Tomorrow (10/9) the Dart goes in get the new tires installed, and hopefully an alignment. We went out today to take care of a few items before driving it tomorrow. I cut about 1-inch off of both + & - battery cable ends as the wires were a little green and reinstalled them into the terminal ends. Also cut down the threaded portion of the battery hold-down assembly, didn't want to scrape an arm on either of them. Capped them off with a couple of vacuum caps. The grille is out so we used a couple of clamps to hold the turn signals in place. We aired up the tires to allow for easier steering as the fronts were down to about 12 psi. After all of that was completed, I had Logan get in the driver's seat, pump the gas 3 times, and start it. We haven't started it in about a week and it fired right up and ran on high idle for a little while. Logan got a huge smile on his face when it started up! I need to adjust the choke a little as it was pretty rich on high idle.
The grille is out because I am working on repairing it. A friend gave up an old, busted up grille that we are using to replace busted sections of Logan's grille. I completely replaced about a 4-inch section where the hood release lever is and a couple of other areas that were cracked and/or missing. Used a lot of JB Weld. I have a little more sanding to do on a few of the repairs, then we'll clean it really good then the masking and painting with Argent silver, satin black, and finish with a couple coats of satin clear. I also want to paint the outer edge of the 2 horizontal ribs in the center of the grille with red paint, I think it would look cool.
I'll post a pic of the Dart wearing her new shoes tomorrow.
Chuckster & Logan

You're gonna want to do something better about those battery terminals. The replacement ends with the 2 bolts on the "mickey mouse ears are notorious for future corrosion. And losing contact. I replace the neg cable as they're not very long anyway and crimp copper lugs on the +side and bolt those on turn to the mickey mouse ears of that type terminal. And I heat shrink the terminals after I crimp the copper lugs on, to try and keep moisture and gases from the battery from corroding them again or at least slow that process down.
I've removed + cables before and slit the insulation long ways and found lots of green nasty way down the line before

We intend to replace both battery cables with OEM style in the near future. I've dealt with those cheap cable ends numerous times. It won't be driven over the winter so it will be addressed early next spring. Thanks for the input!

Got the new tires installed but we got back too late for pics. They tried to alignment it but the manual steering box has too much play. Anyone have any tips on adjusting the manual box? The shop said it should have about 1 degree of play, we have about 20 degrees. Everything else in the front end is good enough for alignment, so if we can get the play issue resolved we can get the alignment.
I'll post a few more pics from yesterday, they wouldn't upload when I tried.
Chuckster & Logan

Check that coupler at top of the steering box/bottom of steering column shaft for your play/slop

I had the coupler apart to clean/grease it, but it sure wouldn't hurt to double-check my work.
Thanks for the advice!
Chuckster

Here are pics of the new tires installed. We also have a new spare tire on a Rally rim in the trunk.
Chuckster & Logan

Super nice! Enjoy the drivin'.

Lou

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