'68 Hemi Dart Replica

[Rob Z]

This is a same kit build project for my model club. I was going to do the factory delivered Hurst car with the primered body and gel-coat front clip but then I ran across this beautiful B5 Blue Hurst Hemi while watching My Classic Car and decided that's the one for me...

I basically chose to do this version of it to, well, be lazy. Doing this car I don't have to cut and flip the quarter panels to have the wheel openings the correct way. So I took my already opened kit and put the sealed one up and commenced to cutting this evening, just finished cleaning it up a little bit ago...

Here's the link to all the reference material I am using for this build... (I did not find this link on my own, I found else where in these forums, thank you who ever you are that posted it).

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

Today I got to sit and do a bit of work on this one. I raped one of my Little Red Wagon kits for it's seats and with a little evergreen filled in the open side on each, just need to sand it down a bit so the seats sit level now.

Also today was the scariest thing I have ever done to a kit, I separated the engine blocks from the transmissions, the car I am doing has a 727 TF in it and the kit Hemi has the 4 Speed molded to it. Well so far everything has come out alright, now it's time to see if they go together... Thank You Len Carsner and Bill Coulter for the info on how to accomplish this task, it was very helpful...

Got the transmissions all changed over and it went smoother that I had anticipated, also started filling the seams on the seatback and my little filler panel...

[ian ashton]

Looks like you've got a great start, and your inspiration car is killer. I believe I have a magazine with the same car, which I used for reference in my build.

[Mike Kucaba]

Why would the quarter panels have to be flipped?

[ian ashton]

Factory Super Stock Darts came with radiused wheel wells.

[Rob Z]

note that the Speedwin Dart has the front fender wheel openings trimmed out, one of the things unique to that car.

although you already did the cutting on the engine and transmission it's not necessary as all the Hemi parts fit the 383/440 block in the kit. make sure you fix the wacky bi-level intake while you are at it

Thank you for pointing out the front fenders, I would have totally missed that... Got too caught up in other details...

The bi-level manifold is fine for this build, here's what he has in his car, looks the same...

[Joe Handley]

I think I've seen the prototype in person more than a decade ago

I'm keeping an eye on this thread!

[whale392]

What Dave is talking about is the kit intake carb plates being on two different height planes from one another. If you look at your reference photo and other real intake photos, the carbs are on the same height plane (one carb is not sitting higher than the other). Take a good head-on look at the kits intake and you will see that one carb plate sits higher than the other. That is NOT correct.

Your work looks good so far, and these 68s are my hands-down favorite A-body.

[Rob Z]

What Dave is talking about is the kit intake carb plates being on two different height planes from one another. If you look at your reference photo and other real intake photos, the carbs are on the same height plane (one carb is not sitting higher than the other). Take a good head-on look at the kits intake and you will see that one carb plate sits higher than the other. That is NOT correct.

Your work looks good so far, and these 68s are my hands-down favorite A-body.

I took another look at a different shot of the engine and Dave is correct. What may be a good source for a corrected manifold, I went through a few of my kits that have Hemi's and all have the traditional dual quad setup. Any help in this would be awesome.

[whale392]

Dave did a fix for his that was very simple and looked good. I would suggest talking to him.

I cut vertically down between the too-high side and the rest of the manifold, splitting it into two pieces (I used a photoetched blade so as to not remove too much material/destry too much detail). Then, I glued the too-high section back on at the right height and once the glue dried sanded the now staggered bottom of the intake back flat. Cleaned up my cut lines on the front and back of the intake face and I was pretty much done. Seemed to work ok (a little of the sides had to be smoothed/thinned for proper fit as I already had the heads glued to the block).

Edited January 22, 2011 by whale392

[Rob Z]

Dave did a fix for his that was very simple and looked good. I would suggest talking to him.

I cut vertically down between the too-high side and the rest of the manifold, splitting it into two pieces (I used a photoetched blade so as to not remove too much material/destry too much detail). Then, I glued the too-high section back on at the right height and once the glue dried sanded the now staggered bottom of the intake back flat. Cleaned up my cut lines on the front and back of the intake face and I was pretty much done. Seemed to work ok (a little of the sides had to be smoothed/thinned for proper fit as I already had the heads glued to the block).

That actually sounds like a good plan, especially since my heads are already glued to the block... Thank you Bradley...

[Rob Z]

Well spent some time today making an attempt at correcting the height of the manifold today. I am not too sure if I like it this way, I may just crack open my other kit and rob the manifold out of it and leave it that way. I also spent time radiusing the front fender openings and after looking at the pics, I still have some work to do there also, eye's aren't what they used to be, thank God for digital photography...

[Car Crazy 81]

Rob- You can find a nice cross-ram intake for the Hemi from a AMT 68-69 Plymouth GTX & 70 Coronet kits i hope this helps. Nice work on the Dart nice take on it.

[Rob Z]

nice work fixing the intake no idea why Revell chose to make it wrong or why most people seem to be content with it being wrong or insist that it's right when it's not.

just like Brad mentioned, i split mine right down the middle and there is a natural break that the saw blade seems to fit right into for that purpose. after moving the drivers side up and reglueing it i added material to the bottom on that side to fill in the gap and then reshaped the front a bit to closer look like the 1:1 intake. i also added the round plug detail as well.

Thanks Dave, I still have some more work to do on this to see if I can correct it, what I have now is exactly what you described. I still need to add material and still a lot of forming and sanding, I also had to add material to the bottom to actually make it sit on the block and not the heads...