Good news is she's home.
My dad and I left Wichita right about midnight planning on stopping somewhere to rest but we didn't. Made it into Webster City, Iowa about 6 am. So we got a motel room and slept till about 10:30. Chris, the seller, had messaged me asking when we would be there. I said, "20 minutes!"
Walked up to the car and it was pretty much exactly like I thought it would be except the interior was less faded than it looked in the pictures. The body and underbody were in better shape than I had hoped. The engine looked safely covered in 46 years of oil, grease and dirt. It was locked so we went in to talk to Chris and he met us with the keys and a gas can.
I put in the battery I had brought along and with just a little gas down the throat she fired right up. I expected engine noise of some kind but this 318 sitting in a car with 107,000 miles just sat there with hardly a vibration, it was loud because it had no muffler but is sounded great.
It was raining and it rained pretty much the entire trip. So first order was to get windshield wipers. The only 15" wipers they had in Webster City didn't have the right adapter but the optional zip tie adapter made it work. The motors worked and the wipers wiped.
As the engine was warming up two things were noticed. Fuel was dumping all over the intake and the heater hose was leaking at the water pump. I put the new carb on and the fuel problem was fixed. Decided to go ahead and get the paperwork out of the way and head over to O'reilly's to fix the eminent issues.
Chris also has a 1970 340 complete Swinger car, and a very nice white Dart Sport. We talked for a little about cars and mopars. He said this had been a one owner car and he even said "typical little old lady". Got the title, put on my tag and headed off.
Luckily the rain let up for while while I was working in the parking lot of O'Reilly's. My dad started feeling under the weather on Friday so he was relegated to sitting in the car most of the time. He did notice however that the tires, while they looked great from the side, once we got on pavement we noticed that 3 of the 4 had deep age cracks inside the tread. On the way there the ammeter was showing discharging so I had my dad take the alternator and battery in and have them tested.
I replaced the bypass hose and the leaky heater hose and added a gallon of antifreeze. The alternator came back as defective so I got a new one. The battery also showed defective but it was a brand new walmart battery so I just put it back in since they had charged it for me. Alternator and cooling system taken care of I decided to look at the brakes before leaving for Fort Dodge about 20 miles away.
The brakes worked after a pedal pump but it grabbed on the left side. I started to work on the brakes, shoes went on fine but I wanted to bleed the brakes. I sucked all of the "fluid" out of the master cylinder and added fresh brake fluid. I tried the left front first. It was a no go. Finally I decided, well I do have new wheel cylinders so I finally tried one more time and snapped the bleeder off. I had new rubber lines for the front but not the line between the rubber hose and the wheel cylinder. The line at the wheel cylinder would not budge, PB blaster, wire wheel, nothing. So I decided to leave it like that. I was able to bleed the front right. It did stop fine after a pedal pump so we headed off to Fort Dodge to get tires put on.
Stopped and filled the tank because the fuel smelled old. It took 11 gallons. We headed off to Fort Dodge. It ran very well. I took it easy as I got used to the state of the brakes. When it settled into a cruising speed it was running and riding very smooth. It didn't even have any wind noise. Went to walmart ordered the tires and we were going to go eat dinner while the tires were put on. The guy came out to inspect the car and get VIN etc. At this time I noticed that the gas tank was dripping gas. Not a hug amount but it was leaking. They said they couldn't work on the car that way. I asked If I could take the tires off and bring them in they said "Yes, but how are you going to do that?" I produced 4 jackstands from the trunk and off we went.
My friend Matt from Minnesota came down to visit while we were there. He was getting there about the time we were headed to the restaurant. We had a nice dinner and some drinks, then went back to walmart to pickup and install the tires and wheels.
The one tire that was in good shape was the same brand as the new tires so I kept the tire for a spare. Put the new tires on and promptly laid a patch of rubber on the gas spill in the parking lot. Just kidding, we went to the hotel to check in.
It rained all night and in the morning over breakfast I pared down my list of what I wanted to get done. Heater, turn signal lights, a cigarette lighter socket and wash the car off.
I had scoped out a car wash that was off the beaten path a little. It was drizzling so not a lot of traffic there anyway. There was car show going on and I worked as the announcer announced cars over a PA system. That was nice because the Dart's AM radio did not work.
The heater was stuck in wide open position so heat was getting into the cabin. The fan didn't work, but I noticed a toggle switch under the left side of the map light. I hooked it up to power and ... FAN! Full blast. I shifted the air manually to come out the floor and defroster. Check.
The right turn signal indicator didn't work but the right turn signals did, even on the fender, the left turn signal indicator lit up, but no left front turn signal. It turned out to be a cut wire to the socket. Weird but easy to fix. Brake lights? Check. Headlights? Checkish. Dimmer switch didn't work. I installed a temporary 12v cigarette socket, washed the outside of the car off, cleaned all of the glass and mirrors and we were ready to take off.
I decided we should stop every 100 miles to fill up and re-check repairs. The first fill up showed 10 mpg. The next one showed 15.7mpg. After that we switched to 150 miles between fill-ups. We were taking state highways so we were slowing down through towns about every 10-15 miles. The Dart was happy cruising at any speed between 60 - 70 (gps showed that was more like 56-67). It was a lot of rolling hills so a lot accelerating loudly. This really didn't drive or ride like a 46 year old car with over 100,000 miles.
For the first hour driving in the Dart it was fine. Dash lights worked and headlights were doing a good job. But the all of a sudden the dash lights went out, the other interior lights still worked, the heater control was lit up, the radio was lit up, the gear selector indicator was lit up. So a lot of turning on the dome light to see how fast I was going before I found my flash light.
The brakes had been no problem. I had learned to even due an emergency stop effectively with them. At some point we decided to drive all the way home instead of taking an overnight rest. The car was doing fine and we both wanted to get home. I said I didn't have any problem going on the interstate for a short time to get over to the main US route back home. So we did about 25 miles on I80 going 75. At this point my dad was the lead car so I didn't have to check the speedometer so often. I just had to keep up with him.
We made our last fill-up and stop in Nebraska about 170 miles from home and we were on the final stretch. The first town we had to slow down through I went to stop and the pump wasn't there. It has some brakes at the very bottom but that was it. I was able to stop at a stop light without incident so I decided I would just keep going without saying any thing. I check and the parking brake did work if I needed it. Luckily I didn't.
We made it home and parked. I still had to ride with my dad an hour to his house and my truck, then back home so by the time I hit the hay I had been on the road for almost 13 hours.
I woke today at about 1 PM to see my basement was flooding due to the sump pump getting stuck in the off position. I went out to the Dart and it had 3 inches of water in the rear drivers side floor pan. I'm going to get in into the Garage and get the water and seats and carpet out.
Fun trip, glad I drove it back, it proved itself a great running car. I'm excited to bring her back to a semblance of glory.
