1972 Canadian H-Code 340 Dart Swinger Special Resto - Finally started!

[Swinger340Canuc]

Looks like your giving it your best. I need a project!

Thanks Dave, I'm 2 years plus into this and I need a car, LOL!

Started on cleaning up my power brake steering box yesterday, works perfectly but got a bunch of black paint all over it including the aluminum parts. This polyurethane paint doesn't come off easily but I wanted to not damage or do as little damage as possible to the finish on the aluminum surfaces so I masked up the fluid nipples with the caps on them and put it in the cabinet and hit it with walnut shell. Its slow but it knocked off the black paint and sealer on most of it and did very little to no damage to the vulnerable surfaces.

Then masked up those surfaces and blasted it with some glass to clean it up nicely for a cast iron paint finish,

Hauled it off to work with me this morning where it's easy to hang up and spray with some VHT Cast Iron finish, still got a few details like bolts and buff up the tag a bit but looks a lot better,

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Started cleaning up my Federal style power steering pump as well, works great just needs a cosmetic clean up and fix the dents in the tank housing from using a pry bar to tighten the belt, dumb!

Disassemble and tap out the dents as much as possible,

A trip to the blasting cabinet, still need to putty up the dented area,

A question for anyone checking this out is were these pumps from the factory all black or was the cast portion shown in the picture below cast colour? I may post this question in the Steering forum as well.

 

[cliff guinand]

Looks like your giving it your best. I need a project!

Dave. That Danny is the best. Patience of Jobe with the **** load of 'get 'er done - the right way.' Haha.

So Dave, you need a project, eh? What would it be? Your handle is 'no, it's not restored' and looks like you've had a few of those. Sweet! Maybe we can find you one of these little Canadians, but unfortunately they're pretty much all toasted. Only two '71 survivours so far that I know of and just one '72 that nobody's ever seen. From back in the day, these cars didn't fair well with our weather, the salt, gravel roads, teenagers who drove the crap out of them, you name it, but we'll keep fighting to keep the breed alive.

 

[dmoore]

Looks like your giving it your best. I need a project!

Dave. That Danny is the best. Patience of Jobe with the **** load of 'get 'er done - the right way.' Haha.

So Dave, you need a project, eh? What would it be? Your handle is 'no, it's not restored' and looks like you've had a few of those. Sweet! Maybe we can find you one of these little Canadians, but unfortunately they're pretty much all toasted. Only two '71 survivours so far that I know of and just one '72 that nobody's ever seen. From back in the day, these cars didn't fair well with our weather, the salt, gravel roads, teenagers who drove the crap out of them, you name it, but we'll keep fighting to keep the breed alive.

I guess I need to be careful what I wish for! I have been spoiled for tooo long! Ha! Ever laid eye's on one of those built for Canada only 72 Twister 340's?

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

I'm working on the motto "Slow but steady and maybe slower", but did get a little done after a visit and checking out a local car show today,

Decided that with a bit of input from a couple members that the pump was all black so sprayed it yesterday and put it together today. I need to do a little paint repair on the front of the pulley, that thing was a bear to suck back on and it marred the paint a bit but that will be a quick sand on that small area and spot in, happy with the way it looks I think like factory with some NOS hoses.

A big improvement over the Smokey Lake Speed equipment look it once had, lol,

Also finally got around to putting my brake calipers back together, not only do they now look like new but all the pistons work.

From this nasty looking relic,

To this, thank the Lord for Evaporust,

May be tackle my dash tomorrow, or heater box, or paint strip the engine, or put the diff together, or ............................ Arg!

 

[gerahead]

I'm working on the motto "Slow but steady and maybe slower", but did get a little done after a visit and checking out a local car show today,

Also finally got around to putting my brake calipers back together, not only do they now look like new but all the pistons work.

From this nasty looking relic,

View attachment 1715053765

To this, thank the Lord for Evaporust,

View attachment 1715053766

May be tackle my dash tomorrow, or heater box, or paint strip the engine, or put the diff together, or ............................ Arg!

Impressive results! How long did they have to soak to get to the "after" condition? Thanks. L8r

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Impressive results! How long did they have to soak to get to the "after" condition? Thanks. L8r

Thanks L8r, I wired brushed them a bit with a brass wire brush to take the loose stuff off then dropped them in a bucket of Evaporust for 24 hours then scrubbed them with a plastic bristle brush and rinsed them off with clean water and dried them with some air and this was the difference,

When I tore them down thou there was additional rust on the mating surfaces and especially behind the rubber boots and in the channels that those boots seat in,

So it was back in the pail for another 24 hours and some extra scrubbing cleaned them up then I ran a diamond hone over the the face of these machined surfaces to clean them up and remove some of the fine pitting, unfortunately I didn't take a picture of that final cleaning, then reassembled them.

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Worked nicely on cleaning up my rotors as well,

 

[gerahead]

It's pretty impressive that they cleaned up that quickly! I haven't used it much yet, But I know that I will become a close friend of that stuff.. Thanks. L8r

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Decided to restore my dash panel next, it has a number of holes in it from stereo stuff and manual choke and other things need to be filled. The smaller ones I'll just weld in, the larger one was cut in to it to hold the oil pressure gauge,

Instead of trying to weld in a steel disc and very likely warping this area I decided to glue a piece of steel on the backside with some panel bond adhesive,

first I tapered the edges of the hole on the out side face with a minigrinder to prep that for filler then ran the grinder across the back for the adhesive to grab onto,

Then I used some Allmetal filler and some spot priming on these spots,

Then I just sanded out the scratches and the primer areas and hung them up and gave them two coats of black epoxy sealer

There are times when one can get carried away with expensive materials but my friend Rod 340duster suggested what he used on his was John Deer Blitz Black so I gave shot and it matched the original finish nicely and it only cost $13.00, so thanks for the suggestion Rod.

 

[dmoore]

You Canadians are so resourceful! Looks damn good!

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Decided this week to do the restoration on my heater box and it badly needed it, owner number 3 or someone he hired clearly didn't know how to change a core in one of these and made a pretty good mess of it. This is what I started with, front cover cracked up and poorly repaired,

Crack in the middle part of the box as well,

The rest of it is pretty scruffy and rusty,

To this which I finished up today,

Now for those that want to know how I got it back to looking like it should I'll post up those pics,

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

I started digging out the two other boxes I picked up at swap meets that might provide some parts,

Then I broke my box down to parts and pieces and gave everything a thorough cleaning and removed all the foam and gaskets, remember to clean the channel out on the front cover where there will be some putty like sealant installed at the end,

I separated the middle section from the rear section by drilling out the rivets, this allows the sections to fit in my 5 gallon pail of Evapo Rust which cleans up the rust nicely and also make it a bit easier to repair the crack in the middle section,

Blasted the motor and the blower hold down plate, epoxied and sprayed semigloss black,

I decided to use the front cover from one of my donor boxes that doesn't have any cracks but need to repair this crack in the middle section of my original box,

I started out by V grooving the crack with a die grinder and carbide bit, the I used a product we use the bodyshop for lots of stuff as well as fibreglass with the advantage that is pretty much black and thats FUSOR 142. This stuff sets up fast so you need to be efficient getting it on,

Then the same on the inside,

With the cracks repaired and all the bare metal pieces cleaned of rust I could scuff the outside with a red scotch brite pad and a bit of 800 grit wet paper to knock down some of the glass fibres that pop up on the surface the three parts are ready for some semi matt clear coat to make the scratches from the past disappear,

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

This area where the core exits had a small piece busted out and damage where the metal plate that holds the gasket down was cracked across and the hole for the screw stripped out, this picture might show how the fusor blends in pretty good makes a nice repair,

The metal doors have their foam on them, I used Detroit Muscles kit, and I decided to coat the metal parts with the product called TopCote that I use on my table saw to seal the surface from humidity,

I riveted the two back sections back together, used rivet washers on the back side to provide a better grab on the fiberglass,

Everything is cleaned up at this point and ready to go back together,

Installed the heater core then the two doors in the back and then the cardboard,

Then the door in the front and put the putty in the groove of the front cover,

Then squeeze the front cover on which is a bit of a wrestling match and snap on the clips and glue on the cowl seal and Voila another part done,

Now back to the list of what's next!

 

[dmoore]

This area where the core exits had a small piece busted out and damage where the metal plate that holds the gasket down was cracked across and the hole for the screw stripped out, this picture might show how the fusor blends in pretty good makes a nice repair,

View attachment 1715058294

The metal doors have their foam on them, I used Detroit Muscles kit, and I decided to coat the metal parts with the product called TopCote that I use on my table saw to seal the surface from humidity,

View attachment 1715058295

View attachment 1715058296

I riveted the two back sections back together, used rivet washers on the back side to provide a better grab on the fiberglass,

View attachment 1715058297

View attachment 1715058298

Everything is cleaned up at this point and ready to go back together,

View attachment 1715058299

Installed the heater core then the two doors in the back and then the cardboard,

View attachment 1715058300

Then the door in the front and put the putty in the groove of the front cover,

View attachment 1715058301

View attachment 1715058302

Then squeeze the front cover on which is a bit of a wrestling match and snap on the clips and glue on the cowl seal and Voila another part done,

View attachment 1715058303

Now back to the list of what's next!

Looks fantastic! Great job!

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

You Canadians are so resourceful! Looks damn good!

Looks fantastic! Great job!

Appreciate the nice comments Dave, hope others might benefit from any of the details, and I needed your pictures to determine that the blower motor should be black so thanks again.

 

[360DartGT66]

This area where the core exits had a small piece busted out and damage where the metal plate that holds the gasket down was cracked across and the hole for the screw stripped out, this picture might show how the fusor blends in pretty good makes a nice repair,

View attachment 1715058294

The metal doors have their foam on them, I used Detroit Muscles kit, and I decided to coat the metal parts with the product called TopCote that I use on my table saw to seal the surface from humidity,

View attachment 1715058295

View attachment 1715058296

I riveted the two back sections back together, used rivet washers on the back side to provide a better grab on the fiberglass,

View attachment 1715058297

View attachment 1715058298

Everything is cleaned up at this point and ready to go back together,

View attachment 1715058299

Installed the heater core then the two doors in the back and then the cardboard,

View attachment 1715058300

Then the door in the front and put the putty in the groove of the front cover,

View attachment 1715058301

View attachment 1715058302

Then squeeze the front cover on which is a bit of a wrestling match and snap on the clips and glue on the cowl seal and Voila another part done,

View attachment 1715058303

Now back to the list of what's next!

Fantastic step-by-step! I need to this too eventually and I just sent a spare one to a friend in need. I'll show him this.

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Fantastic step-by-step! I need to this too eventually and I just sent a spare one to a friend in need. I'll show him this.

If you have any question's I can help with Anders feel free, they are pretty straightforward the problems some have is the best way to repair broken stuff and cosmetic repairs.

 

[360DartGT66]

If you have any question's I can help with Anders feel free, they are pretty straightforward the problems some have is the best way to repair broken stuff and cosmetic repairs.

I have one, as a matter of fact, was the cardboard piece included in the kit you mentioned?

Other than that, I think you included everything I needed to know, like how to refresh the surface of the plastic.

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Yes the cardboard is included. On the fibreglass housing pieces remember you don't need to sand the scratches and nicks out, the matt clear will go into them and they will largely disappear, the sanding is to provide the clear a surface to adhere to. If you sand into the surface too much it will likely expose the fibres a lot more and they will be standing up out of the clear making for a rough surface that would require another scuff to knock them down and re-clear.

 

[gerahead]

This area where the core exits had a small piece busted out and damage where the metal plate that holds the gasket down was cracked across and the hole for the screw stripped out, this picture might show how the fusor blends in pretty good makes a nice repair,


Installed the heater core then the two doors in the back and then the cardboard,

View attachment 1715058300

340 Canuck -- In this picture containing what I think are the control cable mounting brackets . . . did the attaching rivets come with your overhaul kit, or did you source them? Thanks for taking the time to document all this work for those of us who are still facing these tasks. Much appreciated!! L8r

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

Your welcome L8r, the kit doesn't come with any rivets the only rivets that I removed were the ones that hold the centre compartment to the rear compartment and the smaller ones that hold this plastic deflector onto the one door only because the foam seal went underneath it,

The factory used a steel rivet but I couldn't find any quick and easy so I went to Lowes and picked up these aluminum ones and some washers, went with the wider ones to spread out the load on the fibreglass.

I never had a need to remove the cable brackets so those are original but I'm sure you can source a rivet the right size if you need to replace a bracket.

 

[gerahead]

Your welcome L8r, the kit doesn't come with any rivets the only rivets that I removed were the ones that hold the centre compartment to the rear compartment and the smaller ones that hold this plastic deflector onto the one door only because the foam seal went underneath it,

View attachment 1715058821

View attachment 1715058822

The factory used a steel rivet but I couldn't find any quick and easy so I went to Lowes and picked up these aluminum ones and some washers, went with the wider ones to spread out the load on the fibreglass.

I never had a need to remove the cable brackets so those are original but I'm sure you can source a rivet the right size if you need to replace a bracket.

Alright, I thought that might have been the case. So then how did you get the brackets so clean without disturbing the surrounding case material? Inquiring minds want to know! Thanks. L8r

Jim

 

[Swinger340Canuc]

I have a 5 gallon bucket 3/4 full of Evaporust that allowed me to dip the whole pieces which cleaned up the metal parts. You could do the same with just spraying the parts and keeping them wet until the rust dissolves away, it's likely very light rust.

 

[4spdragtop]

Awesome job in all aspects of your build. I did a so-so job on 67 ac/heaterbox restore.
But looking to do a better job on my 69 (non ac)
The Top Kote, was that used for rust prevention? (Humidity/condensation)
Were/are the boxes safe to dunk in the EvapoRust?
One more question, the Matte clear. Spray bomb? Concerned about comparability with the fiberglass.
Thanks again, inspiring work.