My 74 Dart (The Bondo Bucket)

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74 DART'

74 DART'

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2008
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Location
Dallas, GA
I finally decided to start my own resto thread. Its a long term project so progress will be slow, but ive been inspired by some of you guys on here and said what the heck. Its a 74 Dart 2 door with the ole /6 in it. Ive had it since Easter Day of 07. Ive got a few pics of when i began dont have one of the day i got it but u get the idea. I bought this car cause i wanted another mopar, hadn't had one in about 3 years due to starting my family and basically being broke. Well not much has changed im still broke and the car is still busted!!. Like i was saying we bought the car so we would have a second car, i drive this and my wife has our blazer, i figured it was cheap, i know i could get parts cheap to keep it running, and give me and my sons something to work on together as they got older! Ive been driving it to work everyday since so i cant really get into in depth projects with it right now but i have replaced both upper control arm bushings, rear shocks, repaired gas gauge, replaced wiper pivot seals, installed ac heater box as it didnt have one when i bought it. Little things like that. Ive done a little body work but mainly just spray bombed it black just to make it look better.Well i think thats about it for now, ill keep you guys up to date on changes. Thanks for looking.
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Thanks for the kind words, it looks alot better in the photos than real life! Also i used spray can flat paint so it fades in the sun, not so bad now cause it stays in the garage when im home. Its got the usual vinyl top issues, this one the drip rails are pretty rusted and the previous owner started cutting them off to make it look smooth i guess. Not sure what im gonna do about that. Got some rust on lower quarters, and right front floor board due to leaky winshield i think. Frame is solid as is trunk and driver, rear floors. My future plans are a V-8 swap prob a 318, would like to find a running donor car. Finish body work, paint it gloss black with white stripe across trunk. Update interior alittle and drive it. Just a cool driver that looks respectable and sounds good!
 
Got to do a little work on her today, nothing major but have been getting some noise from the starter for the last week or so. So i already have a spare in the garage , i figured since it will be off i might as well clean up that side of the engine. Went and picked up some Purple Power and scrubbed the side of the block down, removed a few brackets and vacuum lines and painted the side of the block and intake manifold with some Mopar Blue. Nothing to fancy but it felt good to do a little more work on her! Found a bad connection on the positive battery cable so i need to fix that at work tomorrow, think i have a new cable in my toolbox. Will post some new pics soon nothing really changes much but everyone loves pics. Later J.R.
 
Still have the Dart trying to hold on to it. Took a few pics of the Dart today, me and my sons. Sorry about the size of the pics.

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Thanks for the compliments. She is a good car, drive it everyday to work Was hoping to get it painted this year but thats not going to happen, ill be lucky just to keep her! Thanks Again J.R.
 
Have been able to hang onto the Dart and my son and i have been working on a few things. Hopefully picking up a set of Ralleys for $40 bucks tommorow so were excited about that! More updates and pics up soon!!!!! Im just happy i got to keep the ole girl around. Later J.R.
 
The new wheels should be sweet, nice ride. I would adjust down the torsion bars just a bit... you might lose a touch of ride quality, but lowering the front an inch may really help the stance with those new wheels...

JOE
 
74 DART' said:
Well its that time again, got to sell the Dart for sure this time. Need another vehicle for the family as our blazer is getting tired. Was trying to hold on to her but its been 4 years and its time. I will be making a for sale post later and will take some current pics. Thanks for looking and ill will still be part of the family here. J.R.
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I hate to hear you have to sell it. Can you use it as a DD for a while?
 
Well i still have my Dart thankfully! Have not done much to it, still using it as my daily driver. I have put rallye wheels on it bought some new chrome lug nuts for it off E-bay. Here's a couple pics of my youngest son helping me paint the rear drums and install the new lug nuts.I need to get some new pics up of the entire car. Nothing major but i wanted to update this thread. Times are still tight for us so i can't do much to her but i need some motivation, it's been too long and i don't want to give up on it. Sorry about the size of the pics and Thanks for looking!!! J.R.
 

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Man that was a quick 6 years !!! Really cool to see pics of my boys at a younger age. Anyway felt like updating this thread. I did wind up selling the Dart at the end of 2013. I had gotten a truck to use as a daily driver and let the Dart go. It had a torsion bar issue that i didn't feel like messing with at the time. It didn't take me long to miss the car and regret selling it. Life went on but i never forgot about my Dart. I would still check in on here from time to time and my local Craiglist. One day i found my car for sale locally on craiglist. The suspension had been repaired and it had been painted with a brush and roller and was way overpriced. I sold the car too cheap to a guy that was supposed to be looking for a long term project but i guess decided to flip it. I didn't have the cash to buy it back so i didn't even bother to ask. One day the ad vanished and i wondered what happened to it. More to come....
 
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Man that is cool looking dart love what you did with the grille I'm quite partial to the 74 and 75s I have a 75 swinger!! Hate that you had to sell it I understand tho I had to sell my 72 barracuda (my dream car) a while back due to financial reasons. Hope you can find another one goodluck!
 
Back to the update ... So i had no idea where the Dart went ( forgot to mention my wife was pissed that the guy put it up for sale so fast since i gave him a great deal since he seemed to really be serious about fixin it) Anyways life went on, even my boys seemed to miss the car. My oldest son who i was out with practicing for his driving test mentioned how cool it would have been to have taken the Dart to get his liscense in. My youngest who always gave me a hard time about "dads junky old car" even said it wasn't that bad. One day while searching FABO i came across a picture that looked like my old car. The car was kinda far off in the pic but yep that was my dart. A fellow member had gotten the car and was asking some questions about making some repairs. I asked him a few questions and was informed that the car was now further north in Jasper GA. He was using it as daily transportation and seemed to be doing quite a few repairs on it. I was cool to see the old girl and that it was still in Georgia and was in good hands. I told him i was a previous owner and i wanted to tell him i wanted it back but once again no funds , so i didn't bother. More time went by and i happened to ask how it was going with the car and was informed that he no longer had the car. He was more of a Ford guy anyway and some teenager saw the car and wanted it for his first car. Well there goes that! But at least i i was able to keep track of the car for awhile. And time goes on....
 
Its a strange journey life puts us through sometimes. By this time its late Nov 2016 - 3 plus years since i sold the Dart. Im going about my life - just finishing up Thanksgiving Holiday stuff and decided to see what was new on craigslist. I did my usual Mopar search and I came across a 72 Scamp project car that looked pretty decent. It was plum crazy and needed a fair bit of work, but had a non-running v8 in it and a set of rallye wheels on it. Price was a little more than i had but maybe the guy would work me a deal right? Lets see where this thing is i said. The map showed Miami Fl. What? Why are you listing this on the Atlanta craigslist? Turned out to be a scam ( go figure) .

Moving on to the next list of postings i came across another interesting post. Ad stated dodge dart for sale. Opened the ad and what did i see ? Yep that looks alot like my old dart !!! Contacted the seller and waited for a message back. Finally got back to me and sent me some more photos. It was my old car in much worse shape. It had been sitting outside for awhile. Turns outs the seller was the teenager the P.O. sold the car to. He had done a few things to the Dart but wound up having engine trouble with it. Now the cylinder head was taken off and the car was just sitting. He wanted a new ride but his parents said the Dart had to go first.

I talked to my wife about it and she couldn't believe i found the car again. My very supportive wife gave me the go ahead under one condition. I couldn't ever get rid of or mention selling the car again. Thanks babe I Love You !!! . I made arrangements to see the car and stopped by U-haul and grapped a tow-dolly. The next day me, a friend of mine and my oldest son made the 1 hour trip to see the Dart. We arrived and the Dart was sitting in between the house and a pontoon boat. We met the seller and his dad and checked out the car. It was hard keeping my cool while checking it out. I asked was the price firm and the seller asked what i had in mind. I said are you a mopar man? How about $ 440 bucks ? He was asking $500 so he though the price was cool. Turns out he had already bought a suburban and needed the Dart gone.

So 440 bucks later the Dart was loaded and we were on our way! It was a pretty smooth trip home. I cleared a spot in the garage and we pushed her in. December 10 2016 my old girl was back home. I had an early Christmas present this year. Like i said it was in much worse shape but i didn't care. I have plenty of time to make her right again. It stills seems strange to see it in the garage to this day.

2017 came along and my wife and i( along with our sons) had decided to become foster parents and we began the long journey to make that happen. This took up a fair bit of time and it didn't leave much for the Dart. In the summer we got our first foster daughter and that was pretty life -changing. More to come ...
 
Finally have an update!! Spent a couple hours working on the Dart yesterday. Was a nice time with my 2 oldest boys helping me. It was long overdue for sure. No major progress but I am happy with results. Working on disassembling the engine compartment and front end. Plan is to drop the engine / trans and k-member out the bottom. Clean and paint engine bay, go through the front suspension and so on. Snapped a few pics.

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