1970 Dart Swinger - father and son project

Hi folks, pretty new here and have begun a project on a 1970 swinger with my son. He found it out in the field, we dragged it home and the project has begun.

We removed the interior which was intact but had been redone by an amateur and it showed. The car looks pretty good with some rust in the lower rear quarters and on the bottom of one fender. The grille is out of a 72 and is busted, the bumpers are bent and the valences are squashed but repairable. Also some damage to the driver side quarter/door area and the quarter window is busted. After taking out the interior we found some rust in the drivers floor and at least one small spot on all three other passenger foot-pads, but this is pretty minor as the frame is solid. The drivers rocker is rusted also. The trunk is solid and the area under the hood is also rust free, these had some problems there.

The engine is intact and reportedly a rebuild which was never run - it turns over and cranks when we put power to the starter, no radiator for the slant six beast. The tranny is a three on the tree and part of the linkage is missing, as is the driveshaft. But hey, only 96,000 miles on the car! The drive train is all 6 banger, little 3 speed doesn't even have mounts for a floor shift. Rear is a 7 1/4 with drum brakes all around. I like 340's, but don't have extra's and would need to change everything, so just looking at maybe running the 6 at least at first.

We purchased the car for $250, which seems reasonable. We don't have much money but we do have skills. We have some tools also so will be doing this as a low budget affair. We went to the local metal dealer and purchased a 4'x8' piece of sheet metal for making patches and fabricated replacement panels for the lower inner and outer quarters and have mounted them for fit check. Looks pretty good so far and is where we are today.

I have included a few pictures, though not great they show our challenges. I would love to hear your thoughts out there, please feel free to chime in on anything related or not, I look forward to more as this progresses. Next time will post pic's of our home made patches!