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

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Swinger340Canuc

72 Swinger 340 Special
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Messages
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Location
Sherwood Park, Alberta
A little late getting my thread going, I started taking her apart back in late January but here we go. A brief history ( a bit more in some of my previous postings below if your interested ) I bought my Dart in 1979 when I was in high school and it had some definite 70’s stuff going on and quite a bit of Smokey Lake Speed equipment on it ( thats for you Cliff ) and a paint scheme that wasn’t speaking to me so after studying god knows how many muscle car magazines for several years before getting her I had to put my spin on it as you will see. Now I beg you all to remember 1981 was 34 years ago and we did some strange and dumb *** things that seemed cool at the time and if we were able to hang on to our ride now we get to reverse what we did!

Canadian Dart

History on this Canadian Dart Swinger 340 Special


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I drove the car daily in the summer and repainted it black in 1981 then around 1984 parked it inside and it sat on stands and never left the garage again. Then decades later I was surfing the web in 2012 looking for information about Dart Swinger Specials and everything I found said this should be a slanty grocery getter with rubber mat then google spit out this web site called FABO and Bingo here are some postings by a dogged sleuth named Cliff Guinand one city away from me describing my car exactly - Dart Swinger 340 Special, big trans, big diff, hood scoop or scoops, special built for Canadian market only, keep an eye out for these cars.

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I zipped out to the garage and pulled my rear seat off looking for my Build Sheet hoping it would confirm what seemed to be true and it was nicely folded between the springs and was in mint condition. As you can see it confirmed all that Cliff stated and also had Special Order box 39 filled in.

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Needless to say I finally found some information that made sense of my car and I contacted Cliff to let him know that another one had survived the decades. Not only did I find some great info on FABO but have made some great new friends and their Mopar fanatics as well!!

The goal of this restoration is to take this car back as closely as I can to the way it was delivered to the dealership with one exception. Unfortunately when my experts, Cliff Guinand and Kevin (scatpacker ) came to check out the car they were able to confirm the block I was hoping was the numbers block that I had on a stand wasn’t the numbers block. I had put in a new 340 and did a 4 speed conversion back when I painted the car black and the standard really made the car a lot more fun to drive so my intention is to keep it a 4 speed. I spent the last 2 1/2 years collecting most of the parts I need, its astonishing how many things disappeared in the first 7 years the car existed with previous owners. I managed to find what turned out to be the second owner, Morris, thanks to a posting I put on FABO who’s in my area and got some information from the two years 1973 to 1975 that he owned the car. This is how the car had been sitting since around 1984

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Enough history now my mayaculpa and yep your seeing what you think your seeing, I flared the quarters so I could get some fat tires on, damn 4 inch pattern made me do it, couldn’t get any wheels that would work so out come the tin snips and some glass.

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Time to get you all caught up on where I’ve been since starting and where I’m at currently.

Out comes the 80’s

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Carefully pull the back glass and stash it away in a very safe place!

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Then it was time to remove the rest on the interior and carefully clean, label and box every component and nut and bolt with lots of photos, thank god for digital cameras!

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Drop my pedal assembly into some Evaporust over night and comes out like new.

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Rear diff and assorted stuff came out no problems, not running into to many problems with seized bolts.

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I've no longer been Hi jacked! :cheers:

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It’s time to build my caster system and after giving it some thought I decided to take a bit different approach on these. I wanted them to be more flexible in that I wanted them to support the body the way the suspension did so the body wouldn't sag or flex especially in the back and I wanted them to roll but when I’m cutting off panels etc. I wanted the car to sit firmly on the concrete and not move or wiggle around the way the tend to on casters and I wanted to be able to lower or raise the body as much as possible so this is my version of body cart or casters.




These bolt up in the rear using the old leaf springs as support and allows me to use the full depth of the wheel well to raise or lower the car. The casters fold out of the way and lower the car onto the flat rubber pad that grips the floor very well and the car doesn't move at all. I slide in a piece snug fitting tubing that adds some stability but mostly provides a place to jack the car from, its not really necessary and can be removed easily for more access to the underbody and slid back in afterwards. The hinges that hold the casters on allow for them to be removed if they are in your way easily by simply diving the pin out. They seem to work nicely and as you can see I can put the car nearly right on the floor or get it fairly high for working underneath. The front ones lock in the forward position by simply dropping a bolt into place for some control if rolling any distance, meant to add this to the back ones but haven't got around to it. I didn’t skimp on the size of the steel as you can probably tell, I didn’t want to take any chances. Pretty happy with how they work.





Sent the an assortment of Thermoquad parts, one of which is the numbers correct carb, down to Harms quite a while ago and got back a beautiful brand new looking piece, Thanks Scott, awesome workmanship.



Also restored my grille and some other parts quite awhile ago during the winter before I renovated my garage.
 
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Dropped the K and front suspension out and disassembled and lots of cleaning, need to take some bushings out of the uppers and control arms and prep some of these pieces to send out for powder coating.

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That’s were I’m at to this point, hope everyone enjoys the thread as much as I enjoy everyone else’s, Danny
 
do you want to detail my grille??? yours looks as good as the NOS unit that got smashed!
I went the over-restored look with all FY1 bottom as I wanted everything covered so no more rust!
 
do you want to detail my grille??? yours looks as good as the NOS unit that got smashed!
I went the over-restored look with all FY1 bottom as I wanted everything covered so no more rust!

How's it going Joel, the only man in America with not one but two 340 Specials, after doing mine I don't think my eye's will ever focus quite as well again so I will have to get back to you while I try to distract you with shiny objects until you forgot what you just asked me, LOL!
 
Very cool car!!! R U going back the EV2 paint? Sweet color on a Dart!

I really like those casters also!!!
 
Forgot to say......really COOL seeing the old pics and your modifications!!!
 
Nice progress so far! That is a pretty clean looking car, I gotta come check it out one of these days.

I've been looking forward to you starting a thread on this car!!

I noticed a lot of 70's cars had the underside painted white, I was wondering why that was the "in thing" to do back then? All the pics of my dads friends cars from the 70's including his was painted white underneath.
 
I&all be watching this restoration thread too! The car is in great shape considering it spent ~12 years on the road in AB before you stored it in 1984. I spent 6 years living in Edmonton and the road are brutal (even in the summer) due to all the frost heaves and cracks not to mention the salt/gravel/sand they toss on the roads in the winter.

That's a cool piece of western Canadian only history you've got there with that car.
 
I noticed a lot of 70's cars had the underside painted white, I was wondering why that was the "in thing" to do back then? All the pics of my dads friends cars from the 70's including his was painted white underneath.

Randy - I never liked the white painted undersides, but a lot of cars were done that way. Most cars back then were jacked up with shackles and air shocks. Most also had N50 or M50 tires on 10" wide cragar S/s's that stuck way past the wheel wells. When you came up behind a car that was all "jacked up" all you saw was the fuel tank and the rear end, so I guess why not paint them white! Red brake drums were cool too..

Danny - Great start on the car. I will be in Sherwood Park this weekend (both my kids are playing in a soccer tournament there on Saturday and Sunday), if you are around maybe we could grab a coffee. If we could pry Randy away from his Dart, maybe he could join us too. I will know my weekend schedule on Wednesday.

Rod
 
Nice progress so far! That is a pretty clean looking car, I gotta come check it out one of these days.

I've been looking forward to you starting a thread on this car!!

I noticed a lot of 70's cars had the underside painted white, I was wondering why that was the "in thing" to do back then? All the pics of my dads friends cars from the 70's including his was painted white underneath.

Thanks Randy, not getting any younger so I need to get after it. Even though I was a young turk with a muscle car near the end of the days of airbrushing and crazy fab work, usually fiberglass, and white undercarriage and shackles and airshocks etc. it seemed cool at the time and we mostly got these ideas from the muscle car magazines of the day, I think I still have a box of those mags stashed somewhere.



Randy - I never liked the white painted undersides, but a lot of cars were done that way. Most cars back then were jacked up with shackles and air shocks. Most also had N50 or M50 tires on 10" wide cragar S/s's that stuck way past the wheel wells. When you came up behind a car that was all "jacked up" all you saw was the fuel tank and the rear end, so I guess why not paint them white! Red brake drums were cool too..

Danny - Great start on the car. I will be in Sherwood Park this weekend (both my kids are playing in a soccer tournament there on Saturday and Sunday), if you are around maybe we could grab a coffee. If we could pry Randy away from his Dart, maybe he could join us too. I will know my weekend schedule on Wednesday.

Rod

I'm going to be around this weekend Rod, I have to help my brother haul something with my truck Saturday morning but I should be home by 10:30 and will be home the rest of the weekend. Maybe you can convince Randy to slip out at a particular time, I was going to ask Randy again if I could borrow his template for cutting the proper hole in the floor for the shifter, Randy can I borrow your template? I want to check out Randy's beast that he's almost tamed!! Pm me when you know more and I can send you a google map of how to get here, it not to hard to find.
 
Randy - I never liked the white painted undersides, but a lot of cars were done that way. Most cars back then were jacked up with shackles and air shocks. Most also had N50 or M50 tires on 10" wide cragar S/s's that stuck way past the wheel wells. When you came up behind a car that was all "jacked up" all you saw was the fuel tank and the rear end, so I guess why not paint them white! Red brake drums were cool too..

Danny - Great start on the car. I will be in Sherwood Park this weekend (both my kids are playing in a soccer tournament there on Saturday and Sunday), if you are around maybe we could grab a coffee. If we could pry Randy away from his Dart, maybe he could join us too. I will know my weekend schedule on Wednesday.

Rod



Thanks Randy, not getting any younger so I need to get after it. Even though I was a young turk with a muscle car near the end of the days of airbrushing and crazy fab work, usually fiberglass, and white undercarriage and shackles and airshocks etc. it seemed cool at the time and we mostly got these ideas from the muscle car magazines of the day, I think I still have a box of those mags stashed somewhere.





I'm going to be around this weekend Rod, I have to help my brother haul something with my truck Saturday morning but I should be home by 10:30 and will be home the rest of the weekend. Maybe you can convince Randy to slip out at a particular time, I was going to ask Randy again if I could borrow his template for cutting the proper hole in the floor for the shifter, Randy can I borrow your template? I want to check out Randy's beast that he's almost tamed!! Pm me when you know more and I can send you a google map of how to get here, it not to hard to find.

I never realized you had the car that long.. That's awesome! I wish I was around when these cars were cheap and plentyful! (Well the Swinger 340 special never was plentyful) it would be neat to do a 70's themed car. Mine still had the huge shackles, coil over shocks and traction bars when I got it.. As well as the quarter lips cut off.

I should be around this weekend (probably in the garage as usual, haha) so let me know what time works for you guys. I'd like to check out your car too.

If you wanna stop by this weekend and grab that template and check out my car just let me know. I am about 10 mins from Sherwood Park. (I can PM you)
 
That car had some serious rear suspension accessories back in the day: air shocks, rear shock extenders, extended rear spring shackle extensions and helper springs! You gotta love what we did to cars in the late 70's and 80's.
 
That car had some serious rear suspension accessories back in the day: air shocks, rear shock extenders, extended rear spring shackle extensions and helper springs! You gotta love what we did to cars in the late 70's and 80's.

That's straight up your gonna get spanked INTIMIDATION equipment FJRdoc, add on a way to jack up those air shocks from the dash and your a killer!! Stop laughing scatpacker, LOL!
 
Just a little snicker. Don't forget I was doing mods too. 73 duster 340 with 50 series fatties on there. Hurst T handle on the shifter on the stick. Etc...
 
Very cool Dart! I have been waiting for somebody to restore one of these rare Darts, so excited!!! Keep up the great progress!!!
 
Very cool Dart! I have been waiting for somebody to restore one of these rare Darts, so excited!!! Keep up the great progress!!!

Thanks 813Demon340, I hope it will meet the standards of many of the resto's on FABO. Scatpacker is the only one on the planet that I know of that has a fully restored 72 Special so I'm try to catch up so I can hang out with the big dog, lol. There are two others that are ahead of me in their resto's including my pal Joel (j061093409) who has the car two spots on the assembly line ahead of mine.

Haven't been able to get much done during the week, I've been cleaning and soaking some of the front suspension parts in Evaporust, I do love this stuff. It seems clear after doing this cleaning and maybe others can confirm or deny that most of these parts were raw steel with no coating. The evaporust tends to turn some of the areas that were rusted more black if you leave it in too long but the lighter areas seem to be the way they looked when the factory bolted them on.

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I'm trying to decide which parts I should send out for powder coat and which need to stay with the raw steel look. My intention was to treat the steel parts with ECS's Rust Prevention Magic but now might be leaning towards Eastwood's Exo-Armour High Temp Clear Coat because the specs on the product are quite empressive. If anyone has used this product I'd love to hear how its performed for them. I haven't measure my rotors, I'm positive they are the original ones but they seem quite thick I don't think they have ever been cut and really could be left alone or get a minimal cut just to make sure they are true and the left side (the rusty one) has some slight grooving.

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I can't wait to see more!
A lot of us old geezers are really starting to come out of the woodwork.......
I would love to lay my hands on one of these Swinger Specials!
 
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