" THE " ugly duckling of the early sixties. 1962 Dodge Dart

[gtx6970]

On 11/5/2025 at 3:16 AM, dragcarz said:

Great project Bill! I really like what your doing. I too have been sitting on a 63 Dodge and a Lindberg 64 Dodge kit to do what your doing here. A little more information on fitting the chassis into the body would be really appreciated! Looks beautiful so far!  

This work ?

 

 

[gtx6970]

MOST of the BMF work is done

Need a sharper blade to finalize the fender trim

 

Body . Interior and chassis are now one

Time to finish up the engine and suspension in next few days 

 

That little Dodge emblem was done with a VERY fine brush. My lighted magnifier and fusion chrome paint

Turned out A LOT better than I expected. 

 

Edited November 8 by gtx6970

[Trainwreck]

That's looking really good.

[gtx6970]

Trying to decide on tires 

Between close to the actual car with Black side walls

Or dual pinstripe White walls, which is kind of the way I'm leaning. As I think It looks "right" for the period 

 

With the mods/ variations im going to make with the headers and rear axle.

IMO its more a " tribute"  build as opposed to a replica persay

Parts pack tires . Rims from the Mobeius AFX kits

 

 

 

Edited November 9 by gtx6970

[gtx6970]

Slowly,,,,But surely

 

Rear wheels from the Moebius AFX kits

Rear tires from the AMT tires parts pack, Ft wheels from the AMT  62 Impala chromed with the fusion chrome paint 

 

Stance is too low in the ft for sure.  But I like it.

I'm calling it more a 'tribute build ' instead of a true replica anyway.

 

But I'm liking this one more and more as it goes along

 

[papajohn97]

Absolutely loving what you're doing here Bill with this early SSer. The slightly lowered front end stance shown above looks very much like "tribute" entries I've seen popping wheel stand launches on the 1/8 mile drag strip at the last few Irwindale Nitro Revival meets (😢....RIP).

Blairs was a legendary speed shop/ sponser of drag cars in the '60's, hoping someday to build a Steve Bovan AWB Nova match racer with a set of Fremont decals I've been hoarding.

Seeing these '62 Darts & Furys as a car crazy nine yr old when they were new, I remember thinking they were really weird looking. I learned later that they were the last Chrysler designs penned by the talented & tasteful Virgil Exner but were radically reduced in size and re-configured from Exner's original designs by the bean counters (probably why he quit?). I think the combination of the awkward styling with the raw violence of an open exhaust 413 Max Wedge in an ill-handling chassis draws me to these cars as an early SS drag car modeling subject. Maybe someday soon I'll pull the trigger and spend the $150 of my retirement savings on an unbuilt Jo-Han kit and just accept running out of paint & glue $ sooner?!

[stavanzer]

I love what you are building here!

It looks great!

[gtx6970]

9 hours ago, papajohn97 said:

Absolutely loving what you're doing here Bill with this early SSer. The slightly lowered front end stance shown above looks very much like "tribute" entries I've seen popping wheel stand launches on the 1/8 mile drag strip at the last few Irwindale Nitro Revival meets (😢....RIP).

Blairs was a legendary speed shop/ sponser of drag cars in the '60's, hoping someday to build a Steve Bovan AWB Nova match racer with a set of Fremont decals I've been hoarding.

Seeing these '62 Darts & Furys as a car crazy nine yr old when they were new, I remember thinking they were really weird looking. I learned later that they were the last Chrysler designs penned by the talented & tasteful Virgil Exner but were radically reduced in size and re-configured from Exner's original designs by the bean counters (probably why he quit?). I think the combination of the awkward styling with the raw violence of an open exhaust 413 Max Wedge in an ill-handling chassis draws me to these cars as an early SS drag car modeling subject. Maybe someday soon I'll pull the trigger and spend the $150 of my retirement savings on an unbuilt Jo-Han kit and just accept running out of paint & glue $ sooner?!

Thanks, I never expected I would like it as much as I do when I dug out of the oblivion  a while back.

Not that I can do anything about it now, But I Wish now I had done better on the paint work back then. Such is life I guess 

Im happy with it overall

The car will look great in my case with all the other door slammers I have from the era.

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:17 PM by gtx6970