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1973 Dodge Dart Swinger History |
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| Welcome to the history of my pride and
joy. I originally purchased this car in 1978 from my dad's
mechanic for $1,500.00. It was his wife's car and had 41,000
miles on a 318 cu. in. 2bbl. small block Chrysler engine. I had a
lot of fun with it, seeing it was my first car. Allow me to
give you a photographic tour of what was then, and what I did to
end up with what is now. |
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| Below: This is the original body and paint
and yes, it had hub caps when I bought it. |
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| Tacky huh? Well if you think this is bad,
look below and see the "power plant" |
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| Not a pretty sight, now is it? Well as time
went by, some changes were made. First, of course, came the body.
Below you will see the first paint job. Take note that I already
had removed most of the rust attracting moldings and trims. |
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| You see, it did have hub caps! Now we get
into some major body work. Below you see the first color change
to "Mercedes-Benz" paint called "Thistle
Green" and note the new "Sand Gray" padded vinyl
roof. This gave the car a look of elegance. The rims helped too. |
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| The car stayed like this for a few years with
minor engine modifications, but nothing too extreme. When I got
fed up looking at the same car everyday, instead of selling, I
decided for another paint change. Below you see the result. |
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| No, I did not drive it in the winter!!! This
is the day it came back from the body shop and was put to sleep
right away. The color was "limousine black" retaining
the same top and rims. What a difference a color makes!!! This
gave the car a "mean" look. The one drawback was that
the "cops" thought so too!!! Talk about getting
tickets!!! Well, you live, you learn. I kept this color for
a few more years until I once again got tired of the look, so
guess what? Yup, paint shop here we come!!! |
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| So what about this combination? We have the
"Cragars", the "Goodrich T/A's", the dual
exhaust, the "Hooker Headers", the "Purple
Shaft", the 340 cu.in. engine with all the frills. I liked
this the best so far. So did the cops.( ha, ha ). The car
remained as shown up until August of 1996 when someone did a nice
vandalism job on it. Thanks to my insurance broker for suggesting
I have evaluations done yearly. The damages exceeded $3,000.00.
So here we go again, back into the shop. What you see below is
the final product, and I'm leaving it this color for good!!! |
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| Welcome to "Plum Crazy"!!! This is
my favorite to date. This is an original Chrysler color from the
late sixties and early seventies. Now I can "honestly"
say that I love my car!!! You will also note the lack of the
vinyl top. Looks like a different car once again. The point
being, if you are tired of looking at the same car, day in and
day out, give it a paint job and you will end up spending less
money than you would should you decide to buy a new car, and have
yourself a "new" car to enjoy for many years to come. |
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