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

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Progress is slow and I've been losing interest in the car to say the least... Hard to even get motivated or build up the energy to even work on the car. Been thinking about selling it to get a car I can enjoy that's in better shape. Anyways, I still try to plug away so maybe it can get running some day.

Reman calipers come in this week. Should be pressing new bearing races into the hubs this coming weekend. After that, car should be on all 4's again. Then it's repairing the firewall, installing the MC, bending new lines, and bleeding the system... Praying to God it still all runs and drives fine.

Just to kind of explain what's going on:
http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=7793380&an=0&page=0#Post7793380
 
Well, I got a lot of work done today. Went to the shop at school and removed my bearing races in my wheel hubs with a punch and hammer. Then I pressed in my new NAPA bearings with a dimple die that was a touch smaller than the bearing races (so that worked out nicely). After that I went home and started packing my wheel bearings to go on the car. In the middle of all that I found out I already had Timken races on hand so now I have backups. :banghead: I'm just really hoping I installed everything correctly and nothing breaks or explodes on me when I take its maiden voyage (or soon after).

After bearings went on, it came to installing the hubs and calipers. It all looks pretty nice under there. The passenger side caliper mount and bolts were a big PIA though. I had to really force one bolt in so I really hope I didn't cross thread it. Besides that, the process wasn't as difficult as I thought.

I think one more good Saturday and the car should be good to go. I just need a friend who can help me weld and patch my firewall as well as bend new brake lines so I can install the master cylinder... I'm so close, yet so far. :sad5:

I guess you could call today a milestone. Today is the first time the car has been on all 4's in a long while. I'm kind of liking the patina look it's got going on. Nothing like saggy springs to give you a lowered ride and some tall white walls. Looks like the rear tires weren't too happy being under load for so long. I should go to some 17" wheels and tires soon to fix that (granted the car is running reliably). Idk, we'll see how things go. Car may be running sooner than I'd thought. :D
 

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looks good man. sometimes a project can get discouraging, but its all worth it in the end. besides, seems like you have pretty much got everything freshened up
 
PanGasket said:
looks good man. sometimes a project can get discouraging, but its all worth it in the end. besides, seems like you have pretty much got everything freshened up
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Thanks. I haven't done anything since then. Pretty much lost almost all my motivation. I've been busy with work and designing a new baja car. My biggest issue is still the firewall. If I could get someone to patch and weld it for me again, it might ignite a spark to get it back and running again, but I've been having troubles coordinating with other people's schedules. School starts in a little less than 2 weeks so it seems as if the car might be sitting for quite awhile. Maybe till next summer...:wack:
 
MuuMuu101 said:
Thanks. I haven't done anything since then. Pretty much lost almost all my motivation. I've been busy with work and designing a new baja car. My biggest issue is still the firewall. If I could get someone to patch and weld it for me again, it might ignite a spark to get it back and running again, but I've been having troubles coordinating with other people's schedules. School starts in a little less than 2 weeks so it seems as if the car might be sitting for quite awhile. Maybe till next summer...:wack:
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Maybe try posting a want ad or something in General Discussion asking for help from a fellow member
 
PanGasket said:
Maybe try posting a want ad or something in General Discussion asking for help from a fellow member
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I tried. I didn't really get any bites... One member (a regular) offered for me to join his club where he knows people who would help me, but my schedule doesn't really work with their meeting times. I'll try again.
 
worth giving it a shot at this time of day. I've been seeing alot of member in Cali posting recently. but that may not mean much as your state takes up 3/4 of the coast line over there
 
So, I'm kind of throwing in the flag on this one. I just talked with my dad today. We both agreed that I should just send the Dart out and have my mechanics fix them. So, the plan is to install the steering wheel back in the car (maybe tonight after my homework) so I can maneuver the Dart out of the garage, hopefully sometime before Saturday, and have AAA tow it over there. I'm going to ask them if they can have it done before the 25th of October so I can take the car over to Fall Fling. I'm going to have them check all of the brake work, get her driving safely again, and fix the small little issues if there's time.

Update: Just threw in the steering column so the car can turn (no roll pin) and packed up the trunk with all my parts. Now I'm going to write a detailed report for my mechanics on what I have, what I've done, and what I'd like to have done/fixed.
 
Just pushed the Dart out of my garage and am awaiting for AAA's arrival in an hour. I'm going to go pick up some donuts real quick for my mechanics to butter them up a little and then I'll head on over there to tell them what's going on. Hopefully they can have her driving safely by Fall Fling.
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Update: So AAA came and picked up the car. I followed the tow truck to my mechanics and just couldn't stop thinking to myself, "Man, the Dart front end looks so BA." I'm excited to be able to drive it again. I showed my mechanic the car and told him the most important thing to focus on was the brakes and making sure it runs nicely. He said turn around time, if everything was ideal, 1 week. If nothing goes wrong and he gets it done on time, I may give him another week and have him try to fix the small issues like the locks and my driver door/window problems. He didn't seem too happy with me from changing from power to manual brakes though.
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Got a call from my mechanics. The brake system is done and the car is running and driving. I'm going to head over there in 3-4 hours to test it out. He said there's one small problem. One of the pistons is reading low compression.

Update: So I went to my mechanics. I actually got to drive the car a little and it drove just as well as before. Cylinder 2 is reading approximately 60 psi. There were a couple little issues I wanted addressed so I told them to keep it another half week. The steering wheel wasn't centered, the turn signals weren't working (I'm guessing there was no ground), my friend broke my speedo cable, I wanted them to check the locks, I may need a couple tires, etc. So I will most likely bring the Dart to Fall Fling, drive it around for a month or two, save some money, and send it back to them to redo the entire suspension (rebuild kit, steering box, T-bars and leafs, possibly sway bars), install my 8 3/4, and put on some new 17" wheels. It's not going to look pretty at Fall Fling, but it will most likely be there.

On a positive note, my mechanics told me I did a good job on putting the brake system together. So that was a good "pick-me-up."
 
this is a /6 right? does it have the heat flapper valve on the manifold? alot of times they get stuck close and can lead to burning up the valves. happened to me on a slanty that i had.
 
Well after a year of plenty of ups and downs and a busy life, I was finally able to get the Dart running and driving again. There were times I had bursts of progress and times I was just simply too afraid to work on the car. Well, 3 weeks ago I sent it off to my mechanics to put the final touches on the brake system. I test drove it last week and today I picked it up. First thing I did was take it to the local cruise to show a friend of mine who has a Challenger there.

I'm happy I have the Dart now. The best way to describe driving the car would be to say it's "refreshing." Driving it makes life seem simpler. I don't care it's not shiny, with the biggest and baddest motors, with all the creature comforts. It has a crappy chipping paint job, missing the trim on the driver's door, none of the gauges work besides the alternator gauge, the blue protectant on the two new white walls hasn't been wiped off, and it's slow as hell. But then again, it's my Dart. It starts right up, is now safe, and has character to it. No one at the local cruise had a mopar with missing trim, steel wheels w/o hub caps, and 1 year build up of dirt.

I just figured I should post this. I'm going to drive it 4 miles to school tomorrow to see how well it likes freeways and hills. If it's good, it will be going to Fall Fling just the way it is. No wash, no prettiness, it's going to just drive.

Anyways, I should get to studying. I have 2 math exams tomorrow I haven't started studying for and I've got an engineering exam on Monday. On top of all that, my uncle from Lebanon is flying in again tomorrow. Busy weekend, much?

If anyone at Fall Fling wants to meet up. Send me a pm.
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Kind of a bit of an update since the last post. That weekend I ended up going to the Fall Fling and had a great time. I had 0 issues and a comfortable ride on my 90 mile round trip. Since then, I've been taking it out every other week and just cruising in it for 10 miles or so. I sometimes take it to school. I don't really want to go far as some safety issues need to be addressed. The driver's door rear view mirror only points down. The adjustment on it is broken. Also, the turn signal doesn't work as the mechanics installed the steering column half-assed. They were off by one spline and now the steering wheel is sorta crooked driving straight. Plus they never installed the last brackets that holds the steering column in the car. Now my turn signal swirls around the column sometimes on turns and it won't actuate when the lever is pulled. However, on that note, I think it's just missing the ground as I have a spare wire. I just don't know where to connect it as I'm terrible with circuits and electricity (aka Black Magic).

Besides enjoying it, I'm trying to think of where to go for the next step. I've got an 8 3/4 in my garage waiting to go in so I've been thinking an engine swap of some sort. I'm not too big of a fan with the granny gears and lack of hp but it's fine for now. I was thinking possibly along the lines of a engine swap/drivetrain go through this summer, suspension upgrade next summer, and paint and body a year or longer after that.
 
A little bit of an update. I've been driving the car around and starting to film gopro videos in it for a potential Youtube channel. It's something new I'm trying. I'd like to influence more people into the car culture as well as just throw out my opinion on cars. It's been a lot of fun and my cruises generally last a little longer than usual when I'm filming.
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Anyways, I just filed for taxes yesterday and since I'm a student, I should be getting a fat amount of cash from the IRS in my bank account soon. That being said, after Spring Fling, the car is going to come apart and get the upgrades it needs. Things I'm looking into are a Hotchkis TVS (although I won't be able to use the UCA's just yet), 1.06" T-bars from Firm Feel, a suspension rebuild with MOOG parts from rockauto, and a HF welder and jack (to learn to weld, make subframe connectors, weld the K-frame, and weld on some tabs here and there). With those, I should still have a little cash left over from my tax refund so I'm thinking about replacing the 273 with a junkyard 360. Maybe (and that's a big maybe), I may add in a Borgeson Box (mostly coming out of my pocket) since everything will be out of the car anyways. I'll be swapping the 7 1/4 for my 8 3/4 when the springs go in. However, with all those mods I'm going to need a new exhaust and other trinkets here and there I know I'm not accounting for. I do have thoughts of potentially doing a simple, junkyard Chinese turbo build too.
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I don't want to get too carried away here, though.

It's going to be a very steep learning curve but I've always got you guys to help, right?
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Anyways, here's a picture of me and the Dart on Valentine's Day as I couldn't get a date...
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Its good to see your enthusiasm. Being 27 (almost 28) now, I had a tough time working on anything on my car when I was in engineering school. My car was even in a different state. The car and engineering school both are the same in the way that they are both tough, but the juice is worth the squeeze.

The Hotchkis TVS would work well if you were needing to replace all the parts at once (springs, etc), however, without wider tires, its not going to be close to its full potential. The borgeson box does rock...highly recommended.

I would try to find a used welder with a gas bottle. I have a Clarke 130EN and you can do nice welds on thin-ish metal with that. 220V are always better.

The paint on my car is probably a lot worse than yours is lol
 
goldduster318 said:
Its good to see your enthusiasm. Being 27 (almost 28) now, I had a tough time working on anything on my car when I was in engineering school. My car was even in a different state. The car and engineering school both are the same in the way that they are both tough, but the juice is worth the squeeze.

The Hotchkis TVS would work well if you were needing to replace all the parts at once (springs, etc), however, without wider tires, its not going to be close to its full potential. The borgeson box does rock...highly recommended.

I would try to find a used welder with a gas bottle. I have a Clarke 130EN and you can do nice welds on thin-ish metal with that. 220V are always better.

The paint on my car is probably a lot worse than yours is lol
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It's definitely difficult to work on the car. But recently I've obtained a new internship (still haven't started, waiting on paperwork) and I took a break from my club as it was just becoming too much on me. I went from interning at the utility not doing much in the marketing department to now interning at a pretty big aerospace company designing winches so we'll see where this goes. I'm excited for the change.

The entire suspension under the Dart is warn out. The bushings are pretty much shot. The springs sag. The only thing new in the Suspension is the Bilstein shocks that I put in there over a year ago. I know the 205/75/14 tires are my largest limiting factor but it's what I've got right now. I won't be able to swap to bbp for another year or so and when I do I'm going to go with Dr Diff's 13" front brembo kit with his 11.7" rears. On top of that I'd like to go with 2-piece 18" wheels. I've got a buddy who can get them to my custom bs I need for a decent price.

I've heard gas welders are much better than flux as they are able to reduce the splatter; however, this welder is pretty cheap at $100. But I'll keep my eyes out on CL. There seems to be a lot of welders out there that have only been used once.

And the paint on the Dart is pretty bad. It seems to be a cheap $500 job. There are plenty of bubbles on the bottom quarter panels as well as signs of bondo wrapped around the wheel tubs. There are also various cracks and such where you can see bare metal rusting out. It's going to need some work in the next 3 years or so. I figure once I get all the mechanicals sorted through and I start working in industry, I'll send it to a mopar shop and have them fix and paint all the body and reassemble it.
 
Well, you know you can't have time for everything when you're still in school. The winches gig sounds a lot more like it. I actually work on the Hydraulic components of ABS and Stability Control systems as my normal job now (and for the last 3 1/2 years). A pretty interesting place to be.

Tires are probably the most important thing when it comes to handling/braking. I'll say this a million times over - and in all conditions, because well, we have all conditions here in Michigan (lately its been snow and ice only but whatever). The right tires are huge. I'm honestly not sure the big brakes matter much - unless you are planning to go to track days, or just care about the look. If you can lock the wheels instantaneously with smaller brakes, the bigger brakes won't help much...other than repeatiblity. Smart use of a setup like an 11.75" front and one of the dr. diff rear setups is more than enough for street use.

The reason I say that is that I own a very similarly weighted modern car - 2012 Chevrolet Cruze 2LT...3100 lbs, maybe a bit more front weight. It runs a 10.8" front and 10.7" rear rotor with smaller front calipers than I have on the Duster, and this thing stops in a retina -jerking 115 ft from 60.

I'm interested to see what the 15/16" manual master cylinder does to my car, as its hard to lock my 225-60/15 BFG G-force Sports even with the 11.75's. I think it's not getting enough master cylinder pressure. I probably will be going to rear disks as well at some point.

The body on your car sounds like mine. Mine has had bubbles for the last 15 years. Keeping it dry has kept it from changing much.

Just remember, you could be itching to work on your car, and have it be 16 degrees and snowing outside like I have lol
 
goldduster318 said:
Well, you know you can't have time for everything when you're still in school. The winches gig sounds a lot more like it. I actually work on the Hydraulic components of ABS and Stability Control systems as my normal job now (and for the last 3 1/2 years). A pretty interesting place to be.

Tires are probably the most important thing when it comes to handling/braking. I'll say this a million times over - and in all conditions, because well, we have all conditions here in Michigan (lately its been snow and ice only but whatever). The right tires are huge. I'm honestly not sure the big brakes matter much - unless you are planning to go to track days, or just care about the look. If you can lock the wheels instantaneously with smaller brakes, the bigger brakes won't help much...other than repeatiblity. Smart use of a setup like an 11.75" front and one of the dr. diff rear setups is more than enough for street use.

The reason I say that is that I own a very similarly weighted modern car - 2012 Chevrolet Cruze 2LT...3100 lbs, maybe a bit more front weight. It runs a 10.8" front and 10.7" rear rotor with smaller front calipers than I have on the Duster, and this thing stops in a retina -jerking 115 ft from 60.

I'm interested to see what the 15/16" manual master cylinder does to my car, as its hard to lock my 225-60/15 BFG G-force Sports even with the 11.75's. I think it's not getting enough master cylinder pressure. I probably will be going to rear disks as well at some point.

The body on your car sounds like mine. Mine has had bubbles for the last 15 years. Keeping it dry has kept it from changing much.

Just remember, you could be itching to work on your car, and have it be 16 degrees and snowing outside like I have lol
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My goal is to get 275's all the way around if I can. And I do like the looks of big brakes but don't want to go too overboard. I've currently got a 1 1/32 Manual master with my KH setup and 10" rear drums and it stops pretty well. I'm curious how it would do on some low profiles. I've also got a 2011 Scion tc with a similar brake setup as your Cruze and honestly, I've been a little disappointed with the brakes in some emergency conditions with some 225/45/18 tires (could have been bad tires). Often times the wheels wouldn't completely lock up and you can kind of feel the wheel skip as the brakes were trying to grab.

With regards to the body, luckily it rarely rains in California and isn't very humid. When it comes time to work on that portion I think I'm going to remove all the GT trim and have a more clean and simple look. I may add a '68 butt stripe (I've got a custom idea I might try). I'm also thinking about playing around with making some interior parts out of carbon just for fun (like door panels, center console, and dash). It will be fairly easy to make flat parts using aluminum as molds.
 
You won't be able to completely lock the brakes on that Scion. Every car MY2011+ has stability control - which includes ABS. You probably heard some light chirping and a motor type sound under the hood...and some clicking.

I also have a 1 1/32 master cylinder and the normal stopping is pretty good, but its harder to lock the brakes up. Provided you don't loose master cylinder stroke, you can build more pressure with less pedal force with a smaller master cylinder (will also increase travel). As it goes, P=F/A (Pressure=force/area).
 
Well, I just got off the phone with my dad. My bank account is going to take a small hit today, I'm going to be purchasing the Hotchkis TVS, greasable pins and lca bushings, and subframe connectors for the Dart. I'm going to save the UCA's in my garage for now and just go with the offset bushings as I still have the small ball joints. I'm also going to give Firm Feel a call and purchase some 1.06" T-bars. Lastly, I'm going to be getting new shoes and a drum hardware kit for my 8 3/4, buy some tools from Harbor freight when it arrives and fix that up myself during Spring Break next week in between my work days.

Honestly, I'm not going to have much time to work on the Dart so after Spring Fling I'm going to send it all down to my mechanics and have them install the setup. While they're at it, I was thinking about having them look into the compression problems and cleaning up all the grease then sending it to an exhaust shop for a simple dual exhaust. My dad on the other hand told me to "hand him the specs" on the engine I want so he can purchase a complete engine or long block. I'm not sure I want to go that route as I know not much interchanges between a 273 and 360. Plus I'm going to need a much better exhaust after that's done.

I don't know, I've been planning this for awhile and kind of anxious as I don't know what to expect.
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Sure, it's a shame I won't be able to work on it much, but I figure there will always be other modifications I'm going to want to do in the future.
 
Holy crap! In the name of Ron Burgandy, "Well, that escalated quickly..."

Less than 24 hours between order and delivery.
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So I didn't realize it but there was more Hotchkis parts that came in on Wednesday, so I'm super excited about that. Also, my brake rebuild kit, new shoes, and wheel cylinders arrived so I may head on over to HF and pick up some drum brake tools. I'm probably going to start by degreasing the diff first. Then, if I have time today, start the rebuild. One thing I noticed is I didn't realize that each shoe kit comes with shoes for both sides so now I have an extra set I know I won't end up using unless my brake upgrade is held off longer.

I also ordered some windshield wiper refills from rockauto and am extremely disappointed with the brand I got. First off, the quality of the blades and packaging sucked. I ordered 15" refills and although the package says they're 15", they were more like 13". Finding rifills is extremely difficult. My friend at the cruise may give me his for a 16" and I may just have to cut it down to size. Mine are extremely old and are ripping apart. I guess you get what you pay for.

O, and I don't know what happened to Firm Feel. I ordered my T-bars a week ago and Dick said he had them in stock and they should be shipped last Friday. They sent me an unofficial invoice (no shipping) and then nothing. Nothing's been charged on my account and I checked with my bank and they said there were no restrictions on my card (I made like 4 purchases that day, Firm Feel being the last). I called earlier today but they were busy so I sent them an email.
 
i love getting parts in the mail; so be honest did you open up all the parts and lay them out on the floor? my wife was yelling at me a few months back for having parts all over the living room when i ordered my sway bars and other stuff.

also when you change the parts, i would ask your mechanic to save the front and rear spring hangers & shackles, oem front t-bars. you could probably sell them here and recoup a few bucks
 
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