1968 Dart GTS. 340 4-speed. Back to life thread.
I still remember finding this car in a local buy and sell back in 1997. Heck I probably still have that ad somewhere. At 16 years old I convinced my dad the price would be worth the education. We drove 3 hours to pick it up. It had been sitting in a barn in washington state and the body was in decent shape, no rust. It ran, kind of and It smelled like a mopar. You know that 30 plus year old smell of musty burlap and fine Corinthian. God I love that smell. It's right up there with nitro in the memory invoking time machine smell of smells.
The thing ran like hell, but we got it fired up and drove (perhaps the word 'drove' is a little too kind) it home. Come to find out the distributor and cam were in 180 out. The thing was crosseyed with one of the headlights was pointing sky high and at oncomng traffic on a divided highway. Truckers were flashing their brights at us as we limped down the road, and I don't think it was because we were driving a cool mopar. Oh and the clutch was way out of adjustment which made it fun for this then rookie driver whose only manual experience was a few trips around the parkinglot in his brothers 1970 super bee. I think we used every last volt in that battery with restarts on the way home.
Spent many a night in highschool taking this thing down to a shell and packing up the parts. In hindsight it was a pure genius move by my parents. They knew where my friends and I could be found most weekend nights... Out in the garage wrenching on the old dart.
Fast forward 15 years, college, 2 houses, a cross country move, wife and a couple kids and as many jobs later, I am now building a garage worthy of my mopars and dragging the dart out for a serious build. Somewhere in that timeframe I picked up a 1970 superbee 4spd car that distracted me from the old dart for a while.
The garage is currently under construction. Walls are being framed this week. In the meantime the car went out to a chasis shop for an 8.50 cage and has since come home. I painted up the cage this weekend. A mill has been completed courtesy of muscle motors. Next step is tackling the body and paint.
Ill leave a few pics here now, more to come later.
I still remember finding this car in a local buy and sell back in 1997. Heck I probably still have that ad somewhere. At 16 years old I convinced my dad the price would be worth the education. We drove 3 hours to pick it up. It had been sitting in a barn in washington state and the body was in decent shape, no rust. It ran, kind of and It smelled like a mopar. You know that 30 plus year old smell of musty burlap and fine Corinthian. God I love that smell. It's right up there with nitro in the memory invoking time machine smell of smells.
The thing ran like hell, but we got it fired up and drove (perhaps the word 'drove' is a little too kind) it home. Come to find out the distributor and cam were in 180 out. The thing was crosseyed with one of the headlights was pointing sky high and at oncomng traffic on a divided highway. Truckers were flashing their brights at us as we limped down the road, and I don't think it was because we were driving a cool mopar. Oh and the clutch was way out of adjustment which made it fun for this then rookie driver whose only manual experience was a few trips around the parkinglot in his brothers 1970 super bee. I think we used every last volt in that battery with restarts on the way home.
Spent many a night in highschool taking this thing down to a shell and packing up the parts. In hindsight it was a pure genius move by my parents. They knew where my friends and I could be found most weekend nights... Out in the garage wrenching on the old dart.
Fast forward 15 years, college, 2 houses, a cross country move, wife and a couple kids and as many jobs later, I am now building a garage worthy of my mopars and dragging the dart out for a serious build. Somewhere in that timeframe I picked up a 1970 superbee 4spd car that distracted me from the old dart for a while.
The garage is currently under construction. Walls are being framed this week. In the meantime the car went out to a chasis shop for an 8.50 cage and has since come home. I painted up the cage this weekend. A mill has been completed courtesy of muscle motors. Next step is tackling the body and paint.
Ill leave a few pics here now, more to come later.
it ALL looks good!
