Revell 1968 Hemi Dart - First Look

[Rob Hall]

There is a nice '68 Dart GTS in pale yellow w/ dds, steelies and redlines in 'Mopar Milestones' magazine this month. Would be a nice way to build this kit also.

[High octane]

There is a nice '68 Dart GTS in pale yellow w/ dds, steelies and redlines in 'Mopar Milestones' magazine this month. Would be a nice way to build this kit also.

Yeah I caught that Dart GTS in the new issue of Mopar Milestones and it is sweet.

[Brett Barrow]

Here's a bit of inspiration:

And pics of the restoration:

http://www.musclecarrestorations.com/gallery2/v/Chrysler/Completed/Dodge-Dart-68-000/

Edited July 10, 2010 by Brett Barrow

[highway]

Kit looks great to me! Looking forward to it!

Here's another building suggestion ... combine the plain rear taillight panel with the wheels and caps from the '58 Charger and a resin flat hood (I have one I bought on the 'bay) for a really killer sleeper/plain Jane car. The engine could be anything from a slant 6 to a Hemi, depending on which direction you want to go.

I never knew they made a Charger in 1958!

[Bruno]

Looks great! Can't wait to get this kit

[Jim Kampmann]

Here are some pretty good photos of the Bostrom seats (as well as other detail shots) of the Hemi Darts:

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/featuredvehicles/a_body/mopp_0806_1968_hemi_dodge_dart/photo_03.html

http://image.carcraft.com/f/26837735/ccrp_0810_09_z+1968_dodge_dart_hemi_nhra+interior_view.jpg

http://image.carcraft.com/f/26837747/ccrp_0810_13_z+1968_dodge_dart_hemi_nhra+car_door.jpg

I'm thinking of using the Tbolt seats and modifying those.

Jim Kampmann

[whale392]

You know, I am liking the flat-hood, poverty-cap, buzzin half-dozen idea! Bench made from the 330 sedan seats, slant with a header and a custom 2bbl or Weber sidedrafts all in a plain wrapper. Revell has given us some potential with this modified re-issue.

[Janne Herajärvi]

Looking good.

[Gregg]

How come you guys get these kits first????

hehehehehehe

[charlie8575]

Kit looks great to me! Looking forward to it!

Here's another building suggestion ... combine the plain rear taillight panel with the wheels and caps from the '68 Charger and a resin flat hood (I have one I bought on the 'bay) for a really killer sleeper/plain Jane car. The engine could be anything from a slant 6 to a Hemi, depending on which direction you want to go.

Funny you mention this, Ken. I was thinking of adding some pillars, go with the low-buck trim and put The Leaning Tower of Power in it, painted a nice low-rent color. Great minds run on the same track...

Charlie Larkin

[Rob Hall]

Charlie, it will take a bit more than just adding some pillars to make the 2-door sedan from the coupe. the former AFXnScale resin used to offer a nice resin 2-door sedan body and interestingly, a Hemi Dart conversion too.

Dave

Yes, I have both of those AF/X kits...pretty nice. I think the 1:1 '67-69 Dart 2dr sedan shared it's roof w/ the Valiant.

The AF/X Hemi Dart incl. the body w/ the opened rear wheel wells, hood w/ scoop, and decklid..I also got a set of the special seats from them (separate from the Dart kit). Got to build it eventually as one of the primer gray and black Hemi Darts.

[Blake Rogers]

as a huge mopar fan am looking forward to this kit i just don't like those hup caps for the stock version lol

[Rob Hall]

True, Ford got them from the manufacturer and not from Dodge!

A-100 "style" seats it is then.

One key detail I've noticed from the magazine pics of Hemi Darts are the swiss-cheesed seat tracks. The resin seats I got from a certain resin caster have that detail.

[1320wayne]

For those thinking about future projects for this kit, regarding racing subjects, decalsbylucas is a new decal site with some interesting subjects including a 68 Hemi Herb McCandless car and two different variations of the 68 Hemi Shirley Shahan cars as future decal sets. As well, and this one is a long shot, when Bad Habit Motorsports was around Kevin Ellis had a nice set of decals to do the modern Ray Barton orange Hemi Dart. Those decals may be very hard to find if anyone was lucky enough to get any sets before he dissappeared.

Here is the link.

http://decalsbylucas.com/

Edited July 13, 2010 by 1320wayne

[LVZ2881]

Wayne, thanks for the link to Ron's site. He's got alot of good stuff there.

[Len Carsner]

Hello all, sorry about the long time between postings. Things are about to busy with the Dart so I thought I give a quick updatge.

A lot of talk about he seats and wheels has been going on so let me add my comments:

Dave Dodge at Model Car World is doing resin knockoffs off the A100 seats from the LIttle Red Wagon. Also it was brought up that the seats from the Revell T-Bolt kit might be suitable. After checking them against the LRW seats they have a little more taper to the seat back where as the LRW seat back is a bit more square. But I think they will work well and will probably be my choice for my version of the Dart. As an added surprise I checked the steel wheels in the T-Bolt and they look like they might be a good fit for this car, so I'll rob then from the kit too.

Someone mentioned that the scribed line inside the body for the wheel opening may not match the contour that most people are familiar with for the Hemi Darts. In our research we've seen no less that three different wheel opening shapes. Best advice is to use the scribed line as a guide and make a template to match the car you are replicating.

Someone asked if you can still build a GTS from the kit - yes, all of the parts to build a 383 GTS are there. No parts were subtracted from the original kit, only parts added to do the Hemi Dart.

Now, what versions will we be building? As many expected I'm doing the as delivered car seen here:

Bill will be doing The Hustlin' Hemi as pictured here:

Bills choice is significant for a couple of reasons. First, Paul Richardson, driver of the Hustlin' Hemi, is a friend of Bills who still lives close to Bills hometown. Second, Paul took delivery of one of the first fifty Hemi Darts produced and still has a wealth of knowledge and information concerning these cars and he has been more than helpful answering our questions. With his help we hope to build these cars as accurately as possible.

One other reason for Bills choice: he built these Hustlin' Hemi replicas back in the 1969-1970 era:

Bill used the Charlie Allen Dart, plus some 1969 Barracudas, as the basis for these cars. Building one for himself, Paul saw the model as it was coming together and had to have one for himself. Bill was more than happy to oblige.

That's all for now. Check the "On the Workbench" forum tomorrow for our first installment of the buildup.

Len C.

[Rob Hall]

This is about to get REALLY good!

One detail I noticed is that the as-delivered car doesn't have the front-fender side marker lights, while the Richardson car obviously does. What's up with that?

The rear wheelwell openings seem different also..the red car seems to have a raised lip around the opened up wheelwell opening, but the primer one doesn't seem to...also, the red car has a blacked out grille..

[Len Carsner]

The first installment of the buildup has been posted to the "On the Workbench" forum.

Meet you over there!

Len C.

[spkgibson]

I'll make sure I order atleast 3 of these,one to finish my 68 plain jane Dart,And the other two to make a GTS and the HEMI Dart,this is going to be a great edition to my A-Body collection!Now if they will do the 1970 ,Hint Hint,As you guys get to build the samples!Unfair!

[fastram]

How about another way to build a 68 Dart GTS.....

My friend just got the car done and showed it a the GoodGuys car show in Columbus, OH.

[Len Carsner]

How about another way to build a 68 Dart GTS.....

My friend just got the car done and showed it a the GoodGuys car show in Columbus, OH.

I was at that show last week and that car caught my eye.Very Nice!

[1972coronet]

Len -

I found your review (as well as this forum) by simply Google-ing "Revell '68 Hemi Dart" , and am glad that I found both this site and your review !

The "Hustlin' Hemi" photos brought back lots of great memories ; I remember first seeing these conversions in a 1983 or 1984 issue of Scale Auto !

Correct me if I'm wrong regarding the Hustlers' builder : Bill Coulter ?

Thanks again for this review and its subsequent w.i.p. !

[Len Carsner]

Len -

I found your review (as well as this forum) by simply Google-ing "Revell '68 Hemi Dart" , and am glad that I found both this site and your review !

The "Hustlin' Hemi" photos brought back lots of great memories ; I remember first seeing these conversions in a 1983 or 1984 issue of Scale Auto !

Correct me if I'm wrong regarding the Hustlers' builder : Bill Coulter ?

Thanks again for this review and its subsequent w.i.p. !

Indeed it was Bill Coulter and if you haven't checked the "On the Workbench" forum yet we are building these kits right now. Bill is recreating the Hustlin' Hemi with the new Dart kit, look for a comparison between old and new once we get closer to completion.

[Mrdarkmonkey96]

Just wondering about the overall quality of the kit, things to watch out for, things to do to improve stuff on the kit, etc. thanks for your time.

EDIT:Thank you to the moderator who placed my topic here, I made the topic before I realized what was going on with the forum, and thought the old topics just got deleted. Sorry.

Edited May 14, 2013 by Mrdarkmonkey96

[Patrick2005]

I liked it, went together pretty well.