Start of a Dart

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halfafish

Damn those rabbits, and their holes!
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It's time to get a resto thread going. I've been jonesing for a 69 Dart for quite a while. I want to put together a BB Dart, 383 with a 4-speed. Make some room, @DentalDart, there's another 69 Dart under way. Except yours is good looking, runs, and has hope in its future. Mine, not so much.

There are many, many, super nice looking cars out there but for me, the Grand Prize Winner is a 69 Dart. I've been on the hunt for three years, seriously looking at Darts from as far away as IL, OK, ID, CA, and FL. All had some kind of deal killer (too much money, too far away, too much rust, lack of interest on the seller's part to send photos and discuss the details of the car, horrible color) and so forth. I cruise CL, eBay, and recently FB Marketplace on a regular basis checking things out.

A while ago I found a good deal on a 383, 4-speed, and 8-3/4 rear and. So I got no car and it's breakin' my heart, but I've got a drive-train and that's a start. To channel the Beatles! Kind of a crappy photo, but engine, tranny, and rear and are all sitting there waiting for a new home.

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Next, I find a FB ad for a 69 Dart locally. According to the ad, it's a 340 car, Edelbrock intake and carb, purple cam, X-heads, a 720 (?) tranny, and BBP wheels. When I get there to check it out, it's a 904 tranny, SBP wheels, and I'm unable to determing 340 or not - the block was painted black so I can't see the casting numbers. It does have MSD ignition, Accel coil, some kind of SS headers, PS and PB. Sadly, it's buried behind a mountain of junk in the back yard. Everything you see in the photo was piled behind the car, we had to move it out behind the tree. Along with another pile of stuff on the driver's side of the car and about 25 or so 8' long 2x6 boards.

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Once the path was clear, it was time to see if we are we pushing it out or driving it out. A new battery, some starting fluid, and it coughed to life. It sounds nicely healthy! The trans was sluggish from 6-8 months of inactivity, but we got it to move out of the back yard on its own power.

The car needs everything gone through. Sadly, the PO passed away and it's been sitting for several years, in addition to being a 25 year project. No one knows when it was last licensed and driven on the streets. Which means I will have to go through it from stem to stern to make sure things are OK. This will be a slow project, I have a timing chain to throw in a slant PU and all the work to do on the Valiant before I tackle this business. But with some luck, I may be able to get it road worthy without a ton of work (hahahahaha).
 
It's time to get a resto thread going. I've been jonesing for a 69 Dart for quite a while. I want to put together a BB Dart, 383 with a 4-speed. Make some room, @DentalDart, there's another 69 Dart under way. Except yours is good looking, runs, and has hope in its future. Mine, not so much.

There are many, many, super nice looking cars out there but for me, the Grand Prize Winner is a 69 Dart. I've been on the hunt for three years, seriously looking at Darts from as far away as IL, OK, ID, CA, and FL. All had some kind of deal killer (too much money, too far away, too much rust, lack of interest on the seller's part to send photos and discuss the details of the car, horrible color) and so forth. I cruise CL, eBay, and recently FB Marketplace on a regular basis checking things out.

A while ago I found a good deal on a 383, 4-speed, and 8-3/4 rear and. So I got no car and it's breakin' my heart, but I've got a drive-train and that's a start. To channel the Beatles! Kind of a crappy photo, but engine, tranny, and rear and are all sitting there waiting for a new home.

View attachment 1715472489

Next, I find a FB ad for a 69 Dart locally. According to the ad, it's a 340 car, Edelbrock intake and carb, purple cam, X-heads, a 720 (?) tranny, and BBP wheels. When I get there to check it out, it's a 904 tranny, SBP wheels, and I'm unable to determing 340 or not - the block was painted black so I can't see the casting numbers. It does have MSD ignition, Accel coil, some kind of SS headers, PS and PB. Sadly, it's buried behind a mountain of junk in the back yard. Everything you see in the photo was piled behind the car, we had to move it out behind the tree. Along with another pile of stuff on the driver's side of the car and about 25 or so 8' long 2x6 boards.

View attachment 1715472495

View attachment 1715472493

Once the path was clear, it was time to see if we are we pushing it out or driving it out. A new battery, some starting fluid, and it coughed to life. It sounds nicely healthy! The trans was sluggish from 6-8 months of inactivity, but we got it to move out of the back yard on its own power.

The car needs everything gone through. Sadly, the PO passed away and it's been sitting for several years, in addition to being a 25 year project. No one knows when it was last licensed and driven on the streets. Which means I will have to go through it from stem to stern to make sure things are OK. This will be a slow project, I have a timing chain to throw in a slant PU and all the work to do on the Valiant before I tackle this business. But with some luck, I may be able to get it road worthy without a ton of work (hahahahaha).

Super excited to see what you got and what you do with it!

I mean mine runs... but doesn't stop, or move off the jack stands still :rofl:
 
I would have to axe the Ford scoop though.

Oh yes, it's going away. Luckily, it's just there for looks - it's bolted in place and no hole cut for air flow. I will have a couple of bolt holes to fix. Along with all the trim strip holes and vinyl top holes and God Knows whatever other holes I find. I expect I will get good at brazing holes shut before this is done. :eek:
 
Yay! Another NW 69 Dart! Well optioned car and you got the steering column you'd need.
 
I would not sleep on the title/registration, its better to deal with it from the start. Awesome project, I think most of us dream of digging something out of a pile of debris and bring it back to life.
 
I would not sleep on the title/registration, its better to deal with it from the start. Awesome project, I think most of us dream of digging something out of a pile of debris and bring it back to life.

This. I know in Oregon you need a signed title and a signed and date Bill of Sale. If lost the previous owner needs to file for a lost title or pay the DMV to send a letter to the last known registered owner for release.
 
Nice find! Luckily in WA the worst case for licensing is the ‘ownership in doubt’ process.
 
I would not sleep on the title/registration, its better to deal with it from the start

I know in Oregon you need a signed title and a signed and date Bill of Sale. If lost the previous owner needs to file for a lost title or pay the DMV to send a letter to the last known registered owner for release.

Agreed, it would be foolish to work on the car for a good period of time, and then find out you can't title it. I tried to register it today but needed an additional form. The owner said it was complete and ready to pick up.

Some good news, I went over this thing with a large refrigerator magnet, and I can't find even one spot of bondo. Which means unless I'm an idiot (always a possibility) this is arrow straight original sheet metal. It does need the lower rear quarters replaced, but everything else looks good.

I added a new fuel filter, as the old one looked like it was full of pudding. I will sort out the fuel tank and lines later, at least I'm catching the crap before it gets to the carb.

It needs a new battery and hold-down, on the shopping list for tomorrow.

I need to source all new keys. The ignition, doors, glovebox, and trunk locks are all shot.


I would have to axe the Ford scoop though.

Done deal! Turns out the scoop was drilled but not bolted. Pried it up with a putty knife and immediately improved the look!

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You can never go wrong with a 69 Dart. The trim holes on the shoulders down the sides of the car and on the hood suggest to me it was likely a GT.
 
The trim holes on the shoulders down the sides of the car and on the hood suggest to me it was likely a GT.

Yes, it's a GT. I don't like the trim, so I'm going to fill the holes and get that smooth look. Same thing with the vinyl top, it's not coming back.

Congratulations!!..

Thanks! You need to see this thing, it's a soul brother to your Duster.

Today's update: No work done yesterday, as it took all afternoon to get the car titled in my name. It hasn't been on the road since 1994 and was so far off the grid the local DMV couldn't even find the car in their system. It took several calls to the state DMV folks to get it squared away, but it's done and I can relax about the legal issues.

Today was bath day, this car was one grubby little pig inside and out! I feel confidant there has been no water on this car other than what falls from the sky, for a very very long time. I had to scrub everything with a brush, even using a putty knife at times to get the crud off. It is an F3 green car, but I'm of the school of thought that a green car should not be so due to mold and mildew from our wet climate. Yes, I know it's yellow at the moment. The PO painted it and I was told this was yellow primer, but it's not sticking well - I think it's paint. We will deal with that later. Bottom line, it is clean enough now that I can work on it without a HazMat suit. When it's road worthy, it will get a final cleaning. It looks lots better!

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The whole car got vacuumed too. It was sitting under a very large fir tree, and needles had dropped into everywhere. I scraped and picked out the needles on the exterior. When looking at other places needles could go, I noticed the bottom rear of the front fenders (just in front of the doors) had crud in them. I was going to scrape that out with a very long screwdriver, when I had a flash of brilliance (not normal in my world). I used my spring powered four-finger grabber used to retrieve dropped nuts and bolts to reach into the fender area. It worked like a champ. It was high time to do this, I did not get rusted out but it was going to happen with time. I also cleaned out the trunk drop-offs, but that was a somewhat academic exercise - both are shot and will need to be replaced. Here is the crud inside the fender that was 4" deep, and just one of four piles of crud I pulled out.

crud.jpg


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Title and tabs in your name? WOOHOO! I do love the WA DOL offices. When they can, its made so much simpler than OR, NV, or CA. Congrats on leaping that hurdle!
 
Oh yes, it's going away. Luckily, it's just there for looks - it's bolted in place and no hole cut for air flow. I will have a couple of bolt holes to fix. Along with all the trim strip holes and vinyl top holes and God Knows whatever other holes I find. I expect I will get good at brazing holes shut before this is done. :eek:

That would look good on my RobKat. Nice find! I am glad you found one. You've been at it a while now.
 
Slow progress but the weather here has been real nice the last few days so I decided to tackle an outdoor project while it was relatively warm and sunny. The PO was said to have sanded down the original F3 green paint and re-primer it in yellow (?). Getting a better look at it I think it was just painted over. Lots of runs and flaking off the old paint. Much of the car was sanded down to bare metal and left to the weather so it was rusted in many spots. I was pushed for time, so I gave it a quick sand job to take off the worst of the rust, wiped it down, and primed as much as I could. I left the fine-detail stuff for later like around the rear window. That area will take a lot of masking but I can do that inside later on.

The good news, I just got this done before it was too cold to rattle-can it. The bad news, my highly questionable wiring is acting up again and I have no spark so the car is stuck outside in the driveway. :BangHead:

(Sigh). I will be calling my neighbor to bring his tractor over and push this back in the shop where I will sort out all the mysteries awaiting me.

I see the possibility of a complete rewire in my future. Looking at the cobbled-together mess under the dash and hood, it might be easier to just rip it all out and start over.

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Yes, it's a GT. I don't like the trim, so I'm going to fill the holes and get that smooth look. Same thing with the vinyl top, it's not coming back.

This is exactly what I did to my 69 GT. I am very happy I did. We welded all the holes shut. I did leave the GT emblem on the hood for some character since it was otherwise just a flat hood.
 
I was able to get the car up on the lift, and verify it is indeed a 340 with a 727. Woohoo! I wasn't certain that would be the case but the casting number is correct. There's a bonus for sure.

Does anyone recognize the headers for this thing? I'm just curious who made them, as I can't find any kind of maker's mark on them anywhere. They do fit well with the PS and PB though.

Passenger side:

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Driver side:

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Congrats on a great find, halfafish!
Now there are at least 3 '69 Dart build threads going on. Yours, @DentalDart, and my long overdue thread
My '69 Dart Build - Finally
I've been watching DentalDart's thread and will now be watching yours as well.
I hope to post an update on my build thread soon.
 
Progress is slow the last week or two, but at least I can report forward movement. The front bumper, lights, and grill are in, and the front trim for the hood will be on shortly. I tried to attach the rear bumper but - surprise! - the bolts are a different size than the front so it's back to the hardware store. Again. I'm becoming besties with the guy in the fastener aisle there. The front stuff only took three trips to get all the screws needed, this will be the third trip for the rear bumper and lights. A new ignition switch should be in at Auto Zone, and it looks like I need a new headlight switch. The lights function with direct power but nothing from the switch.

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Whoops! Went to put the rear bumper on, and not only the bolts are a different size, evidently someone had a boo-boo on the left side. I'll have to pull the bracket down to get the bumper on. Note to self, stay realistic knowing you bought someone else's half-finished project...

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Only 6 trips to get mounting bolts for the bumper, that's easily a 10 trip for me! The nice thing about becoming friends with the local auto store guys is they start giving you their employee discount, ask me how I know. Lol

My wife sometimes thinks I'm an idiot, shes like what the F, 4 trips to install new windshield wipers? Seriously.... :rolleyes:

I wish I could help with the lights but I cant. I'm just ignoring the fact that I havent been able to get my blinkers to work lol.
 
Great find. Get you one of these for blowing out junk in fenders and cowl panels. I call this the magic wand. Also unbolt the bottoms of the fenders, and stick a small wedge in there to seperate em from the body about 1/4" and gig em with that blower.

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I bet that cowl is plugged with effing pine needles too. Remove the heater box on the right, the air box on the left. And douche that out with the "magic wand"
 
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