Critique my purchase: 1962 Dodge Lancer
- Thread starter ArtDecoWorld
- Start date
What are your plans for it?
I'm sure you know restoring an old car is an act of love.
It costs a lot... Running down parts can take forever...
But have fun with it!
I love slant 6 engines. There used to be a great wreckers around here called "Slant 6 City".
New and used; you could get anything.
I'm sure you know restoring an old car is an act of love.
It costs a lot... Running down parts can take forever...
But have fun with it!
I love slant 6 engines. There used to be a great wreckers around here called "Slant 6 City".
New and used; you could get anything.
Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by spasm3
Engine bay looks too small for a hemi swap.
It is...that's an early "narrow" A-body. Even a small-block is tight.
Yeah I'm digging the mish-mosh of square and swoopy. It's like the side windows can only be flat, or they didn't have the budget or tech to make them bubbly like the front and back glass.
Originally Posted by spasm3
Engine bay looks too small for a hemi swap.
It is...that's an early "narrow" A-body. Even a small-block is tight.
Yeah I'm digging the mish-mosh of square and swoopy. It's like the side windows can only be flat, or they didn't have the budget or tech to make them bubbly like the front and back glass.
My Sister had a 64 Dart with the slant 6. The car ran forever. She drove it for many years.
Originally Posted by atikovi
OMG, how did people before the mid 60's survive?
That's like the punch line to a ghost story. They didn't, they're ghosts.
Basically the fatality rate has gone down by almost half since the 1960's. All those fancy systems of today only does about half...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor...ear#Motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
OMG, how did people before the mid 60's survive?
That's like the punch line to a ghost story. They didn't, they're ghosts.
Basically the fatality rate has gone down by almost half since the 1960's. All those fancy systems of today only does about half...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor...ear#Motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
Originally Posted by ArtDecoWorld
Originally Posted by Wolf359
Originally Posted by zrxkawboy
Very cool car! It would've come with either a 170 or 225, but a 198 sure could've been swapped in. The Allpar article has a tip on ID by the length of the bypass hose. https://www.allpar.com/slant6.html
Rockauto.com still lists parts for either the 170, 225 or 413 V8. A vin decoder might tell you what engine it had.
Vin is 7325133847 (No letters, interesting.)
No good decoders out there that I could find.
http://www.tpocr.com/dodgevin1.html
Originally Posted by Wolf359
Originally Posted by zrxkawboy
Very cool car! It would've come with either a 170 or 225, but a 198 sure could've been swapped in. The Allpar article has a tip on ID by the length of the bypass hose. https://www.allpar.com/slant6.html
Rockauto.com still lists parts for either the 170, 225 or 413 V8. A vin decoder might tell you what engine it had.
Vin is 7325133847 (No letters, interesting.)
No good decoders out there that I could find.
http://www.tpocr.com/dodgevin1.html
Originally Posted by eljefino
Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by spasm3
Engine bay looks too small for a hemi swap.
It is...that's an early "narrow" A-body. Even a small-block is tight.
Yeah I'm digging the mish-mosh of square and swoopy. It's like the side windows can only be flat, or they didn't have the budget or tech to make them bubbly like the front and back glass.
You're closer than you realize: they DIDN'T have the budget for it. The first A-body with curved side glass was the 1970 Duster...and it was quite a struggle to fit it in the doors. The A-bodies HAD to meet the price point, to compete against Ford (Falcon), Chevy (II), Rambler (American), and increasingly, VW. The car was an enormous-and in many ways, revolutionary-design in 1960. (Chrysler pretty much bet the company on it.)
Notably, the 1960 Valiant was the first mass-produced car in the country with an alternator.
Originally Posted by Jarlaxle
Originally Posted by spasm3
Engine bay looks too small for a hemi swap.
It is...that's an early "narrow" A-body. Even a small-block is tight.
Yeah I'm digging the mish-mosh of square and swoopy. It's like the side windows can only be flat, or they didn't have the budget or tech to make them bubbly like the front and back glass.
You're closer than you realize: they DIDN'T have the budget for it. The first A-body with curved side glass was the 1970 Duster...and it was quite a struggle to fit it in the doors. The A-bodies HAD to meet the price point, to compete against Ford (Falcon), Chevy (II), Rambler (American), and increasingly, VW. The car was an enormous-and in many ways, revolutionary-design in 1960. (Chrysler pretty much bet the company on it.)
Notably, the 1960 Valiant was the first mass-produced car in the country with an alternator.
Cool car for a driver.
I had a slant-six Duster that once was In Violet (Plymouth's name for Plum Crazy) but looked ugly as homemade sin by the time I got it. I drove it all over the country, adding 120,000 miles before the odometer broke. It had a dual master cylinder but manual everything and no A/C.
--Assuming it has manual drums, you might be able to improve the brake feel by adjusting the star wheels.
--I also found a little more highway power by swapping a bigger jet into the Holley 1-barrel. Mine came from a dealer in Colorado Springs, so I think it might have been a little lean.
--If you ever buy another carb, don't get rid of the old one. I got at least one rebuild that ran like junk.
--I never had problems with mine, but a lot of Mopar guys say to carry a spare ballast resistor for the ignition. I did carry points and a feeler gauge.
Originally Posted by Convert
As a side note one thing you should check and keep a couple extra in your car is the nylon gear that goes on the end of the distributor that also works off the camshaft it's sacrificial if it's a problem with the distributor the nylon gear will shear if it's been in there long enough it's probably cracked and was held in with a drive pin
TOMB
Good advice. I found out about the plastic gear after dropping a points or condensor screw down into the distributor. I even remember seeing spare gears on those "Help" cards at one time.
Have fun with the car!
I had a slant-six Duster that once was In Violet (Plymouth's name for Plum Crazy) but looked ugly as homemade sin by the time I got it. I drove it all over the country, adding 120,000 miles before the odometer broke. It had a dual master cylinder but manual everything and no A/C.
--Assuming it has manual drums, you might be able to improve the brake feel by adjusting the star wheels.
--I also found a little more highway power by swapping a bigger jet into the Holley 1-barrel. Mine came from a dealer in Colorado Springs, so I think it might have been a little lean.
--If you ever buy another carb, don't get rid of the old one. I got at least one rebuild that ran like junk.
--I never had problems with mine, but a lot of Mopar guys say to carry a spare ballast resistor for the ignition. I did carry points and a feeler gauge.
Originally Posted by Convert
As a side note one thing you should check and keep a couple extra in your car is the nylon gear that goes on the end of the distributor that also works off the camshaft it's sacrificial if it's a problem with the distributor the nylon gear will shear if it's been in there long enough it's probably cracked and was held in with a drive pin
TOMB
Good advice. I found out about the plastic gear after dropping a points or condensor screw down into the distributor. I even remember seeing spare gears on those "Help" cards at one time.
Have fun with the car!
JHZR2
Staff member
That's an awesome find!
Originally Posted by marine65
Originally Posted by walterjay
I like it. And the slant 6. And that is one behemoth of an air conditioning compressor.
Back in the day that style compressor would have the car nice and cool while those in G.M and Fords were still hot.
Ford used that same "York" compressor in many vehicles. The GM/Frigidaire/Harrison A6 compressor had even more displacement & could cool more interior volume. Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Volvo & Lincoln all used A6 compressors at one point.
Originally Posted by walterjay
I like it. And the slant 6. And that is one behemoth of an air conditioning compressor.
Back in the day that style compressor would have the car nice and cool while those in G.M and Fords were still hot.
Ford used that same "York" compressor in many vehicles. The GM/Frigidaire/Harrison A6 compressor had even more displacement & could cool more interior volume. Rolls Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Volvo & Lincoln all used A6 compressors at one point.
$1500 is a steal for that car. It is a beauty and looks to be in good shape for a near-60 year old ride. I like the color combination, the exterior blue is a really nice royal shade. I hope you restore it and keep it as original as possible.
These critiques, including mine, remind me of Rocky II when the reporter asked Rocky if he had anything derogatory to say about Appolo. He said,"Ugh yeah,, he's great."
My father drove a dodge, similar size with a 3 on the tree and slant six for a bunch of years without rust. I almost purchase a well used early 60's Valient in the early 1970's with a push button tranny, the asking price was $50. It seemed like it would be problematic and expensive (for that time) to keep on the road and I didn't really need a car at that time in my life so I passed.
I did some searching about engine ID.
Displacement should be stamped at the top of the block, between the first and second spark plug wires. Location is shown in the last photo, but codes may be different for cars vs. trucks:
http://www.sweptline.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31505
The Allpar page linked earlier says:
"you can tell the difference between the 170 and 198/225 engines by looking at the rubber hose that goes from the water pump to the underside of the head: if it is about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, it's a 170 block (G engine). If it's about 3 inches long, it's a 198/225 (LG engine)."
If original, the engine would be either 170 or 225.
Displacement should be stamped at the top of the block, between the first and second spark plug wires. Location is shown in the last photo, but codes may be different for cars vs. trucks:
http://www.sweptline.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31505
The Allpar page linked earlier says:
"you can tell the difference between the 170 and 198/225 engines by looking at the rubber hose that goes from the water pump to the underside of the head: if it is about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, it's a 170 block (G engine). If it's about 3 inches long, it's a 198/225 (LG engine)."
If original, the engine would be either 170 or 225.
So cool!
I'm not sure I've ever seen one like this.
If you wanted to keep the "patina" and yet protect it a bit, I wonder if you could go ghetto and rattle can spray it with clear acrylic lacquer and keep'er as is. I'm sure there's more suitable products. That's what came to mind!
Woolwax, fluid film, etc..etc the heck out of the underneath and cavities.
I'm not sure I've ever seen one like this.
If you wanted to keep the "patina" and yet protect it a bit, I wonder if you could go ghetto and rattle can spray it with clear acrylic lacquer and keep'er as is. I'm sure there's more suitable products. That's what came to mind!
Woolwax, fluid film, etc..etc the heck out of the underneath and cavities.
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