69 Dart 4 door cruiser

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DionR said:
Please elaborate. Any pictures?

I want to do this with my ‘73 G3 swap car.
Click to expand...
Sorry, man. This was awhile back and I took no pictures of it.
In a 73 Duster, I cut a hole in the inner structure right here:

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Then attached the stock 74-76 retractor like you see in the above photo. In a 4 door, the only thing behind the seat is the B pillar so you have to use some sort of surface mount for the retractors. There is nowhere to recess them.
 
I had until maybe last year collector car insurance thru Hagerty. They had no mileage restrictions, but it was supposed top be "limited" driving. I drove it when and where I wanted. Hagerty changed hands so I have no idea about them now, but I hear their rates went up!
 
I'm a bit unsure on how I'm going to proceed with the transmission and rear axle. I welcome suggestions but please don't be offended if I don't choose what you suggest! I will consider what is posted here.
The 360 that I'm going to use is going to get cleaned up and resealed with new oil pan gaskets and valve cover gaskets.
I have two transmissions that I can use. One is a 1988 904/999 with the low 1st and 2nd gear.

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The second is an A-500 that has the same ratios as the 998 but also a .69 overdrive ratio.

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The 8 1/4" axle has a Sure Grip differential but 2.71 gears. I have a set of 3.21 gears that I can use, a FABO member has a set of 3.92s for a fair price.
* I figure that IF I used the 999, I'd stick with the 3.21 Sure Grip. This would mean acceleration in 1st similar to a 3.55 with a standard 904 and a final drive of 3.21. Not bad.
* If I used the A-500, it would involve cutting of the floor and transmission crossmember. There are also wiring issues to get the overdrive and lockup clutch to work.
I'm up for the challenge but I'm weighing the value of the effort. I'd use the 3.92 gears if I used this transmission. The final drive would then be 2.70.
I don't know how long I'll keep this car. I've gone back and forth on whether I'd build it and enjoy it for a few years or just sell it not long after I am done. Like many of you, I have a few ongoing projects and as much as I like the car, I have others that I like a bit more.
I'm tempted to go the easy route and use the 999 and 3.21 gears. Let me know what you think!
 
your last line hit the nail on the head. it'll still cruise the highway nicely with the 3.21 gear and a fraction of the work. the 999 and 3.21 gets my vote and as snobby as it sound it is a 4 door after all so it'd need some sentimental attachment to be worth going with the o/d trans. jmo.
neil.
 
I'd say look beyond this car. If you have another car, A body or otherwise that you absolutely want an A500 in, save the OD trans for that car unless you have multiple 500's in your stash. If you do have multiples, you could put one in this car as a learning experiment. The biggest challenge is reshaping the upper hoop of the torsion bar crossmember. Since PATC is no longer in business, now we have to buy individual components to make OD and lockup work, but they are available. I'll be doing all that soon with putting a 5.9 Magnum and a 518 in an 88 D100.
 
I agree with others. If selling the car is the likeliest path, I'd take the easy route with the 3-speed. I'd also consider keeping the 2.71s. With the low first gear and 360, it should have plenty of grunt to get it moving, but will also be a great highway cruiser.
 
I think you would be surprised at how much nicer an OD would be over just the straight 3.21. In fact, I would run the A500 with the 3.21. That’s basically what I run and really like it on the highway.

But if you are going to spend most of your time in the city, much less ROI.

That said, I would run the 998/3.21 combo. Then you can decide later on if you want to add the A500. Keeps it simple for now.
 
I've thought of saving the A-500 for use in this:

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The B bodies often get built with big blocks but a 408 fits nicely and an A-500 would make it a nice package.
 
This car had a steel brake line to the rear but when I tried to bleed the system awhile back, I couldn’t get fluid to the rear wheels. I couldn’t get fluid to the T At the axle either so I think the line or the hose is somehow blocked. I went up the hill and pulled the front to rear brake line from this car…

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I was going to use the fuel line from the car but it is a Dart Lite that came with a slant six. It had a fuel and vent line that were both a skinny 1/4” !
I decided to pull the fuel and vent lines from the Stunt Dart.

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What looks like a ‘68 Dart is actually a 73 Swinger. I bought it 12-13 years ago for $500 and sold enough parts to break even, now it waits until I get around to crashing it for a home video project. It had rusty quarters, roof, trunk floor and no title.

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I put a 67-69 hood in it and a beat up ‘68 grille.

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Look close, you can see how the ‘73 headlight sits outboard more than a ‘68.

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This car will be the stunt car for this:

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The Stunt Dart has no engine or transmission….

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…..this is getting off topic. Forgive the distraction!
 
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Okay, just a few more comments and I’ll get back to the 4 door….
This Swinger looks different up close but for the time it will be onscreen, since it will be in motion and maybe a bit blurry, it will look close enough to my 67 Dart that it won’t matter. I’ll wash and scuff the black primer to darken it a bit to look closer in color.

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I’ll be careful to not damage this 67-69 hood. It is my only spare.

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You can see the holes for the side marker lenses and emblems.


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From here, at a quick glance it looks like a 67-69 Dart. I extended the quarter panels with sheet metal stock to fake the corners in.

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The 70-76 Darts had that sloped top on the quarter panels. Looking closer you can spot the “fakery”.

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The fake bezel fell off the left side. I’ll fix that before the cameras roll.
What “stunt” will I record, you may ask?
In 1997-99 I made a couple of home videos with car crashes, stunts and other fun stuff. I’ve always wanted to do another. This one with the Dart will probably have me as the victim of a road rage maniac that runs me off the road where the car then rolls over and ends up on the roof. I haven’t quite decided what I’ll do.
Back to the Four Door….
I pulled the fuel and vent lines out of that Stunt Dart. I obviously won’t need them there anymore.

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I love free.

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That brake line was cleaned up a bit. I may have to change the fitting on the front of it. I’ll first disconnect the brake hose and see if fluid comes out the hard line. I’ve heard of hoses that collapse so I’m hoping the problem is there. The fuel and vent lines are 5/16” and 1/4”. I couldn’t expect the skinny 1/4” fuel line from the other car to be good enough since this car will have a 360.


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I pulled them with the cars on the dirt and dry weeds. (REAL comfortable)
In the shop I’ll be on concrete. Maybe I can get these lines in the car in the next couple of days.
I have no fixed schedule on this car. I’m just tinkering when the mood strikes to do so. It is nice to have a project car with functional brakes though.
 
I may come across like the old guy with the cool car sitting in his yard… you know the type: I’m going to fix it up someday.
I want to shoot the video, I just need to commit to doing it. I have rough outlines on what I want to do but when I do a project of any kind, I often get different ideas along the way that sometimes make much of what I did beforehand… unusable. Sort of like installing an exhaust system for a slant six then suddenly changing my mind to use a 360.
I should find a way to edit down my other movies and put them on YouTube. I will find a way.
 
Brake hoses.
I have heard that they can collapse inside and block flow but until now, I have not experienced it.
I disconnected the steel line from the hose and pressed the brake pedal. Brake fluid shot out just fine!
Since the hard line seemed fine, I grabbed four hoses from the shelf.

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I ran compressed air through them, or I tried to. Three were totally blocked, one barely passed any air through. Lucky for me, I did have one good one. These were all from cars that I parted out over the years.

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The brass fittings on the ends of each hose were all fine. It was the hoses themselves that were bad. It may be futile but I’ll soak them in Evaporust.
I tried to blow air through the hose that was on the car and yes, it was plugged solid. I tried to run thin bailing wire through the hoses but the wire only went in each end about 1 and 1/2”. Now I can bleed out the rear brakes and have skids at all four.

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They can let fluid threw one way and not the other way too
And never put vicegrips on them
Seen too many people do that and ruin the inner liner...
 

Rich and I bled out the rear brakes yesterday so now the car has brakes at all four wheels.

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This car sort of reminds me of my "Jigsaw" Charger.....

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Jigsaw was also pretty stripped when I got it, I had to piece it together from several other cars.
The four door puzzles me....Why would the prior owner totally strip out the engine bay, the underside, pull the carpet out but leave the fenders, grille, bumper and hood on the car? The front clip is the most valuable stuff.
Manual brakes....It seems that while manual brake A bodies still stop well, the travel of the pedal is different than the power brake cars that I have owned.
Jigsaw above is a front disc, rear drum 15/16" manual master cylinder setup similar to my 67 Dart, 72 Duster and this four door. Pedal effort in Jigsaw is a bit higher than the A body cars, maybe because the car is heavier I need more pressure to stop it? I don't like the amount of pedal travel it has either. I may switch to a repro B body booster when I pull the car apart to paint it.
I have several A body brake boosters so once this car is actually running, I may switch to power brakes. I like the shorter pedal travel with power brakes.
 
The fuel system.
Someone removed the fuel and vent lines so I pulled some from the Stunt Dart. I was surprised to see that the four door had attachment holes punched in the same places to mount the lines under the car. The lines are in, now onto the gas tank. The one that was in the trunk looked pretty crappy.

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It has some sort of thick black coating on it.

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It looks like it was applied with a brush used to paint houses.

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The inside looks like it was cleaned and costed. The sending unit looks new.

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The pickup filter sits a good 1 1/2 inches off the floor of the tank. I’d never get to use all the fuel this way.

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I pulled the sending unit and bent the tube above the section where the float arm connects. Before:

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After.

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I haven’t looked inside a tank in awhile. It is surprising how the float rarely ever rests on the floor where you are really empty. We all have driven cars that keep running even when the gas gauge needle hits the E line. From where this float rests, it looks like there could still be two gallons left.

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The end of the filter sock is maybe 1/4” off of the floor. I’m going to leave it there.
I may replace this tank anyway. I don’t understand how it got this weird dent in the top.

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I’m going to look around to see if I have a better tank around. I should have a filler neck grommet in the parts shed.
 
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I got lucky.
Up the hill I had two. The best of the two isn’t perfect but looks better than the black one.

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I recall that sometime in the 70s, they added some vapor recovery system that intruded into the tank and actually reduced the capacity. Do you recall this ?

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This one isn’t banged up.

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I ran compressed air through it. Where I had it a is an area that gets dusty. I have trimmed weeds with the weed whacked up there too so it had some vegetation inside. It isn’t too rusty. The worst one I ever saw was in a 72 Duster. I dumped 5 handfuls of rust flakes from that one.

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This isn’t too bad.

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I may be late to the party here…. Who has used this stuff inside a tank ?

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I have about 5 gallons in there now. I’ll reposition the tank so the cleaner reaches everything.
 
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