Hello from the Ford camp!

Yeah, I am not a big Mopar guy, but my dad is. Me personally, I have a 1970 Mustang that is the focus of my obsession... but this is a Mopar board.

My dad had a 1969 Dodge Dart 340 Swinger with a bench seat and a 4 speed when he was 18/19 years old. Bright Blue Poly with white interior and white vinyl top. He sold it on his way to college. Fast forward to 1992, and he bought me my dream car (it was only my dream car after he bought it for me), and got me hooked on classic cars.

Back in 1999, when I was finishing college and right before getting married, he decided he wanted another Dart. We flew down to South Carolina on an Autotrader ad and bought a 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 with 4 speed, bench seat, black interior and vinyl top, and Copper Poly paint. By the time we got to it, it was a hideous orange, no vinyl top, but the interior was newer and it was complete. We drove it home to northern Indiana. No speedometer and using a stop watch to time between mile markers. We shut the car off once at the first fuel stop, but it started hard after that, so we didnt turn it off again until we got home. That is still a great memory.

Fast forward ANOTHER 20 years, and I am just now getting to the point where I can start working on it. Nobody has touched it since we got it home, and it hasnt been driven in 19 years (last 15 years spent sitting on a lift in dad's garage). Both quarter panels and trunk dropoffs had rot in them. There is rot on the passenger side rear lower window frame. There is collision damage on the driver front door and fender (light) that has been filled in with bondo.

My son, who is now 13, and I have been tearing into it these past weeks. Driver side quarter panel and trunk dropoff are done. Passenger side trunk dropoff is done, and the quarter panel is being welded in this week. Going to do all of the work ourselves (even got the boy welding, and hes pretty good at it). Going to have some modifications from the way it left the factory... likely a red poly instead of blue or copper, painted bumpers, debadged trunk and hood, some sort of ghosted tail stripe vs. the decal one. Dad wants to eliminate the louvre trim from the hood... the boy doesnt... we have our first impasse, so we will have to see where that shakes out.

So hello!