Swinger front end on duster

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Sam_318

Sam_318

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Morning fellas ! Just wanting you guys opinion on a parts car I'm looking at. So after selling my 71 duster I somehow worked out a deal with another member on here, on doing some labor in exchange for a 72 duster. Pretty rough car but I feel like I got a pretty decent deal. The front windshield and passenger glass are both busted and was sitting for years so it has no floors. The hood and grill are in pretty bad shape been after a hood, was just going to spend the money on a shark tooth grill. Well I came across a 72 swinger same color as my duster, we kinda negotiated a little. Came too an agreement of $400 for the whole car after renting a trailer and gas closer to $500. Well I went to go look at it yesterday and it's pretty rough as well. Was looking to just put the whole front in on my duster being that it's the same color and kinda complete. The hood is rotted on the mounting point on passenger side. Missing fender extension I believe is the right name for it? On the driver side. Grill is busted which doesn't bother me much was gonna try and find a 71 grill anyways. Floors are solid front windshield is in great shape even though I can't use it might be able to get something for it, lower valance in pretty bad shape.



So my question is $500 worth a 72 swinger front end and Floors? Has anyone done rust repair on a hoods mounting section? I still have my duster hood and the mounting sections are solid, I was thinking cutting it out and getting someone to weld that section in.

Appreciate any feed back !

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You will have to use the ENTIRE front cap including the inner fender dust shields as everything is different. Make sure the Duster has the front valance mounting tabs on the core support, it should. I am pretty sure you can use the Duster hood to fix the Dart hood. The pair has the exact same patina!
 
HemiSSDart said:
You will have to use the ENTIRE front cap including the inner fender dust shields as everything is different. Make sure the Duster has the front valance mounting tabs on the core support, it should. I am pretty sure you can use the Duster hood to fix the Dart hood. The pair has the exact same patina!
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Inner fender dust shields? Are we talking about the whole inner section of the fender? Sorry this front end swap is new to me, thought everything just bolted up lol.

Yeah I love the patina look this color must be common in 72 , found a 4 door valiant same color but sold fast .
 
Sam_318 said:
Inner fender dust shields? Are we talking about the whole inner section of the fender? Sorry this front end swap is new to me, thought everything just bolted up lol.

Yeah I love the patina look this color must be common in 72 , found a 4 door valiant same color but sold fast .
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The bolt on shield that keeps grime from getting into the inner fender and door. The Duster and Dart shields are completely different.

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diymirage said:
So your basically building a demon ?

Coolio
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Well not really being that I do not plan on changing the taillight panel. I still haven't even bought the car was hoping to get more responses, still not sure if it's worth $500 being in rough shape it's in.
 
Those are some rough lookin cars. You got some work ahead of you.
 
The Duster is pretty solid besides the floors and taillight panel. Does have a couple of dents but I do not plan on painting this car going for the ratty look. So far all I have in the duster is about $500. It was a nice car had a 318 3 speed 8 3/4 rear. The guy I got it from just wanted me to pull all that out and the car was mine. Gave me a smaller rear to be able to roll around, also gave me a narrowed Dana 60 with moser axles. It has a 318 and 904 that he said came out of a 71 demon, I have a 1990 roller 360 short block I plan on building for it. Also have some nice brown seats for it.
 
I think your better bet would be to spend your $500 on a replacement floor than buy that Swinger front end and floors for $500.

I seriously doubt the floors on that swinger are going to be solid when you start cutting and welding.

As for the front end, I bought the complete, rust free ‘71 front end off a 4 door Dart for my ‘74 Duster for $500, with a very nice ‘71 grille included. That was close to 10 years ago though, so that’s also a factor.

That Swinger clip looks really rough to me for $500, but the fact that it matches your Duster and matches your build plan would make it more valuable to you than it might be to someone that was planning paint and bodywork.
 
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72bluNblu said:
I think your better bet would be to spend your $500 on a replacement floor than buy that Swinger front end and floors for $500.

I seriously doubt the floors on that swinger are going to be solid when you start cutting and welding.

As for the front end, I bought the complete, rust free ‘71 front end off a 4 door Dart for my ‘74 Duster for $500, with a very nice ‘71 grille included. That was close to 10 years ago though, so that’s also a factor.

That Swinger clip looks really rough to me for $500, but the fact that it matches your Duster might and matches your build plan would make it more valuable to you than it might be to someone that was planning paint and bodywork.
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Was waiting for your opinion being that you've done the swap. I think ima wait and if it's still available around October when I have extra cash might shoot him a lower offer. Was the swap simple? If I don't buy this car probably not gonna do the swap, unless I find another one matching my duster paint.
 
Sam_318 said:
Was waiting for your opinion being that you've done the swap. I think ima wait and if it's still available around October when I have extra cash might shoot him a lower offer. Was the swap simple? If I don't buy this car probably not gonna do the swap, unless I find another one matching my duster paint.
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The swap is pretty simple if you have all of the parts. Basically everything that unbolts ahead of the doors is what you need, so having a donor car makes life a lot easier. If you have everything, it’s just a matter of disassembling the old front clip and bolting on the new fenders, hood, hood latch panel, bumpers, grille, etc. The only really big complicating issue is if you’re going from a standard bumper car to a shock mount bumper car or vice versa, but you’re not doing that.

Obviously there is some fitting and adjusting that has to happen to get the gaps and things right, on most cars that’s not a big deal but there are some cars out there that will require more adjustment than others.

As far as the clip you’re looking at, like I said that’s tough. Its condition would lower the price a lot for me, or probably anyone planning on paint and bodywork. But for your build, it will be really difficult to match that patina. So, if you want to swap the front end, you probably want to make a deal on that particular clip because the odds of you finding another match like that are pretty low.
 
72bluNblu said:
The swap is pretty simple if you have all of the parts. Basically everything that unbolts ahead of the doors is what you need, so having a donor car makes life a lot easier. If you have everything, it’s just a matter of disassembling the old front clip and bolting on the new fenders, hood, hood latch panel, bumpers, grille, etc. The only really big complicating issue is if you’re going from a standard bumper car to a shock mount bumper car or vice versa, but you’re not doing that.

Obviously there is some fitting and adjusting that has to happen to get the gaps and things right, on most cars that’s not a big deal but there are some cars out there that will require more adjustment than others.

As far as the clip you’re looking at, like I said that’s tough. Its condition would lower the price a lot for me, or probably anyone planning on paint and bodywork. But for your build, it will be really difficult to match that patina. So, if you want to swap the front end, you probably want to make a deal on that particular clip because the odds of you finding another match like that are pretty low.
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Yeah my brother says it's not worth it, but I'm just thinking what are the odds of me finding another.
 
Sam_318 said:
Yeah my brother says it's not worth it, but I'm just thinking what are the odds of me finding another.
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Yeah I’d say pretty close to nil for finding such a good match.

So from that perspective, I’d say you’re not paying for the components of the front clip as much as you’re paying for the finish on the front clip. It’s like buying a front clip already painted to match your car, that would cost more than just the parts.
 
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72bluNblu said:
Yeah I’d say pretty close to nil for finding such a good match.

So from that perspective, I’d say you’re not paying for the components of the front clip as much as you’re paying for the finish on the front clip. It’s like buying a front clip already painted to match your car, that would cost more than just the parts.
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What size wheels are you running on your tribute car? Any idea if swapping to a dart front end gives you better wheel clearance? I have some 17 Boyd Coddington wheels on my 69 valiant, having some clearance issues in the front. If doing the swap gives better wheel clearance would also be a plus, then I'd be able to use them on the duster with dart front end.
 
Sam_318 said:
What size wheels are you running on your tribute car? Any idea if swapping to a dart front end gives you better wheel clearance? I have some 17 Boyd Coddington wheels on my 69 valiant, having some clearance issues in the front. If doing the swap gives better wheel clearance would also be a plus, then I'd be able to use them on the duster with dart front end.
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They're 18x9's +35 with 275/35/18's on the front and 18x10's +38 with 295/40/18's in the back. It also has Dr.Diff 13" brakes in the front which widen the track a bit, as well as a 68-70 B-body 8 3/4 in the back with 1/2" offset springs. Fenders are rolled and pushed, rear quarters have a "reverse tub" to get get rid of the bump in the outer wheelhouse and are also rolled and pushed.

The Dart front fenders don't do a ton for tire clearance, but it depends on the height of the tires. The Dart wheel opening is longer, so, the rear corner of the fender isn't an issue at all. And if you use '72 front fenders the lower front corner is actually a bit further toward the front as well. So there's a small improvement. But that being said, I was running the same wheels and tires up front when I had Duster fenders too.

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72bluNblu said:
They're 18x9's +35 with 275/35/18's on the front and 18x10's +38 with 295/40/18's in the back. It also has Dr.Diff 13" brakes in the front which widen the track a bit, as well as a 68-70 B-body 8 3/4 in the back with 1/2" offset springs. Fenders are rolled and pushed, rear quarters have a "reverse tub" to get get rid of the bump in the outer wheelhouse and are also rolled and pushed.

The Dart front fenders don't do a ton for tire clearance, but it depends on the height of the tires. The Dart wheel opening is longer, so, the rear corner of the fender isn't an issue at all. And if you use '72 front fenders the lower front corner is actually a bit further toward the front as well. So there's a small improvement. But that being said, I was running the same wheels and tires up front when I had Duster fenders too.

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The clearance issue isn't real bad, but it definitely looks like it's coming in contact with the lower front corner. So if there's a slight improvement in clearance with the Dart fenders I'd feel much better running those wheels on it. My goal was to find some steelies and dog dish for the valiant anyways.

I appreciate all this information your giving me! Kinda hard to find mopar people around me. No one ever knows what kind of vehicles are in my driveway quick to assume it's some Chevy or Ford. I feel like that's what draws me to love these a body mopars even more. For me it started with an 84 d100 I'd go to local shows and my goal was to see if I could find any older d100 or first gen rams. See a whole lot of c10s done in anyway you could think of and some f100.

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I had a hood with damaged and rusted mounts and it was a challenge fabbing and welding the pieces it needed. I got it done and it worked out good. You have the hood from the Duster you can use for the pieces you need if any, once you cut that then its of no use. I find the problem with projects like this using donor cars is that you have junk that is hard to dispose of. I used to think it had value and could be used or sold, but lately when I'm trying to dispose of leftover stuff it's really just junk. Also I find that when going for a ratty look, using miss matched cobbled together parts adds to theme.
 
Mojoe9955 said:
I had a hood with damaged and rusted mounts and it was a challenge fabbing and welding the pieces it needed. I got it done and it worked out good. You have the hood from the Duster you can use for the pieces you need if any, once you cut that then its of no use. I find the problem with projects like this using donor cars is that you have junk that is hard to dispose of. I used to think it had value and could be used or sold, but lately when I'm trying to dispose of leftover stuff it's really just junk. Also I find that when going for a ratty look, using miss matched cobbled together parts adds to theme.
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The Duster hood is pretty beat up solid but in my opinion not worth fixing. So cutting that hood up wouldn't bother me at all. Yeah that would be another issue is figuring out what to do with the rest of the car once I have taken what I want off it. Wouldn't be trying to make a buck off of it was thinking about maybe snagging the windshield, it's in really great shape. And from what I heard they do make certain windshields anymore.

Don't have a good picture of the duster hood but here's an idea of what damage it has to the front.

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One thing I like about the Dart front fenders are the enormous fender wells. My Duster will only safely fit 26" tires but the Dart will take 28" with room to spare. Demons were cool! Good luck with your project and show a follow up.
 
hawaiiandart said:
One thing I like about the Dart front fenders are the enormous fender wells. My Duster will only safely fit 26" tires but the Dart will take 28" with room to spare. Demons were cool! Good luck with your project and show a follow up.
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Thank you will do .
 
I always wanted to put a 70-71 dart front end on a 69 dart. Love the later grille and the early tail panel.
 
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