I bought this car the summer of 2011 and have been working on it since.Its a 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger 318,904 lock up converter neither numbers matching with an 8 3/4" suregrip rear,factory air,power steering manuel drum brakes.Original seats and carpet.I found a partial build sheet under the rear seat and a hard to read sheet under the carpet,not sure what it says as the ink is orange and it has rust stains on it.It was a vinyl top car that rusted out and the top was replaced by a shop but not completely finished.No windshield and the back glass was out.
MOPAR410's 70 swinger
- Thread starter mopar410
- Start date
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First was the pans that I didn't see all the rust when I looked at the car,the under side of the carpet looked like the under coating and was hard to see but I got the pans from rock auto.I wanted something that was solid and not flemsy but didnt cost a lot.They fit pretty good but they have a deeper belly then my car did so they set up a little at the door side (about a 1/4" at the biggest spots)but I got them down and welded up.
Im actaully pretty far along on the car I am just now doing a restore thread so some of my pics and progress may be out of sync.I am building this to be a driver not a show car so it won't be 100% "correct".Im trying to make it like I think is cool but still keep it as close as possible to original state.i have the carpet in and the dash and interior painted.
I wanted a good sound from the radio without extra speakers in the way so I replaced the single dash speaker with two 4" pioneer dual cone 200w max.the cones set up a little high so I used a few plastic cable retainers for satellite cables run inside the walls.They are rounded and was the right hieght.I didn't have any speak cover felt stuff(whatever it is) and I wanted something over the speakers in case some thing fell donw in them.So I had some screen door material laying around.I doubled and offset the stitching so it made a better "floor".I had to weld a couple pieces to bolt the speaker to.Turned out nice i think.
Thanks.It has a solid body.It had some work done to the lower left quarter.This is my first semi restore .So Im learning as I go
Both door slam plate(or what ever they are called) were repaired ever poorly,no adjustments.Its hard to see but the PO welded the plate behind the door face and filled in with filler so the washer was tighted down on filler not metal.This is what I found after removing all the filler.The second pic is after I fixed it.
Ok here is the engine waiting to go in.Its a 340 bored .040 over.I bought the engine after a guy got it back from a machine shop so it was ready to put back together.I bought kb243 with two valve reliefs,scat 650 hp rated I beams and the six pack I've had since the late 80's.I had the cast crank balanced with the rods,I balanced the pistons myself.Since a cast crank bought over the counter usually has the same part number for a 318 and 340 I assumed it was factory balanced for a 318,well it sure was as each piston rod combo wieghed 233 grams,which is right at 1/2 pound,lighter than the 318 stock setup I removed from the motor that was in the car.You should see the holes they drilled to get this balanced,sorry memory was full before I put the pan on.The breather and linkage still needs to be bought.
Evildart
Dart Member
Nice work. Is that a original T/A intake?
Thanks and yes its an original t/a setup carbs and all.I have to get the linkage and breather and hope the hood closes lol,it is going to be tight.
KramerSwinger70
70 Dart Swinger360
hey would you mind flying out to CA to fix my door strikers/slam plates? hahaha anyway great build so far, cant wait to see the finished product all buttoned up!
ha who has time for trips,this car is taking up all my free time.
I got some good hours in on the car yesterday and today.motor in and tied up underneath,man 4 hours connecting the motor to the tranny and bolting the starter and headers up,I miss my old 72 satellite plenty of room to get the bolts in.Anyway the carbs and valve covers are just sitting in place.I did the valve covers this way to see how I liked them and maybe powder coating them later.The plastic sheets were wrapped around the headers so nothing got scratched up.Working on getting the engine running so I can check all the dash stuff(heater control,gauges,heater core stuff like that) is working,then the windshield can go in after I know the dash won't have to come back out.
I got some good hours in on the car yesterday and today.motor in and tied up underneath,man 4 hours connecting the motor to the tranny and bolting the starter and headers up,I miss my old 72 satellite plenty of room to get the bolts in.Anyway the carbs and valve covers are just sitting in place.I did the valve covers this way to see how I liked them and maybe powder coating them later.The plastic sheets were wrapped around the headers so nothing got scratched up.Working on getting the engine running so I can check all the dash stuff(heater control,gauges,heater core stuff like that) is working,then the windshield can go in after I know the dash won't have to come back out.
Looks nice but if you dont want them to sound real tinny . mount them on something solid or fill the voids between the speakers and the mounting bracket.When the sound waves from the back of a speaker cone encounter the sound waves from the front they cancel each other out . That's why speakers sound stronger when they are mounted in an enclosure . Sorry I was an audio nerd growing up. But hey great build I like your dart !
Thanks for the advice I'll looking into it.
A little more work done.I fianlly got to put my seat covers on.I bought them from PG Classics.The rear seat was very tight but the front lower and both back rests were snug but not to tight that I couldn't easily install them.
Looking great!! wow I thought you took the head rest set out and had another one with out head rests, Glad you saved this great A Body .
Thanks,I left all the head rest internal parts intact so all I have to do is punch the holes in the cover and reinsert the headrests.My driver side has a crack in it but otherwise they are in good shape so I'm thinking about covering them in vinyl or getting another driver side but thats down the road and you can't see anything of the hardware under the cover so it may stay that way awhile.
Its been a long road as I've been working on it since last september and I'm learning as I go.I can see a glamse of light at the tunnels end,I drove it up the road yesterday,no glass front or back no hood or trunk lid and apparently not enuff gas lol.
Yesterday was a fairly productive day.I had the wndshield installed,which was the only thing so far that I didn't do myself besides balanceing the crank,and decided to tackle the rear glass.As I looked at the car to get a plan going I noticed the package tray area looked really bad and I was going to just let it slide till I bought one.So looking around the shop I seen some thick carboard and I had so spray glue and a piece of vinyl.I decided to make a temprary tray.After that I set in on the window.Those pointy corners are a major pain but I got it in.Here is a couple pics
Got the akward trans linkage worked out.Wasn't sure if the aftermarlet stuff was right for my 6 pack and 904 trans so I made my own with factory 318/904 parts.The first pic is just to show the section I removed fron the throttle bracket that had to come off to clear the intake tunnels.It's hard to see but I used the factory bracket for the trans kickdown and the factory 340 bracket for the throttle.Looks OK,not to noticeable and it was free,lol.Looking at the 440 throttle/kickdown bracket it may work as one piece but I didn't have one handy to try.
nitrojunkee
Well-Known Member
Great job on a sweet car!
bad440
everything,all the time..
your cars comimgout great! man i like that rear bumper and taillights .alot better then the four small ones.good work on the linkage...
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