The Little Dart

[turbodart68]

Hey everyone, among other things I have this Swinger I bought in 1999. Originally I put my spare motor and trans from my 68 Dart into it and ran it in some bracket races. It had several various 360s in it along the way. The last motor was .040 with JE zero deck flat tops, ported J heads (self ported, my first set) stock rods, stock crank. It also had a Torker II 340 with a 750 DP holley. Exhaust consisted of 1 5/8 cheapy headers and 2.5 inch exhaust, mandrel bent and a homemade x-pipe (more of a chamber) and 2 chamber Flowmasters. The trans is a 904 built by Protrans with low gear set and otherwise stock, 10 inch continental converter (3300 stall). The rear is an 8.75 with 4.56 gears and a light weight spool. This car weighed 3440 with me in it and ran a best of 11.68@116 mph on the motor at Sacremento Raceway (good air). On a 150 shot of nitrous it ran 10.92@128 at Las Vegas at the 2003 MATS durig the midnight madness on Saturday night. This car was very consistent and resulted in good results bracket racing. Unfortunately it had some pretty serious rust issues from the vinyl top. I bought this car from a parking lot with a sign in it. Best buy ever @ 600 bucks. It originally had a 318 in it and ran pretty good, unfortunately it died a ridiculous death by nitrous. I have tons of stories in this car and am very attached to it. Sooooo when the car spun a rod bearing at Irwindale, I thought it deserved a full resto.

 

[turbodart68]

Those last shots were of the first botched paint job. That was after a donor roof and 2 partial quarters. Shortly after that it went to paint jail for 3, yes you read that right, 3 years. I am really beginning to think its cursed. Anyways it was paroled and now its staying at my place. Now its time for the long over due roll cage and then its back to paint jail. I hope for less time this time around. Here are some shots of the start of the cage. I hope to have the cage finished up by the end of September and then this thread will stall till it get the paint done. The new combo will feature the same motor with a new bigger cam, a bigger carb, and TTI step headers ending with 3 inch exhaust and Flowmasters. The trans is getting fully rollerized with hardened input and output shafts. A new 8 inch Continental torque converter has been purchased. The rear will stay the same. Oh and it will weigh 500 pounds less.

 

[Tnplumber]

Very cool thread, tell us how long the 318 lasted with the NOS.

 

[mopardude318]

very cool man. That cage is unique. Haven't seen it come through the door hinge area, or whatever you call it, before.

 

[turbodart68]

Very cool thread, tell us how long the 318 lasted with the NOS.

Well, at 50 hp it did well. I think it ran just in the 14s with the warmed over yet very tired 318 on the motor alone. On 50 shot it ran low 14s. It was pumping oil out the breathers pretty well having to wipe up the mess after every pass. We then decide if 50 is good 150 is better! Not so much. It went 2 passes and was hindered by the 3.23 one legger 7 1/4 rear and 205 tires. Traction be damned it went 13 flat! Twice! It smoked really bad even after the run it was smoking pretty bad out the tail pipes and there was oil all over the fire wall. On run 3 it broke several rods in high gear, making a mess out of the car!

 

[Burntorange70]

Nice project. Good luck on the build. Are them first two pics from LACR? To bad the closed it down.

 

[Snake]

Man I cant waite to see this done,hope to see it on the track.good luck,ps are they your b bodies in the back ground?

 

[turbodart68]

Nice project. Good luck on the build. Are them first two pics from LACR? To bad the closed it down.

Yes thats LACR.:sad5:May it rest in peace. I actually went there after the initial demo and pulled onto the jobsite with my 2004 Duramax Chevy truck, like all the others there, pulled up with cel phone in my ear and took a piece of the starting line! It now resides in my planter at home, a little momento of all the good times there.

 

[turbodart68]

Man I cant waite to see this done,hope to see it on the track.good luck,ps are they your b bodies in the back ground?

Yes, those are my wifes mod top Satelite and my 69 Roadrunner 383 auto.

 

[turbodart68]

Update, although really slow, like molasses on a cold day slow. Life gets in the way sometimes, but this weekend I worked on the Ltldart! :cheers:

First sill bar on drivers side. A total pain to figure out the angles.

This is where the sill bar ties into the frame rail and rocker.

Here is the passenger side frame connection.

I hole sawed through the frame and slid the bar through all the way to the rocker.

 

[turbodart68]

Passenger side sill bar.

This is where the sill bar goes through the floor.

Hoop bar.

More of the hoop, it sits on the sill bars.

Hoop fits fairly tight, I didn't want to eliminate the headliner and it misses the dome light too.

 

[moparkid340]

i like this cage so far

 

[jrlegacy23]

I like that roll cage. Out of curiosity, can that be certified like that? You should ad a bar from the subframe connector through the floor to where the main hoop meets the sill bar so in case of a roll over, the sill bar does not just bend where the main hoop is.

 

[turbodart68]

I like that roll cage. Out of curiosity, can that be certified like that? You should ad a bar from the subframe connector through the floor to where the main hoop meets the sill bar so in case of a roll over, the sill bar does not just bend where the main hoop is.

I am just laying out the initial bars and then i will reinforce the cage to NHRA specs. I built a similar cage that certed to 8.50. Oddly enough the NHRA really doesnt look at the layout of the cage, they just sonic check a few bars and on goes the sticker. Then at the track the tech guy usually sees the sticker and thats the end of it. I agree with you, this cage is for my well being and I approach it as such. I have had so much grief trying to make this cage clean that I should have just layed a plate on the floor and attached the hoop to it right there. That would make my life much easier. Oh well too late.

 

[turbodart68]

Well its only been a short 9 months since I last worked on this thing. Bummer. But hey I found some time and worked on it yesterday for 6 hours. I had attempted to make the bar that goes from the hoop, follows the roof and down the A pillar and connects to the dash bar. I messed up 3 times and after a lot of wasted tube I finally cut up one of the tubes and tacked together a mock up tube then threw it on the work bench and duplicated it. It has 3 bends total and both notches have compound angles. After I made the passenger side bar I made a mirror image of it for the driver side. I can tell you that I would suck at making a living doing chassis work. My hats off to those that do. Here come the pics.

 

[turbodart68]

Last ones for now. Hopefully I can make working on this thing a regular habit. We will see.

 

[abdywgn]

very nice! don't sell yourself short, you have plenty of natural talent for the job. proficency will come with practice.will you have seat mounting bars attached to the lower bars? Bob

 

[Burntorange70]

Looking good.

 

[jrlegacy23]

I like it. I am not a welder, nor have I ever installed a roll cage, but it looks great to me.

 

[turbodart68]

very nice! don't sell yourself short, you have plenty of natural talent for the job. proficency will come with practice.will you have seat mounting bars attached to the lower bars? Bob

Thanks for the kind comments. If you guys could only see the smoke rolling out of my ears when trying to figure this stuff out, you would laugh your butts off.


I plan on using 3/4 tubing that will go from the sill bar to the tunnel for seat mounting and dzus tab the aluminum seats to those bars.

 

[turbodart68]

Long over due update. My buddies and I have been meeting once a month to work on each others poo. It was my turn the other day and we worked on this thing. First up is the unboard spring kit and mini tub.

 

[turbodart68]

I am widening the tubs by 4 inches. I also left the original frame flange and just bent it down over the frame for more clearance. I will probably (one day) put a 15x10 with a 275 drag radial on it.

 

[turbodart68]

Now the cage. We bent up the rear half of the cage and the windshield bar. I need to still make the seat belt bar and the door bars, as well as the the seat mounts. Then do all the final TIG welding (that should be fun).

 

[turbodart68]

Next up is the firewall. I wanted to erase all the holes that I wont use. This was the most time consuming job of the day. My buddy Stuart was on it all day and it takes forever to weld the holes up without warping the metal. He did an outstanding job!

 

[needsaresto]

Closing up those unused holes is a great idea.I hate seeing the firewall full of holes. Not so much that it has to be a smoothed out firewall,just that the firewall is a far more effective firewall with less holes,lol...