Natasha the 68 Dart

[gtmopar]

Nice work and I'm impressed on your skill set. I've got several friends that claim to be mechanics that couldn't do half the stuff you do so my hats off to you. I just recently started following your build and enjoy your work. What got you into the mopar world? Sorry if this is a redundant question.

 

[BrianT]

I agree. Nice skills. You have done alot of work in a short time. I have been working on my car for six years now. Wish I could be as motivated as you are!!!

 

[Princess Valiant]

Nice work and I'm impressed on your skill set. I've got several friends that claim to be mechanics that couldn't do half the stuff you do so my hats off to you. I just recently started following your build and enjoy your work. What got you into the mopar world? Sorry if this is a redundant question.

thanks ...i didnt even see this reply till now......what got meinto mopars...

the brief answer is the power of mopar muscle magazine.

when i was a cub (mid teens) i had a lot of time on my hands and i was trying to learn english, so my mentor who is a long time mopar guy put a stack of mopar muscle muscle magazines in front of me and told me to read them all.......i said "yes sir" and proceeded .....i flipped through the pages and saw a lime green 70 road runner and was in love......after reading the magazines i became more and more interested :cheers: after i moved to the USA i went to auto school and got my first car which was none other than a mopar.

my uncle told me if i am going to drive an old car ....i need to learn to fix it and fix it right when and if it breaks down ......my reply to him was the standard reply "yes sir" and here i am now LOL

 

[gtmopar]

Well I guess that's one way of ramming the mopar brand down your throat! Ha! That's really awesome and I commend your skills. I've been slowly trying to get my wife into it but she's not much of a wrencher. She does appreciate the art behind building personalized cars which is a good start.

 

[Princess Valiant]

even though i still need to weld the hump in ....i been driving it like this ....i actually like not having the hump in yet bcoz i can see the linkage while driving and i been making small adjustments as i go .......

this weekend Natasha got a weapons permit....i like the way this looks but i am going to try and find a correct A-body shifter only bcoz the pistol grip is not really comfy to drive .....the handle is huge ....too big for my hand....i have to use both hands to get into reverse......i think they designed the grips for a man with huge hands :cry:

 

[Princess Valiant]

Well I guess that's one way of ramming the mopar brand down your throat! Ha! That's really awesome and I commend your skills. I've been slowly trying to get my wife into it but she's not much of a wrencher. She does appreciate the art behind building personalized cars which is a good start.

if she starts reading more about the history of cars, it might spark an interest .....the more i read, the more interest i had ....i think of myself now as a Chrysler Historian

a good book to start out with is "the Standard Catalog of Chrysler"

that book organized the history of Chrysler in my mind and set the ground work to do more research.

 

[OldmanRick]

The pistol looks cool Rani, but i agree on the change. I've tried that, t-handles and ball's, and i can work a ball handle 10x better then the others.

 

[gtmopar]

Hey rani i have the original hurst 4 speed shifter that came off of my 833 that was in my dart. It is still in great working condition. Havent advertised it at all. Let me know if you are interested its not going anywhere.

 

[MoparDaddy]

The pistol looks cool Rani, but i agree on the change. I've tried that, t-handles and ball's, and i can work a ball handle 10x better then the others.

I like t handles and pistols better myself

 

[Abodybomber]

Nice craftsmanship,Rani.Looks like it was there,from day one.Love Pistol Grips,seen people miss powershifts,hand hits the ashtray........Ouch!

 

[gdrill]

Wow, just went through your thread! rayer: You go girl, you'll make some lucky guy a great husband some day! Meant in a good way.
By the way....what the heck kind of a name is that for your cat?? I can't even say it once without sounding like I'm learning to speak all over again! Keep up the good work and obvious strong attitude! :cheers:

 

[4spdragtop]

Lookin awesome Rani!! Gotta be cool shifting the gears and watching the linkages work! Great work, keep it up!

 

[Princess Valiant]

Wow, just went through your thread! rayer: You go girl, you'll make some lucky guy a great husband some day! Meant in a good way.
By the way....what the heck kind of a name is that for your cat?? I can't even say it once without sounding like I'm learning to speak all over again! Keep up the good work and obvious strong attitude! :cheers:

i think you mean wife .....not husband ....im the wife LOL and thanks

the cats name is common boys name where im originally from. it means "the boy from wednesday" i brought the cat cat home on a wednesday so he is my Mr. Venketeshmangalaravaramu

the only reason i have not put the interior back together yet is bcoz im preparing to do the dash swap....

i am going to install a 68 cuda rally dash in this car.....it will be done by Jan 15.

even today i worked on the rally dash frame...im stripping it down to bare metal.

 

[MoparDaddy]

i think you mean wife .....not husband ....im the wife LOL and thanks

the cats name is common boys name where im originally from. it means "the boy from wednesday" i brought the cat cat home on a wednesday so he is my Mr. Venketeshmangalaravaramu

the only reason i have not put the interior back together yet is bcoz im preparing to do the dash swap....

i am going to install a 68 cuda rally dash in this car.....it will be done by Jan 15.

even today i worked on the rally dash frame...im stripping it down to bare metal.

Be quick! That's not far off lol you got this

 

[MoparDaddy]

even though i still need to weld the hump in ....i been driving it like this ....i actually like not having the hump in yet bcoz i can see the linkage while driving and i been making small adjustments as i go .......

this weekend Natasha got a weapons permit....i like the way this looks but i am going to try and find a correct A-body shifter only bcoz the pistol grip is not really comfy to drive .....the handle is huge ....too big for my hand....i have to use both hands to get into reverse......i think they designed the grips for a man with huge hands :cry:

I'll trade you my ball shifter for your pistol!

 

[Princess Valiant]

Be quick! That's not far off lol you got this

yes sir ....i wont let you down :toothy9: fifteen days average 2 hours a day ....30 hours .....piece of cake

 

[MoparDaddy]

yes sir ....i wont let you down :toothy9: fifteen days average 2 hours a day ....30 hours .....piece of cake

I know. Your just that dang good!

 

[Princess Valiant]

i
i am going to install a 68 cuda rally dash in this car.....it will be done by Jan 15.

even today i worked on the rally dash frame...im stripping it down to bare metal.

well i have not updated this thread in a while and unfortuneately i didnt get the swap done as fast as i thought i would only bcoz a lot of other things came up, but it has sure been an adventure on this project.

School started on the 14 th and thats a big time taker....but here is what has happened in the last few weeks.

it started with me getting sick and tired of oil puddles on the ground so i tracked the leaks down to the valve cover which was practically spitting the oil out and the old gasket had seen much better days.

 

[Princess Valiant]

still on the kick of a rally dash swap i started on the dash frame which had seen better days when i pulled it from the donor car.

the only mod required on the frame was to drill the hole for the 4 speed light which i did real easy with a christmas tree drill bit. i used a small drill bit to make the small hole on the bottom which duplicates exactly how the factory did it.

other than that it was a lot of time with a wire brush to get every piece of it ready for new primer/paint

 

[Princess Valiant]

the bezel has taken a lot more time....the first thing i did was fix the corner piece ....and since the radio hole was cut out already i debated what to do with it....i know they have repair pieces availble.

after thinking about it i decided to try something different and go radio delete

also on the glove box piece i lucky to find one with a broken emblem already so now i dont feel guilty about modifying a good unit

 

[Princess Valiant]

then i brought the car in for one last look at the "old" way and removal of the original dash

 

[Princess Valiant]

couldnt help but test fit the frame and test fit a cluster even though the cluster is not the right one its a 70...i just wanted to see what it looked like hee hee

 

[Princess Valiant]

after welding the 4 speed hump in the next step was to weld in the floor brackets for the bucket seats......this is a factory bench car so it didnt have the little plates seen on a factory bucket seat car.

also i attacked the rust on the floors that was under the carpet which trurned out to be more surface rust than anything else .....i used Rust- mort and it left what rust was there, smooth and black....its pretty amazing how that stuff works

 

[gdrill]

Lookin' great! You are an inspiration for young ladys everywhere. No such thing as "can't" in your dictionary!

 

[dilley340]

Looks great Rani. You get more done in an afternoon than I do in a year! I sure wish I had your energy. Keep up the good work. BTW, this is a fun thread.