"Rookie-Touring" '69 Dart

Thanks a bunch. I haven't even gotten to the real good stuff yet. So much more fab to do, then bodywork, then fun stuff...

this car will be in a mopar book some day you wate and see

While that's not the intent, I'd be lieing if I said that thought had not crossed my mind.

swisswill said:

While that's not the intent, I'd be lieing if I said that thought had not crossed my mind.

Click to expand...

should be sooner than later....if these rags (magazines) had their sh*t together they would follow builds...like this ...from the beginning.....NOT just show us the end result. Would REALLY make you look forward to the next issue....maybe even get you to buy a subscription. Of course, for a build commitment...the builder would have to keep his stuff off the internet...more on the QT (kind of like our POTUS....not so much)

but what do I know about marketing or selling anything??

Hi Will

I think it would be great if the "average joe" garage builder was able to get a rag to follow his build with the occasional published update. Almost guaranteed to sell subscriptions AND inspire all the other average joe's out there. The high dollar, super money, fancy shop builds are awesome to look at and gawk over, but the inspiring stuff, for me, comes out of the random guys garage. Go market and sell that bad boy Denny... You got that!

swisswill said:

I think it would be great if the "average joe" garage builder was able to get a rag to follow his build with the occasional published update. Almost guaranteed to sell subscriptions AND inspire all the other average joe's out there. The high dollar, super money, fancy shop builds are awesome to look at and gawk over, but the inspiring stuff, for me, comes out of the random guys garage. Go market and sell that bad boy Denny... You got that!

Click to expand...

I'll add it to the list

i would vote for ya lol

I figure it was time to Bump you back to the front since you should be coming home soon and resume working on the Dart.....

Well, I won't be back in December because I'm moving back the end of January. Updates won't be had until February or so. The prayer is I'll find a job before we move back and can more or less move to where the job is and get rolling. I keep hearing Nashville is hopping so I'm beginning to narrow my search criteria a bit.

In the meantime, I've spent much of the year resolving my steering issues and planning my cooling system. The problem with my steering system is the engine is taking up space required by the steering rack, or visa-versa. The solution? A secondary steering slide, taken from an insane Ghia build that suffered the same problem. Below is a pic...



To summarize, the rack is mounted forward of the engine and connected to a 15-5 stainless shaft (purple) via two end brackets machined from 7075 (bright green). The shaft runs through a pair of Vespel bushings housed in a pair of inner (blue) & outer (can't see) hubs which sandwich the mounts (red). The mounts and upper (orange) & lower (yellow) support are all notched to be assembled off the car as quickly, and accurately as possible, then welded to the front cross-member as an assembly. Total assembly time should be minimal. All parts are out for machining now and will just be waiting for me to return. The rack itself will be mounted to a pair of tubes crossed in the shape of an X which run from the front/upper mount support (orange) forward to the sway bar cross tube. This cross tube attaches to the frame via mounts (light blue) that have been designed to be cut as 1-piece, then folded to shape and welded. That as well should go pretty quick. The only piece of the puzzle not already handled is the steering rack shaft needs to be replaced with one that is drilled and tapped in both ends rather than having a monoball end. Woodward isn't so helpful in this arena (not really outside the box thinkers there, IMO), so when I get everything setup I'll pull the shaft, take some detailed measurements, design a new shaft and have it machined from probably 15-5 stainless as well.

I've also been working on the cooling system planning and have designed a custom radiator which I'll be modeling in foam to verify fitment once the new tubular core support is assembled and mocked up, then I can have it built.

From there I need to do some more triangulation in key areas, reinforce some brackets, and weld, weld, weld. Then build a new oil pan, surge tank, and get this V10 brought to life. Then body panels and tin work, then test drive. Maybe test drive Flintstones style, then body panels and tin work...

I've picked up a bunch of tools and some parts as well. I mentioned in your thread Ross I just picked up the rest of my ISIS stuff, MiModHP stuff still being designed, Vintage Air has been bought, picked up a trailer hitch receiver to fab a hitch on the car (yeah, I'll be pulling my ski boat when all is said and done), some more pieces from a wrecked Viper, custom fr/rr sway bars from Speedway, flywheel, late model GTO back seat, and a bunch of piddly things to make building and fab much easier. No pics of all that because my photographer is getting worn out on all my "favors".

I am looking forward to getting back and getting some things done. Once I have all the triangulation, core support, etc. in place, I'm building my rotisserie to get all the finish welding done. So much to do, I can't wait to move on to fun things like wiring, interior work, custom fiberglass dash board, and all the other crazy ideas I have. I think I'm going to be building this thing forever... hahaha It'll be a great forever though!

Response to above........

That is how I solved my steering issue on the rack I installed in my green HemiDuster with the stock K and torsion bars. Because I could not physically put the rack were it needed to be, I incorporated a drag link to locate the inner tie rod pivot point properly to eliminate any bump steer. Worked well, but the bigger challenge was modifying the stock spindles to front steer while still maintaining proper ackerman.

Remove the steering arms (tie rods) by simply unscrewing them from the rack. The shaft at the end of the rack is threaded. I know the frustration in dealing with the "experts". Unfortunately, most, are only experts on how big the box is they ship their products in.

Awesome build! Greetings from Holton, just up the road from GR!!!!

Thanks Pauly!

this build rocks.....

Thanks Scotty!

I've been back Stateside, permanently, for almost 3 weeks now. I haven't gotten a ton done despite the amount of work I've put in, but I have been productive...

I previously had a problem with steering rack location, it required the same space needed by the engine. In conjunction with multiple persons, I designed up a solution, got a bunch of parts machined, replaced the rack shaft in my rack, and voila, Lord willing it'll work... In conjunction with the rack/steering fix, I used the front sway bar tube as part of my mounting system for the rack. I designed and cut some mounts for the sway bar housing to make mounting einfacher, and it was. Two birds, one(ish) stone.



Just in front of the rack is the 2" sway bar housing with the custom brackets on each end. The sway bar is a custom piece from Speedway using roller bearings from Port City Racing rather than solid bushings.



After that I moved on to getting the new core support built. I bent it up from two pieces of 1-1/4" x .120 wall to almost identically mirror the stock core support. At the same time, I jigged up the fenders so I could locate the mounting holes for those.



Then made some brackets to capture the front fender mounts as well as brackets to bolt it up to the frame rail.



And there you have it.



Next up are forward tubes from the firewall to the core support, the final bar for the fender mounting holes plus custom brackets running from the forward tubes to the fender mounting bar stock. Then done and done up front, hope to have that stuff finished up next week, and moving on to the cockpit.

yay. Saw you brought this thread back, had to look and see if you'd done anything. Like that core support, still haven't figured out how the rack works, but I probably will after staring at it for a while. Seeing it working in action will probably help too.

Also glad to see you back at it... going where the rest of us can only dream about.
Fun to watch.

Thanks guys. Muad, maybe this will help...



The rack is fixed mounted and the rack shaft is bolted to a secondary slide (purple) via two end brackets (green). The secondary slide moves with the rack shaft based on steering input, sliding through a pair of vespel bushings housed in the inner/outer bearing hubs (lgt yellow though can't see them/blue respectively). The red/orange/yellow plates are the mounts for the slide itself. So far works pretty nice and moves well with just some teflon temp bushings. Vespel is VERY expensive and I didn't want to machine those until I knew all is good.

I admire how you handle a challenge....

You don't back up....you stack up.
Hope all is well....welcome back

Wow Will that is a work of art. Long way around to do the job but I can't think of a better way to do it.

About time you got some work done.....

Thanks John, and yes, long way but the only way, outside raising the body... By the way, what in the world is your ride height going to be to the rockers? I am at 5" and was thinking of you yesterday when I noticed there is only @ 3" from the top of my 275/35-18 tires to the lip of the fender mount. When my suspension is aired out, my tires will touch the fenders. I barely have enough room for the required suspension travel. Maybe with the HD k-member it's a different story but I can't imagine given that when the car is at such and such a height, there is only so much space from the ground to the fender, most of that being taken by the tire.

Hey Tin, shouldn't you be out driving somewhere???

Take a look at these. I plan on making something like this to fix the same issue you are having with the steering. Not as over the top as your fix. Your car is looking awesome I cant wait to see it finished.

http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com/rack.html

Hey Nate, good to hear from you! I did see these from TCP, Flaming River also has something similar for T-birds and Chevelles I think. I looked hard at going this route and almost copied the design but felt I needed something more stout since I had to raise the inner tie rods about 2" so I designed my own, with the input of a couple engineers.

You making any progress on your build? I'd like to see where your at.

swisswill said:

Thanks John, and yes, long way but the only way, outside raising the body... By the way, what in the world is your ride height going to be to the rockers? I am at 5" and was thinking of you yesterday when I noticed there is only @ 3" from the top of my 275/35-18 tires to the lip of the fender mount. When my suspension is aired out, my tires will touch the fenders. I barely have enough room for the required suspension travel. Maybe with the HD k-member it's a different story but I can't imagine given that when the car is at such and such a height, there is only so much space from the ground to the fender, most of that being taken by the tire.

Hey Tin, shouldn't you be out driving somewhere???

Click to expand...

Air out my front fender at the bottom will be at 4.5" and I'm all the way to the fender lip with the 20" wheel. I am also running a 26" tall tire. I get my wheels and tires tomorrow so I will be putting it through it's sweep tomorrow and I will post pictures.

swisswill said:

Hey Nate, good to hear from you! I did see these from TCP, Flaming River also has something similar for T-birds and Chevelles I think. I looked hard at going this route and almost copied the design but felt I needed something more stout since I had to raise the inner tie rods about 2" so I designed my own, with the input of a couple engineers.

You making any progress on your build? I'd like to see where your at.

Click to expand...

Progress has been very slow but I hope to get back on it soon.