1974 Dart Swinger
I found this 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger in Central Texas a week ago. My 14 year old son and I bought the car as a "father-son" project which will be his first car when he turns 16. We bought it from the original owner who has had the car since 24 Jan 1974. It has about 95,000 original miles, 318 engine, auto trans, original 14in ralleye wheels, AM radio, and even the polyglass spare tire. Hardly anything was missing with the exception of some small trim, badges, and the vinyl roof. We found the factory build sheet yesterday behind the rear seat springs and it was complete with no rips. The car was built in St. Louis and sold in Los Angeles where it stayed until 1978 before coming to Central Texas. While we're not doing a full blown restoration, we are going to keep the car as original as possible and clean it up to include chroming the engine and such.
The color is Avecado Gold Poly and that is the original paint. We first used Kit Scratch-Out to clean the paint, then Turtle wax rubbing compound to polish it before giving it a Turtle wax regular car wax application. The bumpers were shined up useing Meguiers Metal Polish.
The rotton muffler was replaced by a Thrush Turbo with a short turn down pipe right before the rear axle. Painted up the axle and brake drums while we had the wheels off for polishing. We also removed as much of the aluminum trim as we could and hand polished them before reinstalling them.
I am including before and after photo's of what we've done in just one week to clean this Dart up.
I found this 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger in Central Texas a week ago. My 14 year old son and I bought the car as a "father-son" project which will be his first car when he turns 16. We bought it from the original owner who has had the car since 24 Jan 1974. It has about 95,000 original miles, 318 engine, auto trans, original 14in ralleye wheels, AM radio, and even the polyglass spare tire. Hardly anything was missing with the exception of some small trim, badges, and the vinyl roof. We found the factory build sheet yesterday behind the rear seat springs and it was complete with no rips. The car was built in St. Louis and sold in Los Angeles where it stayed until 1978 before coming to Central Texas. While we're not doing a full blown restoration, we are going to keep the car as original as possible and clean it up to include chroming the engine and such.
The color is Avecado Gold Poly and that is the original paint. We first used Kit Scratch-Out to clean the paint, then Turtle wax rubbing compound to polish it before giving it a Turtle wax regular car wax application. The bumpers were shined up useing Meguiers Metal Polish.
The rotton muffler was replaced by a Thrush Turbo with a short turn down pipe right before the rear axle. Painted up the axle and brake drums while we had the wheels off for polishing. We also removed as much of the aluminum trim as we could and hand polished them before reinstalling them.
I am including before and after photo's of what we've done in just one week to clean this Dart up.