70 duster: updating, and a no-dough pro-touring makeover

well, got the fenders fixed from where the heavily contacted during run through the hills.

my buddy bill owns a body shop (the collision center in albemarle, nc). we have an agreement worked out, where I'm not allowed to touch things that are painted, straight, or shiny. in return, hes not allowed to touch things with electricity. its a good trade for us. I'm helping do some repairs to the new yorker i wired for him (he damaged the harness when he pulled the car back down to the frame to change the entire color by two shades), and repaired the bulkhead connector on a 73 roadrunner 340 (stopped running while it was in for a repaint. he couldn't call the owner and say it was done with it not running) in exchange for him straightening and rolling and re-painting the fender lips on the front. heres pics (didn't cost me anything but time)







theres miles of clearance now. enough that i can comfortably fit 275/40/17's with the wheel spacer removed. i just may do it.....


he also talked me out of the spoiler. so thats going up for sale. ill take 100 plus shipping (probably around 15 bucks)


tonight, i pulled the carb apart, cleaned it all up, richened the secondary side by two jet sizes, leaned the primary side by one jet size. well see how that does. did find some completely plugged passages.


Saturday, if all goes according to plan, ill be getting the car tinted. the guy that bought my s10 does tint, and part of the sale agreement was for a tint job. now that he cant figure out a problem with the truck, he finally has to pony up for it.


on the big news front, Ive decided I'm going with a five speed and EFI on this car. I'm trying to talk my buddy into letting his TKO600 go to me for a reasonable price (less than 4K on it) so i can fab up my own mounts, modify my bell housing, and slide it in.

I'm also currently collecting my parts for the EFI setup i want to run. Ive already got a used painless performance TPI harness from a vette race car that i took off, a slightly "blemished" 7737 ECM from the same vette, and 30LB ford racing injectors i paid 10 bucks for. now i need to find a decent and cheap 4bbl throttle body, get some injector bungs installed in my Victor Jr, and find a small block lean burn distributor. also need a set of magnum fuel rails. and a fuel pump. and other stuff I'm not thinking of.

I'm hoping to pull off the EFI and five speed swaps for under 2.5K total. its gonna be tough to do, but I'm confident in my scrounging abilities.


tomorrow, Ive got a half day at work, so I'm going to work on fine tuning the carb, and Friday on finally getting my door glasses adjusted properly. lets keep our fingers crossed that my plans work out.


on a side job front, check out the vette. all Ive got to do is install the new classic auto sound stereo, wash, vacuum, and armor-all it, and give it back to sue and her husband. I'm pleased with how it came out.











Michael