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Dart Restoration Resources
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1970 Dodge Dart Restoration
& Race Car Project
History
1978-1988
11sec 318
Great Lakes Drag-a-Way 1980
| This 1972
Dodge Dart was my first "project vehicle". I acquired it in 1978 when I was
16. The Dart had only 18,000 miles on the odometer when I got it from
my grandmother! The Dart went from completely stock to an 11 second runner
in just a few years. Grandma had good taste, she couldn't have picked a
better color combination. She bought the car new at Mr. Norm's Grand
Spaulding Dodge in Chicago. The engine was a 318 punched
.030 over. It had 9:1 forged flattop pistons, 340 rods and crank, 340 heads
and 2.02" valves. The transmission was a Torqueflight 904 with a
Turbo Action reverse pattern manual valve body and Turbo Action 8" converter. I did all my own tranny work
and engine assembly. The rear
axle was a Mopar 8-3/4 with a 4:89 gears mounted on a Strange spool. My Best
ET with this setup was 12.60 @ 108mph without nitrous oxide and 11.68 @
114mph with a 100hp I.C.E. nitrous system.
In 1984 I moved to Arizona
and ran the car at Firebird Raceway. Unfortunately after only three months
in Arizona I threw a rod and couldn't afford to rebuild the motor, so
the car sat...
I sold the car sometime
around 1988 to
Richard Beals. Rich got a great deal as I sold him the car, trailer and all
my spare parts for $1500.00. The car had been in outdoor storage for four
years and I couldn't bear to watch it sit in the Arizona sun another day.
Richard Beals raced the car for several years and did very well with it. He
eventually sold it to someone in Southern Arizona. I saw the car on "Pinks
All Out" in 2008. The cars owner was interviewed while standing next to it.
If you know who's running this car now drop me a note at:
ab7fh@yahoo.com Last I heard the car was
running a 440 and it was still painted black with a pink stripe as seen in
the photo below.
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June 2007
| In June of 2007 I decided it was time
to get back into drag racing. I found this 1970 340 4 speed Dart on E-bay
for $2000, so I drove from AZ to NJ to pick it up. I spent countless hours
taking the car down to bare metal, one piece at a time with chemical paint
stripper. A good friend told me I
should have media blasted the entire car right after I got it, but I thought
I was saving myself money. Turned out he was right, I
should have had the car media blasted, or done it myself. That way I
would have known all at once what I had to work with. It turned out the car
was in really bad
shape under the paint and bondo. I had set a two year goal to complete the
project and began to feel like I wasn't going to make my deadline.
Then I found this on Craigslist... |
December 2007
| In December of 2007 I found a 440
block and heads for $150. The guy who sold me the engine had what I thought
was a primered Dart in his garage. He told me the car wasn't primered, but
media blasted. He also told me that he and his son had been working on the
car as a project, but they wanted to get out of it. He sold me the rolling
chassis, and an Art Morrison roll cage kit for $500. On that day, all work
stopped on the '70 Dart.
July 1 2009
I've made a lot of progress since I picked up the
second rolling chassis. This photo show how it appears on July 1, 2009. Two
years after I bought the first car, and a year and a half since I bought
this car. I should have the car running by the end of the summer, and
hopefully painted, and on the track by the end of the year. |
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