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Well here it is, My name is Kourtney Johnston, I am 18 years old and a senior in high school. On August 30, 2005 I purchased a 1972 plymouth "Gold Duster". At the time I was 15 years old. I had originally wanted a '66 Chevelle SS, what was I thinking right? Then I started thinking I wanted a Dart. My dad's friend had mentioned he thought he had a Dart but when we got to his shed it happened to be a duster, so I went ahead and picked it up thinking this could be pretty cool! I happened to pick the car up along with a '75 4-door Valiant for $500, I thought this was a steal! Considering the valiant was a running and driving car with a 904 tranny a 318 block and a 7 1/4 rear end. I figured I could swap all of it out and put it in the Duster because it had a cracked 318 in it along with a 7 1/4 rear end and 904 tranny. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to fully restore a car. This duster was a hunk! but I saw the potential! I spent about four years restoring this car. We started deciding what exactly we wanted to do with it (color, paint scheme, interior, motor, etc...).
So, we started tearing everything apart and labeling and putting everything in boxes, just me and my dad! I was so stoked. We then did the body work, which started as going down to the first layer of paint but then decided to totally cut through and do EVERYTHING! We did all the body work ourselves including using as little bondo as we could. Then we really got into going to those all so famous SWAP MEETS! My dad and I would go to everyone here in the Northwest. We found many used parts and things we could fix up as we were kind of on a tight budget. With my father's and my knowledge we saved and salvaged everything we could and tried to do everything ourselves and get some great deals. We happened to start out with a pretty complete car and then came across three more '72 dusters for other parts cars.
After the body work we started cleaning up the motor from the Valiant. We took the 318 out and cleaned and dressed it up. We put new lifters, mild cam, an Edelbrock 600 on it, high rise edelbrock intake, manifolds, valve covers, air cleaner, etc... and painted it 340 orange. By this time I had figured out that I wanted to make it look like a 340 car that way later on I could find an actual 340 block and be set! I decided I wanted my car the famous MOPAR lime green but knew I wanted pearl in it. So we had a friend mix me up a color called "Kourtney Green Pearl" which is somewhat between a sublime and a sassy grass green with a pearl added to it. Then I picked out my 340 striping and decided to do the ladder bar striping. Along with that I built my own custom guage cluster and center console along with a hurst ratchet shifter for the on the floor automatic. Then had a friend recover my bucket seats in an all black vinyl with black carpet. I painted all the interior metal the same green as on the car in our barn and then started assembling. We did everything ourselves except the 2 1/2 inch flowmaster super 40 series exhaust, the half top vinyl top and the interior seats. All together we have around $6,000 invested in this car including the buying price. We were able to build an amazing car for fairly cheap just by being fortunate enough to be able to do about everything ourselves and buy used and some new parts. Yearone, Paddock and PST had a huge involvment in this project!
I am now 18 years old, and orignally I had put a 318 block in this car with a 904 tranny and a 7 1/4 rear end also with a four core radiator. The tranny ended up blowing up...sad day. But I then replaced it with a rebuilt 727 with B&M stage II shifter kit in it for $300, which was a smoking deal! Since I was replacing the tranny, I decided to go ahead and replace the rear end and driveline too.
So I bought a rebuilt 8 1/4 rearend and put that in and then had my uncle build me a new driveline for it. It currently still has the 318 and is running like a champ! I recently just bought the new rubber front end kit to rebuild the front end from PST and it is amazing!
I never really came from a family that was all about MOPARS. My aunt and uncle have a few and My dad has a '36 buick, a '54 ford panel with a 350, a '67 camaro and now we have four '72 dusters and a '75 valiant. So,of course I got picked on for having a MOPAR, but now they aren't laughing! This project has taught me so much about cars, I have always been knowledgeable in that area, but now I can whoop some of those boys! My father is very proud of me and it was a great time for us to spend some time together. My duster was my first car and still to this day after being done for 2 years my true love! I call it "Born in'a Barn" since we did all of this work in a barn on our farm in Jefferson, Oregon. I have won over 30 trophies at car shows every summer and still attend as many as I can. I love the people and the cars!
Well here it is, My name is Kourtney Johnston, I am 18 years old and a senior in high school. On August 30, 2005 I purchased a 1972 plymouth "Gold Duster". At the time I was 15 years old. I had originally wanted a '66 Chevelle SS, what was I thinking right? Then I started thinking I wanted a Dart. My dad's friend had mentioned he thought he had a Dart but when we got to his shed it happened to be a duster, so I went ahead and picked it up thinking this could be pretty cool! I happened to pick the car up along with a '75 4-door Valiant for $500, I thought this was a steal! Considering the valiant was a running and driving car with a 904 tranny a 318 block and a 7 1/4 rear end. I figured I could swap all of it out and put it in the Duster because it had a cracked 318 in it along with a 7 1/4 rear end and 904 tranny. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to fully restore a car. This duster was a hunk! but I saw the potential! I spent about four years restoring this car. We started deciding what exactly we wanted to do with it (color, paint scheme, interior, motor, etc...).
So, we started tearing everything apart and labeling and putting everything in boxes, just me and my dad! I was so stoked. We then did the body work, which started as going down to the first layer of paint but then decided to totally cut through and do EVERYTHING! We did all the body work ourselves including using as little bondo as we could. Then we really got into going to those all so famous SWAP MEETS! My dad and I would go to everyone here in the Northwest. We found many used parts and things we could fix up as we were kind of on a tight budget. With my father's and my knowledge we saved and salvaged everything we could and tried to do everything ourselves and get some great deals. We happened to start out with a pretty complete car and then came across three more '72 dusters for other parts cars.
After the body work we started cleaning up the motor from the Valiant. We took the 318 out and cleaned and dressed it up. We put new lifters, mild cam, an Edelbrock 600 on it, high rise edelbrock intake, manifolds, valve covers, air cleaner, etc... and painted it 340 orange. By this time I had figured out that I wanted to make it look like a 340 car that way later on I could find an actual 340 block and be set! I decided I wanted my car the famous MOPAR lime green but knew I wanted pearl in it. So we had a friend mix me up a color called "Kourtney Green Pearl" which is somewhat between a sublime and a sassy grass green with a pearl added to it. Then I picked out my 340 striping and decided to do the ladder bar striping. Along with that I built my own custom guage cluster and center console along with a hurst ratchet shifter for the on the floor automatic. Then had a friend recover my bucket seats in an all black vinyl with black carpet. I painted all the interior metal the same green as on the car in our barn and then started assembling. We did everything ourselves except the 2 1/2 inch flowmaster super 40 series exhaust, the half top vinyl top and the interior seats. All together we have around $6,000 invested in this car including the buying price. We were able to build an amazing car for fairly cheap just by being fortunate enough to be able to do about everything ourselves and buy used and some new parts. Yearone, Paddock and PST had a huge involvment in this project!
I am now 18 years old, and orignally I had put a 318 block in this car with a 904 tranny and a 7 1/4 rear end also with a four core radiator. The tranny ended up blowing up...sad day. But I then replaced it with a rebuilt 727 with B&M stage II shifter kit in it for $300, which was a smoking deal! Since I was replacing the tranny, I decided to go ahead and replace the rear end and driveline too.
So I bought a rebuilt 8 1/4 rearend and put that in and then had my uncle build me a new driveline for it. It currently still has the 318 and is running like a champ! I recently just bought the new rubber front end kit to rebuild the front end from PST and it is amazing!
I never really came from a family that was all about MOPARS. My aunt and uncle have a few and My dad has a '36 buick, a '54 ford panel with a 350, a '67 camaro and now we have four '72 dusters and a '75 valiant. So,of course I got picked on for having a MOPAR, but now they aren't laughing! This project has taught me so much about cars, I have always been knowledgeable in that area, but now I can whoop some of those boys! My father is very proud of me and it was a great time for us to spend some time together. My duster was my first car and still to this day after being done for 2 years my true love! I call it "Born in'a Barn" since we did all of this work in a barn on our farm in Jefferson, Oregon. I have won over 30 trophies at car shows every summer and still attend as many as I can. I love the people and the cars!