More progress on my 68 Dart.

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December 04, 2008, 07:56:29 PM

I got a lot done this weekend on the Dart. Although the Dart has almost no rust-through anywhere, there was a fair amount of surface rust everywhere, this has been my personal battle since I got it. I am happy to report that I am winning the battle. Previously I stripped and painted the rear half of the underbody and refinished and rebuilt the rear suspension. This weekend I got more done, I installed the new gas tank and fuel pickup, I stripped the inside of the trunk, cleaned everythng with laquer thinner, wiped everything down with wax & grease remover, covered the rust with Eastwood Rust Converter, and finally primered the whole trunk in Eastwood's Rust Encapulator. I also pulled the rear bumper and prepped the rear valance with more Rust Converter. I also stripped the bumper brackets and painted them. I finally finished up today with getting my rear drum brakes put back together.

BEFORE:

STRIPPING:

RUST CONVERTER:

ENCAPSULATOR PRIMER:

Thanks. It feels good to finally be making progress.

Looks great ... man that is one narrow ass garage. Can you walk past the car with it in there ?

Man that looks great.

Quote from: 68_Val_Sedan on April 17, 2007, 08:02:12 PM

Looks great ... man that is one narrow ass garage. Can you walk past the car with it in there ?

Walk, no, shimmy, scoot, shuffle? Yes. $\/][$

Beleive it or not I have two tables, air compressor, 2 work benches, full size toolbox, engine hoist, engine stand, welder, and 3 shelving units in there. hammer

Lookin' good Fly. You don't wast any time man

Very nice work, like the glove hangers!

Nice job, keep up the good work. duster

Hey flyboy any more pics of the dart , good to see someone else project making progress. J.R.

OK, since you asked, here are some more boring pictures:

Here are my wheelwell lips, trimmed down, still need to be spot welded and filled with seam sealer, but now I have about 5/8" clearance between the sidewall and the lip. I will probably hit them with my D/A and some 80 grit to smooth them out.

Here are my shit welds, I welded up about 13 holes, I only have about 50 more to go. Hopefully my welds will get better.

Here is the completed rearend, all done and ready to go. Now all I need is a 3.23 sure-grip to finish it off. Don't worry the crappy exhaust will be replaced soon, I am just keeping it so I can drive the car a little. As soon as the 383 goes in, its gone.

Here is how much clearance I have, I have about 5/8" from the sidewall to the outer lip. I have about 1" from the inside wheel well to the sidewall, I have about 1/2" from the sidewall to the spring. I'm sure that if I move the springs in 3/4" with relocation brackets and pick my backspacing very carefully, I can easily get 275/50 or 60 in there.

Here is what my front brakes looked like AFTER I cleaned out all the cobwebs, spider webs, and dessicated bug carcasses. Overall everything looked good, all the bushing in the suspension are solid, no slop, so I am going to wait to rebuild the suspension until maybe next winter. The spindles were pefect, no scoring, and the bearing are re-usable, the rotors however are junk, they are straight, but whoever last turned them took them down to the minimum, .94", so now they are junk. Oh well, I can get new rotors for $76 a pair. I am replacing the front lines with RMS braided stainless. I have new calipers for the front. I also drained all the old brake fluid outof the system, I flushed about a pint of fluid for the rear half, I might do even more in the front. I was shocked at how dark the old fluid was, and how much setiment there was in the bottom of my dump can when I was done. More to come.

Wish mine looked that good just picked up a new project hope to some pics up soon. Nothing special slant 6 dart, but a good driver while i work on it. J.R.

Hey Fly, back off and give us a shot of how it sits with the new wheels under it

Chris

Quote from: 400Valiant on May 03, 2007, 10:42:31 AM

Hey Fly, back off and give us a shot of how it sits with the new wheels under it

Chris

Quote from: 400Valiant on May 03, 2007, 10:42:31 AM

Hey Fly, back off and give us a shot of how it sits with the new wheels under it

Chris

I can't, Those shots are holding the camera against the wall of the garage! Grin

On the drivers side I have about 4 feet to the wall and about 2 feet on the passenger side.