68' Dart "The Huntress"

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Serj22 said:
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I was only faced with one layer of sheet metal at all holes. These in the rear under the hinge were quick.

Maybe take a picture of the area you're talking about and I'll give you a better option. I spent about 2 hours alone just looking for ideal places to drill, opening and closing all the doors, and double checking nothing would get pinched or tugged on.
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Nope, I just "borrowed" your locations. Got all of that done, just took patience and a doublecheck of the holes I was drilling.
 
"The Huntress" used to be a dyke bar in Long Beach.. Hey, I like 'em both! :)
 
I got two of these sweet center caps from Lee, a member about an hour and a half away from me. Went there to get my bench seat to ditch the Camaro/Corvette whatever buckets and got these too. Totally nice guy - would definitly go visit him for parts again. I'm starting to think I should've bought the rear bench seat he had too, since they matched, and after a good dye, it's in great shape. But nevertheless I am going to make a new cover for the front bench like the rear.

The whole car feels different now, being up at the correct height, not sitting with my shoulder pressing against the window - it's all wonderful.



These hubcaps are for fun till i can find some neat narrow wheels to go up front with the SBP. Aluminum of course.



 
Abodybomber said:
Been a while ,22. Car looks great,nice progress.
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Thanks.

Nothing new yet, but my next mini-project is to take the two wheels I took off the back, get the tires removed and tossed, and remove all the paint from the stock rims. Then I want to put a 220 sandpaper scratchcoat in them to try and make it look like the rear wheels a little better. It probably won't work the way I want it to, but I'm going to try. Just a nice "brushed" metal with clearcoat on it. Eventually I'll find something for the front, but do not want the 7" wide wheels up front, would rather something narrower. Then after that I will find some BFG's to fit up front and match the back. (but smaller)
 
I brightened up the engine bay again, and eliminated some of the purple presence, which looks a little better.



I also drove to Alameda to see the girlfriend, so I stopped in the Berkley highlands, aka grizzly peak.




I also repainted the black on the tail light bezels. I used Rustoleum semi gloss black. It looks a lot better.






I also painted the dash bezels again. I used silver for the trim, and the rest is flat black.

Before:


After:




I also used gloss black and blacked out some of the grill. It looks better than the rusty mess that was there. I have to contend with a rust spot on top of the bumper that is getting out of control. I may just have to paint the bumpers or something, which I don't really want to do.



The car also got a much needed interior cleaning...





 
Well I just found your thread. Your ride is looking great. I like the idea you had bout the door locks. So thank you for adding to my "I want that list". Did you ever find inserts for the cup holders? I been looking for some so I can have cup holder.
 
HemiPar said:
Well I just found your thread. Your ride is looking great. I like the idea you had bout the door locks. So thank you for adding to my "I want that list". Did you ever find inserts for the cup holders? I been looking for some so I can have cup holder.
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I did. I still have not built a console for the bench seat yet though. I went on ebay and there was a seller who had jet ski cupholders, for Sea-doo's or something. They're about $1.00 a piece with free shipping. I couldn't pass it up. They have drop ins for many cup sizes. Think compound inner rings.

Also power door locks is the best thing I ever added to my car. It also lets you walk away in a public area, point the transponder back, and hear all the locks slammed close so people know it's most definitly locked.
 
Really nice ride!
Can I ask you some questions about the one Shot? I've never heard of it, looked it up and it's pinstripe paint, correct? Did you just brush that on the whole engine bay? I'd love to paint under my hood and also the firewall/skirts but I don't want to spray it. Did you say you mixed some up too?
 
lyonsronnie1 said:
Really nice ride!
Can I ask you some questions about the one Shot? I've never heard of it, looked it up and it's pinstripe paint, correct? Did you just brush that on the whole engine bay? I'd love to paint under my hood and also the firewall/skirts but I don't want to spray it. Did you say you mixed some up too?
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1shot is a really nice oil based (expensive) paint. Its intention is for sign-painting or pinstriping initially, but I like using it on anything. It is mixable, thinnable, etc, and will take a tint of other oil based paints, but I don't recommend using anything other than it to mix with. For the main part of the engine bay I used "rustoleum hammered aluminum" finish. You can be a bad brush-artist and it will still lay down evenly everywhere. One quart was $16.00.

The rest I degreased all the parts, and whatever could be taken off easily got painted out of the car. The color I used was "L Purple" which is number 162 in their spectrum. This and other colors like this tend to be on the more expensive run, but i easily painted the entire motor with less than a half quart. Once it's thinned correctly it lasts a while and has some really nice self-leveling qualities to it. I took it to a show and everyone really enjoyed the "purple motor".

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Agreed with the Rustoleum " Hammer metal" paints. Exactly what I used on my front bumper,the back will get it as well.
 
Abodybomber said:
Agreed with the Rustoleum " Hammer metal" paints. Exactly what I used on my front bumper,the back will get it as well.
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Do you have any pictures of this? I'm thinking of painting the bumpers on mine, but still undecided as to what to do yet. The front bumper is rusty and the chrome is not pretty. Back is not bad, but I'd like em to match.
 
I don't know how many are following my thread, but I have decided on the next project. I am going to do a budget turbo, and by budget I mean keeping it under $1,000 and am just shooting to run 8psi - nothing insane.

I saw a lot of information on modifying the 38/38 to run as a blow-thru, but decided it was an expensive, and is a really great out of the box carb to modify. I'll hang on to it if I want to pull the turbo setup off.

I have a second exhaust manifold already, and I plan to cut the flange off of it, and weld on a J pipe with a t3/t4 turbo flange and weld a rod from the main body of the manifold to the flange to minimize the turbo bouncing and cracking stuff.

I bought a motorcraft carb off of a 360 (I think) that is the 1.21 bore, which is actually smaller than my Weber, so it should be fine, and there is loads of info on using it as a blow-thru carb. I got the carb for $35, and the kit for $20, and the nitrophyl float for $10. From what I read people like using this carb for turbo applications because you can remove a jet without draining the float bowl, install a new one, and try again, so it could do well for tuning. I don't have it sitting in front of me yet, but I plan to rebuild it, remove the choke (I'm thinking they aren't supposed to have a choke anymore?) and then try and figure out the jets. Most of these turbos are done on 200ci fords.

The turbo I'm sourcing is a t3/t4 for $140. Then I'll find a piping kit that suits my needs. I'm planning to route an intercooler into the space behind the grille to be kind of invisible, and if it doesn't fit, I'm going to go "high profile" and put it somewhere visible.

I also plan on just running an electric fuel pump, and then a regulator. I don't really want to deal with drilling into the stock pump.
 
Very interesting. Sign me up for front row seats.
 
I hope you don't mind me asking, what made you decide to go turbo? I'm just curious because I've been seeing lately that everyone has been building turbo slants, and I just wondered why you would want to?
 
Brandon Weaver said:
I hope you don't mind me asking, what made you decide to go turbo? I'm just curious because I've been seeing lately that everyone has been building turbo slants, and I just wondered why you would want to?
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It's mostly because I started reading in to it, and decided that it wasn't as hard as you'd think to build. The tuning looks difficult, but all the building process I have the means and knowledge to do. I'm not looking for a rocket ship at the strip. I'm still going to be using this every day, and want to find out a way to make it reliable, and usable, maybe get better gas mileage, and am only hoping for about 200-220ish hp maybe. Plus- the whole thing just seems like fun, and the sound a turbo makes when spooling is hard not to like.

Speaking of which, my Motorcraft came, and I already tore it down, removed the choke, and cut most of the choke riser off.

http://s43.photobucket.com/user/ser...oost/IMG_20140707_175112_zps7a482674.jpg.html

http://s43.photobucket.com/user/ser...oost/IMG_20140707_182641_zpscebf8855.jpg.html

IT was pretty nasty as you can see. It's all cleaned and I glassbeaded the outside of the two body pieces and baked on some cool lime-light green enamel. I did not bead the interior for fear of messing it up. That I am sticking to cleaning.

I also got the rebuild kit and a nitrophyl float. I'm just looking at how exactly one makes the power side larger, and then I'll be able to put in smaller jets. There's a lot of info on Holleys, but the only stuff available on the motorcraft comes from the Ford forums, or Turbo Pinto forums. This carb, however came off of a Mopar 360 if I'm not mistaken, and the bore of 1.21 is actually smaller than my Weber which is a 38/38.

More cleaning in the process photos:

http://s43.photobucket.com/user/ser...oost/IMG_20140708_121754_zps0a2e2520.jpg.html

http://s43.photobucket.com/user/ser...oost/IMG_20140708_121750_zps0fafe62d.jpg.html

Removed the electric choke, the choke plates, and sawed off most of the choke riser.

http://s43.photobucket.com/user/ser...oost/IMG_20140708_153442_zps2f1fba94.jpg.html

http://s43.photobucket.com/user/ser...oost/IMG_20140708_153446_zpsad6e1505.jpg.html

And both parts cooling off. I know it's 80's but I like color under the hood. It looks interesting.

http://s43.photobucket.com/user/ser...oost/IMG_20140708_161402_zpsf35660a8.jpg.html

Next I figure out what to do with the jets, and where to drill, and from what I've read I need to drill a hole and insert a nipple into the float bowl to connect a hose to the charge pipe? Or maybe that's for draw-through. I'm still learning stuff. Unfortunately there's a lot of instructions available for Holley carbs including Hangar 18, but nothing really on Motorcraft/ Autolite, and I have nothing really to compare it to. I'll figure it out, hopefully. I've been piecing together a lot of info from others' builds and am using what they found out the hard way, initially - basically.

For instance, on a turbo valiant build, the owner ran the turbo, and then changed to a lower profile carb hat to clear the hood and be able to close it, and it ran different, so I figured I'd cut out what restrictions I could up top, and cut the choke riser a bit, so hopefully, since I have to use a low profile hat, it won't effect it as much.

Somewhere else I read of someone cutting the choke riser off, then layering epoxy everywhere on top to make it smooth - I just simplified it with a nice clean, high-gloss layer of paint for the air. The paint itself is so thick that the word "Motorcraft" can't be read.
 
Well, that's one part down mostly. I just have to find some machine screws that were missing; guess that is what happens when you get a used carb. The vacuum advance pod was off and missing both screws, and the accelerator pump housing was missing 2 more. I'll probably find some at the hardware store.







I had to put the choke coil back because the fast idle cam is on the same axle, and couldn't figure a way to go without it. It also controls the pull on the vacuum pod.

There's a lot of vacuum lines coming off of this carb. Luckily one looks like it can be used as the pcv, the others I may have to plug. There's also a top vent nipple that goes to a hose, and is connected to the float bowl. I'm thinking that can be used to go to my charge pipe, and then the two vents that are near the old choke riser, I will make some kind of extensions for and bring them into the pipe away from the carburetor.

Once this is complete, the next piece I want to work on is getting my turbo snail, and mounting it to the other exhaust manifold I have - then maybe wrapping the whole assembly up with heat tape.
 
Just waiting on a bunch of turbo components to get here so I can talk to the local welder about making a J-pipe... couple days hopefully. :happy1:
 
What did you make your front speaker rings out of??? I need something exactly like that!
 
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