My First Car

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Mopar Dude

Mopar Dude

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Joined
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Location
Fairmount, Ga.
This was my first car, my dad bought it for me when I was 14. It had been sitting at my best friends house for more than 8 years. I bugged his dad about it for a couple years and he always said he would sell it to me but I figured it would be way to much money for me to ever come up with. I finally asked him how much one day and he told me to give him $150 and I could take it home. I was flippin out! I ran home and told my dad. He didnt believe me haha. I finally talked him into going over there and talking to him about it. The next day my dad rented a tow dolly and took my buddies dad $150 and the car was mine! Me and my dad worked on it together, it didnt take very much to get it running at all. We had to put the distributor back in it and replace the gas tank and it fired up. We did a tune up and replaced all the normal little things to make it run better.
My first year in high school I put the ole Dart in a car show that was held at the school toward the end of the year. They had mutiple categories...one of them being Ugly Duckling. Turns out my Dart was the ugliest car there haha!! I could not believe I had won a trophy with the car at the first show I entered it in.
Here is a picture of my dad and I at the car show.
 

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Its cool that you dad and you are involved in this together.. Good luck with the build
 
My nice trophy for the ugliest car at the show! Which was not true because there was a beat up old truck there that had won the past 3 years. The owner was a senior and I was for sure that I would get beat by him but they let the freshman win it! I got booed by a lot of people when recieving my trophy but I didnt care one bit!
 

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Mopar Dude said:
My nice trophy for the ugliest car at the show! Which was not true because there was a beat up old truck there that had won the past 3 years. The owner was a senior and I was for sure that I would get beat by him but they let the freshman win it! I got booed by a lot of people when recieving my trophy but I didnt care one bit!
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Sweet! A win is a win.
 
Thanks yall! Thats a great lookin 73 Mopar to ya!! I hope that mine can one day be close to the eye catcher that yours is. Here is what mine is looking like right now. Its currently my daily driver, I need to flush the fuel lines, get new tires, and fix the fuel gauge before I can consider it dependable but it runs pretty good for the shape I got it in.
 

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Oh I plan on it! I love to see the look on older peoples faces when they see me out in this thing! Im only 20 years old and I guess they dont see young people driving these old cars everyday. I enjoy talking to them about how they used to have one when they were younger and all the fun conversations that come with that haha.
Now to explain why I dont have this thing completely finished after 6 years of owning it...I made a stupid mistake when I turned 16 and my dad took the car away from me. I didnt care at the time because I had a lil Honda Civic Hatchback(the stupid mistake) and I thought I was going to build a Fast & Furious Racecar. The Dart sat in our yard from that day on until just recently this past year or so. I left for the Army when I was 17 and while I was gone I started thinking about that old junky car sitting at home in the yard and all the fun memories my dad and I had with it. I offered to buy it back off him for $2,000. Nope! my dad said. I kept on and on for a long time. Bad car accident happened, got medically discharged from the military, come back home and started technical college for Automotive Tech. Once again I begged my dad to sell me the car back so I could take it to class to work on it and fix it up, once again...nope! All this time I was looking at it sitting in my yard but not being able to touch it. Just last week my truck(83 Dodge Ram) blew the rear end out and I was stuck without a vehicle. My dad wrote me a bill of sale and I put the Dart on insurance 2 days ago. He told me as long as I dont do anything dumb to it or trade/sell it that I could drive it and get it looking good again. I promised not to let him down again and I mean it!
 
I have been sitting here this morning reading all of the project threads on here and its gotten me pretty motivated about working on mine. My funds are extremely low right now but I think there are some cans of primer spray paint laying around here and some wetsand paper. Maybe its time to start smoothing her up and hitting the bare spots with a lil primer?? Im searching high and low for some tires so I can drive it without having to pester USAA with roadside assistance calls every other day :grin:
 
Nice start you got there. What power train does it have? What are your plans for her?:coffee2:
 
Thunder said:
Nice start you got there. What power train does it have? What are your plans for her?:coffee2:
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The old faithfull 225 slant six. The transmission is a 3 speed automatic, maybe a 904?? not real sure on that. And not sure about the rear end either but I dont think the rear end is original...its a different bolt pattern from the front. There is a clutch pedal in the car and a big hole that is now plated off in the floor so I am assuming that it was at one time a manual haha. I have a 318 in my ole dodge truck that I want to build and eventually put in the Dart and also want to go with a 4 speed manual transmission. I wish I could convert the front lug pattern to 5x4.5 like the rear is, I have a sweet set of chyrsler wheels that are almost like the ones on the general lee that I would love to put on it! I would like to find a new front seat for it but I want to stick with the bench, also plan on adding carpet and a new headliner. Then for the exterior, there are a couple small rust spots in the quarter panels that I need to get patched up and then I want to paint her back the original red color. Maybe some kind of pin stripe or two tone like I see on a lot of the other ole Darts.
 
Here is all the body work minus a couple small dents and dings. Also a lil bit of what the interior looks like...
 

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Not Bad Man....not bad at all.....:cheers:

Quick way to see what the car was originally optioned with is to check the VIN.

What is the 5th digit?

I am not positive on /6 cars because I only get body pieces from them, and I never look at the VINs on /6's.....but 318's are G...and for 1974 the 360 was the big dog and it was L .

My 74 Duster looked ALOT worse when I picked it up, and I paid $1800 cash for it.......so believe me...you got a real good deal.

Check out my New Beginning story here:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=91659
 
Looks like pretty minimal body work. For the interior, can I suggest 2 free catalogs to help you out. Classic Industries and Legendary auto interiors. Also check out the for sale sections here on sight. Good luck on the build. I'll be checking this one out.:coffee2:
 
Prine said:
Not Bad Man....not bad at all.....:cheers:

Quick way to see what the car was originally optioned with is to check the VIN.

What is the 5th digit?

I am not positive on /6 cars because I only get body pieces from them, and I never look at the VINs on /6's.....but 318's are G...and for 1974 the 360 was the big dog and it was L .

My 74 Duster looked ALOT worse when I picked it up, and I paid $1800 cash for it.......so believe me...you got a real good deal.

Check out my New Beginning story here:

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=91659
Click to expand...

Thank! Its seen better days for sure but I will have it back almost like new eventually. I checked the vin last night, it came with the 225. I was hoping to find information on the transmission somewhere in the vin but it didnt happen. I guess I got a really good deal on this thing! I will definitely check yours out here shortly.

Thunder said:
Looks like pretty minimal body work. For the interior, can I suggest 2 free catalogs to help you out. Classic Industries and Legendary auto interiors. Also check out the for sale sections here on sight. Good luck on the build. I'll be checking this one out.:coffee2:
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I have never done any body repair before so even the little bit I have on my car is worrying me haha. Thanks for the interior tips!! I will order those tomorrow! I had a paddocks catalog a few years ago but I think they closed down or something. With all the support on here I will surely be working on it often.
 
I have not touched the car since my last post on here. Been busy with another project (Rock Crawler) and just aint found the time or money. I start school back this month so thats probably gonna keep me busy. I was going to drive the dart everyday until I realized it had different lug pattern front and rear and then it kind of bummed me out and I lost interest in working on it. Maybe I can get back to it before long
 
Me and my dad just finished my 74 Dart Sport. Daily driver to college everyday now.
 

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Good looking car bro sorry to hear about your discharge I have been in for 12 years now only 8 to go. Im out at FT hood right now I still have my first car my 73 duster its not running right now but the garage is full of parts. Good luck with your build if you need anything for it PM me I have a parts car
 
I sold my 83 Dodge Ram Monday night and used that money to buy new tires for my ole Dart. I am putting the rest of it into the car because now it is my daily driver. I drove it 90 miles today going to college and back home. Runs great! The brakes are sketchy and it squeaks really bad but I love driving it. As multicolored as it is it definitely turns heads. All kinds of people are waving at me now and people always talk to me when I am standing by the car. It strikes up conversation everywhere it goes! The most important thing I have to fix asap is the gas gauge. I dont need to be out and run out of gas. I will be back on here much more often now that I am driving it everyday!
 
Good to hear your moving ahead. Lots of good help and advice here, use it when you need it. Looking forward to progress pics.:coffee2:
 
Started sanding on the hood and rattle canned with gray primer yesterday. I want to get it all the gray color before the end of the year. I think it would make it look 10xs better if it was all the same color! Fixed most of the squeaking today. The power steering belt was too big and would not tighten all the way. It was also melted and would not spin the pump...now I know why it was so hard to turn. The squeaking was the belt slipping on the pulley. Now it is completely silent! Minus the front bushings needing greased and/or replaced but I can deal with that for now. Im glad I fixed it with a 7 dollar belt instead of having to buy a new power steering pump. I have a decent oil leak that needs fixed and the fuel tank sending unit needs replaced next. This evening I am taking it down to a small cruise in that is held in my little town once a month.
 
Anyone else had to swap the lug pattern on the front of their car? I need to go from 5x4 to 5x4.5 to match the rear so I can get a set of wheels for this thing. What all parts are needed? Can anyone point me in the direction I need to go for more information?
 
There is kits all the time for sale on here. You can post in the wanted section to, the parts should run you around 300 bucks then of course will need new ball joins and pads I am sure.
 
unknownsnake said:
There is kits all the time for sale on here. You can post in the wanted section to, the parts should run you around 300 bucks then of course will need new ball joins and pads I am sure.
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Awesome! I found a kit at summit racing for almost 800 bucks. I almost shed a tear. I was pretty sure my car would never have disk brakes or be 5x4.5 front and rear. I can do 300 all day haha. I found a parts car on the same road I live on. What is the chances of that!!?? The guys brother who owns the car wants 1300 for it. I want to try to talk him down. I can find one that runs in better shape than this one for that. Wish me luck haha.
 
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