The Other 68 Dart Resto Project

[flyboy01]

I am posting some pictures of my 1968 Dart GT. It was originally a 225/6 car, painted TT1 Med Green Metallic with a Dk Green Interior. The second owner did a "restoration" in 1990. He installed a 73 K-frame with Disc brakes and a mildly cammed rebuilt 318 4bbl with a 727 trans. He also installed a 69 A-body 8 3/4 and redrilled the axles for 4 1/2" BC. Then the car sat, it was last inspected in 1998, it had not moved until Dec 2, 2006. Then I bought it.

I saw it was on ebay and it was local, so i went to see it. I was shocked! I had never seen a car of this vintage with so little rust. Actually there was rust, but it was all surface rust, harly any pitting at all. The car was almost all there. The only missing pieces were the trunk finish panel and the glovebox. So I bought it. I got the high bid at $3750.

And so the project begins:

[flyboy01]

The restoration begins. I am thinking about renaming the car "snowball" since enertime I take something apart, I keep saying, might as well do this also.

I started doing a brake job so I could at least drive the car. Well I could not leave the drums looking like this, so I stripped them and painted them with rust encapsulator. Then I decided, since I was doing brakes, I might as well replace the rubber soft lines, so I did, with braided stainless lines. And, as long as I had the hard lines off the axle, I might as well paint the rear. So two hours later, I had the whole rear suspension off the car and only a gas tank hanging underneath!

I spent most of the day trying to get the years of leaking axle grease and dirt off the rear end, I am still not done, but I'm about 85% there, still have to scrub some crap off, but I am getting close to painting.

['64 Cuda]

I wish my car was half as solid as that one! Any ideas on what color you're going to paint it? I knew a guy 30 years ago who street raced one with a 340 & a 4 speed. It was orange & I always liked the look of it.

[flyboy01]

At this point I don't know. I might paint it one of the original 68 colors.

In order most likely colors.
1. TT1 Med Green w/Black interior & Black stripe
2. BB1 Black w/Red interior & Red stripe
3. LL1 Dk Turquise Metallic w/White interior & White stripe

And of course, Resale Red is still a possibility.

[Rob]

Looks like a solid car, it's a real bonus if you don't have to cut out to much or better yet any rust. My dad nearly bought a 69 Dart GT new, I was 11 at the time and was already envisioning myself behind the wheel in the not so distant future, the deal fell through and he ended up buying, of all things, a 69 Buick LeSabre 4 door, it still hurts everytime I see a Dart.

[gremlin]

Excellent score Flyboy. And keep up the good work. That is a really nice Dart.
I think LL1 is what PPG used to call Surf. My 68 2 dr post Dart is that color origionally. I repainted the engine well, dash, and the under carriage with it. It's a one year only color that is beautiful. I would go with LL1 and the black interior. Some day I'm gonna finish that car.

[flyboy01]

Update, I got some of the suspension pieces stripped and painted, I also sprayed the rear leafs and rearend housing with rust converter, I will be doing the final painting tomorrow.

[Krazed]

Looks very nice! Don't you just love what a nice coat of fresh paint does to parts?

[flyboy01]

Actually, they look better now that the paint is dry, it looks like natural steel. You gotta love Eastwood. They may charge $18 for a can of spray paint, but they last forever, I can tell you how many parts I painted with one can on Encapsulator. I used about 1/3 a can of Chassis black on on my whole rear axle and leaf springs. They definately pack more paint solids into their cans than any other company. I hate to give them these shameless plugs because they pissed me off so many times with slow delivery times, but I have to admit, their stuff is the best. The only thing that I am less than satisfied with is their Rust Converter. It is too slick when it dries, you really need to scuff it up when it dries before you paint over it.

[flyboy01]

Upadate: Today I did the final assembly for the rear end, and stored it away in a corner of the garage. Heare is a picture of it detailed and assembled.

I also pulled everything out from under the back half of the car. Gone is the gas tank, filler neck, shocks, and driveshaft. Next job will be to sand down (or up?) the underside, give it a coat of rust converter, and then prime it with Rust Encapsulator. I think I should also replace the gas tank also, I took pictures of the inside of the tank, what do you think?

[flyboy01]

OK, I just ordered a new gas tank. And I am bidding on a new 3/8 pickup.

[flyboy01]

The project got put on hold this weekend due to a small disaster. I live in an apartment building, the bottom floor is where my garage is. Here is the story.

I came home last friday night and saw a bunch of people standing in front of my building with my garage door open and somebody inside my garage. I ran over and found out that there was a fire in the building on the third floor, so I ran up to check on my dog, she was OK, nothing damaged in my apartment, I was lucky, of the 24 units in my apartment building, 17 had significant water damage from the fire hoses and sprinklers. I had one of the lucky 7 apartments that the sprinklers did not go off in. Until I got down to my Garage, which was directly below the apartment that caught fire. I was not so lucky. When I got there, the maintenance man had already vaccumed out most of the standing water, a lot of my tools were soaked and starting to rust. I managed to get most of them cleaned off and dried out, my box of receipts that I kept for everything car or tool related is now a box of paper mache. All my new sandpaper ($100's worth) was soaked. My freshly painted and restored rear end was soaked and some small parts were starting to rust. My brand new 6" vice I bought the night before has a coat of rust. Right now I have buckets catching dripping from the ceiling and the garage smells horrible. Luckily for me, toolboxes have drain holes in each drawer, and the porous rubber matting kept my tools from staying soaked. I have to check my power tools though, and Im not sure I can save my dremel. I had the car windows open, all I can say is thank god for 1960's rain gutters, there did not seem to be any water inside the car, although my trunk was not so lucky since I left it open, I did have the drain pugs already pulled, but the clean, rust free metal inside now has a light film of orange rust. Also, thankfully, my new compressor was shielded inside a wood box, which also shed water because of the coat of paint overspray on top. Since very little was stored on the floor of the garage, I was spared the damage my neigbor had, he had probably a 100 cardbourd boxes full of all kind of stuff all stacked on the floor. I spent most of the weekend throwing stuff out and cleaning up. The Garage smells like a must basement from all the water that came down through the ceiling.

I decided, its time to buy renters insurance.

BTW, the fire was started by the idiot upstairs ironing his shirt and leaving the iron on his bed turned on! What an idiot! He could have killed people and pets in the building. Unfortunately, he was NOT removed from the gene pool last night. I hope they bill him for all the damage!

[Krazed]

Wow, that sucks! Sorry to hear that ... but glad your apartment didn't get soaked. As for the car.. I think most of that is just surface rust and salvagable due to not rotting away.

Good luck with it all! Sorry to hear about your tools!

[flyboy01]

Well, everything seems to be back to normal now. It put a little delay in the process cleaning up.

Since then I have pulled, cleaned and repainted the driveshaft, replaced the u-joints with HD pieces. Cleaned all the gas tank hardware, painted the shocks, and bought new wheels and tires (Draglites).

The cold weather now has prevented me from painting the underside, everything else is ready to go back together now. Just need some 70F dry weather so I can finish up.

[flyboy01]

No progress, weather has been below freezing for a week, can't get my garage up to 70F to paint, so everything is on hold. I did get a new gas tank and 3/8 pickup/float assy though. I am going to have start finding other things to do until I can get +70F temps in the garage.

[flyboy01]

OK, i just took a serious left turn today. I bought a 383 w/727 trans. See what happens when you have idle hands! Now I got a big block Dart.

Just look at them below, so pretty, don't they look like they were made for each other?

[gremlin]

I saw you on BBD.com. You have a 73 k member. Right? I put a 440 in my 2 dr post using the same k. When I droped the motor in it hit the k member and was crooked in the trans tunnel. I ground the lip off of the k member and welded it back up. Then took the drivers mount, you will need BB spool MM's, and sawed the front half off. Bolted the MM to the front side of the rear MM ear and then took the sawed piece and bolted it to the back side of the front MM ear. and welded it back together. Not a DC K member but it does sit straight in the trans tunnel. If you want to make the DC conversion go to the tech archives at BBD. I would have done that conversion, but it back before Gore invented the internet..ROTFLMAO.
BTW...do a search while you are over there so you will know how to do the B body headers in an A body. And great score on the 383. Wish I had one for my 68 2 dr ht Dart.

[65s]

It's a good looking Dart, I'm envious.

So is the Eastwood spray on rust inhibitor like POR 15? Do you have to treat the metal first with etching stuff, or can you just wire brush/sand and paint away?

[memike]

Originally Posted by flyboy01

OK, i just took a serious left turn today. I bought a 383 w/727 trans. See what happens when you have idle hands! Now I got a big block Dart.

Just look at them below, so pretty, don't they look like they were made for each other?

flyboyo1 glad everything is ok,and that guy never pick's up an iron again.

383 wow!! that' great,Hope everything go's smooth for ya

[flyboy01]

Here is an article on both, made my decision on getting Eastwood's stuff.

Originally Posted by 65s

It's a good looking Dart, I'm envious.

So is the Eastwood spray on rust inhibitor like POR 15? Do you have to treat the metal first with etching stuff, or can you just wire brush/sand and paint away?