'68 Dart 340 5 Speed

[Mr. E]

I'm a fan of what my uncle used to call Q-Rods. To us Q-Rods where the hotrod version of what was called a Q-ship back in WWII. Q-ships were heavily armed ships disguised to look like cargo ships and would cruise amongst convoys of actual cargo ships to help protect them from Axis attacks. To us a Q-rod was a fast car that looked anything but. As an example, one of my personal favorite Q-rods was a '64 Dodge Dart GT that had had a very hard life. So hard in fact that the first time I laid eyes on it it was behind a small used car lot that I was doing some mobile mechanic work for. The lot was so small that they couldn't afford a full-time wrench. The owner of the car lot offered to give me the little A body free, it had come to him in a package deal at an auction, all I had to do was get it off his back lot. It was so rough that I turned him down. The rear wheel wells had been hacked out with a Sawzall, it had foot long shackles on the rear springs, the springs were bolted through the bottom holes. The car sat level, with the springs visibly arching up. It had a wax can cap for one tail light and perhaps the worst part was that it had a '63 Valiant front end, thus the name we later gave it, "The Vart". I was putting a used engine in a Chevy Luv he had so I was there off and on for several days. When I went to get the battery for the Luv, from a shed where they had put it, I had to pass right by the Vart. I glanced in the interior and spotted a round shaft Hurst shifter amongst the interior that had once been removed then just tossed back into the car. I actually broke the hood latch getting it open, and there it was, 273 Charger engine, the Dodge version of the 273 Comando, complete with a Carter 4 barrel and a factory dual point distributor. The lot owner had put the car on his books so I had to buy it for a dollar. The damn thing ran, the only issue with it, other than its looks, was that the clutch linkage would pop off the bell crank every once in a while. It sounded kinda funny too because it had a single 3" exhaust.

So long story, but I had more fun beating Camaros, Mustangs, and other cars with that thing. But the big money maker with it was proving to those fools, with their over carburated 350's, that my piece crap Dart was stock.

Okay, so long story  to explain why my little Dart is in the St. Machine category. I'm building a close to stock appearing Dodge Dart Q-rod. 

[Mr. E]

I know many of you have seen most of these pics in the "Future Projects" thread, but I thought that it would be better to have them all in the same place so...

The ideas for this build came from a time in my life when all I could do was, dream about the cars I would like to build, look at pictures in magazines and window shop the internet. My health had tanked both physically and mentally. I took several years to recover to the point I'm at now and may take more years than I have left to get all the way back up and running.

I wanted to build a plan Jane '68 Dart with a bored and stroked 318. With a 4" crank and a 0.030" overbore you get a 390 cid LA engine. Interestingly if you bore it 0.060" over you get a 396. Stick that in your 383 Bowtie. Anyway, other plans included a 5-speed transmission form a company called Passion Performance along with some other speed goodies and a few comfort features. I figured I'd have a fun little toy.

This first shot is an early mock-up photo


In this pic, I've put the plan trunk panel on from the Hemi parts


Then I started to remove the muscle bumps from the hood,

[Mr. E]

I can't tell if these photos are showing up. I'm going to take a little break. If one of you could let me know if my images are here I'd really appreciate it.

[Mr. E]

Well, I just realized I posted this on the wrong thread. I'll end this one here and move it to the Work in Progress" Thread.

It would still be nice to know if the pictures are loading though!!

[Deleted]

I'm on my phone right now and I'm not getting any photos. Just the URL description. You tried posting photos on another thread and I can't see them either.

Just FYI.

[Mr. E]

Thanks smhardesty. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. All I can say is my life is spiraling downward again at an alarming rate. Not having my picks post at the moment is a small but irritating thing. 

[tubbs]

Dec 5, 2018 22:10:08 GMT -5 Mr. E said:

I'm a fan of what my uncle used to call Q-Rods. To us Q-Rods where the hotrod version of what was called a Q-ship back in WWII. Q-ships were heavily armed ships disguised to look like cargo ships and would cruise amongst convoys of actual cargo ships to help protect them from Axis attacks. To us a Q-rod was a fast car that looked anything but. As an example, one of my personal favorite Q-rods was a '64 Dodge Dart GT that had had a very hard life. So hard in fact that the first time I laid eyes on it it was behind a small used car lot that I was doing some mobile mechanic work for. The lot was so small that they couldn't afford a full-time wrench. The owner of the car lot offered to give me the little A body free, it had come to him in a package deal at an auction, all I had to do was get it off his back lot. It was so rough that I turned him down. The rear wheel wells had been hacked out with a Sawzall, it had foot long shackles on the rear springs, the springs were bolted through the bottom holes. The car sat level, with the springs visibly arching up. It had a wax can cap for one tail light and perhaps the worst part was that it had a '63 Valiant front end, thus the name we later gave it, "The Vart". I was putting a used engine in a Chevy Luv he had so I was there off and on for several days. When I went to get the battery for the Luv, from a shed where they had put it, I had to pass right by the Vart. I glanced in the interior and spotted a round shaft Hurst shifter amongst the interior that had once been removed then just tossed back into the car. I actually broke the hood latch getting it open, and there it was, 273 Charger engine, the Dodge version of the 273 Comando, complete with a Carter 4 barrel and a factory dual point distributor. The lot owner had put the car on his books so I had to buy it for a dollar. The damn thing ran, the only issue with it, other than its looks, was that the clutch linkage would pop off the bell crank every once in a while. It sounded kinda funny too because it had a single 3" exhaust.

So long story, but I had more fun beating Camaros, Mustangs, and other cars with that thing. But the big money maker with it was proving to those fools, with their over carburated 350's, that my piece crap Dart was stock.

Okay, so long story  to explain why my little Dart is in the St. Machine category. I'm building a close to stock appearing Dodge Dart Q-rod. 

I read that whole thing, great story, but the one thing that stood out was the statement "t had foot long shackles on the rear springs". man, I remember guys making those in their garage. the higher, the better.

[tubbs]

I hear you, the pictures did not show up, its fine, get it ironed out, we can wait.

[tubbs]

ok, just trying to get my post number up.... all the time I have been here, I don't get the WIP folder along with the other folders. maybe Marty can leave his Christmas decorations alone for a minute to explain this.

[mrmike]

Mr. E Modeler, I have IMGUR for my photohosting site and those codes don't look anything like mine do. 

[BUCKY]

I'm not seeing the pics on my PC....just codes.

[mrmike]

Your code is way too long!  I would try and copy from the second set of brackets starting at    and ending with  [/img].  These are your pictures.

[Mr. E]

Thanks guys, and mrmike  I'll try what you have suggested.

By the way, I'm a huge Robert B, Parker fan.

[Mr. E]

I finally figured out what was wrong, along with mrmike's help. I was also using the add photo icon in the replies area instead of just pasting the link straight to the page.

[mrmike]

Thanks Mr. E Modeler! I don't know how you got those codes as they are way too long to be useful, at least to me. I tried looking at all the different types of code used on my IMGUR page and none of them match yours for length. So my question for you is, where did you get your codes? Your codes look more like a Flickr page code.
I am a Robert B. Parker fan as well. Been reading his novels for over 30 years and I have been reading his Spenser novels in order since the beginning of the year. I have read a couple of the Jesse Stone novels and I am considering getting a Sunny Randell novel soon.