Alright, so I've got my shop completely cleaned out and ready for another big project. Yesterday I moved the wagon into the E.R. and began stripping parts in anticipation for the upcoming overhaul. Here's the plan: Two door hardtop conversion using Canadian '66 Valiant (ie: '66 Dart); fuel injection using a (hopefully) known good late model peanut head slant; disc brake conversion; headliner and a few other esthetic upgrades and finally full body work and two tone paint scheme. Good luck me.

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Keep us posted! Hopefully your project will move faster than my brother's....

Haha, I'm a "get-shit-done" kinda guy so it should move quick. Body work always slows the party down a bit though.

Hey, can you confirm that the '66 Dart hardtop doors have the same body line as my '64 valiant. I know that you work in the bizz so thought you might know. They sure look right.

Here's the donor. I hope to drag it home next week.

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All '63-'66 A-body doors have the same body line. The '63 doors don't fit '64-up cars because different latches. See the photos you yourself posted in post № 7 of this thread.

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

Listen to Dan! The only bizz I work in is the legal bizz. I don't often research out the interchangeability of early 60s Dodge Dart doors (unfortunately). I have been involved with cases that had old Mopars involved in the crimes...

Thanks (again) and apologies for my redundancy, It's just that our hybrid Canadian cars keep me guessing when it comes to interchange. On a side note, I did some research with a company that sells the AP5 wagon venetian blinds and based on the measurements that I supplied them on our American V-100 wagon their blinds will be too short.

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There were two different sets of quarter glass for the AP5-AP6-VC ('63-'66) wagons in Australia. Early-build cars had bodies sourced from North America and used the same quarter glass and quarter glass seals. Starting in the middle of AP6 production sometime in 1965, local Australian bodies were used and the quarter glass and seals are different; don't know the dimensional particulars, but I'm shocked if it's enough to make a difference to the venetian blinds. Maybe it is, though; if so you'd need AP5 + early AP6 items. You might shop around at some of the other outfits that offer this kind of venetian blind; which place did you check?

The Canadian hybrid A-bodies used all US body panels and parts (except the Canada-only '65 2-door sedan), no different bodylines in the parts themselves.

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

Got the wagon all stripped out and ready for chemical paint stripping and sanding so I can see where I'm at body-wise. There are already a handful of spots with the evil brown cancer that I hadn't detected beforehand. Other than that I'm feeling pretty good about breaking this job into achievable bits and just going hard. I also dragged the two door parts car home last night and will start stripping it out as well.

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B-pillars removed and two door doors mocked up for fitment of new section. Big cutting day planned for tomorrow night and there is already an unforseen hurdle that will have to be dealt with. To be continued.

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Are you going to have a 2 door or have small rear suicide doors?

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Haha, two door hardtop but your idea is good too.

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Alright, so we've got both new B-pillar/rear window supports in place and now need to spend some time getting the glass to fit properly. Looks like we will need to do some inner wheel house surgery in order to get the clearance for the window slider but that's o.k. Then it's onto finish welding and paint stripping. You can see in the photos below where the old B-pillars used to be mounted to the sill plate and the section that we removed for window clearance in the other.

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Alrighty, it's been a while since my last update but you haven't been missing much, trust me. Lots of metal stripping, grinding, welding, more grinding and panel bashing but I'm getting into the groove now that my busy season is behind me. I've got the hood and fenders in descent enough shape metal-wise, that they are ready for epoxy primer. The gate is stripped and showing off my weak metal surgery from 15 years ago. It's in really rough shape as you can see. Swiss cheese anyone? I might just ignore it for a while and move onto the doors. Stay tuned.

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your metal-body working skills are awesome,

very cool project you have going..

back in the day my dad had a 64 Dodge B body wagon that had those large air wings on the rear pillars..