's not possible to install an OE-style perforated cloth headliner with the windows in. Not sure about the later '72-up cardboard ones.

I remember laying upside-down with my upper back on the package tray while prying up the window gaskets and shoving the headliner material under it as far as I could. It just kind of laid there bunched up and gluey halfway under the gasket lip and would move when you pulled on another section. There were a couple spots where I cut it too short too. It was a mess. I was really sore and pissed off afterwards.

I took that first replacement one out pretty recently and it looked like it was 53 years old, even though I bought it like 6-7 years ago. The edges were trashed from fighting with it. My windows are out now so I will get a better result this time. Lesson learned.
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I know exactly what you mean. I've got muscles hurting today that I never knew I had. Reminds me of when I scraped the undercoating off the undercarriage. I'm adding headliner installs to that list of projects I'll be paying someone to do from now on - along with Dana 60 gear set-ups.
 
Long time, no update. I've been busy this summer with random home projects and other stuff, but finally have a few updates on the '66.

When I painted the jams, I inadvertently forgot to weld up some of the unused trim holes from the GT trim. I figured this out halfway through the headliner install. Since I'm an OCD anal son of a *****, I had to fix it.

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