1974 Dart Swinger

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By driving by the house and seeing these vehicles plus my wifes silver 2007 1500 Ram Quad-Cab, do you think there is any doubt where our loyalties are in regards to vehicles of choice?!?! haha. The only other vehicle is a 1997 GMC Sierra Z71 4X4 that is my sons daily driver that I got for steal and is in awesome shape.

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It's the original paint on both the D100 and the Swinger. Just lots of elbow grease and about three bottles, (thus far) of Kit Wax/polish, followed by either Meguirs or Turtle Wax carnuba wax as a 2nd coat. I still have the entire passenger side of the truck to do as well as the ceiling inside the cab of the truck.
 
Heading out Saturday to see a 34,000 mile 318 w/904 thats in a garage that belongs to a friend of my next door neighbor. Any ideas on what I should offer? I plan to take pictures and will post them on here this weekend.
 
Ok, here is the motor mentioned previously. Also has the radiator, A/C hookup, and some other stuff if I want it. The gentleman is asking $1,000 but I believe $800 might buy it if I show up with cash in hand, and since $$$ is tight, that would be best! I was wrong when I put 34,000 miles, its actually 73,000 miles and the motor came out of a 1970 Coronet 500 this past February. He has since turned the car into a "clone" Super Bee with a 440. He showed me a picture on his cell phone and it did look awesome. Does everyone think this is a good deal? The motor looked pretty good and I don't think these guys would screw me over.
BTW, the plane is a C17 doing touch-and-goes at Robert Gray Army AirField here at Fort Hood and I thought it was a cool photo, took it yesterday in a housing area that is being built where my wife was working.

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Hey Button, I noticed from the first pictures of the 74, that your rear DODGE trim between the tail lights is kind of dinged up. I have one that is clean of dings, and still looks really good for sale if you want it. Let me know.

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Well we brought home our newest edition to our home, a 2010, Ram 1500, "Lone Star" Edition. The color is Austin Tan Pearl with a brown and tan interior. Family loves it and now we need to get a bed liner and cover to keep my wife cleaning supplies dry and safe.

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These are my favorite threads to keep up with!!! I always like to see kids getting old cars and getting to spend time working on them. Great stuff man that car is coming around quick.
 
Good luck with the new truck - sweet. Really like the molded around the tail pipe extensions on the rear bumper.
 
Congrats on the new truck. Did you trade your or hers in on it? I know my wife always gets the new ride. Why is that? The world may never know.......
 
We traded in the "wifes", silver, 2007 Ram Lone Star with it's 4.7L. It had 42,500mi and I got a good deal on this truck during Dodges "Tent Event" thats on all the commercials on TV. Ordered a Tri-Fold bed cover last night, hope it gets here this week. I'm not trading my big beast any time soon, and if I do, it will be for another lifted RAM.

Chuckwagon does have a good point about the kids growing up. When I look at the begining of this thread roughly 21 months ago, it amazes me how much my son has grown in that time.

I love those dual exhaust tips as well. The truck has a nice quiet note at idle, but when you mash it, it has a nice rumble to it. And man is that 5.7 Hemi quick! May add a cold-air intake so I can break that 400HP mark. It's rated at 390 stock.

Thanks to all for the comments on the Dart. The work seems to come in bursts now as we find time and parts.
 
I was going through the Wrench-A-Part yard this past weekend looking for parts for my 1972 D100 I am playing with when I found this 79 pickup with a Tuff-Wheel inside. I used my steering wheel puller and took it right out so we can clean it up and put it into my sons Dart. I believe it will clean up pretty nicely.

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Damn, I could use the whole truck for my next projuect, fixing up the 75 Power Wagon I have.
I need a horn assemble like that for my Swinger.
 
Went to a local car show today after one of my sons baseball games, (which they won 13-5 and he was the closing pitcher). Once we got home from the car show we uncovered both the Swinger and the D100 and wiped them down and I shot these pics. This is his last weekend of travel baseball, so maybe we'll be able to dedicate more time to these projects soon.
 

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Well it has certainly been a while since my son and I got to do any work on the 74 Dart. Other than keeping it clean over the summer, it has basically sat since May. Whats worse is that the 73 Dart 4-door we are useing as a donar car has sat and not been started since about 10 months ago. Yes, I know thats wrong but our schedules have been so hectic with the Army and both boys sports year round. Well anyways, today I went to the storage unit where the 4-door is kept and threw a battery in it and fired the car up. It took less than 30 seconds of cranking and the car fired up and dropped into a smooth idle. I opened the car all up to air it out good as well.
You can see another donar cars dash pad in the trunk, still attached to the metal dash. We plan to gut all the dash from the 4-door and now, probably the motor as well because it really does run quite a bit better than the Swingers original motor. Just wish I had a good size out-building to do all the work in!
 

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Arctic Blast hit us around 3am this morning. Yesterday was 70 degrees out and right now its 25 with wind gusts of 30+ mph! Wind blew the Darts cover off and then the rain got it wet. The cold froze it into the heap you see in the doorway of the house. Next 4 nights are supossed to be 15, 13, 18, 23 degrees. So it will be a while before the cover thaws enough to place it back on the car. It's not supossed to be like this in Central Texas! I grew up in Ohio, THATS where this weather should be!
 

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Come on now - find that silver lining - "it's perfect parking lot doughnut weather" - Eyyhawww
 
For whatever reason(s) , I just started following this thread , and am impressed by its contents ! :usa2: .

While I admit that I haven't trolled through all 17 pages , I did check out the highlights . With this in mind , I'm going to mention some items which may or may not have been addressed ; nothing bad :iconbigg: .

The horrid "Emergency Start Button" . This was a 1974-only deal ; it failed in spades . Your tax dollars at work !

Probably the single-worst after-effect of that damned thing was finding a replacement positive battery cable ! They were obsolete ; and to make matters worse , the parts stores' replacements were shitty at best ( wrong colour coating ... blue ? wtf are they thinking ??? ) .
Not certain if they're available now-a-days ... Prest-O-Lite is o.e.m. , even to this day . Perhaps a 1973 & earlier cable can be substituted ...


In regard to that delicious Ballast Resistor : Even if one keeps replacing them , if the connectors are loose / corroded / weak , it does no good to keep replacing them .

Under no circumstances should that irritating ceramic bastard get wet , as it'll pop or crack and leave you stranded .


After all that being said , I definitely have some positive things to say :flower: .

It really warms my heart seeing a father & son project . You two are doing a spectacular job with this beast !
It's looking really great !!

Makes me wish that I had someone around to help feed my hunger-for-knowledge of mechanical things . Everything I've learned I've had to learn on my own . In 41 years , I can honestly say that I don't know **** :iconbigg: . It's still a learning game for me ; and being a MoPar head only made it -worse- for me as I grew up around other makes.

But , I divulge ...

Keep up the GREAT work , guys :thumleft:

 
For whatever reason(s) , I just started following this thread , and am impressed by its contents ! :usa2: .

While I admit that I haven't trolled through all 17 pages , I did check out the highlights . With this in mind , I'm going to mention some items which may or may not have been addressed ; nothing bad :iconbigg: .

The horrid "Emergency Start Button" . This was a 1974-only deal ; it failed in spades . Your tax dollars at work !

Probably the single-worst after-effect of that damned thing was finding a replacement positive battery cable ! They were obsolete ; and to make matters worse , the parts stores' replacements were shitty at best ( wrong colour coating ... blue ? wtf are they thinking ??? ) .
Not certain if they're available now-a-days ... Prest-O-Lite is o.e.m. , even to this day . Perhaps a 1973 & earlier cable can be substituted ...


In regard to that delicious Ballast Resistor : Even if one keeps replacing them , if the connectors are loose / corroded / weak , it does no good to keep replacing them .

Under no circumstances should that irritating ceramic bastard get wet , as it'll pop or crack and leave you stranded .


After all that being said , I definitely have some positive things to say :flower: .

It really warms my heart seeing a father & son project . You two are doing a spectacular job with this beast !
It's looking really great !!

Makes me wish that I had someone around to help feed my hunger-for-knowledge of mechanical things . Everything I've learned I've had to learn on my own . In 41 years , I can honestly say that I don't know **** :iconbigg: . It's still a learning game for me ; and being a MoPar head only made it -worse- for me as I grew up around other makes.

But , I divulge ...

Keep up the GREAT work , guys :thumleft:

Thanks for the great comments and encouraging words. Our biggest drawback to getting much done on this car right now is space, we have none! We will be moving by June and are currently looking for a house in the country with some land and outbuildings. THEN, we can start our engine swap from the donor 73, 4-door we have. By June of 2013 I will be retired from the Army and will hopefully have more time to work on the Dart and my 83 Ram Charger, 2wd with a 440/727 in it.
 
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