New arrival at the BBM-stash, and an exception to my #1 rule... '73 Dodge Dart

[BigBlockMopar]

...a '73 Dart with a '71 frontclip.
Eventhough I'm breaking my #1 rule* here by bringing in this small block car, :o I think it's still a fun little driver good enough for daily usage.
(but if the harrassment of me owning a smallblock now gets too much I'll probably be forced to drop a bigblock in it one day of course )

*life's too short to be fooling around with smallblocks...


It's got a 2-bbl 318, running on LPG/propane (=cheap here), auto, air, power discbrakes and power steering.
The K-member on the car has been powder coated once and all suspensionparts and bushings have been replaced.
My current daily Euro-heap probably won't pass it's yearly mandatory checkup, so this Dart will be a good subsitution for it.

The Dart has been sitting idle outside for the past 6 years so there are a number things to check/fix/recondition.
Plans are to get it technically sound and dependable for daily use by going over the brakes and tune and clean-up the engine and surrounding area. The engine bay is still riddled with smog-related crap, all probably prone to fail soon, so most of it will soon find it's way to the 'recycle-bin'

The roof has some rust-issues at the rear window so that's need to be tackled aswell one day. The car came with a new black vinyl top and a repair panel for the lower rearwindow part.

[Darren N.]

This will make a sweet daily! Why drive a Euro-heap when you can rock it like Joe Dirt?

Out of curiosity, what does LPG cost you in the Netherlands compared to gas?

[Blazerteam]

You need to ad one more rule..no euro trash as daily driver :D.Life is too short for that..It sure looks like a Dart that has been sold new down there,and has been taken care of for awhile at its first owner..it has all the right marks..brown and no repaint?.

[BigBlockMopar]

I had that last rule for some 14 years, then stuff happens and before you know it you're living a nightmare driving a crappy euro-box all day... Time to wakeup again

LPG is about 1/3-1/2 the price of regular gas here.

[BigBlockMopar]

Well I found a couple of surprises in the car. The rust issues with the roof were more severe than I hoped for so I decided to tackle them a bit sooner.
After removing about 20pounds of mostly moist sounddeadening material I was able to have a look at the floorpanels. Unfortunatly besides the roof, the leftfront floorpanel didn't survive all too well either.
I looked ok until I started tapping on the panel to break loose and remove some rustscale. Suddenly some holes started to appear and the harder I tapped the larger they got... Maybe I shouldn't have tapped the damn panel at all
Anyway, today I bought a 2-sq.foot piece of sheetmetal and spent the day bending and hammering it roughly into the shape of the former LF floorpanel. Tomorrow is welding day!
Also, tomorrow a friend of mine is coming over and will be handling the roof repair.

Some pics of the newfound misery;








This Left Front panel looked fairly OK...




... until all the loose and scaled rust was removed...

[Remy-Z]

Rust...it's a bitch.

[JOES66FURY]

looks all to familiar

[Scott Liggett]

Rusty floors? Rust under the vinyl top? Yep, its a Mopar.

[88 Dippy]

vinyl tops where invented by satan

[Huskinhano]

Looks like the glass was holding the rust in place. Nice project, I've always liked sb Darts ever since a co-worker had a 68 Dart GT that had a 340 and 727. He told me of a night he out ran the cops in it doing 4 wheel drifts around intersections.