My 70 Dart

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Louie70Dart

Southern IL. Complete opposite of k-town
Joined
May 3, 2010
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Well, mine is nowhere near as cool as that other one from the vet. His is kick butt cool! Mine is low buck, shadetree. I was lucky enough to start out with a somewhat nice car with only two spots of eat through rust. Runs and real cheap. First time I ever tried anything like this, so I'm saking a lot of questions and am taking my time.

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Very nice car. great starting point. good luck and have fun with it.
 
Hey man! Cool car! You'll get there...My build is shade tree as well haha, seriously :) What are you plans for it?
 
Lets see.......my plans are to get the body in good shape with some nice paint. Then new headliner and carpet. yeah, the 40 y/o seats need covering also. The 318 runs good now, no knocks or ticks or smoke out the rear, but does have a leak either out the drain plug or the rear seal or pan. Hope it aint the last two! Also a new vinyl top. Want to go with a one of a kind paint, not made for cars but planes. A Ming Blue w/o any black and aluminum flake. Ran across some new Miraval type pigment that sparkles real nice with out sunlight. 8.75 rear end with ralleye wheels, disc brakes up front. Then get a stroke kit for the engine. With a cam and heads and intake. It all don't need to be done right away. this is my first try at a resto. Had a '71 Swinger years ago that got totalled on the street in '89. Wanted to fix that one, just short on cash. Well now I have the time and some extra cash. Pictures are of the rear bumper I worked on today. Not the best job, but my first time at that. Not too bad, I can live with it for now. Thanks for looking.

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Hey Louie70Dart that is a great car. You are at the right site for help. I know everyone here has helped me alot on both 70 & 72 Darts. Plenty of experience and humor!
 
Damn that thing looks very good . i had to replace both 1/4 panels . rust had got to them bad.. my next step is to strip it all down to bear metal.
good luck with your project..
 
Well, I'm stuck. Part of me wants to cut out the rust and replace the steel. Another part says why not just remove the undercoating that is there, and treat the metal to eliminate the rust, then use a screen and bondo it. If I cut the panel, where do I get the replacement steel? Should it be the same gauge as the q panel? I can get a MIG welder, gasless, but I'm cleaning the heck out of everything anyway. I'm not taking the paint off the entire car, the rear valance is in real good shape as far as paint is concerned, and it's straight. I am going to rough it with 100g paper then paint it. Ok, thanks!
 
Looks like a pretty solid car for the northeast. I would cut out the rot and replace, the rust you see on the outside is usually just the tip of the iceberg of whats hiding behind the panel. Old hoods and doors are a good source of donor sheetmetal or if you get new stuff 20 guage works good. I like to use galvanized for anything down low, you just have to be carefull not to breathe the fumes while welding it. welcome to the board and good luck.
 
I agree with daliant just cut out the rough rust an patch it. look at year one or paddock see if they have some patch panel. i got lucky with my car when i bought my car it came with two new 1/4 panels with it.. its easy just take your time when doing it ..i do all my own body work.
 
Looked for 20 gauge, found 22 and 16. Closest I could get to 20 at 2 places. Can find the front patch panel, but the q panel looks like I will have to get the $150 panel for the one small piece.
 
Messed around with it some today. Bought the steel and found that the 22 g will bend easy. There is no folds or creases at that spot, just a real easy curve. So I went and bought the $10 cutter from Harbor Tools. Also picked up the spot weld cutter for the drill, have all ready for tomorrow, will cut it out and fold the metal over to have something heavy for welding. Measure 3 or more times and hope I get it right. Have area to cut marked off, hopefully I can follow the lines. Pictures tomorrow. Thanks!
 
I have a cool neighbor. He's letting me use his portable mig welder. It's from harbor freight, MIG-100 model. Saw link online on it in operation. Found out it's not good for what I want to do. Well, I don't know how to weld anyway. Ignorance is bliss? I did find out I need to have both pieces of steel the same gauge. The 22 will burn through before it will weld together. It is touchy, I did get some welds to hold, but I need a bunch of practice. Now if it was a ford........who would care? I will look for some 20 gauge tomorrow. I can do it with more practice. Seemed to work better with a faster wire feed speed. IDK. More later. Thanks.
 
Found a place nearby to get some 20ga cold rolled steel. Will be able to practice tomorow with the welder. At about $6 a 12in x 24in piece, I will be able to trim it and practice until I get it right. The purists may think it's wrong to piece it like this, but I can't see spending all that money on a large piece when only a small piece is needed. IDK? The right way would be to replace the whole section, but I can't afford it now. Maybe later when I have the cash to spare I can get it done the REAL right way, but my way should be ok for now. Front valance primed, along with the left 1/4 panel. Thanks. Oh, the red you see in the one picture is the red shirt I was wearing.

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Ok, a couple of pics of my practice welds. I have only welded for about 2 hrs in my entire life. 1 hr 45 minutes here the last week, the last time was wayyyyyyyyy back when I was about 17 at Wkgn East high school. LOL. Anyway, this weld ain't purty........but it does hold! One burn through. Can't be unhappy with that. Getting better. Just don't expect me to weld anything impurtant. Hehehe. Gonna try to fab a piece to replace part of the extension piece, where the q panel connects at the bottom. Then the actual q skin itself.

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Louie your welding loooks good to me. Cause my welding is about the same. Nothing a grinder, body filler and paint won't hide.
 
Thanks. I'm gonna practice a little more, but I feel it's good enough to go with. Why I'm working on getting the metal formed and in. I agree with you also on the part about grinders and bondo, thats why they make it.
 
Louie 70 Dart said:
Thanks. I'm gonna practice a little more, but I feel it's good enough to go with. Why I'm working on getting the metal formed and in. I agree with you also on the part about grinders and bondo, thats why they make it.
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They look fine Louie, as long as it penatrates your good. Like you said it just practice.
 
be sure you place tack welds before you go any farther.

you don't want to concentrate to much heat in one area or you will warp your metal.

It looks like you might have your wire speed to high and its ramming the wire into the steel......try turning the feed down a bit and maybe turning the heat up a bit.

then try welding in a side to side motion about a 1/8" pattern to "bridge weld it".

your only going to probably be able to weld for about 3 seconds at a time unless your moving at a very fast pace.

the cheaper welder on thin gauge metal with little welding experience tend to want to burn through.

good luck.....and don't be afraid to give it a couple practice runs....find whatever metal you can to practice on and get yourself familiar with the feel of the welder until you feel comfortable with welding on the car.
 
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