66 Dart Resto/Mods
...and what it will hopefully look like in a couple of years....
(minus the slots of course....)
The car started life as a white GT with red interior. It had the original 273 2bbl/904 automatic. It was fairly well optioned with council shift/bucket seats, remote drivers mirror, day/night mirror, retractible seatbelts, and dealer added A/C.
I didn't really like the car all that much when I first got it. I didn't think it was as cool looking as the 70 GTO that I had wanted for so long, but my father liked it (bet he wishes that he'd have just bought me the GTO. Thankfully he didn't). Once I found out how easily that 273 brake torqued and that I could pull truly wicked (to a 16 year old) 2nd gear scratch, my opinion of the car changed!
Long story short.... 30 over 340, 10.25:1 comp.,284 MP purple shaft, J heads with 2.02s, Performer intake and Holley 750, Hooker Supercomp fenderwell headers, wicked shifting 727, and 741 case 3:55 8.75 SG rear.
The Dart mostly sat while I was away at college. In '93 I came home for the summer (with big plans for the Dart) to find the 55 F-100 sitting in the driveway.
So the dart sat for another year, during which time the front drivers brake cylinder froze up. Unfortunately, I didn't figure that out until after messing with everything tunable on the motor. I had it running so bad that I couldn't even move it. At that point, it was backed into on the drivers side door and rear qtr. panel.
Then it sat for 4 more years.
Now I've got a garage to work in of my own and everything is right with the world!
Actually, I began this project by doing a simple brake swap to big bolt disks in October '99. I knew that I had some pretty serious rust in the lower front and rear quater panels, so my friend Todd and I started ripping the front clip apart one night at around 1 AM!
Once I had the front clip removed, I decided to make it easier on myself (yeah, right) and yank the motor/tranny. I then removed the whole suspension/K frame as a unit. Upon inspecting the frame I spotted some pretty serious cancer under the drivers upper control arm. That's when all of my plans changed.
My plans changed almost daily and flip flopped from ground up resto cruiser to full on strip car. I think I have found a middle ground between the two. It's going to be a twin turbo'd, intercooled, small block street pounder.
Sandblasting the body/parts. I made up a towbar to take the shell out to a friends farm and blasted it the 2nd weekend in Nov.'99. Couldn't believe that it was 80 degrees that weekend! I didn't feel as strong after it was all over.
Drivers Rocker panel. My buddy Todd (who lent me his farm for blasting)
and I, found some rustfree rockers to replace my rotted out ones.
We found them in a great junkyard outside of Aurora, Missouri (which is now closed. Bummer). We had gone there about two weeks before to snag a floorpan for the convertible. We took a generator and our "saws-alls" along and grabbed some great parts. Even grabbed a rustfree pass. rear qtr.
Passenger side rocker. The passenger side rocker was rotted away even more than the drivers side was. There was nothing left from the front plug to the fender mounting bolt. I tacked this in over Christmas weekend.
Amazing how clear the digital camera is!
Passengers rear qtr panel. Have a rustfree lower qtr to patch with.All of the rust has been cut out and will be replaced with metal.
I mounted some tires on the Cop Car Rallyes in order to see what kind of clearance I will have. I've installed the MP 3" spring relocation kit (bought from Mancini Racing) and will have some backspacing added to the rear rims to clear the wheelwell lip. This also means a mild tubbing.
To see how I'm coming along with the floorpan click here.
I've decided to add a daily log so that you can tell when I've been slacking!!! Look for it here.
