SWINGER!!!!!

Not what you think--Dodge. One of the feature cars at the sale was this 1969 Dodge swinger. Car Craft magazine built this in 69 and gave it away. The Gabeline family farms a lot of ground and use Mostly Deere machinery so Sinclair, the local Deere dealer furnished the tractors for the shuttles and the tractors that pulled the cars and tractors through the sale ring. We were watching them sell and you couldn't see the next car in because of the people standing by the entrance door-the tractor stopped and all of a sudden came the sweet sound of a Mopar V-8 with a hell of a cam in it! It shook the whole building as they drove it the rest of the way in. NEAT!! They gave their spiel about it and it sold for $50000. Second pic is view from front of auctioneers. Third pic is Auction owner Sullivan and Kinze who was taking internet bids. Third picture is Wife with Iowa State shirt and buddy guarding my chair. The auction people encouraged you to come up for a closer look. I was taking a picture of the 5020 Deere and the ring man said give me your camera and I will take your pic. If you want to read a nice article about the swinger and the sale go to Car Craft Mag. The Des Moines paper did a story about it---Tee

College buddy was going to get a new car (eastern Washington wheat farmers traditionally give their sons a new car when they go to college, probably to compensate for all that unpaid labor on the farm). He wanted a GTO, of course, but verboten (along with all the other popular muscle cars) because of his traffic ticket "issues". So he decided to get the fastest car he could find that wasn't on the insurance no-go list. He ended up with a blue and white Dart Swinger- 340 4 bbl. It was fully as quick as most of the popular muscle cars.

Looked like an interesting sale. I did go to a Mecum car auction once, and was a little disappointed that you couldn't see much from the cheap seats.

I had 2 Swingers, a '72 that I bought new, and a '69 for a work car much later. Both had 225 slant sixes.

Funny you mention the Dart Swinger. I just saw one with no rust for $5900, near me. I used to have one. Likely the worst handling car I ever owned but quick enough with the 340. I also had a 1968 Dart GTS with the 383 and that handled even worse.

The last Dodge I ever owned just love to fuel vapor lock when going up hills. Always broke down and made my I.H. Scout look like it was the best car I ever owned. I am not a big fan on dodge. If I was there I would had bought the John Deere tractor instead to me that is the better buy.

I almost had a Swinger once but she left me after I run out of cash.

That's Al Bundy's car.

Looked like the average age of the crowd , and the room temp. were real close , high 60's.

I also owned a 68 GTS 383 4speed 371 posi with a factory scatter shield . Would go in a straight line like a bat outta he!! ,

You are probably right about the age. The baby boomers couldn't afford their dream car when they were $3500 new will buy them for 10 times that much now. Been there, done that.---Tee

That's Al Bundy's car.

Click to expand...

Al Bundy drove a Plymouth Duster, not a Dodge Dart!

Bought my first car in 1972 from local Dodge dealer. It was a 69 Coronet 500 2 dr. 383 4 speed. For the exact same money ($1695 I think) I could have bought a brand new Dart Swinger with slant 6. Pa really wanted me to buy the Dart but I had rubber burning on the mind.

My buddy had about the same car but had the 426 wedge. Talked to him yesterday. Said he sold it for $900 to buy a family car when he got out off the Army in 1973-4??---Tee

I had a 72 Duster 340 car.