I’ve recently started making a beefier, 8-3/4″ replacement rearaxle for my ’73 Dodge Dart.
The car’s current rearaxle is a flimsy 7-1/4″ version, with huge backlash on the gears, worn out drums AND only a 4″ wheel boltcircle. The front wheelstuds of the car already have a 4.5″ boltcircle, so this rearend is def. not worth it to spend any money on.

Since Mopar 8-3/4″ A-body rearaxles are hard to find, expensive and if found, usually also still have 4″ boltcircle wheelstuds, I decided to shorten an existing axle housing. Just for kicks!

I found 2 big 5″ rounds of aluminium and turned these into axle housing alignment spindles on my lathe. Two for the bearing-ends, and two for inside the 3rd member housing.

I pulled a larger Chrysler C-body rearaxle out of my ‘scrap pile’ and cut the bearing ends of the housing with a pipecutter. After that I also cut off the amount needed to shorten it from the housing.
In the mean time I had ordered a pair of brand new stock A-Body size axles at DoctorDiff.com

After a while I noticed something not right with the housing ends I had cut off earlier.
The rearaxle I had used was from a 1960 Chrysler, and upto 1964 these cars had a different type of axle, and I learned that day, therefore also different axlehousing ends.
So out came the pipecutter again and I pulled another rearaxle out of my partsstash… but this time I used a 1965 rear end.

Testfitting and Complete mock-up;

Now it was time the measure the angle at which the housing ends (and springperches) should end up at so everything goes well when the rear end is mounted under the car.
So out came the trusty iPhone with that nifty ‘Clinometer’ app installed!
After carefull measuring I tacked the housing ends in place and started measuring again, for good measure ya know…! After I “OK’d” my findings, I rotated the powerswitch on my welder onto setting “fullthrottle”, and I was off melting steel..!

I had never welded heavy/thick steel before but after the first inch or two I felt comfortable and welded the rest aswell, welding 1-2 inches at a time, at opposite sides.
I also mockedup some (Cherokee?) discbrakes I had laying around to see if a discbrake conversion is feesible aswell.

And there we are, one rear end, properly sized for a Mopar A-body…

Now I know what it’s like to drive around with a Hemi Dart… Comfy!
Well, maybe I should say ‘a Hemi in a Dart’… as the motor wasn’t exactly helping to propell the car forward by being in the trunk…

The Hemi is a 2004-2006 3rd generation 5.7L Hemi with 345 hp and 375 ft/lbs of torque.
I’m currently trying to find out how well this motor might fit into the Dodge Dart and if I’m going to wire it with EFI or not. Main condition is the motor will need to able to run on LPG.
Since the Dart has powersteering and powerbrakes, room is limited under the hood and might pose problems installing the motor.

The motor itself is incomplete at this moment. It’s missing 3 pistons which the previous owner used in another Hemi. Also the throttlebody and 3 coilpacks are missing.

I’ve covered the inside floor of the Dart with 3 coats of liquid rubber compound which turns into a solid layer of rubber when dry. I’ve added some extra half inch thick rubber mats on flat floorboards for extra noise-reduction. On top of that I installed some simple black carpet.
The car drives much quiter now.

I’ve been working on installing a console and shifter in the Dart. Since I had no brackets at all for this I made them myself.
Took a great deal of the day to just get the shifter and rods lined up and installed properly so it would go through all the transmission gears correctly.
After the shifter had been positioned it was time to start fabbing brackets for the console itself. This also pretty much took an entire day.

Next up is getting the windshield gasketrubber fixed or replaced so I can finally install some carpet in the car.

Since the ’73 Dart came with a flimsy 7-1/4″ rear axle with only 4″ boltcircle axles, I decided to upgrade to an 8-3/4″ rear axle in case I ever decide to some upgrades in the engine compartment aswell.
Dodge Dart rear axles are narrower than all other Mopar rear axles. And since these rear ends are hard to find and high priced aswell I decided to narrow one of my fullsize Chrysler rear ends.
In order to properly shorten an axle housing, the cut off housing ends have to be aligned properly again against the axle’s third member.
Therefore I had to make a jig. I bought 2 large rounds of aluminium to turn these down on my lathe to create the alignment toolparts with.

One of the first things on the list after the Dart was streetlegal was getting it aligned.
I had set out to try doing the alignment myself with a homemade tool and an app for my iPhone, but without being able to set camber and caster at the same time, it’s pretty much impossible to do correctly.
After my own ‘garage-alignment’ where I mainly set the camber slightly negative and as much caster I could get out of the adjusters, I made a trip across our tiny country. Eventhough the car still pulled slightly to one side it still was predictable to drive.
Later on I did make an appointment at a local tire-shop which proceeded to align the front suspension to modern day specs. Again this was a night and day difference.

Here’s a photo of the ’73 Dart with the vinyltop mounted and the car pretty much ready for daily duty.

Recently I’ve bought myself a ’73 Dodge Dart. It has a 318 smallblock, auto, powersteering and brakes and runs on propane. I’ll be fixing it up and will be using it as my dailydriver pretty soon.

The Dart is a ’73 model but the previous owner installed a ’71 frontclip on the car. He also installed 4.5″ discbrakes, rebuilt the front suspension and powdercoated the K-member. But the car has been parked outside in the weather for some 6 years after that, so I knew I had some work to do.
Crunchy bubbles full of rust where popping up under the dry-rotted vinylroof near the rearwindow so that had to be fixed.
After I got the car in my garage I started tearing into it. Ripped the old vinyl off the roof, removed the worn benchseat and doorpanels.
Turned out the driversside front floorboard was toast aswell so I got a 2ft.square piece sheetmetal and started hammering and welding it in place. After the floorwelding was done I covered it in a coat of black paint.

I didn’t like the brown interior so out came the panels to be cleaned and painted with black vinylpaint again. The dash remained in the car but I painted it black aswell, along with the steeringwheel.
Instead of the original frontbench I’ve installed two black leather seats out of a BMW I’ve had laying about for years. I do plan on installing an original Dart center console with shifter aswell after a while.

I’m painting the car a two-tone scheme. The sides in orange and the horizontal sheetmetal will be painted black. All in semi-gloss paint, applied with a roller.
I’m currently installing a new black vinyl top that came with the car.

Below you’ll find a number of pics of the car, as bought, and it’s current progress on it;

Got an order from Summit containing a bunch of 3″ tubes in various shapes. This will be a complete header to tailpipe to be mounted behind the blower motor I’m working on on the side.

Decided to pull the cam out of the 500″ stroker in the ’60 NewYorker in favor for a mechanical rollercam. The cam is a CompCam XR274R-10 – Mechanical Roller with 274/280 advertised Duration and .564/.570″ lift.