I didn’t wanna put it among the resto projects since it’s not really a restoration. It’s more of an exercise in upgrades?
It dawned on me yesterday while working on my ‘68 Dart GT that it’ll be a year since I’ve owned it coming up next month. It surely doesn’t seem that way. I’ve done quite a bit of work to it since I bought it. Focused on the bucket list items I wish I had the means to when I had my first one in high school (mid 90s).
Just a lil back story, sold my first one in my early 20s due to some financial trouble and always regretted it. “I’ll get another some day”. A line that we’ve heard people say and we’ve said ourselves a time or two. I always kept it in the back of my mind. I’d occasionally look online to see what the going price for a driver level car that either had the ingredients I wanted or clean enough where I could do what I wanted. I wanted a small block, 4spd, and a 8 3/4 rear axle. I didn’t care if it was matching numbers or not. A 340, even non original would been great but any small block would have been fine. There was never one in that sweet spot. Either they were a total pile or they were show quality restos.
Like many of us, we read about the “Cheap Thrills” Dart in Hot Rod magazine. What made it even better was that I had my first one when that article ran. Of course living in Louisiana, the happenstance of me scoring deals like Mr Freighburger did on parts and donor cars was a pipe dream.
Fast forward to couple of years ago, he bought another 68 Dart with a big block and made a few episodes on it. It was a little ratty and seeing it on TV really lit the fire to own another one. So I looked on Facebook marketplace and set the range to a reasonable distance.. and it happened. I found this 68 Dart GT about 3hrs away. It was identical to my first drivetrain wise. It had a 318/904/7.25 combo which is to be expected. A large portion of Darts had that. A common commuter option list. Chances of finding a 4spd car that’s not a 340 GTS or 340 GTS clone was slim.
The price was “reasonable”. Floors were clean, rust bubbles in the usual spots in the quarters. Over all a pretty decent looking car.. definitely a driver. Decided to take the plunge and the dread of the amount of work ahead. Swapping of the transmission, axle, etc etc. The 3hr drive home was uneventful thankfully. I had a friend follow me home in case something happened. It would have been the most boring episode of roadkill ever lol.
I found the 4spd setup online. It was mostly complete. A shop had for sale because their customer wanted an automatic. It was out of state and the freight did cost me a lil bit but I was well on my way to my goals. Bought the missing odds and ends from Brewers. A friend and I took on that project over the course of about 3 weekends. He knew nothing of old mopars and I had some knowledge but I never swapped an auto to a 4spd before. Between the research I did on this site and YouTube videos, I had enough confidence that I could do it. Never one of us really knew how to properly setup the linkage. It was setup fine when the transmission arrived but we had to take it off to get the trans in so all of that setup was lost. We got it close enough where I could drive it from his shop
Once that milestone was complete, I was piecing together the rear axle, suspension, and other odds and ends. I picked up the housing in the next state over for a decent deal. Came with stock small bolt axles which was a plus. A-body 8 3/4 housings are tough to come by and I didn’t wanna go through getting another one shortened. Piled up the parts to replace the leaf springs, hangers, shock plates, shocks, and all of the accruement needed for my next phase. Even sourced the correct length driveshaft for my combination from another Dart.
That project that was supposed to take a day took a two weeks to complete due to a used center section that ended up being junk. I ordered a new center section and that took about a week to get which wasn’t bad. I should have done that from the get go but ya live and learn. I haven’t taken it apart but the side gears seem to be stripped. Anyhow, new chunk and I was in business.
Tried to drive it home and it wanted to get stuck in reverse and it didn’t wanna go in first. At that point all I could do is just shake my head. When I upgraded to the comp plus shifter base from the factory hurst unit, the way it was setup (which was still not quite right) I noticed the 1-2 rod “appeared” to have a lot of excess rod coming out of the back. I thought I’d trim some off since I thought it was extra. Nope, it was because it was wrong lol. Later discovered the mistake and now it was too short. D’oh!! Bought some new rods and replaced both the 1-2 and 3-4. Set it up again, properly, and now I have all 4 gears and it doesn’t wanna stay in reverse indefinitely.. being the slots in the levers aren’t straight up and down, it came drastically change the position of adjustment one direct versus another.
Yesterday I was finally able to drive the car to clock some break in miles on the new axle setup.
I guess ya can win sometime after all..
Now for the progress photos over the last year..
It’ll have to be multiple posts since I can only attach 10 photos at a time
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Side trim removed
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New rubber!
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New wheel
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Housing scored
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4spd setup scored
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