MCMLXXI
Active Member
Just a quick note to say 'Hi' to everyone and give a bit of background...
I have owned a 1971 Dart Swinger Special (318, 727, 8-3/4 rear-end) for nearly 15 years now. Back in the day, my parents bought this one-owner car for my sister. Luckily for me she hated it. My dad decided to take it back as she didn't want anything to do with it and he wanted to fix it up. Eventually, he realized he didn't have the time or the money to do anything worthwhile and asked if I wanted it...boy did I jump all over that idea!
When I got her, she had some issues (mainly from neglect of my sister) such as a bad ps gearbox (the pump had been run dry for lord knows how long), horrible idle, hesitation on acceleration, surging when trying to hold cruising RPM (at any speed), slipping tranny, driver's side door latch pin was barely hanging on by 1/4" or so of weld, among other smaller things.
I intended for her to be my daily driver so, during the first couple of years (as I could afford it), I rebuilt the engine and transmission, replaced the carb, had the intake manifold cleaned out (it's amazing how well the choke works when the channels in the manifold aren't full of carbon), replaced the ps gearbox and pump, and upgraded to Mopar Performance electronic ignition. By the time I had finished this all up, it was time for me to go to college. The Swinger remained my daily driver for my first couple years in school, when I finally decided to get something that a starving college kid could afford to buy gas for. With hopes of continuing my upgrades, she was parked in the garage.
After graduating and getting a job, I decided to start planning out my next steps on the car. Then came my dear son, Presten. The Swinger would have to wait a bit longer...on one hand, I was the happiest dad in the world, but on another, I was sad to open the garage every day just to see her sitting there, waiting for my attention.
Fast forward to today. I feel like free time has grown to the point where I can actually get something accomplished with the Swinger. So over the past few months I have really focused on trying to line up and plan out what I want to do with her. Early on, I was all about going with a complete restoration, but am now leaning to a 'resto-mod'. I want to keep the power plant and drive train pretty much as they are (save for a good freshening up - new paint, gaskets, accessories, etc.), replace the torsion bar front-end with a coil-over conversion, add disks all around, drop the ride height a bit, add some unique body styling like a chin spoiler, and modernize the car a bit.
I hope to find lots of ideas and assistance here, and keep everone posted on the progress. Thanks to everyone in advance. Keep the rubber side down, and the headlights pointing forward!
I have owned a 1971 Dart Swinger Special (318, 727, 8-3/4 rear-end) for nearly 15 years now. Back in the day, my parents bought this one-owner car for my sister. Luckily for me she hated it. My dad decided to take it back as she didn't want anything to do with it and he wanted to fix it up. Eventually, he realized he didn't have the time or the money to do anything worthwhile and asked if I wanted it...boy did I jump all over that idea!
When I got her, she had some issues (mainly from neglect of my sister) such as a bad ps gearbox (the pump had been run dry for lord knows how long), horrible idle, hesitation on acceleration, surging when trying to hold cruising RPM (at any speed), slipping tranny, driver's side door latch pin was barely hanging on by 1/4" or so of weld, among other smaller things.
I intended for her to be my daily driver so, during the first couple of years (as I could afford it), I rebuilt the engine and transmission, replaced the carb, had the intake manifold cleaned out (it's amazing how well the choke works when the channels in the manifold aren't full of carbon), replaced the ps gearbox and pump, and upgraded to Mopar Performance electronic ignition. By the time I had finished this all up, it was time for me to go to college. The Swinger remained my daily driver for my first couple years in school, when I finally decided to get something that a starving college kid could afford to buy gas for. With hopes of continuing my upgrades, she was parked in the garage.
After graduating and getting a job, I decided to start planning out my next steps on the car. Then came my dear son, Presten. The Swinger would have to wait a bit longer...on one hand, I was the happiest dad in the world, but on another, I was sad to open the garage every day just to see her sitting there, waiting for my attention.
Fast forward to today. I feel like free time has grown to the point where I can actually get something accomplished with the Swinger. So over the past few months I have really focused on trying to line up and plan out what I want to do with her. Early on, I was all about going with a complete restoration, but am now leaning to a 'resto-mod'. I want to keep the power plant and drive train pretty much as they are (save for a good freshening up - new paint, gaskets, accessories, etc.), replace the torsion bar front-end with a coil-over conversion, add disks all around, drop the ride height a bit, add some unique body styling like a chin spoiler, and modernize the car a bit.
I hope to find lots of ideas and assistance here, and keep everone posted on the progress. Thanks to everyone in advance. Keep the rubber side down, and the headlights pointing forward!
