Getting a '73 Swinger Back on the Road
I bought this car 5 years ago as my first venture into the old car world. I never intended to do a restoration on it, but it definitely needed more work than I was expecting to get it back into proper condition. I worked on it here and there as I had time and eventually was able to start using it as a nice day driver.
I have another ’73 that’s about to get a /6 -> V8 swap, so I’m thinking it’s about time to sell this one and let someone else have some fun with it. This thread is to document what I did with it in the time I had it. Even though it’s a look back on what I did, I’ll try to post everything in a chronological order.
The back story on the car is I bought it off a college kid who had it for a few years. He was working at a garage over the summers and enlisted the help of one of the mechanics to do an engine rebuild, from an email he sent:
The block and heads were built in 1987. There is a number on the side of the block near the oil filter that indicates so. I can't tell you much else about it. It was a spare motor that came with the dart. The motor in the dart was tired and had a noisy valve train, and it didn't make any oil pressure.
The build was done at a shop that I was working at this past summer. A master mechanic did all the machining/valve work and I did most of the assembling. Everything was done properly and all bolts torqued to manufacture's spec. It is bored .040 over, crank cut 0.010 It has a mild cam, 4 angle valve job on the heads and mild porting.
These are the pictures he shared with me after I bought it from him.
These are a few pictures from the ad, so basically how it looked when I bought it.
One of the very first thing I did with it was to remove those ugly blocks on the front bumper. It cleaned up the looks at least a little bit.
Inside of the trunk is next...
I bought this car 5 years ago as my first venture into the old car world. I never intended to do a restoration on it, but it definitely needed more work than I was expecting to get it back into proper condition. I worked on it here and there as I had time and eventually was able to start using it as a nice day driver.
I have another ’73 that’s about to get a /6 -> V8 swap, so I’m thinking it’s about time to sell this one and let someone else have some fun with it. This thread is to document what I did with it in the time I had it. Even though it’s a look back on what I did, I’ll try to post everything in a chronological order.
The back story on the car is I bought it off a college kid who had it for a few years. He was working at a garage over the summers and enlisted the help of one of the mechanics to do an engine rebuild, from an email he sent:
The block and heads were built in 1987. There is a number on the side of the block near the oil filter that indicates so. I can't tell you much else about it. It was a spare motor that came with the dart. The motor in the dart was tired and had a noisy valve train, and it didn't make any oil pressure.
The build was done at a shop that I was working at this past summer. A master mechanic did all the machining/valve work and I did most of the assembling. Everything was done properly and all bolts torqued to manufacture's spec. It is bored .040 over, crank cut 0.010 It has a mild cam, 4 angle valve job on the heads and mild porting.
These are the pictures he shared with me after I bought it from him.
These are a few pictures from the ad, so basically how it looked when I bought it.
One of the very first thing I did with it was to remove those ugly blocks on the front bumper. It cleaned up the looks at least a little bit.
Inside of the trunk is next...
