Mopar Muscle Association UK

i found a quarter in the bottom of the A post on my old 65 dart when doing rust repairs there.
neil.

gear lever was loose and floppy with play side to side as well.


machined new bushes from Delrin to a slight interference fit and copper washers to preload the side movement.

zero play in the lever and a slight friction which makes it feel much nicer to operate.

made a new connecting rod bush to be a much tighter fit in the rubber fixing so again zero play. just need to sort the rest of the linkage to the gearbox.

it's the little things that make all the difference, nice job.
neil.

changed the last interior linkage bush for a rose joint ( i had one kicking around the right size and fitter over the linkage perfectly) The reason for this rather than make another tight fitting bush is that this one needs to articulate as the engine moves around.

The lever has a much nicer action and now engages Park fully as before with all the play it didn't always engage the park mechanism in the gearbox.

and i thought i'd have a look at the dash.

luckily i have a mig welder. i'm going to ditch the original radio as it looks like it hasn't worked for decades, lose the heater/ air con unit and fit a modern heater. (kit car heater kits are available) and redo some of the wiring. Make a glove box 'box' and paint, re trim and realign everything in and around the dash area.

Drivers door now fits much better after relocating the loose catch mechanism in the door and adjusting the striker. lubed the hinges so now it doesn't groan every time i open the door. The passenger door needs lifting up and out slightly at the front to align so a job for a later date.

there is plenty to keep me busy.

got the dash and the heating/air con out. makes it easier to adjust the doors. Passenger door now fits and shuts a treat.

will be stripping the rest of the interior out to wax everywhere i can.

thought i'd have a look at the boot hinges. Boot didn't sit right and one hinge had loads of play.

Removed the hinge to find what looks like a nail as a pin.

found some silver steel rod the correct size that i had kicking around and repaired it with a grub screw to hold it together.

then i though i'd just have a look at the other one. Turns out it has a snapped pin and was only just holding together. had to drill this one then did the same repair as the other one.
needed to remove a broken bolt from the boot lid (yes using the English terminology) that wasn't tight in the thread but had 'just' snapped?


then i took a closer look and discovered that the bolts holding the hinges to the bodywork should be countersunk not standard bolts. obviously it had been binding and caused the bolt and hinge to snap. Plus it would be impossible to align hence the poor fitting.

From what i gathered this car had a restoration in the 80's then went into storage 1991 till 2017.

Heater was easy to remove as it wasn't attached properly, just wondering what else i'm going to find

Great work, nice to get things properly fitting.

since the passenger door now fits better i removed the door card to wax the internals.
tons of leaves in the bottom and no door membranes. Going to have to redo the door cards as they are now warped.

Lubed the winder mechanism, pinched the drop glass guide so no more free-play and drowned the door with Mil-spec wax.

replaced the door seal and door now sounds really quiet when shutting

Got new locks as it only came with one set of keys and one of those looks like it's about to break

next job is to lube and adjust the rear window drop glass to properly meet the door glass. or so i thought.

these things haven't seen any lubrication ever. also has adjuster seized and tons of free play.

once removed easily sorted though with tons of oil/grease, squeeze the slider guides to fit snugly around the slides and heat to undo the adjuster.

(no photos yet)


Driver's side window will need adjusting when the door is adjusted but the rear window barely worked properly due to the adjuster pretty much fallen off.

again no membranes but luckily i have plenty of thin plastic sheet.

Pretty cars..

Some inspiration >>>

doesn't float my boat i'm afraid.


i prefer this


finally got the passenger rear window sorted. Took hours because it wouldn't go up the last half inch without force. Eventually traced it to the winder mechanism bent, probably due to excess force over the years, so a few strategic bends, readjusted and it now goes up as it should.

Onto the drivers window. that had about an inch fore and aft movement as well as up and down play. Traced that to a plastic clip broken. Made a new one and that sorted the play, rear guide trim was beyond repair so i cut some thin rubber backed carpet into strips and glued that in, works and fits perfect.


i fear the drivers rear window will take some sorting as that needed two hands to operate.

Had to do all this on my Barracuda, there were surprisingly few broken parts, mostly needed cleaning and lubricating. It’s great when everything works smoothly as it should.

Agreed it should make using this car a different experience from when i drove it 300 miles home.

i found one of the front end rattles. Anti-roll bar K frame bracket bolts not tight. Ah well, job for another day. (will be completely stripping the suspension anyway.)


but for now the driver's side rear window was as expected and some.
as you can see very bent.

But stripping it out it was obvious that someone tried to overcome the issue with various bodges including leaving out the glass attachment bolt spacers

so with a lot of 'fine tuning', fabricating, un-seizing and lubrication (plus removing it a few times to reset) i got there.

All windows operate smoothly and easily. i would say there is 20 hours invested in adjusting the doors and drop glass's alone.

did you know there is a brake mechanism in the winders that only unlock as you operate the winder handles? These being lubricated with oil made the biggest difference when bench testing.

Had a rethink on the heater and i'm going to modify what was originally fitted. A couple of Choke type cables to operate some flaps and leave the vacuum button system in the dash. all the vacuum hose attachments were broken anyway but i did get all the buttons moving (first time i pushed a button the whole lot disappeared behind the dash)

What i did manage to find was the glove 'box' off the Gold car which is in very good condition so that'll save me a job.


got a few more general parts coming including RHD headlamps and some narrow driving lamps that should sit behind the grill

more to follow soon.

put the heater/aircon unit on the scales

20+kgs.


may resort to plan A.



but for now

a bit bling?
much nicer to look at.

i have a chrome old style modern DAB radio on the way which'll suit the dash.

Bozwell wrote: ↑Sat Oct 09, 21 7:19 pm All windows operate smoothly and easily. i would say there is 20 hours invested in adjusting the doors and drop glass's

I can easily believe it, could you imagine a customers face if you said 20 x hourly rate, if you were charging to do the work …..

They would swear their being ripped off