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!

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!