"I can never find a cheap car to fix up" is a statement we hear a lot. But deals are still out there. You just have to look for them . . . or not. that's how we came across this-we'll call it a gem-sitting under a carport close to home. We knew about the car, but never had any money to offer, so we never asked if it was for sale. Well, you know the old saying, "be careful what you wish for." One day the elderly gentleman that owned the car decided it was time to get rid of it, and we happened to be in the right place at the right time. The deal was struck, and for $300, we were able to haul this baby home.
Sure, it's not a 340-powered Demon, but who cares. Save for the front end-an easy swap-it has the same basic look. So for what we paid, we were more than happy. The only problem was we didn't know if it ran, or if it could even be made into a relatively cool cruiser for next to nothing. But that didn't deter us as we hauled it home to see if we finally had a stroke of good luck. As near as Paul, the gentleman that owned it, could tell, it ran, but might need a clutch. He said it had sat for about 15 years, and by the thickness of the car cover, we mean dust, we didn't doubt him.
The first order of business was to grab several dollars worth of quarters and head for the local car wash. It took every bit of $5 to get all the loose dirt off, but the faded paint was still showing its age. One thing we did know for sure was that Paul was the original owner, and the car had never been repainted, which means there is no bondo covering any hidden rust. What you see is what you get. Now it was time to head for the shop to see if the paint could be saved.
We were afraid to do any wet-sanding on the paint because we didn't know how well it would hold up. But we did take our time, hitting it with some 3M microfinishing glaze and a buffer spinning at about 2,800 rpm. We were amazed at how well the paint cleaned up. We then gave it a coat of wax. we'll see how long it stays shiny.
Now it was time to see if we could get it running. Before we ever turned the engine over, we knew there were a few things we would need to do. For starters, we needed to locate some parts. Now there are a more than a few restoration supply houses that carry everything we would need, but for simple tune-up and related items, the local parts store is a quicker and simpler option. We ended up checking with our local Carquest store in Lakeland, Florida, which had everything we needed by the next day. Some of the parts were available immediately, but you can't expect them to stock things like a remanned one-barrel carburetor, so we waited overnight. we ordered up a tune-up kit, air, fuel, and oil filter, oil, and a new battery. Now it was time to wrench and hope for the best.
One of the first things we planned to do was rebuild the carburetor. As soon as we grabbed it and got ready to remove it, we found all the screws holding the body to the base were loose. We removed the carburetor to find not only were they loose, so were the bowl screws. And not only were the base and bowl screws loose, almost every one of the screw holes was stripped out. we could have found a heli-coil kit, fixed the holes, and rebuilt the carb, but since we are somewhat lazy around here we opted to get a remanned carb. Problem solved. We installed the new carburetor and then focused on the tune-up. Immediately upon removing the number one spark plug, we found a problem. The ground strap and electrode were completely smashed, definitely evidence of a problem. We did some further diagnosing and came up with a resolution. Not only are we lazy, but we're cheap too. We kinda sorta fixed the problem, but you'll have to read on to see how.
After the tune-up, oil change, and priming, we decided to add fuel to see if the "indestructible" six would fire. We dumped a little fuel down the carb, hit the key, and hoped for the best. When the only noise we heard was the tell-tale Slant Six valvetrain rattle, we figured we were out of the woods. One thing we didn't think about was checking the brakes, and immediately upon backing out of the garage, it was evident they were nonexistent.
We carefully pulled back into the garage. when we removed the master cylinder lid, we found out why we had no brakes, but now needed to find out why the master cylinder was empty. We started at the front of the car and found the bonded brake shoes on both sides were a whopping .005-inch thick-a little short of a factory spec. Shoes replaced, wheel cylinders rebuilt, now on to the back of the car. The rear shoes were a little bit better. They were .010-inch thick, but the wheel cylinders were leaking. So, back to Carquest for shoes and wheel cylinder kits. Luckily for us, Carquest has stores all over, so since we were working on the Dart in Tampa, we found one close by.