Back in late 1966, my Grandmother was ready to buy her first new car. Her oldest son was the local Dodge dealer (near the Wilkesboro speedway!) and had a leftover '66 Dart sedan he was holding for her.
She arrived on the day that he was getting his first '67 Dart... an early production car that he had ordered to sit in the showroom to generate interest in the 'sporting potential'. Dart Gt, red (no vinyl top), black, console, buckets, 273-4/auto, mag wheel covers, am radio, shoulder belts!, but manual steering and drum brakes.
So he sold it to her at invoice... the only change being swapping out the loud factory exhasut for a stock 273-2 one. It sat beside her flower garden at her farm from 1967-1994, always lisenced and only driven the the supermarket and church. Every Mother's Day the car got a full service and detail and in 1977 got a respray at the dealership.
There were usually twin black marks on the road in front of her house "it's a little cold blooded... you just have to give her the gas to make her go!"
I got it in 1994 (Granny bought a new Buick) with 39k on it. I Sunday drove and showed it for a few years until I rubbed down through the paint, then I parked it (starting it routinely) for about 5 years, trying to decide whether to just respray it and keep it as original as possible or do a more complete restoration. On closer examination this fall (after my Grandmother's death), there was more extensive rust than I was aware of, so we're doing the more complete resto by default.
I'm not generally a purist, but I don't want to do anything that would obviously hurt the car's appeal. (For instance I would likely respray in a urethane instead of the original paint to better protect the body, but I wouldn't usually use base/clear).
As I'm going though everything (brakes, suspension, etc) are there any places that I should improve the car unobtrusively? Or just use NOS/NORS for everything? I appreciate the input.
http://fnader.com/DartGT
Bill
ps... before her death, we asked Granny what she thought about the Buick versus the Dodge. She said the Buick was "real comfortable" but it just didn't have the b*lls the Dart did!!!
She arrived on the day that he was getting his first '67 Dart... an early production car that he had ordered to sit in the showroom to generate interest in the 'sporting potential'. Dart Gt, red (no vinyl top), black, console, buckets, 273-4/auto, mag wheel covers, am radio, shoulder belts!, but manual steering and drum brakes.
So he sold it to her at invoice... the only change being swapping out the loud factory exhasut for a stock 273-2 one. It sat beside her flower garden at her farm from 1967-1994, always lisenced and only driven the the supermarket and church. Every Mother's Day the car got a full service and detail and in 1977 got a respray at the dealership.
There were usually twin black marks on the road in front of her house "it's a little cold blooded... you just have to give her the gas to make her go!"
I got it in 1994 (Granny bought a new Buick) with 39k on it. I Sunday drove and showed it for a few years until I rubbed down through the paint, then I parked it (starting it routinely) for about 5 years, trying to decide whether to just respray it and keep it as original as possible or do a more complete restoration. On closer examination this fall (after my Grandmother's death), there was more extensive rust than I was aware of, so we're doing the more complete resto by default.
I'm not generally a purist, but I don't want to do anything that would obviously hurt the car's appeal. (For instance I would likely respray in a urethane instead of the original paint to better protect the body, but I wouldn't usually use base/clear).
As I'm going though everything (brakes, suspension, etc) are there any places that I should improve the car unobtrusively? Or just use NOS/NORS for everything? I appreciate the input.
http://fnader.com/DartGT
Bill
ps... before her death, we asked Granny what she thought about the Buick versus the Dodge. She said the Buick was "real comfortable" but it just didn't have the b*lls the Dart did!!!
