Gagster's 71 Swinger

Thanks, Rebel. It's a learning experience for me. This is my car for teaching myself paint and bodywork. So far I've made some very fixable mistakes on the bodywork and fixed a couple of them. The rest are going to get queued up for next spring. Maybe the next time I buy an A body I'll be up to the task of teaching myself metalwork and fabrication. ;-) I have some great ideas for a touring car. I also have this dream of filling out my 'cuda collection with the '68 trifecta. I have my 383S fastaback now. I also want to do a touring notch and a /6 sunday cruiser 'vert. If only I should live that long. heh

I still have hours of futzing around to do with this dart in order to get my doors, fenders, hood and decklid properly aligned. After that I have to get my wiring harness back in, all the little bits I took off under the hood and on the cowl back on, wiper assembly back in, etc, then maybe I can do a headliner and put my front glass in. I ordered the wrong gasket kit for my heater box (AC kit. need non-AC) otherwise I'd have that restored and ready to go back in by now. At the very least I want to get the car sealed back up properly before bad weather comes.

I still have this fantasy that I'll get a motor in the car before winter, but it's starting to look grim. If I take the big block that I built out of my Fury III then I have to scrounge up a ton of money for the 440 A-body headers and find a set of motor mounts somewhere, fatter torsion bars, better brakes, cut the core support for the bigger radiator... I could probably still get a free /6 from a guy I know but I'm not sure I want to do the work twice. Or I could find an el-cheap-o 360 off craigslist and a much cheaper exhaust and not have to futz with the radiator. That's kind of the middle ground approach and it's tempting. If I do either of the small motor options, I don't have a trans to put behind the engine either. Big block with expensive headers or small block or /6... Either way I'm still going to have to save up some coin. *sigh* I dunno....

Between finances, impending autumn weather, and perennial indecision, It's starting to feel like I may never get to drive the car. :-p

Anyway... Thanks for the compliment and thanks for following along. :-D