Park Slope Swinger

PARK SLOPE SWINGER

I was a block from my house when I walked past this sweet beauty:

This is a 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger in Honey Gold. It sure looks like Honey Gold or honey mustard. I want to dip a chicken nugget right into it.

I love this car as I do all Darts from the larger 1960 original through 1976 when the baton was passed to the Aspen (the newer Darts share only a name with these cooler, earlier examples).

Pinpointing the year on a Dart means paying attention to the grill. This (the 3rd) generation lasted from '66-'76 with the body pretty much untouched. The grills changed every year.

Chances are excellent that this is equipped with the 225 Slant Six cylinder engine though it might have the 318 V8. Both are legendary for their durability, eclipsing anything else on the road by a solid 100,000 miles. It wasn't until the improved Japanese imports of the '80s and the Diesel VWs powered by Mercedes engines that there were other cars good for several hundred thousand miles.

This seems to be a lovely original example. The dot of rust in front of the rear wheel is almost reassuring in its honesty. While we're on this angle dig that intensity of the concave rear window!

Here we have one of my favorite details: the fiber optic powered turn signal indicator that does double duty in reminding you that you left your signal on as well as giving a heads up that you need to change the bulb.

This is a pretty sweet original interior! The drivers side is almost always torn at least a bit.

From those under dash vents we can see that this ride is outfitted with air conditioning. There is also a radio in the dash. The '72 Dart sales brochure brags that it was the first year am/fm was available in a Dart! Lower your expectations folks and you'll rarely be disappointed.

That single exhaust means that this is not equipped with the awesome 340 V8. Cars that have that motor are highly sought after today.

This design pleases me with its folded paper lines and clean overall look. The last Dart convertible was built in 1969 which is a shame. When you see the flat body lines going right past the roof to the front it seems a natural drop top shape.

I guess the paint is original! The fact that this sweet ride was sold new in Brooklyn and remains in the borough to this day is remarkable.

The vinyl top is immaculate. Once moisture gets underneath it will rot the metal underneath. This must have been garaged its whole life.

This was a compact car in 1972 America, and to this day it is a very parkable size.

The Swinger name with its awesome flower dotting the I was the name given to all coupes.

Well there we have it - one of my favorite cars of all time. Over the years I've owned both a '72 Plymouth Duster (a twin sibling to this ride) and a '74 Dart. Both had the 225 Slant Six and both were spectacular cars. My Duster was the greatest value of all time. I bought it for $60 (yes SIXTY DOLLARS) and delivered pizzas with it. It paid for itself in a shift or two. Then I had to replace the transmission with a $300 unit. Once the new trans was installed I drove it from Rhode Island to New York every weekend as well as trips to Philly, Baltimore, New Hampshire and Maine. Somebody ran a stop sign and smashed into it but their insurance company gave me $700 for it and I sold the wreck for an additional hundred. Fantastic cars!

PS - the Duster was gold with a green faux snakeskin roof from the factory!

2 cool cars with an identity crisis

NOTICEABLE VERSUS OUTLANDISH

I'm bringing us back to the halcyon days of Summer when I found the following 2 rides roosting in Moosic, Pennsylvania. That's Moosic like "moo-zic" as opposed to moose, ick.

Get a load of this color! What we have here is a 1971-1972 Pontiac Ventura II in Buccaneer Red. This is basically a Pontiac Nova in an early case of badge engineering. The Chevy Nova was so popular that GM introduced almost identical versions in each of their divisions. The Ventura was first, followed by the Buick Apollo and Oldsmobile Omega in '73.

With the quad split grill this is my favorite of the faux Novas. This grill only lasted for the first 2 years. 1973 brought a split grill in 2 larger segments.
The rear side windows come to a point in the rear which means this is a standard coupe with a trunk. Beginning in '73 these were available as a hatchback. You can identify hatchbacks by the rear window being squared off. They even offered a tent that attached to the open hatchback for camping! Those are so rare it's almost like they never existed.

This hood is Ventura-specific and helps to make the trademark Pontiac pointy schnoz look like it belongs on the car. The Nova, Apollo, and Omega all had a single raised line going down the center. Under the hood lurks either the 250 inline 6 or 350 V8. There was a sporty Sprint option that allowed for the 307 V8 as well.

The "II" suffix alluded to the fact that there was an earlier, full size Ventura in the '60s. was dropped after 1972 even though this compact version soldiered on through '77.
Enough with that flashy but correct ride, let's get goofy!

Yeesh!
This sickly looking tough guy is a 1967 Dodge Dart in the unmistakable 1970-only color Sublime Green. The color was one of the High Impact range offered from '69-'72. The High Impact line included Panther Pink, Plum Crazy, Go Mango, and Top Banana as well as others.

I think a 1967 Dart 2 door is a great car on its own. This person obviously wanted a Hemi Dart which was only offered in 1968. However the turn signals are round on the '68 and slightly inset from the location of those above. Who could blame the owner for making a tribute? There were only 80 total Hemi Darts produced and they were reportedly the fastest muscle car of all time. Hemi Darts had the hood with massive scoop as seen above. The hood and fenders were fiberglass, bumpers aluminum, and doors acid dipped to save weight.

Other weight saving details included the omission of a back seat, no arm rests, no window cranking mechanism, and thinner glass. They were sold with no warranty specifically for "supervised acceleration trials" (that's drag racing to you rubes). From the factory the Hemi Dart was good for a 10 second quarter mile at 130 mph!
If you want to be noticed this is a great way to go I suppose. You're setting the bar high though as you'd better have an earth shattering beast of an engine under the hood to back up the look. I have to say the black wheels and blackwall tires look pretty great on this beast.
Well that's that. Summer's coming people just hold on a bit longer!

East Village Swinger

EAST VILLAGE SWINGER

I was walking through the East Village with a couple of friends recently when I stumbled upon this smart little beauty:

Sweet! This is a 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger in Dark Green Poly with a black vinyl roof. Scratches and scuffs aside this car is in spectacular original condition. Even the stance is correct as if it's sitting up on a new set of springs. I love this car!

The Dart was the compact offering from Dodge from the mid-'60s through the late '70s. Pinpointing the vintage on these rides is easy as the facade changed every year. The 1969 Dart sported a grill with a full-width horizontal central bar. The year after retained this split grill but the word Dodge wasn't written on the hood as it is here(it was however on the right side of the hood but the letters were small and non-script). 

How many cars have a facial expression? There is a subtley tilted eyebrow line giving the headlights a determined look that I think is great. That rust patch and the small scratches around the grill opening are reassuring as far as I'm concerned. The finish is original from the factory so there are no secrets lurking beneath a newer paint job. 

I love the old script writing of this emblem.

Remind yourself that this is a compact car when you look through the back window and realize that the trunk starts behind that back seat and runs all the way to the bumper!
With the slight bump-up at the beginning of the quarter panel and that bodyside folded paper crease it's easy to miss the subtle styling cues that make this a true classic.

Oh yeah it's 1970! In case you'd forgotten that how about we dot the I with a flower pulled from the Laugh-In set?
The Swinger was an option package on paper but in reality every 2 door Dart in '70 carried that name. Supposedly you could get a 4 door Swinger but very few left the factory.

The top edge of the fender leading into the quarter panel, angling down the sides, and continuing onto the bumper is just neat. Mopar as a company consisted of Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth in 1970 and you could find similar signatures across all levels of luxury. The mighty Imperial had many things in common with the lowly Dart even though they were meant for vastly different demographics.

This concave rear window was not cheap to produce but does a great job of making the overall look of this ride dynamic. With a perfectly flat angles rear window this would be cool but not nearly as distinctive. The fact that the hinge side of the trunk lid apes this curve shows that this wasn't a last minute idea tacked on to the model.

Looks like somebody liked the new rythym and blues quartet at some point.

The overall forward leaning arrow shape gives this rather square car some motion. The wheel wells trailing off in the rear adds to this.

Original funky hubcaps sporting the Mopar Fratzog in the center (the Fratzog was created in-house and given this made-up name by one of the designers. It is meaningless and was probably a flip comment but it stuck from '62 through '81!).

This Dart has a nice selection of options including the Music Master AM radio and air conditioning. However the one ultra rare option on display here is that steering wheel. This is the holy grail for Dart restorers; a 1970-specific, Dart-specific, Rim-Blow wheel. Basically the back side of the ring is one big button so if you're driving and need to use the horn you can squeeze the rim wherever you happen to have your hands already (smashing the center will still work too). This was a lauded option for the 'cudas and Chargers of the day but they looked different than this one. The fact that there is the cheapest looking button taped over the wheel on the left side under The Club leads me to believe this one doesn't work but it is oh-so rare and totally worth restoring.
The seat has been re-skinned by somebody more used to upholstering taxis. Just look at that slab of vinyl! Buckle up or you're definitely sliding into each other on corners.

Here are the handsome Dart dimensions on full display. I consider this to be a perfect classic car; enough performance to use in modern traffic, good enough economy for daily use, big enough to do classic car stuff like drive 6 people to the beach, but still parkable in scale.

Over the years I've had 2 Plymouth Dusters which are really identical cars to this except for the rear body. They are fantastic cars - easy as pie to work on and totally immortal with the Slant-6 engine.
I'll close this out with a cringe-worthy anecdote about redneck Putnam County where I went to high school: A friend of mine had a 4 door '74 Dart that he beat on relentlessly. He would tow sleds around fields in winter and practice e-brake u-turns and reverse Rockford j-turns all the time. When he finally got another car (an awesome 1980 Datsun 510 wagon) he decided he would blow the engine on his Dart (this was 1991 and any tan rusty 4 door '74 Dart was going straight to the crusher regardless). He drained the oil, put the back axle up on jack stands, a brick on the pedal, and stood back.
After 20 minutes or so of totally smooth running at high RPMs he took pity on it, took the brick off the pedal, and got it back on the ground figuring he would give it a more dignified death by driving it. He took it back and forth to high school (about 10 miles each way) for most of the week with no oil in it! Finally he was attempted a trip to the Danbury Fair mall which was over 20 miles away when it seized. Poor car wanted to give its owner another 100,000 miles!

Cool car the color of Grape flavored Big League Chew

NURPLE

I was riding my bike out to a friends house in Bed Stuy when I encountered this little crumpet:

This is a 1965 Dodge Dart GT in a terrible aftermarket purple. While Mopar became famous shortly after this was built for its outrageous colors (including the very purple Plum Crazy) there was nothing even close to this in '65. If you're going for Plum Crazy this is simply too warm and saturated; a little less red and a cooler blue next time when mixing please.

Pinpointing the year on these cars is really simple as the front changed every year. In '64 the grill was even shorter than the headlights when compared to this ride while in '66 the headlights fit right inside the grill.

I love Darts of really any vintage but this era is particularly cool. The styling is somewhat bonkers with that rear quarter window shape, three portholes behind the front wheel, and overall tub shape to the body. 

Incidentally if this car was ordered with a vinyl roof it would be on the front 3/4 of the top only; that sail panel retained the body color wrapping over the rear. My '72 Duster and '74 Dart Sport both had the same treatment but it started here.

To give some perspective I'd like to point out that this was a compact car in '65. The brochure points out that "Ladies love 'em. Easy to drive and park. Inside? Almost kiddie proof." Take that, gender equality! 

Whoever parked this thing probably decided on the color. I want to call automotive protective services and try to adopt it.

These lozenge shaped taillights are new for '65. They would remain for 1 more year before a major restyling in '67.

You've gotta love this hyper-stylized GT emblem! Not only that but the T is red, white, and blue! Go Team America!

Inside is totally awesome in my opinion. The GT comes with a full compliment of gauges all concave and square. The speedometer is offset because Mopar designers are free thinkers. It sports the optional radio and floor-mounted shifter with console. In the years leading up to this one the automatic transmission was operated by pushbutton! As odd as it sounds they proved totally reliable. The only other car company I can think of offhand that had a pushbutton trans was the Edsel of 1958. Unbelievably the Edsel buttons were located in the center of the steering wheel! Imagine hitting the horn on your new Edsel because somebody cut you off and unwittingly throwing your car into reverse in the process! That only lasted 1 year of course.

The front fender was replaced with a non-GT unit because it's missing its rectangular porthole on this side. That little Mopar Pentastar emblem was only on the passenger side fender so that people walking by it on the sidewalk would notice it! Strange but true.

Whoever replaced the fender had the good sense to keep the GT-specific trim from the top. These pieces are about as impossible to find as any car part so if you're looking to restore one make sure it has all the little GT minutiae.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Fratzog! Yes that triangular shaped logo was what the Dodge division used from 1962-1981 (the Pentastar was for any of the Mopar division; Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth, etc). The name is nonsensical but was coined by the folks at Dodge so it stuck. 

Well we'll just leave this little cruiser where I found it; 5 solid feet from the curb. Darts are really fun cars and totally capable for daily use in modern traffic. At worst it has one of the most legendary motors of all time; the Slant 6. At best it has a very peppy 273 V8 that has plenty of get up and go for such a light car. Regardless the handling and fuel economy are both surprisingly good and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a usable classic.

Rare muscle car hiding in plain sight!

GTS

I was walking through the heart of the East Village recently when this awesome beater presented itself:

Damn! Don't be fooled people; this is a legitimate and very rare high performance muscle car built for the drag strip. What we have here is a 1968 Dodge Dart GTS in Black with White "Bumblebee" stripes. Incidentally because I know it's very important to everyone those stripes are tape, not paint.

We know it's a '68 because those clear turn signal lenses are round. In '67 and '69 they were rectangular. Occasionally there is a '68 GTS with a vertical chrome bar in the middle of the grill, but nobody agrees on why some have it and some don't.

The GTS was a high performance option package built for only 3 years.

Those hood bulges were new for '68, complete with faux vents. The side marker lights were only this tiny in '68. That little chrome bullet on top of the fender has a fiber optic cable in it going to the turn signal so you can see if the bulb has gone out.

This thing is a crumpled as a re-used brown paper bag. Still, the stance is correct as it sits evenly. We might have one of those (restored where you can't see it) rides that remain fast but theft proof while parked on the mean streets of NYC.

These are period correct Dodge Rallye wheels. That center piece is a literal hubcap covering only the hub. Tires are suspiciously new for a full on hooptie.

One look at that door lock is all you need to know. The finish is so disastrous on this bucket that they seem to just spray flay black over any rust or dusts that emerge.

Most GTS Darts had this stripe treatment. Occasionally you will see one without which invariably causes people to claim it as fake or incorrect. However, for those who wanted to fly a bit below the radar option code 319 was stripe delete.

The base engine for the GTS was the now-famous 340 V8. Even though it is smaller than the optional 383 it could rev much higher without damage. Its combined weight and super high 6,000 rpm abilities made it perfect for the drag strip.

This is not a big car, in fact considered compact for the year. In 1970 the larger and heavier AAR (All American Racing) 'cuda came with the 340 and it was a racing hit.

It looks like the trunk is open but this is just something red jammed into a piece of trim. Only 8,745 GTS were made that year starting at $3,163.

Along the bottom edge of the roof between the side rear windows is a chrome strip. This means that originally this ride sported a vinyl roof. This could be ordered on its own or as a part of the White Hat Special option package. The advertisements of the era are pretty great with beautiful hippie chicks draped all over the cars, hugging the seats, laying flat across the hood, etc. Everything was worded towards capturing Dodge Fever.

*The print copy on the brochure reassures the buyer that He (presumably) can "keep mum about the price and be known as a big shooter".

In shadow this thing looks great!

Alright there are a bunch of things to address in this shot. The first and most obvious is that the steering wheel has been replaced with a K-Car unit from the '80s (it also happens to be chained to the floor somehow). We can see the optional TorqueFlight automatic trans with console (standard was 3 on the tree). The huge tach and additional gauges let us know this thing is still built to run hard. The tape on the dashboard means it's a beat up pig of a rat rod, ans the ankles reflected on the left let us know this thing is STILL dishing out Dodge Fever.

This is the most anti-theft thing I've ever seen. They look like they're just trying to keep it together at a traffic stop.

Nothing like a mailbox reflector just screwed into the fender. And how exactly did the chrome trim stop at the halfway point in the wheel arch? I only ask because the other side is exactly the same.

This is one of my favorite rides I've encountered on the streets of NYC. Everything about it shows that it's parked on the streets nightly ready for vandalism and parking misadventures. Despite all that though this is a muscle car hiding in plain sight! As crummy as it looks I bet this is a fun car to get in and mash the pedal to the floor. Fixed up these go for around $30,000 but I'm sure this would be much cheaper if you could find one.

Hats off, Road Warrior! Keep on fighting the fight!

*If you happen to find one of the few lightweight Hemi Darts built in '68 you're talking $300,000+!