Since I'll be at Fairchild AFB for a few years, I'm already looking at a project '75 Dart 225. Needs some body work from being in an accident, and to quote the guy I'm (most likely) buying it from, it "could use a slight frame pull just to be safe". What exactly does that mean? This would be the first car I've worked on that's been in a collision, so I wanna make sure I can do (or have done) everything that needs to be done to get it back in tip top condition.

Anyway, for the body work I'm wondering if there are any good metal shops in the Spokane, WA area; and if there are any places I could keep the car to work on it, since you pay by the hour to use the base shops, and I wanna have the engine out on a stand for quite a while to do a full rebuild.

_________________
'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

Sounds like it got hit hard enough that there was frame rail dammage. Needs to be taken to a body shop with a frame machine to straighten it out. Otherwise, you will likely not be able to align it properly. I would take a peak underneath the car and see if anything is suspicious, and I wouldn't even hand over the cash until you take it to the frame machine. Depending on how much damage is done there is a chance that it may only be repairable by cutting and welding new frame sections on.

Good idea. He lives in (I think) Illinois, so I'll see if he can take some pics and send 'em my way. I'll post any and get your opinions on it. Last time a price was mentioned, he was asking 750, but he's pretty much just wanting to get rid of it now, so I'll have to find out if he still wants that, or if he's goin for less. I'm getting pretty excited to build up a nice street rod if it all works out. It'll be a gift for my (now) fiance since her Dart is pretty much junkyard bound now

_________________
'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

Is she going to junk the car in the Seattle area? What's wrong with it? My son is looking for a Dart fixer-upper.

I don't know about metal shops, but Spaulding's Auto Parts in Spokane is the nicest junk yard I have ever been to.
-zorg

_________________

A SPOKANITE!!!

If you see a burgandy 73 four door Dart with a third light and an odd picture on the right side, wave. Anyway, Spalding is great, Pick'n pull is alright, and the one place with the crazy guy went out of business. The biggest thing is to call. As for metal shops, we don't have many, and the weather sucks to work outside on. You might try calling SCC, it's an extremely unlikely chance but they have garages, they might be so kind to allow you to use them. Basically in all honesty it sounds like you might be out of luck for an indoor place to work on. What you might try is get the frame professionally straightend, and then do all you work outside, unless you're planning on restoring your car to perfect condition summer is a great time to work, once you get all the body work done(outside), get the paint job done by a professional. For open wounds(places you've just worked on), use some acid-etch primer, that stuff is great, you can get it many places but my favorite place is an auto paint shop on market street, the guy's nice and it's easy to find. Also, you have a wrecking you right accross from the AFB, it's fairly good, last time I was their it had four Darts, though most have been picked barren

_________________
My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.

Oh, for body work in the Spokane area the last place I went was Maaco, they can do cheap to good, if you're going cheap they're really nice but you have to check the work really well, if you do find something wrong with their work they'll quickly fix the problem.(Maaco on Francis).

_________________
My car may be slow to sixty, but at least it's been reliably slow to sixty for more than thirty years.

That's one of the things that irks me, is that her dad still owns it, doesn't want it driven, is too lazy to work on it himself, too cheap to have it done, too paranoid to let someone (me) work on it for free, and refuses to junk it, so it's sitting in the driveway rotting and rusting away while nothing gets done about it. Very sore subject between me and him, because I've wanted to take it off his hands for a long time and just let her keep it and drive it while I maintain it.

_________________
'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me