1970 Dart Swinger FINALLY UNDERWAY

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FomocoReformed

FomocoReformed

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Well I got back from Ft Jackson 2 weeks ago so it's finally time to really get started on the green machine! Don't have to report until monday so I made quite a bit of progress today tearing it down with a buddy of mine. Trying to get it ready to go to the body shop in the next few days, the owner of the shop said he'd stop by my place personally to see what needs to be done on the car before he brings it over. Everyone I asked in the area pointed me in his direction, real nice guy and he does trophy quality work.

Once the bodywork is done I'm going for a restomod, she'll be getting the 904/198 swapped out with a 727/318 with a 340 cam, intake/carb/exhaust. The standard to warm an engine up a bit. This will be a street driver so I don't want to inject too much power into it. My goal is a good balance with power and reliability. Smooth cruising most of the time but if I romp on the peddle a little I can make a nice show, waste my .50 cents of gas and be happy.

Here's some pics of the teardown progress, got most of the interior out today. There are some parts I don't feel comfortable messing with like chrome trim pieces, so I'll leave those for the shop.

Does anyone have a picture of what an original F4 green would have looked like? Mine was MACCO'd over and I'd like to see what it would look like in it's original colors.

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Roof seam is bubbling here a little, the other side is smooth.

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Drivers pan has a little hole in it, looks like the cancer didn't creep any farther than the seam sealer around the floor pans.

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Recoverd a bunch of factory sheets hidden in random places, I recognize the build sheets but might the other two on the bottom be? The build sheets were tucked under the front and rear seat but I found two more sheets under the floor mat.

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Well the owner of the body shop came over to my place today personally to look at the car, he said it's in better shape than a lot of the cars he's restored. Quoted me about 8-10k for media blasting, bodywork, and interior. From seeing some of his work in the shop, it's well worth the money. Haven't been able to decide on a color yet though.
 
Sounds like you have a good plan for your dart. I know what you mean about hard to pick a color. I must have changed my mind about 20 times on color.
 
Thanks, I'm leaning heavily towards J6 "sassy grass green" I really like the color tone. Anyone on here have their darts painted that color or the original F4 lime green metallic?
 
Got the engine out this evening! Made a friggin mess on it's way out dripping transmission fluids all over my freshly paved driveway :angry7:
Pics to follow.


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The 6 banger will be replaced by a 318 when I can find a damn V8 k-member for it...

SPEAKING OF

Are the K members any different other than the motor mounts? Any cons to going with a motor mount kit from http://www.engine-swaps.com/frames/frame_6372Amount.html and saving myself the trouble of swapping K members?
 
FomocoReformed said:
Got the engine out this evening! Made a friggin mess on it's way out dripping transmission fluids all over my freshly paved driveway :angry7:
Pics to follow.


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The 6 banger will be replaced by a 318 when I can find a damn V8 k-member for it...

SPEAKING OF

Are the K members any different other than the motor mounts? Any cons to going with a motor mount kit from http://www.engine-swaps.com/frames/frame_6372Amount.html and saving myself the trouble of swapping K members?
Click to expand...
I just did a /6 to a 360 V8 swap on my 72 Duster,maybe I can help out.
Save the trouble of swapping K-Members,my friend,I used Trans-Dapt slant 6 to 340-360 swap mounts (part #4695) on Trans-Dapts site(costed me $80 and they worked great and fit like a glove!I learned alot doing this swap and found out:
If you are going with a 727,you will need a shorter driveshaft since the 727 is 2 inches longer than the 904 and it bolts up to the existing transmission mount.
You will need a bigger radiator.I tried using my /6 radiator,but its not big enough to cool it.You will need a shorter thottle cable.I Mcgyvered my /6 cable to work for now,but Im getting a Lokar one soon.Kickdown:For sure you will need another kickdown for your transmission.I went with a Lokar Kickdown cable and works great!Im not sure what you are going to do for a shifter,I had to modify my column shifter to work with the 727,but later on,Im going to get a floor shifter.Heres some pics of the Trans-Dapt mounts on my engine.Hope this helps and dont hesitate to ask questions,I did this all by trial and error,lol
Drivers side mount
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Passenger side mount
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p.s.
If you plan on burning rubber,might want to swap that small 7 1/4 rear end for something stronger,and maybe upgrade your brakes.These are other things I need to do as well
 
Nice, thanks for the pics of the swap too!

I'll probably toss an 8 1/4 under there with some new SS leafs, and a suspension kit from firmfeel.
 
WELL it's been a while since I last posted an update here. Heck I haven't had time to do much with the dart at all in over a year now since I've been busy between school and the army.

I'm happy to say I'm finally making some progress with the dart and it'll be going in for it's bodywork in the 2nd or 3rd week of october. :cheers: I finally decided I want it the original F4 light green with it's black vinyl top.

Plans have definitely changed since I first posted this thread. I've been slowly gathering parts together and so far I've got everything I need for a 4 speed swap including pedals, linkages, and a freshly rebuilt 833 with a hurst T handle shifter! Got a complete front disc setup with all new bushings, blasted and painted, along with a stick shift column and manual steering setup. Soon I'll be going to pick up a low mileage E58 package 360 I bought that has a good standard bore with visible crosshatch. :-D

All that's left to do is track down what I need for the 8.8 swap, which shouldn't be hard seeing as my local yards are overflowing with explorers.

I'll be able to get some pics up when I get home in a week or so.
 
Thats the plan, it's not going to be a daily driver but it won't be a garage queen either. I'll try to get some pics up of everything as soon as I can.

Only thing I still need to decide is what I want to do with the engine, I'd like to pep it up a little so I was thinking intake, carb, exhaust, maybe a small cam and a clean up the heads a little nothing too extreme. Right now it has a 4 barrel thermoquad but I'm not sure if I want to keep that judging by all the posts I've read about them being a pain in the behind. Maybe a eddy 1406 or a holly 4160.
 
Nice project you found. I really like the green color. Keep the picture coming. Are you going orginal or custom on your car?
 
Body color is hard to decide on when changing.
I had the same problem on my project scamp
decided on 69 T5 Copper Polly
Good luck you have a lot of decisions ahead
 

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That is a great manifold.It is rathef tall,though.You may want to check hood clearance.
 
Yeah I've head great things about it reading through threads here on the forums so I jumped on it.

I'll have to check clearance when I get it in hand, if I have enough room I was going to put a spacer on it with a 1406 on top.
 
Update, got myself a set of 15x7 BBP rims last night for $175 shipped.

They're american racing and came off a hemi coronet. Not in their current product lineup so I'm not sure which american racing rims they are but I'd like to know. I really like the look of these, used to have a set just like this on my bronco but they were wider and brushed steel instead of black. Always liked the look of these. :glasses7:

Picture is from the classified ad but I'll get more up when they arrive.
 

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Alright finally got some pics here, just got back from south carolina so whats the first thing I do to unwind? start tearing my dart apart of course! Current task is stripping the car down to go into the body shop. Made some good progress today, I got the power steering pump removed, pulled the wiring harness, grill, valence, bumper, cut out the old exhaust. Also moved inside and pulled the heater box to start stripping out the dash.

WELL dash didn't go as planned, I figured out that the bolts on the top were under the windshield gasket. I was in no mood to quit though so having never pulled a windshield before I grabbed a flathead, a mallet, a razor knife, and said "eff it, this is happening." Happy to say I got it out perfectly and my some miracle didn't crack or damage it. :blob:

I started by unboxing and organizing all the stuff I've been buying and having shipped home first,

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The biggest prize of all, my crate with the rebuilt 4 speed swap parts!

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Came with all the pedals and linkages, they were even nice enough to include a shift boot and a little baggie with clips and brackets.

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My $40 ebay'd intake, will be going on a 360.

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New column and manual steering box courtesy of moparshaker :thumrigh:

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BBP disc brake setup I bought from metallidart,

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(cont...)

On the work, pulling my heater box it had the usual nest inside of it, full of leaves, acorns and half a house worth of insulation. It's in good shape though, only one crack near the opening on the top but I can easily epoxy that.

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Taking the heater box out I got a nice surprise, the owners manual dropped out with it! Must have fallen through the messed up cardboard glove box and gotten lost back there. Has a mileage chart written on the back cover by the original owner with oil changes up to 30k.

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My 30 year old makita saw made quick work of the exhaust, had it cut out and cleaved into pieces in practically a minute. That thing is like a hot knife through air, screw the butter! I got this out when my brand new 15v cordless black and decker failed to cut the exhaust, guess they don't make tools like they used to huh?

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I couldnt figure out how to get the wiper arms off, theres a little tab underneath to pull back but they just wouldnt come free.:banghead:
 
Sometimes the tension spring in the wiper tries to twist the houseing makeing it hard to remove.
Nice job so far I'm at nearly the same spot with my car.
 
Thanks unknownsnake, that actually helped a lot. Got the wiper arms off and all the linkages out.

UPDATE! GOT MY 360 HOME TODAY!

For a grand total of $250 I brought home a 360 and the stand it was on. Was kind of a bear to wrestle out of the truck without having a lift but I got it on the ground safely. Good thing I joined the army and started going to the gym or I would never have been able to lift that thing. :cheers:

Anyway on to the pics, block is really really clean. Looks to be pretty low mileage with #402 casting heads, nothing special. This came out of an air force dodge from the base near my house so I know it was at least taken care of and probably say pretty light duty seeing as it WAS and air force base. The cylinders still have visible crosshatching in them!!!


I plan to rebuild this with one of the summit gasket/bearing kits, re-hone the cylinders, port/polish/flow the heads then cam, bolt on my eddy torker II, 850cfm thermoquad on top, then do my headers/exhaust.

PICS!!

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Yes it's an E58 :glasses7:

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CROSSHATCH!

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Nice score on that engine. If you can swing some flat top pistons and a rebalance that would really add a lot of power.
 
My, you have been busy!!! Be careful with that windshield if it is in good shape. I too got my flawless tinted windshield out with out scratch and had it wrapped up on laying over the roof of the car. Last year I pulled it down to clean all the sealer and crap off and the sucker was cracked right down the middle from top to bottom!!! Man was I ticked. Wrap it up and stand it on edge somewhere where it is protected. I'll be watching your build. Good luck. L8r

Jim
 
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