Josh's 73 Dart Sport - "Fred"

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Great idea! Are you going to put epoxy on the bare metal and then a few coats of high build? Hopefully, this is an exciting part for Josh. The trend line of the project is making a HUGE turn in the "UP" direction today.

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Sounds good. Depending on the mfg of the epoxy, you should have a timeframe where you can spray the 2K primer right over the top of the epoxy without having to sand it. I think the SPI epoxy that I use is like 72 hour recoat w/o sanding.
 
Epoxy is done. Got some fine tuning of bodywork to do, as expected. Definitely showed what we missed, which is what I wanted.
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So today, we blacked out the front of the radiator support, inside the trunk, underside of the whole car and wheel wells. I shot the front support and then let Josh play with the spray gun for all the rest of it. I did not get any pics of Josh in action, dang it.

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Looks like you made a motor headway since I last looked. Are you still going FJ5 with 3/4 vinyl top, with hood and cowl factory black out.
That's a great look
 
FJ5, or something close to it. Blacked out fiberglass hood. A factory type stripe down the side. No vinyl top.
 
If nothing wrong with the stock hood and header they look good with hood blackout and stock scoop.
But I dislike fibreglass too.


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Speaking of the hood... Been working on it little bit here and there. Disconnected the hinge springs and fabbed 2 long aluminum runners so it can raise and lower. Almost ready for primer.

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Mark , you guys are smoking this build ! Brings back memories of building my sons 67 Cuda Fast Back. . But sadly, I don't have any pics of our time building it . Looking great !
 
Well, the dreaded welded in upper ball joint fix has bit us in the butt.... Started tearing the front suspension apart today and looky what I found on the left side.... Right side is NOT F'd up like this side... Will be putting a wanted for a 73-76 left upper control arm add up soon.... Anyone wanna help the youngin' out with a smokin' deal? LOL

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So the plan is i'm tearing the left side apart cuz it's on the wall side of the garage and not much room to work. Josh will tear the right side apart where we have room for me to get in there with him and point and direct.
 
Josh got the right side all removed, with little direction. We also dropped the slant K, as we have a small block K from a 72 340 Duster to go in.
 
Good couple of hours in the garage today.
Josh's Christmas haul included a fuel tank/sending unit and all the front end parts. Today we mounted the tank/unit and I heped him get the 340 K frame and T bars in as well as the majority of the right side suspension.

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So the other day, we got the entire dash assembly disassembled. It was a joy to find that the wiring harness has NOT been hacked up. The only hacked wires were the original AM radio speaker wire had been cut and run to the rear.
Josh still needs to prep the framework for paint. He did order an overlay kit from DMT that should be here later this week.
And yes, I need to get my model railroad back in order.....

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So school was closed for students yesterday - teach work day to prep for 2nd semester that starts today. So Josh and I spent a few hours in the garage. He got all 4 shocks mounted, we broke down junkyardhero's UCA and painted it, talk a lot about the next plan of attack, prepped the dash frame for paint and replaced the heater core.

Josh learned a couple of things yesterday. Like a good dad, I let him prep and he wanted to primer, the dash frame. He was please with the outcome of his labor, but wanted me to do the black paint. Said he felt OK about it, but would rather stick to the primer for now. So I verified that he was pleased and ready for paint. Low and behold, the paint revealed a run and a sag in the primer. Yeah, I knew it was there. He thought it would be ok. I made double work for us/him, but he learned first hand that anything that the primer shows will look 10x worse in color. I consider it part of the process. If you hand everything to them perfect, they won't "get" it all.

On to the heater box. I should have taken pics of the process, but did not. Josh disassembled it all, cleaned it up, re-foam sealed where needed, couldn't get the new core to fit just right - so i helped with that. He put it all back together and was proud. Until I looked at the bench. The cold air door was laying there. He got a little mad at himself for a minute or 3. Told him that it is all part of the learning process, and that he'll never forget that flap/door again. Told him he has no idea how many things I've torn down, reassembled and tore back down to reassemble again.

Back to the 1st day of 2nd semester in school today.... HVAC starts for him at our Career and Tech Center. He will drive to school for 1 Math class, then take the bus to the CTC for the rest of the day. Naturally, I worked yesterday's minor fubar into "the talk" about when things have to be redone in his HVAC learning - just remember that he's never done it before, keep a cool temper, and it will come. Next year as a Senior, he'll have 1 class and then CTC 1st semester where he will be classified as a Junior Apprentice. That is supposed to lead to a 2nd semester job as a full on Apprentice, to begin a career.
 
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