It's time to get a resto thread going. I've been jonesing for a 69 Dart for quite a while. I want to put together a BB Dart, 383 with a 4-speed. Make some room, @DentalDart, there's another 69 Dart under way. Except yours is good looking, runs, and has hope in its future. Mine, not so much.
There are many, many, super nice looking cars out there but for me, the Grand Prize Winner is a 69 Dart. I've been on the hunt for three years, seriously looking at Darts from as far away as IL, OK, ID, CA, and FL. All had some kind of deal killer (too much money, too far away, too much rust, lack of interest on the seller's part to send photos and discuss the details of the car, horrible color) and so forth. I cruise CL, eBay, and recently FB Marketplace on a regular basis checking things out.
A while ago I found a good deal on a 383, 4-speed, and 8-3/4 rear and. So I got no car and it's breakin' my heart, but I've got a drive-train and that's a start. To channel the Beatles! Kind of a crappy photo, but engine, tranny, and rear and are all sitting there waiting for a new home.
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Next, I find a FB ad for a 69 Dart locally. According to the ad, it's a 340 car, Edelbrock intake and carb, purple cam, X-heads, a 720 (?) tranny, and BBP wheels. When I get there to check it out, it's a 904 tranny, SBP wheels, and I'm unable to determing 340 or not - the block was painted black so I can't see the casting numbers. It does have MSD ignition, Accel coil, some kind of SS headers, PS and PB. Sadly, it's buried behind a mountain of junk in the back yard. Everything you see in the photo was piled behind the car, we had to move it out behind the tree. Along with another pile of stuff on the driver's side of the car and about 25 or so 8' long 2x6 boards.
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Once the path was clear, it was time to see if we are we pushing it out or driving it out. A new battery, some starting fluid, and it coughed to life. It sounds nicely healthy! The trans was sluggish from 6-8 months of inactivity, but we got it to move out of the back yard on its own power.
The car needs everything gone through. Sadly, the PO passed away and it's been sitting for several years, in addition to being a 25 year project. No one knows when it was last licensed and driven on the streets. Which means I will have to go through it from stem to stern to make sure things are OK. This will be a slow project, I have a timing chain to throw in a slant PU and all the work to do on the Valiant before I tackle this business. But with some luck, I may be able to get it road worthy without a ton of work (hahahahaha).
