1974 Dart Swinger

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Very cool stuff. As a fellow young gun on the forum I think it's really cool that you and your son are building a car together. I know for me and my dad, working on cars is some of the best bonding time we've ever spent! Keep us updated... the difference between now and when you guys got the car is like night and day.
 
This evening we we're able to finally have time and decent weather to mount the chrome tips onto the dual exhaust. The square tips look good with the square shapes of the entire rear-end area. While they are not reproduction tips, they look good all the same.

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Hey Button, what side of Texas are yall located? I'm movin to Texarkana Texas in 18 days!, bummer I didn't keep the 74!!
 
Dart Shawn,
I looked on Map-Quest, and you will be about 2hr 51min/ 179miles East of Dallas. That would be about 5hr 19min/ 334miles from us in Killeen. We're right in the middle of the state. If you ever head towards Austin, or San Antonio, you would be driving past the Killeen/Fort Hood area where we are located.
 
I got the following message this morning in my in-box at work;
"We've noticed that you've not been active on For A Bodies Only Mopar Forum for quite some time now, and we miss you!"
I guess I didn't realize it had been that long since we last posted but our funds have been diverted for the holidays and colder weather has slowed us down on our work. However we will certainly post again once we get to transferring the brake system from the 73-4 door to the Swinger.
 
It's great that your building a car with your son! My boy is 4,5 in January and Im doing my best to involve him in car stuff when I do it!

The car is lookin great and the boy looks real happy!

Well done!

It has been a while since your last post.I forgot all about this thread..
 
This past weekend my son and I found another "Survivor" MOPAR. This time it was a 1972 D100 pickup truck. We actually saw the 3X5 black and white ad on the Ft Hood post exchange 4-sale board. The ad said it still had it's original paint and that along with the straight front end caught my eye. The guy was asking $1600 so we called and went and checked it out this past Sunday. We drove to his ranch in Pidcoke, Texas and found the truck sitting in tall grass where it had sat for the past three months without beinbg started. We brought along a battery and some gas and after about 15 seconds of cranking, the engine fired and went into a smooth and very quiet idle. He is the 3rd owner and it was his ranch truck for two years. It has an amazingly straight body with only one small dent under the driver side tail light and one small dent in the very top of the grill. Heck, my 97 Ram 4X4 has more door dings and marks than this 38 year old truck. Even the bed is only scratched, not dented at all. The interior is the roughest part with a cracked dash and torn seat cover but otherwise is also very solid, especially the floors. The engine is a 225-1 slant six with three-on-the-tree, which should prove interesting since I've never driven a column shift before. We will pick it up this weekend and I'll post "after" pictures of it once we polish her all up. I may have to replace the tires if they are too dry-rotted but I'm keeping the white spoke wheels since they are period correct and are in great shape as well. Gotta love these southern finds!

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Way to go guys, I look at this thread once in a while. It sure proves that some elbow grease can go a LONG way. Makes you wonder how pretty that truck is going to turn out after it is in your hands for a bit.

Phil
 
This will irritate some of you even more that thought the price was a great deal, I ended up paying $1,300 for it. He dropped to $1,400 since it needed a battery and I called him the next day and offered $1,300. After a short pause he agreed. It seems he just got married a few months ago and his new wife hates the country and wants to move to the city. So he is selling his ranch, 15 head of cattle, his tractor, and this truck to make the move. So I guess I have her to ultimately thank, haha.

BTW, My wife and I are originaly from Ohio before I joined the military, so we know all about rusty vehicles and road salt. I'm always telling my son how lucky he is to have found his Dart here in Texas, because it would be a total "rust-bucket" in Ohio.
 
Sure is hard to get much work done this winter even here in Central Texas. We've had soooo much wet weather and now look at what we got today! At least the Dart was safe under it's car cover. This past weekend we managed to get some wax on the wheels and exhaust tips. Other than that, just weekly start ups on the weekends. Can't wait for warmer / dryer weather! Only the second time my sons have really seen snow and played in it.
 
that's cool. we got a little bit up here in pittsbugh 2. not enough to make a snowman though....... these were taken about 2 weeks ago i think. we got 21" from friday at 5 to saturday around 2 in the afternoon. then about 3 or 4 more inches everyday for the rest of the week. it's all starting to melt now so the rivers will be flooded if it thaws to quickly but the good thing is we think it's over now. bring on the sunshine and warm days!

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Be careful with air shocks, they will rip the upper mount out of the car over time.(not much time) I did that when I was a teen on my first 74 Dart, and I have repaired and seen lots of other air shock damaged mopars since.
The money on the shocks should have gone to rebuilding the rear springs. Drop it off at a spring shop for less then $200.00 you will have a rebuilt set off springs at the height you want.
Also, thats a very cool colour.
 
We run about 55lbs pressure which isn't too much. It isn't brick hard or anything like that. The car has mainly been for local shows and to use as a father/son project. We do have a show coming up the 22nd of May at the local Dodge Dealership, (Dodge Country) and we plan to have both the Singer and my 72 D100 there.
I'm also going to look into a motor swap possibly soon. The 318 in the 4-door custom will go into the Swinger, it runs much better. Also want to install a PST brake rebuild kit and a front end kit if time and $$$$ allows.
 
I dont think theres anything wrong with air shocks.
Keep the pressure in them to the proper specs (ours are never higher than 55psi) and you shouldn't have any issues with them.
I've had them on my 74 for two years now with no complaints or issues!
 
Hey Sneke Eyez, it's been a while since I've been on here, but the cold weather really slowed things down. But with warm weather comes more work and goodies to throw at the car. Just ordered a chrome brake master cyclinder cover from Jegs today for only $12.00! I hadn't been able to find one anywhere and then when I got their spring special catalog this week, there it was. I'll post some pictures when we install it.
I agree about the air shocks, just have to be careful about air pressures.
 
Well today was finally a day to work on the Darts after a long, grey winter. The 1973 4-door Custom received the Swingers old 2 into 1 exhaust system and we installed a starter. The 4 door hadn't started since about October but fired up after about 5 minutes of cranking. We did all this work to get it able to run so we could take it to our storage unit tomorrow and get it out of the driveway for a while.
Our 74 will get a new chrome brake cover as well. I had been looking everywhere for one when I found this one at Jegs for just $11.99. BTW, Jegs is in my hometown of Delaware, Ohio. I ordered this and it got here in three days. I'll post pictures of the install tomorrow.

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Hey I saw that cover myself in that same book.
I pondered getting one actually, but decided I didn't think it was a necessity yet.
 
Yes, it isn't a necessity but it was an inexpensive bit of "bling" for the engine bay that I couldn't pass up. It seems hard to find the small chrome goodies for a MOPAR engine bay VS Chevy or Ford, so when I can find it and it's at a price I can afford, I snatch it up. Besides, we have a local car show coming up 22 May I want the car in and little bit of chrome here and there never hurts.
 
Well it's good to finally have warm weather again. Today we installed the chrome master brake cylinder cover that we bought through Jegs. A little more "bling" for under the hood. We also applied a YearOne sticker to the rear of the Dart. We got it along with a door panel removal tool and the hood bumper set that is pictured. Gave the car a good wash and want to wax it up again this up coming weekend.

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Car looking good. I wish I could get mine back together and get out of the garage.
 
HemiPar,
I have 28+ years service right now. The first 24 years were in the Infantry, now I'm branched Transportation due to knee operations. Shooting for 30 and then retire.
 
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