Hi everyone, so I'm going to be slowly posting all the pictures of the restoration of my 1969 Dodge Dart 340 Swinger 4 speed that I did while I was in high school(2012-2014)! Pretty much at the age of 12 I knew I loved cars and I had to have one, my dad grew up in the 60s and all of his friends had mopars and I always loved hearing the stories about their cars(70 rr, 70 hemi challenger) I started working with my dad after school and on weekends trying to earn and save as much money as I could to buy a muscle car! After 4 years I had saved up enough cash to buy myself a project car, but I still hadn't convinced my parents to let me buy one. Long story short my dad and his friends crashed their hemi challenger and they all almost died, so my dad hated muscle cars. After a couple months I convinced my dad to let me buy one and after a bunch of deals falling through I thought I would take one last look online and see what there was for sale. I ended up finding an ad of about 30 mopar muscle cars for sale and I was freaking out looking at the list of cars, especially when I saw my soon to be dart posted. I begged my dad to drive me to the guys house to check out the cars but he said there was no way(was about 12 hours away from us) I was extremely heart broken for about 2 weeks but when I got home from school one day my dad changed his mind and told me we could go look at them. I packed my bags and we left the following day, when we got there I couldn't believe my eyes with the cars that the guy had. Right then and there I knew I was a mopar guy and ended up buying the car that day. The car was a huge project for me since I knew nothing about cars at the time(funny how things change) and out of know where my dad started talking to Ken about getting sheet metal replaced on it since that's what he does for a living and he worked out a deal with him to get the sheet metal done on my car, pretty much what my dad told me when he did that was he wanted me to build this car and he saw how into cars I was even at the age of 16 and knew it wasn't something I was getting to get tired of, so it was a gift from him to me as the rest of my birthday and Christmas presents for the rest of my life...... I started working as much as I could so that I could buy parts for it, I put every penny I earned as a teenager into this car(I'm 20 now) and when I started telling people about my car in school and showing them pictures EVERYONE told me I'd never fix it it, and that is when I really got determined. I told everyone I knew that I would have to done for our high school graduation ceremony and well, that's when the fun really started :-)

Lots of rust and how the car looked when I got it! Factory 340 4 speed, R4 red, tan interior, black top, black stripe, dealership demo, I have the data plate and build sheet

Some of the rust repair Ken did

The car came with fender mounted turn indicators and some thought it'd be easier to zip it them out of the fenders instead of unbolting them.... Shortly after it was repaired Amd came out with new ones..... Other pictures would be July 1st 2012 the day I finally got the car home.....

After working all summer and learning about cars, I started taking apart the car that summer and I actually found a guy that was willing to show me how to do body work and tear apart the rest of it, so off it went and I ended up spending almost all my free time and every weekend at his shop for a year.... First pic would be me(16 years old) and my dad before the car left to the body shop the rest would be it in the shop, and after it was sand blasted...

I like where this is going.... I had my eye on a GTS in high school, the guy told everyone who asked about the car it was not for sale .....except me. (when the owner saw my Duster and spoke Mopars with me he knew this young kid was serious)

I had the cash and went to show my my Dad, but he was concerned about letting me leave it in NY (with my Duster) as I left for the military so I had to pass.

I finally scored a Dart in about 2012 (I since sold it to a friend)

Did your car come from Wildcat

I really like that gts!! And don't you have a thread on here about your green one? I feeling like I did some reading on it when I was building my car and it gave me some motivation!! I'm going to try to space some of the pics out just to keep you guys on your toes:-)

No it didn't, I'm from Canada and a car from the states is just a bit too much of a hassle for me right now..... I bought both my cars from one of my buddies in the kootneys in British Columbia....

Sweet find. My first completed restoration project was a 70 340 swinger in very similar condition. Take your time, be patient.


Took me 10 years before I was able to get this one bought. A future project for now.

I also remember my first 69 Swinger with a 340 and 4 speed at 16 years old. Looks like there's a pattern here.

The first picture

Keep us posted on how it goes

The second picture is my latest 69 GTS M Code

If I can help out anyway let me know, I do have several parts cars.

Good luck with the build, it looks like you are well underway!
I have known Ken for many years and he does top notch work.
I'm from the same city he lives in, and still go to visit him when i go back there to talk Mopars and about the good the old days.
I also have looked at the car you are building several times as well.
Great to see a young gun taking on such a project, and cudos to your parents for helping you out with it.
I'm just curious, but did your dad buy the Hemi Challenger new in Creston, B.C.?
If so, i would love to hear more stories about it, a friend of mine knew him back in the day and told me the story about it. It sounds too similar to be a coincidence.........
Send me a p.m. when you can.
Thanks,
Tom.