After: With just a handful...
After: With just a handful of appearance mods, including an AAR 'glass hood, a '67 'Cuda flip-top fuel cap, reproduction stripes, and some trick Wheel Vintiques "Cruzer" mags mounting wide Firestone rubber, our Clark Kent Dart looks the part of a true Supercar.
Curb appeal. You've either got it or you don't. What does it take? That depends. A set of black steel wheels on a Six Pack Bee has it in droves. On the other hand, black wheels without caps on an Aspen look like you're slummin'. Mother Mopar was hip to curb appeal. Scoops and styled hoods, rallye or stylized steel wheels, stripes and decals ranging from the subtle to absolutely wild, flip-top fuel fillers, exhaust tips, hood pins, wings, and the list goes on; it was all there to convey the message of power. These were the things that outwardly separated the plain-Jane Darts, Coronets, and Satellites from the heavy hitters and visually backed up the power lurking within. Hey, if you've got it, why not flaunt it?
My '69 Dart Custom, with its bread-and-butter status within the Dart line, came with none of those factory appearance goodies. While the Swingers and GTSs had the stylized performance hoods, tail stripes, and optional wheel packages, this Dart was nothing but an average transportation car in its day. It had performance and chassis upgrades from stem to stern, but still looked like the regular old Dodge Dart your schoolteacher used to drive. There were the 15x7-inch cop wheels and the large OE-style dual exhaust tips, but to the average observer the suggestion of performance was lost. Want proof? As I waited in the crowd at the valet station at the end of last year's SEMA show, the Dart loped up with its distinctive cam-and-headers sound, trailing a procession of late-model rentals and SUVs. Tossing my bag into the trunk, I overheard, "Is that a six-cylinder?"
Before: Understated, sleeper,...
Before: Understated, sleeper, or downright dowdy, this '69 Dart is a radical street machine under the skin but just doesn't look the part.
While the sleeper look has its rewards, it was time for a change. A clone of a GTS or a Swinger would work, but since this Dart would never be the real thing, we decided to take a mild custom approach to upgrading the appearance. Borrowing from both the factory themes and the drag racing style of yesterday, our plan wasn't overly ambitious: just a few changes for achieving the traditional modified musclecar look. A fresh 'glass Six Pack hood from AAR Fiberglass, a GTS tail stripe from Performance Car Graphics, the new vintage-drag style "Cruzer" wheel from Wheel Vintiques, and a flip-up gas cap from a '67 Barracuda would give us a little respect. Drop us a line and tell us what you think.
Most musclecar fans seem fixated on stuffing as large a tire into the wheelwell as possible, and why not? Mopar musclecars are big and brawny, and look so right with serious meats tucking underneath. One of the trickiest parts of ordering a new wheel and tire combo is judging how much tire can be run before clearance problems spoil the fun. It isn't easy to know for sure without trying the tires and wheels for fit-something some custom wheel shops are willing to do to make a sale. On the other hand, if your new wheels are coming to the door via that nice man in the big brown van, you're on your own as far as determining the fit. One way is to look around at combos others are running on identical cars and follow their lead. Sometimes the only alternative is to break out the jackstands, crawl under the car, and do some guesstimating.
The AAR hood is lighter than...
The AAR hood is lighter than stock; the stock hood springs are way too stiff and will damage the hood. Darts use a spiral-wound hood spring, located in the inner fender, with no known readily available replacements in a lighter spec. We reached behind the door with a prybar and levered the outside spring end from its retainer post to unwind it. Use caution, as it unwinds with some fury. We used a prop rod.
Hoodwinked Aftermarket fiberglass...
Hoodwinked
Aftermarket fiberglass hoods have been around as long as musclecars. We spied some of the latest offerings from AAR at last year's Mopar Nationals and were struck by the quality. Unlike some of the cheap-o 'glass floating around, the AAR stuff looked exceptionally straight. For the '69 Dart, AAR had several choices, including a flat hood, a GTS-style hood, and the Six Pack-scooped version, available in either race pin or bolt-on type. We wanted a hinged hood for convenience in this daily driver, so we chose the bolt-on, and the Six Pack version got the nod because this scoop just looks right on a hot Dart. First, off with the old flat hood.
We decided to paint the hood...
We decided to paint the hood white to match the body. We prepped the hood by scuffing it, shot a coat of primer sealer, and then a couple of coats of the Dart's original WW1 Sable White in PPG Delta urethane. The hood was so straight that not a touch of surface prep or blocking was deemed necessary-definitely not your average 'glass. The PPG Delta paint flowed-out and covered beautifully.
The AAR hood bolted up to...
The AAR hood bolted up to the stock hinges and took the stock latch hardware. The hood position was adjusted by trial and error at the hinge, the height at the front adjusted at the factory hood bumpers, and the latch adjusted to catch properly. We had outstanding alignment within the stock range of adjustability at these points without any custom massaging. Once the final position was set, the panel gaps to the fender and cowl rivaled the stock hood.
To finish the installation,...
To finish the installation, the leading edge of the hood was drilled to take the original bright edge moulding from our stock hood. We measured the stock hood and drilled the AAR replacement with the required 1/4-inch holes. The contour of the hood matched the stock moulding exactly.
With the AAR Six Pack hood...
With the AAR Six Pack hood installed, the nose of the Dart took on a much more purposeful performance look. Notice how even the panel gaps are remarkable for an aftermarket hood.
Flip Your Lid We had a silly-looking...
Flip Your Lid
We had a silly-looking black Stant replacement fuel cap right smack center of the quarter on the Dart and had a trick Mopar flip-top cap collecting dust in the shop. What does it take to put it on? The original A-Body Barracuda these came on had a much larger diameter fuel filler recess stamped into the quarter to clear the latch and hinge.
There are a few different...
There are a few different ways to adapt the flip top to the Dart quarter. One is by moving the filler neck's flange from the inside of the trunk to outside the quarter, spacing out the filler enough so that the cap's latch and hinge clear, and adding enough length to the filler to adequately engage the fuel tank. However, the cap would stick out too much for our taste, so we decided to french-in the cap, making recesses in the quarter to clear the hinge and latch. We first marked the locations for the recesses.
The fuel filler neck was factory-fitted...
The fuel filler neck was factory-fitted to the quarter with its flange secured by screws on the inside. The other end was just a slip fit into the tank's rubber grommet, with a rubber boot providing the seal where the filler passes through the trunk floor.