Dad's Dart (or one just like it) Restoration

[PocketAces]

I was having a lot of trouble getting my trunk lid to sit right. I was at the limit of the adjustment and still the lid was high relative to the surrounding metal.

Turns out that wear in the trunk hinges causes this problem. The hinge is a section of square tubing with a hole drilled through it riding on a 1/2" pin. The wear surface is only the thickness of the square tubing. The torsion springs are constantly pushing up on the trunk lid which results in wear in the holes as well as on the pin. You can see the egg shape of the holes in the before picture. Also the bottom side of the pins was partially cut through maybe 1/8" or more. Besides raising the trunk lid, this also prevented the hinge from sliding sideways for good alignment of the lid side-to-side in the opening.

My solution was to enlarge the holes in the hinges and weld in lengths of 3/8" iron pipe. After welding and grinding I drilled the inside diameter of the pipe to match the pins. This provides a much larger bearing surface.

Now the trunk lid is sitting level with the opening adjacent to the hinges and has plenty of adjustment left. It also centered it up better in the opening left to right.

 

[PocketAces]

I had a problem with vertical alignment between the hood and left fender. The first picture shows the difference in curvature between the hood and the fender. The fender is even with the hood at the back and at the very front, but you can see how the fender is low for about the first third of the distance.

The original fendor was hit in the nose around the headlight area. This fender came from a swap meet. It had black primer which led us to believe it might have been a replacement fender. Not a re-pop, but maybe a dealer replacement?

My solution was to drill out the spot welds between the outer sheet metal and the inner portion and then raise the outer sheet metal and weld it back together. It will still need some filler to smooth out the waviness, but way less than it would have needed to bring it up even with the hood.

The second picture shows the drilled out spot welds. I brought the very front down about 1/16". In the third picture you can see the rusty metal now showing which is the amount of adjustment.

The metal work never seems to end! Lesson learned? If you're swapping panels, bolt them on the car and make sure they fit BEFORE you send everything to media blasting.

 

[65dartcharger]

Great work John! I like the ieea of putting a pipe for the trunk hinge! I had that problem too!

 

[PocketAces]

Well, it's been 8 months since the car came back from media blast and I finally got finished enough with body work to prime the car. I loaded it onto the trailer and hauled it back up to L&M Auto Body where Mike, the owner, lets me spray. Don't want to piss off the Homeowners Association, now do I?

Mike inspected my body work and found some areas that needed attention. He also gave me some pointers on filler work. After a few more days correcting those problems the car was ready for primer.

I know it looks like a lot of filler, but mostly it's just a skim coat and I sanded until I found the metal. I have a tendency to sand too much off, but I'm working on that.

I sanded the filler to 150 grit.

Sorry for the low light pictures.

 

[PocketAces]

Mike helped me disassemble the car and I primed all the removable panels with two more coats of SPI Epoxy to cover the bare metal and seal the filler. I'm using red oxide because that's what the factory used, and also so I will be able to see when I'm about to sand through the filler primer.

Here's some pictures taken the following morning.

 

[PocketAces]

The next step was to mask the body to keep overspray off the inside and bottom of the car.

 

[PocketAces]

Next came two coats of SPI Epoxy Primer on the body. I took some of these pictures while the paint was still wet.

 

[PocketAces]

Two days after spraying the Epoxy, I sprayed Southern Polyurethanes Regular 2K Primer on all the panels. They claim this primer is equivalent to the high build primer sold by other companies. Since I'm not a painter, I don't have any basis for comparison. I only bought one gallon which probably was not enough. I used 2/3 of the gallon on these panels with one third left over for the body. That was enough for three coats. They were wet coats, but not super heavy.

 

[PocketAces]

The next day (yesterday), I sprayed the body with three coats of the same SPI 2K primer. Now that all my bare metal is covered I think I'm going to rest and let my sore body heal. I'm not used to so much physical labor all at once. I also want to give everything a chance to cure and shrink before I start block sanding.

I have lot's of other things that need attention besides the body. I need to get going on the engine work and I need to get the bumpers and trim delivered to a plater so they'll be ready when the car is painted.

 

[PocketAces]

These pictures are from early October. I block sanded the body with 150 grit and re-primed.

 

[PocketAces]

These pictures are from late October. I block sanded a second time with 220 grit and re-primed.

 

[PocketAces]

All these parts were blasted to bear metal. Most were done in my harbor freight blast cabinet with Aluminum Oxide media. I had the big pieces that wouldn't fit done at National Sandblasting.

I painted them with SEM Self Etching Primer and Hot Rod Flatz Chassis Black.

Yes those are the springs from inside the seats farthest from the camera.

 

[PocketAces]

I blasted and painted another batch of black parts in my garage. I think I've gotten most of them now.

 

[PocketAces]

I sanded the bottom of the car with 220 grit and painted. I used Southern Polyurethanes epoxy primer. Their black epoxy has UV inhibitors so it's satisfactory as a top coat especially on the bottom of a car that doesn't see the sun. I mixed in some white epoxy primer to get a dark gray similar to what I found when I stripped the undercoating and pressure washed.

 

[PocketAces]

I sent all these parts out for chrome plating at Yolanda's Plating in Los Angeles. $1700 for everything in these pictures including both bumpers.

 

[sireland67]

Everything is looking top notch.
The question is are you going to give this car to you dad when it is finished?
Cool car.

 

[superdart426]

very nice build so far...

 

[fulltank]

very nice work on your dart you can see the home stretch now your almost done!
I had to take a break from mine but Im going at it again nice inspirational photos.

 

[PocketAces]

Sprayed 3M Body Schutz on the inside of the quarter panels. I used a $15 gun I got on Amazon. Worked great!

 

[PocketAces]

I sandblasted all the miscellaneous gold parts including the dash, steering column, and hinges and springs for the doors, hood and trunk. That's Mike of L&M Auto Body, spraying color on the dash.

 

[PocketAces]

Today all the dash bezels arrived from GCar where they were stripped and vacuum metalized. It took six months, but they are beautiful.

 

[65dartcharger]

Nice progress John! Can't wait to see it in full paint!

 

[crvtec90]

Cant wait to see more. Great job!

 

[PocketAces]

This was the first block sanding of the trunk lid. Not sure where that high spot came from.

 

[PocketAces]

I met Mike at L&M Auto Body this morning to paint the engine bay. This is the fun part!