WooHoo! I like it.
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| Another day at Monroe https://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=48292 |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Fri Feb 02, 2018 10:05 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
'68 Demon registered for MATS. 80 days to get it running... |
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| Author: | Rob Simmons [ Thu Feb 08, 2018 11:19 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
WooHoo! I like it.
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| Author: | kesteb [ Thu Feb 08, 2018 8:57 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Nothing like an artifical deadline to spur action. At least that is what all the car shows seem to suggest... |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:23 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Productive weekend, nice sunny mid 40's. I assembled the front sheet metal for the last time. Everything is bolted on and aligned and the engine compartment is 98% done. All i need to do is finish the ignition, fuel system and add fluids and it should fire up. While a '68 front clip does bolt on and the trim lines, align. the gaps are bad. Maybe a product of the times, but my Dart is not this bad. The bottom of the fenders are closer to the doors then the top of the fenders. The trailing edge of the hood is 1/2" from the cowl. You can't remove the grill without removing the radiator or bumper. I had to get creative to get the hood to latch. The turn signals are about 3 inches deep and this dosen't clear the radiator support. So you need to drill clearance holes. The '68 turn signals have 2 wires and the '74 has three. The front bumper is an interesting case study. The brackets look good, never been bent or dented. The bumper is straight. The holes in the frame rails are the same distance from the front of the frame rail. But bolt the bumper on, the passenger side is 3/4" farther out. Nothing a cutting torch and die grinder can't fix, just a sample of the "little things" that makes this time consuming. 71 days till MATS.. |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:39 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
A cold chilly 3 day weekend. Temps in the mid 30s dosen't lead to much productivity. But I did manage to make a trip down to Reed's and picked up some missing linkage pieces and the headlight rings to mount the headlights. I also managed to assemble most of the plastic interior parts. Now a quandary, I have a complete 1v setup on the car now. But in the interest of not being the slowest car on the track, I do have the "go fast" parts from the Dart. Since the Dart is going EFI, I have a complete 4v setup, a set of Dutra's along with a Summit Multispark CD box, a Ford TFI coil and a distributor with a nice advance curve, just setting on the shelf. Waiting to be used... Hmmm 62 days till MATS... |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:15 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
For the past few weekends I have been mining parts off a '74 Dart 4 door in a local Pull-a-Part yard. With these parts I have the potential for a running Duster, err '68 Demon. That potential died this afternoon when I started filling the radiator. The water flowed and wouldn't stop. There is a hole in the radiator in the lower right corner area and no budget for a new radiator. And the hole is such, that I can't solder it shut. Oh well. Unlike the endless money that the car shows seem to have, that is not my situation. My wife's cousin, one of the "pit crew", asked why I don't get some sponsors. Accepting money from "sponsors" obligates me to do certain things. To me this is a hobby, a stress reliever from the day job. Sponsors change the dynamic. Something I am not willing to do. So, the "pit crew" and I will be at MATS sans car. I guess I could always run the Dodge Ram down the track, can you say HEMI. Vroom Vroom |
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| Author: | Reed [ Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:20 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Dang it! Very sorry to hear that. I know that radiator held pressure a few years ago the last time we started the car up and drove it around. I put it on a shelf in my shed but it must have corroded out. |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Wed Mar 07, 2018 9:36 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Not a problem Reed, these things happen. |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Tue Mar 13, 2018 8:34 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Even thou I am not taking a car to MATS, I am still assemblng the 68 Demon. Remember this part number ATP T041. This is the plastic bushing used in the column shift linkage. This part is probably made in China, at maybe 5cents a piece wholesale. And the factory is making a profit. The cheapest that I have found this part, is $1.46 (on sale!) from cheapcarparts.com. The shipping is 4 times the part cost, so I bought 4, you never know when you may need one. The most expensive was $22.95, from a mopar specific resaler. Think about that, $22.95 for a 5cent part. Oh well, the car is almost assembled. One little plastic bushing and the transmission is done. Hook up the drive shaft, run a new fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb and drop it back on the ground. At that point I may just try and start it, holely radiator be damned. |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Sun Mar 18, 2018 8:52 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Happy St. Padddy's day weekend. I hope everybody enjoyed a green beer. The 68 Demon is assembled. There are a feel minor things that needs to be done. But it is essentially in the same shape that Reed has had it several times, over the the past few years. So now it is time to move past that point. I could finish the tail lights, finish mounting the seats or mount the rear bumper. I choose the bumper, how hard could it be? There is basically no bolt holes that match up to any of the brackets on the bumper. Nothing, nada... So this will be from scratch. I started by building some brackets out of scrap 2x4s to hold the bumper in place. Once in place, I marked where the bolts in the outer brackets touched the body. I drilled a couple 1/4" holes to see it I marked it correctly. Everything look good, so I drilled them out to 1/2" and mounted the bumper. It looked nice, Reed's brother was right, it has that right "feel". I noticed that the gap on the side of the bumper was not even. So I pie cut the outer brackets and bent them closer. this seemed to work and I did this a coupe of times, until I realized that it wasn't improving anymore. At this point the center brackets were interfering, So I removed them. Did I mention that I hate taking out bumper bolts, something always goes wrong. In this case one started to spin and I had to cut it off with the cutoff wheel. I suppose that will cost $20 to replace now. Anyway I mounted the bumper up again and realized that those pie cuts may not have been needed. So I bent it out so the gaps were even and removed the bumper. I then tacked the end of the pie cuts and remounted, looks nice now. About 1/2" from the top of the bumper to the tail light panel and about 1/2" from the fender on the sides. So I removed the bumper and welded the cuts close. Remounted and now one side is higher then the other. Sigh, also there is no room for the center brackets, they are about 2" to deep. I will have to build some new ones. So the saga continues. Do pictures need to be reduced before uploading, or does the board handle that? |
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| Author: | Reed [ Sun Mar 18, 2018 9:29 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Kesteb- my plan for the rear bumper was to use the 73-up 5mph crash bumpers but modify them as described here: https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/th ... 654/page-5 It looked fairly simple. I never got far enough on the front bumper to research and figure out the mounting. |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Wed Mar 21, 2018 10:12 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
That is certainly an option. But I feel that the post '73 bumpers are soulless lumps of steel that Detroit grudingly bolted onto their cars because of federal mandates. At least the '72 bumper follows the contours of the car. And it is mounted to the car now. I only need the center brackets if I want to use a bumper jack. I am wondering if I could use orange bulbs in the reverse section of the tail lights and make them turn signals. Maybe even flip them side to side to have the "turn signals" on the outer side of the car. If I am going to mix styling queues, then I should go all out. A '68 GTS hood would be interesting, or maybe graft on an Air Grabber from a '70 Roadrunner. |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:51 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
A week to go. Prepping the truck. Changed the oil, made a tonneau cover out of plywood. Not pretty, nor water proof, but a least stuff won't blow out of the box. Wondering If I will need chains to make it thru some of the passes on the way. The "pit crew" is excited... I don't know if it is for the racing or the chance to drop nickels into slot machines... Time will tell. |
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| Author: | kesteb [ Tue Apr 24, 2018 2:30 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Off to Vegas, sans one of the "pit crew". |
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| Author: | Dart270 [ Tue Apr 24, 2018 5:17 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Another day at Monroe |
Have fun! Sounds like a great trip. Are you bringing a Slant 6 car? Lou |
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