66 dart gt convert resto

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been a while. got to do somethin to keep movin. havent got much done since my air compressor blew up and been real busy messin with all my other cars and projects. seems like before i had time and no $. no i just have no time. heres some pics of the floor under the d.s seat. i dont think any body makes this but i was lucky enough to get it out of another car. once i get it welded up and sealed hopefully it wont look out of place.

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one of my inner fender splash shields was rotted pretty bad at the bottom. i had already blasted and coated it with por-15, thinking i would just patch it with fiberglass. i found a good splash guard recently and decided to just swap the bottom from one to the other. this way, i dont have to blast the whole thing and paint it again. its also good practice 4 me to weld something that doesnt have to be real pretty. i think it turned out alright.

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both of my front fenders had heavy rust on the inner brace at the bottom where they bolt to the rocker panel. they werent rotted out real bad but were starting to swell up with rust where the metal overlaps and is welded together. i cut em off and got em blasted and coated. the plastic shield on my welding helmet is old and not easy to see through any more so i will remedy that before i get em welded on.

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Looking good man. Im getting ready to do some welding tomarrow. Got a bunch of holes around the windshield frame I gotta patch up. I honestly dont think they will turn out well, but the good thing is a piece of convertible trim goes over them, so it wont be seen.
 
got the d.s. front floor pan from auto body specialties. its real close except for the beads toward the rear. my car is 4 spd with buckets and the rolled beads get in the way of the floor brace plate of the seat mount.

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gonna try to make my own patch for behind the driver seat. i got some pieces with matching beads and im gonna try to piece it all together

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got the d.s front floor pan welded in today. still need to clean up the welds and make a few more. i am happy with the fit of the panel i got from autobodyspecialties. not sure exactly where the 4 spd hump goes since the car came with an automatic. id like to get some pics and measurements from someone with this setup but i might just bolt in my seats and center console and get a feel 4 it that way. i am just trying to avoid having to install the motor and trans just to figure out where the hump goes, although that is probably the best way to do it. n e ideas?

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looks like im not ready to bolt in my seats yet. i forgot how rusted the d.s bracket was. i should have remembered since the floor was rotted out bad right where it mounts up. im gonna just borrow some metal from one of the extras i had. the one in the middle should look more like the one on top when done.

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moving along slowly. im very glad to be able to show some progress. got the old bumper brackets dipped, stripped, and coated. im on the hunt for some better bumpers to bolt these pretty brackets onto. mine arent that bad, but i would prefer better if i can find some nice used or recond. theres a swap meet and show at don garlits museum and i might score there, or even at the turkey rod run. seems like all the platers need a decent core to work with and i would like to beat the shipping charges by catching them at a show. im still a long way from bolting the bumpers on , but it takes a while to get them fixed up too.

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brought some trim pieces into work today so i could mess with em on my down time. i picked up the most fine grit of steel wool i could get and went to polishing. i started with the piece above the windshield on the interior, which had some pretty good surface rust on it. there is still some minor imperfections. i guess its called peppering or something like that, where it looks like really small black dots. now i think it needs some good metal polish to help stop further corrosion. maybe some marine stuff. if its for boats that go in salty water it should do the trick. looks a lot better now. what i started with is in the close up and then there's an after steel wool shot of the whole piece. kewl, i only have like 100 more pieces to clean up.:cheers:
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WOW. what steel wool did you use amd were did you find it? That looks fantastic in the pictures
 
Hey Tim Looking good! I got the buffer and all the stuff for doing the stainless steel parts,last night I experimented with the anadized aluminum strips that run down the tops of the fenders doors and part of the 1/4 panels.I took a da sander with 120 grit and went at it to get the anodizing off then switched to 220 then to 400 grit and on to the buffer,holy crow!!!! looks like chrome,that was just an experiment but I think I will wet sand them with 800 and buff em again to see how they look.so prep some of your anadized pieces the best you can and I'll finishe em up for you to help pay for the parts you got.see you at garlic's show
 
thanx dave. i got the steel wool from home depot. it came in an assortment pack. i think they have like 0,00, and 000. u need to get the finest grit u can. the pics actually make it look a lot better than it is. when u get on top of it u can see tiny black spots. looks good 4 a driver though, and it only took a few minutes.

hey waggin. lookin forward to getting an up-close look at that 2 door beauty. i did the same thing with my anodized trim. some guys round here have said that oven cleaner works at getting the anodizing off. i used an automatic center punch (its a punch that is spring loaded) on the back side of the piece to get out all the dings and then sanded the anodizing off and polished them with some basic buffing compound from harbor freight or home depot( cant remember where i got it from but it was gray). i started to buff it with my die grinder and a buffing wheel, but its real easy to slip and scratch the piece u are workin on. i did that a few times before i got a buff wheel on a bench grinder. its still easy to get caught up on the wheel and send the piece flying. takes a good amount of patience. the more sanding u do, going from heavy grit to fine, the less polishing u have to do to get all the scratches out.
 
here's the headlight bezel after sanding off all the anodizing and buffing with a cotton wheel with compound. still needs some more buffing/polishing and then maybe some clear coat. when u sand off all the anodzing, it makes the piece easier to scratch up.

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Once you get it all buffed and polished out. You can use a 2-3 stage product called Zoop seal. It is quite expensive but apparently it seals the shine for almost 2 years. Check for it at Summitracing.com. I have some but have not used it yet. I'm waiting for a rainy day. lol.
 
heres my rocker panel trim clips. figured i should work on getting all my clips and fasteners ready while i am working on my trim pieces. i am hooked on dipping my small parts to get the rust off. its almost effortless. if u leave them soaking long enough the paint comes right off as well.

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I was lookin around a vendor spot at the garlits show ( cant remember which one) and saw some fuel filler neck grommets. I figured on getting a new one to last my dart another 40 years. The seller assured me they were all the same and i had no worries. I dont know what the heck this thing fits, but its not my car. So if anybody needs a grommet that does not fit a 66 dart, then I have a deal 4 U.](*,)

On a better note, I did get to hang out with waggin and tour his A-Body Emporium. :-D Thanx Curtis. It was a real treat. These a-bodies arent the easiest to get the parts needed and guys like us gotta stick together. Better yet....If it wasnt 4 fabo, I wouldnt be as far along as I am now. :cheers:
 
Finally installed the rear axle so I can get started on fitting the doors,fenders and then work on the quarter panels. I wanted to make sure the car is sitting on the suspension while I am cutting off the old ones to make sure everything stays straight. I remember when using the lift at the shop, it was hard to get the doors to open and close if the car was up off the ground . Being a convertible, it tends to flex. Going with the old 7 1/4 for now until I get my suregrip put together, but I did install my new leaf springs. I had gotten them a while back from ESPO and they have just been taking up space. Now they are under the car and out of the way. It took me a little while to get the axle under there by myself and I did not even notice that the new springs were arched a lot more than the old ones and the shackles were angled too far forward. When I let the jack loose the shackles tilted forward (instead of rearward like they should) and they ended up stuck up against the trunk floor. After consulting with my Disaster Motorsports Crew, I later tried prying back on the shackles while lowering the car down to help get the shackles in the right direction before the load was on it. Im thinking it worked out o.k. and the new springs will just need some time and weight to settle out and decrease the arch. The rear is sitting higher than I expected, but this will work 4 now I think.
 
The driver side is coming along now. Got the quarter panel chopped off and after some more prep and grinding/blasting I will hang up a replacement. Most of the panel was plastic filler / fiberglass and wasnt looking real straight.

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I think they should probably start putting prizes in the bottom of Bondo containers. Kinda like Cracker Jacks or cereal. You always get a surprise when you are done grinding it off, so might as well get one when putting it on. Lower pass. side quarter here is in need of some work.
 
This is a shot of the replacement driver side quarter. When I had first looked at it from the outside it looked perfect with just minor surface rust. Then I started poking at it and found there was not much more than the paint holding the metal in place. The more I poked at it the bigger the holes got. After cutting it off the donor car you can see how bad the cancer was on the inside. i have since recieved the lower patch from Auto Body specialties and hopefully it will fit well

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my poor car hasnt seen the light of day for a long time now. I finally got a chance to roll it out of the garage and blow it all off. Now I can roll it outside and have more room to mess with stuff inside the garage where it is a whole lot warmer.

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