Time goes on.

I kept in touch with Lori and John's mom with letters and calls.  Every time I went back for a visit they were always on the must see list.  After John's passing, Lori's father became the custodian of the Dart.  I tried to think of a better word than "custodian", but none seemed fitting.  One day I got a call from Lori and she had told me that if I could take it, they would bring John's Dart out to Arizona.  John and Lori's dad got along classically and while John's passing hit us all hard, her dad couldn't bring it upon himself to work on the car.  I was told that everything was already set as far as arrangements and they (Lori and her father) would pack up the car and all the parts and drive them in a U-haul to Arizona.  By this time I had sold my first Challenger, purchased my second, which I still have after 22 years, and had owned several A body Dodges and Plymouths including three,1969 Darts.  My father at the time owned a 1959 Belvedere that my brothers and I painted and were working on his 1966 Plymouth Fury 3 convertible.  My finger nails were still dirty.

The Dart got delivered and once unloaded I was finally able to see John's Dart for the first time.  It was well worth the $75 he paid, even 8 years later!!  Unfortunately I do not have too many full body shots from the early days.  Most of the pictures were detail shots to remember how it all went back together.  I remember getting the car with fiberglass front fenders because rust free ones were almost impossible to find in the land of the rust.  And just as John had described there were boxes of tail lights, an extra set of doors and a pair of brand new quarter panels.  Matter of fact, there were probably enough extra parts to build another car.  The Dart was rusty as the salted winter roads of the northeast had taken it's toll on the sheet metal.  There was rust in nooks and crannies that were going to be difficult to get to.  But all the convertible specific parts were in great shape.  The top mechanism worked when a battery was installed, and the slant six ran with a gas can fuel tank.  There were no brake lines, but the front brakes were rebuilt Kelsey Hayes 4 piston.  And, if it wasn't for the rust, John might have been pretty close to road tripping to Arizona.

Within a year of having the Dart delivered, life started to get busy.  Wife, kids, self employed.  Keeping grease under my fingernails was still a priority.  I replaced one of the quarter panels on the Dart.  A job I had never done before.  When I was done, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it again.  I began to collect parts and trading the good extra parts that I had for good parts that I needed.  Some life interrupting changes caused me to lose some of my working space and the Dart went to storage for a while.
 

This was a year or two after having the Dart delivered to Arizona.  I can tell by the steel fenders and new drivers side quarter panel.  Most of the missing parts are stored.