1974 Dart Swinger VS. The Evils Of Rust!

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low_kota

low_kota

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Location
Overland, MO
I purchased a 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger a few weeks ago for $500 and finally got it home over Memorial Day weekend. Overall it seems to be a really solid base for a project. It will need new rear quarters, left side trunk extension, and at least a few patches in the trunk pan. There are also a few holes in the floor pans, but I wont know how bad they are until I take out the interior. Here are a few pics from the day I bought it.
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I got the car from my Uncle who took it on a trade and saved it from what I call a "redneck restoration" that was in progress by the previous owner. I will have to clean up red, spray bomb, over spray from most of the chrome trim and windows. The exhaust was completely custom made from what appears to be fence posts, a glass pack, and a length of chain for a hanger. The car runs and drives, but when my Dad and I decided to rebuild the carburetor we discovered that the previous owner stripped out the threads that the fuel fitting goes into and used JB weld to hold the fuel fitting in place. So the first thing on the list is to replace the carb... With that being said, the car really isn't that bad for being 38 years old. Everything works, with the exception of the gas gage and power mirror. It has a/c and there are only 76,*** original miles on the car.

As of now the plans are to attack the floor pans and interior after I get the carb replaced and make the car road worthy. I would like to convert the interior color to black and keep everything period correct. The car will stay red and get a black vinyl top. I have already upgraded to Cragar SS rims and tires that I found on craigslist. I think the /6 is a really cool motor so I will keep it in the car and add some performance parts down the road after the body work is finished. This will most likely be a slow restoration because, as with most projects, time and money are a limiting factor.

More pics to come shortly....
 
Good start on your project. I have a '74 Dart Swinger I'm in the middle of doing. I also got the car for a song and have been collecting parts for two years. I just finally finshed the motor and it is now at the body shop getting all of the rust taken out and those parts replaced. It is all in my thread.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=111296

I was lucky that the rust monster did not hit to hard but it still got in and needs to be repaired. Take your time and do it how you want it to be done. Lots of options out there and they are all worth looking into before you make up your mind. Have a good time with your restoration you will always remember your first.
 
Looks like a good start.
On the carb is it a Carder or Holley.
If it is a Holley I may have the part you need to fix the carb.
Good luck
Shawn
 
Here are a few pics of the car on the trailer and my Dad's truck pulling it home.
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Congrats on the find!!! i like the red for sure. I've used POR-15 to kill any surface rust, but any rust throughs have to be surgically replaced. Good luck on the project.
 
Saetun said:
Congrats on the find!!! i like the red for sure. I've used POR-15 to kill any surface rust, but any rust throughs have to be surgically replaced. Good luck on the project.
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Thanks! There is a car show that I want to take it to June 11th so I'm going to keep all of the interior in the car until after the show. Then, the rest of the summer will most likely be spent patching up the floors and trunk. It looks like the floor pans under the back seat are solid with only surface rust, but I can't really tell what I have goiing on in the front yet. The previous owner has a sheet of tin screwed on over the the front floor pans and under the seat.

After the new metal goes on, what do you recommend putting on top of it before paint? Would I use POR-15, then primer, and then the paint or would I spray the primer first?
 
Well, up to this point I have done a lot of cleaning, I also got another carb from a FABO member. This is the first car i've ever had that's not fuel injected so I have been working on getting everything tuned to make it run better. We were told that the car was recently tuned up with new plugs, wires, cap and roter. When I pulled the plugs they looked new, but they were all gaped wrong, they ranged any where from about 15 to 50. I still don't have everything dialed in perfectly, but after gaping the plugs, messing with the timing and swapping out the carb it runs a lot better.

As long as the weather holds out I'm planning to take it to a car show this Saturday where I will get plenty of pictures. I'm trying to get my dad to bring his 59 2 door hardtop Saratoga out there too. A friend of mine has a 65 Barracuda that I will be parking next to.
 
The finer details are what makes the difference, good job on correcting the tune up!
Sounds like a good project to me, keep it up and post more project pics as you get further along.
 
Not much progress to report, but my wife powder coated the air cleaner today and we got a few pics.
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Judging by that last picture I really need to take a break from the car and cut the grass.... :toothy10:
 
do yourself a favor and poke around the torsion bar k member with a screwdriver...mine was only a 21k mile car and the entire torsion hex key rotated in the k member due to rust.
 
johnnymac2k6 said:
do yourself a favor and poke around the torsion bar k member with a screwdriver...mine was only a 21k mile car and the entire torsion hex key rotated in the k member due to rust.
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Next time i'm under the car I will check it out...
 
Well, I didn't get to take the Dart to the car show over the weekend like I planned because of a rusty gas tank. On a positive note, we got the rust issues inside the tank fixed and still went to the show. There was a good MOPAR turn out and about 10 A-bodies. It was the first car show for my 13 month old and he would clap and mumble "car, car, car, car" when he saw something that he liked! It was mostly at the red cars because that's his favorite color. I'm working on teaching him how to say MOPAR.:headbang:

Earlier this the week I took the seats and carpet out to see what the floor pans looked like. Here is how it looks:
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The section under the front seat is solid, for the most part, as well as the transmission and drive shaft hump. I'm going to get the new pans from Rock Auto and hopefully start cutting and welding soon.
 
Over the weekend we started replacing the floor pans with new metal from rock auto and got the driver side front pan almost finished. I don't have a lot of experience welding so I am getting a lot of help from my Dad, this car will give me plenty of practice to develop my welding skills. Here are some pics from this weekend:
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I also found the buildsheet behind the rear seat.
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There was a crack behind the back window, so we started digging. It looks like the previous owner used dry wall tape and bondo to patch a hole. I have a feeling that we will find more of these redneck patch panels around the windows from holes caused by the vinyl top.
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Over the past few days, the rear driver side floor pan has been cut to shape and tacked in, new metal has gone in behind the window in place of the bondo and tape, and the rear window has also come out so we can patch all the small holes.

I mentioned the fence post exhaust in an earler posting, but seeing the fancy fab work under the old floor pan really shows how cusom the previous owner's work really is! The weld is over an inch wide and he still managed to leave a hole=D>
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Does anyone have a pic or two they could post that shows what the metal at the corners of the back window should look like with the window out? Both corners on my car are rusted out and a few pics would be a huge help when we start patching that area. Here is what they look like now:

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Here ya go, good luck. L8r

Jim
 

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low_kota said:
Thanks for the pics Jim, this is the kind of thing that makes FABO a great website!
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No problem, Low_Kota. I forgot to mention that the pix were from my 71 Dart. I don't believe that there is a difference between yours and mine, but wanted to make sure that you knew. Good luck, it looks like you have your work cut out for you! L8r

Jim
 
Well, after seeing all the damage that a vinyl roof can do to the top of a car in the mid west, I have decided to not put a vinyl top back on the car. A lot of the rust holes have been fixed, but there is a lot of pitting on the whole roof that can't really be sanded out. Has anyone else ever dealt with this? If so, what did you do to fix it? I was thinking about sanding all the paint off then hitting it with some rust converter and using a coat of body filler to fill in all the pits.
 
Well, my car is no longer worthy of a guest appearance for an episode of the Flintstones. But on a positive note, the floor pans are finished! After welding in the new metal, we used permatex rust treatment on all of the areas with surface rust, then re-sealed all of the seams and covered everything with a coat of primer. The next part of the project will be fixing the roof.

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