The owner of this 1965 Dodge Dart goes to great trouble to stress that our feature vehicle is a genuine GT and not a clone. This particular Dart is offered for sale here on Craigslist. Located south of Danville, Kentucky, it comes with a clean title. The seller has set a price of $2,800 for the Dart.
The first thing that I’ll say is that the paintwork on this one is quite crispy. The seller bought the car in 2010 in Arizona. He says that the car was built in California and putting these two facts together concludes that the car has spent most of its life out west. The thing that concerns me is that in spite of the fact that the condition of the paint tends to support this claim I can’t help but notice that it appears to have been sitting where it is for a while, and there is snow around it. That has to be a bit of a worry. The only visible rot is what you can see in the quarter, but the seller states that it will need new floors and pans.
The interior is going to need major work to bring it up to scratch. The dash and door cards have been cut to fit an after-market stereo and the dash pad is cracked in several places. The driver’s seat looks to have suffered the sort of fading that you would expect with extended exposure to UV and the cover over the passenger seat doesn’t give us a lot to hope for. I think that you can count on undertaking a full refurbishment on this one.
Under the hood is the 273ci V8 backed by the Torqueflite automatic transmission. The seller is unsure whether this is the original motor. What we know is that it won’t start, so I would assume that it must at least turn over. Once again this is part of the car that won’t be fixed by a quick hit with a pressure wash. The engine hasn’t run in the time that the seller has owned the car so that’s at least eight years since it has fired.
Genuine Dart GTs are not that common these days and the 1965 examples built in California are even rarer. This example demonstrates one of the reasons why. They could be prone to rust, and a great many have succumbed to it. I have found a similar car for sale in really great condition for $22,500, which would leave some scope for a restoration on this one. If someone takes this on though I suspect that it will simply because they love the Dart GT.
People touting the originality of a car and then using a Chevrolet steering wheel on a Dart do not go together.
Also, of course it is not a clone. Nobody would waste money cloning a Dart GT.
So a range of $2,800 to $22,500? I would have to think reality falls somewhere in between.
Neat car, but a lot of work and money.
With a slightly different perspective, this rusty-crusty project would be a perfect candidate for a High School or junior college auto shop class, if these still exist. I grew up with several individuals who demonstrated amazing skills and talents at this stage in their lives only to move on to bigger and greater challenges. The end results with this Dart could prove to be a pretty good one…
That’s rough. Real rough.
“…so I assume that it must at least turn over.” Adam, with many of these sellers, if it don’t say it, don’t assume it. Assuming with a car that looks like this is a very quick way to get in trouble.
jcs, I agree with you on that. I’ve found that the general rule seems to be with cars like this if the seller says that it won’t start that they’ve made some attempt but that it won’t fire, but if the engine is locked they usually say that. Having said that I guess that all rules are made to be broken.
These do have lots of potential, hopefully someone gives it another go.
just looks like junk . Crush it already
I believe these cars had torsion front ends. Then means the anchor for the torsion spring is the pan that needs Replacing.
More like $800
Once again, I find myself not recognizing an era that I grew up in. These were pretty neat little cars in the day, even pretty if well cared for. But I was completely unaware that there had been a V8 version in 65. I’m also very interested in the shift lever that is coming up from the floor, given that there is a single pedal under the dashboard. Still, it could be a very neat little car for someone with some metal skills and a lot of metal. And some upholstery skills, and some mechanical skills, and… Oh, and more money than they really need.
Hi my first car was a 65 Dart I was 16 and have a replacement. I am a Mopar guy. Sad to say this car is good for parts only. To many out there in good condition. Would be cheaper to buy one in good condition
A lot of floors and quarter rust for a western car.The patron saint of patina.
It looks like a Ward 9 rescue to me, transplanted out of state for a “quick buck.”
My 63 Valiant was also built in LA and lived it’s first 18 years in AZ.
The trunk floor looked like a lace doily.
And of course the lower rear fenders had been bondoed under the fresh paint.
It depends on the car I think, whether the desert history is a plus or not.
Once that rear window gasket goes and leaks start to form, rust will follow.
Sun, time and heat work the same horrors on rubber in the desert, not only the paint and upholstery.
Got to drive one of these back in the late ‘70s, as my roommate had one. When he went out of town, I got to drive it. It had a three speed floor manual transmission as I remember, 8cylinder engine. One weekend I drove from San Jose to Yosemite N.P. What a drive! While not the most fuel efficient car around, when you needed speed quickly it gave it to you now! This car sadly is a mere skeleton of better times long ago.
Maybe the seller meant $28.00 and forgot the period. I like Dart GTs and had great experiences with one, including a trip through Death Valley, but this is a total waste.
Not a clone…who, in their right mind would clone this? Not a “D-Dart” package car, of a 4-speed convertible 273 Commando car, so- who cares?
One of these fully restored just sold for $8,000 at the Monterey auction! (Offered no reserve). Excellent red paint, black interior rally wheels. Including fees under $10k. A reality check for those of us that like to restore……
Mom had a 63 or 64 with the pushbutton automatic & the bigger slant 6 in about 1970- it was a good car. At about 130K it started having overheating issues. I replaced the thermostat, and that helped for a few months. Dad replaced the Dart GT with a newer car, and offered me the Dart GT, but I had too many other vehicles at the time, and no place to store it. I’d love to find one now….. I had a 66 Dart wagon to haul my sidecar rig and spare engine & parts to the track in “79 and ’80. It also had overheating issues – lots of scale in the engine block, probably from sitting for several years with just water in the cooling system, since it was a car from the Central Valley in California. After moving to Northern Nevada, I swapped in an engine from a wrecked Valiant, and drove the car as a second vehicle ’til the winter of 1984, when I traded it in on a 1985 Honda Civic S hatchback. I loved the torsion bar front suspension –
easy to adjust ride height with just a socket & ratchet. In winter, I’d raise the front on the torsion bars, and raise the rear with the air shocks to get more ground clearance in the snow. With studded tires on all 4, she made a pretty good snow day car.
While this may or may not be a real GT, it most certainly is NOT a 235horse 273. Those engines didn’t come with a tiny little carburetor that’s on top of this engine. There is an enormous posting on slantsix.org of a fellow in Sweden who has done an absolutely miraculous job of performing a ground up restoration on a rust free car where the costs were most likely north of 6 figures. The economics involved in returning this car to anything like a stock configuration is way, way beyond any hope of it being worth the cost to do so.. “Stevee” missed one vitally important point on his mention of the restored car that sold with no reserve for $8k. None of these cars were red. They were all a pale yellow with a black vinyl roof on the forward portion.
I had one drove the crap out of it , loved it !!
These were nice cars.
But this one is scrap.
Top price for this would be 600 bucks. And the only reason to go that high would be for the parts. Especially the trim. That would be it and it would take a while to make your money back.
The engine looks like a 318 with 2bbl and a transplant
Yep a fire got close to this one….ask me how I know. The 65 Dart GT’s did have the special trim that I don’t think the 66’s had….not a sought after car even in primo or better condition….now if it was an original 66 D-Dart then we might have to talk…
I have read many comments about checking facts on production numbers with option #’s etc, etc where a vehicle is 1 of 1 or 1 of so many.
I an looking at a ’94 olds convertible with multiple options. Where does one look for all these facts and statistics.
I would like to find out if this vehicle is as claimed.
help if you can.
thanks
kenzo
Start with the Oldsmobile Museum in Lansing Michigan or the Oldsmobile Club of America.
This car is still wearing Michigan 1976 license plates. Might give you idea of where that rusty rear quarter came from. I’ll pass.
The candy cane moulding is worth 800 bucks
build it for Vintage road racing……
.
here’s the Robinson’s ’63 Dart 273 4spd ( a beautiful restoration) stalking me in my Lotus7 S1 last April in Oklahoma ..
Motor is most likely a 273 c.i. 180 horse power. 235 horse had a 4bbl carb. “D” Dart was a special factory build. Not too many built & not too many still around.