So now that my engine rebuild is complete, I figured I should share some pictures of my car and the story behind it, and how I got it.

Most recent picture of my Dart:


I bought this 1970 Dodge Dart back in 2002, a senior in High School. It had around 84,000 miles on it. At the time I really wanted an older Dodge, and had been looking at anything I could get near, or get my hands on. This car was bought new in California, and the person who owned it willed it to a family in my town in Minnesota in the late 1980's. Once that family got the car, it mostly stayed in a shed, collecting dust, and having boxes, ladders and other items stored on it or against it. The body has quite a few dings and dents because of this, but most are pretty small. There is some mild rust on the driver side door.



When I first looked at this car, I knew I liked it, but I also didn't fully love it. It ran well enough, and had it's flaws, so I made an offer on it. The owners at the time thought about it, and turned me down. They knew they could get a better offer from someone with money rather than a poor High School student, who was working to go to Tech College as well.

So a full year went by, and the owners attempted to sell this car. Pretty much everyone that they talked to wanted to ditch the Slant Six engine, and make the car into more of a muscle car or drag car since the body was in such great shape. However, the owners had sentimental value, and wanted to see it stay original.

After that year went by, the rear breaks started to leak. So when they brought out the car again to attempt to sell it, they found it had the break issue, and gave me a call asking if I was still interested in it. I said yes, and they agreed to sell me the car at the price I had offered the year before, under the condition that I keep it original. I went to work, replacing the wheel cylinders, and the bad heater core (Heater core was looped off years before I ever saw the car). I also changed the belts, hoses, spark plugs, distributor cap, and all the normal maintenance.

Picture of me and friends working on the car from 2002


Once I had all the work done, I daily drove the car for a little over a year and a half. I took it from Minnesota to Wyoming to Tech Collage. The 70 Dart made the trip back and forth 3 times. I washed it as much as I could, and kept a car cover over it to protect it as best as I could at the time. Once I was back home in Minnesota, and started working jobs, I was able to put the car into storage and buy a cheep (yet more than I paid for the 70 Dart) Jeep to drive daily. At that point, the 70 Dart became the car I would take to car shows, and cruise ins, and it treated me very well. Though I did have to replace the break master cylinder in 2006. I changed jobs here and there, and grew in my profession after leaving the mechanics life pretty early on. In 2007 I went to a family reunion. While there, I asked my cousin if she knew any dealerships that had new Dodge Chargers, and she said "I know where there is a yellow one!"
Hearing those words made my eyes wide. "Take me there now!"



I fell in love with that car instantly, and contacted the dealership during the week, working out details on how I was going to purchase it.

So now I owned two cool cars! I daily drove the 2006 Dodge Charger Daytona, and switched off every other week what car I drove to cruise ins, or on rare occasions allowed a family member to take one to the shows as well.



During 2007, I found that the Slant Six had a cracked exhaust manifold. It was probably cracked since I bought it in 2002, but I finally found the crack while examining it closer. So I worked with friend and found a used OE manifold that was still in once piece, and replaced it. However, I didn't have the two manifolds planed by a machine shop. The car worked fine in 2007, and there were no major issues.

However, in 2008 when I got the Dart back out after the winter months, I noticed it didn't idle well. The intake manifold was sucking in air, and causing the car to kill at idle. The odometer had just turned over 100,000 miles, and while attempting to put the car back into storage, the starter died. That is when I decided that a full engine rebuild would be a great idea.... and it took me till now to finally complete it. I'm glad it's done, and I hope I never have to do that much work again, but I'm so glad to have this car back in my life!

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2015 Dodge Dart GT (Daily Driver)
2006 Dodge Charger Daytona, Top Banana #3874 of 4000 (lots of fun)
1970 Dodge Dart Custom 225 Slant Six, Auto, A/C (good car, engine rebuild)

Very cool story and car. Enjoy the cruising and your fresh engine!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Awesome story! I'm glad you gave it a good home and held on to it. She's a keeper!!

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Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Hot! Same colours inside and out as the '70 Dart Custom 4-door my folks brought newborn-me home from the hospital in.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks everyone for all the kind words. I do really appreciate it.

I think it's kind of neat that I own a 1970 Dodge Dart, and as of 2016, I daily drive a 2015 Dodge Dart.

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2015 Dodge Dart GT (Daily Driver)
2006 Dodge Charger Daytona, Top Banana #3874 of 4000 (lots of fun)
1970 Dodge Dart Custom 225 Slant Six, Auto, A/C (good car, engine rebuild)

Slight update here. My neighbor has a lift and I wanted to spend some time getting a good view of under the car today. I've driven it around 500 miles now since the engine rebuild. One issue I've had is that the car really liked to stutter when touching the accelerator from the idle position. Well, I found that the carb had only been hand tightened and was pretty loose. So I snugged that down.



The other issue I've been noticing is that the front right brake hasn't been working as well as it should be. When breaking it pulls to the left quite a bit. So my next goal was to pull off the right front brake drum, but it was STUCK! I could rotate everything just fine, but the drum would NOT slip off at all. I used big hammers and tried everything I could think of.

I then wanted to get a look and see if the left front was just as bad, but I couldn't get the lug nuts off! I'm guessing the tire place used an impact to put the lugs back on, and the left front was STUCK! It felt like I was rotating the entire stud when using my impact to try and remove them.

So it was a little disappointing today, but glad one of my concerns was fixed.

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2015 Dodge Dart GT (Daily Driver)
2006 Dodge Charger Daytona, Top Banana #3874 of 4000 (lots of fun)
1970 Dodge Dart Custom 225 Slant Six, Auto, A/C (good car, engine rebuild)

There is a excellent chance the driver side lug nuts are still original, and are "left" handed. You turn them clockwise to loosen. You're lucky you didn't snap them off, while trying to remove them.
As for removing the right front drum, you will probably have to "back" off the brake adjuster. The drum probably has a "high" edge, that won't clear the shoe.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170

Oh my derp. How could I be so dumb! I've taken these tires off and on so many times, and I totally forgot about that!

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2015 Dodge Dart GT (Daily Driver)
2006 Dodge Charger Daytona, Top Banana #3874 of 4000 (lots of fun)
1970 Dodge Dart Custom 225 Slant Six, Auto, A/C (good car, engine rebuild)

If they are original-type 9" drums then the drums are "swedged" onto the hubs. You need to pull the spindle nut and slide the drum/hub assembly off, then when you reinstall you need to adjust the wheel bearings.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Have fun getting your carb and brakes sorted out.

Lifts are very helpful!

Crouching inside the fender wells are for young 20 and thirty somethings.

Enjoy!

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Thanks so much you guys!


This is exactly what I was looking for. I haven't had the drums off this car since 2002 and I did not remember this part, this information is so valuable and I'm so grateful for you guys to help us all out.

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2015 Dodge Dart GT (Daily Driver)
2006 Dodge Charger Daytona, Top Banana #3874 of 4000 (lots of fun)
1970 Dodge Dart Custom 225 Slant Six, Auto, A/C (good car, engine rebuild)