1969 Dart Swinger Slant 6, 4Bbl, 4Spd-Restoring it.

Pictures of the restoration Process.

This is what I started with. Notice the tired chrome on the bumpers, The Bumpers were straight as an arrow and rot free. So to the chrome shop they went. Notice the orig. apppiclation of flat black on the core support, that is the way they left the factory.

Notice in this shot the weathered paint and the 2 tone break at the roof line. It was tough to find 2 good 69 tailight bezels. The preveious owner had opted for a 68 left bezel after thay has smashed the orig. one against something. I had to search for 3 years to find a decent left Bezel for My dart.

In this shot you can see the rot free rockers, wich have some slight surface rust after 30 years. Notice the 13X4.5" wheels, and the 7 1/4 rear. They will soon be replaced by 14X5.5" wheels, and 8 3/4" rear.

This picture was taken while I was swapping transmissons, cluthes, and bellhousings. I had the flywheel resurfaced so I wouldn't have to tear it all down again.

This picture illustrates the worst rust spot on the car. The floor under the driver's feet has gone away due to the leaky pinch weld under the winshield. Most people think that the windshield wiper arms leak, but I know it was from the weld under the 'shield. I ran the dart through an automatic car wash with the dash all taken out like so, I found that it was the pinch welds that leak , not the wiper seals, so think twice before you pay shumacker for seals that you might not need. Also notice in this shot the trans. tunnel is of the three on the tree varitey.

This shot lets you see how I had the dash out of the car to pinpiont the leaky winshield in the car wash.

This picture illustrates the patch panel for the floor, and the 4 speed trans. tunnel which are both welded in place and ready for paint. Notice on the trans. tunnel, which is a used piece, how it has that little "loop" welded on it, the reproduction units do not have the loop on them. (fyi)

Underside of the new trans. tunnel and floor pan.

This shot was taken before the 4 speed and the 8 3/4" rear were installed. I had just got done checking the tranny and rear end over. The rear is a 3.23 unit with sure grip.

Here you see the 8 3/4" rear in the car. Now I had to find a drive shaft out of a 4 speed, A-body with an 8 3/4" rear. The 4 speed slant 6 with an 8 3/4 takes the same driveshaft as a V-8.

These next two pictures show the sun damage to the interior. The front and rear seat covers were pretty well gone. Also the dash pad was shot as well as the front half of the floor mat.

These next 2 pictures were taken as I sanded and prepped the car for paint. The sanding was easy because I only had to knock down the original coat of paint from the factory.

This is a shot of the Direct Connection Mopar "Purple Shaft" going in. It is harder to put a cam into a slant 6 rather than a V-8. That thing is long, and I had to remove the bumper to do it.

I think I have one of the last double roller timing chains from Mopar Performance. My friend Bruce at Eastgate Dodge did a nationwide search and netted me 2 of these bad boys!

In this shot I was putting the motor back togther. Notice the red 340 double wound valve springs.

This is a shot of the headers. I like them, but they do not offer a lot of ground clearance. They were free, and they are really for a narrow body dart(63-66). But you live with these things when you are on a budget.