| Slant Six Forum https://www.slantsix.org/forum/ |
|
| My 1977 DODGE POLARA RT https://www.slantsix.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16226 |
Page 2 of 3 |
| Author: | Patrick Devlin [ Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:53 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Your car looks awesome. I've been thinking for the past couple of weeks how to modify my Dart for rectangular headlights. I always thought rectangular headlights would go better with the grille opening. Maybe I just need a grille from one of these cars. 
|
|
| Author: | SlantSixDan [ Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:23 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Rectangular headlamps would be a very difficult mod to do cleanly with the '67-'69 Dart grille. The big oblong lamps you like on the Argentine cars are 240mm wide by 130mm tall; the '67-'69 Dart grille doesn't have anywhere near that length in the pushed-forward outboard section. If you built custom grille ends (and probably a custom grille) you could maybe figure out a way to fit the 200mm wide by 142mm tall standard-format rectangular units, but it would take a lot of money and effort to make it look clean and not hacked. It's easier if you're starting with a '67-'72 Valiant/Duster front clip! |
|
| Author: | Patrick Devlin [ Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:12 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
That's a good point about the Valiant/Duster front clip, Dan. I'll measure and see what I can do, still. I always thought a Charger type of grille on a Dart would be really cool, too...either pop up headlight style or Charger 500 flush to the front. OK, sorry to hijack this thread. Back to talking about the cool A-body cars of the "deep south!" |
|
| Author: | SlantSixDan [ Tue Mar 07, 2006 8:38 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Quote: That's a good point about the Valiant/Duster front clip, Dan. I'll measure and see what I can do
1970 Australian VG-model Valiant: Difficulties with retrofitting this setup to a car not originally so equipped: •The lamps are nonstandard-size, 182mm x 127mm. Hella still has a few left in stock for right-hand traffic, but when they're gone, they're gone. Maybe better to start with a US grille that was meant to accept headlamps 7" tall (the 7" round lamps) and put together something custom for the 7-1/2" x 5-1/2" rectangular lamps •Where are we gonna put the turn signals? |
|
| Author: | dodgepolarart [ Wed Mar 08, 2006 4:17 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Hey PATRICK!! The HeadLamps of your DART are beautiful!!! Don't change them!!! To my taste, they give a great personality to the car ... apart I love the ORIGINAL MOPARS  The grille of my RT nowadays it's very difficult to obtain because for years it is not made any more  ... but no imposible  ...
|
|
| Author: | Patrick Devlin [ Wed Mar 08, 2006 5:28 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks...I like original cars, too, I just always thought the headlights didn't look like something "designed into" the car. Then, by chance, I actually read today that the designers of the '67 to '69 Dart front end style originally intended for them to be used with rectangular headlights. (read on Wikipedia) Quote: This restyled Dart featured a unique grille shape which thrust the single headlights forward of the recessed center section of the assembly; stylists had conceived the design based on the use of rectangular headlights, which were not approved at the time the car was released.
And,Quote: For 1969 the Dart line received annual trim updates including a minor deemphasizing of the concave front grille assemble that had been designed to accommodate the governments anticipated rectangular headlight approval that never materialized.
Not that I believe everything that I read, but I'm glad to know I think like a '60s car designer! Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Dart |
|
| Author: | SlantSixDan [ Wed Mar 08, 2006 6:40 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Quote: I actually read today that the designers of the '67 to '69 Dart front end style originally intended for them to be used with rectangular headlights
Neat fantasy, but not true. Rectangular headlamps were many years away from being proposed for legal approval in the US when the '67 Dart was being designed. And the ones that were eventually approved in the mid '70s were designed and proposed by GM, not by Chrysler.Quote: (read on Wikipedia)
You can find a lot of good info on Wikipedia, but by definition you can also find a lot of personal opinion, guesses and plain ol' nonsense. This particular thing ('67-'69 Dart designers originally intended rectangular headlamps) fits into those latter categories.Quote: This restyled Dart featured a unique grille shape which thrust the single headlights forward of the recessed center section of the assembly; stylists had conceived the design based on the use of rectangular headlights, which were not approved at the time the car was released.
Donno whose head this came from, but it's not so. Reads to me as if someone took their own opinions and guesses, derived solely from looking at a '67-'69 Dart, and "Wikipedized" them into factoids. I'll eat these words if (and only if) Jeff Godshall backs up the rectangular-headlamps-for-'67-Dart notion. I'm pretty confident it won't happen.Quote: For 1969 the Dart line received annual trim updates including a minor deemphasizing of the concave front grille assemble that had been designed to accommodate the governments anticipated rectangular headlight approval that never materialized.
Repetition doesn't make it any truer. Nobody proposed rectangular headlamps for legal approval in the 1960s. What's more, the rectangular headlamps Chrysler insiders had been thinking about proposing for legality wouldn't have come even slightly close to fitting the available width in the '67-'69 Dart's pushed-forward headlamp area. They were the same oblong units we see in the Argentine A-bodies, and to great effect on the Spanish Darts starting in '66, see here and here and Here and Here.Lots more images Here. |
|
| Author: | Patrick Devlin [ Wed Mar 08, 2006 6:52 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks for the pics of the Spanish Darts, Dan. Any new information to get to the bottom of this would be great...then someone could update the Wikipedia entry.  Apologies to the starter of this thread: I feel like I should've started a separate "rectangular headlight" thread long ago, instead of encroaching upon dodgepolarart's great post about his car.
|
|
| Author: | SlantSixDan [ Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Quote: Thanks for the pics of the Spanish Darts, Dan.
Aren't they cool?! Those great big rectangular lamps look so at home on a '66 Dart body, as it seems to me.Quote: Any new information to get to the bottom of this would be great.
I'll see if I can find time to call a couple of former Chrysler stylists I know and see what they have to say at the moment. I'm going primarily here by the US Federal headlamp regulation record. Rectangular lamps don't even appear on the industry want-list until 1969 or so; the 1967 Dart design would've been largely completed by mid '64 or so, and final tweaking would've been done by mid '65.Quote: then someone could update the Wikipedia entry
I, uh, already started doing that. 
|
|
| Author: | dodgepolarart [ Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:44 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Quote: Apologies to the starter of this thread: I feel like I should've started a separate "rectangular headlight" thread long ago, instead of encroaching upon dodgepolarart's great post about his car.
There is no problem PATRICK!!! I am interested also in everything linked to DODGES!!! Here you have more photos of argentine DODGES: http://www.dodge-tech.com.ar/forum/index.php?board=38.0 http://www.dodge-tech.com.ar/forum/index.php?board=41.0 http://www.dodge-tech.com.ar Soon I will continue explaining the advances of my DODGE POLARA RT with photos. Bye! |
|
| Author: | Avenger2040 [ Wed Mar 08, 2006 9:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Hey dodgepolarart, tu auto se ve que va a quedar genial!, yo tambien he pensado en desarmar mi Duster y fabricarle algunas piezas (sobre todo un cofre con Ram Air), pero definitivamente me gusta como va tu Polarara. Ok, now some english talking, any of our argentina friends got pics of your "dutra" exaust type manifolds? |
|
| Author: | dodgepolarart [ Thu Mar 09, 2006 2:06 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Hola Avenger!!! Gracias por los halagos ... ¡¡¡un cofre RAM AIR!!! jajaja eso si que es una buena modificación!! por cierto, tu Duster es HERMOSO!!!! The answer at your question in my bad English  :I am in this matter of finding the photos ... do you refer to the original ones of factory? |
|
| Author: | Avenger2040 [ Thu Mar 09, 2006 9:11 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Gracias por tu comentario de mi Duster, pero despues de que lo chocaron del lado derecho trasero como que ya no se ve muy bien, no igualaron la pintura......Yep, el multiple de salida, vi los links de las fotos que pusiste y se ven muy buenos esos multiples de salida. Pero no es mala idea un cofre con Ram Air para un carro como estos, seria algo inesperado. Ok, now in English!! (weee!!) Yep, original exhaust manifold, they look pretty good. |
|
| Author: | dodgepolarart [ Fri Mar 10, 2006 10:54 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Quote: Gracias por tu comentario de mi Duster, pero despues de que lo chocaron del lado derecho trasero como que ya no se ve muy bien, no igualaron la pintura......Yep, el multiple de salida, vi los links de las fotos que pusiste y se ven muy buenos esos multiples de salida.
Que lástima lo del choque Pero no es mala idea un cofre con Ram Air para un carro como estos, seria algo inesperado. Ok, now in English!! (weee!!) Yep, original exhaust manifold, they look pretty good.  ...igualmente tiene solución... son autos DUROS I'm trying to obtain pics of the original Exhaust Manifold... but now out of the Slant... In order that you could see them well and do comparisons... only I ask a bit of patience jajajaja
|
|
| Author: | Alexandre Garcia [ Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:27 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Dodgepolarart, Ever checked the options around your north border? Here in Brasil there are a bunch of cool mopars also, different from the ones You have in Argentina. Guess we will finally be able to trade cars without import fees and it may seem a great opportunity for us to make some swaps. Like a lot the Coronado and Polara models. We just did not have /6, all our dodges here were 318 powered. And for the U.S. fellows: did You already checked out the brasilian front end used on our chargers? Chargers here are A-bodies, available in a model compatible to 67-69 u.s. built models, but they were made from 71 to 78 and are not impossible to find. In fact have sold 2 grille/shells sets for some fellows up there. Check out some pics at: http://www.bigblockdart.com/garcia/garcia.htm |
|
| Page 2 of 3 | All times are UTC-08:00 |
| Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited https://www.phpbb.com/ |
|
