Arizona Swinger

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getting ready to assemble the rear axle assembly.....put the 3.54 sure grip 3rd member into the housing when I noticed one of the ten studs sticking out of the housing was missing! Back apart and the search begins to find the missing stud! (Maybe at the sandblaster?).

Time to sort through all of the hardware and start assembling it to their respective parts. So nice to have lots of clean parts to assemble! Ben.
 

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Ben,
I've been away for a while and you have been streakin' along! what brand of the body schutz did you use? It is hard to tell from the photos, but how closely did it resemble the "factory" texture? I will need to redo mine since I am removing it from everywhere but the trunk. Even there I will need to touch it up some because of the quarter panel replacement. Your attention to detail is impressive. Nice work! L8r
 
Ben,
I've been away for a while and you have been streakin' along! what brand of the body schutz did you use? It is hard to tell from the photos, but how closely did it resemble the "factory" texture? I will need to redo mine since I am removing it from everywhere but the trunk. Even there I will need to touch it up some because of the quarter panel replacement. Your attention to detail is impressive. Nice work! L8r

It doesn't seem like we're streaking along!!.......for a project I wanted to do in 6 months, we are at the two year mark now.....but that's how these projects go! My street rod 40 Ford pickup took twelve years!

The 'Body Schutz' we used was the 3M brand, part no. 08864, which requires the use of an applicator gun hooked up to a compressor. I think you can see it in one picture where we are spraying the inside of the trunk quarter panel. It seems to replicate the OEM coating fairly closely, although the original was in pretty sad shape after 42 years! Ben.
 
LOL, your two year pace makes mine look like a sprint! I have had mine about 13! Too many other things and cars get in the way. Love the build, keep it up! L8r
 
Well, two tires down and two to go! make that three since I'm going to need a spare! Also some more detail work and zinc coating.
 

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Didn't have time to go out in the shop to work on some reassembly, so I brought the parts into the office!

Was also able to find a good use for all of those old phone books we have laying around the office!

Some shots of all of the stainless back from the plating shop, as well as some plating done on the grille surround trim and Hurst shifter handle. Ben.
 

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Subscribed!! You're doing an amazing job on your Swinger! Keep up the great work and all the progress pics. 70 Swinger 340's are my favorite! Still trying to find my old one.
 
Subscribed!! You're doing an amazing job on your Swinger! Keep up the great work and all the progress pics. 70 Swinger 340's are my favorite! Still trying to find my old one.

Thanks for the kind words! The attention to detail you're doing on that 71 Duster isn't too shabby either!! Ben.
 
Finally got the rest of the necessary pieces back from the zinc man, so I could finish up the emergency brake cables and necessary hardware. Once the car is finished with paint work, the rear axle assembly is now ready along with the assembled springs and spring hardware to be mounted into the car!

Had not bought any 10x 1.75 in. rear brake drums in quite a few years....got a case of sticker shock at the cost of each of them, along with the difficulty of even locating them! How can front drums go for 20-40 dollars each and the rears are close to 100.00 each?!? Ben.

Sorry for the lousy cell phone pictures, seems the digital camera got called into duty elsewhere!
 

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........a few more progress pictures. Got the front and rear bumpers reassembled with new hardware and refinished tail light assemblies. This is the 'fun' part......nice clean parts going together with new hardware. Ben.
 

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The phone books come in handy at times....LOL looks good.
 
some more assembly pictures.....upper and lower control arms and spring u bolts and plates ready for installation.....reverse light installed into the lower dash.....and some serious final sanding on the roof in preparation for the F8 Jade green metallic. Ben.
 

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getting ready to push the car into the booth to spray the top! Finally going to get to see some F8 color.

couple of shots of the final sanding on the roof and the application of the seam sealer into the drip rail channels.

I tried to work around the VIN tag on the dash as much as I could.....trying to paint over it, and then getting put out because the Chrysler Corp. and pentastar labels were pretty tacky looking! Decided to remove the tag and finish it properly with the correct rivets and the dry stamp logo. Will show some pics when finished.

I noticed when cleaning the paint off of the tag that the numbers and letters looked like they had varying degrees of depth.....some were stamped considerably deeper than others. I would assume this is normal?
This is what caused me to consider refinishing the tag to begin with.....I thought the paint must be heavy in some spots, making the numbers or letters a little more difficult to distinguish. Will put some light coats of paint on the tag before installing the stamp logo. Ben.
 

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At long last some F8 color on the roof! Very pleased with the way it came out, and I really like the color! Hopefully it won't be too long before the main body is ready for the F4 color.

Also some refinished OEM center caps and the full set of refurbished wheels and tires. 205-70 14 BFG tires. Have to see how long it takes to burn off those rear tires, before going a little larger!

Ran into a small problem with the trim on the front of the glove box. The old trim piece is in very good condition structurally, but was in need of being chrome plated and finished in black paint. The new aftermarket piece I got with the rally bezel looks great, but when I attempted to put the OEM screws into the back of it to attach it to the glove box lid, the three holes started to split out. Now the OEM part still has good screw holes in the plastic without a hint of splitting.....even after 42 years! I don't know whether the new piece has inferior plastic or what, but with the cost of refinishing the old piece approaching the cost of the new one, I figured I had to try some sort of repair to keep the holes from splitting out further.
The solution was to take an aluminum AC high pressure line with an interior dimension approximating the outside dimension of the plastic lug the screws go into, cutting it the length needed and cementing it to the lug. The repaired piece still fits into the glove box lid without any further modification, and there should be no further splitting of the plastic, as the aluminum sleeve acts as a band and does not let the plastic split further. Hopefully someone else can use this tip, and not throw away those plastic trim pieces that have split around screw holes. Ben
 

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Thats looking good in green!! Thanks for the tip on the trim piece. I need to order them for my Duster. Where did you get your dash bezels from?
You're doing great work, keep it going!!
 
Thats looking good in green!! Thanks for the tip on the trim piece. I need to order them for my Duster. Where did you get your dash bezels from?
You're doing great work, keep it going!!

Thanks again for the kind words! I imagine the rally dash bezel is probably being made by one manufacturer(?), but are available through the usual outlets like Classic, Year One etc. I purchase mine from Year One, and it included the glove box trim piece as well as the main dash bezel. Very nice pieces, although a couple of the holes don't quite line up for the screws in the front of the piece, around the wiper switch. (see attached picture).And then of course, the problem with the glove box trim attaching points splitting out. But these can all be worked around and the end result is very satisfactory, but not perfect.

When I first thought about going back to the two tone green colors, I wasn't really sure about how I would like the two shades of green together. Now that I see them laid out on the car I really like the result. They really seem to compliment each other......maybe not a 'in your face' bold look like the high impact colors, but never the less very pleasing at least to my eye! Ben.
 

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.....a little more progress this week. Got the doors, hood and trunk lid all hung onto the body for final sanding and hopefully the lower body painted in the next few days.

A couple of shots of the restoration of the VIN plate. Was going to leave it alone.....always a little fear about removing those special rivets!.....but after several coats of paint and the loss of the ink logo, I felt it needed to be done properly! Ben.
 

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Well after a month of final blocking the body is just about ready for final paint...hopefully the end of next week! Getting down to the nitty-gritty in parts for the car....still need to get a radiator, exhaust system, driveshaft and carburetors for the six pack set up....with just about everything else waiting its' turn for installation on the car once it is painted, scuffed and buffed! Ben.
 

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wow, not usually a fab of earthy green colors but this one looks fantastic. Where did you get a vin tag resto kit?
 
Those green colors seem to be a throw back to the 60's and 70's, but are very pleasing to the eye as a two tone combination. The colors look much better in person than they do in a picture! The VIN plate resto kit came from ECS Automotive Concepts in Mo. Their website is www.ecsautomotive.com.
Not only did they have the kit with or without the original style rivets, they also had the VIN data decal that affixes to the drivers' door jamb. Ben
 
a final wet sanding before the F4 paint is shot on the main body. Also a completed wheel and tire and the spare ready for installation. I think I'm beginning to see the end!! Ben.
 

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heading into the paint booth!! Next set of pictures should show completed color! Ben.
 

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