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'72 Swinger

5K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  calemist 
#1 ·
The short summary: 451, ported iron heads, .654 Mini-Express cam (reground for .652, 272@.050), Lakewood, 4-speed, Centerforce DF, 8-3/4 (3.91), minitubs/relocated springs by previous owner, 295/50R15, dual 3" exhaust with X-pipe, fuel cell in trunk, homemade instrument cluster, Power Shot nitrous plate.

I bought the bare block in the '90's while going to school in Pittsburgh... got the engine together in '07, the stripped rolling shell in Minneapolis shortly thereafter. 21+ years later, including a couple of very bad attempts at painting it myself (and two years in paint jail), it's finally together and I'm in shakedown mode. Various leaks to fix, rear springs were too flat so I got new ones... hope to get the front end aligned in a week or two so I can start driving it on the road!

I don't plan to ever start with a bare shell again... had to make every single brake line and fuel line, design and make my own wiring harness nose to tail (and there are a LOT of wires even in a simple "vintage" Dart). Still beats paying a shop $50-100k... any fool can write checks but there is great satisfaction in doing it yourself :)
 

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#3 ·
I see you have a different username here :) Was wondering if you'd seen my posts on Moparts.

I actually just got it on the road before this Christmas (2019)... and promptly blew the 8-3/4 within 5 miles because I forgot to put the lube in, back in 2013 when it went in the car! Now waiting for Dr. Diff to send the chunk back, a $600+ mistake.

Meanwhile over the holidays I made a set of subframe connectors as illustrated in the tech pages here, and also have a pair of aluminum heads at Dwayne Porter's being massaged. Should be fun if I don't make any other stupid errors! ;)
 
#6 ·
A very unusual 74 degree sunny winter day here in the Ozarks... the chunk is back in (WITH oil this time), six-pack hood on (paint is a poor match, will have that fixed later) and Caltrac copies installed.
So I fired it up, and drove a few miles up and down the back roads breaking in the rear gears, and nothing blew up, seized or caught fire :) Dirt roads are just not the place for any kind of full-throttle testing!
 
#7 ·
Got a fiberglass six-pack hood from AAR (Stinger). Had it painted by the same guy who did the fenders, same paint brand and mix, etc.... not even close to a color match. He's not interested in making it right - will go back to the OTHER guy who painted the body (which does match)!

Then I found that the light hood springs are too light for a bolt-on hood (28 lb). Don't feel like taking the fenders off - or working in that confined space behind the splash shield. So I use a 2x4 to hold it up :) Anyway it saved a bunch of weight on the front end.

I spent weeks dialing in the carb trying to improve the low-speed manners.
It's hard to tune the secondaries on public roads - it goes from 50 to 80 in 4th quicker than I can read the gauges! It's pretty zippy :)
 

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