1972 Dart Swinger Project

I have a number of more personally important car projects that I have in the dream pipeline. However I felt as much confidence as I have in my own abilities, I suspected a budget "practice" project first might be useful to work thru some of the skills, lessons, etc needed. This bought on ebay, sight unseen nearby plain jane, dime a dozen, 1972 Swinger fit that bill nicely. A Pro tour/track day car was the goal ( i really dislike the "pro tour" moniker, seems its more for show then go, IMO). Any and all questions and criticism are welcomed, but with some basis, and that helps everybody.
Pic #1 I picked up the car, pictured in Orlando, and at the first gas stop, I had to remove the hideous rear pedestal trunk mounted wing.

2 Car had rust, but was complete, and was pushed in just behind drivers door from a previous accident

3 Smushed in quarter

4 After frame shop

5 We quickly dropped in a 360 with headers however it had a 7.25 rear end, it was only going to be a short lived joy ride

6 The 1972 360 was built by Dan "No Dyno" Davorak, with Hughes ported iron heads, SS 2.02's, Crower Hyd Cam,
Lunati chromed cast crank, internally balanced, Fluidamper, 9:1 Cast pistons, a real mild build for street.
Dual MP intake 650 VS, valley tray, windage tray, The already built SB 413 EFI Tunnel ram roller E head ported
rocket motor comes later.

7 The 904 was rebuilt with some upgrades, added a deep pan, and got a little carried away
with milling away excess weight from filter extension.

8 The Front spindles where polished. shot peened, cryo treated and yellow zinc plated.

9 The Wilwood 11.5" front brakes installed, with Alum Hubs and long wheel studs, brakes were grossly undersized by my error,
will be upgraded soon to 13" rotors sitting on shelf, aligned with max caster and negative camber, front tire is 265/17

10 Front frame needed slight clearancing for new UCA

11 I believe these are firm feel, very nice

12 LCA with stiffening plates, and most here likely know how little regard I have for this "following the herd" mod. Never again.
I did add a reinforcing washer to sway bar tab

13 The firm Feel grease lower pivots, nice, used Urethane bushings everywhere, added alum brake struts

14 I cutout the rear trunk for new fuel cell and other mods

15 SS battery tray, sunk into floor

16 Right side inner rear frame gusset, for new fuel cell cross member, reinforce relocated rear spring shackle, and reinforce
rear cage down bar. Plug welds hidden by added cross member

17 Drivers side

18 SS Fuel cell container, to be located front to re, with protective white wrap

19 Rear OEM cross member gets lighter

20 To be added fuel cell rear cross member, with protector bar

21 front added fuel cell cross member, additional gusset added to upper shock mounting point

22 Looking rearward with cross members in place, pass side trunk floor yet to be fitted

23 Underside rear Bat box and unfinished rear Pass side fuel cell mount

24 Locating cage main hoop floor mounts and installing frame connectors, thru the floor, 2x3x .083

25 I like my seating position way back, there will not be a rear seat, and best location for roll bar seemed to be as pictured.

26 Front floor was getting a little thin, so we expected to patch, and while in the area, i added the welded an oval tube
thru the OEM TB cross member for the SS fuel supply and return lines, to facilitate routing, and be away from the ground.
I also welded up any internal OEM gussets i could reach

27 I added a holed gusset to support cage down bar base plate, and welded my 1/8" base plate to that

28 RF Floor replace, pseudo mini torque box and roll bar down bar mounting plate

29 Floor install with weld lugs

30 Dr Side Plate, I removed floor to able to weld directly to OEM under frame and added holed gusset

31 Cage base plate in place and extra internal OEM frame gusset added inside OEM frame

32 Mini torque box/front down roll bar brace frame gusset

33 Mini Tub cut out

34 Inner wheelhouse mini tub extension

35 Spot weld extension

36 Mini tub welding complete

37 Minoi tub inner fender filler panel install

38 Frame cut, contrary to others I feel little strength is added to the 1/8" steel replacement mounting box by using
the OEM 18g?? steel outer flange, additionally, it makes for a tougher weld design. so I completely removed it.

39 Frame cut, contrary to others I feel little strength is added to the 1/8" steel replacement mounting box by using
the OEM 18g?? steel outer flange, additionally, it makes for a tougher weld design. so I completely removed it

40

41 Driveshaft Safety hoop

42 Main Hoop roll bar mockup 4130

43 8.75" Back brace lightened

44 Housing narrowed, with back brace tacked , inspection/filler hole, also note, this detail almost caught me, but if you look closely,
you will see i had to change the angle of the ends of the back brace to miss the shock package i chose, and the shocks
are not large diameter

45 Internal oil control plates

46 Internal mounting flange gussets

47 Custom narrowing jig, with SS 1.5"D x 72" alignment bar and pucks. I made this jig, which does not "walk on water", but since I have maybe 4? rears to narrow, it made sense to me, I would be willing to make it available to other reputable vetted nearby mopar members on a limited term basis, as a favor.

48 A doctored/sacrificed 741 center to allow internal access to caps when welding

49 Rear housing /Flange pre weld match up

50 What you do not want to see for alignment, mostly due IMO to back brace welding, GO SLOW, it is difficult to correct

51 I always liked the Chaparral 2J "sucker" car, So I wanted as much rear weight rearward, I am abiding by no rules,
I decided to install two oil coolers in the rear trunk area , exhausting thru the rear lip of the fiberglass truck lid,
beneath the rear spoiler. One cooler for motor oil ,other trans, when I go manual in future, the one will be way over kill.
There is a replaceable filter under the housing viewable from rear, seen without curved deflector finished.

52 Front view twin coolers

53 Fuel cell, fuel pump. filter and plumbing installed

54 Remote PH-6 Filter and pre screen , mounted thru trunk floor for easy changing, battery, and shut off switch.
Plan is for additional with external shutoff switch for track safety

55

56 Drivers side Diff pump cooler and filter

57 Interior plumbing of accumulator, one way valve, solenoid, and fire system, and diff cooler lines and temp gauge, Remember, no rules

58 Thru the firewall engine oil feed, will have secondary hot oil rupture cover added full length

59 Rear Axle installed, with MW 45mm axles and large ford sealed bearings shocks inverted, composite springs, Alum MP 8.75, sure grip, billet caps, 3.55, MW glued alum 1350 DS, directed oil cooler

60 Assembled, without left trunk extension. The diff cooler will be horizontal in the rear most part center inside the trunk,
exhausting thru the truck floor, just above the u bar protecting the fuel cell, v likely a low pressure aero area, caused by the fuel cell,
305/17's

61 This temporary muffler location will be moved back to alongside the fuel cell, the springs will be gold foil covered,
the mufflers will be placed vertically, and also heat wrapped, they will be SS.

62

63 SA Son, pondering installation of hydraulics , I think

64 LR Profile stance

65 Interior w/Auto, OEM dash, street seats

66 Windshield rust rot to be repaired

67 Windshield frame patched

68 Roof pillar rust rot

69 Roof Pillar rust cutout

70 Pillar welded patch

71 soon we be painting, this is a 20x20 tent frame, indoors, covered by clear visqueen, fed by a filtered 48" fan, and exhausted to,
I should not say

72 We Have Orange Imron

73 Installing a fiberglass spoiler with brake ducts to a fiberglass bumper, all radiator air is thru center cutout front license plate area,
grill will be blocked by hinged clear lexan panel

74 Rocky mountain Dash, filled up, Rocky mountain closed in 2006?

This build is looking really good! Keep up the good work.

Awesome build and great work! Keep up the progress

How wide is that rearend?
How wide are those rims?

Its been awhile since this chapter was closed (2004) on the car, I'll research the housing dimensions. The rear wheels are AR's model 405's, 17x11, custom made with if I remember correctly 5.25" BS, likely a stock number nowadays. Fronts are 17x8 4.5BS w/265's. I was unimpressed with 3 of the 4 wheels has they had IMO excessive runout, new. Unfortunately I noticed after too long of time passed for return as an option . Check your runout.

Nice project!

Cool build! Is there anywhere we can see the rest of the build?

75
So this is the EFI TR going in the car. I made a few changes, added a burst relief spring valve, did a little lightening, as they are rather porky, added two paired rear head water inlet ports, which I am not sure is anything more then following the herd, I epoxied/insulated internally front water manifold crossover, I cut out the cam valley cover and replaced with a Ti sheet metal cover( saves weight and insulated better then other metals). pic shows CF honeycomb which i decided not to use. The EFI plumbing shows fuel supply crossovers front and rear, front crossover having an upward arch to trap air, to provide an injector impulse cushion(?) for the fuel pressure Feed is driver side, Return is Pass side.

76

This is my mid mount Alt and bracket

77

This is my EFI 58-2 timing reluctor wheel

It will get safety wired.

I drilled extra radial mounting holes so it can be indexed as needed.

78

I have my Diff cooler exhausting right above my tag. Trying to clean that area up, and decided to remove center lower notch from the OEM bumper, getting bumper chrome straight is tough, I'm working at it. I had the chrome chemically stripped by the chrome shop before starting on the bumpers. I started with two used old bumpers, one was a donor for grafting, picked the straightest one, , but it had a little backside rust I disregarded. Unfortunately the rust turned out to be very deep and when welding and I blew right thru the bumper, you can see the two rust holes on the right, bumper in pic is upside down, another SNAFU..
I tacked the bumper to a 12" steel I beam to keep everything straight..

#79

So in the previous pic #51 you can see the two trans/oil cooler fans/ducts that suck thru the floor axle arch and then exhaust into the trunk. This heated air exits thru three opening, the two CF vents shown in the trunk lid, and another center vent downwards thru the trunk floor where the Diff cooler is located.. A current hurdle is figuring optimum rear wing strut location in relation to the vents, I don't seem to have much leeway on the wing strut locations, so I might have relocate the two CF vents. The modded bumper previously posted here will play a part in this wing strut location decision while I'm welding on it, if it needs a pair of strut tabs added, etc.

#80

A custom sized Kirkey #45 Road Race seat. I expect to install install a camlock 6 pt belt. I really dislike the color green, but think best to use a color contrasting belt with drivers fire suit, so I'm thinking bright green belts to fit the cars color. Car will be in sun when only at the track or street driving.

Hope I still fit the seat.

#81
Got my rear diffuser project underway. I'm shooting for a double diffuser, meaning effectively it will have useful air flow above and below, and will try for some proper exhaust outlet positioning to give a "blown" effect. We'll see. Below is the center foam form plug that will effectively wrap the fuel cell. It is pictured upside down looking at the rear/exit. The forward bump is to help re attach the air flow around the 8.75". All the 2lb foam will go away, its not structural, the layup will be epoxy CF/Kelvar, with needed vertical strakes to promote vortice flow. The 2lb urethane foam form is both easy and hard to work with. Haven't decide if the finished diffuser will be 1 or 3 attached pieces. I have got some issues with heat on the epoxy because of exhaust routing on the side diffuser wings. This diffuser will integrate with the modded rear bumper previously posted. Regardless, until it sees a wind tunnel test, it be only for looks no matter how much I think I know.

#82

So I got the basic center shell done. It came out just OK. because the foam plug was not solid, it was hard to do a proper vac bag composite, so I did hand layup. If I did it again, I would go 4lb solid foam (rather then build up) and vac bag.The pic is a test fit, I need to trim the front around the rear axle travel arc, and the whole shell elevates another 2+" upward.
I'm waiting on the hi temp epoxy to arrive to build the side wing diffusers ( they both will have slightly steeper more robust curvature) that cover the exhaust/mufflers.

Its coming in trimmed at around 8lbs, which is pretty much on target, its the most robust piece since it will likely get the most abuse from being the lowest and longest from road debris, curb scrapes, etc. The project was targeted for 25lbs with the two larger side wing diffusers, which are as mentioned previously larger.
The trade off was the weight is all behind the rear axle for improved F/R balance, and its all much below COG height.

#83

Here are the two fuel cell side diffuser tunnel "plugs", in this pic you are viewing the bottom, and the right side is the rear, and the flared ends will contain openings for the dual exhaust outlets.
Difficult to spot, but their main flair curve is greater then the fuel cell cover.

#84

While I am on this end of the car, I made up a 7075 Billet rear on track recovery tow strap mount, it will retain a 7" long by 2" wide figure 8 nylon strap, hardware is Ti, mounts directly to frame rail.

#85

Main diffuser strakes, they will be trimmed to approx orange line, to not extend beyond bumper outline.

#86

Positioning Diffuser right side main tunnel

#87
So before I get this diffuser too far along, I need to get the exhaust routed and installed, as the diffuser wraps around a lot of it.
The SS mufflers pictured are straight thru 2.5" the offset end is the out, the center is the in. I chopped off the slip fit connectors, and turned down (shortened) the V clamp fittings to shorten the whole assembly as much as possible. The mufflers will be installed vertically instead of the normal flat orientation. I expect to have a pair of slip on custom heat blankets made up, since the mufflers are so close to high temp epoxy CF and the fuel cell. There will be vehicle speed limited air flow surrounding the blanketed muffler when installed.

Pondered which end (Male/Female) of the V clamp flange should go on which end (in/Out). You can view my decision.

#88

This is the rear axle hump pipe mock up, the welded v clamp end goes towards muffler. I like the V clamps, but tough to mock up by yourself, takes two hands to install v clamp, and at least another to hold the pipe.

Next time I will use only pipe and elbows from a single manufacturer, as the slight differences in dim are an irritant.

#89
So back to the diffuser, trying you get the side diffusers sorted out. The blue tape indicates approx outline of rear mounted battery and oil filter, the orange line the air channel. Form follows function is my normal MO. I hitting all my targets here, but the visual size of the outside vertical flat panels is not favorable. I'm debating rolling in the top of each outside vertical panel, and have it mate up with the bottom of the OEM bottom fender lip, to keep the OEM body lines and reduce diffuser visual impact. That would IMO have little aero negative effect, although the flat current panel pictured is the best. Its only more work, but it might look better proportionally if I make the change. I don't want to try it and then have to restore it obviously. We'll see.

#90 further progress, the exhaust cutouts are next step

#91 So I am finally getting around to upgrading the front very undersized brakes shown pic #9 years back, and a few other related items.
These are 13.06x1.25" 60 curved vane slotted full floating carbide coated cyro rotors, with 6 piston radial thermolock SS piston calipers.
The spindles DI 2" dropped cyro plated, with Dr Diff Alum big bearing hubs with ARP studs.
The wheel is now 18x10, with 295/35-18 tire, square.
In the pic I am fabbing the CF cooling ductwork.
The TR has very minimal wheel clearance in this application.

I am glad to report the FBI, DEA, ATF, and others on 6/18/24 broke into my locked fully legal storage Semi Trailer and apparently with some evidence accessed the OEM VIN still attached to the loose re-clustered dash shown in pic #74 above, the rear trunk lid drain channel and the engine compartment when they finally figured out the hood was lift off with 4 hood pins and took no further action.
I am now safe to assume I believe the car I have possessed and worked on pictured here for over 20 years is now 100% legal.