1965 Dodge Dart Charger

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65dartcharger & 340 dart power in reference to your threads #'s 46, 49 & #'s 88, 90 respectively.

As the the original purchaser of a 1970 Duster 340 in March of 1970 I can add some detail to the conjecture about the mystery tag. Briefly I had a problem with my 340 right out of the box. It was purchased in IL and ultimately replaced with a warranty short block in Long Beach, CA. The replacement engine had such a tag. I can not recall any details and I have no photos. I was quite involved with the Chrysler warranty process and their Zone Mgr. at the time. The original engine was torn down three times before they ultimately replaced it.

I will detail this story in another forum, I was thinking the Mopar General Discussions Forum, as I do not want to hijack this thread. I will try to post this story there later today, it will some time to write as I am not an accomplished typist.:)
 
Today arrived a package with some real hard-to-find NOS parts;

Lower control arm shaft
Lower control arm bumper
Seal for steering box
nipple for waterpump/intake by pass (Look at the weird pattern on the nipple!)
By pass hose

Now I can start putting the K-frame together and continue on the engine. The bolts for the door hinges is there so I just need to get the bushings for the lower door hinge to attach them on the body.

This is what I needed,. Sometimes it just feels like I don't get anywhere!

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I got the NOS brake shoes today you wanted! I will send you a PM later, should be able to ship them out monday :happy7:
 
I sent you a PM just now, send me your shipping address in a PM to make sure I have the right one, thanks!!
 
I mounted the nipples, hoses and the clamps. It looks really good. Glass beaded the thermostat housing to great condition. The bolts are done. The big question about this one is;

I need a paper gasket for the thermostat housing! I have the blue Felpro gasket but I need the brown/gray paper gasket that the cars had from the factory.

So is there anyone that has a paper gasket for the thermostat housing for sale?

I found the orginal bolt and nut that holds the brackets from the engine/cylinder head to the exhaust manifold on the left side. Now it is glass beaded and ready for shipment to US to get the right finish.

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Wow man, my hat is off to you! First the incredible Forwardlook restorations from Sweden, then the musclecars getting better and better and now an early A that might get more attention to original parts than nothing else on this side of the pond! Love these Dart Chargers and the D-Darts of 1966. Very very cool! I have been lurking on this forum a long time but I had to join after seeing your project!

I noticed that you are aiming for Carlisle and the Nats, have you ever talked to the guys from ECS? If you haven't, you should. Problem is, you'd probably have so much to talk about that you'd have a hard time continuing with the project... Here's what they are up to;

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4753588&page=1&fpart=1&vc=1

Pics of the completed car;

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6156475&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Homepage;

http://www.ecsautomotive.com/

Keep up the good work, hope to see the car in person one day!

Hans

PS My first car was (I still have it and always will) a 1965 Dodge Dart 170 4d sedan with a 170/3-sp, sold new in Finland.
 
Forwardlook said:
Wow man, my hat is off to you! First the incredible Forwardlook restorations from Sweden, then the musclecars getting better and better and now an early A that might get more attention to original parts than nothing else on this side of the pond! Love these Dart Chargers and the D-Darts of 1966. Very very cool! I have been lurking on this forum a long time but I had to join after seeing your project!

I noticed that you are aiming for Carlisle and the Nats, have you ever talked to the guys from ECS? If you haven't, you should. Problem is, you'd probably have so much to talk about that you'd have a hard time continuing with the project... Here's what they are up to;

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4753588&page=1&fpart=1&vc=1

Pics of the completed car;

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6156475&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Homepage;

http://www.ecsautomotive.com/

Keep up the good work, hope to see the car in person one day!

Hans

PS My first car was (I still have it and always will) a 1965 Dodge Dart 170 4d sedan with a 170/3-sp, sold new in Finland.
Click to expand...

Hans!

I have saved tons of stuff that I will discus with Dave at ECS. I found out that all the reproduction carpets the early A-bodies are wrong!! It is a big difference and it will be showed when I talked with him. For exemple the carpet is to low up front towards the fire wall. The rear of the front piece of the carpet is wrong. The carpet should have small strips on each side. I know alot of the emblems and relays are wrong too.

I have talked with the president of Year One about this matter and they just excuse it with "we make parts that fits cars over a certain period". Which mean that they produce stuff that fits alot of years. If you get picky that fills the needs when you do a restoration, but these stuff is not for the NOS/OE restorations.

I could talk this for hours but I will save you!

Your Dart interested me. For the model year 1965 the 170 series disapeared. There is only Dart series, Dart 270 series and the Dart GT series. But there might be some local difference in Finland. I know for sure that in Sweden the 170 series was dropped for 1965. 1964 was thelast year. Can we see some pictures of your car? I have a one owner Dart 270 that I could buy after 17 years of negotiation! Picture shows the orginal owner when I picked it up.
 

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No need to save me Ulf, I am not so knowledgeable but I love this stuff. I have drooled over Daves projects for hours on the net! To me these cars are not only works of art but also a time machine back to an era that suits me better. Nothing could be more fitting than treating a car with such respect as you do, a true tribute to the fantastic engineering and design from Highland Park!

Regarding my Dart, my understanding is that the 170 series wasn't dropped for 1965, the designation just didn't show up on the car. My car is partly in pieces, some day I will assemble it the way I dreamed back in the mid 80:s. It will not be completely original, I collected parts for it a long time and it will have a slightly warmed up 360, TF and a 3.55SG 83/4" rearend. I still have tons of Direct Connection boxes from Ed Hamburger, even 360 heads, some NOS parts and a ton of other stuff. I still don't know if I will paint it back to the white body/black roof combo it had when I bought it or the original Dark Metallic Blue. If I would choose now I'd use some Charger 273 pieces to hide the 360 and paint the car the original color but I have thought about making this car the way I dreamed it to be 30 years ago. We will see, maybe I'll never complete it lol.

Your 270 looks cool, those were very rare in Finland. Remember seeing one 4 door in the early 80:s with black mirra paint, V8 and fenderwell headers. We had mostly 4 door sedans in the 170 series and a few GT hardtops.

I'd really like to see your garage one day, awesome stuff!

Hans
 
Forwardlook said:
No need to save me Ulf, I am not so knowledgeable but I love this stuff. I have drooled over Daves projects for hours on the net! To me these cars are not only works of art but also a time machine back to an era that suits me better. Nothing could be more fitting than treating a car with such respect as you do, a true tribute to the fantastic engineering and design from Highland Park!

Regarding my Dart, my understanding is that the 170 series wasn't dropped for 1965, the designation just didn't show up on the car. My car is partly in pieces, some day I will assemble it the way I dreamed back in the mid 80:s. It will not be completely original, I collected parts for it a long time and it will have a slightly warmed up 360, TF and a 3.55SG 83/4" rearend. I still have tons of Direct Connection boxes from Ed Hamburger, even 360 heads, some NOS parts and a ton of other stuff. I still don't know if I will paint it back to the white body/black roof combo it had when I bought it or the original Dark Metallic Blue. If I would choose now I'd use some Charger 273 pieces to hide the 360 and paint the car the original color but I have thought about making this car the way I dreamed it to be 30 years ago. We will see, maybe I'll never complete it lol.

Your 270 looks cool, those were very rare in Finland. Remember seeing one 4 door in the early 80:s with black mirra paint, V8 and fenderwell headers. We had mostly 4 door sedans in the 170 series and a few GT hardtops.

I'd really like to see your garage one day, awesome stuff!

Hans
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Hans!

How did Chrysler sold in Finland during the sixties? I'm searching for a Dart 2dr post with 4-speed. I would love to find one. I didn't know that they sold the basic series in Finland. They must be rare.

I checked up all the production figures and the basic Dart series for 1965 sold 33021 cars w/slant six. Of those cars were 11477 cars equipped with 198 w/3speed on the tree.

Where in Finland do you live? I live up in the sticks in northern Sweden outside Umeå.

Do you know of any NOS stuff for 65 Dart? I'm mostly searching for the small stuff like nuts, bolts, clamps, weatherstrip, filters etc.
 
Of the big three Chrysler was the biggest in Finland in the mid-60:s. Especially A-bodies sold well (for a big, expensive car, remember folks, this is Europe), B-bodies were a lot more scarce and C-bodies were seldom sold to private individuals. However, back in those days most large corporations and different government organizations used black C-body 4 door sedans for their head honchos. This continued all the way to mid 70:s. Regarding your search for a Dart 2-door sedan you might be out of luck in Finland if you want a 65. Most 1964 and 1965 Darts were 4 door sedans but for some reason there were a lot of 1966 Darts here as 2 door sedans in addition to the 4 doors. I don't remember seeing any factory 4-sp 2 doors but I remember one guy claiming years ago having a factory 1966 Dart 270 4d with a 4-speed. Those must be pretty rare. I think there were a few others as well, at least a 64 and a 65 Valiant 4d 4-sp. As a sidenote, remember seeing these production figures for 65:s a long time ago for the 4bbl 273, probably familiar to you...

Dart 170 4d sdn 273 at 17 cars
Dart 170 4d sdn 273 4sp 5 cars
Dart 270 4d sdn 273 at 254 cars
Dart 270 4d sdn 273 4sp 15 cars

Then there were a few police Valiants with 4-speeds but I think those were 67-up only? Also, the importer of Plymouths back then, Berner Oy, had some 2d sedan Commando 4-sp Valiants in 65 that participated in rallys and later a 66 Formula S Barracuda that was in the Monte Carlo rally too. Lots of cool stories on those. Unfortunately my memory isn't what it used to be so I have forgotten a lot about these...

I live in Turku (Åbo) on the west coast of Finland but I am in the process of moving to southern Sweden, just trucked most of my cars there a couple of weeks ago. Early A:s include the Dart I mentioned and a 64 Valiant V100 2d sedan, originally a white /6 3-sp car that belonged to the Financedepartment, it was a 360 4-sp when I bought it but poorly converted. Also a total project, 66 Valiant 100 2d sedan, originally /6 3-sp but I was planning on putting the 360 4-sp in it and made it look like those Berner rally cars back in the day.

Sorry, no leads on NOS stuff, I have been experiencing some lean years and have tried to avoid to search for that stuff, the temptation to buy is always too big...

Hans
 
Forwardlook said:
Of the big three Chrysler was the biggest in Finland in the mid-60:s. Especially A-bodies sold well (for a big, expensive car, remember folks, this is Europe), B-bodies were a lot more scarce and C-bodies were seldom sold to private individuals. However, back in those days most large corporations and different government organizations used black C-body 4 door sedans for their head honchos. This continued all the way to mid 70:s. Regarding your search for a Dart 2-door sedan you might be out of luck in Finland if you want a 65. Most 1964 and 1965 Darts were 4 door sedans but for some reason there were a lot of 1966 Darts here as 2 door sedans in addition to the 4 doors. I don't remember seeing any factory 4-sp 2 doors but I remember one guy claiming years ago having a factory 1966 Dart 270 4d with a 4-speed. Those must be pretty rare. I think there were a few others as well, at least a 64 and a 65 Valiant 4d 4-sp. As a sidenote, remember seeing these production figures for 65:s a long time ago for the 4bbl 273, probably familiar to you...

Dart 170 4d sdn 273 at 17 cars
Dart 170 4d sdn 273 4sp 5 cars
Dart 270 4d sdn 273 at 254 cars
Dart 270 4d sdn 273 4sp 15 cars

Then there were a few police Valiants with 4-speeds but I think those were 67-up only? Also, the importer of Plymouths back then, Berner Oy, had some 2d sedan Commando 4-sp Valiants in 65 that participated in rallys and later a 66 Formula S Barracuda that was in the Monte Carlo rally too. Lots of cool stories on those. Unfortunately my memory isn't what it used to be so I have forgotten a lot about these...

I live in Turku (Åbo) on the west coast of Finland but I am in the process of moving to southern Sweden, just trucked most of my cars there a couple of weeks ago. Early A:s include the Dart I mentioned and a 64 Valiant V100 2d sedan, originally a white /6 3-sp car that belonged to the Financedepartment, it was a 360 4-sp when I bought it but poorly converted. Also a total project, 66 Valiant 100 2d sedan, originally /6 3-sp but I was planning on putting the 360 4-sp in it and made it look like those Berner rally cars back in the day.

Sorry, no leads on NOS stuff, I have been experiencing some lean years and have tried to avoid to search for that stuff, the temptation to buy is always too big...

Hans
Click to expand...

Hans!
It was the same way in Sweden. The C-body cars were just bought by the CEOs and executives. Always black and 4 dr sedans.

There was only one orginal sold 2 dr post 65 Dart sold here in Sweden by the dealer ANA maskin. But the car was wrecked back in the 70ies! Which I could find one after my project is done.

Here is the production figures for the 1965 Dart w/273 hp engine;

Dart series
2 dr sedan 247 cars
auto 41 cars
3 speed 27 cars
4 speed 179 cars

4 dr sedan 25 cars
auto 17 cars
3 speed 3 cars
4 speed 5 cars

Dart 270 series
2 dr sedan 112 cars
auto 61 cars
3 speed 4 cars
4 speed 47 cars

2 dr hardtop 591 cars
auto 287 cars
3 speed 33 cars
4 speed 271 cars

4 dr sedan 275 cars
auto 254 cars
3 speed 6 cars
4 speed 15 cars

convertible 121 cars
auto 48 cars
3 speed 25 cars
4 speed 48 cars

Dart GT series
2 dr hardtop 5631 cars
auto 3074 cars
3 speed 65 cars
4 speed 2492 cars

convertible 558 cars
auto 360 cars
3 speed 8 cars
4 speed 190 cars

Total production of the 1965 Darts w/273 HP were 7560 cars.

The Barracuda that were in the Monte Carlo rally is in Gothenbourg. It's red w/273 HP and 4 speed. Black interior.

Is there any company in Finland selling NOS parts?
 
65dartcharger said:
Hans! That is another Barracuda. The one I mentioned was the one driven by Sterling Moss daughter in the Monte Carlo rally.
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Oh, gotcha. Have never seen pics of that one. Is it converted to a civilian car or is it still a rally car? The Finnish Barracuda was for sale a long time for about $100K after being restored...sorry about hijacking this thread...
 
Forwardlook said:
Oh, gotcha. Have never seen pics of that one. Is it converted to a civilian car or is it still a rally car? The Finnish Barracuda was for sale a long time for about $100K after being restored...sorry about hijacking this thread...
Click to expand...

This is how it looked.

Tomorrow I will post some DartCharger pictures.
 

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Today I started with the fendertag. Look at the upper left corner. Evidence of paint. That mean that the upper left screw hold the fendertag against the inner fender while the other side was bented so paint got under and then they just added a silver cad screw to hold the right side.

Now it's glass beaded and ready to be mounted to the fender.

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After working with the hood bolt and rubber hat I found out that the bolt is different then the repos. The cross in the middle is smaller on repos then orginals. To the left is the last one untouched, in the center is the first one glass beaded and has the right silver cad finish. The right one is the repo.

The rubber hat to the left is a NOS piece with pentastar and partnummer. The right one is aftermaket and have FK and some numbers.

After glass beading the clips where the bolt attach to they are different too compare to repos. The orginal has stampings on them. Looks good black phosphated with stampings and all.
 

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OK, after looking over the hood hinge I found out that the left side was shot. How many of you have greased the hood hinge roller on the spring. Well, I haven't either! Why? But after this I will start doing it. But I was lucky too, I had the left side in NOS condition!

THe bolts for the valve covers have been in diesel for almost three weeks. Now I just rinse them off with hot water and dry them with a tovel. They look new.

Now I need to get started with the valve covers too.

On the lower control arm is a bumper. Should it always be a shims between the arm and the bumper? It seems like the shims on mine was silver cad.

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