My 69 Dart "AKA" The Blue Mutt

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billsdartgt

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
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Location
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Figured I would start a thread with some details about the 69 Dart I picked up a few months back, since I have had the car I decided to give it the title of The Blue Mutt, from the outside it looks like most any other 69 Dart GT less badging and trim but it is far from original or stock. Today I finally got to do a little shakedown run, went ok after backing off the timing and giving in to the dying, screaming, rattling valves. I have some more picts I have taken but need to get them in one place, todays shot is the local police dept/city hall in my little city I live in, makes for a peaceful shot. Will add some more notes and info in some future posts, heres a couple of shots from today.

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Would you look at that, you got her out!!! So stoked to see this, and congrats! The car looks great.

Info on wheels and tires?

Ps it's like we are swapping spots as I'll soon be taking mine off the road.
 
another run Sunday maybe on the highway and back to the dead zone for a while, I have work to do on my truck that is long overdue.

wheels are Crager SS with some hard to find Street Pro center caps in Black, BF Goodrich Radial T/As rear, BF Goodrich Advantage T/As front

15X7 rears with 235/60/15s
15X6 front with 195/65/15s

I am not sure what springs are on the rear, there are 9 leafs on driver side and 6 on passenger side, I installed Hotchkis shocks all the way around, car rides really well. I still have some adjustment to do on the front height and some badly worn bushings to change both front and rear, should help even more. I still have quite a laundry list of things to do, some of the same things your about to do. LOL
 
Under the hood and what the interior looked like, battery has been relocated to the trunk on the drivers side

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owner told me he thought this cam was installed, it wasn't. The engine would run good once you got it to fire and it warmed up, drove me crazy, what I eventually found was the cam was actually a 292 solid lifter cam, too much for me to deal with for my plans with the car

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tore things apart, thought I turned the kill switch in the trunk all the way off, I didn't, set the car on fire by a freak drop of the screwdriver, thankfully I have a fire extinguisher in my mustang setting next to the dart, had top replace the fuel pump and alternator. I now know how to properly turn off my kill switch in the trunk - 2 new fire extinguishers ordered, also burned some wires, no big deal there as they were old and cracking, bad thing is I burned the wires right up to my turn signal, luckily there was another in my box of spare parts I was able to get the wire plug off of.

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engine tear down to install new cam, heads seem to be plain 360 heads, I thing date coded 72 also, they appear to have new springs so I assumed they have been worked on at some point, also they were not holding extra funk you might expect a 40 year old engine to have, I also learned along the way the engine would have been blue from the factory, you can see some remnants under the orange, I like the orange so Im sticking with it.

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I have built several engine in the past, mostly Fords and a few chevys, the mopar engine is a little different when setting up TDC and installing the timing change, I read, read, again, and read again, after my final check for what feels like the 10th time I realized I still installed incorrectly the first time, caught it before putting it back together. Sadly after everything was back together one of the steel freeze plugs installed was leaking, off the header came again, (removed to change out deep oil pan) and in went new brass freeze plug. I have another one that started leaking so when it come back in the garage again all steel will go and get the brass, at least the ones I can get to, not pulling the trans anytime soon.

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besides the cam swap one of the first things I did was take the Cragers off my Mustang and put them on the Dart, I was lucky severl years ago and found some NOS Crager Street Pro center caps in black, I thing they look awesome. I felt lucky because I wanted the Torque Thrust for my Mustang, Cragers look better on the Dart and the TT better on the stang

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Wow look at you go, you've gotten a bunch done. The blue with cragars look awesome. I'm jealous of the engine building part, maybe next summer I'll learn to do that because id love to build mine.
 
Im not building the engine, seems like it was done previously, I just did a cam swap, hopefully I will never have to get into it any further. I have done more with plenty more on the list, more picts and details to come.
 
Nice Bill. Love the old school look with the cragars. What is the largest size tire that will fit on the rear with your offset?
 
Nice Bill. Love the old school look with the cragars. What is the largest size tire that will fit on the rear with your offset?

Rims are 15X7 with a 4" backspace, I have 235/60/15s, was the largest I could get on the Mustang and I am happy with them on the Dart, with the leafs already relocated in I am sure I could go bigger, hope is I can put the springs back where they go so I can run the exhaust out where it goes.
 
Got the Dart back in the garage over the weekend, got the exhaust out, checked the size bushings needed on the leaf springs and got the rear ready to come out once the brake line is off. The PO installed the exhaust just before I got the car, it was a complete new Summit dual system without an H or X pipe, sadly he did a half azz job installing. I am moving the leafs back outboard so I can run some stock style exhaust tips in the stock location. I made a list of all the things I have plans to do, not including removing or disassembly my list has 45 things, gonna take all winter I guess

Shot with the rear loose

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Got the Dart back in the garage over the weekend, got the exhaust out, checked the size bushings needed on the leaf springs and got the rear ready to come out once the brake line is off. The PO installed the exhaust just before I got the car, it was a complete new Summit dual system without an H or X pipe, sadly he did a half azz job installing. I am moving the leafs back outboard so I can run some stock style exhaust tips in the stock location. I made a list of all the things I have plans to do, not including removing or disassembly my list has 45 things, gonna take all winter I guess

Shot with the rear loose

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We must be thinking alike. That's what my car looks like right now!

Also that list you made that has 45 things to do... yea it will always have 45 things to do no matter how many things you complete. Ask me how I know? :p
 
I purposely left some stuff off the list since it was too long already. LOL I've been working on my Mustang over 4 years and have another 2 most likely, one of the reasons I got the Dart so I would have another classic to drive while I worked on the Mustang, but now it sits waiting until Im done with the Dart, vicious cycle
 
Bill, ...and I'm not insulting your car here......this is ME, not your car. But every time I glance at the title of this thread my eyes tell me "AKA Mule Butt". LMAO. I caint help it.....I honestly think I have somethin like dyslexia. I'm always swappin numbers and letters around. But this time it was kinda funny.
 
hit my first roadbump, easy enough to deal with but wasn't wanting to. My car has the rear leafs moved inboard, already has some type of kit installed when I got the car, the rearend I am going to do the gear swap supposedly was in the car at some point and has extra spring perches already welded on. I installed new hangers last night, can't get the bolt in unless I cut the offset bracket installed, as said, easy to deal with but I wanted to leave in tact in case I decide to go back later, will just ave to save the pieces I cut out to weld back if ever needed.
 
been getting parts in the last week or so, biggest order came today from Summit, causght their special, had some summit bucks, and since I have a summit card I got another special, saved a few hundred bucks, plus more rebate/summit bucks back on the Yukon gears

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more work today and discovery, I mentioned the PO installed the exhaust right before I got the car, he must of really been in a hurry, alot of his welds look way better than what mine typically do, guess this was in a hard to see spot. So far I am still in tear apart removal mode, no new parts installed yet but I feel Im getting close.

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