Question on 1965 Dart GT Charger

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Glass floor pans? That's a new one.
 
Never heard of the fiberglass floors from back in the day. Almost anything is possible but why would it be used? Less weight than a thin sheet of steel is not really worth the effort. I doubt they were concerned with rust. So it sounds like I'd need to see some documentation on this one.
 
Most likely it's some ones cheap way of fixing rusted floor pans. Their sure wouldn't be any structural strength in them

barracudadave67
 
Certainly a repair job. It is probably structurally sound, so if it looks OK, I would keep as is. The only downside might be if they didn't prime the metal well because I have heard that moisture can travel thru fiberglass. After welding a replacement floor pan in my 65 Dart GT, fiberglass doesn't sound bad. Indeed, I added a strip of fiberglass matt over my butt joints because I had many burn-thrus I couldn't fix (yes, I had a copper spoon behind it).
 
Just wait a bit and our local expert may chime in - 65DartCharger (recall). He is in Sweden, but has the most correct 65 Dart Charger (down to every hose clamp) and detailed knowledge. My guess is he will answer "no" to "original fiberglass floors?".
 
In 1965 threre was a company called Fibercraft*that Dodge used to replace body panels in threre Race Cars . But dont you think replacing a floor pan with a premade of fabed fiberglass one would be much harder then using a steel pan. Who knows what they were thinking back then .Factory racing was crazy with trying to be the best
 
BillGrissom said:
Just wait a bit and our local expert may chime in - 65DartCharger (recall). He is in Sweden, but has the most correct 65 Dart Charger (down to every hose clamp) and detailed knowledge. My guess is he will answer "no" to "original fiberglass floors?".
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Thanks for the kind words BillGrissom!

I know for sure that no "fiberglass" floor panels was made for the Dart 65. Period!

However, as hotrodhoodlum mentioned, in 1965 you could buy fiberglass front fenders from Fibercraft. I have seen a set back in 1996 at Portland Roadster show. They was mint and the guy asked usd 500 for them!!! I passed!! Today I should have bought them. They even had Fibercraft decals on them!!
 
Saved 400#?? Does that mean I can lift 400#, because i move the floorpan im working on all the time!! NOT!! Geof
 
I think he is a bit mixed up, I thought the ones with the fiberglass floors came with the 624 wedge style hemi with the 7 speed trans and 2 speed rear end and AWD, but I could be mistaken. Where do these people come from:banghead:!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
All of the 273 4-bbl cars came with solid cams and adjustable rocker arms. All of the 273 2-bbl car had solid cams until the 1968 model year. The 68 and 69 models had hydraulic lifters.
 
I still can't get past the fiberglass floor pans "from the factory".
Ma Mopar did some strange things back then, but that would be pointless!

BC
 
Mopar did fiberglass rims...remember those? Those funky white GLH era 5 spokes that looked like turbo impellers? But Glass floorboard, lame. Although I did look at a 65 Comet Caliente with plywood floorboards...Ghet-toe!
 
Still have not figured out the fiberglass on the floors (if rust repair, etc.) undercoating seems intact. The car is an early build date (mid-September), 06 fender tag sequence car from the St. Louis plant. Still working on that part.

Update: Doesn't appear to be a 624 or 7-speed. Don't know about the AWD? Probably just a single speed rear, though.
 
Tried the front wheels. They don't spin together, and only one spins. Guessing RWD.

I don't think it applies to this car but Mopar the Performance Years has a picture of the fiberglass availible on page 62 by Fibercraft for the Dart. Page 60 has the Hemi Coronets parts by Plaza Fibreglass of Detroit (came in std. or altered wheelbase).

The Dart in this thread would have been very similar to the pre-production one indicated on page 29 of Marty Schorr's book. Black with the resonator cut-out and engine dress up package. No indication of mags and badges at this point.

Believed to be an Arizona car. Had been up-dated to electronic ignition and edelbrock 1406, with heater hose bypass. Pretty boring otherwise. The previous owner bought off the (original?) owners grandson, and added rally wheels.
Car came with dry-rotted original tires in trunk with trim. Car may have been stripped and raced, don't know. Car came primered with many trim holes filled. Slight hint of Petty blue by driver's side roof pillar. The fiberglass coating on the floors is most likely a ..... ? Car may have been prepped for painting in the 70's, 80's...? And forgotten?
 
Clroads,
You might be confusing most people here. What prompted your contemplations about "7 speed", "AWD", "single speed rear", and "guessing RWD"? None sounds relevant to any U.S. cars in the 1960's. Anyway, we would all be interested if you found any info about fiberglass floor panels (Plaza Fibreglass).
 
Bill,
I tried to answer the questions in post #15 (they seemed easier)

To reply to post 22
I think the fiberglass on the floor of this car is possibly just a rust repair from years ago, as you said in post # 7. I think it is a fiberglass coating / mat coating over the steel floor. Undercoating appears intact. Maybe a cheap anti skid sound deadener attempt from years ago?

I was hoping the car did have some unique history, but I don't think so. It was built at the St. Louis factory not near Detroit (Plaza) or LA (Fibercraft)

Plaza Fibreglass Manufacturing Co., 24 West Lane Court, Dearborn MI (Detroit) did not list floor pans on pg. 61 of Marty Schorr's book. Pg. 60 has a picture of the Hemi coronet parts on the scale (doors fenders hood trunk w/ bumper @ 80 lbs.).

The Fibercraft Dart parts were shown on page 62 and indicated as "103 lbs. replacing 500 lbs". (Only saving 397 lbs). No floor pans indicted.

The only reference to any fiberglass floorpans (unibody) I have found were to early Clark fiberglass floorpan overlays for a Corvair (unibody) I think Clark's make (offer) only steel now. Even Corvair owners want steel repairs.
 
Just ordered the build record for this car. 1965 was the last year for Darts at the St. Louis plant (until 1973-1976). The South plant was closed on October 31, 2008 after building mini-vans for 12 years. I think they tore the Newark, Delaware assembly plant down around they same time.

I read where they tried to eliminate the actual build sheet from the cars many times due to concerns about the flammability of the paper sheet. 15-20 gallons of gas two more feet away....

http://www.deadnutson.com/building_a_mopar.html
(Third paragraph from the bottom)
BROADCAST SHEET NOTE: In our tour of Lynch Road, we encountered broadcast sheets from at least every major area of production. There was no legal reason to include with the completed car any of the sheets. In fact, in later years they were actively eliminated because the paper was not in compliance with government standards of cloth fire resistance.

Anyway, I never found mine.
 
Clroads said:
Bill,
I tried to answer the questions in post #15 (they seemed easier)
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Makes sense, and your answers are correct. Post #15 was trying to pull your leg, like the classic newbie instruction "go ask Paulie if you can borrow his left-handed monkey wrench".
 
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