The Other 68 Dart Resto Project

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Looks great ! Are you going to wet sand and buff it ? We use 1500 and 3000 DA paper at work, then buff with 3M.
 
Thanks giving was a busy day, besides cooking everything, I also was spraying base and clear. Looking back, I probably should have waited for another day, but since the temp was over 65F at noon, I decided to go ahead. I sprayed base quickly, and went inside to get the Turkey in the oven, when I was done, I went back out and wet sanded any dust and junk in the base (my fault, I got the gun too close to the plastic sheet and stirred up a whole lot of crap). I went back inside and started prepping the sides and noticed that the turkey was cooking faster than planned (see, small breasts are not as good as large ones!), so now I was rushing. I waited until it was done, pulled it out, and wrapped foil over it, shoved the sides in the oven and told someone to pull them out when the timer goes off. Now, back out to the garage, I started spraying the clear, 45 min later, I was done. Now back inside for cold turkey. :-D

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Not everything goes as planned. Since I was in a hurry, and the weather conditions were not as good as the last time, and really tight quarters caused me a few problems.

This was the first problem, the pass side front corner of the hood. Since there was only about 2 feet between the corner and the front fender for me to walk past, and that is about how wide I am, I brushed the corner while I was clearing the first coat, while spraying the second coat I noticed this, but I thought it was in the clear, not down to the base, unfortunately I was wrong. :( At that point, I finished, figuring I would have to fix it later anyway.
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Again I did the same thing with the pass fender. :angry7:
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And again on the top corner of the pass door. :angryfir:
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And to top it all off, since I was rushing, I got a major run in the pass fender, about 10 inches long. :crybaby:
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I got a lot more orange peel in this application than I did when I sprayed the body. I learned a lesson, there is no room to rush when doing paint, especially clear. All is not lost, I already sanded down the bad spots and re-shot the base, today I am going to spray a bit of touch up clear over it. I will then have to wetsand everything. Next learning project, BUFFING! :book::dontknow::study:
 
That sux about brushing into the clear. Hope you fixed it. Good lesson though. :)
 
Yes, I fixed it, a couple people told me I can't do that, but I wont know if it worked until I wet sand the repairs and buff them out. At worst, I have to repaint and clear three panels. I have not had much time and money to work on it since thanksgiving, and probably wont until after christmas. I did manage to buy a constant water supply sanding block that connects to a hose, I am going to try it out this weekend.
 
daves66valiant said:
That sux about brushing into the clear. Hope you fixed it. Good lesson though. :)
Click to expand...

Yes, I have been learning a lot of lessons on this car. I should have not packed the garage so tight, I could have done two panels at time instaed of trying to do five at once. At worst I have to repaint the hood and front fender. Not too bad, What happened to your car would have made me jump off a cliff.
 
I was ready to throw my painter off a cliff. This is why I am doing it myself. I've been taking a little break from the car until I get my garage all setup. It sucks trying to find a good electrician that will call you back.

Hope it turns out well. Keep it up.
 
I hadn't checked your thread for a while. What an awesome job!!!! Now I'm going to have to back thru it all to see what I've missed.
 
Dont worry guys (and Gals), I have not forgotten about you or the Dart. Christmas and the holidays plus 5 birthdays since christmas, I have been a little busy.

I did get some more work done on the car, I finished painting the trunk a week ago, and I am in the process of turning the paint booth back into a garage again. I have been working on getting the engine fitted, and next I am going to pull it back out and paint the engine bay. When I get some more pics, I will post them.
 
Thanks for the update Fly - been wonderin` how things were going. Sounds like you've been mighty busy taking care of family stuff.
 
Got the doors on and aligned, also the trunk lid. It took me and a buddy all afternoon saturday to get the doors on and aligned, I had to make some shims to get the hinges aligned up right. Sorry, no pics yet, maybe in a few days.
 
Glad to hear the Dart is starting to go back together.. cant wait to see pics...
 
Update 3/10/2009

Its been a little while, not been working on the car too much because money has been short and I need to buy parts. Well, I place a few big orders for parts today. I decided to not build a 383. Instead, I am making it a 431 stroker, I have a 440 crank I am having cut down to fit in the 383 block, so its going to b a high revving stroker. I order a set of Diamond forged pistons, 440 Source Stealth heads, and a whole gaggle of engine parts along with many other parts for the rest of the Dart. Currently my goal is the be driving the Dart again by June. I am hoping for low 11 sec 1/4 times. HP should be over 500, some people have told me it will be closer to the high side, but I am going to stay conservative on the estimate. My goals for the dart changed a bit, I stepped back and re-evaluated what I was doing with the car, I realized that the car will be drag raced, so that is how I am going to set it up. High winding stroker, Caltracs, 4.56 gears, Drag radials, 90/10 shocks, /6 t-bars, 4000 stall converter, etc. It will be my beast.

As soon as the parts show up on my door step, I will post some pictures. I have bedroom that has been converted to an engine building room. The rest of the car is starting to come together, I had done about as much as I could without parts, but now comes the fun part, bolting **** together! :cheers:
 
I had the 383 stroker you`re talking about in my Barracuda and it was a great engine. That should be a smokin' hot ride when it`s all together.
 
Yesterday I finally got my but in gear and tackled the headers project. Like I said before, I am making a set of Hedman B-body 383-400 headers fit in my car. I got brave yeasterday and cut them apart, the drivers side header will fit on some cars with a 383 swap, but I was not so lucky, I ended up denting and dinging the tubes to the point that it was severely restricted, And then, the steering collumn... Thats a whole other story. The me, making a dent and sliding a sheet of paper in between the two is not enough. So I bought a bunch of 1 3/4" U and J bends from summit and some alignment rings. Yesterday I sawed apart all the tubes except for one, which will remain modified. I will post pics later.
 
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