My Dart Swinger Project!

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George Jets said:
Eye on the Prize !

Good Work, coming along . . .

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I really like those stands you got I need that I'm working on mine off my tailgate it's a pita!! I'm getting stronger tho wrestling around with this 200 pound piece of crap haha. I was so sore the other day after about 2 hours I felt like I had been to the gym. I bet it picked it up and re adjusted it a dozen times.
 
Ok here are some pics Its already getting surface rust on the areas I was grinding on yesterday. I still have to grind down all the brackets
@moparmandan you can see where I started the pipe cutter on the small end I made about one lap before it became impossible to hold do you think this will weaken it if I cut the other side instead? Can I go over that spot with a welder and fill it back in? It's not very deep maybe a 32nd or so

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dartfreak75 said:
But you disagreed with Dan Haha jk fat fingers ok thanks that's what I will do then!! I think I have plenty of room for the "jig" cutting it from the pumpkin side.
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Well, I think Matt was dis-agreeing because in general terms you don't want to cut too close to the pumpkin. In your case your fine. You seem to have plenty of tube left to work with. Thats about where I cut mine.
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moparmandan said:
Well, I think Matt was dis-agreeing because in general terms you don't want to cut too close to the pumpkin. In your case your fine. You seem to have plenty of tube left to work with. Thats about where I cut mine.
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Do you think that line where I tried to cut the small end will hurt ? I'm thinking about using it as a reference and cutting the line with a cutting wheel.

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moparmandan said:
Sure, use it as a cut line, cut it with a wheel.
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The only problem with doing it that way is I was measuring it using the bevel that the pipe cutter left If I cut it straight down it may throw that off I'm gonna have to double check. Do you think that line will hurt anything? If not I will just cut it off the pumpkin side.
 
It will be just as strong as a solid tube if you V notch both pieces well to get full weld penetration. As long as your welds are good. Clean all the oil out of the tubes. Oil will make your welds weak and porous.

If your cutting and grinding on it, I sure hope you have a clean rag stuffed in that tube to keep all the crap outta there.
 
moparmat2000 said:
It will be just as strong as a solid tube if you V notch both pieces well to get full weld penetration. As long as your welds are good. Clean all the oil out of the tubes. Oil will make your welds weak and porous.

If your cutting and grinding on it, I sure hope you have a clean rag stuffed in that tube to keep all the crap outta there.
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Yea I got rags stuffed it both ends to keep debris out of the housing.
 
dartfreak75 said:
Yea I can't wait to see it too. It looks great from the 8.8 thread. You got alot of work in it.
Sorry about your 13 year old is she typical teenager bat **** crazy or really have something wrong that she cant help? We are having a time with my 13 year old son too he is a good kid but he is at that age where he is hard to handle.
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No bro, she has ODD, takes meds, gets her head shrinked once a week. Believe me this kid costs us a bunch. The **** is unbelievable. Told my wife at age 18 when she graduates, she gets a boot in her ***. Told my wife I have washed my hands of plenty of people who have put me through much less than this kid has. I told my wife 18 she is no longer my responsibility. Of course she takes dead aim at me all the time because I wont put up with her ****. My son likes to torment the dogs, and has gotten his *** beat for it. So at the dinner table straight out of thin air without provocation she looks at him and says, at least I dont torture animals, I just couldent help myself and replied to her, your right you dont, you reserve that treatment for people. And then the fight started. LoL. Wife got pissed, said why do you engage her like that. I told my wife she is gonna have a harder time in life with her big mouth than the locking horns I do with her now. Hard road man, hard road. But I'm a polishin up my ropers for that day. The day she graduates high school, her **** will be in boxes at the front door the next morning. I'm done.
 
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Every day is a treat with that one. Glad its cooling off down here soon. I get home from work about 4pm before she gets home from school, so I will take my son to the shop and spend a lot of time out there working on the car w shop door locked till my wife gets home. This kid has put holes in the walls of her room In anger. Oldest moves out, wife let's her have the oldests room, saying oh she wont hurt it, shes responsible etc. Now I have more sheetrock to fix
 
moparmat2000 said:
No bro, she has ODD, takes meds, gets her head shrinked once a week. Believe me this kid costs us a bunch. The **** is unbelievable. Told my wife at age 18 when she graduates, she gets a boot in her ***. Told my wife I have washed my hands of plenty of people who have put me through much less than this kid has. I told my wife 18 she is no longer my responsibility. Of course she takes dead aim at me all the time because I wont put up with her ****. My son likes to torment the dogs, and has gotten his *** beat for it. So at the dinner table straight out of thin air without provocation she looks at him and says, at least I dont torture animals, I just couldent help myself and replied to her, your right you dont, you reserve that treatment for people. And then the fight started. LoL. Wife got pissed, said why do you engage her like that. I told my wife she is gonna have a harder time in life with her big mouth than the locking horns I do with her now. Hard road man hard road. But I'm a polishin up my ropers for that day. The day she graduated high school, her **** will be in boxes at the front door the next morning. I'm done.
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Damn that's tough.
 
I was just in the same spot with my 8.8. I tried to keep my axle tubes as square as possible during the cut, but during the process of removing material for the overall width its hard to keep them true. I basically had two pieces of 2" channel that I would clamp to either side of the axle tube...take my measurements from there. This happened more than a few times. But once I had my measurements ( 4 positions on the tube) I ground a nice chamfer on either side of my cut line. Clamped it all up and remeasured. At that point I tacked it at 3 and 9, moved me clamps and tacked 12 and 6. Every time checking my measurements. I took my material from the area between the sway bar mount and the vent.
I know youve already passed this point with the body stuff. However, Ive had good luck using nails to plug the body holes. Once they are tacked in just cut the rest off.
 
Looks great , glad to see your back at it. Don’t have any advice on the diff but I’m keeping an eye on what your doing in case I go that route. Keep it going man!! Getting excited to start on mine again
 
74 DART' said:
Looks great , glad to see your back at it. Don’t have any advice on the diff but I’m keeping an eye on what your doing in case I go that route. Keep it going man!! Getting excited to start on mine again
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Look into the 8.8 swap sticky. Theres a lot of information there on this swap.
 
Hey dartfreak75 this is what I bought off evilbay. I plan on setting the rear in the car on these and bolting the u bolts down snug but loose enough I can rotate the axle in the perches. Center it up on the springs with an equal amount on either side and a 43" on center for the springs. Then im going to set torsion bars to normal ride height in the front as if it had an engine in it, and put the rear wheels in place. And set it on the ground. With the car level I am going to use my inclinometer and set the pinion angle 5° down from level, and tack weld the perches in place in 4 spots, then tighten the U bolts. They will get fully welded eventually, but this puts em where they need to be so i can roll the car around and do work on it, or push it outside for other projects.

To do what I am mentioning and get the pinion angle the way I am doing it, you need the car dead level on a cement pad.

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moparmat2000 said:
Hey dartfreak75 this is what I bought off evilbay. I plan on setting the rear in the car on these and bolting the u bolts down snug but loose enough I can rotate the axle in the perches. Center it up on the springs with an equal amount on either side and a 43" on center for the springs. Then im going to set torsion bars to normal ride height in the front as if it had an engine in it, and put the rear wheels in place. And set it on the ground. With the car level I am going to use my inclinometer and set the pinion angle 5° down from level, and tack weld the perches in place in 4 spots, then tighten the U bolts. They will get fully welded eventually, but this puts em where they need to be so i can roll the car around and do work on it, or push it outside for other projects.

To do what I am mentioning and get the pinion angle the way I am doing it, you need the car dead level on a cement pad.

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That is a great idea I like that unfortunately I dont have a garage with a concrete floor.
 
Quick update I got my second cut made test fit looks good I am gonna have to do a little cleaning up on my cuts as I have a few small gaps I'm right over 17 1/8 my other side is just a hair over 17 1/16 so I have a little wiggle room but not much I took my scrap piece and cut it in half with an angle grinder to practice welding on before I make my final weld I'm gonna call it a day and try to sleep some I will post some more pics here in a min
 
The only problem with using the stock Explorer ends is there are no C clip eliminators for them. I used new style big 9" billet ends on mine.
 
Oldiron440 said:
The only problem with using the stock Explorer ends is there are no C clip eliminators for them. I used new style big 9" billet ends on mine.
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They do make them for the 28 spline I know but I'm not sure about the 31 (explorer) I'm not really worried about that this is just a street car I'm not gonna be making enough power to break an axle or anything like that no slicks or anything.
 
As promised here are some pics. I practiced two short welds on my scrap cut off piece I know I'm a crappy welder but it doesnt like bad for me lol made 2 spot welds about an inch apart and welded to the spot weld I did that twice. I didnt want to go all the way around yet because I bought some new wire I want to practice with too. Its Lincoln. 035 wire right now I'm running blue devil .030 i bought it from Amazon and so far I'm not impressed with it at all the elcheapo stuff that harbor freight sent with the welder laid a much better bead imo. The welds in the pics are not cleaned up in any way I laid them down and took a picture they are still smoking lol.

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I would make that V notch 45° on both halves giving it a 90° V when put together. This will make sure you get full tube wall penetration, and full strength. That will help a lot with weld penetration. Also Your welds look like they are either too cold, or your running the wire feed too fast. Slow the wire down, and bring the temp up. If you follow my advice you can grind off the excess weld and make the tube look like it's never been cut.

Clean off all that scale on the other end of the tube at the pumpkin end to make sure your jig is gonna keep it as square as it can. That lumpy, bumpy rust will throw off the squareness.

V notch that practice piece 45° on either side for a full 90° V slow your wire down and turn the heat up. Your welds look cold. They should flow into the metal not ride on top of it.
 
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Looks like you are making progress. Do as many test welds as possible. It looks to me that you could turn up the heat and drop the wire speed some. What size welder are you using?
 
moparmat2000 said:
I would make that V notch 45° on both halves giving it a 90° V when put together. This will make sure you get full tube wall penetration, and full strength. That will help a lot with weld penetration. Also Your welds look like they are either too cold, or your running the wire feed too fast. Slow the wire down, and bring the temp up. If you follow my advice you can grind off the excess weld and make the tube look like it's never been cut.

Clean off all that scale on the other end of the tube at the pumpkin end to make sure your jig is gonna keep it as square as it can. That lumpy, bumpy rust will throw off the squareness.

V notch that practice piece 45° on either side for a full 90° V slow your wire down and turn the heat up. Your welds look cold. They should flow into the metal not ride on top of it.
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Gearhed73 said:
Looks like you are making progress. Do as many test welds as possible. It looks to me that you could turn up the heat and drop the wire speed some. What size welder are you using?
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It's a harbor freight 125 flux core welder. I did have the wire speed turned up I will turn it down some it's as high as it will go temptemper wise.
The ends are beveled from the pipe cutter I'm not sure what degree but I'd say it's close to 45.
 
I agree with those welds appearing cold. Turn up the amperage, or turn down the wire speed. And I'd also grind a larger bevel in the joint to ensure 100% penetration. Don't be afraid to make a couple passes too.

How thick is the wall thickness of those tubes? What welder are you using? Sorry if you've already stated - I couldn't find it.
 
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