Pro Touring 68 Dart convertible

[Burdar]

Picked up the steel for the frame connectors today. 8' of 1x2 (.125 wall) rectangular tubing and 2' of 1" OD round tubing $28.89

That first cut into the frame rail is going to be tough to make lol. I'm most worried about getting the rectangular hole in the right spot on the angled frame. if I'm too high I can always lower it but then there will be a gap on top. Just going to have to take my time.  Need to finish up the project I'm working on now before starting on these though.

Thanks for the idea and pics Brad!

[YellowThumper]

Thanks for bringing it over here.
I will be following. Good stuff for sure. Connectors will be in my future.


Mike.

[Burdar]

Continuing the disassembly...

[soundcontrol]

Very cool car!
Following.

[Burdar]

Before I even picked up the car I saw a Craigslist ad for an A-body K-member/suspension setup.  At $250 I thought it was a good buy.  It originally came out of a 72 340 Demon IIRC.  At the time I was planning on converting to the KH disc brakes as well as converting to manual steering.  It came with both of those items.  It also had nice LCAs with swaybar tabs and straight strut rods.


I ended up deciding to stay with power steering and chose to go with larger brakes.  I listed the KH brake setup online and sold it for $200.  The same guy bought the original 7 1/4 rear end for $35.(I thought I'd have to scrap it)  So, I was left with a nice K-member, good LCAs with sway bar tabs, strut rods, sway bar and a manual steering box for $50. 

I sent the K-member to the powdercoaters.  I had him completely weld the perimeter of the K, box in the steering mounts and reinforce the LCA pivot pin hole.  On A-bodies its somewhat common to have that LCA hole break the welds.  Since it was originally from a 340 car, it already had the extra half washer around the hole but I had it beefed up more anyway.  I also had him weld on the bracket for the Schumacher engine torque strap.

When I got the K back, I noticed a dent in the bottom that I didn't really care for.  I decided to make a skid plate to cover the area and since the car is going to be lowered, it really needs one.   I made a template out of cardboard, transferred it to metal and bent it to shape.  I gave the K back to the powdercoater to have the skid plate welded on and recoated.










I also cleaned up the LCAs and had a friend reinforce them for me.  He added the Firm Feel stiffening plates as well as a small strap near the LBJ.  The small strap is probably doing more to stiffen the LCA then the other plates are.  I also had him add some extra welds to the sway bar tabs.  Then they went off to powdercoating.

[Burdar]

Since I want the front really low, I picked up a used set of Magnumforce 2" drop spindles.  I've seen people lower their A-bodies a lot with stock spindles but it puts the UBJ at a really sharp angle.  I was worried about a UBJ failure at that angle so these drip spindles should help with that.  The only unknown is if I'll be able to fit the wheels I want with them.  With a stock spindle you can run a lot of backspacing to where the tie rod is actually inside the wheel.  With the drop spindle, you are limited with how much backspace you can run before the tie rod hits the wheel lip/tire.  Just a quick measurement, it looks like 5" backspace is going to be the max.  The 73+ spindle already increases the track width of the 72 and earlier cars.  I don't have a lot of room before I'll hit the wheel lip.  I need to buy one of those wheel fitment tools to really see what I can and can't fit up front.


I made a stand to store the suspension/engine/trans on and still be able to move it around the garage as needed.  Here is the partially assembled K on the stand.

[Burdar]

I think the next thing I worked on was the steering column.  I originally restored it with the intention of using a manual steering box.  I separated the upper and lower steering shafts and replaced the lower one with a longer manual steering piece.  After I decided to stay with power steering, I had to disassemble the column and swap out the lower steering shaft again.  It was a pretty quick process.

Here's what I started with. Pretty nasty.










The lower bearing was missing one of it's ball bearings and it was seized to the shaft.




I think a stock replacement lower bearing was like $85.  I decided to do the bearing upgrade that cost only $12.  I had to slightly shorted the inner "shift tube" so it would clear the new bearing.(not sure what the correct name is for that part)  I think in a column shift application it's what moves the gear shift linkage.  On a floor shift application it does nothing but cover the steering shaft so shortening it wasn't an issue.



When I assembled the column for the first time, the steering shaft didn't turn freely and there was a weird noise when I turned the wheel.  It turned out that the spring at the bottom of the column was riding on part of the new bearing that turns with the steering wheel.  Whenever the bearing turned, the spring would kind of load and unload causing a noise and a binding of the steering shaft.  I couldn't just remove the spring because it holds up that "shift tube".  Without it there, the tube would be loose inside the column.


The fix I came up with is that I reused the plastic section of the original bearing.  I removed a little material around the perimeter of the plastic piece so it would slide completely inside the column jacket.  I also turned it upside down so there was a pocket for the spring to ride in.  Now the plastic piece rides on the outside of the new bearing which is stationary.  Kind of hard to explain when you can't see it in person but it worked out well.


To hold the two steering shaft halves together and still allow them to collapse in an accident, I drilled all the way through both pieces and inserted some 1/8" pins made from lexan.  I heated the end of a nail and used that to melt the ends of the pins so they would stay in place.  I was still worried about how much force it would take to collapse in an accident so I drilled out each pin with a 1/16" bit.




Here is the completed column.  These pics were taken with the longer manual steering shaft in place.  I reused the turn signal switch since it was still in good shape.  The plastic wiring connector was broken though so I had to buy a new one of those.  The ignition switch is on the dash in 68 so I didn't have to worry about that.  I used an inexpensive fine textured Rustoleum for the main column pieces and standard gloss black for the upper/lower attaching brackets.  The lower steering shaft and coupler were also sprayed gloss black.  I sprayed a matte clear over the textured paint to protect it and also try to cut down on some of the texture and make it smoother.

[Burdar]

While we're on the subject of steering columns I guess I'll post this now as well.  Here are a couple things I've just recently finished.

I'm going to use a leather tuff wheel on the car instead of the factory wheel.  When using a tuff wheel on an A-body you need an adapter.  I bought a reproduction adapter but it needed a slight modification to fit on the 68 column.  The adapter was first used in 1970 when the ignition switch was moved from the dash to the steering column.  They needed more room to fit the switch in there so they made the column larger.  In order to bolt the adapter to the earlier column I had to take a sandpaper wheel to the inside of the adapter to remove some material...otherwise the adapter and the upper column housing would touch and bind.  I got the adapter fitting but it looked really bad.


I saw a Dart at the Mopar Nats that had a custom trim ring at the end of the adapter.  It looked really good and helped transition from the small diameter column to the large diameter adapter.  So, recently my father-in-law helped me make a trim ring of my own.  We used his mill and lathe to make the trim ring.  We started with a 5x5 piece of 1/2" aluminum, rough cut the center hole on the mill, then turned the outside round on the lathe.  We changed jaws on the lathe to finish the inside to the correct diameter, then turned the outside to the correct diameter.


Then we beveled the ring.


It fit the adapter pretty good right off of the lathe but it needed some fine tuning and hand sanding to fit perfect.


Here's what it looks like installed on the column before final finishing.  Much nicer I think!


I also bought a reproduction horn button but the inside ring wasn't painted.  A little painters tape and paint took care of that.




The problem is though, it's still a boring looking cap.  I wanted to do something inexpensive that would give it a new look.  I think I came up with something that looks pretty good.  I started with an old SE emblem I had.  Don't worry, it's not an expensive Challenger SE emblem.  It's off of a 76 Charger I used to own.  The attaching pins on the back side were broken and one of the "wheat" stems was broken.  I didn't feel bad about cutting this one up.


So, I cut off the wheat and SE parts leaving just the Fratzog.  A little sanding on the edges and you don't even know those pieces were ever on there.  I removed some material from the back side to round it to the shape of the horn cap and drilled a hole in the center for attachment.


A little cleaning/polishing and repainting of the black areas and it looks pretty good on there.

[YellowThumper]

Wow that is nice looking. Details....

Mike

[nsmall]

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/d/1968-barracuda-convert/6682395688.html  Thought of you Burdar.  Parts are looking great Darren.

[BIGSHCLUNK]

Nice work Darren 

[Burdar]

Here are some pictures of the heater box. It was pretty grungy like the rest of the interior.  The air door hinge was rusted solid.  Someone had tried opening it and cracked the heater box where it attaches. To fix the door I added a metal reinforcement on the inside and added and extra rivet in the center of the hinge.




As for the rest of the box, the internal door between the heater core tubes didn't move freely and needed some attention.  I found that the pivot area on the box was worn causing the door to bind when you tried to move it with the cable.  I made a small metal piece to surround the pivot area to stabilize it.  Now the door moves freely.  One of the cable supports on top of the box was broken off as well.  I had to make a metal reinforcement for the back side of that too.

I used a gasket kit from DMT.  I also sanded and clear coated the box to bring back the appearance.  I ended up spraying the air doors with wrinkle paint which looks OK.  I got a replacement heater core just to be on the safe side but it didn't fit very well.  I had to make some modifications to the metal retainer where the heater core exits the box.  Finally, I disassembled the blower motor, cleaned it up and sprayed it with Eastwood's Extreme Chassis Black. Overall it turned out fine.




The cover plate on the firewall where the heater tubes stick through was really rusted and thin so I made up a replacement out of scrap metal.


Drivers side air door before and after cleanup.

[YellowThumper]

WOW that is nice work.

[Burdar]

Thought I'd post a little more on this.

I bought a headlight relay kit from a guy on FABO.  He might be on here as well.  I ended up mounting the relays to the underside of the battery tray.  It's compact and out of sight this way.




I also bought a cheap oil catch can off E-bay and mounted it to the PS inner fender. I sanded off all the logos and painted it solid black.


It was just a hollow can with no baffling inside which wouldn't have done much of anything.  I made a separator plate to fit inside.




Now the PCV gases have to go through two layers of stainless mesh to get out of the can.  This should do a better job of filtering out any oil than an empty hollow can.  I didn't want a bunch of rubber hose in the engine compartment so I made lines out of aluminum tubing and connected everything together with 6AN fittings.  I'll post some pictures of how that is routed later.



In 74, the factory added some bracing from the firewall to the inner fenders on the A-bodies.  This was in response to "cowl shake" complaints.  I figured if an A-body with a roof had cowl shake issues, then one without a roof would really need some help.  So I decided to add some factory braces to the 68.  In order to mount them I needed to make a bracket that mounted to the firewall pinch weld. 




I made an upper and lower section so I could sandwich the firewall in between. I think the braces should cut down on a few rattles and squeaks.




Next, I pushed it outside and gave it a much needed power washing.  The rockers and trunk drop-offs where completely filled with dirt and grime.




Then it was off to the bodyshop to see what was hiding under the paint.

[YellowThumper]

Nice.