My Duster Adventures
Well, I’ve given it hell but unfortunately, I’m not gonna be driving the car to Colorado. For one, I’d be SHOCKED if I got it finished by Thursday morning as I’m waiting on a few key parts to show up but I was still going to do everything I possibly could to make that happen. The bigger problem is, we’re suppose to have a big winter storm hit us tonight and tomorrow, dumping between 6-12” of snow, then another storm coming through Wednesday and Thursday. So I don’t think it’d be very smart to try driving the Duster to Colorado this week.
So with that said, I did get the new crossmember welded up, welded in front the passenger front floor pan and got the tunnel installed. I am just about sick of welding stupid sheet metal!!! I thought the crossmember turned out pretty good.
I forgot to take pics of the crossmember after I completed it, but essentially, I cut two hoops like this out of 1/8” steel, spaced them about 1.5” and welded a metal strip across the top.
I’m SUPER thankful that @Dragger40 mentioned in his build thread, about the heater box clearing the tunnel. I’d planned to have the tunnel go straight from the firewall to the crossmember, but then my heater box wouldn’t have fit! So I put the heater box in place, the shaped up this section of tunnel.
I got 18 gauge metal for the rest of the tunnel but probably should’ve gotten 20. That stuff was a BEAR to work! Thankfully my templet was dang close because there’s was no “bend to shape, treat fit, pull out, tweak, test fit and weld in place”. It was just tack the one side, beat the piss out of it, and weld every 2-3” as I bent it around. Came out half decent. I’m not gonna show a close up of some of the welds as they look pretty crappy! There holding though, plan was to to slather the crap out of the seams with seam sealer, to seal up any gaps and holes, but since I’m no longer on a time constraint, I think I’ll grind the welds some, then lay some 1/8” rod in the joints/gaps and weld it up. This tunnel is an absolute behemoth! I’m going to end up needing to do some trimming on my console to make it fit. Is Dave Kindig or Richard Rawlings going to hire me to install tunnels? Heck no! (Well, Rawlings might) :lol: Is it better than what was there? Yup! Is it good enough for who it’s for? Also yup!
The tunnel should be big enough this time that if I swap to a T-56 or 8 speed in the future, all I’ll have to do is build a transmission mount.
Speaking of transmission mount, for some reason I can’t find the original one out of my Duster. I know exactly where I had it in my other shop and it’s not there, which makes me seem to recall that I may have brought it home, but I can’t find it here either.... guess I’ll pull the one out of the 72 Valiant parts car I have.
More to come at a later date.
Well, I’ve given it hell but unfortunately, I’m not gonna be driving the car to Colorado. For one, I’d be SHOCKED if I got it finished by Thursday morning as I’m waiting on a few key parts to show up but I was still going to do everything I possibly could to make that happen. The bigger problem is, we’re suppose to have a big winter storm hit us tonight and tomorrow, dumping between 6-12” of snow, then another storm coming through Wednesday and Thursday. So I don’t think it’d be very smart to try driving the Duster to Colorado this week.
So with that said, I did get the new crossmember welded up, welded in front the passenger front floor pan and got the tunnel installed. I am just about sick of welding stupid sheet metal!!! I thought the crossmember turned out pretty good.
I forgot to take pics of the crossmember after I completed it, but essentially, I cut two hoops like this out of 1/8” steel, spaced them about 1.5” and welded a metal strip across the top.
I’m SUPER thankful that @Dragger40 mentioned in his build thread, about the heater box clearing the tunnel. I’d planned to have the tunnel go straight from the firewall to the crossmember, but then my heater box wouldn’t have fit! So I put the heater box in place, the shaped up this section of tunnel.
I got 18 gauge metal for the rest of the tunnel but probably should’ve gotten 20. That stuff was a BEAR to work! Thankfully my templet was dang close because there’s was no “bend to shape, treat fit, pull out, tweak, test fit and weld in place”. It was just tack the one side, beat the piss out of it, and weld every 2-3” as I bent it around. Came out half decent. I’m not gonna show a close up of some of the welds as they look pretty crappy! There holding though, plan was to to slather the crap out of the seams with seam sealer, to seal up any gaps and holes, but since I’m no longer on a time constraint, I think I’ll grind the welds some, then lay some 1/8” rod in the joints/gaps and weld it up. This tunnel is an absolute behemoth! I’m going to end up needing to do some trimming on my console to make it fit. Is Dave Kindig or Richard Rawlings going to hire me to install tunnels? Heck no! (Well, Rawlings might) :lol: Is it better than what was there? Yup! Is it good enough for who it’s for? Also yup!
The tunnel should be big enough this time that if I swap to a T-56 or 8 speed in the future, all I’ll have to do is build a transmission mount.
Speaking of transmission mount, for some reason I can’t find the original one out of my Duster. I know exactly where I had it in my other shop and it’s not there, which makes me seem to recall that I may have brought it home, but I can’t find it here either.... guess I’ll pull the one out of the 72 Valiant parts car I have.
More to come at a later date.