year 2 68 dart Rustoration

[fulltank]

I've owned this dart for about 15 years when I bought it I new
the owner had done a hack job on it but since this was the same color
and year as my 1st hard top dart and was a v8 convertible it seemed like
fate. I drove it fixing up a little here and there always having it ready for
summertime but 2 years ago it was time to do a full repair. I sent the fenders and trunk out for chemical stripping I welded all the rust repairs and sent them back for phosphate coating and then primed with epoxy when they came back

 

[memike]

Looking good!! Looks like you are getting things dun correctly.
Keep up the good work and thread.
Is this a 68 convertible?

 

[Snake]

nice to see a dart being saved from rust.thankssssssssssssssssss

 

[fulltank]

Yes this is a 68, I have a few photos to add, I finished lower inner fender
fabricated and primed, I bought a aftermarket replacement section for
the rear leaf supports but I was not happy with the look so I made my
own, this ate up a lot of time but do it once and do it right. Had to file a bunch of holes plus hanger cut outs for the tail pipes. The last guy
tried to put bondo to patch the rust, scary. The lower inner rocker is all
welded and primed and the other section is the rear valence it was really rusted and yes one of the few pieces you can actually get a replacement, took a bit of work but it lines up ok.

 

[fulltank]

The old rear valence

 

[OldVart]

Nice work fulltank. I've been replacing rusted metal on my 66 in just about all the same places as you did on yours. Some of those make you sit back and scratch your noggin don't they?

 

[fulltank]

Now that I have dismantled most of the sheet metal spot weld by spot weld,
I think about the guys who worked day in and day out on the assembly line
putting all this together in the first place and the design work to make
it all happen. I'm on my second 10lb spool of mig wire and 2nd large bottle of
argon, I've been looking for a spot welder for the quarter panels for the real
look a new hobart is about $500. and off shore is about $200. any one use the off shore model ?

 

[fulltank]

with the right inner quarter in primer it was time to tackle the left side
I knew this was in worse condition so I repaired the right side first so
I had something to accurately compare to when rebuilding the left side.
I cut open the left quarter, their was a lot of filler in the lower sections
of the quarter panel. The picture with the yellow arrows shows the old
crude repair that the former owner made with some light metal. he attached
it with brazing weld and pop rivets. The green arrow shows the household
spray foam insulation that was used to try to seal the quarters. The insulation
sticks real good so it was a pain in the #!*? to remove it.
The lower rocker section was rotted like the other side so I had to fabricate a new piece.

 

[macadoo1961]

Wow this must be a Canadian car!!! Awesome job your doing saving this, looks like lots of work but your gonna have a pretty nice car out of it all!!:thumbrig:

 

[fulltank]

The next step was to cut out all the old repair an any additional rust.
By the time I finished the whole outer wheel well was gone and 1/3
of the inner wheel well. The entire lower rear of the quarter is gone
(One piece you can buy) and a section under the rear taillight was removed.
I had to fabricate the outer wheel well but after doing the other side I knew
what I was in for. I have now got everything sand blasted or wire wheeled
clean. Everything is welded in the back section of the car. I went through a 4 by 8 sheet of metal for all the repairs, I also used the upper section from the old right quarter for repairs as well. The next step will be priming it in with epoxy primer.

 

[res1vw21]

wow, ambitious. Looking good.

 

[fulltank]

Its taken a while but I finally got the back end in primer

I used ppg red epoxy for the first coat the k36 filling
primer for the second coat then there was a lot of blocking
and sanding and wearing down of fingertips. I sprayed a
couple of final coats of epoxy blue tint for the final primer to
seal everything in. for the last picture i have started lining
up the first quarter panel. I had it off for so long I almost forgot what it looked like. The next step will be welding it on.

 

[blown340]

wow nice job so far,keep it up

 

[pettybludart]

Hi nice job!Where did you buy that car?I,m in Ontario.My friend sold a ragtop to a young guy from out west,not sure where,any way when my friend took car to bodyshop he found out that the only thing holding 1/4,s on at bottom was ready!!silicone LMFAO!!!Anyway he got it fixed$$$$$and painted B5 it had black interior.Frikkin hot in summer.The young guy flew to Ontario and drove it back.Keep up the good work!!

 

[fulltank]

I bought this car about 17 years ago in BC (west coast) I was a whole lot younger then!!
The paint on it is QQ1 and the seats and door panels were white. I stripped
the door panels and they were blue so I replaced them back to blue.
I will probably go with a two tone blue as it was a factory option for the seats. The top on this one is white.
So there is more than one silicone dart out there, some where out there
I have some one to share horror stories with about getting the stuff off.
Its a good thing I'm stubborn as a mule or I would have given up a while back! Thanks for all the encouraging words.

 

[70dart]

Super good thorough job. Looks like what I have to look forward once I get better and am able to get back to work on my dart! Keep up the good progress, it gives me the inspiration to try to get better as fast as i can. Nice work fulltank!

 

[fulltank]

I finally had some more time to work on this project,
The original left inner and outer wheel well were so badly mutilated
I could not get the quarter to fit right and thankfully AMD now makes
them for a hard top so I cut them on the tops to fit on my convertible and
it worked well. I had to cut the roof section off the quarter panel to make it fit on the convertible but other than that everything else lined up nicely.

 

[fulltank]

The next to go was the floor, There was rust on the drivers side so better to get rid of it and not worry about it again
I pulled up the floor and found more rust on the inner side of the rocker panel. To get the new full floor in you have to take out the transmission
so out it went cut out and cleaned up any rust on the inner floor supports primed with epoxy and I'm welding up the new floor.

 

[sireland67]

Looking good, so you took a 5 year break on the car?

 

[QuintinMotorCompany]

very nice quality work- keep it up

 

[fulltank]

it only felt like a year, I tinkered around a bit on it but I did not have much time.
Most of the parts I made are manufactured from AMD it would have made life a whole lot easier if they were available back then. I have a door skin to change after the floor
and its bodywork time.

 

[fulltank]

I have been moving forward on this slowly and I finally had some time for a few update pictures
More to come....

 

[fulltank]

I saved a section of the old Quarter panel so I could accurately reproduce the original texture of undercoating,
I used an undercoating gun with a variable nozzle that enabled me to reproduce the texture.