My second 1965 Dodge Dart.

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Bills65Dart

Bills65Dart

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Hi folks.

This was going to be a "I buy a car I do not have to work on", and my second 1965 Dodge Dart.

Just a little about my first 1965 Dodge Dart. I bought that one when I served in the military in Norway, since I am Norwegian. It was a Ruby Red 1965 Dodge Dart 170 Station Wagon, with a 170 cu. in. Slant Six, and a 3 speed manual. Very basic. I loved that car.

Several things happened in 1987, the car had some body issues, and some brake issues, and I was 25, and not very fluent with body work, and not very fluent with a whole bunch of things. Few to ask for help, no internet.
So, instead of doing what I should have done, gotten taught how to do proper body work, and other things, I got a 1971 Ford Torino instead. Which I ended up using far more money on than I would have had to use on my 1965 Dart to make it drivable again. I did not sell the car, and not selling it should have rang a bell... keep it. Then I took it out driving it on the road passed the houses, no traffic, and I got a fuel leak on the fuel hose just before the fuel pump, and it must have been a spark there for suddenly the car was on fire. I had a fire extinguisher in the car, and stopped the fire, but had to pull the car to the garage with my tractor. A bit after that a fellow came and wanted to buy it, and I sold it. His wife used it as a daily driver for many years after that.

Now I live in northern California, and have felt a bit lost, and suddenly a blue 1965 Dodge Dart 270 4 door sedan shows up for sale. It said in the ad something like "can be driven anywhere".
I considered going to Los Angeles and drive it home. Am I glad I did not.
For several reasons I ended up having a company go and look at the car and take pictures. Still I was not able to see how the paint job was done, because the ad said it was newly painted, new gas tank, new upholstery, headliner, and new brakes.
All that was true, just that the paint job was a rather sloppy job.

The pictures showed that the door seals had not been replaced. And I thought, this looks like the former owner have done half the job, and quit for whatever reason, and it will be what we can call a "rolling" restoration. In other words, a car that is fully drivable, I can use and have fun with while I fix things as I have time and money.

I bought the car, the dealer was accommodating, and got it sent up here in just a couple of days. Very satisfied with that.

It came on a Sunday, in July, and the car is really still not in a drivable condition. Some of the first I noticed was a very loud engine. It has a 225, and automatic transmission.

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Listening to the engine made me worried. It was so loud that I was worried it was a bearing issue. But, normally a bearing knock comes on one or two bearings, and not equally on them all.
In addition I felt the engine was running too fast at idle.

I took off the valve cover, and measured the valve clearance. This is now over two months ago, but I am pretty sure the intakes were 0.045, and the intakes were between 0.060-0.065. When I discovered this, I realized that this might not be as bad as I thought. Other than that those who had it before me had a peculiar way of maintaining the car.
I adjusted the valves, and ran it a little, and then the next day I started the car and I was not satisfied, so I took it back in the driveway and adjusted them again, and with also a little more clearance than the 0.010 and 0.020.

As you all can see, the engine compartment is not up to date. Here is quite a bit I can do. But, the car has a hood, and it is not a problem that the engine is lacking paint, and look a bit neglected. So, it will have to stay like that for now. Other things come before this.

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Since I am from Norway, and have lived here only since 2013, and with a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis, I have not had the need for a tachometer, and not a dwell meter either. But, I have a multimeter.
I ended up finding a brand new, old, probably from the late 70ties, analog tachometer with dwell and some other functions on.
With that in hand, I was able to adjust the idle. And the dwell was quite a bit off. But I let it sit as it was.

The engine as can be seen in the picture above, there are no heater hoses. Then I discovered there was no hose from the vacuum advance to the carb. either. And no PCV valve at all.

The engine has oil though, but rather black. Not changed it yet. Air filter was very dirty. I got a new air filter, new points, condenser, rotor, and distributor cap, new spark plugs and vacuum advance. I have replaced the spark plugs, points, condenser and vacuum advance. Adjusted the points, and ign. timing just by setting the engine in 2.5 deg. BTC, and moving the distributor until the points opens. I have not invested in a timing light yet. But, it is fairly good, and the points gap I have checked with the dwell meter, and it is very good.
The car starts easily, but I have not checked the compression, or leak down yet.

The pot for the choke was leaking, so it did not take off the choke as it should, so I got a new pot, and put it on, and got a new hose for it. And a hose between the carb. and vacuum advance. So, all of that seems to work fine now.

The engine runs smooth and nice, and I really do not have any complaints about it at this point.
 
65dartcharger said:
Your car looks great Bill! I'm sure you will work out all the bugs on it!
Click to expand...

Thank you,

Sadly the pics does not show that they have been so cheap on the paint that the primer show through. And there are even places theh have forgotten to paint, like under the right tail light.

Bill
 
The next issue I discovered was that more or less only half of the lights worked. No blinkers in the front, no parking lights either. No dome light. No back up light when in reverse. And no oil warning light, no high beam warning light, no light in the speedometer, and no right and left control lights for the blinkers.
Then I discovered that 2 of the tires were trailer tires with a speed limit just about 80 mph. And the car is leaning over to the right, 1.25 inches lower on the right side than the left.

No trunk seal either. And where the back up light bulbs are, there is red lenses. But all the wiring is there, and the switch.

And no right front door arm rest either, and all the door opening handles are mounted the wrong way. Maybe for child safety, what do I know. the trunk floor mat is also very flimsy, not very useful. And the spare tire was worn out, and the spare tire rim is 6 or 6.5 inch, and not the 4.5 inch it is supposed to have, so the spare tire protrudes further up through the trunk floor than it should.

The fuel cap was also wrong, for a much later car.

I ordered 5 brand new tires, car tires, in 175/80R13. White side. And in that process I discovered that I needed one new wheel stud with nut, one extra nut, and one stud is rotating. And all the brakes are so tight that they get hot when driving. And it seems the car does not have self adjusting brakes.

No, I have had a small window to work on the car, from about 8-8:30 in the morning, until 10-10:30. After that it has been so hot that I have put it together and moved it out in the street again. So, very little progress each day. But some.

In the process I discovered that the fuel gauge read different every time I started up the engine. But usually I was only driving from the street and up in the driveway so I did not get to see the temperature gauge and how that was reading.

When using the blinkers I discovered that the blinkers arm did not return to the middle when turning the steering wheel back. So, I knew that I had to deal with that. The windshield wipers were also odd, and the issue seemed to come from the switch. Which is not made new anymore.
And the steering wheel itself is an aftermarket one, only 13.5 inches wide. And it makes the car way to heavy to steer without power steering.
 
When I got the car off the truck at a nearby gas station, the right front door window was open, and the left vent door under the dash was missing. And the car was full of dust, leaves, debris of different kinds. So, I had a whole job cleaning it out.

I have found a new vent door, but the door is partly broken, and I do not have the hinge part. But, all that is minor thing, the hinge is easy to fabricate, and the broken part on the door I can fix too.

I have taken a lot of pictures, and I have been sitting transfering them to the computer and giving them new names so it should be possible to sort them out somehow. When that is done I will post a lot more pics.

The picture I got from the dealer where I bought the car it was totally clean inside. But all the dust was dry, so it was rather easy to just vacuum the car.

Bill

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I had a company go and look at the car before I bought it. WeGoLook. They took a lot of pics, and one or two videos, but I don't think it is possible to post videos here.

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Now, even if it was a lot of pics, it is not easy to view them and see if something is wrong. Somehow, I missed something so obvious as the missing armrest on the front right door. How could I miss that ?

The pictures that shows the carpet does not do it justice. The carpet feels very nice, and in a different light it would be possible to see how nice it is. It is brand new. But, now I have to look and see if the pad under the heals is placed in the right place as Ulf mention in his thread about the station wagon. If it was not for his thread where he mentioned it, I would have no idea. That is always a minus sort of taking over where someone else left. It is not an easy task. Unless I had a 1965 Dodge Dart 4 door sedan unrestored that I could look at.

I still love my little car, and I have such great time fixing things that it is amazing.
 
Bill,

Very nice car. Is that the original color? Looks like Medium Poly Blue same as mine except mine has been fading for 60 years.

The tail lights are for a car that doesn't have backup lights. The center should be white if it had backup lights. Mine has the opposite problem, backup lenses but no backup lights. I bought the only set I could find while driving mine after one broke.

Again nice car, hope you enjoy it.
 
65DartDD1 said:
Bill,

Very nice car. Is that the original color? Looks like Medium Poly Blue same as mine except mine has been fading for 60 years.

The tail lights are for a car that doesn't have backup lights. The center should be white if it had backup lights. Mine has the opposite problem, backup lenses but no backup lights. I bought the only set I could find while driving mine after one broke.

Again nice car, hope you enjoy it.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

Last thing first, I have not been able to enjoy driving it much.

No, it was light turquoise, and the color on the car now it not a 1965 Dodge color at all. I have contacted the seller about it, if it would be possible to get in touch with the former owner and ask what color was chosen. But, the seller has remained silent on that question. I have a similar issue inside, the blue vinyl on the seats and armrest pads, it is no 1965 Dodge color, and I need a little piece for the missing armrest I have bought from ebay.

Yes, I don't know how to fix the back up light lenses. I have looked to see if I could find just the lenses, but no luck so far. Maybe I just need to find some white lenses from whatever, and cut it fit, get the red lenses out, and glue white lenses in. Can not find anyone who sell just white lenses for the 65 Dart.

Bill
 
Bill,

If you need pictures of anything just ask. Mine are mostly original.

On the lights check the switch. Mine needs to be replaced due to not being used for so long. I had the same problems with the front blinkers. My dash lights don't work unless the switch is in the exact position that turns them on. Also remember the front parking lights don't come on when the headlights are on.
 
65DartDD1 said:
Bill,

If you need pictures of anything just ask. Mine are mostly original.

On the lights check the switch. Mine needs to be replaced due to not being used for so long. I had the same problems with the front blinkers. My dash lights don't work unless the switch is in the exact position that turns them on. Also remember the front parking lights don't come on when the headlights are on.
Click to expand...

Is yours a 4 door too ?

Yes, there is a picture I would love to see. And that is how the trunk lid seal goes down in the back. I know how it is supposed to be around the edge on the top. But not in the cack and lower end. I have no seal there at all now.

Bill
 
Bills65Dart said:
Is yours a 4 door too ?

Yes, there is a picture I would love to see. And that is how the trunk lid seal goes down in the back. I know how it is supposed to be around the edge on the top. But not in the cack and lower end. I have no seal there at all now.

Bill
Click to expand...

Yes. Mine are 4 doors. You can see the Medium Poly Blue at Driving Again

Here is the picture you requested. I think my seal has slipped as I thought it covered the lip. I'll check again in the morning as it was to dark to check after I took the picture.
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TexasDart said:
Well you are in California. . And mine is For Sale.
Click to expand...

Oh, now I get it. Thank you for the offer. I do like convertibles and you have a beautiful car there, but here in California what is needed is A/C. You see, both my wife and I can not take the sun here. So, we are sitting inside the entire summer, except early in the mornings when I can have the garage door open and do a little car stuff until the sun comes around, and that's it.
So, if I am having one more 1965 Dodge Dart, it will be a very specific choise, it would be a Dart 170 Station Wagon, with a 170 cu.in. Slant Six, three on the tree, and the car will be Ruby red. It would also be a project car for me to fix. If we still live here, I would need it to be a running one.

So: Ruby Red 1965 Dodge Dart 170 Station Wagon, 170 cu.in. 3 speed manual. Preferably with a matching fender tag.

Bill


You see, my wife and I are both completely misplaced here, we belong on the north pole.
 
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