The Great Pumpkin - '71 Duster
Been working on the Duster on and off for the past few months. Have had some family stuff to tend to and was also away for a couple stretches towards the end of summer so garage time has been somewhat limited. Happily though, there is some progress to report.
First off, I got the rear interior firewall roughed in although I still need to make a package tray. The material is .040" 3003 aluminum which cuts and bends easily. For the firewall I used the factory backing board as a template. So far I'm happy with how it turned out and it seems to fit OK. Not sure exactly how it will end up aesthetically but I do want it to be more finished looking, kinda like the factory Super Stock hemi cars.
Once I get it all set exactly where I want it, I'll mark the brace location from the back and then rivet the sheet to the structure. Note the four black nuts sticking through the floor - they're for the EFI fuel filter/regulator bracket that is installed underneath.
In the process of fitting the sheet over the rear opening, I ended up removing both sets of rear seat hooks. Admittedly, this probably wasn't the brightest idea on my part. The top ones came out easily enough just prying on them and getting a chisel behind the bend but the ones on the floor were in pretty good and tore up the sheet metal upon removal. Thankfully, they were located over a bend in the floor pan and covered by the frame connectors so the holes can't be seen from underneath. Suppose I can fix it but I might just leave it since it will be covered by carpet.
The main impetus for getting rid of these brackets was in fact the carpet. I had a run-in with them before where I ended up making the access holes in the carpet larger than necessary - that drove me nuts. Remembering that, I just blindly went at them with a hammer and chisel to see how easy it would be to remove them. Not very! Unfortunately, once I started, there was no turning back. I should have just cut them off cleanly because if I ever wanted to put them back in I could re-weld them to the base. Oh well, nothing like being impulsive!
In other news, I began dealing with the brake lines. I'm using a Wilwood distribution block/prop valve combo thingy. What it does is allow the OE distribution block to come off the frame rail. This creates more room to run transmission cooler lines up to the front and gets the block away from header heat. It's also nice to have the prop valve "right there" for ease of adjustment.
The main caveat when using this part is that you need to make your brake lines work with it. There is no ready-made line 'kit' so you're on yer own. This is a fairly major undertaking so if you want to use one of these consider how much extra effort will go into making it work.
Honestly, it took f o r e v e r to get the lines how I wanted. Looks simple but it's not.
Reject pile.
Still need to work on the individual front circuits and then the front-to-rear line which will include a Hurst Roll Control. Installing the Line Lock in the rear circuit is accomplished by installing the lines to the solenoid in reverse. Instead of locking the front brakes, this method keeps the rears from applying. During your burnout, you activate the solenoid and use the brake pedal to hold the front brakes while the rears spin free. Not sure why this method isn't more widely used, it makes sense to do it this way.
Behind the master cylinder and brake pedal is this mounting bracket. While it was all out, I took the parts over to the drill press and got busy shedding a little weight. Not sure how much the effort added up to but it certainly felt like something. The brake pedal seemed especially heavy and the holes made a noticeable difference. The mounting bracket was cleaned up with Evaporust and will get coated in silver Hammer tone paint.
Here's the Swiss cheese'd brake pedal.
Also been working on getting the driver seat mounted. Putting a Kirkey seat in an A body is not an easy task because of the way the floor is. After an exhausting search for seat brackets, I finally found these. They are designed for GM G-body applications but they looked like they might work with a little tweaking and they pretty much do. Sorry, no pics at the moment but will post them next update.
Looking at the bigger picture, it appears that another season is down the tubes without this car being ready. I'm bummed about that but it is what it is. The reality is that I can't dedicate every waking moment of life to working on the car. Besides, I like things to be "just so" which clearly makes everything take longer than it would if I didn't care so deeply about every last detail.
Deciding to paint the undercarriage, trunk and engine bay has essentially set me back six months. I'm OK with the decision though, it needed to be done as the car had gotten kinda crusty from sitting. It will be great when it's done and I won't have to be concerned about it again for a long time.
The next major hurdle is to sort out the wiring. Before I commenced the paint project I had made some strides on that so presumably it won't take much to get it squared away. Once the wiring is in, it's basically reassembling the rest of systems. There's a few parts to order yet for peripheral things but there's a moratorium on spending for now until the wiring is done.
More to come.
Been working on the Duster on and off for the past few months. Have had some family stuff to tend to and was also away for a couple stretches towards the end of summer so garage time has been somewhat limited. Happily though, there is some progress to report.
First off, I got the rear interior firewall roughed in although I still need to make a package tray. The material is .040" 3003 aluminum which cuts and bends easily. For the firewall I used the factory backing board as a template. So far I'm happy with how it turned out and it seems to fit OK. Not sure exactly how it will end up aesthetically but I do want it to be more finished looking, kinda like the factory Super Stock hemi cars.
Once I get it all set exactly where I want it, I'll mark the brace location from the back and then rivet the sheet to the structure. Note the four black nuts sticking through the floor - they're for the EFI fuel filter/regulator bracket that is installed underneath.
In the process of fitting the sheet over the rear opening, I ended up removing both sets of rear seat hooks. Admittedly, this probably wasn't the brightest idea on my part. The top ones came out easily enough just prying on them and getting a chisel behind the bend but the ones on the floor were in pretty good and tore up the sheet metal upon removal. Thankfully, they were located over a bend in the floor pan and covered by the frame connectors so the holes can't be seen from underneath. Suppose I can fix it but I might just leave it since it will be covered by carpet.
The main impetus for getting rid of these brackets was in fact the carpet. I had a run-in with them before where I ended up making the access holes in the carpet larger than necessary - that drove me nuts. Remembering that, I just blindly went at them with a hammer and chisel to see how easy it would be to remove them. Not very! Unfortunately, once I started, there was no turning back. I should have just cut them off cleanly because if I ever wanted to put them back in I could re-weld them to the base. Oh well, nothing like being impulsive!
In other news, I began dealing with the brake lines. I'm using a Wilwood distribution block/prop valve combo thingy. What it does is allow the OE distribution block to come off the frame rail. This creates more room to run transmission cooler lines up to the front and gets the block away from header heat. It's also nice to have the prop valve "right there" for ease of adjustment.
The main caveat when using this part is that you need to make your brake lines work with it. There is no ready-made line 'kit' so you're on yer own. This is a fairly major undertaking so if you want to use one of these consider how much extra effort will go into making it work.
Honestly, it took f o r e v e r to get the lines how I wanted. Looks simple but it's not.
Reject pile.
Still need to work on the individual front circuits and then the front-to-rear line which will include a Hurst Roll Control. Installing the Line Lock in the rear circuit is accomplished by installing the lines to the solenoid in reverse. Instead of locking the front brakes, this method keeps the rears from applying. During your burnout, you activate the solenoid and use the brake pedal to hold the front brakes while the rears spin free. Not sure why this method isn't more widely used, it makes sense to do it this way.
Behind the master cylinder and brake pedal is this mounting bracket. While it was all out, I took the parts over to the drill press and got busy shedding a little weight. Not sure how much the effort added up to but it certainly felt like something. The brake pedal seemed especially heavy and the holes made a noticeable difference. The mounting bracket was cleaned up with Evaporust and will get coated in silver Hammer tone paint.
Here's the Swiss cheese'd brake pedal.
Also been working on getting the driver seat mounted. Putting a Kirkey seat in an A body is not an easy task because of the way the floor is. After an exhausting search for seat brackets, I finally found these. They are designed for GM G-body applications but they looked like they might work with a little tweaking and they pretty much do. Sorry, no pics at the moment but will post them next update.
Looking at the bigger picture, it appears that another season is down the tubes without this car being ready. I'm bummed about that but it is what it is. The reality is that I can't dedicate every waking moment of life to working on the car. Besides, I like things to be "just so" which clearly makes everything take longer than it would if I didn't care so deeply about every last detail.
Deciding to paint the undercarriage, trunk and engine bay has essentially set me back six months. I'm OK with the decision though, it needed to be done as the car had gotten kinda crusty from sitting. It will be great when it's done and I won't have to be concerned about it again for a long time.
The next major hurdle is to sort out the wiring. Before I commenced the paint project I had made some strides on that so presumably it won't take much to get it squared away. Once the wiring is in, it's basically reassembling the rest of systems. There's a few parts to order yet for peripheral things but there's a moratorium on spending for now until the wiring is done.
More to come.