1963 Dart 170 2 Door Post Resto

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Mineallmine

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I have been on here a little bit and decided it's time to start a rest thread. Back story will be followed by lots of pics

I bought my dart back in the end of April. I was looking for a car that was for the most part solid and that wouldn't take a few years to get on the road. (already have a 60 bel air 2dr sport coupe for that :) ). After missing out on a few great deals and quite a few "not as advertised specials" I came across this Dart. It is originally from Nevada and was brought up to Canada a number of years back by a gentleman that had big plans for it. However, after the transport company lost control of it when unloading it and it rolled under the front of a transport trailer smashing the rear glass and damaging the roof a bit he lost interest. It sat in his paint booth for a number of years. The person I bought it from was a buddy of his and bought it from him and started picking at it (luckily bagging most parts and labeling them as he removed them) but never got very far. No doubt the difficulty of finding a rear glass up here stall him as well, not to mention numerous other projects and him being 72 years old, something had to go.

My wife and I went to look at it and I had never seen a 63 Dart so it was a little different. The more I looked at it the more I liked the look. My wife actually told him we'd take it before I totally made my mind up telling me we weren't going to find one more solid and she liked the different look of it too. I paid more than I should have but up here its near impossible to find as clean of a car to start with that has never been molested.

The car still sports its original paint and shows about 65000 original miles iirc. It had the original slant 6 170 with pushbutton trans and no options at all besides the heater. The person that brought it up from Nevada at some point removed the intake. Guy I got it from said to replace the carb as it was bad. I found out different after I got it home. Wound up being the frost plugs had all been removed. I was concerned at first but found one of the originals in the trunk corroded through. 3 brand new ones also in same box. new intake gasket included as well. Once in installed the new plugs and reinstalled the intake and starter it didn't take long to fire it up. Carb works fine. Guess it was all done just for frost plugs. After not running for who knows how long it started easily and idled great.

I'll add more in different posts to try to go sort of step by step to where I am now.

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So in the process of getting it running I broke off an intake stud. (kept going to see if it would run to see if it was worth the work to remove and replace it). As it ran good and all signs looked good I removed the intake again and replaced all the studs, adding a coat of red paint to keep it all from rusting again and make cleanup later easier.

I found a set of 14" steelies and already had a couple original dog dish caps in the rear so I found more and got rid of the rallies. Prefer the old school look anyway. (they will be painted to match the car later).

I also got bored one day and polished up a fender to see what would happen and it came up pretty good. May run it this way next summer if I don't get far enough to get the outside painted.

Replaced all the brake wheel cylinders and rubber lines as well as master cylinder and front wheel bearings and grease seal while I was at it. Brake shoes look new so I ran with them.

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Next step was to remove the interior to get it ready for the upholstery shop. There was one door panel missing, so I decided to make new door cards from hardboard to have nice and straight panels. Seats are rough but the springs are in perfect shape, still having all of their black paint showing and no broken springs. I also ordered a pile of new parts as well. New gasket set to refresh engine gaskets and seals, seals for the transmission and pan gasket, new rad hoses and belt, all new filters, new battery, new gas tank and sending unit as the old one was so full of crap it was the safest way to go.

Also polished up a bit more of the car as well.

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At this point I decided to pull the engine and transmission and clean the interior to get it ready to mount on my rotisserie I built last winter. This would make cleaning the bottom of the car easier. Will also go through the engine and transmission while it's out. Cleaned the interior and trunk as well. Surprised how clean the spare is as well.

In the one pic of a close up of the right channel in the trunk you will see the only rust I have found anywhere on the car besides surface. About the size of the tip of a pen. If that's all I find I will be very happy. Looks really good thus far

Made new mounts to mount the car to the rotisserie as the others were made generic.

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spare.jpg


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The one big issue I ran into with the car was the rear glass and area around it. One of the previous owners cut out the brace to do hammer and dolly work to the roof to straighten it out and lost the brace. The repair to the inner sail panel brace isn't as good as I like either. Will have to address those later. I did manage to fine a brace in a junk yard near me as well as the missing headliner bows and a couple other pieces that were lost over the years. I was able to locate the rear window stainless and rear glass from a guy in Texas. He shipped it up to New York and I just popped over the border and picked it up

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So now we are pretty much up to present day. I mounted the car to the rotisserie last night and got it up in the air. I wasn't able to get it as balanced as good as I like due to not removing the rear differential. I will probably remove it shortly but just wanted to see how it would turn with it still in. Only take about 15-20 minutes to remove anyway.

Got the car tuned on its side and started cleaning the bottom a bit with a wire wheel to see how it would clean up. Only holes in floor are 4 holes that were added for seat belts. Why they didn't use the factory holes I'll never know. They also just used a big punch to make the holes and never drilled them. This is actually a good thing as I can fold the metal back into place and with minimal welding the hole will be just a memory.

Dart mounted 1.jpg


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Dart bottom 1.jpg


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inner fender.jpg


Seat belt hole 1.jpg


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Looks great! And thanks again for sending the pictures of the trans line routing. Helped me a ton! Keep posting pics as you progress.
 
A little more progress this week. Got half of the floor cleaned and primed. Welded shut the punched seat belt holes. Cleaned out the original stone guard undercoating in one wheel well. Have good quality new stone guard to apply later. Rear valance was creased and pushed in on one side so I got that mostly straightened... Really happy with how it came out. Have the car flipped over ready to do the rest of the other side. Then I can prime it and let the primer cure for a couple days before applying stone guard and then paint. Hard to see how bad valance was before but it was creased right at the ridge and pushed in a good inch or more.

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I absolutely love having this rotisserie. I can't imagine doing this job without one. I can just sit on the rolling stool my son got me for Christmas and clean away. No wear and tear on my back. Flipping car over was real easy too. A one man job... Once I remembered to loosen the lock bolts at the tubes on either end... lol .
 
Loving the 63 man, you are doing a real good job!

Thanks, I appreciate the compliments. It really helps to have a solid car to begin with.

Got a little further today. Almost finish priming the bottom and repaired the only rust hole I could find.

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I agree, my 62 was rock solid, it was nice not having any rust issues to deal with. But I had to do all the underside work on my back.
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I sure hope you're going back with the factory color! I love that Light Aqua!!!
Probably not going back original. Looking for something a little different. I am thinking along the line of a different shade of green with matching rims and poverty caps with gunmetal gray dash and metal parts inside with black carpet, headliner, seats and door panels. I have also picked up a 68 camaro front bumper to modify to fit the front of this as I'm not a huge fan of the original front bumper with the pushouts under the headlights. Will also be painting the headlight bezels to match the car. Saw it done on a beige GT and liked how it looked.

Here is a today pic of the car. Haven't been getting out at it as much as I'd like as I was truck shopping last week. Got bottom half painted so far. Really slow going. Using tremclad semi-gloss black on the bottom applying with a foam brush heavy to get a nice thick protective layer and yet have a smooth factory looking finish. Have done this before and it holds up really well to rocks and elements. Fun getting into all the little nooks and crannies though. Paint self levels leaving no brush marks so the finish comes out really nice.

Before applying paint I sprayed the wheel wells and area behind with a good quality rock guard. Applied 3 good coats to ensure good coverage. Stuff actually goes on a lot smoother than the old style rock guard so it's hard to tell it's even there.
floor half done.jpg
 
Considering this as a possible color. It is a Lexus color called Nori Green Pearl. Excuse the Lexus for the purists.

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Making a little more progress. My work is shut down for the next couple weeks so I hope to make some pretty good headway.

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Making a little more progress. My work is shut down for the next couple weeks so I hope to make some pretty good headway.

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Just got notified we are not staying back up until beginning of may so looks like I'll have some time at the car. Got the rear differential cleaned up and new seals and gasket (already went through the brakes) and new bushings and bolts in the leaf springs. Also started cleaning up the engine and replaced the rear seal and prepped it for new gaskets. Waiting on new timing gear and chain to come in. Also bought a new water pump as they are cheap and this has been dry for many years so I figure the seal is probably dried up in the impeller. Still plan to pull the head and redo the valves and replace the upper seals and gaskets, then once it's all cleaned and resealed, apply a nice coat of fresh paint. Happy with how things are finally moving along. Hope to have the entire drive line gone through and the bottom of the car all painted before returning to work.

Engine is really clean inside... If you didn't look in the base pan... It was nasty! Looks much better now

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Motor almost done. Fuel tank painted and sending unit installed. Used the lock ring from the old tank as recommended on here (thanks for that tip by the way). New timing gear and chain installed in engine, all new gaskets and seals, valves lapped and cold set (will be readjusted hot when it's installed), new fuel pump and water pump as they were cheap for good brand and cheap insurance.

Either onto transmission next or finish cleaning and painting front suspension. Hope to have it back on its wheels with the entire drive train and bottom side of car done before too much longer.

Going to slow down a bit again soon as may be back to work as soon as next week. We'll see.

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Motor almost done. Fuel tank painted and sending unit installed. Used the lock ring from the old tank as recommended on here (thanks for that tip by the way). New timing gear and chain installed in engine, all new gaskets and seals, valves lapped and cold set (will be readjusted hot when it's installed), new fuel pump and water pump as they were cheap for good brand and cheap insurance.

Either onto transmission next or finish cleaning and painting front suspension. Hope to have it back on its wheels with the entire drive train and bottom side of car done before too much longer.

Going to slow down a bit again soon as may be back to work as soon as next week. We'll see.

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These are wonder pictures. Do you have a place to get the headliner and door panels?
 
These are wonder pictures. Do you have a place to get the headliner and door panels?
Headliner I found on eBay. Got a good price on it too. I'll see if I can find the seller and see if he has any more and send you the link. As for door panels I made new door panel cards from hardboard and my upholstery guy is going to do them when he does my seats. Hoping he opens up again shortly so I can drop that off to be done.
 
Or maybe F8 met. dark gren,a '69 Mopar color????? Looks bout the same? pretty color either way!
Yeah, my other choice right now is the new version of F8 green that comes on the Durango and challenger. Really like that one too
 
Yeah, my other choice right now is the new version of F8 green that comes on the Durango and challenger. Really like that one too
I was looking at your build and it looks great. Your color choice looks like, "Tincup's" Dart build (if i remember correctly). It looked pretty nice that color.

( Just looked up Tincup's build again and your color is different and I'll bet it will look great on your Dart.)
 
So another update. Bottom of car completely painted. Came out pretty good in my opinion. Gas tank installed and transmission finished. Opted not to paint the transmission itself, just the pan, dipstick and brackets Just need to clean and pain the driveshaft and install new ujoint and the driveline is finished and ready to reinstall once the roof is fixed up and the engine bay cleaned and painted.

Back to work now so things have slowed down a bit, that and the fact that I burned through all my parts stash over the shutdown. More on the way now. New steering box kit from firm feel (thanks to a member on here suggesting them...thanks again by the way), new seal and foam kit for my heater box and vent as well as new hoses and dash vents, and new seal for the steering column. waiting to get it torn down to see what I need to order in ways of turn signal switch and such.

Floor bottom finished.jpg


tank install 2.jpg


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I really like this car and I love what your doing with it. But I have to be honest, I wouldn't pant it... And if I did it would be that same sea foam green, I just love that color on that car...!
Keep up the good work buddy..
 
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