1974 Dart Swinger
Well today my son and I spent some quality time pulling out the interior from the 1971 Dart to put into our 74 Dart. When we got there I mentioned to the owner that I wished I had brought a weed-eater to knock the over-growth down around the base of the car since we needed underneath to unbolt the seats. He told me to look out for wasps, black widdows, brown recluse, and rattlers before coming back with his mower and getting as close as he could to the car, scalping the ground around the car. The only thing I had to look out for under the car was red ants and I was grateful that the bolts came off easily.
First bit of business was lowering the windows since it was already in the 80's at 1030 in the morning. Then we set to removing the steering wheel which ended up being an original "Tuff-Wheel". Then we removed the front seat which came out suprising easy. The only thing we had to look out for were the ants which did get a few bites in.
After removing the front seat we moved to the rear seat the the "package tray" under the rear window. Our current package tray didn't have speaker openings so getting this one was great and it had backing and wasn't too badly sun faded and water damaged. We also pulled all four arm rests of which, three had ashtrays, (one had been re-upolstered without one). We removed the rear window trim and the glove box door as well as the Pioneer am/fm CD player, dome light lense, lighter, driver's door sill plate, and the drivers side seat belt, (passenger side was faded tan).
Once we got home we wiped everything down with water soaked rags to remove the dirt and mold. Then we went over everything with Armor-All which the assorted pieces soaked right up but looked real good afterwards. We did find a tag under the seat that said the seat covers were from "Legendary" which was a plus since they are a good reputable muscle car restoration source. The date on the tag indicated they were recovered back in 1998.
The carpet was faded way to bad to replace ours and the headliner would not match ours since it was made of vynil and ours is a board type material and our 74 uses "sail panels" on each side of the rear window and the 71 doesn't have these pieces. We also didn't mess with the dash pad as we already have a good one which we will color black that came from the 1975 4-door at the "pick-and-pull".
So I guess the next thing we will do is order a carpet set, headliner, and "sail panels". Plus we will order the mounting kit and horn button for the "Tuff Wheel". We will use, and will have to change the color on the dash pad we acquired from the 1975, 4-door Dart. Once this is all done, the interior will be nearly completely re-done and should look 100% better than it does now which you can see in the final pictures.
You should hear my son talk about his car to his friends. Today one of his friends asked him what he was doing on a Saturday, while we went to watch one of his friends play summer baseball. He went on to tell them of his "74 Dodge Dart" that he is working on and how we were going to replace the interior with parts we had found. He has learned a great deal about cars and their care. He knows alot more than his friends, that's for sure!
Enjoy the pictures, there will be more coming soon as we replace the dried out / faded interior that is there now.
Well today my son and I spent some quality time pulling out the interior from the 1971 Dart to put into our 74 Dart. When we got there I mentioned to the owner that I wished I had brought a weed-eater to knock the over-growth down around the base of the car since we needed underneath to unbolt the seats. He told me to look out for wasps, black widdows, brown recluse, and rattlers before coming back with his mower and getting as close as he could to the car, scalping the ground around the car. The only thing I had to look out for under the car was red ants and I was grateful that the bolts came off easily.
First bit of business was lowering the windows since it was already in the 80's at 1030 in the morning. Then we set to removing the steering wheel which ended up being an original "Tuff-Wheel". Then we removed the front seat which came out suprising easy. The only thing we had to look out for were the ants which did get a few bites in.
After removing the front seat we moved to the rear seat the the "package tray" under the rear window. Our current package tray didn't have speaker openings so getting this one was great and it had backing and wasn't too badly sun faded and water damaged. We also pulled all four arm rests of which, three had ashtrays, (one had been re-upolstered without one). We removed the rear window trim and the glove box door as well as the Pioneer am/fm CD player, dome light lense, lighter, driver's door sill plate, and the drivers side seat belt, (passenger side was faded tan).
Once we got home we wiped everything down with water soaked rags to remove the dirt and mold. Then we went over everything with Armor-All which the assorted pieces soaked right up but looked real good afterwards. We did find a tag under the seat that said the seat covers were from "Legendary" which was a plus since they are a good reputable muscle car restoration source. The date on the tag indicated they were recovered back in 1998.
The carpet was faded way to bad to replace ours and the headliner would not match ours since it was made of vynil and ours is a board type material and our 74 uses "sail panels" on each side of the rear window and the 71 doesn't have these pieces. We also didn't mess with the dash pad as we already have a good one which we will color black that came from the 1975 4-door at the "pick-and-pull".
So I guess the next thing we will do is order a carpet set, headliner, and "sail panels". Plus we will order the mounting kit and horn button for the "Tuff Wheel". We will use, and will have to change the color on the dash pad we acquired from the 1975, 4-door Dart. Once this is all done, the interior will be nearly completely re-done and should look 100% better than it does now which you can see in the final pictures.
You should hear my son talk about his car to his friends. Today one of his friends asked him what he was doing on a Saturday, while we went to watch one of his friends play summer baseball. He went on to tell them of his "74 Dodge Dart" that he is working on and how we were going to replace the interior with parts we had found. He has learned a great deal about cars and their care. He knows alot more than his friends, that's for sure!
Enjoy the pictures, there will be more coming soon as we replace the dried out / faded interior that is there now.
