The A-Body With A Job
What if someone was more concerned about comfort and reliability in a muscle car and less about a magic number to achieve on a dyno? What if when you slipped behind the wheel of a car you weren’t just in love, but you felt like the vehicle was tailored to you like a fine suit? What if the motor couldn’t die and you could carelessly keep driving as long and as far as you wanted? If your *** didn’t get tired, or you didn’t have to take a squirt, would you ever stop?
There’s nothing wrong with low-geared, nasty, street/strip cars or smooth, ground-scraping G-Machines. For a long time I thought I needed one of the two mentioned styles, but I realized that’s not what I wanted. I want what I once had… A Driver.
When I bought my Duster I knew nothing. I didn’t care about gear ratios, or low-end killing over-sized carbeuration, or the right viscosity of oil even… I just drove. To the beach, to Southern Oregon, to the Canadian Border to party--it didn’t matter. I would check the oil, tires, fill with 92 and push the pedal. With the exception of some slotted mags, dual glasspacks, and a 4 barrel, the car was amazingly original from top to bottom with a stock 200,000+ mile 318. Like I said, I would go and just keep going. “The machine that wouldn’t quit”.
I am far from retirement, but recently I spoke with my Rep at my Investment Firm about the subject and he asked: “What do you plan to do for retirement?”, and without thinking twice I blurted “Drive my Plymouth around the Country,” he said, “Great, but I meant income-wise.” It made me think that driving my car might be my favorite thing to do. It has sat for two years getting pipe-dreamed to a rusty oblivion. Driving my car makes me happy, and what a hole not driving it has left. I’ve spent the last two days seriously budgeting its return to the road.
I might just be coming up with an excuse to build a Duster Daily Driver, but this is the car I want: something turn-key that can be driven 300 miles at any given spur-of-the-moment impulse, a car that can cruise at 75mph at 2500rpms getting 18mpg, and most importantly a car to get me to work. Highways, Freeways, and long sweeping country roads are your in-between A’s and B’s in this part of the world. There is very little ‘around town’ driving or ‘stop-and-go‘…
This model car was a daily driver in the mid 70’s. A slant 6 car was considered ‘economy’ and hundreds of thousands of people considered the 318 a gas-saver in its own right as well. When Datsun’s and Toyota’s hit the scene popularity-wise in 1978 gas was $0.63 a gallon, which is equivalent to $2.10 today by inflation. Gas was $3.20 a gallon yesterday, so yes, choosing this option for a commuter would be equivalent to a Suburban, but millions of people manage to do that everyday, regardless of breaking the bank. Corvette’s aren’t the best on gas and plenty of people love driving them… a lot.
Something Important: Half my family is 5 hours away across the Idaho border; they’re my favorite people (one member is my mentor & hero) so every month I was shooting over Snoqualmie Pass and across I-90 after work on Friday’s at 5pm in the daily. I would get in at 10pm and leave Sunday morning after spending only a Saturday with them. I didn’t mind doing so, but that drive feels like I’m in the car more than I’m visiting… So why not build a car to enjoy the ride? It would be awesome to take 101 Pacific Coast Highway road-trip style to my dad’s in SoCal once or twice as well.
A balanced engine is key in my eyes. I threw around the idea of a 408 but my gut told me ’No’; not reliable enough for my comfort (several times I came close to clicking the ‘Add To Cart‘ button under the Eagle 4“ Crank though). I have been sitting on a 360 for years but it might already be .030 over. Either way, I still didn’t feel right about that option either. Still, not ‘balanced’ enough for the task at hand.
To me, the obvious choice was the 318. Pure balance. A (.030”) 3.94” Bore by 3.31” Stroke with mid-8 compression and 2.76’s for legs--perfect for long, screaming summer stretches of I-90 where the average vehicle speed is 80mph. My ex-girlfriend got a very generous ticket by a very nice Trooper for 79mph when she was clocked at 93 on one of 90‘s many long, flat freedom-paths. It’s far from responsible, but that’s truthfully how fast some people choose to drive this route.
Also, I’m not talking rack and pinion steering and four link either, we’re talking purely Moog Chassis Parts, performance handling torsion bars, and extra heavy duty leaf springs with some gas shock motherf***in’ action my friends! Just how Papa likes it! A good stereo is needed. Now finally I can fill those mangled rocker panels some bozo started to hack for what I hope was originally intended to be speaker holes. Ground clearance is a must; I can’t be slowed down be it speed bumps, cinder blocks, sea turtles, what-have-you..
Comfort: I bought the Duster with it’s completely-thrashed bench seat. Awhile later I picked up a 92’ Eagle Talon (same car as the Mitsubishi Eclipse) for $750 and man’o’man! I was in love with it the moment my cheeks hit the seat! Hands down, the most comfortable car I had ever driven for one reason, the bucket seats. They were clearly designed for my six-one frame, from head to thigh, like a cockpit. For 3 weeks I had forgotten I owned the Duster I was driving the Talon so much. After only a month of ownership the Talon threw a rod and the Wrecker was on it’s way for her, but it wasn’t taking the seats. The same day those buckets were mounted in the Duster and special care was taken so they would be perfectly placed for my leg length and comfort. As simple as it sounds, this car is set up for me and damn if it isn’t nice to ride in! It’s amazing how much of a difference such a small change can make.
Reliability: I pulled out all the stops budgeting the engine internals, electrical, and cooling. I purposely avoided unnecessary (and costly) dress up kits. Chrome don’t get ya home. $1700 to Hughes, $330 to Mancini, $350 to Summit & a little to AutoZone (for consumables) combined with $1200 in machine work should get me a worthwhile $3,700 into a modest 270hp engine that would make a crate motor’s reliability look like your wussy fetal-alcohol stepbrother trying to Quarterback the Superbowl.
That’s not all. It will virtually have new running gear and completely new suspension, along with some creature comforts and fun factors (like new carpet and my buckets upholstered to match factory ones, along with a new stereo, rear disc brake conversion, sure grip, etc) which all totaled around $9,175, engine included. I decided not to tackle this until I have just about everything piled and I’m only half way there with my savings account, so I’ll have to buy in sections (front suspension, then rear suspension, then transmission rebuild…) until it’s all there, which I gather should take another year. The time will go quickly if I can apply discipline and patience. In the meantime I will be asking lots of questions.
I spent years over-thinking what to do with my car, trying to stay ahead of certain trends and styles, considering literally hundreds of different combinations of drivetrains and wheels frantically not feeling different enough. How ridiculous. Then I simply quit thinking about it, and it came together.
I guess what’s different about this build is that it’s like that Pearl Jam lyric: “I change by not changing at all”. Most people throw in a Crate Motor, Junkyard Jewel, or Stroker without thinking twice and typically those who restore their numbers matching cars barely drive them for fear of something god-awful happening. I’m going to drive the wheels off a numbers matching car and I don’t give a damn. She ran good with this engine before with years of reliability.
I would be stupid to screw up something so right.
Here’s to doing something different. Driving. Far. And doing it with optimum efficiency. That's the car's job.
The black car is mine. The red car is my inspiration. I found out it belongs to a FABO member and I have a PM into him with some questions. I will do black with white stripes instead, but the wheel/tire combo and stance is exactly what I want.
What if someone was more concerned about comfort and reliability in a muscle car and less about a magic number to achieve on a dyno? What if when you slipped behind the wheel of a car you weren’t just in love, but you felt like the vehicle was tailored to you like a fine suit? What if the motor couldn’t die and you could carelessly keep driving as long and as far as you wanted? If your *** didn’t get tired, or you didn’t have to take a squirt, would you ever stop?
There’s nothing wrong with low-geared, nasty, street/strip cars or smooth, ground-scraping G-Machines. For a long time I thought I needed one of the two mentioned styles, but I realized that’s not what I wanted. I want what I once had… A Driver.
When I bought my Duster I knew nothing. I didn’t care about gear ratios, or low-end killing over-sized carbeuration, or the right viscosity of oil even… I just drove. To the beach, to Southern Oregon, to the Canadian Border to party--it didn’t matter. I would check the oil, tires, fill with 92 and push the pedal. With the exception of some slotted mags, dual glasspacks, and a 4 barrel, the car was amazingly original from top to bottom with a stock 200,000+ mile 318. Like I said, I would go and just keep going. “The machine that wouldn’t quit”.
I am far from retirement, but recently I spoke with my Rep at my Investment Firm about the subject and he asked: “What do you plan to do for retirement?”, and without thinking twice I blurted “Drive my Plymouth around the Country,” he said, “Great, but I meant income-wise.” It made me think that driving my car might be my favorite thing to do. It has sat for two years getting pipe-dreamed to a rusty oblivion. Driving my car makes me happy, and what a hole not driving it has left. I’ve spent the last two days seriously budgeting its return to the road.
I might just be coming up with an excuse to build a Duster Daily Driver, but this is the car I want: something turn-key that can be driven 300 miles at any given spur-of-the-moment impulse, a car that can cruise at 75mph at 2500rpms getting 18mpg, and most importantly a car to get me to work. Highways, Freeways, and long sweeping country roads are your in-between A’s and B’s in this part of the world. There is very little ‘around town’ driving or ‘stop-and-go‘…
This model car was a daily driver in the mid 70’s. A slant 6 car was considered ‘economy’ and hundreds of thousands of people considered the 318 a gas-saver in its own right as well. When Datsun’s and Toyota’s hit the scene popularity-wise in 1978 gas was $0.63 a gallon, which is equivalent to $2.10 today by inflation. Gas was $3.20 a gallon yesterday, so yes, choosing this option for a commuter would be equivalent to a Suburban, but millions of people manage to do that everyday, regardless of breaking the bank. Corvette’s aren’t the best on gas and plenty of people love driving them… a lot.
Something Important: Half my family is 5 hours away across the Idaho border; they’re my favorite people (one member is my mentor & hero) so every month I was shooting over Snoqualmie Pass and across I-90 after work on Friday’s at 5pm in the daily. I would get in at 10pm and leave Sunday morning after spending only a Saturday with them. I didn’t mind doing so, but that drive feels like I’m in the car more than I’m visiting… So why not build a car to enjoy the ride? It would be awesome to take 101 Pacific Coast Highway road-trip style to my dad’s in SoCal once or twice as well.
A balanced engine is key in my eyes. I threw around the idea of a 408 but my gut told me ’No’; not reliable enough for my comfort (several times I came close to clicking the ‘Add To Cart‘ button under the Eagle 4“ Crank though). I have been sitting on a 360 for years but it might already be .030 over. Either way, I still didn’t feel right about that option either. Still, not ‘balanced’ enough for the task at hand.
To me, the obvious choice was the 318. Pure balance. A (.030”) 3.94” Bore by 3.31” Stroke with mid-8 compression and 2.76’s for legs--perfect for long, screaming summer stretches of I-90 where the average vehicle speed is 80mph. My ex-girlfriend got a very generous ticket by a very nice Trooper for 79mph when she was clocked at 93 on one of 90‘s many long, flat freedom-paths. It’s far from responsible, but that’s truthfully how fast some people choose to drive this route.
Also, I’m not talking rack and pinion steering and four link either, we’re talking purely Moog Chassis Parts, performance handling torsion bars, and extra heavy duty leaf springs with some gas shock motherf***in’ action my friends! Just how Papa likes it! A good stereo is needed. Now finally I can fill those mangled rocker panels some bozo started to hack for what I hope was originally intended to be speaker holes. Ground clearance is a must; I can’t be slowed down be it speed bumps, cinder blocks, sea turtles, what-have-you..
Comfort: I bought the Duster with it’s completely-thrashed bench seat. Awhile later I picked up a 92’ Eagle Talon (same car as the Mitsubishi Eclipse) for $750 and man’o’man! I was in love with it the moment my cheeks hit the seat! Hands down, the most comfortable car I had ever driven for one reason, the bucket seats. They were clearly designed for my six-one frame, from head to thigh, like a cockpit. For 3 weeks I had forgotten I owned the Duster I was driving the Talon so much. After only a month of ownership the Talon threw a rod and the Wrecker was on it’s way for her, but it wasn’t taking the seats. The same day those buckets were mounted in the Duster and special care was taken so they would be perfectly placed for my leg length and comfort. As simple as it sounds, this car is set up for me and damn if it isn’t nice to ride in! It’s amazing how much of a difference such a small change can make.
Reliability: I pulled out all the stops budgeting the engine internals, electrical, and cooling. I purposely avoided unnecessary (and costly) dress up kits. Chrome don’t get ya home. $1700 to Hughes, $330 to Mancini, $350 to Summit & a little to AutoZone (for consumables) combined with $1200 in machine work should get me a worthwhile $3,700 into a modest 270hp engine that would make a crate motor’s reliability look like your wussy fetal-alcohol stepbrother trying to Quarterback the Superbowl.
That’s not all. It will virtually have new running gear and completely new suspension, along with some creature comforts and fun factors (like new carpet and my buckets upholstered to match factory ones, along with a new stereo, rear disc brake conversion, sure grip, etc) which all totaled around $9,175, engine included. I decided not to tackle this until I have just about everything piled and I’m only half way there with my savings account, so I’ll have to buy in sections (front suspension, then rear suspension, then transmission rebuild…) until it’s all there, which I gather should take another year. The time will go quickly if I can apply discipline and patience. In the meantime I will be asking lots of questions.
I spent years over-thinking what to do with my car, trying to stay ahead of certain trends and styles, considering literally hundreds of different combinations of drivetrains and wheels frantically not feeling different enough. How ridiculous. Then I simply quit thinking about it, and it came together.
I guess what’s different about this build is that it’s like that Pearl Jam lyric: “I change by not changing at all”. Most people throw in a Crate Motor, Junkyard Jewel, or Stroker without thinking twice and typically those who restore their numbers matching cars barely drive them for fear of something god-awful happening. I’m going to drive the wheels off a numbers matching car and I don’t give a damn. She ran good with this engine before with years of reliability.
I would be stupid to screw up something so right.
Here’s to doing something different. Driving. Far. And doing it with optimum efficiency. That's the car's job.
The black car is mine. The red car is my inspiration. I found out it belongs to a FABO member and I have a PM into him with some questions. I will do black with white stripes instead, but the wheel/tire combo and stance is exactly what I want.
