High school "Daily" Driver

-

Slant Six Bumblebee

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 24, 2020
Messages
208
Reaction score
138
Location
vancouver wa
I am a junior in high school and this is my 1972 dodge dart swinger special that i bought December 22nd 2020. This is my only car and means of transport so i try to keep the downtime to a minimum and have slowly been restoring and fixing it.

63046277157__C418BCC4-549F-424A-BD39-E3B2859E1D6E.jpeg
 
Last edited:
The first project was to fix the exhaust leak. i took off both manifolds had them sandblasted and used a file on the heat exchanger where the leak was coming from.

63322004665__C7B80BE5-099E-4D22-919C-B150C946BBC0.jpg


63322022100__BFFF2898-9D6C-45A4-8D08-D18314298083.jpg


I deciede to paint the manifolds and valve cover while it was all apart, on the valve cover i used some masking tape and masked out the numbers 225.

64694572790__9D4F50B4-E793-444A-A51E-A8F3834FDA64.jpg


63411163568__D34568C2-83F2-49ED-879C-28FEE2240812.jpg


63410840317__0AEEB341-BBF5-4E73-8F3A-DBED3E8797F3.jpg


63427018689__BAA8100E-4949-4873-B81F-CA4905957ABD.jpg

While the valve cover was off i also lashed the valves and replaced the spark plugs/wires
64624949331__15DDDE95-DE4E-4EF1-AE78-1648864A9647.jpg
 
The next thing i did was paint were the vinyl top had been. When i bought the car it did not have the vinyl on it and the previous owner said it had taken it of and primed the now exposed bare metal. While this was functional it did not look the greatest so id masked the whole car and painted over the primer with black rattle-can

65007551932__97C1BBFA-EF24-423A-8460-1F58AF6F2A75.jpg


65308880857__CDAD1745-7F4F-41D8-A0A9-078DEE4DFE04.jpg
paint.
 
I was then in a accident where i was not at fault (4 way stop 9pm in the dark and rain, I stoped and went and other driver with there light off ran the stop sign to my right. i saw them and hit my breaks but locked them up as i was inexperienced and had not been driving for very long and slid into the side of his car) The other drivers insurance would not cover the repairs to my car.

65626113501__2FE0A5C2-42C1-41E1-984E-57A77F2A6D97.jpg


65626123269__51C6A146-95A1-45A3-85D7-5858DF635993.jpg


Luckily they were not that bad and i was able to replace the radiator and readjust the shift linkage and all set other then the cosmetic damage.

66140171269__60CC9D38-A342-4085-BC6E-E3431B9C594F.jpg
 
Nice work.
The manifolds sandblasting and paint job is what I plan to do next winter on my slant 6.
Did you change all triangular shims and nuts as it's recommended?
 
I like that valve cover job! Nice work!
 
A few months later and everything had been going good tell one day i noticed coolant leaking from one of the intake studs. I removed the intake and exhaust ant started to remove all the studs to put rtv on them and just bolt it all back together. but this did not go to plan as i snapped one of the studs off inside the head. i then went to remove the stud with a screw extractor and the screw extractor broke off inside the stud too now. i was not going to try any other way to remove the studs as i feared i was going to mess up the head more. I decide to get the stud and extractor spark extracted by a machine shop.

Earlier that year i had driven up and bought a lot of parts from a fellow a bodies only member i think his username is outsider. this lot included a super six intake manifold. I had been reading on the forums about turbo build and decided that was my end goal for the slant six but was going to port the head and put bigger valves in addition to the 2 barrel carb.

66884665909__5B519FE7-FBE5-499C-AEA3-6FDB649824E3.jpg



I ordered the oversize valves and other components to rebuild the head this was in the height of the pandemic so shipping was going to take a while.
66918598417__2CC22AD0-0C49-4525-97C3-1BB975F4CEB3.jpg

while the parts were shipping i removed the head and started to port it myself i did not know much so i read all the posts i could find on here and got a carbide bur tool and used it in a drill.

BEFORE
IMG_1617.jpg


AFTER
IMG_1667.jpg


I did not blow a hole in any water jackets so i would consider it a win after the porting i sent the head off to the machine shop for the bigger valves, resurfacing, and the spark extraction that started the whole project.
IMG_1966.jpg


I got it back from the machine shop and bolted it all together then had to refab the throttle and kickdown cable for the new carb. i started off with a 4412s holley carb 500cfm but this was to much so i switched out to a 350.
IMG_2019.jpg


67358401244__16E17765-5D55-4AE1-845B-11CBCB7321D1.jpg


I got it finished just intime for the 4th of july.

IMG_2326.jpg
 
Thanks for the photos and story. I love to see young people driving and working on old cars. A few weeks ago I saw a 60 Rambler and discovered it is a high school student's daily driver. Made my day!
 
Great work Slant\six Bumblebee!!

Everyone on the site is behind you . Great to see a younger member on here with such interest in the classics.

Any issues, ask away.

We'll all help any way we can.

Cheers!!
 
good to see young men expanding there mind for the love of old mopars! reading and searching info instead of just posting a thread asking for the easy simple answer!! then applying what thay learned in the real world and getting real results!!! bad deal on your fender bender, id got a lawyer involved and got nuff to fix it,any thing less is un acceptable in my opinion! /6's love turbos youll end up finding your limits to keep it alive or learn to build back better next time! nice ride that will get nicer over time im sure!!
 
good to see young men expanding there mind for the love of old mopars! reading and searching info instead of just posting a thread asking for the easy simple answer!! then applying what thay learned in the real world and getting real results!!! bad deal on your fender bender, id got a lawyer involved and got nuff to fix it,any thing less is un acceptable in my opinion! /6's love turbos youll end up finding your limits to keep it alive or learn to build back better next time! nice ride that will get nicer over time im sure!!
I tried I took him to small claims court and the judge found there was not enough evidence to make him pay for it as I crashed into him. I think it was actually because I was a 16 year old in a “hot rod” so they dident believe my claims. Unfortunate but luckily it was not too much damage.
 
Nice job, and nice car! Did you get all the stuff you needed to repair the damage? If not I have a 74 Dart parts car that might be able to help with replacements, and I'm local to you.
 
Nice job, and nice car! Did you get all the stuff you needed to repair the damage? If not I have a 74 Dart parts car that might be able to help with replacements, and I'm local to you.
I got the grill fixed up but none of the metal bumper or the front part of the fender.
 
Fender extension is 70 to 72. If no chrome, all three will fit. If you have chrome on the extension, the '72 is one year only.
 
Nice work! I agree with the others above, it's good to see a young guy working on an old car. My neighbor down the street daily drives his 73 Roadrunner to high school. We always wave as we go by.
 
-
Back
Top