MuuMuu101's 68 Dart, A Learning Process...

[Princess Valiant]

That picture was taken towards the end of working on the car. I generally dress in some older shop/car shirts with some old ripped, greasy, dirty, and/or painted jeans. And I agree, this is definitely a car for upper class.

I think power brakes and the KH went together. I don't have a build sheet, but I don't think this car was a power steering car. When I changed my PS pressure hose I had to use a 75 Dart hose which has different fittings from a '68. Lot's of hokey pokey, no no stuff was going on with this car that I've been slowly sorting out.

I wish I had the time, money, and the skills to do much more but I'm still learning.

Here's the fender tag decoded...
CAR: Dodge Dart 2 Door Hardtop
ENGINE: 273cid 2-bbl V8
TRANSMISSION: 3-Speed Automatic
TIRES: Unknown tire code
BUILD DATE: October 25.
AXLE: 2.94 Rear Axle Ratio
INTERIOR: Premium Trim Grade, Vinyl Bucket Seats. Black Interior.
PAINT: Monotone White Paint.
OTHER: Black Upper Door Frame Color.

MOLDINGS:
25: Drip Rail Mouldings
30: Body Belt Mouldings
55: Body Side Mouldings

ABC OPTIONS:
R1: AM Radio
S1: Air Conditioning
X2: Tinted Windshield Only
Y6: Black Vinyl Top

abc OPTIONS:
u1: Sold Car When Built (Somebody Ordered It)

well, the thrill of owning these old cars is correcting the "no no " stuff LOL ....if there was none of that to correct, where is the fun? LOL.
my car was pretty original except somebody had monkeyed with the wiring ....talk about constant electrical problems LOL ......still funner than buying a new car and just propelling foward and looking like everyone else on the road.

Wow your car would look even more upscale with a black vinyl top....i am always amazed at how much vinyl tops used to dress cars up.

typical A/c car with an Auto and 2.94 gears ...well at least you will get highway miles with those gears.....thats my next swap.....i need some deeper gears with the 4 speed i just put in mine....its just an OD 833 so the wide ratio feels horrible with the shallow gears. i might do 3.55 or 3.91.....with the shallow gears i end up running it one gear down from where its supposed to be to keep the RPMs up....but im a crazy anyway. :cheers: :toothy8:

 

[MuuMuu101]

I'm sure everyone has experienced this but whenever you try to fix one thing you find 2 other things that the previous owner did that just makes you think, "WHY?!" or "What in the world?". But it makes funny stories and trophies to talk about when your in the garage and talking with friends.

I've personally been a fan of vinyl tops. I like the added color. However, my only problem with putting the vinyl top on this car is that the previous owner got rid of the vinyl trim and filled in the holes. So I don't think it will be going back on within its lifetime. I generally don't like the idea of building a car back up according to build sheet and fender tag unless it's an uber special car. This little GT is going to get a lot of my personal touches.

I remember when I was driving it on the freeway, it rode just fine and easily. You could barely hear the engine at 70 mph. Ideally I would like nothing more than 3.55 gears unless I had some sort of overdrive system. However, I really want a manual but don't want to really start cutting up the car and getting into the interior. Plus it's expensive!

 

[MuuMuu101]

So I've been forgetting to update this thread occasionally and since members have been bringing it back up from the dead it's time to update this just a tad (not much work has been done in the past week or so).

Shortly after New Years I tried to see how much grease was actual on my UCA's so I did a tried to remove as much as I could using a chisel, engine degreaser, and a wire brush. First picture is of the passenger side (virtually untouched) and the second picture is the driver's side. I'm hoping a pressure washer can remove all that grease without having to touch the passenger side because that job sucked.

Also parts have been coming in. Rotors came in last week and my pads and new studs came in this week. However, before I touch those I think I may want to rebuild my calipers as well as paint the hub, calipers, and drum covers. If I ever go with bigger wheels (anywhere from 15-18") I don't want people to be looking at rusty brakes.

Lastly, my friend came over last Saturday and we were working on fixing the firewall and brake pedal assembly. We wire wheeled the firewall to prep for future welding. We also made the sheet that will fit in there. We also cut off the tabs that hold the studs on the brake pedal assembly simply because I had no studs. So we made new ones and are going to punch out holes for bolts that will mount to the new MC.

 

[MuuMuu101]

Was a little bored today so I decided to paint something. Took the air filter breather off and worked on that. It wasn't my best work, but it came out better than before so I'll leave it at that. Kind of bittersweet and depressing sitting by the car and not being able to drive it. My friend and I may start working on it a little next weekend. Now with school and baja, time is becoming harder to find. As always, here are the pictures. All the pictures were taken with a fresh coat of paint. I touched them up a little afterwards.

I'm thinking about taking the calipers off and rebuilding them on my own time since the firewall and MC are going to take my friend and I a while before getting finished. I'd also like to paint the calipers black as well as the hubs when I get the studs off just in case I want to go with bigger wheels later on this year (after a suspension rebuild). I'm thinking about these if they will fit due to limited bs options.

Store: http://motechperformance.com/?page_id=22
Wheels: http://motechperformance.com/?tcp_product=17-polished-streeter
http://motechperformance.com/?tcp_product=17-black-streeter-priced-per-pair-249

Cheap, local, and the right bolt pattern. I figure I could get new wheels and tires for under $1k. I'd like a 275/35/18 series tire all the way around but with the bs offered, I don't think it's going to happen. I may end up going with a 17" (idk whether 7" or 8" wide) wheels with a 245(or 255 if it fits)/45/17 tire. That way the brakes don't look super small and I have less rotating mass.

That's pretty much it. Thanks for tuning in.

 

[MuuMuu101]

So I realized I haven't been updating this much but this is my progress from this weekend.

My friend came over twice and we hammered out my studs, bent a couple of them and ruined a couple nuts, but that's ok. I'm going to get new nuts anyways. I'm also thinking about painting my hubs black and detailing them as well as replacing the bearings and cleaning up the bearing seals.

While those were off the car I took a closer look at my passenger's side caliper and the piston seals are rotted, so the calipers are going to need a rebuild in the near future (driver's side looks ok). I'm just not sure if I want to do that now while the car is apart and take longer before I get to drive it, or wait till I get new wheels or something during the summer and do a rebuild then as well as clean/detail/paint them.

Then it comes down to the major surgery, working on the firewall. So you know how I had that replacement panel made? Well it's in now. My friend brought in his welder and welded it in for me. I then took a cut off wheel and grinded down some of the welds. We need a better disc to get the rest of it but is should look pretty when done. We still have to work on rewelding the pedal assembly and reinforcing it so that I don't punch a hole in the firewall (an issue we thought of since we are converting to a 2 stud MC instead of a 4).

Lastly, since I don't have an AC compressor or condenser, my friend and I took out some of the extra AC stuff that wasn't needed to clean up the engine bay a little. I'm still going to need to get some more heater hose to clean up the tape wrapped stuff they've got in there. My newly painted air filter cover looks a little out of place now that it's so clean and the engine bay is dirty.

 

[SD_R/T]

You said you hammered out the studs, was there swedges on the studs? (I couldn't tell from the pic). If so, you might want to check the fitment on the new studs - if you haven't already, of course. When I replaced mine I was careful about cutting the swedges, however I still had to move up one 'thickness' level on the new studs so that they would fit snugly. The 'same size' studs weren't super tight as the holes got widened slightly when the original studs came out.

Also, I cleaned up and degreased my hubs but didn't paint them since I couldn't really see them behind the wheels.

Good luck on the build. Looks cool!

 

[rlevs]

nice work on the dart. can i make a suggestion next time you have to cut out a peace to replace it make a templet out of card board and locate al your holes that way and make your peace then weld it in and your done, hope this helps as my grand father always told me you never stop learning keep up the good work

 

[MuuMuu101]

You said you hammered out the studs, was there swedges on the studs? (I couldn't tell from the pic). If so, you might want to check the fitment on the new studs - if you haven't already, of course. When I replaced mine I was careful about cutting the swedges, however I still had to move up one 'thickness' level on the new studs so that they would fit snugly. The 'same size' studs weren't super tight as the holes got widened slightly when the original studs came out.

Also, I cleaned up and degreased my hubs but didn't paint them since I couldn't really see them behind the wheels.

Good luck on the build. Looks cool!

The studs on the KH setup are splined so all they need is a good press out. Thanks for the tips and the support.

nice work on the dart. can i make a suggestion next time you have to cut out a peace to replace it make a templet out of card board and locate al your holes that way and make your peace then weld it in and your done, hope this helps as my grand father always told me you never stop learning keep up the good work

I would have normally done that; however, my only problem with that was that I had no arbitrary location or hole to mock up. The studs on my brake pedal braket were sheared and the previous owner had holes drilled into them to the point where they looked like swiss cheese. So we cut off the tabs off the brake pedal mount and fabbed up new ones that need to be welded on and fitted. We had to weld in this patch panel first to determine how far forward those brake pedal tabs needed to come in. Plus, I'm swapping over to a 2 stud mount instead of the factory 4 because that was the MC I had originally purchased. I'm sure the method we're going about it isn't the best way of doing things, but we tend to just do before we think. It should all work out fine... Hopefully. But I admire the tips and will take as many as you guys throw at me.

 

[MuuMuu101]

Very small update. No Valentine's Date tonight (must be a curse of the engineers) so I decided to spend some time with the Dart. I changed the upper radiator hose and wire brushed the UCAs. I was going to try my hand at block sanding the firewall, but I didn't have a block with me that wasn't too big so I may just borrow one from the shop tomorrow. Don't worry, I've been sanding so much in baja this year I've earned the nickname of "Sandy Samy." I've sanded everything from aluminum to fiberglass to carbon fiber.

Progress is going to be really slow for a while. All free time and weekends goes to the baja car till our competition in Tennessee, April 16th. Then we have another one 3 weeks later in Washington. I sure do miss driving the Dart.

 

[MuuMuu101]

So I guess I'm delving deeper and deeper into mopardom. I just went out this morning in response to a CL ad and bought myself an 8 3/4. The deal was a pretty good deal to not to pass. Basically it's an A-Body 8 3/4, open, 2.76 gears, sbp, 489 case, with all the brake lines intact. It's just a little dirty and greasy but that should clean up no problem. I didn't mind the gear ratio as I'd like lower rpm for highway cruising. The guy I bought it from worked on differentials beforehand. He was a diehard Ford guy who had about 2 E-bodies, 1 A-body, and a couple Jeep projects (none of which were even close to being complete besides the Jeeps).

Right now the diff is off to the side as my 7 1/4 was working fine before I started working on the car. I'll swap this guy in when I change out my leaf springs and possibly get new wheels this summer. I probably won't get any real time working on the car for another 2 months or so. The baja car is going fine. We should be testing around campus this week and then next weekend it's off to the desert! Of course I will always include pictures. I should really start working on my Dart as my parts are just stacking up in my garage and I'm running out of room!

 

[Bad Sport]

Smart choice based on the info in the other thread. Clean that joker up and get some paint on it. I would also go through the brakes and replace the wheel cylinders etc. before you install it. You got that rear for a good price.

 

[Bad Sport]

Is it open or sure grip? Have you checked it?

 

[MuuMuu101]

I checked. It's open. I just got new wheel cylinders for the 7 1/4 so I just figured when I was done using that I'd just swap them over or just buy some new ones (as they're not that expensive). I think I may need new shoes for it though. I only took a really quick look, but no biggie.

 

[MuuMuu101]

So here was my new goal... "Get the car 100% mechanically sound in 1 year to take on a road trip up to Northern California. I pitched him some ideas about possibly going up PCH through Santa Barbara (spending some time there) and head out to San Luis Obispo to spend one night. Then from there we just man handle it up to San Fran for another 3 nights. We would like to spend a day at Great America and we definitely want to go to the Fisherman's Warf one afternoon.

Anyways, we have a while to plan it. Back to the car. So now I am trying to get down a list of things I want/need to do to the car to make sure it is safe and sound. Here is the list I have come up with so far. Please feel free to add anything I may miss or haven't even thought of:

Wants and/or Priorities (in no particular order)
1) Fix power steering couple or switch over to power steering column.
2) Switch over to A-body 8 1/4 or 8 3/4 rear end (keep small bolt pattern for now).
3) Install aftermarket radiator to ensure the car doesn't overheat (I have a mechanical fan and shroud, but I better be safe than sorry if I can cool the car down more).
4) Fix/replace passenger door lock.
5) Fix/replace sending unit (gas gauge doesn't work or works when it wants to).
6) Fix temperature gauge (I haven't seen it work at all).
7) Fix driver side window issues.
8 )Get the AC going (there's no compressor, but it is usually cooler in North Cal and I have windows that will roll down).
9) Thorough check of suspension, brake, tire, and fluids before trip.
10ish) If time and budget allow, switch everything over to big bolt pattern and install disc brakes in the front.
11) Clean out the rust in the trunk."

I posted that 10 months ago on moparts. So far this is what I've done...
1) Fixed. Column needs to go back in.
2) 8 3/4 sitting in garage needing a look over as well as shock mounts and driveshaft
3) Going to ignore for now. I need to flush it and refill it with coolant
4) Haven't touched either locks
5) Haven't touched either
6) Works now
7) Was in the process of fixing but works worse than when I first bought the car. I think I may have bent window tracks
8 )I took it all out
9) Haven't got to yet
10) Probably not going to happen for awhile
11) Started but need to fix small holes in trunk

The car has been sitting for 4-6 months now with little to no work being done. It doesn't seem like I'll be able to take my San Fran road trip this year.


I've been getting that big itch to just finish up the brake system so I can drive her already.

Unfortunately school, work, and baja are getting in the way. Our last baja competition is a week from Tuesday in Washington. After that I'm going to need to catch up on school work a little and 3-4 weeks after that I should be done with school for this year. I'm going to see if my friend is up to helping me fix the firewall and brakes (essentially what we started) right after comp, but he may be a little burned out as I am. All I know is that I don't believe I can finish the brake stuff myself.

New goal... Get the car running nicely during early/mid summer and start driving it. I want to redo the entire suspension this summer as well even though I'm probably not going to get to it; however, I'm not even going to touch or order anything until brakes are done and the car is moving. Things on my list are poly-bushing suspension rebuild kit, subframe connectors (probably custom), f/r sway bars, new leaf springs, new T-bars (I'm thinking 1.00" or greater), FF Stage 3 box, and 17" wheels and tires (probably some polished Streeters from Show Wheels).

The only thing on my agenda for the summer is working M-F, working out, and some designing and testing on my free time for next year's baja cars. So, I should have plenty of time to work on the Dart. Wish me luck. I'm probably going to be asking lots of questions.

Note: Btw, if you missed it, here are pictures from my Tennessee competition. Scored 11th overall out of about 87 teams. http://s1127.photobucket.com/user/muumuu101/library/Baja Tennesee 2013

 

[MuuMuu101]

Went to the pick-a-part today and pulled out the brake pedal assembly out of the 75 Valiant so I don't have to reweld, measure, and drill holes into the one I had. I tried getting the spindles out of the Cordoba but I was getting tired (went after work) and I didn't have the right hammer to get the studs on the UCA off the spindles. O well, it's not a necessity. I have pictures but it's taking forever to email them to myself.

Plan on getting back on the Dart in a week. I have finals this week. Hopefully I pass my classes with all the school I missed from baja.

I also just realized that my previous post was awfully wacky as I copied and pasted it off of moparts. Basically this is what needs to get done:

1) Press wheel studs in rotors/hubs (FABO member offered to help me with that)
2) Replace/rebuild calipers
3) Clean welds on firewall from replacement panel
4) Weld new "ears" (for MC mounting location) for brake pedal mount
5) Drill holes in firewall and brake pedal mount to mount MC
6) Install and bench bleed MC
7) Bend and install new brake lines from Distribution Block to MC
8 ) Bleed entire system
9) Install Steering Column (ready to go)

Number 4 is done since I bought a new pedal assembly...

Hope to get back on the Dart in a week or so. Kinda anxious as I'd just like to drive the freakin car...

 

[MuuMuu101]

Ok, it's my first weekend since I've failed all my finals and I am absolutely bored to death. Perfect reason to get back into the Dart on my free time. I've got a lot of questions and all I need is some tools and some cajones.

Let's get this Dart back on its toes.

 

[hollywood hig]

Ok, it's my first weekend since I've failed all my finals and I am absolutely bored to death. Perfect reason to get back into the Dart on my free time. I've got a lot of questions and all I need is some tools and some cajones.

Let's get this Dart back on its toes.

lol, dude, your gonna need that eja-ma-ca-shun, that's not too cost effective either.......heh...

dart's coming along since the last time i visited, and nice score on the rearend.........
higgs

 

[MuuMuu101]

lol, dude, your gonna need that eja-ma-ca-shun, that's not too cost effective either.......heh...

dart's coming along since the last time i visited, and nice score on the rearend.........
higgs

Not much has been going on. I just bought a grinder and hole saw today and now I have to figure out how to deal with the firewall and mounting the MC. I was going to work on it but a friend of mine came last minute tonight to hangout.

 

[MuuMuu101]

Started getting back to work and building up my cajoneses...

Going to be working for awhile tonight.

Edit: And only a half an hour or so later I already got too carried away and now am going to need some bondo/filler for some gouges I made in the weld area.

Edit 2: It's worse than I thought... I broke the welds and there's a hole all the way through in two spots. -_-

 

[MuuMuu101]

Have it in my firewall thread... :banghead: :violent1: :banghead:

 

[Princess Valiant]

Started getting back to work and building up my cajoneses...

Going to be working for awhile tonight.

Edit: And only a half an hour or so later I already got too carried away and now am going to need some bondo/filler for some gouges I made in the weld area.

Edit 2: It's worse than I thought... I broke the welds and there's a hole all the way through in two spots. -_-

what does cajoneses mean? i never heard that word before ...what is that?

 

[FJRdoc]

Cajones AKA testicles

 

[MuuMuu101]

I really don't know what I'm going to do with the firewall. I got dimensions for where the MC studs and pushrod goes on the firewall from a couple members on here. I'm thinking about getting the studs, rotors, and hubs together myself. Throw them back on the car, momentarily reinstall the steering column, and call a tow truck to take it to my shop to deal with. I just want to drive the car more than anything right now so I can work on other things and upgrades later. I know it's taking the easy way out, but it's been 9 month since the accident and I'm anxious.

 

[MuuMuu101]

Got to work on the Dart for a couple hours tonight. Getting better with the grinder but still made a couple mistakes. I am going to need to cut, repatch a small piece of the firewall, refill and grind the welds on some new holes I made. I figure I'll either buy or borrow a welder within the next month or so. Almost done grinding the welds but have hit a couple trouble spots. I've got some measurements to mock up the holes for my pedal assembly from a FABO member so I may be doing that early tomorrow afternoon. Anyways here's my progress. It's not very pretty. I just want to get this nightmare over with. This sucks.

:newb:

 

[MuuMuu101]

Just pulled the calipers. I hope to take them apart and put new seals on them some time this week (possibly paint them too). Going to try to see if I can use the shop air at school.