Arizona Swinger

[bmaudlin]

and one more, sanded. Ben

 

[bmaudlin]

WELL.......it looks like I have lost all of the pictures posted for the last month! I understand this kind of thing happens--no one's fault--but it's still aggravating!! Will upload some of the lost pictures again, so you can see the progress so far. Ben

 

[bmaudlin]

some more......

 

[bmaudlin]

y mas......

 

[bmaudlin]

Hole repair on the left side quarter panel, and the beginning of the left side door striker repair, which seems to be a very common problem on the Dart! Ben.

 

[bmaudlin]

drivers side striker plate repair--cont. The loose parts sitting on top of the quarter in one shot are the striker bolt nut plate and its' retainer that is spot welded to the back side of the jamb. We decided to install a double plate in this area--one is the outside exposed plate, the other a larger plate to help reinforce this area, is located on the inside of the quarter panel. The striker bolt nut plate and retainer are spotted to it. Hopefully no more cracks will appear in this area! Ben.

 

[bmaudlin]

The right side door striker plate was not all 'goober welded' like the left side, but still shows signs of metal fatigue. We decided to double plate it also. Also was able to finally fill the rest of the body side molding holes! Ben

 

[bmaudlin]

Not much to report this week--still picking up parts, and a trip to the chrome shop with the front and rear bumpers.

Here are some pictures of another project we're working on. Not a MOPAR, but still one of my favorites; a 1956 Chevy Bel Air 2 door hardtop. We took the complete LT1 drive train with front and rear suspension crossmembers from a 1992 Corvette and incorporated them into the original '56 frame. Plans are for 20" Foose wheels front and rear, Dakota digital gauges, buckets, console, AC and NASCAR style side exhaust dumping out the right side rocker!
Lamborghini (?), orange and pearl white two tone, with full chrome. Ben

 

[bmaudlin]

Things have been somewhat quiet this last month! We spent quite a lot of time working on the '56 Chevy. It looks like it's going to be October of next year for the 70 Swinger! Had the 3.55 Sure grip checked out--new bearings, seals, etc.--picked up some misc. parts, and got some more work done on the battery tray area, core support, and took care of some misc. dings and dents.

Also one shot of the '56 Chevy Bel Air firewall with the Lamborghini 'orange mica' paint. Thinking of painting the Swinger this color!

 

[67GTConvert]

I like that orange a lot...that 56 is going to look awesome.

I think it would look great on the Swinger as well,I'd definitely choose that over the yellow.

 

[bmaudlin]

Back on the Swinger for a few days. Starting to do some rough filler work, starting on the left side. Also received an early Christmas present, although ordered from AAR on August 30th, and supposedly 4-6 weeks for delivery--ended up being 12 weeks! But at least it is here, and a very nice quality product. Ben.

 

[bmaudlin]

Six pak hood installed for fit. Picture of our solution for the proper spring tension for the fiberglass hood. Simple extender that lowered the tension considerably. Will need some further refinement to keep it in place, but should work. Ben.

 

[bmaudlin]

A little more progress on the left side of the car. Transmission sent out for rebuilding, picking up some more misc. parts, emblems, etc., and STILL waiting for the machine shop to figure out what to do with the 340! I'm not really in a hurry, but you would think 4 months would be enough time to figure out what needs to be done! Ben.

 

[HemiPar]

Car is looking great. Wish I had time, money and the skill to do mine this way.

 

[bmaudlin]

Car is looking great. Wish I had time, money and the skill to do mine this way.

Thanks! Time to work on the car is spotty--a few hours here and there--since we seem to have a lot of other work to do. Hopefully doing this will help keep the cost down. As far as the skill; it helps to have several guys around who have had to, out of necessity and a lack of money, make most of their own specialty tools and come up with inventive ways to approach problems that always seem to pop up when doing a restoration! The fiberglass hood spring tension problem is a case in point. I was ready to ship the springs off to have them modified, but one of my guys asked for some time to come up with a solution. The spring extenders was what he came up with. Saved me 50.00 dollars! Ben.

 

[jefflock]

Your car is coming along great. You and your helper's make it look so easy. That orange color is awesome. I really love the tri5's also. I mostly watched and helped my buddy build a 57 Belair 2dr straight axle gasser last year. The car has a tilt front end using all stock parts.

 

[bmaudlin]

Hectic holidays!! Some rough in work done on the Dart, hopefully will be in primer in the next week, ready for a lot of block sanding. Picked up some more parts--working on the column and transmission. Ben.

 

[HemiPar]

Doing great work. Can't wait to see next set of pics.
Oh and thanks for the striker fix. I need to do that some time soon.

 

[bmaudlin]

WELL...........after a 4 month hiatus to figure out how to manage living on my own for the first time in 60 years, and learning to stomach my own cooking, it's back to working on the Dart! Some pictures of the current state of affairs, with the left quarter panel pretty much needing only minor blocking to produce some crisp clean body lines. One pic of a placard with the narrowed down color choices--leaning towards the jade green metallic color which is a late model Genesis coupe color--lots of gold metallic! Also the completed adapters for lessening the tension on the hood springs for usage with a fiberglass hood. Ben.

 

[bmaudlin]

How time changes the direction a project is going. Decided to try and fix the damage on the front of the OEM scooped hood with the factory cutout holes. It took a little doing, but is going to look great when finished! So now, it looks like I've got a new AAR six pack hood on my hands, that I'm not going to use. (Or maybe I'll paint it at the same time, and switch hoods whenever the occasion arises!) Engine is actually going together and should be back by the end of this month--almost a year from the time I dropped it off! Picking up all of the pieces to install a factory 4 speed into the car; so now there will be an extra rebuilt 727 transmission that I'll have to store away. (Not quite as easy a swap from standard to auto., as changing the hood will be!) Have decided to go with the factory style green two-tone paint treatment, although I'll be using some newer paint colors, close to the original F4 and F8 colors, but with a lot more gold metallic in them. Ben.

 

[hemitheus]

youre doing some great work there my feloow zonie. keep it up

 

[bmaudlin]

Some more progress on the hood. Would have been easier to cut holes in another hood, but since this had the factory stampings, I felt a little extra time straightening it would be justified. Also a picture of the color choices, though the colors are hard to see in a picture, especially with the angle of the sunlight causing the shades to vary from what you see in person. The darker green color will be the top, while the lighter green color will be the rest of the car. Ben.

 

[bmaudlin]

Although I haven't had much of a progress report this past month, a lot of parts have been bought, traded for, and restored. Spent some time this past couple of weeks refurbishing the steering column. Since I decided to go to a 4 speed transmission, the column had to be changed from a column shift to a floor shift style. This is all the more difficult since the 70 steering column is a one year only column. I looked high and low for a reasonably priced column in decent shape, and in my search discovered that a 70's model Dodge truck used a similar set of upper shift collars as the 70 Swinger. I picked up a column from a 74 1 ton Dodge truck, disassembled it, stripped and painted the collars and installed them on my 70 Dart column which was previously set up for column shift. Included are a few pictures of the column and the steering wheel/hub assembly going to be used on the car. I also finally chose the finish color for the car. After all of my searching I decided to go with the original F4 and F8 factory colors. The column is painted the lighter F4 base coat with some hardener in it, but no clear, so that it has a satin finish, which should contrast nicely with the dash F8 color. Hoping to have some color on the car this fall! Ben.

 

[bmaudlin]

Sent the rally gauge cluster out to Redline Gauges for some updates on the tach and the instrument cluster voltage regulator, as well as restoration on the gauges and housing. They did a beautiful job on the cluster and the printed circuit boards. Also picked up a rally dash bezel to replace the rather well worn and cut up original pieces. Ben.

 

[383Duster]

Nice work all around......should look great when you are done.