BODY

This page is dedicated to the body of my 63 Dart.
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I am planning on painting the car Grabber Green.
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While roaming a Pick-n-Pull in Stockton, CA, I stumbled across a 1963 Dodge Dart GT 2 door hardtop. I pulled the trunk trim off because my original was missing a couple of the D-O-D-G-E letters. Mine isn't a GT but who cares.

The Bodywork

Tools of the trade:
Angle Grinder with 120 grit sanding disk.-----Chemical aircraft paint stripper.-----Assorted sandpaper.-----Not pictured: 1 gallon tub of Bondo body filler.

The right front fender.

This fender had already been worked.
The only problem: The previous owner put body filler over the old paint. It had to go.

I took off the fender to make it easier to straighten it.

Primered and ready to go. The bodywork on the fender is all done. About 1 1/2 weeks of off/on work.

The front valance

The front valance was in pretty good shape, but it needed a little work. Someone had used a screw in dent puller on it. I plugged the holes and straightened it out the best I could.

Then I went at it with body filler.

Once I got moving, it was fairly easy to work on. This is the valance between body filler coats.

Ready for primer.

Painted and ready to be installed.

The Driver's side fender

The driver's side fender had been previously replaced with a fender from another model 63 Dart. I found this out by finding different trim holes than the rest of the car.

This fender had considerably less damage than any other panel I've done so far, so it was fairly easy to complete.

Here it is with all work completed, primered and jambed out in green, and reinstalled on the car.

Reattaching the front end pieces

Both Fenders on.

The front valance attached.

Bumper and grill reinstalled.

It looks pretty good.

Driver's side drip rail

I removed the stainless drip rail molding so I could paint behind it.

Rear Fender Lips

The rear tires hit the rear fender lips, so I rolled them over. I used a hammer to get them to go. It worked good, but I wouldn't recommend doing it to a car with a decent paint job.

Passenger Drip Rail and Cowl Panel

Just some sanding and scratch filler.

Roof

The roof had a lot of surface rust on it, so I sanded it off. Someone must have attempted this before, as there was only a layer of primer under the rust. A couple cans of primer later, and it looks great. I jambed it out with green, like I did the rest of the car.

Headlight Bezels

The headlight bezels on this car were wasted when I got the car. I had 5 options on what to do about them.
1. Buy new ones.
2. Keep the ones I had that were all beat up.
3. Leave them off.
4. Do bodywork on them and paint them body color.
5. Do bodywork on them and paint them silver.

I chose #5. I finished one a few months before the other and didn't take any pictures of it, so I took pics of the second one.

As you can see, a lot of bondo was used on it.

Here they both are, all done. They look alright, considering the shape they were in before.

Hood

I took the hood off so that I could do bodywork on it.

Here it is during the stripping stage.

Partially bondo'd and primered.

Fully primered.

Jambed out in green, and the chrome is installed.

Installed on car.

Trunk Lid

I hand sanded it smooth and applied body filler. There was some rust, which I grinded out, then used body filler to fill it in.

Here it is ready for primer.

Primered, jambed out in green, chrome installed. Not bad.

Window Tint

I wanted to tint my back and quarter windows, so I got the darkest tint I could. I did the passenger quarter window first. It came out really good.

The other quarter window came out good too, but the back window did not come out good at all. When the car is street legal again, I will have a professional tint the windows.

When I was puting the car on the trailer one day, I hit the trailer ramp because the back of the trailer was too high.

I smashed the valence, which tweaked both front fenders.

I have since fixed the valence and started repairs on the passenger fender.

Passenger Door

I did bodywork on the passenger side door, but then decided to remove the trim off the side of the car, so I redid the bodywork on it.

I did bodywork on it.

Here is a partial pic of it done, and the fender has been removed for repairs.

Here's the fender being repaired.

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Page 1: Original Info and Pictures
Page 2-3: Engine/Transmission
Page 4-5: Suspension/Chassis
Page 6-7:Body
Page 8-9: Interior
Page 10-11: Drag Racing
Page 12: Other Pictures of My Dart
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