You are not logged in

Daimler Dart restoration

by Esmond Tearle

After a period which was rather inactive on the restoration front, things are starting to happen again.

Even though not very much progress was made of late, largely because of the lead up to the festive season and other things that having to take priority, I have been busy hunting out the bits and pieces that will be needed to complete the restoration. Maybe not for a good few months yet, but as any classic car nut will tell you, you have to grab things when you can. If you miss something now, you may struggle to find another one later.

I was trawling through Ebay, that well know auction site when I found a brand spanking new pair of seat belts that had been made for a Dart and had never been fitted. They were even in the right colour to match my cars colour scheme. There were a few interested parties who had already placed bids, and the counter showed that a lot of people had looked at the auction. However I won the auction and now have a perfect seat of Britax seat belts with all the fittings and instructions for my car.

As many of you will know, once you have the car, the next things on the list of must have items are all the various brochures, books, road test articles, period accessories and anything else that relates to your particular model.

I already have seven different sales brochures for the Dart. It would seem that each time the manufacturers needed to have another batch printed, they altered them slightly. I have spoken to another owner who has twelve different versions.

Anyway, again whilst searching Ebay, I found a genuine SP250 Accessories List. As you would imagine there was again a lot of interest, particular as the item is so rare. I never knew they even existed and had certainly never before seen one. I bought that as well.

As they say, things come in three's don't they? Well, my next acquisition must be rarer than the proverbial rocking horse dung.

Again, courtesy of Ebay, I have managed to pick up a sales brochure for the car that never happened. A company named Hooper had intended to produce their own version of the Dart, or SP250 to give it its correct title. Dodge already had the rights to they name Dart, so Daimler had to change the name.

The Hooper car was to have been called the DP250 and one two-door, four seat Sports Saloon bodied car was produced for the Earls Court Motor Show. Brochures were printed for handing out to potential customers. Sadly, the DP250 never made it into production.

Other than the show car, at least one other Hooper bodied Dart was built, and some estimates say as many as five were produced. None are known to survive today.

I doubt many brochures are around today either, but I've now got one in my collection.

So on to the real thing. I called in to see Brian, and basically the chassis is all fitted up now. The drag link is in place with the new bushes pressed into place. The suspension bump stops are also there. The brakes are all in situ and this week I have ordered new flexi hoses for the front brakes and for the clutch slave cylinder. The original one looked as if it had seen better days. Once again, it's not worth skimping to save a few pounds at this stage when you are into serious money anyway. Cutting corners now will undoubtedly cost even more money in the long run. As soon as the hoses arrive in the post, they together with the cars wheels will be taken over to the workshop and the Dart will once again stand on it's own four wheels.

Hopefully, the cylinder heads will be bolted on very soon and everything else will be in place ready for the body to go back on.

Ideally the bodywork would have been all done and the finished by now and the painted body would have simply been lowered on to the chassis. In all honesty, things aren't that simple. Nothing ever goes entirely according to plan.

I won't go into full detail now, as the body will no doubt be the subject of a few articles in the future. I plan to tackle the restoration in this area myself, and then have a professional paint job when everything is done and ready. This way, it will keep the cost down rather than pay a body shop a lot of money to do the entire job for me.

More next month.

[Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ]

If you wish to make contact with Esmond regarding this article then visit the contact us page and we will forward your messages on.

Fancy seeing you and your classic on these pages? Get in touch via the contact us page and we will let you know how you can provide your own article.