Look what followed me home today...

[burdar]

Last week I cleaned up the upper shackle mounts and the pinion snubber.  They are at the powder coaters right now.   Then I turned my attention to the driveshaft.  I noticed that the stock driveshaft had a taper on both ends...not like an E-body shaft that is only tapered on one end.  The double taper makes shortening that driveshaft a problem so I needed to look for a replacement.  Years ago I parted out a 76 Newport.  I didn't remember keeping its driveshaft but I thought it was at least worth a look.  It turns out that I did keep it so I lucked out.  It's longer then the stock A-body shaft, 3.5" in diameter instead of 3" and only has one tapered end.

After pressing out the old U-joints, I clean it up just like I did to my Challenger's driveshaft except for one difference. Instead of filling the PVC with EvapoRust, I filled it with vinegar.
 

Here's what I started with...


I hosed off the driveshaft every 12 hours and gave it a light sanding with a scouring pad.  Basically, I put it in the PVC after work one day.  I hosed it off the next morning before work and then again once I got home.  The following morning I did it a third time.  It was in the vinegar for 36 hours.  Here it is next to the Dart's original driveshaft.


Once all the rust was gone, I drained the vinegar and filled the PVC with EvapoRust.  As you can see in the above picture, the metal will start to flash rust right away.  By dipping it in EvapoRust for an hour, it removes the flash rust and prevents the flash rust from coming back right away.  After dipping the ends in black oxide solution to darken them, I sprayed the entire thing down with WD-40.  It should be good like this for awhile until I can measure and have it shortened.

[burdar]

The Dart sat for years with the top down.  It was obvious that water had filled the inside of the console on more than one occasion. The fiberglass had fairly heave rust staining all over the inside.  After finding a product called Iron Out under my bathroom sink and using it with amazing results on a rust stained toilet, I decided to see what it would do to the console.  I'm very happy with how it turned out!  Now all it needs is a couple light coats of SEM Landau Black.

Before...


After...

[brads70]

That sure cleaned up nice! 

[YellowThumper]

Wow very nice

[Cudakiller70]

Wow both those look really good. Need to remember this. Love the dart, cool car. Iron out is good stuff, we are on well water and it's pretty hard water here. We use iron out to help the salt in the water softener for regeneration.

[burdar]

The back label of the toilet bowl cleaner I have says not to let it sit for more than ten minutes I think. I forgot about it one day and let it sit for more than an hour. It left a bright yellow stain that I couldn't get rid of. I tried scrubbing it with a magic eraser, bleach exc... Nothing worked. I though I permanently ruined the toilet. One day my wife found the Iron Out under the sink. I don't know where we got it. She sprinkled a little on the stain and it instantly disappeared. I was shocked. I figured it was worth trying on the console. I didn't put much water with it. Just enough so it was kind of a paste. Then I spread it over the staining and let it sit. Only a few spots needed to be scrubbed.

[CUDA JAS]

Last week I cleaned up the upper shackle mounts and the pinion snubber.  They are at the powder coaters right now.   Then I turned my attention to the driveshaft.  I noticed that the stock driveshaft had a taper on both ends...not like an E-body shaft that is only tapered on one end.  The double taper makes shortening that driveshaft a problem so I needed to look for a replacement.  Years ago I parted out a 76 Newport.  I didn't remember keeping its driveshaft but I thought it was at least worth a look.  It turns out that I did keep it so I lucked out.  It's longer then the stock A-body shaft, 3.5" in diameter instead of 3" and only has one tapered end.

After pressing out the old U-joints, I clean it up just like I did to my Challenger's driveshaft except for one difference. Instead of filling the PVC with EvapoRust, I filled it with vinegar.
 

Here's what I started with...


I hosed off the driveshaft every 12 hours and gave it a light sanding with a scouring pad.  Basically, I put it in the PVC after work one day.  I hosed it off the next morning before work and then again once I got home.  The following morning I did it a third time.  It was in the vinegar for 36 hours.  Here it is next to the Dart's original driveshaft.


Once all the rust was gone, I drained the vinegar and filled the PVC with EvapoRust.  As you can see in the above picture, the metal will start to flash rust right away.  By dipping it in EvapoRust for an hour, it removes the flash rust and prevents the flash rust from coming back right away.  After dipping the ends in black oxide solution to darken them, I sprayed the entire thing down with WD-40.  It should be good like this for awhile until I can measure and have it shortened.

Oh man...I like that idea. 

I need to clean the drive shaft in my cuda...its pretty rusty.  I was always hesitant about sanding or hitting it with a wire wheel.  I had never thought of using PVC to submerse it in vinegar.    I think I just found a new winter project!!!

Jason

[burdar]

My oval track leaf springs showed up on Saturday.  My buddy dropped them off at my brother's house last week...then my brother dropped them off at my place.  The rear spring eye is 1" which is the E and B body size.  The A-body uses a smaller 7/8" bushing.   I bought some 1" conduit and will machine it down into a sleeve to install into the leaf spring eye.  Then I can use the stock A-body sized bushings.  The interior diameter of the conduit is perfect.  The outside diameter just needs a little material removed so it will fit into the spring. 

Still just working on small parts.  This plate surrounds the heater core tubes as they exit the firewall.  The original one had seen better days so I made a new one.

[burdar]

I finally got my rear end housing back last week.  51-1/4 housing length with 42" perch centers.  Yesterday I ordered axles, spring hangers and an 11.7" rear disc brake kit from Dr Diff.  Everything should be here by the end of the week.

[burdar]

I've been cleaning up all the inner door tracks an mechanisms.  I finally got them done the other day.  The mechanisms were in good shape.  All the plastic rollers were like new...just dirty.  I disassembled what I could and soaked everything else in EvapoRust.  The EvapoRust really shined up the plating on the mechanisms.  Everything was going great until I pulled the last mechanism out of the EvapoRust.  For some reason, the coil spring didn't like to be de-rusted and it cracked.

I found someone who had a junk 73 Duster window mechanism with a good spring.  The spring looked the same as mine in the picture he sent so I bought it.  While it was being shipped, I tried to figure out a way to safely replace it.  It ended up being really easy.  The end "teeth" on the mechanism are square.  The gear that the crank handle attaches to won't spin off of the teeth because of the square shape.  I simply ground the corners off of the square teeth which allowed the gear to spin completely off.  The section of the mechanism that houses the gear will then spin all the way around to the other side.  This made installing the new spring very easy.  All I did was clamp the gear section in the vise and used the other half of the mechanism as a lever.  I was able to install the replacement spring with no tension at all, then spin the assembly around to preload the spring, and finally turn the gear back onto the teeth.

The only problem was that when the replacement spring arrived, it ended up being smaller then my original one.  I was able to install it, but it isn't preloaded as much as the original.  I'm calling it good for now, but will keep my eye out for the correct spring.

[burdar]

Yesterday my axles, brakes and spring hangers arrived.  I got the 8 3/4 all mocked up.  I think these Dr Diff brakes are going to work out pretty good.  They don't look as cool as Wilwood's but they actually fit.  The optional E-brake cables that I bought with the kit are really nice too.  I bought the 11.7" rotor kit.  It's funny that these rear rotors are larger then my stock Challenger front rotors.  The Dart came with 4 wheel drum brakes and no sway bar.  It should handle and brake much better when I'm done with it.


When I bought my brake lines from Fine Lines I told them I was planning on using a Wilwood brake kit and they said they knew exactly where to cut the housing lines.  Well, it turns out they are too long for this kit.  Maybe the Wilwood kit comes with shorter flex lines?  I need to find someone who can double flare stainless lines so I can shorten these a few inches.  The instructions say to mount the hose on top of the axle tubes but I think it will be a cleaner install if I mount them on the back side.  My only concern is shock clearance.  I don't know how much room there is between the axle tubes and the shock body.  I'll have to find that out before I mount the hose brackets.  I also need to add a retaining clip on the front of the passengers side axle tube for the right E-brake cable.  This 8 3/4 housing didn't have one there.


Once those issues are taken care of, I can mount the assembly under the car and measure for wheels/tires.  Then it can come back apart so I can blast, smooth and paint the housing.

[4Cruizn]

That looks great!  Something I want to tackle with a rear end I have in the garage . . some good ideas there .  What axles did you end up going with?

[burdar]

Axles are also from Dr Diff. Stock A-body housing width is 52 5/8". I had this housing shortened to 51 1/4". That's as narrow as Dr Diff recommends with his 1/2" spring relocation hangers. Any shorter and the outside U-bolts would hit the housing ends. Since the rotors are thicker than a brake drum, this helps offset that difference. I also love the look of a deep dished wheel. I can maximize the dished look this way as well. The custom length axles were only $5 more than standard Mopar lengths. Ordered everything Sunday afternoon and they showed up on Thursday. Can't beat that.

I know green bearings verse stock tapered bearings are a hot topic that is debated constantly. The good thing about the rear brake kit is that it accepts both styles.

[burdar]

I worked on the springs today.  The oval track springs use the larger B and E body sized shackle bushings.  In order for the springs to work on an A-body, you have three choices.  You can buy special bushings, sleeve the spring to accept the A-body sized bushings or use the E-body sized bushings and sleeve the bushing for the A-body sized shackle stud.  Since I had new A-body bushings, I decided to sleeve the spring.

I went to the hardware store and bought a couple 1" OD black pipe sections.  The OD was a little too big to fit the spring but the bushings fit perfectly inside the pipe.  I went over to my father-in-laws house and used his lathe to cut down the OD so it would fit inside the spring.  One more project down...

[tony 73]

Love the attention to detail and the thinking outside the square  , really enjoyable watch this rebuild. Keep up the great work Darren.