Newbie here starting my first A body

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mikeyt2014

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Hey guys, this is my first potential A body project. I'm looking at buying a 69 Dart GT all original w/273 fla motor-a/c car that's got less than 100k on it that's been sitting in my friends garage for 15 yrs and has not been driven. It needs new rear quarters so if any could help me find a good new set that aren't terribly expensive that would be great. I'm looking to mildly restore the car on a limited budget-about 7k. The car starts, runs, and drives fine. Do you think 2k is a good price for it? There's no rust other than those quarters. Do these cars have any inherent problems with water leaks beyond the rear quarters. Also, I'm thinking of doing some mild performance mods to the engine, but it looks like the 273 not popular getting parts, I don't really want to put a 318 in it. I know there is a lot of compatability but trying to find an intake is tough, I've only found one from offenhauser so far. If you guys could give me some tips I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Mike
 
Welcome to the site. Utilize the search function in the various forums and classifieds and you will find some great information. And what you don't find there, just post the question to the members here. There is so much knowledge and experience here, all delivered by a great group of passionate Mopar guys and gals. Good luck with the Dart.
 
Welcome.
Sounds like a car I would want also.
Nothing wrong with dropping in a running 318 or 360.
The car sounds solid,put the money in the body first.
You can add from there.
 
Welcome! I've used parts from AMD and have been very happy. Here's quarter skins. http://www.autometaldirect.com/body-components-quarter-panel-quarter-skins-c-23_145_146.html

They also have complete quarters for more money and the trunk extensions if needed. There's other suppliers out there to. Just Google. There can always be rot around the rear glass in the channel. Another area of concern can be under the cowl if it's full of leaves and been sitting in the rain. Sounds like it's been garaged for awhile but before that??? Pull up carpets and check the floors. If the wiper shaft seals leaked or the cowl leaked, you might find rust in the front floor pans.

If you pick it up, then the best thing to do when you begin to work on it is to post your questions in specific forums for more answers.

2k sounds like a reasonable price if it's solid. I looked for a couple years before I found one in great condition but I wasn't in a hurry so I could be picky.

Good luck.
 
Welcome! 2K for a 69 dart as you described is not a bad deal. Most of the repop metal your going to need mostly all come from the same place just different venders. Shop around for best price. AMD and Goodmark are good places to start. If you can cut out the middle man is usually your best bet at a good price! Nothing wrong with building your 273 or up grading to a 318! The 318 is one of the most abundantly available and most under rated engines out there!!! We all know that there's no replacement for displacement! But on a tight budget you can build a nice combo on a 318 platform and have a blast doing it. It's been done 1000's of times just ask all of the tight budgeted guy's and gal's on this site. There's a combo for everyone just don't be afraid to ask any and all questions and someone here will have an answer for you! And post some pics as soon as you can!
 
Edelbrock Performer is a 318 intake with meat to hog out to 360 ports. Cheap, $100 used. 318 Streetmaster, LD4B, 273 4bbl iron, probably one or 2 more. All for around $100 used. 273 IS a 318 with smaller bores, thats it. Everything else is the same so all 318 parts short of pistons will fit your 273 and vice versa. 67-69 Darts, my favorite! Cheap headers, room for a B/RB, nice lines, mega body parts. Welcome aboard!
 
Usually you don't need to replace the whole rear quarters due to the rust, just around the wheel arches. Unusual that the whole quarter would be rusted and not the bottoms of the doors and lower front fenders also, plus the trunk wheel well. Where the roof meets the quarter panel is another area, often with total rust thru, especially under a vinyl roof. There is a brace there that holds water. The cowl bottoms can be totally rusted if someone let leaves build up there.

I thought that any 318 intake manifold will fit a 1966+ 273 car. At least the bolt holes are the same angle. I recall the ports are the same width too. Since the engine runs fine, I wouldn't put my first effort there. You might get used to the high revving engine, and it does give better mileage. 4.5L is hardly small today. Many Euro cars have much smaller V-8's and cost >$50K.
 
That's all I can say. You guys have been gracious and very helpfull already. The rust is in the bottom of the rear quarters and I wasn't sure if going with the lower half quarter was better than replacing the whole thing. Actually, I called Speed Pro and they have a 318 piston that will work on a 273, the tech guy I talked to did some figuring and the tolerance is close however it will work. I'm actually going to build this for my daughter who turns 16 next March-she wants to help so I can't get too crazy with it. Something that will look nice have a little street rumble and some sweat equity in it so she appreciates it. So then I guess I could go with a power pack set up from Edelbrock or whoever, one of those matched cam, intake, and carbureator systems? Another thing I was thinking about was lowering the stance. Does anybody reccomend 2" drop spindles maybe, but how could I lower the rear with a leaf spring?
 
Oh you are going to find out quickly we have many great tecs here and good helpful folks 8) Welcome aboard this great site :happy1:
 
Welcome to the site and congrats on a good deal

I've been looking for a Dart GT to clone into a GTS and still looking for the right car

If it runs and drives then slowly do what is needed. It can be driven with rust in the 1/4 just check the front frame rails and transmission crossmember for rust.

Probably will have to change the wiper shaft seals, very prone to leak

Good luck, and we like PICTURES
 
My son and I bonded over cars. The one we worked on together when he was in high school was a graduation gift to him when he got out of college a couple years ago. He's now doing a complete restore on it. He was home this past week and we worked together on my Dart for hours. It was so much fun- like the old days.

Enjoy the time with her. Have patience and let her do a lot of the work as you teach and guide her. It's faster if you do it all yourself but you won't have the same memories and neither will she. Take your time.

I let my son drive the car he has now to football practice once in high school. Horsing around on the way out of the parking lot he ran over a curb and pretzelled the right lower C.A. and bent the K member. Guess who did ALL the work repairing it? At the time, seniors were required to do a "Senior Project" in order to graduate. It had to involve learning something new to you as long as it was self-improvement. Then you had to present it in front of a panel of teachers and parents who rated you on it. So many points and you could graduate. Many kids volunteered as assistant coaches for middle schools or learned guitar or worked in retirement homes or learned plumbing and worked with a contractor on a project - things like that. If you blew it off, you had ample time and tries to complete it. His was learning how to replace the entire front suspension (and K member) on a 1974 Plymouth Satellite. I supervised but he already knew enough (because he had helped me put in a Just Suspension kit six months earlier!) to do all the work. He did all the research if he had questions. After too much pressure from whining parents who felt it was too much work for their "overworked" seniors many of whom only had class until noon, they did away with the senior project two years later after it had been successful for years and years.

I hope your daughter has the same learning experience although not the driving lesson...Have fun!
 
Welcome to FABO.

All parts for a 318 are completely interchangeable with a 273, except for pistons and rings. If it fits a 318, it will fit a 273. However, the 273 cannot handle larger valves without notching the bores for clearance.

You can also swap in a 340 or 360 and the passenger motor mount is the same, but the driver's side is different. I would keep the original engine on the side to stay with the car.

The Edelbrock LD4B is the best intake for the 273/318 for the street. It is no longer in production, but you can find one here and there....
 
Yeah, I'm looking for the memories for sure. This girl is a girly girl gymnast and cheerleader and when she said to me she was interested in cars, actually she's really a Corvette enthusiast quite honestly. I told her that was something daddy was NOT going to buy her and that was something she would get the opportunity to pay for herself...haha I guess being a GM guy really that may be where she gets it from, however I bought my son an 02 Mustang GT for his first car-but he had been been racing dirt bikes since he was 9, so he had a little more awareness when he started driving. He too also had fun learning and building that up as well. I've enjoyed the Mopars all my life and this seems to be the opportunity to build one and pass that love of the automobile on to her and also so she's not the stereo typical woman that gets taken advantage of later on in life when it comes to car repair.

Getting back, I can use 318 headers, carb, cam, crank, etc? Is there a good HEI distributor set up also? What other intake would you guy's reccomend? Also too, I guess it's a 904 trans? The shifter is in the floor-sweet!! But I was wondering about good rebuild kits, shift kit, any other tips?
 
mikeyt2014 said:
Also too, I guess it's a 904 trans? The shifter is in the floor-sweet!! But I was wondering about good rebuild kits, shift kit, any other tips?
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You can beef up your 904 with shift kit and heavy duty clutches.... Or....


You can find a small block 727 (bell housing bolt pattern different from BB) and beef up one of those.


The 727 was used on 340's and 360's and optional on 318's with a "heavy duty" or "trailer tow" packages. All small blocks have the same bell housing bolt pattern.
 
mikeyt2014 said:
Yeah, I'm looking for the memories for sure. This girl is a girly girl gymnast and cheerleader and when she said to me she was interested in cars, actually she's really a Corvette enthusiast quite honestly. I told her that was something daddy was NOT going to buy her and that was something she would get the opportunity to pay for herself...haha I guess being a GM guy really that may be where she gets it from, however I bought my son an 02 Mustang GT for his first car-but he had been been racing dirt bikes since he was 9, so he had a little more awareness when he started driving. He too also had fun learning and building that up as well. I've enjoyed the Mopars all my life and this seems to be the opportunity to build one and pass that love of the automobile on to her and also so she's not the stereo typical woman that gets taken advantage of later on in life when it comes to car repair.

Getting back, I can use 318 headers, carb, cam, crank, etc? Is there a good HEI distributor set up also? What other intake would you guy's reccomend? Also too, I guess it's a 904 trans? The shifter is in the floor-sweet!! But I was wondering about good rebuild kits, shift kit, any other tips?
Click to expand...
You have a good plan for your daughter. My daughter and I went to a salvage auction when she was 14 to pick out her first project/ride. I told her she could pick anything as long as it was a Mopar. Well she found this 1983 D-150 short bed pick-up with a slant 6 and a automatic. It was hammered in the front end. I won the auction we took it home and over the next year her and I rebuilt the front end sheet metal, painted it,put mags and tires on it. When she got her permit she learned how to drive in her truck. Drove it through High School, 4 years of college. Talk about memories! I told her when she first started driving " YOU LEARN HOW TO DRIVE THIS TRUCK AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DRIVE ANYTHING " She had to learn the ways of a carburetor, and the fact that it didn't have enough power to pull a fat girl off a stool! She is 32 now, never a ticket or a wreck! Good luck to the two of you and welcome aboard. A lot of good people here!
 
Welcome,keep that 273. Great starting engine. Better yet,get her to help work on it. That way,the hard work she has done,makes her,appreciate it that much more.
 
That's too funny, I had a 84 D100 with a slant 6, changed it over to a junk yard 318 with 160k on it-didn't take care of it and still got another 130k on it before I sold it after having that for 13yrs. I fully plan on keeping the 273 in it. It's not too often you find a 1 owner car that's been kept up all original in good shape and having the original engine and drive train, plus bien an A/C car I figure there's some greater value in it to the right person later on down the road. Oh, yes I will having her investing sweat equity in so she does appreciate it!!

As far as the trans goes I've found some master kits through Jegs that have shift kits and different valve body plates to choose what you want to do with it. I believe it was BB was the manufacturer. Total with the torque convertor was about $425..Not too sure if that's high or not yet..I'l keep searching.

I have found that this forum has had a lot of great folks offering to help that are enthusiasts willing to help which is a pleasure..Thank you
 
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