High quality Swiss made A - Bodies

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71Duster said:
Have you ever had a chance to compare build quality on any imported cars to the swiss built ones?

I love the interior differences especially the vintage recarro seats. Being of a generation that grew up with only the metric system in what is now a metric country I really like the gauges.

Too bad the 67' B-bodies where never a thing over there I'd love to find a metric speedometer.
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The quality of the Swiss cars is way better, if I compare my Swiss Demon with my Duster from Hamtramck. Nothing rattles, the ride is smooth in the Demon, the Duster is nervous, loud and noisy, but I love them both for what they are.
The Swiss cars were manufactured by hand and - as I wrote above - nearly 150 hours for assembly were reserved for each car.

Another picture of the unique Swiss interior:

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This is too cool! This is all 100% new to me. Thank you for sharing this -Marvin-!
 
I recently bought a 73 dart sport 340 that was a swiss export car. Mine has the grab bars added in the ceiling as well as one on the passenger side door. It also has a hard plastic "pouch" mounted on the driver side door. H3 headlights, weirdo turn signal lever, recaro bucket seats. Very interesting car.
 
cliff guinand said:
Whoa!!! '73 Dart Sport 340 eh? Interesting... Let's see some pics along with some history.
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I just bought it a few days ago so I only know what I was told. It was exported to Switzerland and at some point imported back in. All of the custom parts are there except for the instrument cluster which was swapped out for a mph unit. I have a nos KM speedo on the way but still need the bezel. The old 340 runs great. The body has some rust, the worst of it being the passenger side rocker is shot. I have a friend who does upholstry who I plan on having recover the recaro seats.
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Very interesting, a radio delete car?

On this Schinznach Tag is the 'plant' mentioned, different to mine.
And it carries a standard US color code (Farb - No), my Demon has a Swiss color code

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And cars built in Schinznach do not have a 'normal' tag as this Dart.
This combination of two tags You can only see on imported cars.

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That is cool!

Have only seen one of those cars in real life,about 15 years ago here in Sweden it was a 70-72 red Duster,i think it had "Valiant sport" on badges on its front fenders.
I remember its recarobuckets and 200km/h speedometer,i believe it had a 8 3/4, manual brakes, manual steering, a 318 and a consoleshifted 727.
 
Im not really into the 73 pointy beak cars but the fact that it was a H code and the unique export options made me have to have it. Im in the process of a total redo of the brake system. I plan on getting it mechanically sound and putting some miles on it.
The car has some rust that needs to be addressed. The passenger side rocker needs total replacement.
 
MoparMike1974 said:
Im not really into the 73 pointy beak cars but the fact that it was a H code and the unique export options made me have to have it. Im in the process of a total redo of the brake system. I plan on getting it mechanically sound and putting some miles on it.
The car has some rust that needs to be addressed. The passenger side rocker needs total replacement.
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You are probably already aware of it and im not sure if it applies to Swiss made cars but it may be worth mentioning anyway, atleast on US built export cars there are atleast two different speedometers available, 200Km/h and 240Km/h, my 73 Duster built for export in the US has the 240km/h speedo,but i have seen and own an extra 200km/speedo aswell the later version seems to be a whole lot more comon.
 
1Fast340 said:
You are probably already aware of it and im not sure if it applies to Swiss made cars but it may be worth mentioning anyway, atleast on US built export cars there are atleast two different speedometers available, 200Km/h and 240Km/h, my 73 Duster built for export in the US has the 240km/h speedo,but i have seen and own an extra 200km/speedo aswell the later version seems to be a whole lot more comon.
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My 72 Swiss Demon and my 71 Export Duster have both a 240 kph speedo, one with rallye dash one in the standard dash
 
I bought a 240km speedo for it. I will probably never install it but wanted to have it if I ever wanted to go back original with it.
 
Got finished going through the entire car and its now on the road. I did the entire brake system, new fuel tank and line and new tires. New TTI exhaust on the way along with a dash pad. My interior guy is going to make new covers for the Recaro buckets and the rear seat. I will post pics of them when they are done.
I went ahead and installed the NOS Km speedo to keep it original.
 
Seats are recovered, my guy did a great job on them.
Now I have to wait for the snow to melt so I can put on the exhaust, new carpet, seats and new intake/carb.

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Thats very very cool !! Did they really assembled the car in 150 hours ??? Its gonna take me months to build one !!!!
 
143 hours on an assembly line for one car is quite long I think. It sounds near to handcrafted...

Some older pics of the Schinznach assembly line:

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...and yes, even Beetles (on Dodge trucks!)were assembled there:

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I have a friend who has been doing upholstry work for about 25 years. I had him make them up. I can check with him and see if he can make a set of covers for you. I think he told me he saved one of the original covers.
If you wanted to come to MD and drop them off im sure he would be happy to do them for you. Its not a bad drive from DE.
 
MoparMike1974 said:
I have a friend who has been doing upholstry work for about 25 years. I had him make them up. I can check with him and see if he can make a set of covers for you. I think he told me he saved one of the original covers.
If you wanted to come to MD and drop them off im sure he would be happy to do them for you. Its not a bad drive from DE.
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Where at in Maryland and we need the seats we want first .. if you could message me more info .
 
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