1975 Dodge Dart Sport - Making "Cheap" Look Cool

Previously, we showed you our latest acquisition-a '75 Dart Sport. A lot of guys snickered, sneered, and raised their eyebrows at us for undertaking what they called a waste of money, but who cares what they think. With the recent explosion of auctions in the last few years, the true enthusiast is faced with a serious dilemma: How can I get into a cool Mopar with the way prices are skyrocketing?

There are ways to do it, but you just have to be realistic. If your heart tells you that you have to have a Hemi Road Runner, your choices are limited. But if you feel something a little less mainstream will satisfy your cruiser craving, then you're in luck. until recently, many cars out there have been relatively overlooked. Does that mean they aren't worth restoring or modifying? Thankfully, auto enthusiasts are a diverse group, and the answer is a resounding NO. The early-to-mid-'50s-era cars seem to be gaining in popularity these days, but if you are looking for a musclecar-ish body style, then an A-Body seems to be the hot ticket.

Last month, we highlighted finding a car, cleaning up the paint, and getting it running with the help of Carquest Auto Parts. Unfortunately, it still looked like something our grandmother owned, so we really needed to address the appearance issues. The first thing on the agenda was the carpeting. Except for the area the floor mats had covered, the carpet was yellow, not very becoming in a black interior. So we contacted Year One and had a carpet kit sent our way. While the carpet was out, we noticed a few spots of paint had peeled, and some minimal surface rust had started to set in. We wire brushed it, primed it, and gave the infested spots a covering of red. Luckily, we had some spray bombs with red paint, so it was easy. The carpeting cost us a measly $140. That's it for the interior, other than a cheap radio install. We had an old Pioneer KE-3033, so in the hole it went.

The biggest job would be the outside of the car-mainly wheels and tires. The Sport came from the factory with small-bolt pattern wheels. we will be upgrading to a large-bolt pattern later, so why buy wheels now? We decided to simply get a new set of tires, paint the wheels, and add dog dish hubcaps. It's cool, but more importantly, it's cheap. The rattle can of primer and paint cost us $7.43, and the hubcaps were a swap meet find at $40. The tires on the other hand were bought new. We have a hard time-even as cheap as we are-putting used tires on a car. The car had 14-inch wheels, so since we weren't buying new wheels, the tires needed to be the same. We went online and found that a set of Firestone Indy 500s can be had for $51 a piece for the 225/70/14 on the rear, and $48 a piece for the 195/70/14 up front. They were economical and we've had good luck with them in the past, so we ordered them. The next cost was mounting and balancing at the local shop: $50.

While we had the tires off, we were disappointed to find the upper ball joint and control arm bushings were so bad on the driver side that there was a 3/16-inch in-and-out movement of the wheel. time to spend more money on suspension parts. We checked the passenger side and found a similar problem, so we made it easy on ourselves and called PST (Performance Suspension Technologies) and spent $199 for a much-needed suspension kit. The kit came with upper and lower ball joints, control arm bushings, strut rod bushings, outer tie-rod ends, sway bar links, and control arm bumpers. Since there was no sense in putting new rubber on the car with the suspension like it was, we took the plunge. On the rear, the factory springs were sagging so badly they necessitated a changing. Luckily, a friend gave us a set of used heavy-duty leafs, so we installed them. you'll have to figure the cost of the front-end alignment in since the suspension needed rebuilt.