Josh's 73 Dart Sport - "Fred"

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Good job pops... Been helping my 16 y/o son recently with bringing a motorcycle back to life that will be his first one. It's tough to not just do it for them and let them learn things.
 
I am so happy to see kids heading for practical training while in HS. I have senior twin granddaughters who are doing that while finishing up this year. One will be a certified nursing aid when she graduates. The big picture for her was having that help her get into nursing school. She ended up with early admission with a Presidential Scholarship. I think doing the program was the big help on her application. The other is doing Cosmetology and works for her Aunt to have the hours documented towards her State Certificate. (Her Aunt makes more money than her PHD Physical Therapist husband.) She hates school and has no interest in going further at this point and can see what her Aunt has accomplished. She actually cut my hair this week so I am her first paying customer. When I meet kids and ask what they are doing. They seem almost apologetic about either going to a trade school or Community College. I make a point of saying all the new millionaires are in Plumbing Heating and Electrical. Most IBM employees are just that - employees. No disrespect to them as I am a lowly salesman.
 
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Fred is giving you guys memories that will last two lifetimes. I am very happy that the 2 of you are sharing such a great experience. I'm glad Josh is interested in HVAC work. My brother-in-law started with his career in HVAC at the local tech college. He started out as a mullet head kid with a good company, worked thru installation/warehouse, service tech and then sales. He still works sales, but is also the VP of the company and makes VERY good money. Kudos to any young person who is willing to work with their hands and maybe get dirty and come home tired at the end of the day!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Here ya go guys and gals - the chosen color.

For recess today, I played with a little color. Josh will need to wet sand it down so I can hit it again. The primer laid pretty well from my cheap-o gun, but I was not impressed with how the color sprayed. Then again, it was only ~62* in the garage. I've only ever shot one other vehicle 3 years ago. I'm going to buy a better gun in the Spring when it is time to shoot the whole car.

The plan is to get the under hood done, so we can install al the under hood crap. Get the brakes functional, wiper motor, heater box, steering and dash all in while it is still too cold out to do any finishing body work and primer/paint. By the end of February, we should be tearing down the 360 for a refresh and then the 904. By the time mid April/early May gets here, we should be ready to finalize the body work and get ready for paint in June.

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this
ragtopfury said:
So we had the rear all put together the 1st week of February. Slid it under the back end of my 68 just to have it mostly out of the way. Now that I am getting into the qtr work on my car, I want to get it all the way out of the way. So.....

Fred has been hibernating all winter under a couple of tarps. Now that the weather is teasing us with a promise of wanting to warm up outside, yesterday afternoon it was 58* outside, when Josh got home from school, I had him jack the back end up, showed him where to put the stands on the frame (pic looks like they are under the axle tubes, but they are not. lol) and PB Blasted all of the spring hanger nuts/bolts. If we don't get the 7.25 out from under Fred this Saturday, It'll be next Saturday. Of course I will stress the redundancy of putting the jack under there as well, as a back up to the stands when we get back out there. We did discover for as solid as the frame rails are, the right rear spring hanger is toast. The tube that the bushings go in has pretty much rotted away. Anyone have a spare pair? (rear spring hangers, that is) I'll be putting up a "wanted add" here soon.

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is going to hold special memories for both of you.
 
After 3 attempts with a spray bomb, and failing terribly for who knows why, I mixed some semi-gloss from a quart can and shot it again. Ready for assembly, finally !
And the other day I wet sanded the inner fenders and shot them again today.

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Next things we wanna do is get the underhood stuff mounted, brakes functional, wiring placed.... then we'll tear down the 360 for a refresh, while we wait for the weather to be "paint the whole car ready"
 

Work was busy enough to keep me close to the desk, as opposed to taking recess in the garage. So I assembled this on the ping pong table in my "office" space today. It's not perfect, but very presentable.

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Josh got familiar with the wiper system and front brake line this afternoon.
The flash of thw camera really brought out the color! We like it!
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The color looks good. Is it FJ5 Limelight, or a version from newer Mopars? The way you guys are doing the engine bay will make it really nice. All of the hardware is like it is supposed to be, and not just slathered with body color....lol.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Oh, ok. I forgot about Summits paint line! :BangHead: Single stage or base/clear? I can do pretty good with single stage, but I'm really liking the base clear better every time I use it. The base is easy, but there's a fine line with the clear between too dry and sticking to the floor! My new compressor has helped a lot, and I need more practice.
 
I know the before pics are posted early on, and the after/during pics just recently, but going thru them with a coworker this afternoon, seeing them next to each other just adds to the "where we are headed with it" factor....

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The underhood is just about done. Just a couple of wires to finish up. We put the steering column back in for now to make Fred steerable when we push him in and out of the garage as needed. Josh and I bled the brakes last evening. Will make for better roll control in the driveway. I need to dig thru some boxes and find the brake booster vacuum check valve....DOH!

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Brakes are 100% functional. Started on the final bodywork and decided the right side door that came with the new door glass is better than the door that we already prepped. So the new door will be stripped and ready for epoxy by Saturday.
Josh also got the 360 completely torn down and we dropped the block off at the machine shop this afternoon.
 
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Well, the weather kept us from getting the door stripped and prepped. Maybe next week.... In other news, the machine shop called. She's gonna be too loose if we try and reuse the original pistons. So we are going 30 over, by choice, even tho he said 20 over would be enough. Said there is enough meat to go as much as 60 over. Any way, this gives us great cause to ditch the less than 8:1 dished pistons for a set of 9:1 (advertised) flat tops. Stay tuned.....
 
So we epoxied the right door a couple of weeks ago.
Today I shot the hood. We'll stash that in the basement for safe keeping.
Hope to have the high build primer shot in 2 or 3 weeks.

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