Meet Daisy - 66' Dart GT Build

[GrrageCat]

Hey Y'all,
Had the old girl since I was 17 and pushing 37 now. Over the years I've done things here and there along with having parked her for many years several times over that span. Too many projects with the bikes and more recent boogie van build. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge in these threads they've helped me along the way. Getting her shined up as my getaway car for my wedding this weekend has me getting sentimental over here with this little A-body. I'll post up some work over the years and work as of late along with asking questions as I continue the process.

Here she was a few weeks ago on a booze run.

Stock slanty block and head. Clifford headers with a Chinese BBD, homemade 2.25 exhaust system. Scarebird small bolt disc conversion. KYB shocks, POL front suspension, EI conversion. 16intial, welded gov for 30 total.

Here's some of the other brats I split my time with.

77 Chev g20 - "Hottie Hauler"

69' Ironhead "Sweet Pea"

 

[chewy]

Great looking Dart.

Congratulations on the wedding.

 

[JDMopar]

Nice Dart. I was expecting a Sunfire Yellow car before I clicked the thread...lol.

 

[toolmanmike]

That's a great looking Dart. I just sold mine but it went to a good home.

 

[junkyardhero]

i see somebody was at total wine... ;D

super neat car man.

congrats on the nuptials.

 

[TT5.9mag]

That “hottie hauler” is bitchin. Even if it is a Chevy. Nice little dart also and congrats on the permachick.

 

[bobruthkry]

Nice Dart and con gratulations

 

[GrrageCat]

Thanks for the love amigos! Super stoked!
@junkyardhero - That Glendale Total Wine took my wedding booze order!
@TT5.9mag - Been building the boogie van to haul my pups and chick to camp comfy! She's a blast! She also helped picking up my Hamm's beer order!

@toolmanmike a good home is the best home. I recall your input over the years digging though the forum.


Just trying to get the old girl ready for the big day! Been super busy the past 16 weeks juggling work/school. I work about 50hrs a week and go to community college more than full time as well, so my wrenching has been slow as of late. Going for Civil or Mech engineering but taking this summer off of classes. Taking Calculus 2, chem and a humanities course in Sept so I got some time to enjoy summer. Since my last final of the semester was 6/10, last week, I've been on a grind to get wedding stuff done and prepping the Dart.

Since the 10th Ive installed Sunpro Super Tach, cheap amazon mech gauges, trans fluid and filter change with line pressure adjusted 1.75 turns CCW and attempted to curve the dizzy. I now feel comfortable ripping on it.

Yesterday, tonight and tomorrow I'm trying to get the paint pretty. Washed a few times, clay bar, m110, m205 and some Meg hi-tech wax is the process with a DA polisher. Wheel polish for the old Cragars and polish for the bumpers. Detailing sucks!! LA heat isn't helping but I'll do a slower paint correction process this summer.

For the mech coolant sensor, I got a part suggested here to tie into the heater hoses. My core always leaked so I bypassed a while ago. Had to weld up the new part as there was a leak in the seam. Quick mig job with my Hobart Handler 140, but boy was that annoying. Should have checked for seam leaks before installing.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000DCNGII?tag=fabo03-20

Oil pressure, I hit the Depot for some 3/8 tee and nipple fittings to run a new idiot light and a bushing for the new mech oil gauge. All good!

Gotta repaint the block, hit it with Hemi orange when I installed the headers. The motor color was red, and per Dutra's book it should be red, but the paint was actually orange on the pan and block so I went with that. Kinda hate the orange now so gonna rattle it back to red and strip/polish the cover down the road. You can see my Chinese BBD, amazon $70. Runs good other than a sunk float I replaced with a Carter bbd parts carb.

Lokar Kickdown with a v8 throttle cable. Repurposed some brackets and made my own. Rely for the electric choke off the starter HOT and ballast as a trigger, both fused. So far so good. BTW. Best advice for custom building DIY your exhaust is.. don't. Wasn't too bad, and fun experience but there's a reason there are pros for it lol.

More importantly. My driver rear 1/4 window is jamming up. Wont roll down and I need it to for the wedding. Any advice on what to do? I assume I need to remove the back seat to get the side panel off, to get to the rollers etc. LMK what you think!

Here's an old pic showing the interior. My pops (RIP) and I redid the interior and paint back in 2007. He was a lowrider upholstery man. Car was a seagreen originally with matching interior, I wanted two tone. Paint is 06' Audi pelican blue with some metal flake.

P.S. If you wanna follow the Hottie Hauler build, I have a thread over at https://www.vanning.com/threads/ubbthreads.php/topics/818878/1

 

[GrrageCat]

Here's the bride-to-be and myself. Thank you all for the congratulations! Hope to be more active round these parts, as I'm usually just a lurker. Always finding answers to my questions from past threads. If you're around SoCal would be down for a Mopar hootenanny.

Big down the road projects
- Gotta put in some floor pans, getting extra airflow.
-Have a 70s 360 and 727 I plan to throw in. Need center link, mounts and manifolds. Bigger rear and drive shaft, but I'm poor.

TBH I'll probably rock the slant a few more years and slowly gather the swap parts and rebuild the motor and trans. My SBC 350 in the Hottie Hauler gets about 9mi a gal. Don't mind ripping the slant until after school. (but why put more into the slant when I can buy v8 parts. Hence the stock block and head). Might port it since that's free, but milling and decking for more compression / cam seems like a waste if I plan on changing it. The super six and headers made a big difference im happy with.

Those of you with early A v8s, how's that life like?? I can only imagine how these small rides would fly.

 

[LO23M8B]

I'm still loving those 66 Dart's. Very nice looking.

 

[junkyardhero]

Those of you with early A v8s, how's that life like?? I can only imagine how these small rides would fly.

they're glorious.

getting there can be a little bit of a tough road-- there's some specific things needed and some of them can be a little tricky to hunt down and spendy. but once it's done you'll have a blast.

 

[GrrageCat]

Quick update from the wedding! Everything was perfect, minus a few mishaps with the Daisy, lol. I filled up too much gas before heading to the venue and where she was to be parked was raised on the passenger side so fuel leaked form the filler tube grommet. No biggie.. Also, my trans decided to leak a ton from shift shaft seal and pan. My boys took care of it with a drain pan. (ordered a deeper pan, and changing the seals this week. Never got the driver 1/4 window down as that'll be a summer project. Here she is all dressed up.

 

[GGs66GT]

Congratulations on your marriage