Henry's 70 Dart Swinger

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buying way too many interior parts....its hard to stop cause once you buy one new part or repaint a panel....you start to see how bad the rest of it is and then you just buy more LOL. some of it I did just repaint, like the A-pilar moldings and arm rest backings....rear window molding....etc. Over-restored glossy epoxy paint, but meh i like it.

headliner is half way in. the hardest part is the sail panel sections. its actually going really well with very minimal wrinkles. i'll post up some pics soon of that.

my two post lift is here as well. lots of fun :)
 
Sorry to read about your dad's health issues, I hope you are able to find some time together as a father, son, grandfather and make a few good memories with the Dart. I think your plans are excellent and look forward to the progress.
:thumbsup:
BTW, 1970 is the BEST year for styling in a Dart. At least IMHO.
 
missing linc said:
Sorry to read about your dad's health issues, I hope you are able to find some time together as a father, son, grandfather and make a few good memories with the Dart. I think your plans are excellent and look forward to the progress.
:thumbsup:
BTW, 1970 is the BEST year for styling in a Dart. At least IMHO.
Click to expand...
Agree
 
thanks everyone!

excuse my lack of capital 'i'....i'm lazy.

i think 70 is nice as well, but i also like 64, 67, 68, 69. If i had to buy my own dart instead of inheriting it, i would pick a 64. i actually had a 64 4door slant six and a 69 2 door slant six. both long gone, but i kept all the good bits in storage (lenses, grilles, etc)

anyways. here is some progress, but it was stalled because i got Covid and i'm just now feeling better. Don't want my dad around while i have Covid.

I got the headliner in, its not perfect, but the labor was free. i had some issue with the curve of the sail panel to the top of the side window area. kinda had to fold the liner on itself like wrapping a package....you can barely see.....and its so black in there it'll be hard to see it. the wrinkles i'm sure will go away over time. i didn't have to glue anything in except the bottom of the sail panels. the rest was held by the teeth or the very clever and cheap way i came up of holding the sides after i had already bought more clips online that are correct. you can get a whole 64 pack bag of those binder clips at office depot for like 6 bucks. just take off the little binder wings when your done and boom. the hardest part was getting the damn side window trim back on! as you can see in the pic, the old headliner was the original, along with "most" of the interior....which is a shame its finally giving up the ghost and needing to be replaced.

i did get new interior items in the mail, disappointed that they are all Chinese repop garbage, but what do you do. Almost hate to put them in the car. But, at least one can get new parts....unlike my Packards.

Ordered the new classic dash setup with Phantom mechanical gauges as well. Hate to cut up my brand new yearone harness i put in when i first started this blog, but i'd also like to see accurate gauges and the rallye panel is pretty hacked up. as you can see in the pics...the heater controls were hacked to make room for the a/c controls and the radio was hacked out so i put in my own gauges as a temp fix. its a mess.

I also ordered the TorqStorm supercharger. i know.....carriage before the horse considering i haven't dropped the motor or looked inside....but i'm content on putting the SC on there no matter what i have to do and the price went up on their website....so i ordered.

found a couple of metal tags on the backs of the seats, no idea what those are....trim code stuff i guess?? idk. the broadcast sheet is already in safe keeping.

not sure if anyone remembers or is still around that was part of this club...but the car still sports its North Loop Dodge Performance Team decal in the front window from the 90s.

The lift is in limbo while i heal.

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quick question though. are the lock retainers really supposed to be clear plastic? i ordered new ones and thats what just about every website said was supposed to be there. right now i have metal ones and they are loosey goosey....always have been. they don't fit the holes right....but i wasn't expecting clear plastic to be the original thing that Chrysler put in there.

I also ordered new correct 70 front panels to replace the 72 panels that were in there for whatever reason. new dash pad...old one is "okay"...has one crack, but its just time to replace it. lots and lots of crap from legendary coming when a pig flys because they said 238 days for completion....i'm hoping that was a joke.
 
the lift is in and working well enough for a chinese job....not so sure about that 11k rating though.

started to take the bits and pieces off to drop the k member and motor all as one unit. the car is strapped to the front arms to make sure it wont lean back when the weight is gone from the front.

here is a pic of the firewall hack job. After removing the A/C plenum.....i realize i'm going to need new carpet now as well for obvious reasons. firewall pad for heater delete and new carpet is on order. i will make the passenger side fresh air vent from the a/c plenum just by cutting it down.

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well ****.....sorry for the language....but the motor is 40 over already....most strokers come in 30 over and while yes i can get 60 over....that would make this pretty risky with the supercharger and the increased stroke. Talking with my Machinist and we both don't think its worth even sonic testing the block......and sleeving the block is too expensive vs finding a new block from a 360. Its a 73 block It also had a set of J heads on it. And while walking out just not to get the date code off it...i noticed 2 cylinders are already sleeved. so its not going to work for my purpose.

i'll post more later...
 
what do you guys think about PIE engines? after all is said and done i'd probably spend that much building it myself. 8k or so
 
here are some pics of the teardown. J heads and 73 block...even has some blue left on it in places. pistons 40 over....no clue what brand...didn't look to close.

I'm going to talk with PIE today and see what they can do for me and just use this old motor to teach my kid how to put one back together. A good learning tool. Some of these parts off the old motor might be for sale soon....idk yet..... i mean the motor ran fine....the cam was just worn out.....so maybe someone can make something of this. or maybe i'll keep it and get a slant 6 car for my kid and we can swap over all these old parts from the dart to it. idk...lots of options. I didn't keep track of any locations of the parts cause i figured i was rebuilding it anyways....so if i sell it or reuse it...it'll need new bits and pieces here and there...bearings...lifters...cam blah blah.

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going with the PIE Race Eliminator LA 408 motor. 600hp.
 
well since the motor isn't getting built by us and all the performance parts are just waiting to arrive. we spent the weekend trying our best to clean the engine bay. My son did a great job considering its not been cleaned in YEARS!

keen eyes will notice the inner fenders are not original and....honestly.....repaired in a real hack job of a way. When the guy ran my dad off the road on the highway in 1990, we hit a concrete wall head on. really smashed the front end up good. Insurance wanted to total the car and my dad fought hard to save it. they took the front clip off another dart....but man the repair shop wasn't the best i'd say. Also they lost the original inner fender tag that came on this car....so the inner tag is off of the donor car. i need to get a new one made as the door VIN and dash VIN will prove that this is a 340 car. I have the build sheet as well.

anyways.....once the grease and dirt was off......the very bottom of the inner fenders were not painted orange because they repaired it while the motor was still in the car. so it was still the metalic bronze/gold or whatever color from the other dart the donor parts came from. well....since nobody sees that part i just got some orange spray paint from Lowes and damn if you can barely even tell the difference in the color. i guess i never knew how they fixed the inner fenders, but after looking at the repair job....i have no issues doing what i'm doing to this 70 340 swinger. Overall though....it is what it is and it functions and all the outside body panels line up. I think what we are doing is gonna be the best life for this dart and it'll be one bad mfer. I also plan to try to get the headers to just exit the side of the front fenders behind the wheels.....so now i don't feel bad for putting holes in the inner fenders.

I almost just painted the engine bay black....but quickly slapped myself back to sanity over that and left it orange.

We also made a couple of cover plates for the holes in the firewall. taught my son how to make a cardboard template and he cut it out. The we transferred the template over to the metal plate and he cut it out for me. turned out pretty good i'd say.

I put the gauges in the dash to dry fit it.....well the speedo is like 1" away from the steering column upper support brace. so....i'll have to cut a notch in it to get direct line to it for the cable. Also since this gauge panel is made for both dart and barracuda....it has the upper left hole for the barracuda, not sure what for, but i just plugged if off for possible future use. you know....neon lights and low rider hydros....maybe laser beams or the turbo button. LOL One of the things i hate about the TUFF wheel is that it just blocks gauges from view when driving and you have to move your head around. cool optional wheel...but pita.

Then my kiddo pulled out the carpet and we scrapped the bottom to get it ready to clear rust and fill any holes and then paint.....going to use herculiner to seal it all up and that will stop water 100% if it ever gets in again.

My kiddo now wants a 69 dart for his first car. we will let the simmer a bit and the magic wear off to see if he sticks with that idea. lol. but I might be in the market for a rust free 69 (or other years) dart/duster/valiant etc....under 5k

btw.....Icky Twerp Lives!

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you guys (esp purists) may not like this....but I just couldn't stare at that dirty firewall and engine bay anymore and no amount of cleaning and scrubbing was helping. I didn't want to worry about color matching....so yeah....this happened. primed it first and then put on Herculiner. Herculiner is some seriously sticky stuff and it wont peal or scratch easy. I also plan to do the entire undercarriage of the car the same way.

I think part of why i didn't like the pics of black engine bays was because most people were painting black under the firewall seam and not the whole top edge all the way around. this looks sooooooo much better to me.

I'm also planning on a front chin spoiler in black. valance in orange.

i also blacked out the grille. loving it!

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what...you guys don't like herculiner LOL. meh....

the bottom of the car has been cleaned up too and I put my kiddo to work spraying rust reformer as a primer for the herculiner that will go on next.

you can see a huge difference from before.

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anyone notice what i did to the grille to give it some more dimension? it was by accident btw...but it looks amazing in person and really gives the front grille more then one dimension.

i also bought LED bulbs for the euro autopal headlights. you can see they are much brigher now then the halogen, but there is a small dead spot at the bottom vs the halogen. I like the euro beam reflectors better....you can tell they are euro by the little flip up on the right for the beam. this allows you to see road signs better and not blind the oncoming traffic. i runs these LED lights in my truck and its a HUGE difference in person. they fit perfectly in the Dart buckets without hitting the back plate. here is the item i bought.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077B3SNJR/?tag=fabo03-20

answer on grille....the side headlight pieces are satin...the center is cleared to give more shine....makes the center grille stand out more and makes the sides look like the light is bending with the angle they take. also lines up the hood bulges with the seams in the grille. we will see how it looks in the daylight...but so far i'm digging it. something different.

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herculiner on the bottom of the car. Kiddo learned how to spray it on. First time i've sprayed it as well....worked REALLY good for getting into all the seams and hard to reach areas. Gonna have to drop the rear end and do some repairs to the very back of the frame rails....someone had a trailer hitch on this car at one point and it did a number on it. nothing major....just not pretty. I'd also like to try to fit larger tires in the rear....i have 15/7 right now....but would like 15x10 with 295 rubber. So was thinking of relocating the spring, but i'm still not sure that even after doing that that a 15x10 295 would fit. it rubs the outer fender well on the drivers side already and i'm assuming that when they say a 15x10 has 5.5" backspacing...that the other 1.5 inch from a 15x7 is in the front. = not gonna fit.



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Finished up filling in the holes on the firewall and herculinering over them. hell....can't hardly even tell i did anything. i'm sure most of you aren't digging the herculiner....but i like it.

also decided to go with 15x10 with custom backspacing so I wont have to cut the axle down and it will fit in the wheel well opening. basically move the tub in, move the spring in, and move the backspacing in....problem solved with little effort.

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not sure yet, but i thought about coating it with a spar urethane clear., like for a boat. its made to flex and not crack or peal and will UV treat the Herc. and will make it easier to clean. I thought about 2K, but that wont flex with the Herc and will crack.

also my cars hardly get dirty like that...what you saw in the before picture was over 20 years of neglect from before me.
 
Holy Shhhhhh........tttt its been well over a year since I posted....SOOOOOOOOO much has been happening. Dad is still around.... can't really walk now.... he can lean on things and sit...that's about it now. but he did get to hear the new motor run....and we had a good hug and cry. every day is a blessing. Here is a video of it running. still working things out...it's still not finished...interior is still in bits. the belt is slipping is the squeeking noise. I'll post a dump of pics soon. engine is 592/577

 
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