relocated approximately 20 aircraft to the Madras Airport in 2014. This collection of mostly WWII vintage planes were previously housed in a military hanger at the Tillamook Air Museum (NW coastal town in Oregon).
This 1962 Dodge Dart is one of two located inside this hangar but only this car contains some history behind it worth sharing (and waymarking) and it reads:
A car can be restored several times but It can only be original once
This 1962 Dodge Dart is unrestored and considered a survivor. The Classification of survivor means having endured the common road hazards and average wear and tear that usually destroys most cars and still be 80% in good condition. The rubber floor mats, and the headliner, belts, and hoses are all that had to be replaced due to the decomposing state that they were in.
By popularity the 2 door cars have been sought after where the 4 doors have been gutted for parts or left to the mercy of the junkyard crushers.
In February 1962 this vehicle rolled off the assembly line at the Dodge manufactory plant in Los Angeles, California. It was the 29,620th car out of a total production of 50,655 Chrysler products that were built during that time. The original factory color was white, but was sent back by the dealer to be repainted black by special order. Another uniqueness about this car is that it is a 3 speed on the column and not an automatic push button as most were made to be.
The engine is a 225 slant six, which is one of the most durable, reliable six-cylinders known to most auto enthusiasts and mechanics alike.
This car was one of the featured articles in the February issue of Hemmings Classic car magazine because of its original status. Besides the regular maintenance, it is within my best intentions to keep this car preserved in its stock condition for as long as possible.
Kim Wicks-Feiler......and her little black Dart
I was able to locate the original article highlighting the history of this car and two owners on Hemmings.com here and it reads:
Model year 1962 was not a landmark season for the Dodge Division; they seemed to be out of step with the trends of the buying public in virtually every important way. Remove their impressive competition history for the moment, and consider. When cars were getting longer, lower and wider by the year, Dodge cut back and pronounced their 116-inch-wheelbase models "full-sized." When Detroit's styling excesses of the 1950s were being toned down in favor of more sedate shapes, Dodge continued its flaming flamboyancy with trapezoidal grilles, headlamps inside the grille and outboard, and peaks and creases and bulges and flares that fought for your eye's attention. In the early 1980s, the Japanese coined a term for such form-over-function flourishes: surface excitement. In the early 1960s, however, Dodge dropped from sixth to ninth place in the sales race. Attention is generally lavished upon the big-engined race versions-the so-called Max Wedges, and even then, more for their sheer bravado and drag strip derring-do than any fondness for the style.
Kim Wicks-Feiler's excuse for loving them, however, is supplied in two parts. First, "My dad restored Packards, but when I got my license, he gave me a 1964 Dart four-door Golden Anniversary model, with a Slant 6 under the hood. I loved that car. It was simple for me to maintain-I could change the oil, fix a fan belt, or change a water pump if I had to. Anything that went wrong, I knew I could fix myself. I wouldn't have to have someone else do it." The outstanding reliability of the Slant 6 meant that repairs would likely be few anyway.
Three years ago, when Kim decided she needed a car, she had initially fixated on a 1962 Dodge Lancer-which brings us to the second, contrarian angle of Kim's reasoning. "The Lancer seemed to be the car everyone wanted to hate-they're kinda ugly, and if no one seems to like something, I'm just naturally going to gravitate toward it. I'd seen Valiants and Lancers at shows and in books, but I could never find one in decent shape for sale. When I caught the Dart out of my peripheral vision, sitting there on the dealer lot, I initially thought it was a Lancer. I had no idea Dodge did a Dart before 1963. But really, it's like the mother version of the Lancer-bigger. It's ugly, but I like it. When I went to open the hood, I hoped it would be a Slant 6; the engine made me buy it. If it had the V-8, I would have been hesitant."
As any good owner would, she searched out the story of this particular car. The original, and only, owner before Kim was the late Aniela Cotylo, of Los Angeles. When it rolled out of the factory, this model-the 29,620th four-door Dart out of a total of 50,655 sedans produced for 1962-was unusually stripped: the 145hp, 225-cu.in. Leaning Tower of Power under the hood was topped with a 350-cfm, one-barrel Carter carburetor and backed by a column-shifted Saginaw 3-speed manual transmission. Precious little else was included; only an AM radio and a heater/defroster crawled their way into the build. Manual steering? Check. Manual four-wheel-drum brakes? Of course. The 8 3/4-inch Chrysler peg-leg rear houses a 3.23 gear ratio.
The Frost Blue bench-seat interior sat well with the first owner, but the paint color-white-did not. "She wanted a black car; the dealership didn't have one on hand," says Kim. "They told her she could have one in six weeks, but she didn't want to wait, and threatened to take her business elsewhere. The dealer relented; they said no, no, no; give us a few days, you can have your black car. So they took that white car and painted it black." Strictly speaking, it's not original paint-but it's been on the car for so long it might as well be; some chipping and thin spots in the door jambs are all the indication you'll find that this Dart was ever painted white. "She must have been a strong-willed lady; her husband passed years previous to her purchase of her Dart, and I get the impression that she was one of those 'I may be single but no one will take advantage of me' types."
She passed away early in 2001. "Her son never liked the car," says Kim. "He took it to a dealership where he knew the owner, and said, 'Sell it for what you can get for it.' They were asking about $6,000, initially, but later the price dropped to $4,000. When I walked in, I told him I had three grand in cash, and they took it. Everything I learned about the history of this car I learned from the dealer; the son of the original owner didn't want to acknowledge that the car even existed. He was very adamant about getting rid of it. He was also supposed to drop the manuals and some paperwork off at the dealership, but he never brought it by."
One of those crucial documents that went undelivered was, would you believe, the pink slip. "Finally DMV ran the VIN number, but they wanted to give me new license plates," remarks Kim. "I said no; this is a black-plate car. We got into a tug of war, and I discovered that I would have to call Sacramento; if I sent up the old registrations, I could get approved to keep the black plates, but they couldn't promise I'd get all my original paperwork back. Finally, I was lucky enough to speak to someone whose husband restores Buicks, and who understood my situation. I waited six months before it was legal and registered! I was to the point where I would have driven it unregistered if I had to."
Visually, there are a couple of scars along the trunk lid and fender; some time during its original ownership, a garage door fell on it and left an impression that has yet to be removed. The chrome looks better than 40-year-old chrome has a right to, and the paint still buffs to an impressive sheen. Since Kim purchased it in 2001, she's only made perfunctory changes and upgrades: The saggy old headliner and torn carpet were both replaced, a set of modern Kelly radial tires rolls on the original 14-inch steel wheels and hubcaps, and some missing fender trim from the passenger's-side rear quarter was replaced. "The trim was toughest to find," says Kim. "I went to junkyards, leafed through catalogs...I found nothing. Finally, someone I met at a car show directed me to Jim French (since deceased) in Walnut, California, who specialized in '62 Darts. He knew every option and every code and every nut and bolt on those cars. He had what the car needed." It cost a whopping $75. Otherwise, it's all 1962 inside and out.
"Once I bought it and started going to some local shows, other car owners asked if this was the car from the lot," says Kim. "It seems that lots of people knew about this car, but no one else wanted a four-door.
"Anyone can restore a car as long as they have the money or time, but owning a factory original is special. There are so few cars that have survived, especially four-doors. Those of us lucky enough to own a piece of history are in our own unique group."
Four doors or no, this Dart was the trigger on a far more important event in Kim's life: "I started going to local car cruises and meeting more people, and Glen was in the crowd I was getting into. We got to talking; he asked me out, and there you go. We were married on July 4, 2003. We joke that all the fireworks are for us."
There are plenty of fireworks when driving the Dart, as well. "I love the way people look at it when I'm driving, and how people tell me either their parents or grandparents owned one. At shows, people will come up and tell me that this is one of those cars that you have to love or have to hate, because it's so ugly," Kim says, slightly bewildered at why anyone would go through the trouble to be so uncomplimentary. "Go ahead and keep calling it names. That's fine." Kim has the last laugh, though: She gets to park this driveable dream in her driveway!
I'm assuming this Dart is being kept here in this hanger indefinitely for visitors to appreciate.
This collection of aircraft and static displays are definitely worth the visit for any aircraft enthusiast.