2/27/25:
After adding the shifter handle and reinstalling the carpet, gas pedal, and drivers' seat back into the car, I was able to fire up the engine last night. It started up in 2 or 3 seconds thanks to the electric pusher fuel pump. It was un-eventful and fired right off which is good.
I was able to warm it up twice and throw a quick hot lash on the valves. It went with 0.020" and 0.026" as I could not remember where my "happy lash" setting was from 2-3 years ago.
I uncovered it in my notes this morning as 0.024" / 0.028" So I am close.
I still need to take care of some little fiddly bits, double check the timing, as well as likely a clutch rod adjustment and when it stops raining and potholing 'round these parts, I will be ready for a drive. :D :D :D
Know your lash, 'bro!
2/28/25:
I took the car for an unexpected maiden voyage yesterday.
Back in November, I took the Hood and Front Valence to a local body man and longtime MoPar fan, Ray at AVS near my house.
I need a van or other large vehicle to move the hood for this car as it is a super flyweight part at ~10#. nearly 40# lighter than a stock hood! I do not trust it being precariously perched in the back of a pickup, so I like to move it in my van. Well, when I got the hood back from being painted in November, I found it had a bug in the paint. at that point my van was in storage and difficult to retrieve.. so I waited until yesterday.. as The roads were fairly de-salted and surprisingly dry.
I bolted the hood on the car and drove it to the body shop, then we removed the hood at the body shop for a respray and de bugging. Since it is satin, we could not polish it out like a base / clear job possibly.
Everything seemed fine, and I did not even adjust the clutch yet - I might futz with a few turns soon.
3/3/25:
I got some fiddly things accomplished:
- Installed a new headlight / parking light / turn signal assembly, as the left side unit had a rock chip in it that cracked the glass housing.
- Reinstalled the headlight trim ring - I love how these (when not smashed up) clean up the front look on a '63-'64 Dart.
- Made much progress on my custom valve cover - I have 2 small areas with pinholes to reinforce, but it is now mostly sorted and metal finished.
I still need to put the interior back together, screw down the carpet trim plates, shifter boot, trim ring and the crotch belt, as well as the shifter ball. All that is easy stuff to do.
3/11/25:
I did some (re)engineering this weekend.
I bought an NRG Hub adapter for the steering wheel, I Also bought one of those steering wheel disconnects and a new wheel as the old one was well, big, old, grody and cracked. It would turn my hands black from the eroding Black Plastic on the surface.
I am not sure if I have any good pictures of the old wheel, I probably do somewhere. It was a well used Stock '64 Dart Wheel.
Here is a cute one from a while ago:
Well the hub did not have any provisons for the Horn ring / wheel contact also no way to cancel the Turn signal cam which are both super annoying and non starters for me in a street driven car. No dumbass horn button under the dash for me on this build.
I built a horn ring wheel/ donut contact from an existing part that was pulled out of a 1981 Chrysler Lebaron Station Wagon. I found that the Copper donut was really Copper plated Steel, so that made the fabrication much easier. I built a mounting ring to bolt to the back side of the NRG adapter, and welded the old MoPar Lebaron Part to it. The assembly got bolted inside the NRG adapter with plastic isolation washers on the top and bottom to keep it from grounding back against the Hub adapter / Steering shaft which is common with the chassis ground.
I also did some careful measurements of the existing turn signal cancellation nub on the factory wheel and was able to spotface and Drill the hub for a 3/16" roll pin.
It has worked well so far, but I have yet to drive the car until I get the Hood back from paint again.
Backside of the NRG 170H Hub adapter:
No Provisions for horn etc except for a wire pass-thru.
OE style wheel with Horn donut contact and a turn signal cancel pin:
1981 Chrysler Horn Donut contact: copper Plated steel. (sorry for the bad picture)
NRG hub with Soptface and drilled for 3/16" Roll pin for turn signal cancel function.
NRG Hub adapter adapter and contact donut complete.
Comparison between OE and Not OE, sorta made by me.
Install complete:
Removable as well - Will help with those pesky under dash projects!
Now that it is not so cold, snowy and deary out I cant wait to get the hood back from paint!
Nice work, that wheel looks like it could have been a factory option.
In reply to MadScientistMatt :
Thanks, Cohesion is 🔑key I suppose.
3/17/25:
No painted hood back from the body shop yet.
So I did a few other things:
Finished the Valve cover - lots of little welds and some metal finishing, then painting.
Installed on the car:
Good thing I was able to finish that project as the Valve cover that I put on there temporarily was getting nicked by the rocker arm adjustment screw:
I Had ordered variable rate rear springs and then installed them.
The 4 link kit originally came with 175#/Inch Springs which I felt were too soft.
Then I ordered 200#/Inch which were great, but still saggy when loaded with the tongue weight of the trailer, and a trunk full of stuff and a full fuel tank.
So I am going to try these - 175#/300# Inch Rate Springs. The rate is supposed to increase as load is applied, so maybe I will not have to futz around with changing spring heights so often when towing etc.
200 Rate on the Right: - Constant Coil wind Distance
175/300 Rate on the Left: - Coil winds get closer toward the top and more open on the bottom.
The removal / install was easy with the lift.
I put some silver anti-seize on the adjusting bits, but I should look into those spring seat bearings.
4/6/25:
I finally got the hood back from paint. It was a bit of an ordeal, but it got done. No bugs in it this time, and it looks great. I suppose satin is the most difficult 'cause your shop has to be super clean and there is no second chance, and no cut/ buff. It has to be dead nuts on correct the first time.
After I got the hood assembled, realigned, etc (nice and easy to fit a 10# hood by yourself.) I was then able to start driving the car and sort out all of the little things that need sorted when you upgrade or change things, like valve lash, oil pressure adjustments, Steering wheel centering, reaching turn siginal stalk, setting the Idle Speed etc.
Adjusted turn signal stalk compared to a stock stalk:
Now I can reach it as easily as I was able to with the stock steering wheel.
I also Had some new gauges to fit, so that they would all match. I had AEM before, but the O2 gauge and Oil pressure gauge were from a different series so they did not match.
I got 3 matching gauges from the X series for Oil Pressure, O2, and Voltage. Of course the new Oil pressure gauge used a different harness so I had to do some rewiring and then tidy things up as well as add a gauge pod for 3 gauges.
Old Gauges:
New Gauges:
I also confirmed that my roof Bike rack will work (too rainy to go anywhere with it yet) But I did get some driving in today (maybe 30 Miles) while running errands and dodging the rain. It has been raining everyday here for about 10 days straight.
Now just a little more sorting and then an oil change, and It will be ready for spring trips and such!
4/15/25:
Taxes are done, no worries from the IRS People.
Sunday was finally a sunny day here for more than 2 hours after 10-12 days of straight April Showers.
I took the car for a shakedown run to the bike trail for a 20 mile bike ride and then to the the "Pitt Maneuver" 24h of LeMons Race at Pitt Race (the Road Course Track here near Pittsburgh, PA)
Here it is is parked on the top of spectator hill at pittrace - If you zoom in and squint you can see some lemony cars in the background on track.
The car ran well. Some fiddly bits to take car of:
- loosen the Valve Lash to 0.024" / 0.028" from 0.020" and 0.026" It makes a difference you can feel andv a difference in the idle quality.
- recheck the timing
- found a slow leaker in the LR Tire... pulled the wheel last nite and found I picked up a nail. No time to dismount and patch or put a plug in it, so I took it to the local shop where I get my state inspections done and got it repaired today.
3 Cordobas (2 of the B body flavor, One was a J Body/Mirada; I have no pictures of the mirada shaped one) were on track at the same time at the Lemons Race.
I don't believe I witnessed any slanted 6 powered entries at the event. I was there on Sunday, as Saturday so very doomy and gloomy ' round these parts.
I also Enjoyed this Corvair among the many Front Drivers and Seemingly endless sea of BMW 3 series cars.
Ready for More adventure.
Some adventure was had:
In reply to slantsix :
Lots of nice, attention-to-detail work on this project. Impressive!
Great car to start with.
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