Dartndude73
Active Member
Hi everyone, I recently purchased my 1st Mopar a 73 Dodge Dart sport. Up until now all my other hot rods have been GM. I've owned a 62 Impala, 2 GTO's a 65 and a 67. A 70 w30 442, 70 Chevelle, 72 Nova, 77 Silverado short bed. All pretty respectable on the street or at the track. However I did borrow my dads Chrysler station wagon a lot for dates. With a 440 and a 2 something set of gears. It seemed to have no limit on top end and worked great at the drive in too. I've always liked the A body dusters and darts. Except at the track! Of course up till now I've never mentioned that fact out loud. I got a killer deal on this one!! Its a numbers matching 73 sport, 340, 727, 81/4 - 355 posi. A lot of upgrades; Edelrock carb, aluminum intake, lunati cam, MSD, headers,3" exhaust, B&M convertor.
I was lucky enough to find the original owners phone number on the title. I contacted him and he gave me the info on what was done on the car. Rebuilt to factory specs short block. Rebuilt and modified transmission. Body work, suspension and so on. Typical father and son project, off to college, married, kid, sell the car and kicked himself in the butt ever since.
I haven't got a chance to do a lot of work on the car due to some health issues. One of witch was getting smashed into a chain link fence by a 49 Chevy rat rod at the turkey run last November. Man them things have some serious steel in them!! Didn't even dent the hood with my hard head.
All I've done so far is clean it up. Repaired and refinished all the tail light bezels. Done a little work in the trunk getting ready for some minor repairs and paint.
Plans; I have parts to relocate battery to trunk, install fuel cell, filter, electric pump and new braided fuel line. install pressure regulator, sender for dash mount fuel pressure gauge, secondary fuel filter, return line and possibly a cool can under the hood.
Replace radiator with new aluminum one. Electric water pump and fan.
The engine I would like to build to about a 375 to 400 HP. At this point I think upgrading to worked x heads, air gap intake, flow masters, carb ??? cam??? my guess is the compression ratio is not more than 8.5 to 1. may need to bump it up and do some balancing. probably a cam (don't know the specs on the one in it).
Suspension - Caltrack springs and bars. Don't know how well the 8 1/4 rear will handle the extra hoarse power.
Some minor body work and new paint. Minor interior repairs.
looking forward to starting the project in earnest. Finding out that Mopar parts are made of gold $$$ and hard to find. jerry
I was lucky enough to find the original owners phone number on the title. I contacted him and he gave me the info on what was done on the car. Rebuilt to factory specs short block. Rebuilt and modified transmission. Body work, suspension and so on. Typical father and son project, off to college, married, kid, sell the car and kicked himself in the butt ever since.
I haven't got a chance to do a lot of work on the car due to some health issues. One of witch was getting smashed into a chain link fence by a 49 Chevy rat rod at the turkey run last November. Man them things have some serious steel in them!! Didn't even dent the hood with my hard head.
All I've done so far is clean it up. Repaired and refinished all the tail light bezels. Done a little work in the trunk getting ready for some minor repairs and paint.
Plans; I have parts to relocate battery to trunk, install fuel cell, filter, electric pump and new braided fuel line. install pressure regulator, sender for dash mount fuel pressure gauge, secondary fuel filter, return line and possibly a cool can under the hood.
Replace radiator with new aluminum one. Electric water pump and fan.
The engine I would like to build to about a 375 to 400 HP. At this point I think upgrading to worked x heads, air gap intake, flow masters, carb ??? cam??? my guess is the compression ratio is not more than 8.5 to 1. may need to bump it up and do some balancing. probably a cam (don't know the specs on the one in it).
Suspension - Caltrack springs and bars. Don't know how well the 8 1/4 rear will handle the extra hoarse power.
Some minor body work and new paint. Minor interior repairs.
looking forward to starting the project in earnest. Finding out that Mopar parts are made of gold $$$ and hard to find. jerry
to the fray!! Come on with car ****!! We want pics 
!!
Mine was a 318 auto. He actually sold his just before I got my car and I wanted my dad to buy it for me so bad I nearly cried. His was black with the white strip that went over the top. Had white seats and black carpet. 340, 4 spd...and it had Cragers! Man, that car was beautiful. Maybe my dad knew I would have wrapped it around a tree. He may have done me a favor!! Got my Duster at the original Manheim auction in Manheim, PA for $440!!
