1972 Dart Pro Touring Car / Resto mod

[1972orangebeast]

Been a while on the progress, its in body shop jail right now, but here goes the updates:
-Order my RMS front suspension with power steering and rear street lynx
-Going with 4 wheel discs DR/SL 12" rotors 4 piston Wilwood
-Decided to have it mini tubbed by Muscle Car Gym in Florida thanks to Chuck will see him in couple weeks
-As for body work is coming along, got the shock towers welded in, rear quarter is coming together. Bad news is inner fenders on rear are shot so body guy has to make his own. Still on scedule for being done with the body, Vinyl top on and glass in it by February 1st.

Besides all of this I am looking at wheels please throw me some ideas, my problem is i want an 11' wide rear wheel either 17 or 18 with a decent lip on it but not looking to spend 8-900 bucks a wheel either. Anything will be appriciated

 

[1972orangebeast]

Also as you can see in pics is im filling in all marker lights on the rear fenders and front

 

[SheSaid]

Ive got a set of 14" slot mags Ill sell you... but then again they are only 2" bigger than your brake rotors. lol.

Nice move filing in the marker "safety" lights. Looks much smoother without them, like all pre-68 cars did. If oncoming traffic cannot see your bright orange paint, 18" wheels, or hear your dual exhaust then they are going to hit you regardless with or without those "safety" lights.

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Looks like your making progress, love to see your saving another Canadian built Dart. Your Dart and mine were built the same month 6-72. If you would like replace that Canada Transport decal I found it at Performance Car Graphics. I'll continue to follow your progress, nice job.

 

[1972orangebeast]

yes thanks for keeping up. I do want to put that sticker back on it so ill check them out, just a minor detail but its unique to me and my car thanks for that info

 

[1972orangebeast]

Been a long week, got a few days off work to help at the shop and first day off came down with a head cold. That aside we made some headway this week. First off I recieved all my RMS chassis componets and they are pretty :finga: and assembly is cake. I went with front street kit with power steering and rear street lynx kit. Bill at RMS even makes the inboard kit to come with it and has the mounting holes for the arms built in. Only mod on the front to get the k-frame on was removing a spot welded bracket, then the frame went right on. Heres where i removed the bracket and installed just the frame cause we have to test fit the motor and t56.

 

[1972orangebeast]

Here is the t56 and mock up block i had laying around. We have the whole tunnel cut out now, ill get pics this Sunday. Waiting on frame ties to weld in and then we will run a crossmember from frame to frame and the mount in the middle.

 

[1972orangebeast]

Also the guy who is doing the minitub was in too and has just about one side all welded in then come the grinding and finishing touches. Also i started to install the rear street lynx kit so we are ready to mock up the rear end and see if i can get by without shortening the rear end.

 

[SheSaid]

Really coming along great man!

 

[chuckwagon2004]

Subscribed... Love the work!!!

 

[1972orangebeast]

Thanks coming along pretty smooth, next is cutting into the frame for the relocation boxes then I can set up my rear end. I got most te front suspension on for mocking up purposes.

 

[toddlaine]

Looks Good, want to go out and start tearing mine apart right now.

 

[1972orangebeast]

Ok been a while since updates, car kinda got put on back burner not by choice (bodyshop jail) but back into her again. new goal is to be done by spring next year.

Mini tub is done and frame ties are tacked into place and ready to be sent to body shop to fully weld them in due to the fact my welder is not quite big enough and I have no rack and laying down welding them sucks.

Also scored some bullit wheels so will update pics next couple of days

 

[72BBSwinger]

Now would be a good time to put in some inner fender and radiator support braces. Also since it is so far apart you should put in a 10 point stealthy chromo cage in it. Just some things I wish I would've done when my car was tore down.

 

[1972orangebeast]

I have been thinking about a cage, but I'm not going to be racing the car. Maybe hit a auto x track and drag strip here and there but mostly want to be driving long distance trips. Same kinda thing for support braces, do they help a lot even if your not racing? Obviously stiffer is better, just didn't know how much they really help?

 

[72BBSwinger]

The more rigid the better for handling.

 

[1972orangebeast]

Most definitely , I think I'll be doing radiator support for sure. I've seen some ideas for doing a strut type bar across to motor from fender to fender think would help too. I'll try to post the picture I found. Tell me what you think.

Can't from stupid iPad so here's link

http://waywardgarage.com/3137/slant-six-club-bay-area-2011-car-show/

 

[Badart]

Great build. I received your pm and I think a lower radiator support will help quite a bit. Not to mention that it makes a great jacking point also.

Here are a couple of pics from members that have installed them

 

[1972orangebeast]

well been a little while since last update

-bolted on the rack so my front wheel actually roll straight !
-I found some mustang bullet 17x8 wheels little rough but prob will sand blast them satin black, will be good to roll around on until then
-Also scored some free mock up/ burnout tires 2 295/35/18 and 1 305/30/19
-Went to Mopar Nationals and saw an incredible 68 dart convertible done up by Woodys Rodz in Indiana, running 20s in rear....... looks like im going to go same way, plus lot more choices for 10" wide wheel but does suck cause thinner side wall oh well
-Lastly received Badart's Radiator stiffening kit, which is going to be put on this coming Thursday, as well as finishing frame ties, and spring perch relocation boxes and rear end will be set finally!!

enjoy the pics!

 

[1972orangebeast]

What a long day today! The new shop had a spot open today because rest of his work was being soda blasted. I had the day off so I got to spend 11 hours!! in the garage, not what I was expecting but hey got a lot done! For once my goal today was to have rear Street Lynx system in and welded, front radiator stiffener welded in and frame ties welded completely in.

- Front radiator stiffener was very easy thanks to Badart ! Instead of cutting off my bottom piece I grinded off all the spot welds and with a little help from air chisel came off pretty easy.

- Frame ties have been done and fitted in place for a while took a lot of time. If you are looking to do do the u.s. cartool frame ties i suggest get a good grinder and spend a lot of time trimming and pre-fitting them so its ten times easier to weld and you can weld the majority of the tie. I am not a great welder nor is my father, so we did all the pre-fitting and tacked in the ties in place and today the welder was able to just go to town on them. Also if you do all the prep work and haveing a shop install them, save you money and them time

- The rear spring relocation boxes were not to horrible, what I did not realize was setting the rear end needed a lot of measuring. Had to move boxes a couple of times and move the perches on the axle around a bit but we got er done. Rear axle is something you defiantly do not want off center. After measuring for an hour and positioning the rearend center and decided to set it at 0 degrees, Gary went to town welding.

So finally what was supposed to be done last winter by a previous shop is now done, and the car is a rolling chassis !! :cheers:

 

[jrlegacy23]

Looking good so far.

 

[Tincup]

looking good so far.

x2

 

[jrlegacy23]

I'm not sure that I would have had the balls to rip apart my car like that if I started with something as appealing as yours looked.

 

[1972orangebeast]

Well all it needed was new quarters and paint. Took it all apart and had it soda blasted for the paint job then I got to thinking I'll never have it back apart after this paint job so I decided to basically do everything I would ever want to do to it now! Plus I'm getting married next year and I know of it doesn't get done by then it'll be a 10 yr project so my goal is to have it all done and paid off. Since last shop jerked me around I'm pushin to have it done by next spring. Oh and yes my fiancé loves my car and can't wait to drive it, which is usually after I have had a few drinks and she doesn't just so she can drive it home

 

[SheSaid]

Go big or go home. You are really going big. Glad to see your are back on track to pounding the pavement once again. I envy that you are in car mode still, I am stuck in house fixing mode, not nearly as much fun.

Great job dude man!