75 Dart Swinger

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Scott's dart

Scott's dart

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2017
Messages
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Location
Manitoba
I've been reading all of these restoration forums and figured I'd start my own so I could look back on it one day.

I picked up this 75 Dart this last winter for 400 bucks and a 300 dollar gun.

It's a 318 auto car and the plan is to put a low deck big block and an a-833 in it!

When I got it the driver side quarter panel had been replaced by the previous owner and his friend that was a welder (apparently) and it came with the panel to do the passenger side as well. He had put a Edelbrock air gap intake on and a 4 barrel carb (not sure what cfm)
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The car runs pretty good but leaks a lot of oil and water. The whole car jerks forward a bit when I put it into drive but I only plan on driving the car with the 318/auto for this summer and put in the big block/a-833 this coming winter.

It's sitting on some wheels I got from a friend and they are definitely not the right back spacing but it does what I need it to right now, (Bringing it in and out of the shop and doing the occasional burnout).

The floor was pretty rotted so I just bit the bullet and bought the new floor pan from AMD and I just finished cutting the old one out and I'm going to sandblast the rest of the floor that doesn't warrent replacing but needs to be cleaned up and painted! The spare tire well needs to be replaced because it's rusted through but I think I'm just going to cut it out and put a flat piece of sheet metal over the hole until I feel like giving more money to AMD!

That's where it sits right now, I replaced the tie rod ends so it's in bad need of alignment but I'm hoping once the floor is in I'll bring it for an alignment and a safety (Because Canada) so I can start driving it!
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Subscribed, I also have a 75 dart and I love to see the "late A's" getting fixed up.

these cars are not really around too much and are just too cool to forget about.

Thanks for being nice to this car
 
I've patched worse looking floors than yours, using sections cut from another car. Now is the time to paint inside those crossmembers and such that get covered once the floor is on. I used that black rust mort like stuff only it comes from Rustoleum. Not really paint, more like black phosphate treatment. I'd also consider tying the frames together if you're going to put some horsepower to the ground. Whatever you do, you might tack in some crossbracing temporarily from door sill to door sill while the floor is out to keep the integrity of the body. All that's holding the car from sagging in the middle are the rocker panels, and if they are iffy your car might not be square or level come time to put the floor back in it. Whatever you do I would not jack the car up by a corner. The floor acts as a huge part of what holds a unibody together.
 
airgrabber said:
I've patched worse looking floors than yours, using sections cut from another car. Now is the time to paint inside those crossmembers and such that get covered once the floor is on. I used that black rust mort like stuff only it comes from Rustoleum. Not really paint, more like black phosphate treatment. I'd also consider tying the frames together if you're going to put some horsepower to the ground. Whatever you do, you might tack in some crossbracing temporarily from door sill to door sill while the floor is out to keep the integrity of the body. All that's holding the car from sagging in the middle are the rocker panels, and if they are iffy your car might not be square or level come time to put the floor back in it. Whatever you do I would not jack the car up by a corner. The floor acts as a huge part of what holds a unibody together.
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Yeah I actually borrowed a sandblaster and I'm going to blast and then paint the remainder of the rust! And the pictures don't really show it but I jacked it up and put in Jack stands on the subframe in a bunch of places and made sure to shim them up if needed so it sat down nice and straight before I started cutting.
 
Yesterday I got to sandblasting all the areas I wanted to and primed them all. Have done a few test fits with the floor and it doesn't really sit as close to the lip on the firewall as I would like, its probably around a 1/4 to 1/2 in gap along the hole thing and it doesnt really feel like we can push it any further, any suggestions?

The hole in the wheel tub is where the rear seatbelt was attached to... Broke it off by wiggling it once. Whoops

The last picture is my dad's very convenient well equipped 54x80 shop that he lets me work on my car in!

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The floor is in! I ran out of seam sealer with one side left so I need to get some more, cleaned the whole interior and then put the seats back in (temporary until I find buckets). I need to order some body plugs as well.
 
Well the trunk floor is in way worse shape than expected, some genius before me thought it was a good idea to mount the leaf springs straight to the floor and it's about 1 inch of sheet metal away from ripping through the floor and causing way more damage. I'm going to cut it out, repair the sub frame and while its all out and I'm replacing stuff im going to buy the US car tool spring relocation kit because I plan on tubbing the car and putting some meaty tires on it!
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Trunk floor, wheel tub kit and leaf spring relocation all showed up! Look like good quality pieces! Also bought passenger side trunk extension because someone's idea of rust repair we're random plates of steel and rivits.
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Was also able to score a A-body 8 3/4 last Saturday from a guy with big plans for his 340 4 speed duster that is rusted half into the ground and will likely die in his front yard...

Hopefully I'll get started putting this stuff in this
weekend, what the best way to support the car if im going to cut out the back foot or so of subframe to replace it?
 
This thread gives me hope I recently picked up a 75 swinger also and need to do the floors trunk and quarters I may start a thread to document progress and I am super jealous of the shop space I have a small garage or a storage tent to work out of but it looks great so far
 
tikisteve said:
This thread gives me hope I recently picked up a 75 swinger also and need to do the floors trunk and quarters I may start a thread to document progress and I am super jealous of the shop space I have a small garage or a storage tent to work out of but it looks great so far
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Thanks! Yeah the shop space and my dad having a ton of tools is definitely helpful! He rents it out to truckers in the winter so I'll kinda get kicked out during the weekends but I'll be off work so that still gives me time during the week!
 
The driver side quarter had already been repaired and the car came with the passenger side quarter but hadn't been installed. The bottom half of this one had been repaired but it was filled with a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of Bondo front to back pretty much!

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The new one fit really nicely and right now it's just tacked on. Still got to do the entire trunk floor but she's coming along!
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The rust is nearly gone!!! It finally back on it's own wheels again!
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It looks way too high in the back right now because the only shackles I had were from my parts duster. The leaf springs on the dart we're pretty curled from being attached straight to the trunk so I couldn't get any other setting on the shackle. Hopefully they'll relax a little and then I can set it back to ride hight.
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The Duster's low and the Dart is high! Haha
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Well it's been a while since I've posted but that doesn't mean things haven't been getting done! I ordered and put in some espo +1's!
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The new one is actually the ones in front but when the PO saw the rear leaf spring mounts rusting away they just bolted some brackets to the floor hence the extreme curve.
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Did a little bit of a cleanup of the ol' 318 and installed some Patriot headers!
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The direct connection valve covers came with the car in the trunk and looked way better than the blue ones so I swapped them, going for that "day 2" look!
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And finally I took the kick panels out of the dart (left) and the ones in my parts duster didn't have the hole in them but we're the same colour so I bought some interior paint and BAM! Brand new! Really pleased with how they turned out.
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I also took out my heavy support beam out of the rear bumper and remade some brackets to hold it on, still need to do the front one. I have a carpet and some underlay ready to go in the car but I think I'll wait until after paint to do that. Also have my 8 3/4 being rebuilt and putting some 3:73's in! Can't wait to drive it in the summer!
 
A couple weeks ago I put together my 8 3/4 and put it into the dart.
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This weekend I started on my 4 speed swap, I put in my clutch and brake assembly, pilot bushing, was about to put on my flywheel and I just went to double check to make sure I didn't need a weight on it. I saw on the Mopar forum that some 318 cast cranks we're so out of balance that they needed a weight on the torque converter. I had remembered seeing a weight on my converter when i took it out so I went and checked and sure enough there was one on there.
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So I went under the car and scraped some caked on oil and dirt off the casting numbers and this is what I found.
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So my boring 318 car is now a 360 car! I assume this was a swap from back in the late 70's or 80's. I mocked up the trans and cut the hole for the shifter and linkage. My driveshaft is getting shortened and Now i just need to wait for the 360 weight from Brewers to come and then I can start bangin gears!
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So my 4 speed swap has been done for a while now and I've been ripping the car around and it is way more fun now!

I switched my attention to the gauges now, I was not a fan of the factory gauges and I heard good things about speedhut so I decided to go with them. As I was thinking about all the customization options their labor Day sale for applied! $150 dollars in savings for procastinating! I'll take that all day long! I got a GPS speedometer so I don't have to worry about the cable or adjusting for gearing!

I looked at the how to on building your own gauge cluster and followed that loosely, here's the link if anyone wants to check it out.
Cluster. Make your own Custom Gauge cluster
I had to repair the spots where the screws go into the top but that was pretty easy. All the surface finishing and getting the right spacing between the gauges was the time consuming part! Not quite finished yet but hoping next weekend I'll get it done!
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Are you going to put blinker indicators in? Looks GREAT so far
 
Awesome stuff! Love the car it looks like it was originally the same color as my 75 swinger. I'm following.
 
And here's the finished product! I ended up getting some colored leds off of ebay and they're a littlr brighter than id like but hopefully they aren't shining directly at my face. I still needed to add the dimmer switch for the gauges and the windshield wiper switch but I'm going to put those in a switch panel under the dash or something. It's not perfect but I'm happy with it!
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