72 duster Build progress
oh boy, long day.
and nothing went super smoothly so it was just one of them days when I had to "talk" to all the nuts and bolts and everything lol.
so .... I finished wiring up all my turn signal wiring, got it all in loom and nice and tidy, all my turn signals and headlights and reverse light and license plate lights worked....but I couldnt get my hazards or my brake lights to work for some reason.
and I knew I had it all wired right, so I was racking my brain on what the heck was going on....kept thinking maybe I had a bad ground or something......finally it dawned on me that last year when I was working on my glove box light that I accidentally popped a fuse and never replaced it.
so I put a fuse in and BAM.....everything was working again!. so now I have all my lights working.
then I spent some time on the hood latch adjustment and I kept messing with it and messing with it until I got it set pretty good.
I installed all the new headlight hardware.....getting the old springs out were a pin because the old strew heads were stripped out....but I finally got it and got all the new stuff installed.
got all the new grille hardware and bezel hardware installed.....and the previous owner of the duster had changed one fender over to a 73 and up style fender which the headlight bucket area is SLIGHTLY different than a 72 and the hardware kit I got was for a 72.....and the plastic push in pedastal mounts that the headlight bezels screw into were a little bit to high on that one fender. so I ended up having to grind it down by about a 1/4" and rebeveling the end of it where the embossment of the bezel recesses into it. and after all of that the bezel finally matched the flushness of the other bezel.
installing the grille was a little tricky....by myself so lining things up were a bit troublesome. But I got it in there.
then I got the new H4 crystal headlights put in and bezels on.
and put the new parking lenses in and the chrome bezels.
I got it all installed and looking good. its not PERFECT......but everyone that looked at the car couldnt tell the issues until I pointed out what I was talking about....maybe im just being to picky?
on the lower bumper filler panel there is a SLIGHT bend in the metal which makes a section of the grille gap look a little bit bigger...but nothing I can do about it.
the one fender that is a 73 and up fender has a SLIGHTLY different contour than the other fender which makes the upper gap look a little bigger on one side versus the other.
not to mention im working with 41 year old parts....and I dont think they were even exactly perfect from the factory when they were brand new lol
like I said....I might be just being to particular with it.....but what issues I mentioned there really isnt anything I can do a whole lot about so hopefully its not as bad looking as what I see from my perspective lol.....I tend to do that alot because I take pride in my work and try to do as best a job as I can when im doing something.
anyhow...thats where im at on it today.....let me know what you guys think!!!
oh boy, long day.
and nothing went super smoothly so it was just one of them days when I had to "talk" to all the nuts and bolts and everything lol.
so .... I finished wiring up all my turn signal wiring, got it all in loom and nice and tidy, all my turn signals and headlights and reverse light and license plate lights worked....but I couldnt get my hazards or my brake lights to work for some reason.
and I knew I had it all wired right, so I was racking my brain on what the heck was going on....kept thinking maybe I had a bad ground or something......finally it dawned on me that last year when I was working on my glove box light that I accidentally popped a fuse and never replaced it.
so I put a fuse in and BAM.....everything was working again!. so now I have all my lights working.
then I spent some time on the hood latch adjustment and I kept messing with it and messing with it until I got it set pretty good.
I installed all the new headlight hardware.....getting the old springs out were a pin because the old strew heads were stripped out....but I finally got it and got all the new stuff installed.
got all the new grille hardware and bezel hardware installed.....and the previous owner of the duster had changed one fender over to a 73 and up style fender which the headlight bucket area is SLIGHTLY different than a 72 and the hardware kit I got was for a 72.....and the plastic push in pedastal mounts that the headlight bezels screw into were a little bit to high on that one fender. so I ended up having to grind it down by about a 1/4" and rebeveling the end of it where the embossment of the bezel recesses into it. and after all of that the bezel finally matched the flushness of the other bezel.
installing the grille was a little tricky....by myself so lining things up were a bit troublesome. But I got it in there.
then I got the new H4 crystal headlights put in and bezels on.
and put the new parking lenses in and the chrome bezels.
I got it all installed and looking good. its not PERFECT......but everyone that looked at the car couldnt tell the issues until I pointed out what I was talking about....maybe im just being to picky?
on the lower bumper filler panel there is a SLIGHT bend in the metal which makes a section of the grille gap look a little bit bigger...but nothing I can do about it.
the one fender that is a 73 and up fender has a SLIGHTLY different contour than the other fender which makes the upper gap look a little bigger on one side versus the other.
not to mention im working with 41 year old parts....and I dont think they were even exactly perfect from the factory when they were brand new lol
like I said....I might be just being to particular with it.....but what issues I mentioned there really isnt anything I can do a whole lot about so hopefully its not as bad looking as what I see from my perspective lol.....I tend to do that alot because I take pride in my work and try to do as best a job as I can when im doing something.
anyhow...thats where im at on it today.....let me know what you guys think!!!
