'70 Duster Revival: Drag Racing Heart | Pro Touring Soul
5 years, countless man hours and gobs of fun. Im Ross and this is the story of my 1970 Plymouth Duster build.
I purchased the car in Fond Du Lac, WI in the fall of 2009. (My sophomore year of college) Id always dreamed of owning a 69 Dodge Charger R/T but on a Milwaukees Best budget, I set my sights to the more affordable A Body lineup. I found the Duster in a Craigslist ad with no picture but I had a gut feeling about the car, so we made the 5 hour trek from Minnesota to Wisconsin. After a thorough inspection, the body was relatively clean so we brought her home. Originally a Rally Red slant 6 car from Arkansas, it was now flogged in flat black primer and cobbled together for weekend bracket racing.
With the help a very close friend, the next 5 years were dedicated to the disassembly, prep, priming and painting of each piece; nut and bolt - bumper to bumper. Weekends were spent spinning the rotisserie doing metal fab, body work and also tracking down the necessary parts to update the engine and drive train.
Over the course of the build the original intent for the car changed from all out drag car, to pro-street to pro touring. The final result was a culmination of all 3 styles. After meeting my now wife my senior year I knew I wanted something we could both enjoy cruising in but I also wanted to be competitive when making the occasional trip to the strip and autocross track. Working 3 jobs while in school and saving every cent possible at my first "real" job out of school helped to fund the project. Having some good friends at the local hot rod shop also helped when it was time to paint and complete the wiring. After a mad dash to button everything up the night before the wedding we were able to drive away on our special day. (We of course left our mark in the church parking lot) The wedding day was on Mopars in the Park in Farmington, MN
so future anniversaries will be easy to plan for.
This was our first summer to enjoy the fruits of so much labor and it was amazing. I met so many wonderful people during duration of this project, including many of you through the forum. A big thank you to everyone at ForAbodiesOnly for the endless supply of information that helped with the reassembly process.
I know most of these threads work from the start of the project to the end, but Id like to do mine a little differently. Ill go into further specifics of the build in future posts and include more pictures, but for now I hope you enjoy the final product.
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