restoring My 66 dart gt convertible

[keastab]

It was supposed to be a parts car, Everyone said that it was just junk so scrap it and use the parts. ya know that sort of pissed me off. I thought "I have more time that money" so I'll give this thing a try
here is what I started with a 66 dodge dart convertible that had sat under a water oak tree down in Miami Florida for about 7 years till I rescued it. I picked up the car for a grand and it came with new seat skins front and rear plus a new top/w window, the rust was thrown in for free. I figured the parts alone are worth about 800 so I got the car for 200. and yeah it moved under it's own power(barely) I trailered it home and started the tear down. well it looked fair on first inspection of the frame rails and torsion crossmember. the rockers looks awesome too. that was the good stuff. I pulled 7 60gallon bags of decomposing leaves out of that car YUK! any way there didn't seem to be any floors left on the car. and the cowl looked funny now that I had it cleaned up. It seemed that the PO or before him had sprayed great stuff into the cowl and slathered on bondo to make a complete shape. I pulled chunks out of the cowl about 4inches thick . that made me check the rest of the car over verrrrrrry carefully. (didn't have to it sort of jumped out at ya)dartbarracuda 040.jpgdartbarracuda 042.jpgdartbarracuda 043.jpgdartbarracuda 038.jpgdartbarracuda 041.jpg

[keastab]

As I was removing thing. you know how it snowballs don't ya? I removed most of the removable parts and discovered that I'd need to work on EVERY panel on that car. floor pans from the firewall to the trunk panel had to be remover, I was able to purchase the front floor pans for that car but they don't make (then) the rear pans so I snagged a 73 4 door floor pan and it fit great. was it correct? NOPE the beads were 73 style and a couple of plugs were off a bit but the shape was dead on. I was even able to plugweld almost all the spotwelds back into the same place I cut them from the 73 and 66.
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[keastab]

The cowl area was a total mess. I pulled so much bondo out of that thing I was worried about the car collapsing on me. yeah it was rusty as all get out
I have to replace the lower cowl and the upper also along with patching in the a-pillars that were rusted through.
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the last pic was what made my day. I had a cowl ready

[keastab]

I had to do a little work on the a-pillars in order to get the cowl to fit.
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of course the guy I got the cowl from cut it to low and I had to patch in a piece. I finish welding in solid all that area and epoxied it before putting in the top piece. I don't want any rust coming back in that area. plus I beefed up the a-pillar support in pic 3 on both sides. . (you know I sortof DON'T like drilling.cutting spot welds out. )

[keastab]

now I'm putting on the cowl and checking that every thing fit's.
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Whoooohooo! I've got a top hat that doesn't leak! and everything is in epoxy.

[keastab]

I just did a full eval of the body panel work needing to be done. I have NOT found a panel that did not need some repair.
the hood has low spots on it from the leaves and other thing that had been piled on the car for years.
the trunk lid had rusted from bad gaskets in the light areas
the doors (only 1 was really bad the other one was just dented a little) needed work
both quarter panels need lowers and extra done in the wheel well and in front of it,
a-pillar and cowl was rusted out (previous post)
floor pans (all the way back) hey I did have most of the hump
Trunk pan gone
door jambs had a couple of spots
both front fenders had rust
the dutchmans panel was missing or the metal was anyway, it was bondo EVERY last bit of it was mudded in!(dang that guy was GOOD with mud) until I hit it with a grinder you couldn't tell it was just bondo, trunk lip and all.

BUT WAIT !!!!!! I had a passenger inner fender and a core support that didn't need anything whooo hooo ! 2 good parts!
hmmm they might have been right abouty a parts car. ahhhh I'm to far into it now to quit.
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and more to come