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

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Dartnut said:
Great work again as always!
Nice to see it coming together, the little things take a lot of time...........
FWIW, i have used black hockey stick tape on the heater hoses and it worked great for me.
Seems almost fitting for a Canadian car!
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Thanks Tom, taking it apart was a breeze compared to putting it back together. Hockey tape, never thought of that!

TimsGT said:
Wow @Swinger340Canuc that is looking so good!! Best build thread on FABO
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Whoa Tim!! Thats awful big praise considering the quality of so many builds on FABO, being a back to factory restoration it might be a little bit boring for some but i felt that this was the only path for this car so I just want to do the best job I could to achieve that and share the steps it took. Can't wait to take it over to the second owner "Morris (73-75)" that I found and meet him and take him for a ride in the car that he never forgot and shared with his friends and this picture from 1973. Appreciate the compliment.

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Got my roof line jam mouldings polished and replaced the foam gasket, found using a stripe eraser quick and easy to remove the old foam, then some final adjustments to the side glass for a good seal,

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finally got around to get the blackout on the rad support done,

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from 3 years ago,

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Disassembled my rear defroster and cleaned and repainted a few parts and reassembled ready for install,

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Disappointed with the package tray cover and the trunk divider panel that I bought from Legendary 3 1/2 years ago, didn't check them because the car was still together. I knew the finish would be a bit different and would need to cut the slot for the rear defroster but its pretty much useless since its probably an 1.25 inches shorter in length and leaves an orange gap on both sides. The rear divider was not the same either with large gaps down both sides so I'm likely going to get some tempered hardboard and trace my old one and cut it out and spray it black, money wasted but thats the way it goes some times,

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Plan B turned out to be repair my old package tray panel, I neglected to take a picture but started out by glueing two pieces of fiberglass drywall tape on the backside of the holes I was about to repair the grind and bevel the holes on the top side. Then I used some of the Fusor 142 plastic repair to do the majority of the fill of the holes and ground the flat and put a light skim of fine grade body filler to do the final fill. Sanded down with 220 and 400 then two coats of SEM Satin black trim coat with a pebble coat at very low pressure on the repair areas to create a bit of grain affect,

The tools required,

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And managed to do the crappy job of cleaning my original windshield and back glass rubbers, no fun!!

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I thought the package tray has 2 holes one on each side for the push trough clips with the black button head.
You are doing an awesome job on your car and posting your build.
 
I hadn't seen the rear defroster option before, you did an outstanding job on the restoration! Good thing you had the old package tray and separation panel to work with. You got me thinkin' if I have the old ones out of my car. Hmmm. L8r

Jim
 
Crossrammed340 said:
Wow what a great thread. Your attention to detail is fantastic your Swinger is going to be one of the best restored Mopars for sure keep it up i love it.
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Appreciate that Crossrammed340, continue to make progress managed to clean up my crusty original voltage regulator and repaint it while saving the original print with the correct date code. Now I don't know how long it will last since it's 46 years old but it didn't cost me anything and who knows could keep regulating for some time.

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Now this might seem pretty "anal" but I blame my buddy Joel "j061093409", now he's really anal, lol, the nuts that hold the brake booster or master cylinder on the fire wall are suppose to have a translucent red finish on them and my originals had a faint bit left on the backside so my new ones got the correct finish on them today,

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Gave my rather dirty seat belts a good cleaning and installed the rear ones,

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Purchased a numbers correct recored 3 core rad on Ebay a year or two ago and when it arrived the neck was squashed in, I decided since a paid a pretty decent buck for it to give a stab at repairing it. Started out by making a tool that would fit down inside and I could pull up on,

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Used my engine picker to give myself careful control pulling it back up which worked pretty descent, its not perfect but will see after I strip the paint and repaint it how it looks. I still have my original 2 core I can go back to if need be but it needs re-coring to look nice,

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Engine compartment is plumbed and wired and ready to go for Saturday when my pal Scatpacker is going to give me a hand rolling the engine assembly under her and bolted up,

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Got to talk to my glass guy maybe get that in next week,
 
Big day today, and a big thanks to scatpacker (Kev) for coming into town with his huge Mopar brain and helping get the mill back in the Dart and fix a wiring issue. Hemiorange (Randy) stopped by and we had a good BS session, a good day.

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I do like the way the blue pops against the HemiOrange,

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Great work! You’re not cutting any corners even though you’re a lot closer to the finish line now. Hurry up and get it done since I want to see the finished product!!!!

Your restoration thread is one of the best ones on this site.:canada:
 
Look at you guys go - on Saturday anyway, haha. Having the engine and front suspension in place, now that's a milestone!!! Looking real good.
 
H22A4 said:
Great work! You’re not cutting any corners even though you’re a lot closer to the finish line now. Hurry up and get it done since I want to see the finished product!!!!
Your restoration thread is one of the best ones on this site.:canada:
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This is as fast as I've got H22A4!! I'm an old guy, lol, not much corner cutting on this one since it's the only one I plan on doing.



whiteghost said:
Very very nice!
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Thanks!

cliff guinand said:
Look at you guys go - on Saturday anyway, haha. Having the engine and front suspension in place, now that's a milestone!!! Looking real good.
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Were a couple of speedy old farts but one is a big brain and one isn't, care to guess who is who, lol. Was that you Cliff "cruise-in" on Facebook on the streets of Cowtown? Tough looking blue Dart!
 
Continue to push, well as hard as I can push to get more done.

Decided to strip the paint of the whole radiator except the core since the paint had some damage so I used some chemical stripper,

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It still has some light damage on top but looks pretty decent and I still have my old rad with an excellent top tank if I'm not happy with this one,

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Decided to use some thin closed cell foam as a sealer between the fender and apron, should I need to take the fender off it will be easier then breaking the bond a caulking type sealer would create,

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Got to start installing some of the shiny pieces under the hood, my Thermoquad Scott Smith at Harm's rebuilt, and start getting stuff hooked up. Unfortunately I still finding stuff I'm missing or have the wrong stuff so back to ordering and waiting for these small fasteners etc. to arrive,

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On ward and upward.
 
Danny. OK, as mine isn't really, really done - and they probably will never be, but that second (back) splash shield under the hood, all my clips broke so I've never put it back on - did you save your clips or did you get new ones somewhere?
 
cliff guinand said:
Danny. OK, as mine isn't really, really done - and they probably will never be, but that second (back) splash shield under the hood, all my clips broke so I've never put it back on - did you save your clips or did you get new ones somewhere?
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If you mean the small one at the back of the hood Cliff mine was missing two of the clips so I move one over to balance them out and it seems to be enough to hold it in place. I was looking at them sceptical that I could find them, maybe at R/T Specialties or Steele Rubber but Steele likely wants to sell you a new one.
 
DemonDave said:
Man I love this build! :thumbsup:
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Appreciate that Demon,

Spent a couple hours cleaning up my crusty headlight bucket assemblies this evening, I was pretty young fresh out of high school back when I did the colour change to black but that's not an excuse for the sloppy workmanship lol, doesn't look like I removed very much and did a half fast masking job black paint on everything,

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I broke them down to the parts and blasted the mounting frames and the springs and clips, then painted the frames satin black and buffed up the springs and blackened the clips,

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Then I emptied out my blasting cabinet and switched to walnut shell too knock the paint off the headlight pots and not damage the galvanizing that might remain and blast the adjusting screws and plastic clips and the stainless rings,


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turns out the galvanizing is in excellent condition under the overspray and road grime, happy to see that. Took about two hours to clean up the parts just need to do a little assembly,

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Beautiful work there, Danny! How did you tint the master cylinder retaining nuts? They look very nice. Ford did the same thing with some fasteners that they deemed to be critical to safety. You are really churning along. Lovin' it! L8r

Jim
 
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