I bought it for $450.00 and completely sandblasted the entire undercarriage. I was young and foolish and let some HACK do the body work and paint. I switched everything that I needed from the Swinger. The paint job was far from perfect. I had ordered a factory stripe kit but never put it on due to the shoddy paint job and the fact that it would be re-painted eventually. I drove it the whole summer of 1988 and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. It never broke down on me once. The motor was the original '69 340 and was tired but it still had some balls. The 727 Torqueflite was also original but was slipping. I pulled the works at the end of the summer, sold the motor and trashed the tranny (two things I will always regret). I put the car into storage for the next 7 years and slowly (I mean slowly!) collected the proper parts I needed to do a great job on it the next time around. Last summer ('95) I had the choice of vacationing in British Columbia or investing some much needed dollars into my Dart. Let's just say I didn't go to B.C.
I moved to Brandon, Manitoba, two years ago and the car was still in Thunder Bay, Ontario. I contacted a reputable body shop and paid them $2000.00. They painted it an original 1969 B-5 Bright metallic Blue and I had already put a new vinyl top on in 1988. I only had 2 weeks vacation and the body shop was 5 days late finishing my car. I put the car back together in my brother's shop in 9 days with a lot of help from my cousin and a couple of buddies (and a lot of beer). The car was a rolling shell with only the trunk lid, hood, doors and fenders. That's it! No motor, tranny, interior, dash, instrument panel, brakes, or wiring harness. In 9 days I put in/on: S/S leaf springs, a new posi rear end, new brakes/lines/wheel cylinders/master cylinder/hoses, complete grille assenbly, wheel moldings, both wiring harnesses, glass, carpets, interior panels, intrument panel, dash--you name it, I bolted it on. The motor was a 1969 block and it only had the pistons, crank, block, rods in it. It was punched out .40 over. The heads were rebuilt, shaved with all new hardware. I changed the car over to a four speed and added a "Hay's" street/strip clutch, pressure plate and throw out bearing.
Among the other "goodies" I've added are: Holley aluminum street dominator intake (which I hand polished), Holley 650 carb, Blackjack headers, complete front suspension, pinion snubber, Cloyes double roller timing chain, custom Hurst aluminum shifter attached to a Hurst super shifter, Electronic ignition conversion kit, Accell super coil etc. etc. etc. I can honestly say that I've replaced every nut and bolt on the car. Call it love, call it stupidity (my girlfriend calls it stupidity), I just love my DART. I have kept and cateloged every receipt I've ever spent on the car. So far I'm up to $17,000.00 but I'm very close to being finished. It should be ready to go by the end of May '96, I hope. I'll drop you a line and tell you how it flies.
I continuously get the thumbs up and "nice car" which (of course) makes me feel pretty good. It's nice not to see any other cars like mine around, i.e. Mustang, Camaro, Firebird, Cutlass, etc. It's also nice to know that I can blow most of them off the road at the push of the gas pedal. The other night I was doing my usual 11:00pm cruise and a 1995 Corvette pulled up beside me and gave his (wanna be muscle car) a couple of revs. I promply proceeded to blow his doors off, not once but off three sets of lights. I'm sure he could smoke me out on the highway but in the 1/4 mile, "I don't think so."