Cascade Crew

Spikeophant · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:59 am Post subject: One of my other cars

Not sure if you guys are into other cars besides Chevy's, but for those that are, here's a couple snaps of my current project. It's a 1973 Dodge Dart 2 door hard top, that had serious rust. I welded in new floors that I'd carefully cut out of a donor Duster. It's been about 18 months since I first took it out to the shop to do a trans swap, when I realized there was a 3foot hole in the passenger floor. It's had some other work besides that, engine rebuild, etc. I only get a chance to work on it 1 day per week, so it's a long process, the shop I do my work in is about 30 miles from where I live, and I just had my first kid, so I don't get the time I'd like to finish this one up. It still needs trunk pan work, the spare tire well is rusted out, and the gas tank fell out the other day....

The floors have been finished off and painted since this pic:

Alphius · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:25 am Post subject:

I love old Dodges. Slant-6? I'd like to see more pictures of that motor if you have any. I would drive the crap out of a Duster with a worked-up slant-6.

iansane · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:38 am Post subject:

Those runners look perfect for a custom MPFI conversion. Very Happy

Cool car!

Spikeophant · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:51 am Post subject:

They are perfect for it, you just drill out the bungs, and gut the carb so it's just an air intake. I've seen a couple setup like that. They're pretty sweet. Here's some more pics of the motor, these are with the head off though....
Here's what I started with under the hood, well, sorta, I'd slapped my offy rocker cover on it as soon as I bought it:

Engine bay blacked out, I could have cleaned some stuff up, like the brake resivoir color, to add contrast, but I wanted mostly solid black under there:

Here's some shots of the engine painted and mostly assembled, no head. I'll take some better fully assembled shots this weekend:

And here's a tragedy, there was an accident in the shop, and now I have to fix my 60's offy rocker cover:

I wish I had some of the carb debacle. I grabbed a 2bbl from the backyard, we usually toss them for 4bbls so there were lots, fortunately. The first one was full of sand, literally, I opened it up and the bowls were filled. It took 3 to make the one, here it is all ready:

Not bad for digging it out of the dirt...

Spikeophant · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:55 am Post subject:

For anyone that's curious, I did build that sucker up a bit, bored .060, head shaved .025. That's a 318 2bbl as well. It's got a Super Six head off a 2bbl head, there's actually no difference in any of the heads, I just wanted it as it sounds cooler. Smile

If I keep the sl6 in it I'm going to mpfi it, turbo charge it, slap the valves out of a 305 in it, I think those intakes will work as my exhausts, and I still need to figure out larger intake valves with a turbo. Got some other ideas to squeeze hp out of her though...

TurdGen1989 · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 10:59 am Post subject:

that would be epic!!! i like it Very Happy

Spikeophant · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 11:05 am Post subject:

I'll drive it to a crew event this summer, I'll bring my Camaro to the first one I attend though. Smile

I have black buckets and new black carpets for it, I'm going to paint the dash black, etc too, and work on the rest of teh interior, it's a mix of blue and green right now. Field cars...sigh...

Dewey316 · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:28 pm Post subject:

Cool car. I have always liked old darts. If I went Mopar (besides my Jeep), a Dart would be on the short list.

Spikeophant · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 1:12 pm Post subject:

Yeah man, I love em, still have my '66 that was my first car. It's probably going to get brought back to life this summer, I can usually find running sl6's with trans still attached for 200 or less. I saw one the other day, complete, all accessories still on it, with belts, carb, aircleaner, trans, 70k documented, 200 bucks. I should have bought it, I'd be driving my '66 in an afternoon.

aaron_sK · Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 7:13 pm Post subject:

Dude, I cut my teeth as a little guy working on my Dad's old slant sixes. My first car was a '74 Dart. It had a 318 though. Razz

Now that you've fixed the front floor, make sure your windshield seal is good, and check the seals around the wiper arm pins. They like to leak there. Most of the time the water just runs out of the rust holes in the floor pan, so the problem is self-solving. Razz

Spikeophant · Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 8:05 am Post subject:

Heh, I can tell you've worked on one before, wiper arm seals and windshield are precisely why my floor was rotted out. Sometime this summer I'll get a new windshield and swap that, and I'm not sure where to pick up those arm seals, but I assume I can get them from Paddock or someone once I get to that point. Right now I'm just really wanting to hear it start up again. Gotta get the body panels aligned again, that side pic was before I pulled the fenders and doors to fix a couple issues from body flex while the floor was rusted. I gotta shim the drivers door too, it never did work right. I'm hoping next month I can take it for a test drive. Even if that test drive is me sitting on a bucket limping around the block.

ChrisB · Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 7:07 pm Post subject:

Nice man, 66 dart is what really got me into drag racing..When I was 14/15 neighbor had a 10 second 66 dart (sprayed 360 etc). I used to pester the hell out of him whenever he was working on it..After a while he took a liking to me, starting giving me rides, let me back it out of the driveway and on my 16th bday let me take it down the 1320 (motor only of course).

I'll never forget that lime green badass sumbish. Smile

Spikeophant · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:17 am Post subject:

Got fenders and the front spreader back in the car this weekend. It'd been hit sometime in the past on the right, adding in shitty 70's build quality, it was a pain. Had to shim the bottom of the left fender out 1" to line up with the door and rocker panel, then lengthen the bolt holes in the fender so I could slide it far enough forward to clear the door. I'll be revisiting that part of the car when I do body work, the door should actually be shimmed back, and the distance the fender went forward should be split when I move the door back, then it might look like it fits a bit better.

Hopefully next weekend I can get all my side marker lights, headlights, and all that wired back up, and get the grille in, and the engine bay prepped for engine installation, should be running soonish.

Body lines don't look so great now, but I have to start on my rear quarters, fix some bad body repair back there, so I can see if the lines are even right to begin with, pretty sure on the left side, on the rear quarter one of the body lines droops towards the back. That should be some fun work, but it will go on all summer, maybe paint in a year, maybe 2. Got a ton of work to do before I want to put final paint on this thing. Flat black primer till then.