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I asked the mod about a project page so I guess I better get involved hey, My Project centres on a VG/F Hardtop, it’s a VG with a VF front conversion that was performed before I bought it. But I like it like that now so it’ll stay that way until I’ve got the dollars to make it a Dart clone. Hehehe
Firstly I’ll come clean and say this isn’t my first forum post about this car so if looks like I’m a fast fabricator let me tell you I’m definitely not, I’m bringing over info from some of the other sites so you guys can all comment and ask questions about the build.
I've attached some pics of what she looked like when I took ownership. I saw it as a good starting point, just a simple resto-mod. As you can see there’s plenty of parts (all be it not on the car), but enough to get me in or out of trouble depending on how you look at it.
The intention from even before I got this car was to try and achieve street neat, a car that looks good in the carpark but isn’t trying hard to get noticed. This won’t be a show car because I don’t have the funding or the skill to achieve that.
As far as the theme goes for the car goes I guess I’m trying for a stock car-ish vibe, lots of chrome deleted and a fairly business like stance. The only thing that I’m struggling with for the look I want is spoilers, I know that a Gurney flap and a chin spoiler could really help get the 60’s nascar look but they could just as easily look sh*t. I guess I’ll finish the thing, drive and then decide if it needs it.
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Last edited by linkstar69; 24-06-2008 at 10:12 PM.
After countless attempts to find someone to do the body work in a reasonable time frame and at a reasonable cost I finally found someone local to the car prepared to do the work on it.
Of Course after blasting the body came up with a bit more cancer and bog than first imagined but she still received quite high marks over all considering the age these cars have on them.
The main brief for the body was smoothing everything out and cleaning up as much as I could. I'm not a massive chrome fan so I've had a lot of the exterior trim removed as well as the door locks and aerial. I've also relocated the fuel filler to behind the rear glass and filled the rain gutters in an attempt to smooth out the look without making the car look overly modified.
At the same time as getting the body straightened out I pulled out the 360 and sent it over to JHH Performance at Woodridge. I've know John for a while through working in the music industry with his son and even though they're more known for turbo and jap stuff over there I was confident with what I would get for my dollars due to the pride they put into every engine they build. I also remembered that John's old tow car for their race car was a Phoenix.
Here's some Pics of the Body back from paint and panel. I went for silver because it covers panel imperfections and hey I like it. On the bonnet I went for US style GTX stripes in a charcoal, I know its not model specific but man I'm impressed with how they turned out and this isn’t a numbers matching car or a straight resto anyway. The bumpers have been also painted in the same charcoal as the bonnet stripes.
With the stripes we played around with the width of the center stripe I think 8inches was the winner then got tape and laid out the smaller stripes on the side then I looked at what made the most sense I think I went for a 1 inch gap with either 1.5 or 2 inch stripes I'll have to have a look. I would imagine if parked it next to a GTX it'd be wrong but I think it works on the car. They just look simple but effective. I'll take some pics and do some measuring becuase I can't really remember the measurements I used to get them looking right. (PS: Would love to have a GTX parked next to it i the shed, oh well dream on.)
The fuel filler is an aftermarket part for the current F-trucks, I saw it on eBay and figured I'd give it a go to be different. While it works OK and gives the car a flush mount fuel door I wouldn't necessarily go the same way again. Its got a bit of the bling factor to it and I would have preferred more of a classic sports car look. Like what you'd see on a 60's LM race car.
That being said it’s different and it did require a bit of engineering. We recessed the fuel filler door slightly and then built a canister underneath for the standard fuel cap to live in.
I managed to find a pic of something similar to the part I used. This will give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.
That leads me to my next chapter in this little saga: Engine. This is where my project began to snowball (as they all do). As I mentioned earlier while the body was off being pampered the mill was at JHH for a rebuild. Originally I was looking at a straight forward mild performance build. Then I was bitten by the horse power bug I just couldn't resist the appeal of a big cube small block. So then it became a stroker rebuild.
This has influenced every subsequent step along the way. Firstly it called for a fair bit more attention to be placed on the heads. Incidentally one of two pairs of heads in the boot when I got it were J-ports so after pricing up some of the after market options it became evident that we could get them to breath to the extent the stroker would need. (read: we needed to get them to breath enough cause I couldn’t afford eddie’s)
Inside its got all the good stuff you would expect in any street strip engine. When I got the car the manifold (in the boot) was the stock 2 barrel this was always going to be replaced, I liked the look of the M-1 because of how it performed and also being a single plane the option of going injected later was considerably easier than on a dual plane. After calling around the various mopar distributors it became evident that I was going to be waiting at least a couple of months for one. (the east coast must have been experiencing a 360 build off or something) Then as luck would have it one turned up on ebay already prepped for multipoint injection with fuel rails ready to go. I couldn't believe my luck, this was the set up I'd wanted and someone else had done some of the work for me!
Now I needed to start thinking of management. I looked at some of the after market options and while the big players are excellent a lot of their features aren't all that important in a naturally aspirated street motor. On the other hand some of the cheaper aftermarket stuff is still crap and doesn't offer sequential firing something I definitely wanted.
So the decision was made to go for a Delco computer that I'll have reflashed. So far I've acquired a 5.0 comondore harness that I'll have adapted, a dizzy that now has GM late model guts in it that would allow me to go up to a hardcore computer if I decide to later and an efi-hardware 1000cfm multipoint 4barrel with the Delco TPS set up and associated linkage.
The injectors I've been advised to use for this application is the ones from the supercharged GM V6.
Join Date:
Nov 2007 Location:
Sydney Ride:
Hey Charger!!
Posts: 639
Very nice - love the hardies. And silver is such a great colour for them.
All right some questions
Are you thinking of the bumblebee stripe - looks very tough on the long boot?
Wheels?
What are you getting done to the 360?
Are you lowering her?
In my humble opinion give the boot spoiler a miss - not sure it can add to the lines of the car. Have seen some darts with front lip spoilers that can look real good.
VF Hardy Build up
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