keith9291
Well-Known Member
I originally bought this 71 Swinger with the intention of fixing what little rust there was. Which was about 2" of rust showing on both lower quarter panels and the passenger side fender has a little dap of rust on the bottom corner. The car also had alot of parking lot dings. The car had 77,*** miles on it, not alot of creature comforts except A/C and power steering and an 8 3/4 rear. Once I got the rust repair under way, 07 or 07 Monster Mopar weekend was just around the corner. While attending the show I stopped by the Hensley booth and spoke with Ken and his wife. They had a kit put together called 318 power pack, it was new intake, carb, Cam, and heads for $1600 bucks. Since my 318 was originally set up for regular gas I figured it would be a great upgrade to go along with my fixed rust. The more I thought about it the more I figured it would be crazy not to do the bottom end at the same time. I contacted Hensley Performance and talked to them about doing the work. After speaking with them a few times via telephone Ken informed me he had a heck of a deal on a 360 street/strip motor that could be had for a good price. I guess to make a long story short I have gone a bit farther than I planned. I ended up taking car down to metal installing US cartools frame connectors changing paint and top color, new drive train, new axles, new 3rd member, 4 wheel disk brakes, I upgraded the front to the larger rotors and rebuilt entire front end and had Phoenix Powder Coating coat alot of the front suspension parts. I changed the power steering box to a later model A body box as well as pitman arm idler arm and steering linkage. Here are some progress pics so far, the last pic is a "open rear" and "rear air" bezels that I had chrome plated and had the graphics applied after wards, the pieces came black with white lettering. I am just waiting on new wheels and tires at this point. I cant believe how far i have come and how close I am to being able to drive it again. Had all the chorme polished and the front headlight bezels rechromed. This was suppose to be the car I used for daily driver as I finished my other Mopars, there is no worse feeling than takin a nice driving car with nothing wrong and tearing it apart.....
