Alright then, after school tomorrow I'll try to get to the radiator shop. I'll let you all know how it goes. If they say that it's fixable I'll try for that bracket from Doc.

Just got that manual for $28.51 shipped. Almost didn't get it, had to bid again with 13 seconds left.

Gotta chime in here. First of all, Harrison, YOU are the luckiest kid in the world as far as I can tell. In a couple months, you'll have a fresh drivers license and the coolest car in your school. It will run great, cost almost nothing, get good mileage, bark the tires once you learn to power brake it. In short, it will get you chics. I'm jealous!

I think you other guys are approaching this from the wrong angle. This is a 16 year old kid, and we need to think like a 16 year old kid. Here's my advice:

1. Put water in the radiator - if it doesn't leak we are going to assume it's good and use it, and if it's bad we'll worry about it then. Don't worry about the bracket (unless doc sends you one or you stumble on one). We're going to use bailing wire or guitar string or something. A carefully whittled block of hardwood could be made to wedge the radiator up against the bulkhead for no money.

2. Battery cables - one goes from the + terminal to the starter, the other goes from the - terminal to anywhere on the block. That's $10 Autozone generic battery cables. Or - if you are clever - see if anyone has a junk car in their yard that you can scam parts from. Or, a walk around a local junkyard for almost no money. Tell the junkyard guys you'll trade them beer for parts, and they'll think it's so cute they'll let you raid anything you want.

3. The gouge on the radiator could have been caused by the missing bracket/loose fan, could have been made when someone swapped the engine and got careless, or could be a 40 year old battle scar from a flex fan. Let's not worry about it till it's a problem.

4. Hoses - luckily, there's only 4 or 5. You will need to find the big upper and lower radiator hoses (or improvise with something close) but the rest are all generic heater hose and sell for $2 per foot or so.

5. Brakes - most likely, the drums are just siezed from sitting so long. I'd hazzard a guess that if you knock the rims with a big enough hammer, it will free right up.

6. Master cylinder - here's the one place I agree that safety is important. Luckily, these things are fairly generic and thus cheap. If memory serves, a rebuild double chamber master cylinder is about $50 and the plate to adapt it along with the adjustable brake rod another $50. What will happen when you get the car running is leaks will show up in the brake lines. No matter - you can buy lengths of brake line for cheap, hand bend it, and replace as you go.

As the weather warms, this forum is the place to come and you are lucky to have found it. I figure you can get this car roadworthy for just a few hundred dollars total. I am jealous.

Kip On Truckin'

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1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

Adding my $0.02 about the brakes and the single pot master. I had my first accident a month before my 17th birthday because mine died. On the way to buy another one!

You are just starting out, and you'll learn best by doing it yourself. I put my first engine together at 16, and never forgot the lessons I learned. It has become a nice, rewarding hobby. You have a great start on a decent ride!

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If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

Get to know the "Mopar" guys at the junkyard. Parts and knowledge, you can't beat that.

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Thanks Mike

Alright, the car should be here at the new house on Monday. The guy who I am making a website for is paying to move it for me.

Still haven't got that number for the junkyard. I guess I'll have to call around, try to find it myself.

When doing the brakes, should I do them one at a time with a floor jack, or suck it up and buy a pair of jack stands to use? Also, when using the jack/jack stands, should I put something like a board under it, since I have to be doing this on ground instead of concrete?

If you intend on doing much serious car work, I highly recommend jack stands. You should never put any part of your body under a car supported only by a floor jack. So long as the dirt is fairly solid and level, you don't need to put plywood under the jackstands, but it is a good idea.

Then again, if money is tight, you certainly can jack up one wheel at a time and do the brake work, just don't stick your feet under the car as you work. Remember, when it comes time to bleed the brakes you start at the wheel farther from the master cylinder and work your way closer- right rear, left rear, right front, left front.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Good luck with everything. My duster is my first car and I didnt know anything about cars. I still dont know much but I know more than the average person. I dont have anyone to help me work on my car, but its not all that bad, this site helps a lot!

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Ronnie
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2714941

good luck. brakes were the first things i wrenched away on on my car. replaced 2 wheel cylinders, master cylinder, and pads. I dont know about you, but i am super proud. i hate asking for actual physical- please help me turn the wrench- help. but with brakes, i felt it was ok to ask, as being able to stop was greater than my ego. Try to find someone to help if you decide to delve into the drums and replace the pads. drums. they are weird. And yeah, beer goes a long way as a form of compensation for help/repairs/parts.

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What's that fuzzy blue thing being hurled this way?
::stick::
BOOSH!!!

You want to do the brakes one wheel at a time, simply because if you get lost on how everything goes back together, you can always look at the other wheel for reference.

In my callow youth, the process was to jack up one wheel with the floor or bumper jack, then put the tire itself (or a spare tire) under the frame as a jack stand. Sure it's not a real jackstand, but it's safer than nothing.

You'll find that tools are something you aquire over a long period of time. I still have the same set of jackstands I bought when I was your age (in the 1800s). The upside? The slant six and car require the bareset minimum of hand tools, and almost no specialty tools of any kind.

Kip On Truckin

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1965 Valiant wagon Turbo slant (work in progress)
2000 Chevy 155" cargo van - The Abductor
1970 Newport convertible
1996 Buick Roadmaster Wagon
1966 CruiseAire motor home
1990 Toyota 1 ton box truck TURBO slant (scraped)

I never owned jackstands until I stopped doing repairs in my parent's driveway. My dad was crazy safety conscious, yet fantastically cheap (he grew up in the depression).

He (we) maintained a collection of CMU ("common masonry units" or "concrete masonry units," and mistakenly known as "cinder blocks") and 18" scraps of wood.

If money is tight (and time and storage space are not) just keep an eye on construction sites, curbs on garbage day and the "free" section of craigslist. Get yourself four 8" CMUs, four 4" solid CMUs, eight or twelve 2x6s @ 18", four or eight 2x4s @ 18" and four 1x4s @ 18". What you'll have is a full set of jackstands.

When working on anything apart from flat concrete, I find the scavenger version of jackstands to be a lot more stable then their store-bought counterparts.

They can get in the way when working on say a water-cooled VW or Subaru, but I cant foresee a problem with anything a factory ever stuck a slant in (except maybe a truck or van running big tires, in which case add eight more 8" CMUs to the list.)

My neighbor when I was kid, always had International and AMC-Jeep off-road vehicles. He kept blocks around that were four short lengths of railroad tie drilled through and countersunk, connected by all-thread and nuts. I would borrow them for stuff like pulling transmissions.

Good news. Today both the car and the service manual are here. Better news: The wheel unstuck somehow. Still going to replace all the brakes though.

Going to go to the radiator shop later on today. Hopefully they will say that it's in good enough shape to be fixed.

Alright went to the radiator shop. Asked the guy, he said $55 to clean and repair it. Maybe it's just me, or does that seem a little too cheap?

also make sure you and anyone who tried to take a wheel off the lugs of the left of the car turn right to loosen them the ones of the right turn left

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64 dart GT /225
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I NEED to throw a note of caution about the use of HOLLOW BLOCK "CMU'S".
For holding up a car Orentation and placement are critical as a hollow block can colapse very quickly. I use them too just be careful.
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered