Another 76 Brazilian Hardtop

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That is swee-eee-eeet!

Your body man is an artist.

...and that was an awesome site link.

You want to buy one of those mid-priced (R20-R30) chargers R/Ts and trade me for a 73 or 74 B body Charger SE 318 with a/c in about the same or slightly worse shape?

I also know where one of those early 70's 2 door Imperials is that I can get for about $4000, I see the one on that site is pretty expensive.
 
Hi YY1...

nowadays, I think is cheaper to import a 68 charger from US than to buy a brazilian charger..

Prices exponentialy grow up.. for the moment, cheap darts are about R$30,000 (reais)... most common prices are about R$50,000 ... and more than once, I reard about R$150,000. One dollar is equivalent to 1,70 reais

than... a cheap dart costs about 17,000 us dollars :wack:


I've really loved the A body cars from Brazil since I first found the "dodgenews" site in the mid 90's.
Nice to have a member from there on the forum!
There used to be a "for sale" section on that site, and NICE cars were about 10,000 real, which was about $6000 US.
What do they go for now?
 
Great job. Looks awesome. Somebody knows how to lay that paint down.
 
Yes, the painter is really good, despite being REALLY slow...


I took a week vacation, last two days, been working ion my parts...guess I'm as slow as the painter...not much acomplished yet.
 
Been polishing stainless trims by HAND (not many powertools to help yet)...building some soundeadeners (I know theres new ones up there, but it gets quite expensive bringing it down here), refurbishing my instrument cluster...lots and lots of small do's.

The day to take it to the shop is getting closer...no specific date, but "late may"...hope to get done by there...


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Passenger side rear glass trim "before"
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And after
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When I bought the car I got a set of tinted windows with it. They aren't perfect, but very nice. Think it will look nice with the darker windows.
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Stock ilumination is pretty dim, so thinking about improving it with some reflective material and led "bulbs".
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And my baby's poor guts.

When I bought it, the "official notes" were:
Rebuilt 26k miles ago (after a 180k miles life), 0.010" on the crank, std pistons with new rings and honing (all measured and inside tolerances), stock cam and heads were also rebuilt, stock specs, new timing set.

When we opened it (after sitting for 10 years), thats what we found.


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Some more.

Do those numbers stamped "inside" the heads mean anything to you?
I really don't know if our heads are a "exact" copy of any north american heads...would imagine yes, but no idea witch ones.
All I know is my heads are from 1971 and 1972, very close to the begining of brazilian production, AND these are suposed to be copies from 1969 engines...and as far as I know, we didn't have ANY chances on heads from 1969 till 1981.

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I got the "How To Hot Rod Small Block Mopars" book a few weeks ago.
Probably going with something around Summit K-6901 cam, holley 4777 carb, sealed power .040 pistons (our stock CR is araound 7,5:1, so something close to 9:1 is quite a bit of improvement), short headers, and 1.88" and 1.60" valves (our stock ones were 1.75" and 1.5").
Would love to get my heads done, but not many people doing it down here...and those who do it, well, it ain't "cheap" (US$ 1.000,00 or close).
 
Just some more slow do´s...

Have to find out some bugs on the electric circuit behind the cluster (turn signal indicator won't light flash), close cluster and paint stripes on the dashes face.



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Some gauges, as brazilian Mopars were pretty poor on that (but ask about idiot lights!)
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And some reading material (gotta learn and do it right).
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Hi Blankenputnakdfrawerqw

did you find the turn light problem? I think we will have to rebuild your cluster eletronic 'board'.. perhaps you should put wire direct from.. quick and durty


Alex "Berkowitz";1969496554 said:
Just some more slow do´s...

Have to find out some bugs on the electric circuit behind the cluster (turn signal indicator won't light flash), close cluster and paint stripes on the dashes face.
 
Yes, I did find the problem!

Plastic glue on the circuit!
LOL

:banghead:

Just a little sanding and it was solved.

Some more pictures of the closed cluster.
Blueish lights are with leds, and greenish lights are stock bulbs.
I really liked them both!

Looking at it in person, lighting is even better!
 

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Not much progress going on...took a detour in the hopes of getting more stuff done in the near future, an now it seems I've done a pretty stupid thing, at least for the time being.
Lets see how it rolls...

Some more small stuff done.

Original Package tray before and after.
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Home made sail panels...
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Rechromed vent windows bases
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New reproduction emblems.
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Hope to have interesting news SOON.
 
Man, you're going to town!

Ah, OK, don't know if you're familliar with that saying...

Looking good!

What is that casting number? Upside down 301? 168?
 
Awesome man! I love the looks of the instrument cluster on yours far better than those in the U.S. Those buckets look pretty nice as well. Awesome job on the paint too.
 
Man, you're going to town!

Ah, OK, don't know if you're familliar with that saying...

Looking good!

What is that casting number? Upside down 301? 168?

Those pictures really don't help, neither does my memory.
Went to look for some better quality ones, and the castings seem to be "105" and "118", don't know if that makes any sense to you. Maybe its something exclusively brazilian...

Thanks for the help and encouragement!

Awesome man! I love the looks of the instrument cluster on yours far better than those in the U.S. Those buckets look pretty nice as well. Awesome job on the paint too.

Thanks 71!!

I still need to paint some "chrome" stripes on the cluster surroundings, than its done.

Those buckets are really confortable, but I still find the ones with the lower back support more "eye friendly". Anyway, when I get those on vinyl they will look fantastic!

That car looks amazing! Very nice job, keep it up!


Thank you roadrunnerh!!

I've taken one step backwards to try something I hope will help make some better progress on the resto.
The car is at my parents house, so its kind of and effort to go up there to mess with it...leaving the wifey alone and all...

SO...I had to make some arrangements to bring it home!
It's not even close to what you guys are used to up there, but it has some good room to work on it and to store my parts safelly.
Its not done yet, have to pour some concrete on the bay, put something to top the walls (ceiling?) electricals and than some shelving and the and a nice workbench.
Ok, I still have a lot of work to make it functional...lol
But what you see was done in only a week and a half!

Some of the happiest 100sq. feet ever!

Before:
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almost done:
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The blue car is 3' shorter than the Dart, but it is EXACTLY the same width!
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Good luck friend.. enjoy your vacation and work on the car!
tomorrow I´ll go to shop (junkyard)
 
Thanks budy!!

REALLY nice to see you are getting back to work on your car also!
very excited to see some of your progress...I'm always amzed with the kind of work and stuff you put together!

Vacation was great...sure it could have been a little longer...lol.
But I got some work done.
 
Some minor progress...

Sorting out wich windows I'm going to use (stock ones were withe, but I got a set of tinted windows with the car when I got it. There is some scratching specially on the door glasses, but I can live with it. The white ones were the same, so...
Really scary messing with those giant front and rear windows!!

Some parts I've been "collecting" over the years...


Built the speaker mounting bracket according to what i saw on a post here on FABO (took me THREE days! I'm a disgrace!).

Hood "safety hook" (how do you call it up there?) painted black so it can't be seen through the grille.


And reassembled the steering coupler.
Had to do a little "improvisation" on the pins.
One of them was 1/8" narrower then the stock one, so had to make a bushing.
(had to take to a shop, actually...lol).
 

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The painter did outstanding job on the paint.
You engine problem looks to me was a combination of problems.

The milkshake color in the oil pan is antifreeze or water, you either blew a head gasket, intake gasket or have a cracked head, block or intake manifold.

The scratches in the cylinders indicate to me that the cylinder walls accumulated moisture when it was out of the car, which is noticably by the rust on the top of the cylinders. This caused the rings to scratch the cylinder walls.

Just an observation, how did the motor run before you took it out of the car?
 
I don't know how I've missed this thread - you are doing great work and the car looks fantastic.
 
"The painter did outstanding job on the paint.
You engine problem looks to me was a combination of problems.

The milkshake color in the oil pan is antifreeze or water, you either blew a head gasket, intake gasket or have a cracked head, block or intake manifold.

The scratches in the cylinders indicate to me that the cylinder walls accumulated moisture when it was out of the car, which is noticably by the rust on the top of the cylinders. This caused the rings to scratch the cylinder walls.

Just an observation, how did the motor run before you took it out of the car? "

Thanks sireland67!

Yes, I guess it was more than one problem...or one led to another, and that was my fault, because of the time it took me to take an action.

On the pics you can see some surface rust running down from the heads, on the lifter valley...guess that was due to water "seeping" through the heads and block, though the gasket wasn't actually blown.
My guess is that the previous mechanic reused the old gaskets.


When we put that engine to sleep, we drained all the water from the block and radiator, started it for a few seconds, maybe a couple of minutes, and than poured oil right through the carb, to "protect" it.
BUT, as I spent before that almost two years starting that engine only in the driveway, and sometimes only once in a whole month, I may have misnoticed the symptoms of the water entering the cilinders and oil galleys.

That engine ran perfectly before the car was parked, but it sat for four years completely dry, than it was put to run, ran for two years on the driveway, than we noticed that problems, put it to sleep again and it sat for another 4 years.
I believe the rust on the walls happened while I was still starting the engine, before noticing there was water seeping through.



"I don't know how I've missed this thread - you are doing great work and the car looks fantastic. "


Thank you 65 Dartman!

I haven't done it all by myself, actually most of the "big work" was outsourced, but I'm taking good care of the small do's.

Hope it all pays of at the and, making a nice driving and looking machine.
 
Some more progress!

The car is back at the shop since early october!
Guess mid january will be the time to start on the engine...

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"jute" padding on the roof, over the aluminum foil + "fancy" bubble wrap.
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We ran into an issue with the headliner. Though it was the correct piece for 1967-1969 a-body, it was short on the rear "ends", on the package tray/rear window area.
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My luck the wifey has a sewing machine and there was an "extra" piece of material, she took care of the rest.
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