Recent content by tjmopar

Thanks. I was nervous at first on what I would find. I am going to close up the whole for the trim as that part does not seal well and it was allowing water in the trunk.

Messed up my calf a few weeks back and have not been working on the car much. Today I decided to remove the vinyl top and see if there was any major rust to deal with. Looks like I got lucky and even though there were some large cracks in the vinyl and some rough patches under the top. There was...

Picked back up the Dart today. Trans checked out fine and the difference in the shifts now is like night and day. At some point I need to check out what the rear gears are, but I can tell you that they almost certainly in the 2.XXs. With the shift kit and full throttle the dart did not shift out...

Dropped of the Dart at a transmission shop on Monday to have it checked out and put a shift kit in it. On Wednesday I stopped by and found out that a previous owner likely put in a newer transmission into her. Looks like a have a lockup converter. When I get the Dart back next week I will need...

I have one foot over the edge and the other on a banana peel.

Got the Dart put back together today. Wasn’t expecting much of a difference and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. The little 318 is still no stump puller, but at least she can chirp the tires now. Makes me want to get rid of the single 2” exhaust and drop in a set of headers.

Front end is fully pulled apart and I have the old timing set off. I was impressed by how clean and intact the gears were on the factory set. Tomorrow I will hopefully get her all put back together.

Tested the slack for the timing chain a couple of days ago and it ended up between 7 and 8 degrees. So I decided to pick up a new timing chain for her. Was able to get it mostly torn down today and I found that I need to replace the harmonic balancer as well. Since I have it off and the rubber...

Today I got the mechanical oil pressure gauge hooked up. Running at 60 psi when cold. Around 35 psi in neutral when warm, 25 psi in gear, and close to 50 psi under WOT when warmed. Forgot to add that I threw a newer starter in from mid 90s 318 too.

It’s been awhile since my last post. Since then I have Knocked out the following: - power steering fully functional again - bled and adjusted all the brakes - hooked up cooling lines for the transmission - change the oil (I opened up the filter and did not find metal, thankfully) - compression...

I live near Augusta.

It is currently triple black, but it was not like that from the factory. The paint code for it is LE9, which is Vintage Red Poly, but under some of the trim the Dart almost looks like a maroon color.

Thanks! You have a clean hardtop that my kids would love. I still love 2 doors, but with 3 kids I really appreciate a nice 4 door.

Thanks. You have a good looking Dart as well. The kids are dying to get the Dart on the road. We have a written list at home that they can check off for what needs to be done before we can drive it around the block and then for driving it around town.

Roadkill is for entertainment and much like other shows, I explain to my kids that is not necessarily the proper way to do things.