68 4-door "Sleeper"

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4door68

4door68

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Location
Alabama
I have been "lurking" on this site for a while. I found this site after buying a 68 Dart 4 door.

Why a 4 door? My first car was a 68 Dart 4 door with the slant six 225. I bought the car in 1984 for $500 (the car was 16 years old at the time). I figured it would last for a year and then I would get something else. I ended up having it for 5 years!!

After I graduated college from the University of Florida (Go Gators), I was offered a job in Chattanooga and, I had 3 cars... a Honda Civic, a Dodge Ramcharger and my trusty 68 Dart 4 door. Unfortunately, I had to leave one car behind. I ended up giving away the Dart to my neighbor who was going through some pretty hard times and needed reliable transportation.

Since then, I always missed my 4-door, slant six, 68 Dart.

I found this 4-door, slant six Dart on Ebay for $1,600 and bought it. My "original" plan was to do a restoration. Now, after having looked through this forum, I have decided to make a "resto-mod" car.

The "new" plan is to make it into a "sleeper". I will restore the body and interior as closely as possible to original. But, under the hood, will be a 5.7 hemi from a wrecked 2003 truck (with only 28,000 miles).

I will be showing my progress with this thread. However, don't expect frequent updates as I only have about 10 hours a week to work on it.

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Nice seeing another "More Doors" '68 on here. Cool idea making it into a sleeper with a hemi under the hood.

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Sweet idea! I will definitely be watching this thread. I always thought it would be neat to do something similar to that.
 
MoparDart68 said:
Nice seeing another "More Doors" '68 on here. Cool idea making it into a sleeper with a hemi under the hood.
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I will be pulling the engine in the next few weeks. I am waiting for my engine hoist (cherry picker) to come in. You can have the header. Just pay for the shipping.
 
MoparDart68 said:
Nice seeing another "More Doors" '68 on here. Cool idea making it into a sleeper with a hemi under the hood.
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Your Dart is beautiful. In fact, my Dart was orignally this color. I will be returning my Dart to this color.
 
I am starting with the trunk. I know from my previous Dart that rust happens here. Surprisingly, the trunk isn't that bad. After removing the seam sealer. (It came out easily). I discovered just a few rust holes that needed to be patched.

I used a brand new, e-coated Toyota hood as the donor sheet metal. I got the hood for real cheap (because of a dent).

My welding skills are not that great so I thought the trunk was the most inconspicuous place to get a little practice. I am going butt welds. This patch took a LOT of grinding.



After doing these patches, I decided to watch a few "how-to-weld" videos on YouTube. I now know what I did wrong. The patches on the left side are WAY better. (Pictures soon)

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Since I will be dropping a 5.7 hemi into this Dart, I will be needing a new K frame. From what I have been reading on this forum, AlterKtion is the way to go.

I called him this week and ordered the K frame with 11" Wilwood disc brakes. He said it would ship in about 3 weeks. He is a very knowledgable and very nice guy. I can't remember the exact total (I will find out when it ships) but, I think it was about $5,500.00.

Doing the math, here is what I have spent so far...
  • Car. $1,600.00
  • 5.7 Hemi and transmission $3,000.00
  • AlterKtion K frame and brakes. $5,500.00
  • New carpet $200.00

It adds up quick.

Still on the list...
  • Rallye wheels from http://www.cokertire.com (page 56 from their catalog) This will be the ONLY indication that this is not a stock 4-door Dart, without opening the hood.
  • 8 3/4 rear end. (anyone know where I can find an A-Body 8-3/4 rear end?)
  • Custom radiator from http://www.rondavisradiators.com
  • Wiring harness and intake for 5.7 hemi (Mopar Performance P5153339AB) $4,500 (OUCH!!!)
 
What do the tail-lights/back ends look like????
This is an Aussie 68 Valiant...called a "VE"...only available here as a 4dr sedan or 4dr wagon.

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I have put on hold the patches in the trunk until the sheet metal arrives. The donor Toyota hood that I was cutting sheet metal from is too thin.

In the mean time, I am awaiting the arrival of my cherry picker so that I can pull the /6 out. I removed the drive shaft, radiator, fenders, hood, doors and exhaust. I started to unbolt the transmission to remove it but, I ran out of time.

Also, I gutted the interior. There is surprisingly little rust. There is a little bit of surface rust that I will remove and then apply some rust encapsulator to.

Also, does anyone know where I can get an A-body 8 3/4 rear end?

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Looks like a great build! It's nice to see more people saving the 4 doors after all, of all the families that had a Dart as the family car what % of them would've been 2dr Swingers? Don't get me wrong I would prefer a 2dr myself but the 4dr was more affordable and can look just as good, plus they make great sleepers.
 
An A-body 8 3/4 is going to be hard to find for a good price, since you are doing the hemi swap I wouldnt reccomend the 8 1/4 but you could always find a 66-67 B-Body 8 3/4 and use some offset wheels so you dont have to cut it down.
 
71ChallengerSE said:
An A-body 8 3/4 is going to be hard to find for a good price, since you are doing the hemi swap I wouldnt reccomend the 8 1/4 but you could always find a 66-67 B-Body 8 3/4 and use some offset wheels so you dont have to cut it down.
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That's a good idea. I hadn't thought about that. But, will everything bolt up or, will I have to cut brackets and reweld?
 
BTW, I am leaving the Hemi stock. From what I have been reading, it makes about 340 HP and 375 lb/ft of torque. Would an 8 1/4 be able to handle that? If so, does anyone know where I can get an A-body 8 1/4?
 
4door68 said:
BTW, I am leaving the Hemi stock. From what I have been reading, it makes about 340 HP and 375 lb/ft of torque. Would an 8 1/4 be able to handle that? If so, does anyone know where I can get an A-body 8 1/4?
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yeah a built 8 1/4 would hold up to that power, a friend of mine has an 8 1/4 with a big block and its doing fine. i had one built w/ an auburn posi unit and 3.21 gear for my dart sport. then i found a 8 3/4 to put under it. im trying to get atleast a small portion of my money back. pm with an offer.
 
I am still waiting on the engine hoist to come in so that I can pull the engine and transmission. And, I am still working on the trunk. My sheet metal arrived and I have just a few more holes to patch. I get nervous creating all the sparks near the gas tank so, I went ahead an removed the gas tank (which I wanted to do anyway so that I can do an autopsy on it).

While I have the fenders off, I thought I would work on the area behind it. I removed as much of the paint, bondo and rust as I could with wire wheels and sandpaper. I discovered two holes that needed new sheet metal and fixed them. Once that was done, I treated the bare metal and rust with KBS Coatings "Rust Blast".

I topped that off with some Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. I sanded the Rust Encapsulator with 320 and a red scuff pad and put a coat of Nason urethane primer.

Does anyone know the proper procedure for removing the stainless steel trim on the drip rail?

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I finally finished the trunk sheet metal. I applied a coat of Eastwood rust encapsulator and let it bake under an IR lamp for about 4 hours and then let it sit overnight. It was really dry.

It was time to apply seam sealer. I bought some 3M brushable seam sealer in a quart can. I started to apply it. I used a tongue suppressor to trowel it on. I laid down about 1 foot of seam sealer and decided to brush it.

When I started brushing it, I found out that the seam sealer had attacked the Eastwood rust encapsulator and, the seam sealer would scrape off easily along with the rust encapsulator.

Now, I have to scrape all the seam sealer off.

Tomorrow, I am going to apply a 2K urethane primer and see if the seam sealer attacks that.

I was a little suspicious about putting seam sealer on top of a 1K paint. Good thing I only applied about 1 foot of seam sealer.
 
I think I might try some of the 2K seam sealers that I have seen. Maybe SEM? Anyone know of a seam sealer that doesn't attack 1K paint?
 
The 3M Drip-Chek seam sealer doesn't attack acrylic paint.

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FYI, I just used 3M brushable and caulk type seam sealer on top of Eastwood encapsulator, no problems. It may be that the paint has not fully dried yet.

I really love the project you are doing, nothing wrong with a 4-door. Please, don't order the mopar 5.7 harness. Get either the XFI or fast system for the hemi. Or even more hassle free, the MSD stand alone ignition along with the Fast EZ
 
flyboy01 said:
FYI, I just used 3M brushable and caulk type seam sealer on top of Eastwood encapsulator, no problems. It may be that the paint has not fully dried yet.

I really love the project you are doing, nothing wrong with a 4-door. Please, don't order the mopar 5.7 harness. Get either the XFI or fast system for the hemi. Or even more hassle free, the MSD stand alone ignition along with the Fast EZ
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Do you have links to XFI and fast system? Will they work with the transmission? Also, what about the "drive by wire"? The thing I like most about the Mopar harness is that it is idiot proof.
 
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