1967 Dart GT Chonicals

Good evening all,
I’ve been on this site for seems like years, and have failed to start a restoration post. Not sure if all know my story of my car but here is a brief history. My brother bought the car in 1992 and blew the motor in 93.
Brother graduated high school and sold the car to friend in the same year. My brother passed away in a car accident in 1996. The friend contacted me in 2015 and asked if I wanted the car back. To which I said yes. So... that’s the gist.

I’m 41 now married with two kids. (One who joined the Navy yesterday on the Delay Entry Program). Life gets busy, but we all need a hobby right? Haha. The car has mostly been built in my garage and has been a work of and by close friends and this site for knowledge. The car is getting close to being done but still have Interior to do, wheels and tires and misc. things I want to do. I’ll share with you a couple of pictures and if there is interest in wanting to see how it got from then to now, I would love to share the adventure I’ve taken. Mind you, I’m a Chevy guy who has now got his feet wet in the MoPar field. I am truely in awe of some of the cars built and shared on this site. Thank you for your posts, as they are great for reference and motivation. Here are the pics. Let me know what you all think.

**im not techy so I hope I get these to work. Sorry if words are misspelled and such... I’m using a phone.

Cheers!

??What about the "in between" LOL...........Well ya got me jealous!!

Wow, nice car and what a transformation.

67Dart273 said:

??What about the "in between" LOL...........Well ya got me jealous!!

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Haha. Oh... I have the in between. Just figured since it was getting close to done you’d like to see where it is now. The rest of the thread will be the adventure.

Great Job!!!! Will be a fun cruise car!!

wow you did a great job and turned it into a beautiful car that I am sure your brother would be proud of

ZMan67S said:

Great Job!!!! Will be a fun cruise car!!

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Almost twins

When my brother owned the car, I remember him, for lack of better words, beating the snot out of it. If there was a dirt road or rocks to run over, he was game.

The car over all was in decent shape when I got it. His friend who owned it, had it in a garage for twenty years. The registration and title were still in my brothers name.

The engine and transmission were gone, as well as most of the suspension and all of the air conditioning parts in the bay. A fender was found under the house as well as as well as a spare trunk lid off a 69. Tie interior was pretty much all there except for the headliner and package tray trim

The car had been side swiped by a hit and run driver on the left in front of our house on a snowy day and left the quarter caved in. When I got it the metal trim was missing off of the tops of the panels and the fender signals were gone. It did though have the GT trunk panel but was crushed in numerous places.

The plan for the car at the time, was to get it running and driving, as my brother would have loved to see it going down the road. Then work on the body and finally the interior.

It was never meant to be, and is not a 10 car, but one that I will love to cruise and drive. I never did set a budget and have just put money where I felt it would be needed.

The car came home and had to be placed on jack stands, as even the wheels and tires in the rear were borrowed to get it home.

The first order of business was to get the car on the ground and rolling. So.... the next set of pics and descriptions will include that work.

Cheers!

Will watching this one for sure. Load them up.

badlilred79 said:

Almost twins

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Your car is amazing. Great job!

The car began as a GT, 273, automatic on the column with a 7.25 rear end with drums in the corners. I wanted a little more knowing I wasn’t going to put it back to factory specs. I wanted to do the project with my boy and for the family to be able to drive it.

First order of business was suspension so the car could get off the dang jack stands. I found a lower arm in the trunk (with a sway bar bracket) but couldn’t locate an other at the time it was put together. Using this site I got two decent ones without. We were just going to clean and update bushings in the suspension, but found that I wanted discs up front, and chewed on what company to use. I found CPP good enough for my liking and ordered the whole spindle kit, arms and priportioning valve. It also allowed me to go to the bigger bolt configuration and wheel selection would be better. I found PST here and ordered some parts through them. Torsion bars are 340 bars a friend let me have. With the arms rebuilt and the rest of the parts in hand, we took our first stab at putting together a torsion bar suspension. Haha. We did alright in my book after some head scratching. I still have the factory arms and spindles if anyone is looking for some. That’s my boy in the pics.


We sand blasted the lower arms and welded up known issues in the k-member and painted and undercoated it. While in the midst of suspension work, we also sandblasted the engine area and painted it black. The exterior paint hadn’t been decided on and I really didn’t have the money for the 2 stage paint anyway. So black it was.

Since the front end had been swapped to the big bolt size, I needed to do the same out back. Through some research and friends, I found Bob Mazzolini Racing in Riverside CA. He is about 30 minutes from home, so I stopped in while in the area one day. He has a whole business for dodge and chrylser parts. Good guy for sure and a great reference.

After a few stop ins for odds and ins I was able to procure a 8.75 A-body housing from him for a decent price. I found Dr. Diff through this site, and ordered his green bearing axle kit. I located a 741 3.55 used gear and housing and had it shipped. And again, once all the parts were on hand we did some rebuilding. The gear set seemed fine. So just a bearing kit was done as I couldnt afford the Suregrip. The housing was sanded, blasted and painted and finally all assembled.

I have a close friend who teaches autoshop at the local high school so you will see the parts or car there in pictures throughout the build. A rack is nice if available. He too is a dodge guy and was a huge help during the build.

After all was said and done, it took a while to figure out the parts needed, locate and order them and assemble. We got it handled, and it was soon rolling. It was a great feeling knowing the last time it was really rolling around was when my brother owned it.

The build really has no budget, but the sentimental value outweighs the cost. But overtime pay was really the money used. I wanted to just get it rolling and driving, and from the beginning was just gonna be a driver. Could I have done some things first before others, sure. But the project does wrap up nicely so stay tuned for more of our fun times.

Cheers!

Great update!! Glad to see your son involved with the build....of course he's thinking this will be mine someday...lol.

Cool build. I’ve had my 67 for 20 years or so now.

Okay I’m gonna try to load up some pics. I’ll make the explainations short as I know you all like the pics better than the rambling.

Engine was next.

360 with a 904. Built to cruise. Nothing special. First engine I have built I have less than 1000 on her but running strong. Dougans Engines in Riverside did the machine work.








Did some dash work. It is complete with leather and padding. I did a write up in the interior thread at one time.









I made a high pressure hose for the power steering, as I read the pump I used to gear box line never really fits. I also sectioned the K to make it fit better.



Body work took forever. I have a day job so evenings and weekends were spent straightening, hammering, welding, primering, blocking, blocking, blocking hahah, blah blah blah.... For two months straight at the end, I was working everyday I could after work till about 12-1am and 8-10 hour weekends. I really had no life. Haha. Body work took me about a year as the cold month I either worked rarely or nothing at all. Sorry if the pictures are out of order.












I’m working on the interior now. Carpet is in and the seat covers are in progress. I’ll add more seat details in the interior thread when I have a chance.



Chrome is either new or rechromes. The emblems below are the originals. They were chromed and I did the black. The grille and GT tail panel were done by King of Trim in CA. Overall the car has finished pretty well.





I have hundreds of pictures of what I’ve done. If you want more specific details or pictures explaining what I did just ask.

Cheers!

Holy optic overload Batman!

You do like pics, don't you? That's good, cause we like them too. The chrome looks great on the emblems and tail panel, guess I'll need to redo mine after seeing how good yours look when redone.

How bad was replacing the quarter panel? I'm expecting to do at least the driver's side like you did, and have it in my head the passenger side needs it too, and I'm just wondering if I should bother at all or farm it out.

The car looks great, and I'm glad you got to get it back. I imagine it will be around for a while? Hope so.

LocuMob said:

Holy optic overload Batman!

You do like pics, don't you? That's good, cause we like them too. The chrome looks great on the emblems and tail panel, guess I'll need to redo mine after seeing how good yours look when redone.

How bad was replacing the quarter panel? I'm expecting to do at least the driver's side like you did, and have it in my head the passenger side needs it too, and I'm just wondering if I should bother at all or farm it out.

The car looks great, and I'm glad you got to get it back. I imagine it will be around for a while? Hope so.

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I do like pictures. Hahaha. Sorry. I’ve tried to document what I’ve done. The grille and rear panel came out really good. (Expensive as mentioned in other posts) but those two things really make the car look complete.

The quarter was pretty simple (as panel replacement can go). My original wasn’t too bad, but lines were flattened so repairing wasn’t feasible. I bought an AMD from Classic. I’m semi close and looked in person at all 5 they had in stock and chose the best one I saw.

The upper line at the door was a little flat so I cut and fixed it. (Photos above). Everything else matched up pretty good. A little torch burned the lead out easily at the seams exposing the welds below. I used an angle grinder on all the welds as weld drill bits can take a while. I just moved a little at a time and took my time. I was fortunate to have a spot welder at my disposal so that sped up the process welding it on.

If it’s your first one and like puzzles, you will be fine as long as your welding skills are okay. The rear window does need to be out but that’s easy to remove if you are replacing the gasket. (Cut around the perimeter of the glass with a blade and the window should come right out). The headliner on the sail panel should be loosened so it doesn’t burn.
Feel free to contact me if you go ahead with the replacement. I’ll help you where I can. If you are on a deadline or otherwise, farming out might be better. I’m one that likes to try anything to see if I can do it. Do some research and cut away!!

Thank you for the complements about the car. It is really just a hobby and the garage is my place of relaxation after work.

Cheers

Hello, I just love your car and what you have done with it. Can you tell me exactly what color that is on your car because I just have to have that color blue on my 68 Dart GT. Would you please contact me with the information on the color please. Thanks so much it really makes that car pop out. Brian

Retnuh22 said:

I do like pictures. Hahaha. Sorry. I’ve tried to document what I’ve done. The grille and rear panel came out really good. (Expensive as mentioned in other posts) but those two things really make the car look complete.

The quarter was pretty simple (as panel replacement can go). My original wasn’t too bad, but lines were flattened so repairing wasn’t feasible. I bought an AMD from Classic. I’m semi close and looked in person at all 5 they had in stock and chose the best one I saw.

The upper line at the door was a little flat so I cut and fixed it. (Photos above). Everything else matched up pretty good. A little torch burned the lead out easily at the seams exposing the welds below. I used an angle grinder on all the welds as weld drill bits can take a while. I just moved a little at a time and took my time. I was fortunate to have a spot welder at my disposal so that sped up the process welding it on.

If it’s your first one and like puzzles, you will be fine as long as your welding skills are okay. The rear window does need to be out but that’s easy to remove if you are replacing the gasket. (Cut around the perimeter of the glass with a blade and the window should come right out). The headliner on the sail panel should be loosened so it doesn’t burn.
Feel free to contact me if you go ahead with the replacement. I’ll help you where I can. If you are on a deadline or otherwise, farming out might be better. I’m one that likes to try anything to see if I can do it. Do some research and cut away!!

Thank you for the complements about the car. It is really just a hobby and the garage is my place of relaxation after work.

Cheers

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I have a master welder to help assist me if I need it, which means I better get my car drive able right away next spring!

scampman said:

Hello, I just love your car and what you have done with it. Can you tell me exactly what color that is on your car because I just have to have that color blue on my 68 Dart GT. Would you please contact me with the information on the color please. Thanks so much it really makes that car pop out. Brian

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I looked at what felt like one hundred blues. I didn’t want too much of a purple flip. I wasn’t going stock on the restoration so I wanted a newer type of pearl/metallic paint look but still a classic looks

I love the color I chose as it does pop like I wanted and the chrome really makes it come alive.

I used the DuPont Cromax system. The metal was hammered and straightened before everything was sanded to metal and epoxy sealed (except for the roof). It was sanded down to factory paint for stability. Then body fillers were added on top, and finally primered numerous times and blocked straight. A sealer was used as a base color per DuPont, before the waterbased color was added and finally two flowing coats of clear applied. I still need to cut and buff the paint a little before next show season.

The color I chose was 2017 Toyota Blazing Blue Pearl (Code 8T0 version 4) as it has the least purple flip of the variants.

Thanks for liking the color.

Cheers.

Retnuh22 said:

Thanks for liking the color.

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That's about the color I wanted to paint my Polara, after the Dart was determined to stay yellow. (Originally a B2 car, I thought about B5 but the yellow I had wore on me.)

I can't thank you enough for sharing the color code with me. My God I just love your Dart, cannot wait to get it on my car. Mine is factory red and I just can't get used to it but when I saw your car, man it was just awesome! Thanks again absolutely beautiful car. PM me with your mailing info I want to send you a decal I just had made for you forum guys and I think you will like it also. Nothing fancy or gawdy iust gets the point across for Mopar Fanatics. Thanks again, Brian

Amazing job. Amazing car. Thanks for sharing!

scampman said:

I can't thank you enough for sharing the color code with me. My God I just love your Dart, cannot wait to get it on my car. Mine is factory red and I just can't get used to it but when I saw your car, man it was just awesome! Thanks again absolutely beautiful car. PM me with your mailing info I want to send you a decal I just had made for you forum guys and I think you will like it also. Nothing fancy or gawdy iust gets the point across for Mopar Fanatics. Thanks again, Brian

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I’m glad you like the color. I hope you are feeling ok, and if your profile is accurate, we are more than MoPar brothers, we are brothers of the thin blue line. Thank you for your service!
Cheers!

Are you retired law enforcement? I was forced into very early retirement due to injuries sustained in the line of duty as a Deputy Sheriff here. I also want to thank you for your service, to me it was the absolute best time of my life being able to make a difference. I enjoyed my job very much and had a great time serving my community. The thin blue line, I have an American flag flying on my house that is the colors of the thin blue line. Most people have no idea of it's meaning until I explain it to them, then they understand. You are absolutely right we are Brothers, something that no one can understand until they have filled those swat boots, am I right brother? God Bless, Brian

scampman said:

Are you retired law enforcement? I was forced into very early retirement due to injuries sustained in the line of duty as a Deputy Sheriff here. I also want to thank you for your service, to me it was the absolute best time of my life being able to make a difference. I enjoyed my job very much and had a great time serving my community. The thin blue line, I have an American flag flying on my house that is the colors of the thin blue line. Most people have no idea of it's meaning until I explain it to them, then they understand. You are absolutely right we are Brothers, something that no one can understand until they have filled those swat boots, am I right brother? God Bless, Brian

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I am still active duty, have 12 years to go. Sorry to hear about your misfortunes on the job. Hope your holidays are bright. Cheers to you!