1972 Canadian H-Code 340 Dart Swinger Special Resto - Finally started!

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Hemiorangeswinger said:
Nice progress so far! That is a pretty clean looking car, I gotta come check it out one of these days.

I've been looking forward to you starting a thread on this car!!

I noticed a lot of 70's cars had the underside painted white, I was wondering why that was the "in thing" to do back then? All the pics of my dads friends cars from the 70's including his was painted white underneath.
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TimsGT said:
This is by far one if the best threads I’ve followed on FABO!! Inspiring Build
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Appreciate the kind words TimsGT, I've got some experience in the auto body side that I was hoping others might find helpful so just trying contribute since this is my go to place when I need advice.

Put the heads back on my block last night and dug up my valve train components to clean and install but first did a bit of inspecting,

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and found a problem that appeared that 4 or 5 rocker arms seemed to be rubbing on the valve spring retainers and wore flat spots on them. This seems like it could only happen if the pushrod pockets were beginning to stretch,

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Looking at the pocket from the other side it definitely seems taller and stretched compared to the one beside it that has no wear on its face,

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Looks like the motor will go on the back burner until I can a new set of rocker arms and shafts, I don't want to use these anymore.
 
Thanks Kev, turns out theres nothing wrong with them thats the way they were made. I made a Evaporust bath and gave them a dip and rinse to clean off the light rust from the long sleep,

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Then lightly oil them up since it'll be sitting till spring,

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Decided to just make a balance installer, cost $20.00 for the threaded rod and hardware which was a whole lot less then a good quality set,

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Then finished assembly and packaged her up and put it all in the truck for the trip to the shop in the morning and get some paint on, that picker seems heavier then it was 3 years ago when I started this project,

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On the rocker arms, keep in mind 340 stamped steel ones, are 340 only, there is a difference between
318, this may be the issue you are seeing.
 
muddacres said:
It gained weight with AGE. :lol:
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Whew! I thought for a minute it might be me.

Over to the shop this morning to get this sprayed,

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A tip for some that are about to paint any sandblasted metal parts if you try to degrease or wipe down blasted metal you'll find that rags or any type of paper towel will shred itself on the blasted metal surface leaving a mess of lint all over the surface. If you buy some inexpensive microfibre cloths and liberally hose on the degreaser and wipe it clean with these they won't leave anything behind and you should have a nice clean surface. I then use a nylon tack cloth which also won't shed any fibres but you could just blow off the surface and seal and it should turn out nice.

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A solid coat of Epoxy sealer,

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Some paint, I used a 10 percent addition of flattening agent to remove a bit of the high gloss that these modern clears have to more closely simulate the enamels Chrysler used back in the day but have the toughness of modern urethane,

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Back in the truck and home,

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Except for my dual snorkel scoop and some cast paint on my tranny and a splash across my bellhousing thats the last significant painting to do, glad for that.

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dbphemi said:
Looks great!
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Thanks dbphemi, its coming along just have to keep pushing myself.

muddacres said:
Looking :thumbsup: like you know what ya doing.
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Lol, just enough to keep myself busy muddacres, if there is anyway I can do it myself or find the info it takes to give it a try thats the route I'm going. I don't like relying on someone else if I can help it.
 
I’ve only got baseclear anymore to work with Kev, and I bought a Corporate Blue spray bomb from Chrysler and sprayed that out so I had the exact colour to match to since there is no formula for this colour. I think it’s really a close match, a lot better then most of the premixed engine paint like POR 15’s, that was a complete waste of money.
 
Swinger340Canuc said:
Thanks dbphemi, its coming along just have to keep pushing myself.



Lol, just enough to keep myself busy muddacres, if there is anyway I can do it myself or find the info it takes to give it a try thats the route I'm going. I don't like relying on someone else if I can help it.
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I wish I had your auto body skills. You should start auto restoring business.
 
muddacres said:
I wish I had your auto body skills. You should start auto restoring business.
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I'm too long in the tooth and worn out to go into the business but thanks for the compliment muddacres.


I should have made this decision before I painted my diff but now I decided to put a proper drain in my diff, don't know why Chrysler didn't do this from the outset. I purchased a proper 3/8 drain bung and drilled a hole that fit it nicely,

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After test fitting the bung it purtruded into the case far enough the it wouldn't drain completely so I drilled 4 holes in the side so it would fully drain,

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Burned it in permanently, just needs a bit of touch up paint work.


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Also took my bell to work and got some blue on it, forgot to take it when I did the engine,

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Do you have a magnet in the bottom of the housing? Can you do something to the plug to magnetize it?
 
As usual I was hoping to get a bit more done this weekend but did manage a couple of jobs, spotted if my oil bung on my diff,

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And went to work erasing my 80's ugly on my tranny,

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Unlike my engine I decided the tranny didn't need to be completely striped down to the metal since the paint is really on there well and the tranny doesn't get as hot as the engine, if it was summer and I could work outside I might have turned up my anal meter and striped it right down.

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The cast paint covered well and I removed all the fasteners and blasted them and then blackened and sealed them,

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Looks a whole lot better, I was hoping to get some assembly on my diff but couldn't get to it so I'll try to work on it in the evenings this week. Nice to be checking of some jobs now go online and order some more parts, arg!! I'm getting tired of spending money on this project!

Tried to find some pictures of what factory markings might have been on these tranny's but had no luck so if anyone has some info I'd appreciate the help.


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Hey Danny, the tranny's were pretty marked up by the factory, with big stampings, inspection daubs, markings etc., and those do exist. I didn't go down that route on my 3sp tranny... would have had to order a number of custom numeral stamps, paint etc., so left it iron :)-
 
Looking good Danny. I also made the decision to install a drain plug on my 8 3/4.I just makes good sense.
 
FJRdoc said:
Looking good Danny. I also made the decision to install a drain plug on my 8 3/4.I just makes good sense.
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Thanks Kevin, I'm going to go thru your thread again since it has so many great tips and resources. I've got more subassembly's to get after, lots and lots and lots, lol!
 
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