1970 Swinger 340 Hemi Orange 4 speed

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Thanks guys for all the compliments!

I am officially done with the front clip, :D. I have the fenders bolted on and everything seems to fit perfectly.. I never spent a lot of time adjusting the gaps, so that's why they are a little big. I was more concerned if everything was even and the fender to door/rocker gaps are perfect, same as the fender to hood. I also set the valence in place to see how it fits. Tomorrow I will cut the torque boxes off the old frame rails and sandblast them. They need some rust repair and dents banged out, but once that's done I'll weld them in. Then it's on to the firewall and floorpan!

I have to repair the inner rocker where that hole is..it's not from rust. I accidentally ground thru it when grinding down the spot weld.
















Again, these gaps aren't final. They are just a reference to see how everything aligns.
 
I've been all over this thread....what an education I'm getting.
 
Wow! Nice work and that's going to be a cool car!! Are you replacing the lower firewall on each side??
 
340sFastback said:
Wow that really looks good!
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Thanks!

HemiDenny said:
I've been all over this thread....what an education I'm getting.
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Thanks for the compliment! Haha this is going to be one long thread by the time this car is done!

RS23VOA said:
Wow! Nice work and that's going to be a cool car!! Are you replacing the lower firewall on each side??
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Thanks! The drivers side of the firewall is in good shape. I will not be sectioning it. I had to cut the lip on the drivers side and roll it up so the frame rail to inner rocker splash shield would clear while sliding the clip into place, so all i have to do is weld up that cut. The passenger side will be sectioned with a piece from the california cowl/firewall section i have leftover (the upper cowl will be used as well) the passenger side lower firewall rusted from a leaky heater core. This weekend i will start on the firewall and butt weld in the new piece.

My Rotors came in today, so i am just waiting on the pads. These rotors seem to be discontinued thru Rockauto so i got a set just in case they completely stop making the premium rotors.

 
I cut the torque boxes off the old frame rails and even tho they were the worst welds I've ever seen, they were a PITA to get off! I will sandblast them tomorrow, then bang out the dents, grind the old welds off and repair some rust holes on them. There's rust thru in one spot on each one, but I'll see how they look after blasting... There might be more repairs. I was going to buy new ones, but they don't look like the original ones at all so I will save these, they aren't to bad.





Here is the lower sections of firewall (the light green one is obviously from my car) the other one is from the California front clip, but the pinch weld flange is a little banged up, so I'll sandblast them both and cut the rust out of the one from my car and use the other as a patch and butt weld it in.. Then but weld the repaired one back into my car.

 
davescuda said:
Did you look at Resto Ricks torque boxes?
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I never knew he made them.. I checked out his website and they look identical! Thanks for letting me know. I bought the sound deadener stuff from him last year and he was a great guy to deal with. I sandblasted mine and they look good... They've got some pitting on the topside where you'll never see and only the rust thru hole on either one that will be an easy fix, so I will just save these ones.. I don't think the pitting will will weaken them since they're pretty thick.

This weekend I'll prep them and weld them in.




I'll also get this piece repaired and hopefully welding in. Butt welding and grinding takes a lot of time!
 
Brought the hubs/rotors to work and pushed the studs out on the press. Now I have to knock the races out and degrease them, Then I'll sandblast and paint them.


I sandblasted the dust sheilds.. I'll straighten them out and then spray them with my galvanizing paint.


I got the torque boxes prepped and ready to go, but I dropped a piece of metal on my copper weld thru primer and punctured a hole in it, so now I have to wait till Monday to buy a new can. That really sucked because that stuff is over $40 a can and I wanted to weld these in!


I also got my patch piece ready to be butt welded in. Tomorrow I'll work on this and see if I can get it tacked into place on the firewall.. There's still a lot of welding and grinding before that happens, so we'll see how it goes! Not a lot of progress but I'm getting some things done.
 
Hey great work on the car. What brand of copper weld through primer are you using?
 
68 bee said:
Hey great work on the car. What brand of copper weld through primer are you using?
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Thanks! I use U-POL copper weld thru primer. I've tried the other brands (don't get zinc) and they cause a lot of sputtering and you have to end up turning your welder up to weld thru it, which gives burn thru and warpage. This stuff gives little to no grief welding thru.. I still like to take an o ring pick and scratch it away where my plug weld hole is, but it really isn't necessary with this stuff.

 
Spent a good part of the day welding the patch up and then welding it into the car. I have half of it welded in and will try and finish it off during the week.. Butt welding is time consuming!

Held in place with butt weld clamps.




Tacked in place.

I always grind my welds down after tacking it, so when I weld next to the old tack I get full penetration.. I find the welds build up to much if you don't do it this way.






That's as far as I got this weekend!
 
Very nice! I'll be doing that on mine as soon as I find a firewall to use. Where did you get the butt weld clamps?
 
RS23VOA said:
Very nice! I'll be doing that on mine as soon as I find a firewall to use. Where did you get the butt weld clamps?
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Thanks! I got them from princess auto. I'm not sure if you got any princess autos in the US but you can order them from there website. They are a must for butt welding sheet metal.

Swinger340Canuc said:
Nice looking work Randy, nice to see your back posting up some of your work, lots of members are learning plenty watching your project.

Dan
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Thanks Dan! It's slowly coming together. How's your car coming along? I don't see a thread yet!

The drivers side upper control arm fought me to the end.. I tried heat, air hammer and a big f@*kin hammer and the bolts wouldn't budge at all. I also went thru three good sawzall blades trying to cut thru the bolt and I barely made a mark, so I used my 5" cutoff wheel on my electric grinder and cut the bolts off where I could reach them, then I had to destroy the upper control arm mounts to make room for it to slide thru.



Now I can press the bushings out, unscrew the ball joints and paint the control arms. I will be ordering the complete PST rubber front end kit in the next few weeks.


I also finished the splash shields. They had some damage on them.. Looks like the car fell off the jack stands at one time, but I got them pretty straight and sandblasted them and then gave them a coat of cold galvenizing paint. It works pretty good and you can buff it to a slight gloss.



 
A battle like that can wear a guy out Randy, I got my AMD stuff a bit before Christmas but December was a rightoff too many distractions. Pulled my engine last Saturday so the odyssey begins. I'll have to start a thread I guess.
 

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Swinger340Canuc said:
A battle like that can wear a guy out Randy, I got my AMD stuff a bit before Christmas but December was a rightoff too many distractions. Pulled my engine last Saturday so the odyssey begins. I'll have to start a thread I guess.
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That control arm was a bigger challenge than replacing the front clip, haha. That's nice to see you're staring on it, hope to see a build thread on here! Who did you end up using for your AMD parts? I know what you mean by distractions.. I've had my fair share over the past few months, but a break once Ina while is nice.
 
I ended up using a good buddy of mine Dwayne of Mayer's Restorations, I didn't know he could bring them in directly and subsequently found out he could, should have got them before the dollar tanked, lol.
 
hey randy could i bother you to pm wear you get your paint supplies? i want to get all my paint in the next month or so before all the good paint is gone, im also in edmonton, Thanks
 
looking good. I havnt been able to get back into my car. no insulation in the garage ha ha
 
Swinger340Canuc said:
I ended up using a good buddy of mine Dwayne of Mayer's Restorations, I didn't know he could bring them in directly and subsequently found out he could, should have got them before the dollar tanked, lol.
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That's good! You went with the full quarters? What else does your car need sheet metal wise? That sucks on the dollar being so low.. I think when I bought my stuff our dollar was on par and slowly dropping as I bought stuff, which was good because I pretty much bought everything AMD makes for the darts, haha

wade said:
hey randy could i bother you to pm wear you get your paint supplies? i want to get all my paint in the next month or so before all the good paint is gone, im also in edmonton, Thanks
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Yeah I got everything from Carlsons and Southtown NAPA. I believe both of them still carry solvent based paints, so you should be good.

sag said:
looking good. I havnt been able to get back into my car. no insulation in the garage ha ha
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Thanks! You need to get a heater and some insulation out in the garage! I like working on my car in the winter the most.. Less distractions and I can control the heat.

I got the upper control arms disassembled and sandblasted.. Everything on them was a fight! The rear bushings on the control arms were a nightmare since they had the extra sleeve pushed on from the backside. The one balljoint came out easy, but the other one wouldn't budge so I welded a nut on it and ran it off with the impact (I don't have the proper socket to remove them) I'm just doing one suspension piece at a time during the workweek to keep steady progress. Next are the spindles.






 
I went with the full quarters and outer wheel wells Randy and needed the trunk floor drops, also needed a new gas tank mine has a number of big dents in it. Also got the wheel well mouldings, I didn't know who's mouldings I should try so might as well try AMD's. Unfortunately I wouldn't have needed any of the sheet metal except for an early 80's teenage self inflicted wound in the form of some flaring of my quarters for some bigger tires, hey it was a different time, dumb ***!!!
 
Hemiorangeswinger said:
That's good! You went with the full quarters? What else does your car need sheet metal wise? That sucks on the dollar being so low.. I think when I bought my stuff our dollar was on par and slowly dropping as I bought stuff, which was good because I pretty much bought everything AMD makes for the darts, haha



Yeah I got everything from Carlsons and Southtown NAPA. I believe both of them still carry solvent based paints, so you should be good.



Thanks! You need to get a heater and some insulation out in the garage! I like working on my car in the winter the most.. Less distractions and I can control the heat.

I got the upper control arms disassembled and sandblasted.. Everything on them was a fight! The rear bushings on the control arms were a nightmare since they had the extra sleeve pushed on from the backside. The one balljoint came out easy, but the other one wouldn't budge so I welded a nut on it and ran it off with the impact (I don't have the proper socket to remove them) I'm just doing one suspension piece at a time during the workweek to keep steady progress. Next are the spindles.






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I have that socket if you want to borrow it I can send it to you.
Jim
 
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