74 Swinger Front End Switchero

[7374]

Well You May Have Noticed Some Of My Posts Of 74 Swinger. It's A Work In Progress And Over The Last Couple Of Years I've Really Been Dealing With The Effects Of 35 Years Of Northeastern Weather With It. I've Corrected The Rear Fram Problems By Installing A Rear Spring Relocation Kit That Helped Me By Cutting Out Some Of The Rotted Frame Rails And Doing Away With The Spring Perches That Were Rusted Pretty Bad. And Of Course That Opens Up The Door For More Tire In The Back So It Really Was A Great Fix All Around.

Well The Next Chapter Has Moved To The Front Frails. What I Thought Could Have Been Just An Easy Patch Or 2 But Since My Inner Fender Wells Needed A Little Attention Too It Has Really Made Me Think Twice. So I've Decided To Really Go All Out And Replace The Entire Front Clip. I Lucked Out And Found One On Craigslist That Was Originally From A Virginia Car So There Really Is No Rust On This Thing At All! The Guy Bought It, And Brought It Back To The Pittsburgh Area 2 Years Ago To Replace His And Decided To Sell The Car And Move On To Another Project. I Just Happen To Be In Need Of One And, You Know How The Story Goes.

So I'll Keep You Guys Updated As Much As I Can Of The Progress And Try Not To Drag It Out Too Long. Trust Me I'd Like To Be Able To Drive This Thing This Summer So I'll Bust My Back As Much As My Wallet Will Let Me! (and I'll Be Putting A New Kitchen In For The Wife While This Is Going On Also)

So Here Are A Couple Of Pictures To Get Everyone Up To Speed And, Wish Me Luck!

 

[Tnplumber]

Man, this should be a great thread lookin forward to it.

Scott

 

[7374]

well nothing much has gone on too exciting lately but it's coming. i finished the kitchen and dining room remodel for the wife in 7 weeks, (would've been 5 but the countertop was delayed by 2 weeks!) so she's happy and now it's my turn!

anyways, 2 weeks ago i dropped off the new front end at the shop. my buddy is now prepping it for installation on my car. things got pushed back a little bit but i will be taking the car down saturday the 23rd to start. we plan on stripping the front end completely of all body panels, pulling the suspension and if enough time the motor/trans that day. i'll have plenty of pics available so stay tuned.

 

[7374]

well it's underway. attached are some photo's of saturday's progress. we were able to dissasemble the front end of all body panels and pull the motor and trans. i know that you may see that we cut the rad support. well we did, and we bent it out of the way for easier way of getting the motor and trans out but no worries, it's all gonna be new remember?

well it's gonna be a little bit before i can get back to it but i'll keep you posted with photos along the way.

 

[Burntorange70]

Looking good so far.

 

[2 Darts]

I thought this thread was going to be about changing sheet metal. This is cool, too. FWIW, if you drop the K-frame and bolt the engine to it and install from the bottom the radiator support does not need to be cut and it makes it a little more difficult to scratch up the top of the engine compartment paint.

On one engine change, I separated the engine and transmission, leaving the transmission in the car. I bolted the tranny to a 2x4 I laid across the frame rails to support the tranny and still be able to roll the car around as I needed. When the magic day came, tranny supported by stand, the 2x4 came out and the engine went in.

Good luck with this. It's going to be an interesting trip.:read2:

 

[7374]

thanks! and yeah we thought about going from the bottom because we do have to pull the k frame off anyways but now i can take the engine and tranny home (about an hour ride on the other side of the city from me) and work on it on my own time. i want to really clean it up good, repaint it, and replace gaskets etc. no sense having a clean new engine bay with a dirty old engine sitting in the middle of it.....

 

[7374]

well was back down on saturday and picked up the motor and trans. as you can see it makes for the fastest trailer known to man....

then tonight, i realized that i forgot that all of my gaskets and filters are in the trunk of the car..... on the other side of the world from me.. so i left work and drove to the shop got the stuff and stopped in to see mom for a home cooked meal... (the wife is a good cook but it was still well worth the trip on all counts)

but the car now has the k frame/suspension removed and my next trip down will be to pick that up and as a bonus they had the bottom of the car stirpped pretty clean of all grease and undercoating (for the most part) because the previous owner was nice enough to have the entire bottom of the car greased every year before winter..... thanks.... (insert sarcasm here) but it's all looking good and even though there were minimal rust spots on the floor boards, a few small holes that will have to be patched. so here is a few pics for your enjoyment.

also, i ordered a dual snorkel scoop for mine and was wondering if you guys could post a couple of pics of yours. i'm trying to decide if i want to go with flat black look or with the color of the car.... i'm gonna post another thread seperatley about this but thanks in advance!

 

[7374]

well i had a few hours today to work on the car at the shop. i didn't get too much done myself but in the past week my buddy was able to cut off the old and weld on the new so even though i didn't get anything else but cleaning the 35 years of dirt and grease off of the front K member and bolting it back on, he did a TON!!!! I left before I had time to swap out the control arms and install new shocks but it's well on it's way to being back on all 4. from here it goes to blasting and then paint and then reassemebly so there is still a nice bit of travleing down this road.....

keep in mind that the new clip does have some 2 week old surface rust on it because it was being stored outside until install but it is VERY clean overall...

 

[mopardart72]

while the motors out you shuld definatly clean it up and possibly paint it body color. that blue just doesnt click

 

[7374]

oh for sure it is going to be painted. the last post lists everything that is left to do. i couldn't do all this and not paint it. i know my posts aren't the shortest but they do explain everything.

 

[AdamR]

Looks good,

 

[Burntorange70]

Very nice work.

 

[7374]

thank you all very much. i hope i can get it on the road shortly!!

 

[7374]

well this past weekend i was back at it. i have the front suspension installed with new upper control arms and its sitting on all four!!!!!!! monday it went to the blasters and it should be painted by the weekend. (Keep in mind i'm only painting the replaced metal) Anyways i was able to get some film developed (i know, FILM?! but i just left a disposable there so if i wasn't around he could take some shots) anyways here are few and the last one is as i left it saturday afternoon.

 

[Tnplumber]

Wow, great work, one heck of a job.

 

[7374]

well almost ready for paint. I went on friday and dropped some parts off and now it's sandblasted and there is some body work going on. after that, it's paint! hope to start reassembly in the next week.

 

[dusterny]

My hat is off to you. Lot's of hard work and nice job!

 

[7374]

once step closer!!! couldn't work on it today but wanted to keep those interested updated on the progress. it's painted and it looks good if i do say so. it's Viper Red and hopefully next year the entire car will be the same color. but for now this will have to do.

what's left you ask?

well i have to paint the suspension and all that shouldn't be painted red, black. (wiper motor, etc.) so once i do that its then drop the motor and trans in and hang the fenders.... doesn't sound like much but we'll see i guess....

 

[74 DART']

Nice job its looking real good, thanks for the update!

 

[7374]

well trying to stay up on everything. went on saturday and took monday and tuesday off from work to really try to get it done.

 

[7374]

so this weekend it started and ran!!!! had some issues though. exhaust wasn't bolted up and was touching terminals on starter. this shorted out the car and burned up my ingition module. once i figured it out, i threw on a new ignition module and it turned right over! now i just have to button up a few odds and ends and its on to the streets! !

 

[Tnplumber]

Keep the pics coming, really enjoying this post. I hads a 74 that I loved and got rid of because it needed the frontend switch treatment. Glad to see someone with the skills to pull it off.

Scott

 

[7374]

what really is kinda cool about this whole thing is that by decoding the vin stamped on the rad support of the new front end, it came from a 74 also.

 

[Tnplumber]

very cool.