Hello all, new to sl6.org

I got this car more than a year ago, and the previous owner had already started to do a few modifications, and by modifications, I mean paint it, and chase down a heating issue, removing parts and causing it to overheat in the process, bend a pushrod, and drop an exhaust valve.

Needless to say, I drove it home like that, then drove it to work for a few weeks like that. I got the head rebuilt by a machinist friend of the family for $250 and popped it in. The car has driven like a brand new car ever since, except for the cooling components that are still missing, like a decent radiator, a fan shroud, and the seal that keeps the hood down in the front. Basically it heats up at 70mph after about 15 minutes, but under no other conditions.



ANYWAY -
This is definitly a budget build, and as such my materials reflect it sometimes.

The immediate future plans are to add a weber 38/38 to my new supersix manifold that I have sitting in the closet, and installing that system, and to buy a new sewing machine to get to work on the upholstery once and for all.


Part 1: The 225

Here's the intake I got, then modified... a little.



I shaved all the lettering and did a few other things to get ready for the Weber. Originally I was going to put the Carter BBD on it and go... but then I wanted to do something else. I guess it just works that way.

Here's how it sits now. I did a few more things, but I won't bore anyone.
Still needs to be dremeled a bit on the carb inlet, but that will wait till I have the new plate from the Weber to mount on there.



This is how it looked when I bought the car:



Running on 5 cylinders at the time.

The first thing I did when I had the head back on and it was running well, was take the cleaner lid, and modify it. I don't think it does anything really, except make it sound louder and I like the way it looks.



I cut the sides off





I painted the lid orange since the spray can was there, after removing all the old paint. The old filter didn't look right, so I went to the auto parts store and found one for $7.00 that looked better. I am not sure what car it was intended for but it was a Chrysler something.



I got the chrome valve cover, and then got bored with it. So I started playing with the old valve cover:













I eventually took the cover off and changed the design a bit, but I'll probably reuse it on a slant 6 car that is more involvedly themed that way.

SOmehow over time the engine bay wound up like this:



Tomorrow morning my Buick Elektra breather cap comes in and I can remedy the oil spitting pcv valve on this valve cover. Having no baffle is definitly no good. It slowly slithers oil down the hose and all over on occasion.

I forgot to mention, the car is a 1968 4 door dart. 270 trim. I'm also a carpenter by trade, so I tend to make things.

The interior was green, and the body was bronze... it did not match... at all. I vowed immediately to get rid of the green, and thus the project started...

Pureists probably wouldn't like my build at all I'd imagine...



This is what I started with, the green interior remnants, a blanket stapled to the trim by the back seat to cover the garbage rear seat, and a weird Pyle tape player installed into the dash. They butchered the dash to put it in, probably sometime in the early 90s. I also had to deal with some strangely colored Camaro, or possibly Corvette seats. They don't look bad, but the colors are just weird.



So I felt justified in butchering more.



And did some painting as well, nothing too fancy, but not green. At that time I at least had something to listen to.



The wheels on the left of the car were gray, and the right ones were red. I have no idea what possessed the Previous owner to do that, but I believe he should never spray paint anything again:





I pulled one wheel off at a time, and cleaned them up, and repainted them gloss white for now, till I can buy a new set of wheels. I got as much overspray off as I could too.



I got rid of the green wheel eventually, and also reupholstered the door panels in white vinyl, which I intend to change to a darker color. White is getting dirty too often.



I also replaced the ripped, gross green carpet with some black recycled carpet and some peel n seal flashing to help with some sound deadening.

From this:



To this:



It's good enough till February when I can buy a real carpet.

I got rid of the trim on the dash fascia, and got a 1970 style heater control cover. This eliminated the rest of the trim to the right of it. I sunk the radio faceplate in the dash more, and trimmed it, then added 6.5" speakers to both front doors, painted the upper and lower parts of the door panels flat black, and the dash pad, and made a custom gauge cluster for temperature, tach, and oil psi. Then swapped the steering wheel out for a more classic looking one.



I built that center console to house my door locking module. Yes, this dart has power door locks that are remote controlled. I ran power to all four doors for it, grommeted, and it works beautifully, and cost less than $60.00 for all the parts I needed.



I tried cutting holes in the rear parcel shelf to access the 6x9 mounting locations there, but wound up practically destroying the fiberboard material in the process, so with a contour gauge, I sat in the back, and measured, and gauged, and measured, and gauged till I had a pattern to make a new shelf out of MDF.



I wrapped it in black vinyl and mounted it, then installed speakers. It made my previous seat cover look dated and dumb...



... so it was time to adress the lion in the room, or rather what looked like someone left a lion in the car.

It's so pretty...



At the time, I also purchased some shoulder 3 point belts for the front seats, and newer lap belts (that weren't green) for the back seat, so I pulled all the old seat belts too.



Here's some in place:



Then I used these up front; military surplus HUMVEE belts. They worked awesomely, but i had to drill into the pillars and rivet some brakcets on them to work with these. The original shoulder belt points put the seatbelt across my face.



Since this car is my daily driver to and from work, and also carries my two children, originality is not a main concern. I'd rather have some sturdy safety equipment. The old seatbelts were impossible to work with the carseats I have. These fit through the mounting points and tighten down way better in the backseat.

Since I still don't have a sewing machine to make my new seat upholstery yet, I had to settle for making a cover. $20 worth of fabric at the fabric store, and some cool Orangeish vinyl that matches the exterior and a shark grey color, along with some hog rings, I came up with a cover:







Not perfect yet, but much better.

I scored this setup for $40 a little while ago and installed it. It fit nice.



I also made a custom subwoofer box and speaker grill; the amp sits in the dash where the glovebox used to be.









I also had a custom stripe made, and spent a whole day installing it. I had it made in the idea of sticking with a supersix carter setup on the car, but I still like the stripe, so it stays, lol.







There's still lots going on with the car and more being improved as I obtain more money for playing with it, but it's come quite a ways.

Great looking ride you have there. Original is good, but preservation of the car is better. And for a daily driver, a good radio, and good seat belts go a long ways.

Kool!

_________________
Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

nice,,

Thanks guys. Yeah I wanted something for driving literally everyday, and because of that, seat belts were a necessary change. Plus my kids ride in the back in carseats and those aircraft buckles in the back were impossible to lock them down. That, and during drives my son would reach down and play with the buckle and popped it free once. After that I said no more, and got some more modern mesh belts in there with clips and buttons they couldn't reach.

Onto what I've been doing recently, upholstery.



Got rid of all this garbage looking stuff, and got myself a sewing machine. I think the outcome is good on the back, now I'm redoing the front buckets.







Also my weber 38/38 DGAV came in the mail. I can't wait for the kickdown cable to come as well so I can hook this on.

Looks awesome bud!! Being able to work with wood and fabric materials is a huge life saver it seems, just the little bit you do makes a huge difference! Im defiantely watching the progress on this

_________________
"if it aint broke, fix it till it is"
78 Plymouth Volare Super Six wagon
89 Volkswagen Golf GTI 16v
92 Chevrolet K1500 5.7
98 Ford Escort ZX2 zetech

Great car and nice work! Glad you are enjoying your 68 Dart on the road.

Slant on,

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Thanks guys. Again these are all small modifications so I can always drive the car the next day. After the weber went on, I put on a bigger radiator. I've been chasing a freeway overheat issue and have had no luck with anything else. I had a stock replacement radiator and went to a larger aluminum one. So far it cools a little better but I have not tested it on a long drive yet.



I also mounted my set of aluminum Outlaw II's in the rear, and put some 245/60 R14's on them. That drastically changed the look - without the stock skateboard wheels on there supporting a ship. It looks a lot more interesting. I just made the front wheels cop-wheel style till I could find a set of some thin aluminum wheels for up front.



These are probably as big as one would want under a stock setup on the 68. I did a bit of research before I picked this size. I did not want to come home and cry because my new tires didn't fit.



I rolled the lips of the wheel wells out about 3/8" and they do not rub. I also added some spring helpers to de-sag the rear and keep the tires from tapping the wheel wells.



It's starting to look more like a "muscle" car. lol. I still have the 225 sticker on the window so people don't want to race, but that still doesn't keep the little imports from "blowing me away" while I sit at a stop light then casually roll out.







I also ran a seperate circuit of LED lights to be used as daytime running lights. They operate within the headlight bezel and the stock parking light lenses. I can turn them off and on at will for a dodge or bmw looking front end.



MY next idea I think is to replace the carpet. I am using some recycled autozone stuff for carpet now. Anything was better than the torn up astro-turf mopar green carpet that was in there. It looks like it would run about $150 though, so it's gotta wait..

I love your ingenuity and the love you're giving your Dart.

Slant on!

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Dude, this is really impressive work.



I don't know if you have any interest in road racing, but with fabrication skills and artistic ability like that, you would be a great additon to a 24 Hours of LeMons team. Plenty of 'em in California, too.

_________________
Somehow I ended up owning three 1964 slant six A-bodies. I race one of them.
Escape Velocity Racing

How'd you fab up those headlight halos? I'd be extremely interested in a how-to article on that... hint hint

Sharp car btw!

Looking Good!

_________________
65 Dart station wagon slant 6 - now under construction
47 Dodge Custom 4 Door sedan
87 D100 Short Bed slant 6

Retired USAF 1966-1986
Retired US Postal Service 2004-2014

I always wanted to do more professional car stuff, but I am not as knowledgable as some of the people I see on forums. I always assume someone has beat me in skill, but that doesn't mean i don't like making stuff, and changing stuff.


The halos, the headlight ones themselves are store-bought HID projector lenses with LED halos on them. I do not like the "projection" lens itself so I am making a set of my own and will have a more solid looking halo. I will get the write-up going once I crack open some headlights.

For the center markers I got a 8" strip of LED's each, and bent them into the plastic lense. They are tight enough that they just stay still, and attached them to the relay on the halos for the headlight ring as well. They were about $4.00 for 4 lengths. I plan on putting the other two in the back on some abs plastic and making a cool lateral pattern of led's in the tail lights. I also have an idea to make two panels that light up red, that fit above and below the "dodge" trunk panel so it looks like a racetrack light, straight across.

Finally ditched the deteriorating Camaro/Corvette seats that came with the car, and found a really nice bench seat in good shape for $60. It had been recovered and was sitting in a 69 dart 4 door. So it bolted perfectly. I had to make some adjustments to my Humvee seatbelts in the front and mounted the coils on an extension to the floor. Basically now, instead of them being bolted to the stock seatbelt location, there is two bolts holding a piece of thick aluminum to the car, and the seat belt coiler mounts to the center of it. It is strong, and probably stronger than the original mount. I am still considering ways to "beef up" the spot where the pivot goes on the center of the pillar. I am thinking maybe another aluminum plate, with 4 rivets holding it on, and a carriage bolt facing out with a 9/16" bolt. We'll see.



Eventually I'll fire up the sewing machine and make a set of covers for this seat as well to match the back, but I'll need another 4 day vacation from work to do it. This time it will be an actual cover because it seems unnecessary to destroy the ones that are there.



IF only I could find some cheap (for me) headers to swap out so it looks more interesting...