My Lifes work 72 Dart

[darepairman]

Hey, my name is Ed, I am a journeyman Machine repairman in a brewery, I have had this 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger for about 29 years. The Dart started out as a daily driver and the first car I owned after 5 years without a license. My father sold it to me for $500. Got comfortable driving with a real license and decided to start fixing it up, I was always a gear head but its hard to be one with not much cash. The wife of 1 year got pregnent, had our son and I had to put it down for a while working on it very little. Well make a long story short I started working on it about 7 years ago. I am going to try my hand at a thread showing you the work and trouble I went through to make the car I always had pictured. I had a young guy tell me once, you built it like they did in the 70s….. I said I know I just just finished it. Well it was a ugly yellowish 72 Swinger with a gold vinyl roof and this bad tan/gold interior .By the time I got to really working on it, the front fenders, rear lower quarters, doors, rockers, floor boards, trunk and frame had some serious rot. I don’t have any early pictures, but Ill start with the first of the work I started with when I got serious.
I have never did anything like this before, I have painted a couple of cars 30 or so years ago with laquer and enamel, done some minor body work, fixed all my own cars also recently painted a couple of motorcycles. So here are some pics Of the rusty start that I do have, but first the last pictures just to get your interest. NOTE TO ADD: I am the only person to put a wrench to this car, I have had no help what so ever with anything except for the advice I have gotten along the way.

 

[Alex5280]

Awesome, Can't wait to see more!

Alex

 

[downsr]

What scoop is that

 

[darepairman]

Now the rusty pictures I have. Frame , rockers.

 

[darepairman]

Thanks, and I don't know what the scoop is called I bought it from a Whitlock Auto parts about 25 years ago,
This is going to take a while to get through, I am busy like the rest of you..

So I had to make caps to fit the rotted rear frame made from 1/8th plate steel in 3 pieces each side and welded together over the frame. I made sub frame connectors out of 3x4 by 1/8th inch tubing. I tacked an angle iron across the from and measured to the floor board then cut and weld in solid. The front and rear floor boards were also replaced. Oh ya I built a rotissary to turn it over, the best thing I could have done.

 

[darepairman]

The pics

 

[darepairman]

The car came with a 318/904/ 7 1/4 rear end. I bored the block .030with new pistons and rings installed a Engle cam .480 lift both int. and Exh. don't remember the duration off hand. It has a Holly 650 dp and a Edelbrock duel plain intake. I used 360 heads that I had shaved .035 so I guess I lied a little someone else did the machining. Installed a Mollory A6 ignition, with a mech. advance distributer, A Holly electric fuel pump with a regulator, (that's noisy, might not keep it) and headers. Bought a 727 at a swap meet and added a 2800 stall converter, and an 8.75 rear end sure grip with 3:23 gears now I have a Champion al. radiator
.

 

[darepairman]

Radiator, Rear end

 

[Nite Moves]

wow just wow, thanks for the pics and great work:burnout:

 

[darepairman]

Thanks mr. Nite moves, Just one more pic of the engine the way it sits right now

 

[darepairman]

Here is some of it in the garage on the rotissory, just to show you the size of the shop I did all this in, including paint.

 

[darepairman]

The hood is the stock hood, I bought this scoop along time ago like I said before, mounted it and cut the hole. It was fiber glassed to the hood then one day I was looking at it and I saw a vent in a air conditioner grill and got to thinking about the hole in the scoop, and long story short, I found a couple of aluminum tool box dividers and they were the exact width I needed to fit vertically behind the scoop opening so I cut one to size and took it to work and milled the horizontal vent and fiber glassed it in. It should be a strong bond.

 

[darepairman]

Might get some of this out of the way now, Packers play at 3:00pm today and its cold out today :wack:
Heres some pics of the body work that was done. Your going to notice that their are different colors of primer, that's because it took me a very long time to get it acceptable
in my eyes. I used PPG products at first I used lt. grey high build primer, about 3 coats but they were all sanded to dust on the floor. Then I went with the last 3 coats of dark grey, also sanded to dust Then I was finally happy with the job enough to seal it also dark grey, 3 coats sanded to 2000 grit. I think my right arm is getting bigger :munky2: and I don't have much for finger prints anymore.

 

[darepairman]

You can see from above I added a couple of touches to some seams.
Now the car was in real bad shape but it was from a very defining time with my father, it represented a time when we both buried the hatchet and not in each others heads, so it has meaning to me so it will also go to my son after I have had my fun. I replace both full rear quarters, The trunk, floor boards. One front fender (used) the sheet metal came from AMD.

 

[darepairman]

A few more of the shop, a 24'x24' 2 1/2 car garage, and more of the body work,
The rims I have are Ansen aluminum slots, I have always loved these rims since I worked on model cars. I bought a set of unilugs Years ago and ran adapters with them, I never trusted them so I looked for years for a set with the small bolt patteren, so one time I was at the Jefferson swap meet here in Wi. Ill never forget it, it was raining and we were about to leave and I walked past a booth I guess that was long and narrow and at the end were these rims stacked up with one standing and from 25 feet I knew those were the rims, and yes they came off a 68 or so Dart, got them for $250.00 I was happier than a 3 peckered puppy dog.

 

[darepairman]

Now Iam going to post a video, I had just got it started and it needs to be tuned, the fuel pump is noisy, and after I got it running I took it out side for the 1st time in about 25 years, to clean the garage for sealing and paint,

 

[darepairman]

looks like the video didn't work, but now its time to seal it then wet sand to 2000. This is going to be the 2nd time I am going to paint it. The first time the clear coat orange peeled really bad it might have been the weather it was about 50 deg f but 6000 watts of lights heated the garage to 75 F or could have been the age of it I had it for 3 years. I was going to paint it flat black but then they came out with that, every one had that color I said f*** so I went with gloss black.

 

[darepairman]

The interior came with the high back front bench, wood grain trim and it was that sh** yellow. One winter when it was a daily driver the heater core leaked real bad so I removed it and the rest of the heater stuff, welded up the blower motor hole and BANG summer car.
I went with black interior, painted the seats and panels with duplicolor interior paint bought a black carpet put a black cover over the dash pad, roof liner and rear deck below the window, forget what its called.I fabricated a 4 gauge mount and put it where the heater controls went. Then I painted the trim on the dash and door panels lt. ford blue (engine paint) to brighten up the inside. I call the car The Event Horizon. I have always loved astronomy and have a 8" Orion telescope. For those that don't know, the event horizon is the part of a black hole where the gravity is so great not even light, me or my money can escape it rayer: so heres what the inside looks like

 

[darepairman]

I don't know how this interior paint will work out some how I don't think it will last. the bench will eventually be replaced with buckets and counsel but I want to drive it pretty bad and that can wait. When I installed the fuel pump and regulator, I hard piped it with 3/8" brake line. Made a box through my subframe and ran the lines through it, mounted the pump on the inside rear frame rail. I know I have to clean under the hood it has alot of polish poop on it

 

[darepairman]

Well that's the story of me and my car, I had to quit drinking about 7 years ago and dug into this car its been my theropy and the garage my sanctuary.
I put my heart and soul into this car the way I see it its my resume and statement in life. I started as a young street racing guy and built the car I always dreamed of having, I don't like anyone to be able top say I worked on that car, except my son who has no interest in working on it, not to say he dosent like it or appreciate it but I think he just let me have at it. I built this car for street racing but now at 52 years old things have changed, there are not many of these cars crusing around to play with. those days of staying out all night raising hell are way in the past, its a shame hey? Ill drive it a while and have a little fun but in the long run I think I built a real nice car( in my eyes) for my boy, He is a good man at 25 years old about as old as I was when I started this.
There is a lot more to this story but this is as much as I care to write down now. any ways thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it and remember keep the wheels spinnin and the Beavers grinnin :burnout: heres the latest pics.
Thanks Ed

I will add more pics. when I find them

 

[darepairman]

Hi again, I found some more pictures on photo bucket and I will try to post them here. Here is one of the frame rail I fabricated.

 

[darepairman]

So. I see it worked, Here is some shots of the subframe connectors I made

 

[darepairman]

When I rebuilt the frame I add a 1 1/2' square tubing to the rear to replace the factory cross member that was rusted through, I had to notch the spare wheel well to fit it. It should add some strength. I also fabricated a new rear spring hanger mount

 

[darepairman]

Here are some shots of the rust I had to deal with

 

[jboyd2]

I agree, you've built a nice car!