QC123
New Member
Greetings All!
Not new to forums but new to this one. Lurked a bit and liked the energy. Long time Mopar fan. Was driven here by the recent purchase of a new project car, a 1973 Dodge Dart Custom 4-door.
Got the itch for a new toy car project a few months ago. Wasn’t sure what. Lots of kinda diverse candidates on my wish list were found up for sale. Ever consider restoring a 1992 Subaru SVX?
I’ve been known to have the occasional questionable mechano-daliances with suicide door Lincolns and more than a few 1968-1971 Dodge pick ups. Been busy building all manner of First Gen Kawasaki KLR 650’s enduro motorcycles for fun and profit (very little of the former, even less of the latter) the past 15 or so years. Time for something new. I didn’t have to wait long.
One potential project trend I couldn’t help notice recently was a sudden plume of late 60’s/early 70’s 4-door Mopar A bodies for sale across multiple sale platforms. It’s the first time I had seen more than 1 or 2 for sale at one time in years. Have wanted one of these since the mid-80’s!
Unfortunately every one of the over a dozen 4-doors I found for sale suffered from one or both of 2 fundamental problems: Overpriced and under optioned. After a few weeks, as my A Body 4-door possibilities became noticeably fewer, I figured that I had become a victim of my own overly high expectations. Again. I wonder if that Subaru SVX is still for sale?
Then, during a random search through Hemmings Online, I happened upon an advertised 1973 Dart Custom 4-door that looked promising. Located in San Francisco with some of the worst ad pictures I have ever seen, it looked well optioned and was in a color combo I liked. The low asking price, roughly one third the asking prices I had been seeing for examples in this apparent condition, red flagged it as a scam. Still, what if it was legitimate? Only one way to find out. A flurry of emails and a phone call later confirmed: SOLD. To me.
Even after all the conversations about the car and its sale, I still had a lingering doubt that it might be just too good to be true. Then I went back to the ad pictures. What convinced me that it was completely on the level? Three of the pictures had the sellers thumb in them. No one in their right mind would ever try to run a car scam using pictures that prominently featured their thumb. I was dealing with either the world’s most cunning internet car scammer or the genuine thing.
Went through the usual excellent Uship.com shipping process. Loved the old school payment method: PO MO/return title in overnight envelopes. Bought it midnight Halloween 2023. Landed in Central Texas middle of happy hour, 11/6. $1060 San Fran To San An, TX--2 days, open carrier. Thanks Uship.com! Again!
So let’s have a quick (and my first, yeah, I’m an idiot) look at this freshly delivered west coast 1973 Dodge Dart Custom 4-door, destined to be next year’s project car.
It was sold as a driver, near finished project, that lost its parking situation. Exactly what I was looking for: a highly optioned A Body 4-door in surprising good condition, well optioned, needing attention.
The only apparent shortcoming the car suffered from was that while trying to install a new speedo cable, the PO sold it with the underdash in pieces. To be fair, he bagged and tagged everything as he took it off right down to the screws. Didn’t see anything that concerned me about the car. After some slightly biased decision making process, purchased it sight unseen but fairly confident that it was in good shape even from iffy pictures.
Despite having a clear picture of the car sitting in a city towing lot after it had taken a significant three quarter, passenger front contact, it had been resurrected well by the seller then used as a second car. Now it was sitting in my driveway. Probably a good time to see what I bought.
First and foremost, I had gone looking for a project car and a really interesting one found me. Here’s what it turns out to be: According to the build sheet (and verified by the car sitting 10 feet from me), this Dart was custom ordered by a San Francisco Dodge dealership as a showroom pony highlighting the 1973 Dodge sales initiative of towing packages on A, B, and C Body cars.
It starts, runs and drives very well, no noises or alarms. Aside from the quickie but well done front damage repair, the car is 100% rust free with only minor body dents. 63,000 original miles, excellent interior for its age and optioned out The Wazoo: 318, A/C, PS, disc PB, HD 727, 8.25 2.71 posi (presently untested; could be a 3.23).
And then there is the insanely rare A34/A35 factory towing equipment that is still in place (looks unused): Curt Class 1 4 point hitch, A34 9 wire lighting harness, rear Monroematic coil over shocks, all straight from the 1973 factory towing catalog.
The initial evaluation of the car versus the build sheet showed a very odd collection of options. In my notes, the phrase, “No one in their right mind would walk into a Dodge dealership, circa 1973 and check the options boxes that created this car as it stands” featured prominently. Pretty sure the collection of options makes this close, if not a real, one of one car. Why? By the time it was optioned enough to support the extremely rare factory A34/A35 towing package, the mfg./OTD price would have been simply insane. Not only that, but a light, short wheelbase Dart is a very poor candidate for towing much of anything. Bottom line? You would have paid an insane price to achieve a mediocre, nearly dangerous towing vehicle.
After making sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt (at least to me) that the car was authentic to the build sheet, only one of the codes items that the car left the factory with was missing now: the 5 spoke Road Wheels and the high line (for the time) WW radial tires. Not a surprise, nor really a concern.
The stock steel wheel, hubcaps, cheap (but pretty recent) WW radial combo (with new spare) it was wearing when delivered to me, I felt was a realistic alternative for the price. Not great perhaps, but kept the brake components off the ground at speed. Until the very next day.
An eBay vendor in Fort Worth, about a 3 hour drive north listed a set of new 5 spoke Road Wheels with Goodyear Silvertown Red Wall radials all with less than 200 miles on them. BIN $1500 but $1250 with cash discount. Sold! Road trip! Took a nice 2 lane drive through Texas on a beautiful day, hit a great BBQ restaurant for lunch and got home right at sunset. Nice way to spend the day!
So there it is. The happy start to another Mopar project build. Sitting as you see it, in my driveway, for a bit less than $7000 including all the new parts for anticipated resto work and a year’s insurance. The total budget is $10,000 and it looks like that is still a realistic sum.
As of 3/13/2024, the Dart is having a new exhaust put on, getting it a giant step towards being back on the road. Will be very interested in forum members input regarding its future restoration and upgrades. It is destined to be a nice driver restoration, cruise night duty, adding some minor muscle but keeping pretty much everything stock looking. Example? The new exhaust is still single with a raw steel downturn tip but the diameter is now 2.5”.
Have rounded up pretty much all the parts needed to finish the restoration. Am presently looking for a local body shop that can iron out what few body bugs it has and then repaint it as needed. I think the car has a long term potential of being a very nice classic daily driver.
More as it happens if there is any interest. Thanks for reading this far! Glad to have found this community! Mark
Not new to forums but new to this one. Lurked a bit and liked the energy. Long time Mopar fan. Was driven here by the recent purchase of a new project car, a 1973 Dodge Dart Custom 4-door.
Got the itch for a new toy car project a few months ago. Wasn’t sure what. Lots of kinda diverse candidates on my wish list were found up for sale. Ever consider restoring a 1992 Subaru SVX?
I’ve been known to have the occasional questionable mechano-daliances with suicide door Lincolns and more than a few 1968-1971 Dodge pick ups. Been busy building all manner of First Gen Kawasaki KLR 650’s enduro motorcycles for fun and profit (very little of the former, even less of the latter) the past 15 or so years. Time for something new. I didn’t have to wait long.
One potential project trend I couldn’t help notice recently was a sudden plume of late 60’s/early 70’s 4-door Mopar A bodies for sale across multiple sale platforms. It’s the first time I had seen more than 1 or 2 for sale at one time in years. Have wanted one of these since the mid-80’s!
Unfortunately every one of the over a dozen 4-doors I found for sale suffered from one or both of 2 fundamental problems: Overpriced and under optioned. After a few weeks, as my A Body 4-door possibilities became noticeably fewer, I figured that I had become a victim of my own overly high expectations. Again. I wonder if that Subaru SVX is still for sale?
Then, during a random search through Hemmings Online, I happened upon an advertised 1973 Dart Custom 4-door that looked promising. Located in San Francisco with some of the worst ad pictures I have ever seen, it looked well optioned and was in a color combo I liked. The low asking price, roughly one third the asking prices I had been seeing for examples in this apparent condition, red flagged it as a scam. Still, what if it was legitimate? Only one way to find out. A flurry of emails and a phone call later confirmed: SOLD. To me.
Even after all the conversations about the car and its sale, I still had a lingering doubt that it might be just too good to be true. Then I went back to the ad pictures. What convinced me that it was completely on the level? Three of the pictures had the sellers thumb in them. No one in their right mind would ever try to run a car scam using pictures that prominently featured their thumb. I was dealing with either the world’s most cunning internet car scammer or the genuine thing.
Went through the usual excellent Uship.com shipping process. Loved the old school payment method: PO MO/return title in overnight envelopes. Bought it midnight Halloween 2023. Landed in Central Texas middle of happy hour, 11/6. $1060 San Fran To San An, TX--2 days, open carrier. Thanks Uship.com! Again!
So let’s have a quick (and my first, yeah, I’m an idiot) look at this freshly delivered west coast 1973 Dodge Dart Custom 4-door, destined to be next year’s project car.
It was sold as a driver, near finished project, that lost its parking situation. Exactly what I was looking for: a highly optioned A Body 4-door in surprising good condition, well optioned, needing attention.
The only apparent shortcoming the car suffered from was that while trying to install a new speedo cable, the PO sold it with the underdash in pieces. To be fair, he bagged and tagged everything as he took it off right down to the screws. Didn’t see anything that concerned me about the car. After some slightly biased decision making process, purchased it sight unseen but fairly confident that it was in good shape even from iffy pictures.
Despite having a clear picture of the car sitting in a city towing lot after it had taken a significant three quarter, passenger front contact, it had been resurrected well by the seller then used as a second car. Now it was sitting in my driveway. Probably a good time to see what I bought.
First and foremost, I had gone looking for a project car and a really interesting one found me. Here’s what it turns out to be: According to the build sheet (and verified by the car sitting 10 feet from me), this Dart was custom ordered by a San Francisco Dodge dealership as a showroom pony highlighting the 1973 Dodge sales initiative of towing packages on A, B, and C Body cars.
It starts, runs and drives very well, no noises or alarms. Aside from the quickie but well done front damage repair, the car is 100% rust free with only minor body dents. 63,000 original miles, excellent interior for its age and optioned out The Wazoo: 318, A/C, PS, disc PB, HD 727, 8.25 2.71 posi (presently untested; could be a 3.23).
And then there is the insanely rare A34/A35 factory towing equipment that is still in place (looks unused): Curt Class 1 4 point hitch, A34 9 wire lighting harness, rear Monroematic coil over shocks, all straight from the 1973 factory towing catalog.
The initial evaluation of the car versus the build sheet showed a very odd collection of options. In my notes, the phrase, “No one in their right mind would walk into a Dodge dealership, circa 1973 and check the options boxes that created this car as it stands” featured prominently. Pretty sure the collection of options makes this close, if not a real, one of one car. Why? By the time it was optioned enough to support the extremely rare factory A34/A35 towing package, the mfg./OTD price would have been simply insane. Not only that, but a light, short wheelbase Dart is a very poor candidate for towing much of anything. Bottom line? You would have paid an insane price to achieve a mediocre, nearly dangerous towing vehicle.
After making sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt (at least to me) that the car was authentic to the build sheet, only one of the codes items that the car left the factory with was missing now: the 5 spoke Road Wheels and the high line (for the time) WW radial tires. Not a surprise, nor really a concern.
The stock steel wheel, hubcaps, cheap (but pretty recent) WW radial combo (with new spare) it was wearing when delivered to me, I felt was a realistic alternative for the price. Not great perhaps, but kept the brake components off the ground at speed. Until the very next day.
An eBay vendor in Fort Worth, about a 3 hour drive north listed a set of new 5 spoke Road Wheels with Goodyear Silvertown Red Wall radials all with less than 200 miles on them. BIN $1500 but $1250 with cash discount. Sold! Road trip! Took a nice 2 lane drive through Texas on a beautiful day, hit a great BBQ restaurant for lunch and got home right at sunset. Nice way to spend the day!
So there it is. The happy start to another Mopar project build. Sitting as you see it, in my driveway, for a bit less than $7000 including all the new parts for anticipated resto work and a year’s insurance. The total budget is $10,000 and it looks like that is still a realistic sum.
As of 3/13/2024, the Dart is having a new exhaust put on, getting it a giant step towards being back on the road. Will be very interested in forum members input regarding its future restoration and upgrades. It is destined to be a nice driver restoration, cruise night duty, adding some minor muscle but keeping pretty much everything stock looking. Example? The new exhaust is still single with a raw steel downturn tip but the diameter is now 2.5”.
Have rounded up pretty much all the parts needed to finish the restoration. Am presently looking for a local body shop that can iron out what few body bugs it has and then repaint it as needed. I think the car has a long term potential of being a very nice classic daily driver.
More as it happens if there is any interest. Thanks for reading this far! Glad to have found this community! Mark
