The SNOWBALL theory. What happened?

[flyboy01]

Ok, November 30 last year. I bid on and won the ebay auction for my 68 Dart. That's when it all got out of control.




Dec 18, I decided to do a brake job. Damn those drums look scuzzy.


Looks pretty dirty under here also.


While I'm doing that, I might as well...


Cant leave it like this...


Guess it means I have to work on the fuel system too...


I won a 383 off ebay! $350 WOO HOO!


NOT! I drained out 3.5 gallons of rainwater!


Might as well clean up the underside and trunk...



EEWWW!



Found some bondo, cant leave that alone.


Front brakes need love too...


Found a previously botched striker plate repair...


Of course, a sloppy door hing too, off comes the door..



I needed to adjust the fender gaps, oops, how did that happen?


The biggest rust-through on the whole car.


This is what happens when sombody leaves a piece of fuel line in there for 30 years.

If you look towars the bottom left of the hole, you can see the fuel line still there.



To be continued...






 

[Jim_Lusk]

Yeah, that's how it happens.

[illfish]

My buddy has a bunch of mopars.  He gets fired up, takes them all apart, sprays them grey primer and then kicks himself in the butt for doing it.  Of course, he has about 5 cars, so it's a bit overwhelming.

[sickt7cuda]

All it takes is 1 snowball to lead to an AVALANCHE !

[uwee440]

That looks looks like what happend to me ,mine was apart for 5 years,good luck.

[Bakaruda]

Aint it great.

[dart_man440]

My buddy has a bunch of mopars.  He gets fired up, takes them all apart, sprays them grey primer and then kicks himself in the butt for doing it.  Of course, he has about 5 cars, so it's a bit overwhelming.

I'm only working on 1 and I'm overwhelmed .  It seems like as you start something simple you find something ele and just got to do it, but you are right "can't just leave it like that"  Good work, keep up the progress and give us more pictures.

[flyboy01]

It has been 9 months now, things are starting to come together.

This was the first restored piece.


MY FAVORITE STUFF IN THE WHOLE WORLD! EVAPORUST!


Its not Palmolive, but they are soaking in it!


All cleaned. Rust gone, forever.


Although completely unneccesary, I still use Rust Encapsulator on all the parts I clean up as a primer.


The rear end and suspension clean, derusted, and ready to go back in.


I cleaned up the underside, sanded all the rust down, applied rust converter, Rust Encapsulator, then Chassis Black.




Finally some reassembly.


Back together with a new fuel tank, dont worry, the exhaust will be gone in a few more months, I kept it in for now so I can move the car under its own power.


Time for the trunk, I sanded it down, then applied rust converter and Rust Encapsulator.





Rear fender lips were trimmed down 1/2" for tire clearance, later they were welded and ground down smooth.


New front brakes, Calipers, Rotors, and stainless lines.




Holes were welded shut, a few high spots were knocked down, filler applied, then sanded until the body lines came back.



I re-welded the cracks in the metal, re-applied the filler, then primered it.




Sloppy hinges, no more. I installed a repair kit.


Time to get rid of that peeling clearcoat, block sand it smooth, the fill the holes.





Roof is now sanded down, blocked smooth, and ready for paint, applied new sealer in the drip rails.


I now welded in a new patch in the passenger quarter.




Trim holes were welded shut and ground down.



Thats about as far as I have gotten. I have done both sides of the car the door jambs, and the roof. I still have to do the front fenders, trunk lid, and hood. The end is near!

[tnplumber]

Flyboy,

looks like your making some real good progress.  The body work looks top notch. 

Scott
72 dart

[ValiantOne]

Wow. You make me look like a total slacker. I'll bet your neighbors love you with the air tools and the welder goin' all the time

Lookin' forward to the next edition

[thebankerstoy]

flyboy01,

What a GREAT thread this is and one that truely sums up what this site is always been about, folks building their own cars and restoring their cars to a place where they look better than new! You have done an AWESOME job on your Dart so far and we are all waiting to see where you go next!  THANK YOU FOR SHARING!! 

Richard

[440Dreamin]

hEY WHERE DO YOU GET THE EVAPORUST?

SWEET!

GREAT PROGRESS!

JOEL

[flyboy01]

Harbor Freight has been selling the 1 gallon size for $19.99 or this guy will take $65 for the 5 gal bucket.

http://stores.ebay.com/Nebraskan-Hotrod

I just did this yesterday.

[Capt Jack]

oh yeah, gotta get some of that.

[flyboy01]

I should mention that I only soaked it for 24 hours, If I would have soaked it longer, it would have gotten everything off. I shold let you guys know, that SafeRust, Eastwood's Rust Remover, and Evaporust are all the same product. Orison is the maker, and Evaporust is their brand, it was developed for military and is used for corrosion removal. Its safe for prolonged contact with the skin and is disposable. Here is a link if you want to read more about it. http://www.evaporust.com/evaporust.html

[flyboy01]

I forgot to mention, evaporust converts rust, so even though it has a long life, eventually it will wear out. it will last longer if you just hit the parts with a wire brush to know off all the loose rust. I have used up 6 of the 12 gallons I bought, and I plan to buy more. I love the stuff, I would pour it on my Corn flakes if I loved it any more!

[moparrr07]

, like when i wanted to put some new gauges in my car, well out came the dash, wait this wiring isnt so pose to be here, it sure would be nice to have some more fuses, how about blade fuses, boy this fuse panel under the dash is a pain, how about i put it under my console, that will make it easier, well i might as well hook up the electric fan and fuel pump wires and switches while im here, well the wipers are kinda hard to get to behind the shifter, i should move them down to the console, the light switch should go with, i hate that giant hole where may ashtray should be, maybe ill shave it, same with the grill for the speaker,

well 6 months and $1000 i have a bitchen dash now and a modern wiring harness

i get phrases commented about the harness like, that isnt stock is it? and i didn't know you can do that and i would have no idea how to do that <- comments like those are what set us apart from the chevy guys

[flyboy01]

I little more progress on the Dart, about a week ago, I got my engine painted.

The block was degreased by my machinist, the heads were soaked in Evaporust, the oil pan was soaked in Purple power, and the timing cover had pitting, so I soaked it in Evaporust and primed it with Rust Encapsulator. I assembled the pieces, wiped down everything with wax and grease remover, I then used a propane torch to go over everysquare inch of the engine, burning off all the grease and solvents left over. I primed the whole engine in Duplicolor primer, then I sprayed in in Chrysler Blue.

Oops! When it was wet, it looked like Chrysler Turquiose, but as it dried, it got darker and darker. CRAP!  I wasted two cans of engine paint on the wrong color. I realized my mistake, Duplicolor does not make the early shade of Turquiose, So I got a couple of cans from a local dodge dealer that had them in stock. At least the darker color will make a good base, next weekend I will repaint it in the correct color.

[flyboy01]

More progress last weekend. I have the rear quarters done and blocked smooth, roof blocked and smooth, both doors blocked and smooth, drivers's door jamb is smooth, just need to finish sanding down the cowl panel and passenger door jamb, I am going to pull the door to do that since I am repairing the hinges with a pin kit.

Unfortunately, I started sanding down the trunk, and found some problems. After f*ing around with the trunk alignment for about an hour, I determined the the trunk lid had been bent in the past and the driverside of the lid had been smashed down from probably somebody jumping on it and the back edge was pulled out about a 1/4 of an inch from the pass side. 

I know from the original owner that the original trunk lid had been hit from behind and was replaced with another one. I guess the replacement had been tweeked as well. It was repaired, and the repair was very smooth, except that the trunk lid is flat on one side and has the original crown on the other. After doing some thinking, I bought a come-along and managed to bend the back edge back, hoping it will bend the lid back also, but the top did not change. I might try to fix it with some filler, or I will try to find another straight smooth lid (probably impossible). I know I saw a few up in a junkyard in Denton, but I am willing to bet the yard want premium $$$ for it. Another option is an AAR fiberglass lid, which is $350, but truck freight would probably be another $150.

A final option is to just paint the lid as is, since I am painting all the panels off the body anyway, I can always paint a new lid later, and basic black is not too hard to match.

A final note, I have 95% decided on a paint scheme for the Dart. Since the panels are now smooth enough for it, this is what it will be:

[Capt Jack]

seeing all that progress is makin me nuts, but its also motivating me to do more.

great great work

[flyboy01]

I will be working on it again Sat, Sun, and Mon. Unfortunately the temps are going to be 99-102F again! More sweat and nausea for me! WooHoo! 

My goal is to get the body shell 100% ready for primer this weekend. Maybe even spraying primer next week.

[Capt Jack]

yeah, same here as far as the weekend.  I finally arrange to scare everyone off to free up this weekend to finally fire up my ride again.  charging system redone and ready to try, fuel system redone, nice new mini-starter and 80 AMP alt, exhaust redone.  some wiring (more to do) etc.....

everythings set.....should be fuel up, check for leaks, double check everything again.  here we go.....


sure enough, this mornings forecast for this weekend

rain 

it figures.  friggin' crazy ass weather   

[flyboy01]

I gave the trunklid my attention today. I decided to take a 24" straightedge and check to see how bad and where the trunklid was bent. I found out that the trunklid was actually ok over all but the far left 8". Obviously sombody had sat on or stood on it to bend the whole left edge down. The shape of the lid (flat) did not match the fender (crowned).

I was trying to figure out how I was going to bent the whole trunklid back into shape, when I had an idea. I grabbed my lineman's plier and a paintstick and started bending the lip of the lid up to match the fender. As you can see, I used a paintstick to check the level. The orange marks I mad with a sharpie told me where to bend and how much.

I finally got the shape to match the fender perfectly. Once done, I filled in the trough left with body filler, I will sand it all off tomorrow and see how it will turn out.

[flyboy01]

Day 2 of the trunk project.

Here is what I started with, I stripped the side of the trunk that had the flattened section. The light areas were high spots. I have already bent the enge of the trunk lid to match the fender line. I then re-alighned the lid to sit high on the hinges so I dont dig into the fenders while sanding.


First layer of filler.


ARGH! I hate the dust, it gets everywhere. This sanding board is the best $10 I ever spent at Harbor Freight. I only used Evercoat filler, I use the Featherlite on the first layer and on bigger areas, I use their glaze on smaller areas or second layers, its thin, so it is a lot easier to spread. I got the Durablocks at English Color and Supply, a very good paint supply store in the DFW area. All my sandpaper is from Eastwood.


Sanded down with etching primer applied.




First layer of filler primer applied.


I like using a contrasting Red filler primer for the final layer of sanding with 320 grit, it seems to be a lot easier to see low spots.




Here it is, project complete. Its now ready for Sealer, then paint.

[moparsky]

Hey Flyboy,  Hows the project coming along ?
Man, I have really enjoyed all the photos of your progress !

[flyboy01]

The last thing I did was the hoodscoop. I have been lazy the past week and have not done anything, I was a little discouraged, last weekend was supposed to be my "in-primer" deadline, but that didn't happen, so I decided I needed to take a break for a week or two. It looks like I should be back at it by Saturday. I am getting close to being finished with all the bodywork, I now have to try to clean all the bodywork dust out of the garage, clean every crevice of the car, build a paint booth out of the garage, then spray primer.

[Joe-Dokes]

 


You guys know the most expensive sentence in the English language?

While I've got it apart I should.....


Regards

Joe Dokes

[flyboy01]

Like I said, this all started as a rear brake job. 

[68fish]

Ya know.....It's guys like you that make me look REALLY bad.

But seriously, thanks for this post. It's stuff like this that keeps me going. If I get off my dead ass, one of these days I'll be driving up to DFW from SA to have a look at your craftmanship (and vice versa).
Keep up the good work and congratulations on your progress.

ps.... Still got that UNT sticker on the rear glass? My step daughter went to UNT!