1973 Dodge Dart project.....

[48Dodger]

I do side jobs, to pay for...well....for bills. While chattin' with Dave online, we decided we should OT the projects we've been working on.

I picked up this job over a year ago. It belongs to a 20 year old man who joined the Air Force. Started to dig around, and see what was under the cheap paint job, and found typical rust and dents. But the biggest problem was the former sunroof. About 3/4 inch of body filler and a lot of warpage due to over welding. It needed a donor roof and windshield (damaged from welding splatter). It also had some really bad panel rot in the normal areas of a Dart from this year. The "kid" gets his ride back next week. He drove it with missing chrome, rattle can primer repair, bubbling body filler, heavily warpped roof, and body rot. And just like a lot of us here, he loved every minute of it!! He and his Mom and Dad have stopped by serveral times and are great people.

 

I'm posting roughly 83 pictures, and when I take some delivery pics....I'll post those too. Like I told Don Coatney, and Billie when they stopped by, I'm taking a break after this project to paint "The Brick"......my Bonneville racer. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

 

48D  

 

p.s. In the back ground you'll see a lot of different trucks. A red 1966 Ford truck (customer), blue1951 Chevy truck (cutomer), 1948 Dodge Panel (mine), 1950 Dodge 1/2 ton in primer (customer), The Brick, 1985 Blazer (parts truck), 1938 dodge 1.5 ton (mine), 1947 Dodge 1.5 Ton (mine)  

Edited October 11, 2013 by 48dodger

[48Dodger]

The repairs begin.......  

[GlennCraven]

This is about to be one of my favorite threads ever. Thanks!

[48Dodger]

Rain water gets past the old felt and settles into the lower body panels. If you look you'll see a "fold" in the pinch weld from the factory that allows the water to pass through. Years of scale rust and debris clogged it and caused the body rot. I used to race a 74 Dart and had this 74 parts vehicle for it. Cut the roof and quite a few patches from it. Fiberglass body filler is used in the first layer because its water proof/resistant. Otherwise the regular body filler will bubble, get soft and delaminate when exposed to moisture.  

 

48D

[48Dodger]

The story was the same on all corners of the Dart. The other damage repair was getting the panel edges to line up better.....took a little tweeking to get it done.

 

For those who haven't seen it before.....the cooper posts are from a Stud Welder. You put a slide hammer over them and smack away. I also have a hand held grip that I grab the studs with to make gentle pulls to fine tune it.

 

48D

[48Dodger]

The roof.

 

Cut the donor. Drill the spot welds out. Pull the drip rail down. Break the spot welds. Pop the skin off the roof frame. Very slow and tedious...lol. 

 

Saving the roof bows because the sunroof didnt have them. Infact the roof frame itself is a different part number, so I had to make up a set of braces for one of the bows.

 

48D

[48Dodger]

The Cut.

 

Made multiple passes to pace myself through the process to get the fitment right. 

 

 

48D

[Dave72dt]

That's a lot of welding yardage in the roof and a huge warp potential.  I had about the same with the hood on the '48. I didn't have to deal with any rust though.  Looking forward to the rest of the photos as well.

[GlennCraven]

That's a lot of welding yardage in the roof and a huge warp potential.  I had about the same with the hood on the '48. I didn't have to deal with any rust though.  Looking forward to the rest of the photos as well.

 

I kinda liked her with the giant sunroof. ... Coulda made her a glass-top, too. 

[48Dodger]

That's a lot of welding yardage in the roof and a huge warp potential.  I had about the same with the hood on the '48. I didn't have to deal with any rust though.  Looking forward to the rest of the photos as well.

Yah, to cut down on the warp potential, I used my 110 mig welder. I can control the heat better.

 

 

I kinda liked her with the giant sunroof. ... Coulda made her a glass-top, too. 

lol...yep, with a little trim work, it coulda passed as a convertible...lol

 

48D

[48Dodger]

After cleaning up the edges and grinding off the burrs etc....I started to fine tune the fit and kill the scale rust.

 

Rust treatment: Sand the crap out of the parts. Spot sand blast with SpeedBlaster. Soak/wipe with phosphoric acid. Give it a good soda bath. spray with an etching primer( has acid in it). Spray with Epoxy primer (has high content of resins for sealing off air/moisture).   

 

48D

[pflaming]

After seeing 48's work, I think I will quit posting pictures. What skill, just amazing. I will study a number of these pictures very  closely. That will be a nice ride when it is all completed. 

[48Dodger]

It's complete Paul.....taking a bit of time to post all these pictures.

 

Your work is fine.....you have your own style and flare. I admire that.

 

48D

[48Dodger]

Fitting the roof and bows.

 

Cut some backing plates to reinforce the new seams. I used rosette welds to make it really tough.

I got to the point where the roof just fell into place without being forced.

 

It was at this point I cut the bows and welded them in.

 

48D

[48Dodger]

Carefully....slowly.....I tacked in the roof, than welded in every spot weld location.

After grinding, filling, primering and painting the edges of the glass openings, the glass went in.

At that point the car was taped off for the first of many coats of primer for the first of many passes of block sanding.

 

I like to air block the first pass to find all the rough spots and get them out of the way. Then do a softer Urethane coat for the final hand blocking. I make lots of notes on the car to myself about what I find so I don't have to remember. lol.

 

48D

 

Note to Paul: That last picture is why you block sand. See where the black paint (guide coat) didn't get sanded off? That is a low spot that has to be handled. Those are shallow depressions you can't see with the naked eye on a satin finish (primer).....but as soon as it gets shiny paint on itself...ooooh boy can you see it. lol 

Edited October 11, 2013 by 48dodger

[48Dodger]

Putting the Dart on the lift to work on the wheel wells etc...

 

I ground off the trim studs earlier in the process and now needed to level out the factory warpage done by spot welding in said trim studs. lol. Welded in the screw holes for the wheel well chrome too.

 

I discovered that the rear valance under the bumper was damaged at one time and fixed with a bunch of bondo. This was kinda of a theme with this car. I pulled it off, which was easy, because 70 percent of the bolts were missing. I removed the old filler, banged out the dents, shaped it, cleaned out the dent puller holes, back filled the holes to protect from water/moisture with fiberglass, and finished off the panel with a skim layer of body filler. I replaced all the hardware and primered it before the final install.

 

48D   

Edited October 11, 2013 by 48dodger

[48Dodger]

More pimer and block sanding. More primer and then a final block sand.

Then we removed panels for jam primer/painting. There were a few holes

that were welded on the outside that needed to be dressed up on the inside as well.

 

We painted inside, then brought them outside to cure. After the paint toughen up, we

bolted everything back together.

 

Then came the messy, painful, time consuming, backbreaking, job of wet sanding.

 

48D   

[48Dodger]

48D

Edited October 11, 2013 by 48dodger

[48Dodger]

Base coat / Clear coat ( two-stage or bc/cc) with a 1973 Chrysler E5 Red....the original color of this car. 

 

At this point, there was still the cutting and buffing to do.....but all downhill from here. I put it on the trailer to bring it up higher to work on the lower panels. 

 

Its almost together now.....just finishing the last round of polishing.

 

 

48D

 

  

 

 

Edited October 11, 2013 by 48dodger

[Don Coatney]

Having seen this car in person I congratulateTim on a job well done.

 

[GlennCraven]

What skill, just amazing. I will study a number of these pictures very  closely.

 

I agree. These could be the illustrations for a body shop textbook.

 

 

 

Your work is fine.....you have your own style and flare. I admire that.

 

48D

 

I agree with this, too!

[48Dodger]

Thanks Glenn...what a cool thing to say.

 

48D

[HanksB3B]

I never sae this thread befor.  Tim you continue to amaze me.  That Dart turned out great !

 

hank 

[48Dodger]

Thank you Hank.

 

On the old forum, it was easy to see all the threads.....haveta work a little harder on this new site, but I think the good out weighs the bad.

Been thinking about posting the current project...my 1968 R/T. Of course it would be another OT, but its by far one of my favorite rusted bits of metal. The plan is to work on "The Brick", my brother's B2B and the R/T at the same time and finish under a year. I'm testing my managment skills...lol. Oh, not to mention I'll be fitting in Paul's Saburban too. The R/T I've had for 17 years, and have had it running at different times....but the last 10 years has been tough on it. I've let a lot of areas get worse, I've stolen parts off of it, sold parts, and the dog jumped in it thinking a rabbit was there, and destroyed what interior was left...ouch.

 

48D   

Edited November 5, 2013 by 48dodger

[48Dodger]

Just thought I'd finish with the delivery of the Dart.......I towed it to the owner's house about an hour from my house.

 

48D