1972 Duster Build with my Daughter

[Jim Kueneman]

Set it in place and get the pry bar out to twist it back and tap it down with a hammer.

Use the hammer to set it home..

Kaelyn sand blasted the parts when they were apart. Set of Mopar hinges restored. Don't forget to put a bit of grease on the hinges before you drive home the pins.

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Guess we have not made it clear where Kaelyn want to go with her Duster with all be babbling I have been doing. She is keeping the B1 Blue with the original “premium” bright blue plaid interior with the bench seat. To this she wants it Twisterized in black and we have gathered all the trim to put a black vinyl top on it. Also the twin hood scoops. Similar to this with a black vinyl top. We bough a standard grill from @Moparbrad for now so it won’t have the shark tooth either. It will also have the more upscale dash from the Dart with the simulated woodgrain all the way across the dash

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Details, Details. Finished up a lot of details today and lots of DA sanding.... SPI 700/710 wipe down tomorrow morning and it is time to shoot epoxy!

Kaelyn did all the welding today. She welded on the disk brake hose brackets and the trim holes in the one fender. Looks good to me. She also learned how to pull dents with the stud welder.

 

[Princess Valiant]

Guess we have not made it clear where Kaelyn want to go with her Duster with all be babbling I have been doing. She is keeping the B1 Blue with the original “premium” bright blue plaid interior with the bench seat. To this she wants it Twisterized in black and we have gathered all the trim to put a black vinyl top on it. Also the twin hood scoops. Similar to this with a black vinyl top. We bough a standard grill from @Moparbrad for now so it won’t have the shark tooth either. It will also have the more upscale dash from the Dart with the simulated woodgrain all the way across the dash

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I am thinking like this:

 

[Jim Kueneman]

PRECISLY! I thought the other one was B3 and bit to dark.....

@Kaelyn here is what your doing just with the twin scoop and ladder graphic on the hood.

 

[Princess Valiant]

PRECISLY! I thought the other one was B3 and bit to dark.....

@Kaelyn here is what your doing just with the twin scoop and ladder graphic on the hood.

The twin hood scoops and ladder graphic are more correct for a 72 duster.
The scoop on the car in the video is the scoop I need for the 72 demon

 

[itchy666]

I had an eye problem at work today, I could not see spending the week there so I took the rest of the week off. @Kaelyn and I did some cleaning and preping for painting this holiday week/weekend. The garage is cleaned and the parts that need to be sand blasted with the course StarBlast are ready for the cabinet....

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Here are my favorite tools of cleaning. The Heat gun and scrapper or air scraper to remove the undercoating and break down the paint. Then a knotted wire brush on the grinder to remove 99% of the old paint and undercoating. This step saves at least 75% of the time needed the sand blasting cabinet and is WAY faster than the sandblaster.

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@Kaelyn got a few more parts done tonight.

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And I got the rest of the part requiring the StarBlast media for painting. There are a few items to blast with glass beads that need to be done after these are done.

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After reading a thread here I realized that the new brake hoses for the disk brakes do NOT fit in the frame tabs on the drum Duster. We need to move the tabs from the Dart to the Duster.... See the difference?

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From the Coronet I learned that factory clips are FAR FAR FAR superior to aftermarket. Save ALL clips from disassembly. These are from the hood to radiator seal from the hood.

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Lastly I learned not to drink and sandblast tonight. It is very difficult to decide if you are done sandblasting a part after a fifth of Tequila....

LOL

 

[Dartfreak75]

Awesome job so far I'm following!

 

[itchy666]

Nice Job Mate ;)

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Spent a couple more hours getting more rust out of the trunk then cleaned the body, fenders, doors and hinges with SPI 700 and 710 Wax and Grease Remover. Covered it in plastic ready for Epoxy in the morning! The thunderstorms are kicking up and the wind is blowing so there is no reason to risk it today after all this work!

 

[SLOPAR72]

You ate relentless OP.... Taskmaster for sure....

"Tarheel blue" as we call it in the South me likey. I flipped a 72 340 duster in early 90's with that particular
offering except the graphics and top were white. The body lines of an A body work great with that blue IMO...

JW

 

[Jim Kueneman]

You ate relentless OP.... Taskmaster for sure....

"Tarheel blue" as we call it in the South me likey. I flipped a 72 340 duster in early 90's with that particular
offering except the graphics and top were white. The body lines of an A body work great with that blue IMO...

JW

Haha! I can't stand having the clutter all over with things tore apart. Plus she has a goal to take the Duster to a show in the mountains June 1st next year so we have it scheduled out to make that date! If we don't get the paint on before winter it will be too cold to paint until spring so there is a short term push to get the paint done so we can work the mechanical over the winter. Part of this project is to learn how to plan and execute the plan to meet your goals!

 

[sireland67]

Haha! I can't stand having the clutter all over with things tore apart. Plus she has a goal to take the Duster to a show in the mountains June 1st next year so we have it scheduled out to make that date! If we don't get the paint on before winter it will be too cold to paint until spring so there is a short term push to get the paint done so we can work the mechanical over the winter. Part of this project is to learn how to plan and execute the plan to meet your goals!

How cold does it actually get in AZ, I heat my garage in WV and only a few days out of the year it is too cold to paint.

 

[Jim Kueneman]

We are at 5500 feet so for about 4-6 weeks it barely gets out of the 50's in the day and 20's at night. No heat in the garage as it is fine to work but too cold to paint (I want the metal 68 degrees or higher). I will be painting outside anyway as I am not making that mess in the garage again!

 

[JDMopar]

What color epoxy are you using? I kind of like the black, so it will show you the dents easier. Then I do any body work needed over the epoxy and use the light gray 2K for blocking.

 

[sireland67]

We are at 5500 feet so for about 4-6 weeks it barely gets out of the 50's in the day and 20's at night. No heat in the garage as it is fine to work but too cold to paint. I will be painting outside anyway as I am not making that mess in the garage again!

Understood about painting in the garage, at least mine is not attached to the house, there is over spray everywhere from when I painted my Willys a couple years ago.
There probably is some from 20 years ago when I painted my old truck.
That is mild for winter, here it may get down to -20 and not get above freezing for month or so.

But we do not have to deal with extreme heat, but it is 92 outside, but the 70% humidity today is brutal.

 

[FC7freak]

I'm impressed the job you did on removing the paint. How may hours did that take? I also like the color combo on the car and really like the plaid interior. Looking forward to watching the progress. Thanks

 

[Jim Kueneman]

What color epoxy are you using? I kind of like the black, so it will show you the dents easier. Then I do any body work needed over the epoxy and use the light gray 2K for blocking.

I have a gallon of grey for underbody and as far as it will go for the first 2 coats. I bought high build and am going to try white since the blue is so light. I like the SPI epoxy for its sheen and dull once sanded. I never used my graphite I bought for the Coronet. The white may not be a great idea for blocking though.

 

[Jim Kueneman]

I'm impressed the job you did on removing the paint. How may hours did that take? I also like the color combo on the car and really like the plaid interior. Looking forward to watching the progress. Thanks

Figure we started the stripping around June 30 and it is now Sept 2 so that is 12 weekends and we we were in the mountains a few of those and doing metal work for 3 or 4 of those so say 6 weekends. Maybe 10 hours in the garage per weekend and 2 of us so maybe 120 hours or so... that seems like more than it actually was but that is a good guess.

 

[Jim Kueneman]

Understood about painting in the garage, at least mine is not attached to the house, there is over spray everywhere from when I painted my Willys a couple years ago.
There probably is some from 20 years ago when I painted my old truck.
That is mild for winter, here it may get down to -20 and not get above freezing for month or so.

But we do not have to deal with extreme heat, but it is 92 outside, but the 70% humidity today is brutal.

I left that weather long ago. Today is about 82 and 40% humidity because of the monsoons... perfect. In a few weeks the monsoons will be gone and it will be about 80 with 15% humidity.

 

[sireland67]

I left that weather long ago. Today is about 82 and 40% humidity because of the monsoons... perfect. In a few weeks the monsoons will be gone and it will be about 80 with 15% humidity.

That sounds comfortable, we may get that weather for a week or so before the white crap comes.

 

[Jim Kueneman]

That sounds comfortable, we may get that weather for a week or so before the white crap comes.

Drive 50 miles down into Tucson and it is another story.... add 15 degrees and sometimes more if we have clouds and the valley does not.

 

[JDMopar]

The white high build should be good for blocking. If you use the black or dark gray guide coat on it, low spots will stick out like a sore thumb! When I finally get to the point of doing the bottom of my Duster, I think I'm gonna do the SPI epoxy, and then before the recoat without sanding window runs out....I'll turn around and shoot it with Upol Raptor bedliner. I'm still on the fence about doing it that way, or wait until it's in color and clear to do it. It may just be easier to mask off the body, and flip it over and spray the black bedliner material then?

 

[sireland67]

Same way here, drive an hour to the mountains, and it is a good 30 degrees cooler year round.
But they deal with feet of snow, vs inches here.

 

[Jim Kueneman]

The white high build should be good for blocking. If you use the black or dark gray guide coat on it, low spots will stick out like a sore thumb! When I finally get to the point of doing the bottom of my Duster, I think I'm gonna do the SPI epoxy, and then before the recoat without sanding window runs out....I'll turn around and shoot it with Upol Raptor bedliner. I'm still on the fence about doing it that way, or wait until it's in color and clear to do it. It may just be easier to mask off the body, and flip it over and spray the black bedliner material then?

I plan on shooting the undercoating last. It will have a ton of overspray on it if it is done first. I learned a lot about how you can't stop overspray with the Coronet .