The Lawn Dart

[Deceus]

So to keep the urge to set the car on fire at bay, I figured making a build thread here to remind me how far I've come. It's a 1973 Dodge Dart Sport I bought like 12 years ago when I turned 16. It was $800 and hardly ran but I thought it was pretty cool at the time. Drum brakes all around, I'm pretty sure I was only running 4 cylinders and a few shot bushings in the front end made for quite a few interesting experiences in my teens. The final nail in coffin for this thing after I bought my Challenger was a pinhole leak in my power steering line that left me stranded in the Outerbanks shortly after I graduated college. It sat in my parent's backyard for like 2-3 years before I decided I either needed to put it down or fix it up.

The original goal was to just swap over a V8 and disc brakes from a 74 donor car I bought. Was really just looking to do something that didn't involve bar tabs and/or failed relationships. The more I dove into this car and looked at parts/other projects, the more I wanted to do.

Here's some history to start:

Shortly after I first bought it:



The motor crapped out on me the next summer. I melted a rod bearing somehow so we did a total rebuild.



Went to basic and when I came back I sent it off for body work and paint:



Drove it off and on during college but it mostly sat once I got my super sweet 91 S10.

[Deceus]

Here's what I started with:



Here's the donor I picked up for $600 (RIP)



Disassembly was pretty smooth with a few surprises like one of my balljoints being welded to the control.











Ended up selling the disc brake setup and going with tubular control arms. Still haven't put any of this on the car, still waiting on gauges to break in the engine and get it in the car.

[Deceus]

Now for the engine. I picked some late 80s swirlport close chamber heads for my 318 to pick the compression along with some zero decked Keith Black pistons. I went with an XE262 cam from Comp Cams to get a noticeable lope without losing any performance. This where I started going crazy with it, I decided I really like the custom brackets from March Performance and liked the idea of switching to a serpentine belt with an electric radiator fan for more horsepower to the tires. From this point all bets were off and figured if I was gonna drop that kinda money on a set of pulleys, the rest of the engine better look good too.

When it was pulled:


Everything was balanced and blueprinted


Donor 2:


Was a fun day getting the heads of that


Heads were port matched and bigger valves were put in

[Deceus]

The engine is just sitting for now. Haven't fired it up yet but hopefully it won't be long. I decided to pickup a 1971 front end and clone the car into a Dodge Demon. Drove from Fairfax, Va to New Jershey to Newport News back to Fairfax in order to pick this up. Was a decent price but they were in pretty bad shape. I'll likely have to replace it all once I get serious about painting it again.



I decided to just buy an assembled transmission. I watched a few videos on how to rebuild and modify mine to how I wanted but decided it wasn't worth the hassle. Didn't really have the shop space to do it properly either. For the rear I pulled a Ford 8.8 out of a 1998 Ford Explorer. Disc brakes, limited slip diff and 3.73 gears for $180. Didn't take the easy way out on this one and rebuilt the whole thing myself. Went with an Eaton trutrac diff so I didn't have worry about clutches wearing out. Reused the axles, ring and pinion though. Converting it over was as easy as cutting the old spring perches off, measuring a lot and welding new ones on.

[Deceus]

That's pretty much as it sits right now. I've been trying to bend new brake lines for it but it's been a YUGE pain in the ass. Never touching stainless steel brakelines ever again. The only real forward progress I've made in the past 3 weekends on it, is getting a bracket made for the hydraulic handbrake I got for it. I'm actually going to try and drift this thing and I'm pretty excite to see just how bad of idea this is.



Here's just some odds and ends that make a bulk of the work. A lot of cleaning, grinding and painting more than anything really.

Trunk lid:




Trunk






Floorpans were bad









Decided the black engine bay wasn't nearly as cool as I originally though so I painted it to match the car





Painted the interior black



Start of the new brake system



That's it for now. I give the brakes one more weekend before the car is either going over a cliff or sent to someone else to do. Going with Nickle Copper lines so I shouldn't have any issues getting it done the next time I'm down. Feel free to ask any questions.

[Deceus]

Future plans: I definitely need swaybars, better shocks, better calipers+rotors and subframe connectors. From there I'm not quite sure. I might go with drop spindles on the front depending on how it sits. From there I'll probably plastidip or wrap the car until I have the money and patience for body work since it's bad in a few spots. Ultimate goal would be to drop a 6.4L from an SRT8 with forged internals and whipple twin screw supercharger, convert to rack and pinion steering and have an overall look of something like this:

[ScottyB]

awesome! we haven't had a good build thread in a long time. your dart rules, keep it going man.

so wait, am i looking at a slant 6? you managed to kill one? i...didn't know that was possible. did you fill the oil pan with mountain dew and piss?

I'm actually going to try and drift this thing and I'm pretty excite to see just how bad of idea this is.

YES. do not think this through any further, this is now what you're doing with this car

[Apoc]

Whoa, an actual project in a project thread. Nice.

[Senor_Taylor]

This section is for exhausts and window tint only.

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

[Jake]

I love this.

Someone needs to get Jeff back on the forums, he'll nerd out SO hard.

[Deceus]

so wait, am i looking at a slant 6? you managed to kill one? i...didn't know that was possible. did you fill the oil pan with mountain dew and piss?

So many WTF moments tearing it apart. It was very clear this was the first rebuild ever done on the engine. I still drove it home on the melted rod bearing. Turned the crank .010, bored it .010 over and it was good to go.

[Deceus]

So got some quotes from one of the shops i emailed this past weekend about buttoning up the car once the engine was in...

$500 to bend and install the brake lines
$300 to install the ratchet shifter
$3000 to install my Ron Francis wiring kit

Pure insanity but I'm sure the old guys that have more money than time pay it all the time. Definitely not going that route and will be finishing this thing myself it looks like. Found a really good way to simplify my brakelines by going through the inner fenders. Originally I was just going to drill a hole and use a grommet but the only grommets I found that would work were $18 a piece and I need 4. Going to buy some -3AN to 3/16 flare bulkhead adapters so I don't have to worry about the hardline rubbing against any sheetmetal at all. This will allow me to run a braided flex line from the outside of the inner fender straight to the caliper and not have to bend the hard-line down and around the frame rails.







Got the idea and the pics from this vid: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mNbssuPvXk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mNbssuPvXk</a><!-- m -->

Just need a set of -3 AN to Banjo braided brake hoses and I should be in business. Since it seems pointless to continue rushing this build only to have it done in the middle of winter I'm thinking of saving up for the front brake kit and doing that all at once. If it pushed the build back a month, it really doesn't matter at this point.

[Deceus]

Had a really good weekend on the car finally. Got the brake lines done on Friday without any real trouble. Nickle copper is 100X easier to work with over stainless steel. Got the spark plug wires and dipstick fitting done so the engine is pretty close to firing up now. Finally convinced my dad to drop the idea of making a run stand for break-in. It's just too damn difficult with a mopar small block because the starter mounts to the transmission bell housing.



MUCH easier than bending the lines all way down and around the frame rails like the stock ones. Just need 2 -3AN 90 degree couplers for the hand brake lines and brake plumbing is 100% done.









This came about because the stock dipstick was in the way of the March Performance brackets I have on the front of my engine. I thought "no problem I'll buy a flexible dipstick from Lokar" WRONG. They don't make them for most Chrysler engines. I asked about the "universal" one they sell and the guy said I'd need an oilpan with a 1/4 NPT fitting for it to work. So I began brainstorming and came up with this. The black powder-coated stainless steel dipstick was just too cool to not have on this engine.

[Deceus]

Had a wedding to be at this weekend so even though I drove down to Newport News I only had time to paint my transmission. Operation make everything black and green is almost complete.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Woohoo looking good man!!

[Deceus]

Got my run stand built for the most part. Will be out of state the next 2 weekends but when I get back hopefully I'll be firing it up.

[JPVA]

Looks great Chris!

[Senor_Taylor]

Man, that thing is pretty! I guess he talked you into it!

[ScottyB]

man, that's a pretty engine.

[Deceus]

Man, that thing is pretty! I guess he talked you into it!

Yeah we ended up hacking up his old brewery stand. It'll be easy to put back together and low enough to roll under the car. Had to buy a bellhousing and he got the flywheel. Once we're done with the break-in I'm going to assemble everything I can on the stand and we'll wheel the engine and trans in all once under the front of the car. Really hoping to get it up here by April for the show. Probably won't be Autocross ready but will be fine for a show and cruise.