1960 Dodge Pioneer

Hey everybody!
My name is Tommy and I've been "lurking" and reading builds here for a few years. I'm 35, but not a huge fan of technology or social media. This is a stretch for me as I just got a smartphone back in July, but I see the old timers posting so I guess I can too. I've loved hot rods my whole life thanks to my dad. I've also been building my hot rod for what feels like a lifetime. What was supposed to be my high school car turned into an off and on build as school and other interests ( girls ) came and went. 21 years later, in July 2020, with my parents and my own 2 daughters present I finally got the engine fired. Pretty special moment. After the initial break in period, came working out a few bugs as expected. Now I've got a bunch of small details to wrap up, door panels to make, and all the interior to install. Hopefully I can get it on the road by this spring/summer. I'm trying to stay as faithful to an early-mid 60s build as possible. I'm sure some of you will pick out the obvious stuff, but it's all stuff I intend to change out in the future. At this point I'm just trying to get it wrapped up and on the road so I can actually enjoy it. Sorry for being wordy, happy to take this "step" and hopefully make some more hot rod buddies.

Here's some pics of my 1960 Dodge Pioneer Dart!

 

Welcome from Indiana! Nice to see a proper introduction and pics that’s even H.A.M.B. friendly!! Nice job. Love the color and that it’s manual trans to boot! Enjoy your time here. Regards, Randy


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Welcome from Dennis in Seattle.
So very cool to see your excellent ,non copy cat, MOPAR, slant 6 powered project !

 

Welcome to the HAMB from Illinois. Neet Dodge rod.

 

Welcome to the HAMB from Detroit. very cool ride !
Dare to different !

 

Thanks for all the kind words fellas. I love oddball cars. Also have a crusty old Studebaker that will be getting a cool vintage V8 when the Dodge is done.. I may start another thread as I pick back up making more progress. Juggling work and family life, but I'll get back to it soon.

 

Welcome to the HAMB from nearby Maryland. Check out the Virginia Social Forum on here. Lots of good guys on there, many in the Richmond area.........Don.

 

Welcome, nice looking ride.

 

Welcome to the HAMB. I like your 60 Dodge Dart. My dad had a new 60, and then traded it in for a new 63 Dodge Polara convertible. He traded cars about every three years. I'll try and find some photos and send them to ya. Ron......

 

Hey Ron, thanks! That'd be really cool. This is a local car. My folks actually go to church with the son of the 2nd owner. He had some pretty neat stories of cruising this thing around in the 80s, no pics tho . Also, Don thanks for the suggestion. Went right over and joined the VA Hambers group

 

Welcome Ron from Beerwah Australia, just love Mopar's from 50's and 60's , nice ride.

 

Wow! My car has reached The Land of Oz! Thanks Ron. Might I say Aussies build some amazing rods. Love the style over there.

 

Stay in touch with those guys from Virginia on here. They are a pretty active bunch when times are better. Lots of shows, cruises, events, garage crawls, etc. to check out.

 

Big small step today. Picked up my shortened and balanced driveshaft from the shop after work today. Had a few spare minutes before picking up my kids, so I chucked it in, and got the rear up on jack stands. It passed the jack stand road test. All 4 forward gears and reverse! Woohoo! Now all that's left is everything haha. Might start a "finishing the car" thread soon.

 

Went ahead and started a build thread over on the VA Hambers social to track my progress and completion from this point forward. Thanks again for all the warm welcomes and encouragement!

 

Hello to all the HAMBers! I read sometime around the end of last year that Ryan was getting rid of social forums, so I'm going to continue on with my project here. This won't be so much of a build thread as it is just kind of finishing up details and pushing to get this car on the road. Since I moved this to the VA forum and back, not a ton of work has been done, but that has been this cars life with me. A little here and there as I can. Sometimes I unfortunately get sidetracked or just cannot make time for it, but it is very near completion and I HOPE I can be driving by sprung. No concrete deadlines as I always fall short on those.

Anyway... since I last posted I have: gotten some new back wheels because they were rubbing the inner fenders wells. I discovered this while testing all the gears after the driveshaft was made. Then I lowered the front end about 6 1/2" just by turning a bolt, gotta love torsion bars! Then I finished putting the dashboard together and found that early 60s production line tolerances were quite loose. What a headache trying to get all those pieces to fit somewhat nicely, hours and hours. Then I mounted some lap belts for the back seat. from Retro Sound (Retro Belt maybe? Same company). Then I made mounts for the front buckets. These came from my grandpa's 62 Corvair wagon. My dad pulled them from a friend's fire damaged Spider in the early 70s and put them in the wagon. Lastly I wrapped up a few odds and ends with wiring and did some tidying in the engine bay.

So in 2 weeks I'll be taking this to a shop to have an exhaust system made. Then it will be over to an upholstery shop to do the headliner. I'll assemble the rest of the interior after that and then journey through the insurance/DMV jungle to get it all legal. Here's a few pics to bring us current.

 

Your car is coming along quite nicely!
Its so refreshing to see a project of this quality and so intensely being of the beaten track of what is usually posted on this website. Great color choice, great choice of wheel covers, everything about this car is just kick ass, in my humble opinion !
Saw one of these last year at the Good-Guys show, ( it was a PHOENIX and not a PIONEER ) gotta love the oddball MOPAR stuff, from a time period, where cars didn't all look like a worn out bar of soap or some futuristic electric shaver !
Keep up the good work !
From Dennis.

 

You might want to check this out.......

 

I was there in 2020 as well. If I had known ya I would have said hello.

 

Do you remember to crazy girls running around with a dad soaked in stress-sweat? Hahaha! Not sure if I was a member here yet, but hopefully we'll cross paths in the future.. Looks like I mucked up my response in the last post. I'll figure it out eventually

 

.......Don't remember seeing you, but it sounds like the girls had a great time.

 

I picked this up awhile back. Figured it'd be fun to add in here. The Nov '59 issue of HOT ROD with a road test of the NEW '60 Dodge! It's really impressive how thorough their test is and how much technical info they provide. My 2 favorite parts are how they say "Dodge exhibits excellent road handling" when the left front wheel is nearly off the ground. They they unload the suspension over a hill and say "it settled back down with a smooth squat." Gives me some bad ideas haha.

Anyway, I hope y'all can zoom in on this and enjoy a good read!

 

Very cool! I've got that same issue around here...somewhere.

 

Welcome to the h.a.m.b. from N.W. Arkansas. Cool project ya got going, owned a couple of Mopars back in the day myself! Now, the only thing I have that's Mopar is a pair of Dart tail lights mounted on my '56 Ford...

 

Hey Grumpy! Thanks alot. I believe I pestered you sometime last year looking for a dual carb 215 intake. In the planning stages of this car, my dad tried to talk me into swapping to 57 Ford tail lights. I even have a pic of someone who used them on a hardtop model. It looks awesome, but the stockers just won out for me.

 

They look good on my '56...

 

No pics, but a quick update to keep everyone current and keep my mind on track. Car was supposed to go to exhaust shop yesterday, but owner got sick before scheduling a guy to do the work. I know we don't get "religious" here, but I'm definitely praying for him that he didn't catch the virus. I had it a few weeks ago, not the worst I've experienced, but no picnic. I'm sure exhaust will be done soon though and I'll keep moving forward.

On the bright side, I did get some things wrapped up to make it drivable and found I need to tinker with the clutch linkage a bit. It grinds going into reverse . I put some fresh 93 in the tank and fired it up... probably the first time in over a year. Idles at 800 rpm and 50 lbs oil press. So I don't have any draw on the battery and a healthy slant. Sounds rowdy too. Will almost be a shame to put a muffler on it ha.

 

It's been a great couple days! Friday afternoon I left work and went over to my folks' place. Figured out the gear grinding in reverse was due to adjuster linkage nut walking out a couple threads every time I depressed the pedal. Forgot to put a jam nut on there, derrrr.... Got that all squared away and pulled the ol boat out into the driveway. Then promptly took a break, those exhaust fumes were rough ha. Took a few shots of it out in the sun.

Then we got it up on the trailer and headed out to the exhaust shop. My ol man shed a few happy tears pulling it down the road. This has been a long journey getting to this point and feeling that we're near the finish line is becoming very real. That endless to-do list is now looking like a small reminders note pad. I drove the car off the trailer, through small parking lots, and onto the lift. Although I probably got a touch of CO poisoning, it felt pretty damn good to make that short drive.

We took the car to Stuart Rolfe in Midlothian. Some of you local dudes might be familiar. Stuart is a real cool old hot rodder, been around a long time. He set me up with another older guy named Levi. I showed Levi roughly where I wanted the Y-pipe and the muffler and we discussed a few options on where/how the tailpipe would end. He gave me a few mhmm's and yes indeedy's and I know the car was in good hands. Levi got started on it early this morning and had it all wrapped up by 1:00 this afternoon. My brother and I went over to load it up and take it back home. I think 'ol Levi did a pretty killer job snaking those downpipes through a tight spot with no drastic bends.


I know there's a way to post a video here with a YouTube link, but I really don't wanna go through the process of creating a channel etc. What I can say, is it has a really nice mellow tone now with an aggressive growl when you rev it.
Huge thanks again to Stuart and Levi and my dad and brother for helping me out this weekend. Excited for the next steps!

 

Looks awesome. I bet it did feel good to drive it around a little and I'm glad you got it on the lift before the fumes got to you!