'74 Swinger restoration/build

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ArizonaKid

ArizonaKid

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boise, ID
I figured I should post my progress on my dart, so others can learn from what I end up doing. I bought this swinger, for use as a daily driver, in the fall of '13, It had been sitting for about three years, after being moved from the guys parents place in marsing. Unfortunately, a lot of the pictures I had were lost when my phone failed, so the pictures I have are limited.
View attachment '74 dart recieved.jpg
When I first got it, the car was shoed with some ugly as all hell aftermarket chrome wheels, and some other various junk inside. So my first move was to put the magnum wheels and tires onto the car. Me and my dad started going through the vehicle to find what to fix, and we found that the previous owner had welded the rear spring shackles onto the bottom of the frame, to give the car a race stance.
The original shackles and various parts were gone, so I went to the various wrecking yards around town, and had the luck to come upon a '75 4-door dart in a cheaper yard, so I took off what amounted to almost all of the rear suspension (everything but the leaves). I took apart the sagging leaf springs and took some off of a B body, using the medium sized individual leaves, and connected them into the A springs, now it rides really well.
 
After all the suspension work, we started on the motor.
View attachment '74 dart compartment.jpg
I originally thought the slant in the car was native to the fender wells, but its a transplant from a later car. The motor took a lot to get running, as a pack rat had made it's nest in the air cleaner, and the motor was stuck. After multiple pressure washings, WD-40 in the cylinders, and much breaker bar coaxing, the motor finally turned free, so we replaced the plugs, and fired up the motor. The little slant sputtered for a bit, but after some fiddling with the carburetor, It rumbled away like it was 1974.
I elected to take out the A/C system for now, rather than have a non working unit in the car, one interesting thing is the A/C unit is a chrysler co unit, which makes me think it is dealer installed
View attachment '74 dart original interior.jpg
I don't think you can see the little silver badge on the right, but it says Chrysler next to a little pentstar.
The now running motor helped to reveal another problem, which manifested itself as a pool of ATF on the floor, turns out the transmission was hemorrhaging fluid.
 
At this point the pictures I had were on my phone, that has since failed, and become unrecoverable. If I can find a hard drive recovery specialist, I might be able to post them, but otherwise, no pics.

The slant was always problematic, to say the least, it would run, but never consistently. The first thing was a carburetor rebuild Then the manifolds were taken off and trued, with a belt sander. This got it running well enough for a while, but it was using (and dripping) a fair amount of oil.

The rear main seal was the culprit, so a gasket rebuild kit was ordered and installed. This included a timing set replacement as well. After the new timing set was installed came the tedious task of timing and tuning the motor to get it just right.

After carburetor problems, messing with the choke and various other little bits, It is now parked, due to a failed U-jount that I drove home with, forcing a replacement, transmission rebuild.

I can post better pictures of the second rebuild when I do it, I got the kit today.
 
My plan for the car is to turn it into a show quality driver, I plan on a built 318, 4-speed, with a 8.25 or 8.75 rear, 3.23 or 3.55 gears. I have a nice copper paint job in mind, with a '70 dart front end, and a dark brown interior with snakeskin details, along with a custom badging. I call it
View attachment Scan 2.jpeg
Dart copperhead! Again snakeskin, desert motif, cool as hell. Unfortunately, I don't have a sketch yet of the finished car #-o

But rest assured, it will be pretty damn cool.
 

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I've never understood why guys take air conditioning out of cars because it isn't working. It's like, "let's make it so that there's no way it will work now". Or maybe it's so that guys can say "it's supposed to have air". AC is such a value-adder to a vintage car there is no way I would remove it. That's a rookie mistake for sure.

Oh well. Sell the parts and pieces to somebody who will use it while you sit in there and sweat:D

Good luck on the project though.
 
I'm with TylerW. Back in 77 when I drove my first car, a 69 Barracuda, I was always wishing it had AC.
One of the reasons I decided to buy the Duster I'm restoring now is because it is an AC car...
Good luck with the project, and rethink the the AC decision...
 
just me, but I like driving with the windows down ( warm weather months), and listening to the engine, not the air blowing! just me....
keep up the good work!!!!
 
I think some people misunderstood, The A/C did not work, thats why I took it off for now, it needs a new compressor, as well as some parts for the control unit. I am going to use it, I'm going to be moving back to the southwest for gods sake. I also want to convert it from R-12 to R-134.
 
I hate forgetting to update this. I had a U-joint fail, and it ruined the torque converter, so after another tranny rebuild, it's back on the road. Tomorrow I am going to start on the new front suspension parts; Upper and lower ball joints, and bushings, and replace the rubber brake lines.
 
Nice to see another 74 dart coming back to life. Too often these cars are over looked and hated on for that beak. I personally like the beak

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I used to prefer the '70 styled front ends, but I think the beaks starting to grow on me; Hold up, being forced to see something until you like it? I think thats called stockholms! But nah, its a cool little car.

I finished up a bunch of stuff today, new control arm and strut rod bushings from energy, as well as upper and lower ball joints, and new rubber brake hoses, since the old ones were on their last legs.

My dad bought some alignment equipment from an auction, so we used that to give the car a good enough alignment, to get to mikes clutch and auto. BTW anyone in the boise area, they do great work, good service. I'm curious to see how well the sixties era equipment did compared to a new school machine.

The next big thing is going to be a new passengers door, the PO managed to bang it up real bad around the center, it's covered in bondo. After that a new, desperately needed, paintjob.
 
Finally got the alignment done today, and its great to drive now.

0.4 camber -0.0
1.0 caster 1.1
0.14 toe 0.14

The new rubber feels great going down the road, now the tires are needing a balance, then drivability will be completed.
 
Finally got the alignment done today, and its great to drive now.

0.4 camber -0.0
1.0 caster 1.1
0.14 toe 0.14

The new rubber feels great going down the road, now the tires are needing a balance, then drivability will be completed.
 
Beaks for life. You have a '74 so be a proud '74 owner.....it will always be a '74 no matter what front you have on it. I thought about it but thats as far as I went.
BTW good start.

 
I like it.
And another vote here to keep it a beak car, i personally love them, i have several!
 
Heres the motor all cleaned up and taken apart, pressure washed all the junk off and used paint stripper to take off the loose paint.
View attachment unnamed.jpg

It's going to be sandblasted next week or so, then i'll start on the disassembly.
 
Finally got new wheels and tires done!

The old tires were from a postal service LLV that were too worn for work, so my dad brought them home years ago for roll around wheels. They worked fine as a driver, just very rough.
View attachment '74 dart old wheels.jpg

The new wheels are some A-body ralleyes we had in the shed, I scuffed them down and cleaned them, and did two coats of semi-gloss black on the back, and five coats of argent silver on the front.
View attachment '74 dart new wheels.jpg

The center caps needed to be redone, since the paint was all pitted. I was worried that the paint wouldn't stick correctly, but after the first coat, the paint started sticking quite well, and afterwards, I used solvent to clean the paint off of the chrome spots. They really turned out well.
The tires are BF goodrich radial TAs in 215/70/14
 
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