Demon Clone Project

yup, use the dart sport. and instead of parting the true 340 4 speed car, use repro sheetmetal.

my plan would be thus:
replace the mangled front clip on the 340 car. with the correct 73 clip from the daughters car. sell o here as a roller to someone that wants a true 340 car to restore.
take money from that sale, and your 340/4 speed power train, stuff in dart sport. put in the tail panel, patch the quarter, weld in the 4 speed hump, and roll. youll be money ahead at the end by doing this, as a true 73 340 car should be worth a few grand as a complete roller. youve got most of the parts needed otherwise already, including a lot of parts from the daughters car. on top of that, you can find repop panels cheap these days.

you want a demon clone of 71-72 cariety in the end. with a specific paint, and the best return on investment possible. this seems like the most logical way to get there from here.

only way to get a true clone is to do it right, which is tail panel, front clip, etc. i personally like the 73 up interior better than the 70-72 setup, so that would be a win for me.
id also re-use the parchment to match the exterior color. take the 340, freshen it,, mild hydraulic roller and some indybrock heads, dual plane, 800 cfm eddy carb. run 3.55 gears in the back on a ford explorer 8.8, 11.75 front disc conversion to the 73 up suspension, 1 1/8 front sway bar, 7/8 rear. circle track rear springs, .89 t bars front, bilstein shocks, subframe connectors, torque boxes, stitch weld the unibody while youre at it and reweld the k frame. stage 3 FFI power steering, power brakes, AC. lot of sound deadener as well as a 2.5 exhaust with x pipe.
drive the crap out of it.

if youre gonna do a clone for a car you lust after, do it right and do it fully. prepped like that, and done WELL with docu,mentation, youre looking at a 10-18k car at the end.
most of those parts are availible cheaply, readily availible, and worth more as a package.

also, youll enjoy the miles you put on it more, as it will be much more enjoyable, comfortable, and drivable. also, none are glaring modifications that detract from the origonal style youre going after with a cclone.

hope that helps. (can you tell ive thought about this before? only mine would be black ext, 4 speed auto, and EFI. abd a daily driven demon clone)

michael