1972 Duster, 340/4, black on black (the endgame)

[RustyRatRod]

This is gonna be a nice one! What headers are those?

 

[WymanV]

TTI shorties. It didn't come with any exhaust so I figured if I was going to pay a hefty chunk of change for exhaust I'll skip on the collector (over)priced OEM 340 manifolds and pay for the HP bump instead.

 

[WymanV]

So let's restore some door panels.

On my trip to Oregon a couple years ago to strip a brother 72 340/4 speed TX9 Duster for suspension parts one of the bit pieces I grabbed were the trashed door panels that were rotting away in the back seat. They were indeed trashed but they were black and they were the same deluxe panels that were original to my car. So I took those as well with the thought I may be able to do something with them.

Turns out there was...

Way back in the day (remember-this project is closing up on 40 years) I made door panels for this car from a piece of corrugated plastic packing material I picked up on an odd job I had. And being the 1980s I had no reservations about covering the panels with fake fur-you may also remember I was building the car I wanted in high school and that was the cat's *** back in the day. However, fast forward 20 years or so and that zebra stripe got to be a bit much. Door panels, package shelf, headliner and dash pad was an awful lot of cheesy so I decided it had to go. The headliner was first of course-that cardboard one gave way to a black cloth one. Then the dash, which still has to be restored but it was a solid (tan) pad underneath and quite salvageable. Next would be stripping the fur off the plastic door panels I made with the idea of stripping the vinyl off the deteriorated chipboard/pressboard the originals were made from and gluing it to the plastic.

I started with the back seat panels because I just resumed work on the doors and they're not ready for panels yet, but here are the ones I picked up as "cores":

Not in the best of shape but I really have nothing to lose by trying but a little time. Here are the backsides of the ones I made showing the plastic cores I made for them:

Since the back seat area is coming together I started with the right side rear panel:

Not good, not terrible. They're drying out around the edges but hitting it with the heat gun softened the vinyl up quick and it peeled off the core pretty easily:

I warmed it up with the heat gun to ease out some of the wrinkles in the vinyl and glued it to the plastic core with some spray adhesive. Then I flipped it and glued the edges down and around with the same glue I used on the headliner:

A little more caressing with the heat gun and a bath in Purple Power later and ta-da, one rebuilt interior panel:

Not perfect and hardly show quality but it'll do the job and save me a pretty good chunk of change I can spend on buying aftermarket panels later if I wish.

Now the left side was a bit dicey:

Yeah, it shrank back a lot. I started by clamping the top edge down to the work table and started massaging and stretching the vinyl out with the heat gun:

With that improvement I pulled the vinyl off the old core and glued the back of the top edge to the new one. Then I clamped that down to the bench and started stretching it to fit:

Stapling it down helped it hold it's form while it cooled and while I went a little far on the back edge I doubt it'll stand out once the seat is in and it actually managed to stretch out quite a bit once it was heated up:

 

[WymanV]

It'll do. Again, not show worthy but functional and cheap. I suspect the remaining wrinkles will work out over time. Black on black means it'll get plenty hot in there in the summer.

(and in my best David Lee Roth impression) Uh oh-

Oh yes he did! This is the good stuff. This is the plush stuff. This is the stuff you put your hand on and it just sucks your hand in. This is the stuff your mom was conceived on
Seriously, I wasn't going to get away without some touch of the 1970s in this car. And I had a pretty sizeable piece left over from reconditioning a bass case a few years ago so I burned it up:

And you can see that right side panel in there too.

 

[moparker]

Looks good to me!

 

[WymanV]

So here's the wrap-up on all this. Panels are in. The metal panels got painted and buffed a few weeks ago and they're in. Sill plates and kick panels are in and the carpet has had it's final trim:

And the dash is assembled. Had a false alarm with it as it's been together before but after I put the horns in the hi beams stopped working. Tore it all apart to find the crossed wire and I did-under the bolt that held a horn in And everything works except the horns, of course but it's getting a wood steering wheel so I'll deal with that when the time comes. And happily enough my modified ashtray worked out pretty well. And even the 3 speed wiper motor and fluid pump work:

Of course there's a dashpad to deal with but that's $1300 I don't want to spend right now. Going to IPMS NATS next weekend in Madison and that'll be a costly adventure in itself.

Also added a third brake light while I was at it, because there are a whole bunch of kids out there today who never lived in a world before the third brake light and I really don't need one of them slamming into that tail light panel...again...:

And way up in front of the shop above the steering wheel you can just see the left door sitting on a sawhorse, getting prepped for repaint

 

[DionR]

So here's the wrap-up on all this. Panels are in. The metal panels got painted and buffed a few weeks ago and they're in. Sill plates and kick panels are in and the carpet has had it's final trim:

View attachment 1716276192

And the dash is assembled. Had a false alarm with it as it's been together before but after I put the horns in the hi beams stopped working. Tore it all apart to find the crossed wire and I did-under the bolt that held a horn in And everything works except the horns, of course but it's getting a wood steering wheel so I'll deal with that when the time comes. And happily enough my modified ashtray worked out pretty well. And even the 3 speed wiper motor and fluid pump work:

View attachment 1716276194

Of course there's a dashpad to deal with but that's $1300 I don't want to spend right now. Going to IPMS NATS next weekend in Madison and that'll be a costly adventure in itself.

Also added a third brake light while I was at it, because there are a whole bunch of kids out there today who never lived in a world before the third brake light and I really don't need one of them slamming into that tail light panel...again...:

View attachment 1716276195

And way up in front of the shop above the steering wheel you can just see the left door sitting on a sawhorse, getting prepped for repaint

Details on the third brake light?

 

[sireland67]

So here's the wrap-up on all this. Panels are in. The metal panels got painted and buffed a few weeks ago and they're in. Sill plates and kick panels are in and the carpet has had it's final trim:

View attachment 1716276192

And the dash is assembled. Had a false alarm with it as it's been together before but after I put the horns in the hi beams stopped working. Tore it all apart to find the crossed wire and I did-under the bolt that held a horn in And everything works except the horns, of course but it's getting a wood steering wheel so I'll deal with that when the time comes. And happily enough my modified ashtray worked out pretty well. And even the 3 speed wiper motor and fluid pump work:

View attachment 1716276194

Of course there's a dashpad to deal with but that's $1300 I don't want to spend right now. Going to IPMS NATS next weekend in Madison and that'll be a costly adventure in itself.

Also added a third brake light while I was at it, because there are a whole bunch of kids out there today who never lived in a world before the third brake light and I really don't need one of them slamming into that tail light panel...again...:

View attachment 1716276195

And way up in front of the shop above the steering wheel you can just see the left door sitting on a sawhorse, getting prepped for repaint

I just looked and Classic Industries has a dash pad for
$329


https://www.classicindustries.com/product/all-years/plymouth/all-models/parts/ma1094100.html

 

[hcallaway]

Labor of love!! Great job.

 

[WymanV]

Details on the third brake light?

It's something I picked up for the bike when I was working on it but it didn't fit-ended up using an LED strip on that. I had to make a bracket for this one as the one it came with was too short but it works and doesn't look too out of place. Packing for a trip but when I get back I'll get more pics.

I just looked and Classic Industries has a dash pad for
$329


https://www.classicindustries.com/product/all-years/plymouth/all-models/parts/ma1094100.html

Ooh-I can do that. I've been talking to Just Dashes about restoring the one I have but for the money I'll do this instead just as soon as I get back. Thanks for sharing

 

[CFD244]

Great work!

 

[WymanV]

Haven't posted an update here for a while, not for lack of work on it but because recent progress wasn't really photoworthy but enough stuff has come to fruition to justify a thread bump.

Front seats are recovered and installed (temporarily). This car started life with a front bench which I didn't care for so quite a few years ago I scored a pair of bucket seats that were alleged to be out of a '72 Charger, but were more likely out of a Challenger based on research. And those who have dealt with bucket seats for a '72 already know, there are some compatibility issues there. The '72 had the seat back springs embedded in the foam and new foam was in order as the original was never going to work with Duster vinyl. So after quite a few rounds of Trial & Error I finally got something that works. And no, no medallions. Never liked them and I wasn't about to go through the trouble and expense to do something I don't want anyway. Also replaced the factory seat belts with 3 point belts from Seat Belts Plus. And I'm not sure this is the end of it. With the seat all the way back the belt itself when applied has maybe a foot of slack in it-it's almost all the way out of the spool. I'm planning on doing some more digging and see if I can find some longer ones. I like the idea but they could be a foot or two longer. Still waiting for the vinyl for the back seat but in the meantime I can get the back belts in and everything else set up.

Brakes are in. Took way too long because so many vendors sent me the wrong parts and because the USPS can no longer be relied upon to deliver mail in a timely fashion. But it's done and the pedal is nice and solid. Could use a bit more adjustment on the pads and the parking brake cable still needs to be tightened up but the car stops when I want it to. It's actually a job I hemmed and hawed on because I knew having pads in there was going to make it harder to push the car around, but now that they're done all the engine compartment stuff is done and it's ready for a motor.

Got the fuel filler neck in. Had to go to a wedding back in Wisconsin a couple months ago so while I was there I stopped at Vans in Waupun, someplace I haven't been in ages (so long ago they had a pair of 340s they were trying to sell for $100 ea. and guess how many times I've kicked myself over that one...) and picked up the filler neck, one of two necessary trim pieces for the grill (out of stock on the other one) and carriage bolts for the back bumper. Now of course I have that flip-top gas cap mounted for real

Also probably worth mentioning the left door is repainted. Still have to buff it out but it's not going on until the interior work is done. Meanwhile, repainting the right one will fill any time voids that come up while waiting for parts.

The dash pad showed up last week (thanks for the tip sireland67) and I also scored a 150MPH speedometer for it-the correct one for '70-71 Duster Rallye dash. It's in desperate need of reconditioning and I still have some research to do finding someone to do it but once that's done the dash can be torn down again, the pad installed and the new speedometer into the cluster. And I got the mounts on the back bumper and would've put that on tonight but the bolts I have are few and quite crusty. I'll make the trip to the hardware store next weekend for new ones and get that bolted up.

So the short list is get the seatbelts in for the back seat and get everything back there ready for the seat itself when the vinyl shows up. Get the loose ends on the dashboard wrapped up (I need the defroster hoses too). Then get the right door painted so I can get those mounted and get it out for a long overdue bath. Then the next project to start will be replacing bearings in the transmission. Since it's ready for the motor the transmission needs to be ready too.


And an aside for DionR, more pics of the third brake light. The brackets are made from a metal strip with spaced holes in it (I know there's a name for that but it escapes me) and it's just bolted down through the package shelf. The wires go through the shelf too. The ground is grounded in the trunk with the stereo ground and the hot runs back up to the dash alongside the harness on the left side and is tapped into the brake light switch on the pedal.

 

[Mtrhead]

I absolutely love it when someone upgrades a 72 duster with a rally Dash it's just the missing piece that they always needed and it makes them the perfect combination

 

[mpgmike]

My uncle special ordered a new '72 Duster 340. It included a 4-speed and rallye gauge cluster. It never came. He took a stock car off the lot; AT and standard square dash. The fact that I've never seen a factory '72 340 Duster with the '70-'71 Rallye cluster, and the fact that his special order '72 Rallye cluster car never came in, I have to wonder if any were ever made. My uncle suggests it was on the option menu when he ordered his.

 

[WymanV]

For all the years I've owned this car, all the '72s I've seen and all the research I've done I have never seen nor heard of one with a factory Rallye dash. All signs have pointed to no and I accepted that as the way it is. Not that it never happened; I just haven't found one.

In fact, I don't remember ever seeing one in a '72 at all...