1970 Dart Swinger - father and son project

If the son wants a driver I'd just add a 4 bbl to the slant,some headers,a cam etc. Keep it simple and fuel efficient,especially for a young'un. If more power is wanted I'd trade some of that V8 iron and get a turbo on that slanty! Gas is going no where but up,and for a young guy it will be a big factor on how much enjoyment he gets from the car and drives it.

Course ya gotta work with what ya have as well. Every man/woman has a budget..

I hear ya on $500 1/4 panels. Nice but no way can I afford that. I ended up buying an entire right side for a 70 Dart for $200 back before mopars were stupid rich guy priced. I also ended up with a scratch and dent sale aftermarket 1/4 panel for super cheap. There are bargains to be had but they are few and far between these days.

I've been patiently waiting to get my car done for better than 17 yrs now,buying parts here and there when a golden opportunity presented itself. I't should'nt take you that long though!

Anyways Im following along as you go. It's inspiring to see a Dad and his son working together! My son is 6,and it's freezing cold out right now so he has nop real interest in our Dart right now. Come spring I think his attitude will change,as he will start to see real progress.

Anyways,best of luck with the build!

I just love these budget builds.
Keep up with the pics and updates!

/6 Matt said:

Question, why put a V8 in there and make it nose heavy when there is a perfect slant under the hood to buile power off of?

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I have had that thought myself and is also why our primary goal is to do body work and get it on the street. I need a radiator, was looking at the $80 aluminum ones available on the net and wondering if they are any good. Hoping to get some feedback on that here. This beast has the 198 cu /6 rated for 125 HP, and I am uncertain how to go about these as it is my first. On the other hand a 318 or 340 is not that much heavier and pushes a lot more horses, I do understand that a big block in these boys makes them difficult to turn! Any of you out there developing 198 /6's for power? where did you start and where did you end up? I would love to hear from you as I have heard a few stories of /6's with serious HP, just not certain HOW.

needsaresto said:

If the son wants a driver I'd just add a 4 bbl to the slant,some headers,a cam etc. Keep it simple and fuel efficient,especially for a young'un. If more power is wanted I'd trade some of that V8 iron and get a turbo on that slanty! Gas is going no where but up,and for a young guy it will be a big factor on how much enjoyment he gets from the car and drives it.

Course ya gotta work with what ya have as well. Every man/woman has a budget..

I hear ya on $500 1/4 panels. Nice but no way can I afford that. I ended up buying an entire right side for a 70 Dart for $200 back before mopars were stupid rich guy priced. I also ended up with a scratch and dent sale aftermarket 1/4 panel for super cheap. There are bargains to be had but they are few and far between these days.

I've been patiently waiting to get my car done for better than 17 yrs now,buying parts here and there when a golden opportunity presented itself. I't should'nt take you that long though!

Anyways Im following along as you go. It's inspiring to see a Dad and his son working together! My son is 6,and it's freezing cold out right now so he has nop real interest in our Dart right now. Come spring I think his attitude will change,as he will start to see real progress.

Anyways,best of luck with the build!

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I would note that my T/A challenger has a 340 which produces 400 HP at 6200 RPM on pump gas, 9.25 :1 compression and gets 16 mpg IF i keep my foot out of it! I would also note that this has only happened once as an experiment as I just can't seem to keep my foot out of it??

Been a while since I posted anything on our progress here, we have made a little and will post some pictures of our fabricated floor pans here soon. I scored big time for our dart project with an old army buddy of mine. He is a mopar head of course and sent my son a 72? grille in beautiful shape to fix this cars smile. well he just happened to have it around and got a kick out of the father son project idea also, so donated the grille for the cost of the ride. Thanks Rick, you are the man. Now anyone out there have a piece for the left side? The grille that was on this car when we got it is identical but in many smaller pieces , but it does have a good right side piece around the headlight, so I have two of the right side and need a left side? Any of you FABO guys or gals out there work with me to help each other out? I am in the minnesota twin cities general area.

Now i see what you said you needed Mark

You also see what my army buddy did for me, pretty cool - go armed forces, taking care of us better than we deserve as always!

Any progress ?

It has been a while since I posted here, but the project has been slowly moving forward. We have been working slowly through the cold winter, no heat in garage, hard to be too excited when it is so cold. Spring has sprung and we are now seeing progress. We have cut out all four areas in the floor pan where you r feet go and fabricated new pans from sheet metal stock. Pans are fastened in place with screws and with a welder secured from a friend we are starting to assemble sheet metal. We ended up cutting the drivers side rocker panel off due to mouse nest inside. The we ended up replacing some interior structure in preparation for the install of our newly fabricated rocker panel. I don't have pictures available to me from here, but have taken them and will post later this week. I have had many side discussions and much support from all here and I would offer my thanks to all.

We have had some distractions but now with the warmer weather we have made some progress. WE ended up cutting all four pans where the passengers feet go, they did not look that bad until we started to try and clean them up and .... so the story goes. Anyway we have now fabricated new floor pans and are staring to weld them in place. My real good friend lent me his snap on welder, never did any serious wire feed before, but with the nice equipment it isn't that much different than brazing which I have done tons of. With a bit of practice we are gaining skills and have also repaired some under-structure behind the lower front quarter on the drivers side. The same side rocker panel was rotten and so was the sheet-metal backing. We trimmed the backing to clean metal and pieced in new metal, then we fabricated a new rocker panel skin, the top section under the sill plate is solid and was left in place. I have some pictures I am attaching here of the rocker and under structure as well as the inside in various stages, up to ready to weld. I would note that I like to screw everything in place before I weld it, generally make certain it fits as needed before committing and the pictures you see here do show some screws, once we weld the piece in place we take the screws out and weld the wholes. I actually have welded the right rear and left front pans in place, but haven't taken pictures yet. Hard at this point to sit here and write this post rather than playing. I will get some pictures of the pieces welded and the crude tooling we fabricated to pound ridges into the rear floor pans and post them here soon. The last picture is the young lad who hopes to drive this someday soon. He is learning to weld with me and we are both having a ball. Thanks to all of you for the support we have received.

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

Liking this build so far-good score for $250, and plenty of skill to back it up. Enjoy the build and keep the pictures coming! It's keeping people like me motivated.

Nice project, be sure to treat something in the crack of the quarter and wheel well all the way to the rocker, and the bottom 4" of the the door pillar. Rust loves to live here.

PoisonDart74 said:

Nice project, be sure to treat something in the crack of the quarter and wheel well all the way to the rocker, and the bottom 4" of the the door pillar. Rust loves to live here.

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Not quite certain I understand your comment, but sounds like I need to. Could you clarify? Do you mean the seem between the quarter panel and inner fender?

Haven't posted here for a while, job hunting and serious restriction of resources is one reason. Other reason is since we pulled this car out of the woods it did not include a title. We have been a little hesitant to get too heavily invested without understanding what the final status of that would be. Well - we received a clear title from the state in the mail yesterday! truly great news from our perspective so no have a major hurdle cleared. We have made some progress and will try to post some pictures soon, hope to secure employment soon as well so we have some funds, but will work with what we have on hand until that happens. My son is pushing real hard to install a 413 I have had sitting in the barn for years, we checked and it still turns freely, so likely will go that route, what the heck as it doesn't feel like a hot rod with a /6 - sorry /6 fans. I will be reviewing postings here on what to beef up chassis wise so we do not make it into a pretzel, but I have scanned what seemed like some pretty good materials here previously on sub frame ties etc. Thanks for all the support.

marksmopars said:

Could you clarify? ?Do you mean the seem between the quarter panel and inner fender.

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Sure, easiest way to describe it is the bottom 4" inches of the whole side of your ride, congrats on the clean title!

I have started doing something other than weld patches, hoping a guy here will get me a drivers door and hoping the job interview I had yesterday leads to work so I can buy a drivers side quarter skin. Both of these are just needing replaced. Anyway, getting to the hood and have found that all the spots where the frame is stuck to the skin are loose. Have any of you run into this and if yes, how did you go about trying to correct? I notices a lot of "oil can" type action when sanding the paint off so I flipped it over and found this to be the reason. Any advice from someone who has been there would be greatly appreciated.rayer:

We have been making some progress on our dart project, also have found a new job so while it has been nice to have time to play, can't play too much without money and we are at the point where we need some parts. We have stripped and primed the trunk and hood. had issues with the hood where it mounts to the hinges. Rust has been cut out and replaced, I think it has worked out OK. we ended up repairing both sides, one side was torn as the hinges were frozen and someone has pulled hard enough to tear the sheet metal. After cutting a replacing this spot we examined the other side and saw rust there also. When we cut that side open we found a nice mouse nest, likely why it rusted. Also had a few cracks at the corners of the hood as well as a dent on top. we had to cut the under side frame to get at the dent, then welded the cut piece back in place, again it seems to have worked out OK. I have posted a few pictures here of our efforts on the hood as well as some repairs to our passenger fender, more cut and patch, for your entertainment!

Been a long time since I posted here, but haven't given up on the project. Been busy collecting parts, lots of assistance from guys here on fabo - Thanks to all. I have made some adjustments to our plans as this has progressed. Ended up getting a care package from my buddy in Panama city, fellow mopar head. He fixed me up with a 68 340 block, forged crank, J heads as well as a bellhousing, flywheel and four speed for a very much more than fair price. We have the car pretty well stripped now, the more paint and bondo we ground off the worse the quarters looked, not good. I ended up getting a pair of quarter skins from Year one on sale, $340 for the pair, which I am feeling better about every day. finally got down to strip the paint off the passenger door which was the one piece which looked pretty good, well guess what - piece of poop just doesn't quite describe it. I did hook up with whitepunkonnitro though and think he will be fixing me up with what I need to complete my body work. I will post some pics in the next few days and just wanted to extend my thanks to all here for the support I have gotten in so many ways. not done yet, but beginning to see the light perhaps!

We have been slowly working on this project and collecting parts as finances allow. We ended up purchasing quarter skins and used doors because what was on it was pretty bad. We have had a lot of support from guys on this site and gathered a number of parts including a spool type small block k frame, front disk parts including upper a arms, spindles and calipers, a new floor hump for a used price. Kinda gone a bit further than we expected, but you here are probably laughing at that. Car has the front end off and we have buffed it to bare metal then sprayed it with POR 15. Basically taken off all parts which come off without cutting and now starting assembly. Scored a pair of hood scoops as well. Here are a few pictures as a tease, more to come shortly as we have the hump installed as well as our home made frame ties, fabricated from 2 x 3 tubes. Thanks to the operators of this site and everyone who has sold me parts at discount prices. More pictures soon I promise, better quality as well.

I have not been good at posting here, partly because as all project seem to do, this one is taking some time. Cold here in Minnesota, -20 right now so no work in the pole barn which doesn't have heat! However, I have a great neighbor who is ex body guy with heated, unused space I have arranged to use. Thought I would finish off the year by updating this project.

If you have followed this project you would have seen that I had previously fabricated some lower rear quarter pieces and even welded one into place, looking good at that point. Bad news, when we stripped the remainder of the quarter it had been bashed, bondo'd, drilled, and everything you don't want to see, and that was the good side. Mild depression followed by a sale at year one where I picked up a pair of skins that are now attached to the car.

I had a bad drivers door which I new needed to be replaced, picked one up here from a FABO guy Stripped the passenger side door and found out that the quarter could have been worse and the door proved it. Back to FABO and another, different FABO guy came through for me, what a great place and good folks. Door hinges were garbage, busted pins and bent springs, FABO to the rescue! Down to the local metal supplier and purchased some 2"x3" tubing to fabricate some frame ties. Big investment in time on the wire wheel stripping everything we could touch, then coated it all with POR 15. we plan on sanding this and covering with primer and paint, but wanted to protect as much as possible.

Dragged the car to me neighbors after fabricating some pogo sticks for the front, since the car was originally a /6, 3 on the tree and we want a 340 4 speed we needed a V8 k frame and a floor hump. Got those from FABO as well and picked up a front disk brake hardware at the same place, different guy!

Hey ALl - Been a while since I been on here, distracted by life and all. We are at the point where we are ready to think drive train. We have a rebuildable 340 and all the components to install a 4 speed drive train. We are looking at the engine and thinking of options for lifters besides the factory flat tappet. Is there a roller lifter product available which I can install directly into a 1970 340 or do I need to modify it to make these work? I am hopeful that many of you have looked at this and can save me a great deal of effort. Please let em know and thanks in advice for your assistance.

I actually still have this car and have been working on it slowly over the years, still not driving. I did finally set a motor in it and am near to running the engine, it’s a 340. I checked and it’s ten years since we dragged it out of the field it was sitting in. I’ve some questions folks here likely can answer and photos of progress if any interest, let me know and thanks.

Anyone have a map where all the accessories are supposed to mount? It’s been a long time since we took it apart.