So, I've finally got some decent pictures of my car, and a few from the mass that have been taken rebuilding the engine from a 74 Dart with 134k original miles that I'm swapping into it.
A little history first:
I got my Dart nearly two years ago (Summer of '06) when I lived in Seaside, California (Monterey Bay area). It's an original California car, had the black plates and all til I moved to Oregon (those plates are now hanging on my wall.) It had been sitting for a while in a guy's front yard, he had it up for sale because he just didn't want it anymore - him and his friend had traded it back and forth for about ten years prior, and he knew he was just gonna let it sit. So I snagged it, and after putting some work into the brakes it became my daily driver. After a couple months the engine developed a crack in the exterior of the block on the driver's side, right over a water jacket, but I kept driving it and fixing little things here and there. Since I started going through the auto program at the local community college, I've done some more work, but still not too much - been pouring all my money into the engine!
Anyhow. It's completely stock, 9" drums, all manual everything, auto transmission. I tore the donor engine apart a bit, had The Other Rob machine the head down .100" for me. I'm replacing all the main gaskets, replaced the timing chain and top sprocket (keeping the nylon toothed one for fun!!) and the water pump. Putting a Super Six setup on there and doing the HEI conversion. Hopefully this will get done soon.
Of course, it was all sunny and nice yesterday, when we were working in the shop getting grime and rust off things, and now that The Other Rob and I have to go crawling through junkyards, it's raining.

So, pictures!!





Yes, my car is extremely dirty. I'm really bad about washing my cars - this one has only been washed once, and that's right before I took it to the local Friday Night car show in Seaside when I first got it. Otherwise, I let Oregon weather do the work.





The interior is trashed, no carpet, rust on the floorboards (surface only though), I repadded the seats as you can see, the back seat's fabric is actually nearly whole, but I never got to patch up the front one. Eventually I'll get around to making new covers - knowing how to sew never came in so handy.







A couple shots of the block on the stand, getting cleaned and ready to put back together.


Future mods include the 2.25 exhaust (I really want to put duals with cherry bombs.. but I might restrain myself), overhaul suspension and replace everything I can, hopefully disk brakes, swapping the headlights out to modern style ones, and a long way down the road fixing the rust holes and interior.
I'm planning on being out at the Woodburn races, if I have the money. I'm way looking forward to it!

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<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

Nice ride I have always liked the 64-66 Darts. I'm pretty much doing the same work to my 67' 4 door. I just finished the disc brakes up last week. I'm going to pull the motor and replace all the gaskets and timing chain here within the next week or so. New head with over sized valves shaved .100, then it's off to the body shop. Have fun!

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Nice little cruiser! Cool you can sew! There are very cool and easy mods available to those with access to a walking foot machine.

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

Thanks you guys!
Awesome. I don't know how to do piping, but other than that I can pretty much do anything. I figure I'll probably design a few different possibilities for the interior and then decide on one I like and go with it.

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<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

Piping is easy ....you use a piping foot and some appropriate sized rope.

I have patterns for an A body trunk liner made from houseboat carpet. Waterproof and cozy for snowboards or groceries.

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

Can I get a copy of those from you, or could you tell me where to get them? That would be really nice to have - I have drum kit gear that spends a lot of time in the trunk and it would be nice to not have it getting scratched and banged up.

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<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

Lemme dig them up and sort out a way to post them.....you will have to size up one part cuz yor trunk is longer. No Big.

The houseboat carpet comes in lots of colours and is easy to sew. Just ask at a carpet place. I think I bought 2 yards and it was $30.

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

Thanks heaps, PM me whenever you find them and we'll sort out the details.

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<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

Just as an FYI,

JoAnn Fabrics on the south side (yo yo)... carries some automobile upholstery fabrics and sometimes carries 80/20 loop carpet...

-D.Idiot

I'll have to go check them out.. I usually go to the one on North Lancaster 'cos it's close. Thanks D.Idiot!

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<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

SHE'S ALIVE!!!

We started swapping out the engine on Wednesday over at Other Rob's house with our friend Henry and a fourth pair of hands when needed supplied by my boyfriend Chris. We got a late start (my fault) and ran into such issues as - exhaust manifold bolts that had been snapped off by previous engine owner that had to be drilled out, fun with switching out the rod linkage to cable, and figuring out a Lokar.

So somewhere in the evening we took a break and went back to my place cos I had been slow cooking dinner all day, ate, relaxed a bit. As I had to be at work at 6AM the next morning, and Rob and Henry didn't, they went back and kept working and got the new engine in.

Thursday Rob worked on it more while I was working then went off to work himself. Started getting the HEI components hooked in, worked with the gas pedal/throttle cable assembly to get that fitted, and.. well, he might be able to give more details, as I wasn't there.

Friday Rob worked on it a bit more, came and picked me up when I was off work as he didn't have to work that day, and we started trying to figure out why there was no spark to the engine. Did some electrical testing, couldn't quite narrow down the problem (we know the distributor isn't dropping down the resistance quite far enough, but it should still be enough for the coil to fire. So after some tinkering and a few calls to the Salem Mopar Tech Helpline (a.k.a. DusterIdiot) we decided to go raid the Volare sitting in the Pick'n'Pull not too far away for regular EI components for now. D.Idiot helped with explaining which wire went where, and supplied a Chrysler module, and we went back to the shop. We pulled the GM assembly and hooked in the regular EI stuff. After some coaxing and adjustments, we got the engine running!!! Yay!!

We noticed there's an exhaust leak somewhere, and the carb/timing still needs to be adjusted, and then there's just a few other things - valve lash, hooking up the gas pedal to the carb, and.. think that's about it..
so hopefully we can figure all those things out today, starting with the exhaust leak.

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<i>D'Artagnan</i>
<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v432/stephaniexchaos/dart/th_IMG_0326_zpsumhhfxi0.jpg">

The sound of you hard work running is so sweet! congrats!

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great look'n dart! keep up the good werk! i would love to some day see it in person.

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"Marilyn" 64 Dart GT & "Stella" 64 Valiant V100 Sedan - 63 Norton Project

Yea the night that we came over for food we left, got the engine in, put the pedal in, and did a few other things, then Henry came back over the next morning, and we got it all linked up to the transmission, torqued everything, and just put it all back together. I can still thank Henry for making the fan bolts tighter than the manifold bolts, which was a pain, because we had to pull the water pump, and didnt realize that I could remove the water pump with the fan attatched. Oh well.


Update from yesterday 31st 'o march, the car runs and drives fine, and we found out what was causing the problems with starting that we ran into after the swap.

When we got it running, it would start hard using the key, but would still start. It was hard to start because of an improperly timed dizzy, and the carb needed to be readjusted, but it still ran. So I managed to get it to the Salem Mopar Tech Helpline location, and DI proceeded to help me get the timing correct, and troubleshoot a few issues, and there is another thread under the engine category that has those outlined...

http://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28120


So we got that all fixxed, DI saw fit to give me an actual Super Six carb return spring bracket, and a different throttle bracket that would serve not only as the throttle, but also for the Lokar cable.

I got the Lokar cable to quit binding up (it was hitting the floorboard right where the kickdown lever was on the trans) by moving it to the side of the lever instead of on top. All I need to do now, is figure out a bracket to make the lokar cable work on the Holley 2280 carb it has on it.

Then figure out why the ignition switch quit functioning (I have suspicions).

At least Steph has her car back, which is good, and I havent gotten a call just yet asking me to come and fix it, so it must still be working. I will fire up my mad hacking voodoo skillz and fab up a bracket really quick to get it to work. Then she can see what kind of rubber it wil burn, and actually take it on the freeway!!! YAY!!!!


~The Other Rob~

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1984 D100 Shorty Custom
Certified Auto Appraiser - RevItUp Classic Appraisals
President - Cherry City Bombers CC
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

We need to back trace the wiring back to the old ballast resistor and make sure it's all rewired right, there are two wires that go to the ignition switch (one brown and one blue...)...

I suspect that the long blue one we gotta get back where it was, and make sure the brown one is wired into the new ballast resistor harness...



-D.Idiot