1970 Dart Swinger - father and son project

We haven't posted too much here as our progress is painfully slow. We are making progress though and I have tried to include some pictures here to show. We are 95% complete with the floor repairs, just found one more whole in the back corner we need to fix. Otherwise I am happy with our results.

The front floor installed pretty easily since it has frame under it and we were able to attach directly the floor is sturdy. In the rear there is no frame and we did have good old oil can syndrome, which we cured by faking some reinforcing ribs. We made a "die" for these using channel iron and angle iron scraps and then held it against the floor pan with a floor jack. Then the old BFH takes care of the rest, good old body work - "Pound to Fit and Paint to Match". We also repaired the right rear quarter panel and I have included pictures here of the welded panel and the fabricated trunk extension as well before we attached the quarter panel patch. We have made all our patches from sheet metal purchased locally. Lots of fun with the kid getting into it more now that it is nice out and school is nearly out he says he expects to get lots done. I guess we will see on that.

I did get a chance to get to the Mopars in the park last weekend, missed the guys from the site here, but did drive my T/A down there with a fresh motor. Some minor issues related to the fact I did not really clean the carbs properly, but ran nice and seems plenty healthy, overall just a riot to drive! I actually got my wife to go with me and she had a ball looking at all the old cars. Shopped for our dart and got some needed items. Picked up a three speed for very little with a floor mounted shifter, our project car is a 3 on tree and we don't like, but the tranny did not have the shift mount. I was also able to find the end of the grille which we needed, a radiator which isn't correct but was really cheap and will work. Also got a set of locks and keys which I thought was a great find. Again, just sorry I did not see anyone from FABO, but maybe next time. Until then please enjoy my pictures, feel free to comment on what you like or don't, I have thick skin from living in a northern climate all my life, so have at it. I do understand some would frown on making your own panels etc, but remember the VIN on this car says "cheapest model made, feel free to modify" , or at least that is what we see. I will try to post a bit more often, hopefully we will make some more progress now that a big chunk of the dirty work is behind us.

Mark