1963 Dodge Dart !!! Wahoo!

yep that was a creepy movie

 

I promised I wasn't going to do much, but this Dart is just easy to take apart~ even the dash comes out with little effort~ 6 screws across the top and two below, and of course some wiring.




After removing the heater hoses from under the hood, 4 nut which hold the blower motor in place is what hold the heater case in place!


I was able to save the firewall insulation, not that I'm going to use it~ I'll be going back with AC.


For grins I put the upper rear seat in, kind of crooked. The guy which has the camaro seat, the rear seat is only 40" wide, mine is 54" wide His fronts would work, just keep shopping I guess.

 

If I recall, your Dart could have either a 170 or 225 slant 6. I don’t think a V8 was even available for a Dart in ‘63. My neighbor has a ‘62 Dart, but its a larger car, and his is a factory 413 Max Wedge V8. It rattles my windows when he fires it up.
-Donny

 

Yes Donny, mine has the 225 6 cyl, at this point I don’t know what to do for a power train. A part of me says keep the 6, mod it, or a 360 or the 5.7 hemi. I feel a 360 would be strong and I can figure it out vs a modern computer ran engine kind of scares. I just want my engine compartment to look fantastic and of course run well

 

Keep the 225. It's a neat motor built for torque. I've personally seen them do a solid dawn to dusk of work on what seemed like two quarts of oil in the pan and a gallon of tea in the radiator and twenty gallons of gas.

Dad caught the motor on fire once headding home to blow out the radiator. It was cutting hay the next day.

 

Honestly, for a car that's just a driver? Leave the leaning tower of power in it. They actually get reasonable mileage for the size, and era of the car, and provide a nice smooth power delivery, with a nice torque curve for everyday driving.

If you're wanting to hotrod it, well, all bets are off. Do whatever you want =P

 

I just want to push the buttons.

 

Well, I haven't totally given up the idea of keeping the slant, just has to handle a Sanden AC compressor and possibly a power steering pump, but look good wearing those two items. I'll be dropping the front suspension along with the engine and transmission, but need to fabricate a rolling frame for the hunk of metal. Should be interesting getting it out!

 

Finally got the darned thing on my Maxjax lift~ been a while since I've used it~ it will be here for quite some time, at least until I load it for sandblasting, but that will be a little while. I'll spend tomorrow just organizing, cleaning the shop~

 

Well, again, it's up in the air(literally) right now and I have time to think and of course hear suggestions and advice. However, if it's going to be a slant, it will have to be modified and be an eye opener~ ya'll know me~

If y

 

They used the 225 clear up into the mid-eighties in the Ram pickups, I believe, it shouldn't be *that* difficult to find A/C and power steering brackets and whatnot, if you're in the mood for digging through the junkyards.

 

In my personal opinion, the slant six is great for a commuter car but a hot rod should have a small block V8. 360 Magnum from a 90's truck would be a nice fit.

 

They had ac kits for the Hesston 6400 windrowers and all. I would guess 275hp and a little more for torque would be relatively easy with pistons, cam, port polish head, exhaust headers, 4b intake, slap on tbi and a later electronic ignition. It won't be a Honda killer but it will be modern and smooth with elegance.

 

I'm shopping for a better suspension, and do away with the torsion bars, High dollar, but I'd like to do a jam up job on this project. afterall, the car only cost 1600 total(tt&L) Just have to give information of what engine I would go with. Just shopping


QA1 Suspension System, Front, 0-2" Drop (1963-1966 Dart, Barracuda, Valiant) - 52340-M400

Have a product question?Ask us


$6,068.95

 

For my two cents on how to spend your money, keep the 225 and build it up. Put the A/C, power steering & brakes, new modern suspension. Keep the body lines original. Make the car easy to enjoy but see what you can build the 225 into.
What is available for these engines? Fuel injection & electronic ignition? How much can they be bored? Anyone make a stroker crank? High perf. heads?

 

You mean 175hp. You aren't making 275 hp with a slant six without a crazy non-streetable race build or boost. The bores, and hence the valves, are too small to make 1.22 hp/cu with easy mods. https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/add-77-horsepower-mopar-slant-six-basic-bolt-ons/

 

I do know about the torsion bar and simple adjustment to lower/raise. Just like to do something spectacular like in the picture below, but my version maybe not as low

 

That would give you the V8 mounts, disc brake spindles, a stronger sub-frame and adjustable suspension. Torsion bars are not that bad. I would
do like Howard said and check out Hoovies. See what he used and what his complaints were. I am not sure if the guy is a whiner or just whines
for clicks. Kind of like reading reviews. He has the money to do whatever he wants though.

 

Honestly, I'd keep the torsion bars, but you can still upgrade things from QA1, I'd suspect. If you go check out "Junkyard Digs" on youtube, he just got done doing a "partial" QA1 upgrade to a Challenger, which retains the torsion bars, but upgrades everything else, and is a hell of alot cheaper. Especially if you don't decide to swap the motor, the replacement K-member is *really* overkill. But as per usual, it is your car, do what makes you happy with it, I wouldn't argue *against* doing the full K-member swap if that's what you want to do, they build good stuff.