Project SCUD - 1969 Dodge Dart

[dusterbd13]

I'm two hours north of columbia. My best friend and his family live down there. The housing market down there sucks right now.



And I kinow abou the wifee. She never even cussed when having my daughter with no drugs....

[rfalker1]

I am actually in Istanbul right now!! Working hard still and hardly working!! Good luck with the move and glad to hear she is doing so well after the operation. I know my 3 year is a bundle of pure energy!!!!

[GRNOVA]

Will Glad to know your family is doing great. Happy Holiday wishes to You and you Family!

[wellis77]

The housing market down there sucks right now.

I've been checking it out and hope that means it's a buyer's market now. Either way, I can do WAY better there than what I can in Switzerland...

I am actually in Istanbul right now!! Working hard still and hardly working!! Good luck with the move and glad to hear she is doing so well after the operation. I know my 3 year is a bundle of pure energy!!!!

Thanks Randa.

Will Glad to know your family is doing great. Happy Holiday wishes to You and you Family!

Thanks Tim, Happy Holidays to you and yours as well.

[454bug]

Happy holidays Will!

A lot of good news for you and your family! I am saying prayers for your family and glad to hear you are coming back to the states for good!

These traveling jobs we have REALLY slow down our projects... but, you have to make the money to spend the money, right???

I am looking forward to progress pictures in the new year!

[dusterbd13]

the houses on the market in my friends price range are either in rough neghborhood, or should be bulldozed.

if youre not tied down to columbia, can i reccomend my town? albemarle is really a buyers market right now.

and merry christmas to you and your family.

[turboclevor]

man i have read through this thread 3 times and am still finding out new stuff. hope to see some "first ride" pics next year lol no pressure

[wellis77]

Happy holidays Will!

A lot of good news for you and your family! I am saying prayers for your family and glad to hear you are coming back to the states for good!

These traveling jobs we have REALLY slow down our projects... but, you have to make the money to spend the money, right???

I am looking forward to progress pictures in the new year!

Thanks Ray! Merry Christmas to you as well. I am looking forward to getting back and having some fun. Selfishly I'm hoping for a solid 2-4 weeks working on the car before "real-life" has to kick in. We'll see. I'm looking forward to seeing how the tin work comes out on yours. I'd like to start that on mine this year, but I have some more pressing things to do on it first.

the houses on the market in my friends price range are either in rough neghborhood, or should be bulldozed.

if youre not tied down to columbia, can i reccomend my town? albemarle is really a buyers market right now.

and merry christmas to you and your family.

I'm open to anything at this point Michael, I'm going where the work is, but long-term I want to be on Lake Murray, that's why the big push for the Columbia area. My wife and I are (used to be) competitive water-skiers and we need to be on the water.

man i have read through this thread 3 times and am still finding out new stuff. hope to see some "first ride" pics next year lol no pressure

Thanks Brandon! I'm hoping that actually happens, even if it's in a shell of a car, ala go-cart...

[turboclevor]

Any updates since youve been back?

[wellis77]

Haven't been back yet Brandon. I'm moving back the 18th of January so passed on Christmas this year. Have plenty of stuff to do once I'm back though and hope to make some good progress. Thanks for checking.

[blade]

Awesome write up and great work! Congrats on the little one, glad she is doing well!

[wellis77]

Thanks Eddie.

[bonecrrusher]

May I suggest Lake Wylie?

Its a pretty good sized lake and its north of Columbia - well closer to Charlotte - LOL.

[wellis77]

Yes you may! I'll check it out. Thanks.

[Nuke1]

I would just like to say. WOW. I read your whole build so far and it is nothing short of amazing. Great job so far and can not wait to see more work done in the future..

[wellis77]

Thanks Nuke1. I'm getting pretty excited to get back as I have a lot of machined parts on the way and some fun stuff I'll be finishing up. Pictures by the end of the month...

Nice work you've done on your truck as well.

[72BBSwinger]

Cool Will I've been addicted to carving buoys myself for 20 yrs or so. I'm 40 now and not as tough as I once was so only do it 2-3 times a year now.

[wellis77]

Another buoy chaser. Learn something new everyday. Actually, on the water I'm torn between my two greatest passions of slalom skiing and barefooting. My wife used to work for Ron Scarpa at his ski school and I used to work for Eagle Sports building wetsuits. I had a big hand (very big) in developing their ski vest. I can't wait to get back and pick up the boat. Before this summer is out, I will have posted a picture of my less than 1 year old girl skiing. Can't wait!

And 40 is no excuse! Strap on the stick and get to it... I'm really looking forward to getting back in the course, I haven't been through the course since 2006. Far too long.

[RogueFab]

I just thumbed through this thread. Amazing build. I will look in more detail later. Whoever is doing the body work knows what they are doing for sure. Keep the eye candy coming please : )

Joe

[wellis77]

Thanks Joe!

I've been back Stateside, permanently, for almost 3 weeks now. I haven't gotten a ton done despite the amount of work I've put in, but I have been productive...

I previously had a problem with steering rack location, it required the same space needed by the engine. In conjunction with multiple persons, I designed up a solution, got a bunch of parts machined, replaced the rack shaft in my rack, and voila, Lord willing it'll work... In conjunction with the rack/steering fix, I used the front sway bar tube as part of my mounting system for the rack. I designed and cut some mounts for the sway bar housing to make mounting einfacher, and it was. Two birds, one(ish) stone.



Just in front of the rack is the 2" sway bar housing with the custom brackets on each end. The sway bar is a custom piece from Speedway using roller bearings from Port City Racing rather than solid bushings.



After that I moved on to getting the new core support built. I bent it up from two pieces of 1-1/4" x .120 wall to almost identically mirror the stock core support. At the same time, I jigged up the fenders so I could locate the mounting holes for those.



Then made some brackets to capture the front fender mounts as well as brackets to bolt it up to the frame rail.



And there you have it.



Next up are forward tubes from the firewall to the core support, the final bar for the fender mounting holes plus custom brackets running from the forward tubes to the fender mounting bar stock. Then done and done up front, hope to have that stuff finished up next week, and moving on to the cockpit.