1972 Duster Build with my Daughter
- Thread starter Jim Kueneman
- Start date
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Beautiful and amazing work. Enjoy the time with your daughter!
Subscribed! Y’all are doing some awesome work! And y’all chose the perfect year Duster as well!!
Well well 0 for 2 today. Returned from business travel to Austin today and received my Classic Industries part for the AC and Firm Feel. The Gasket kit was missing the steel gaskets for the head and reed valve plate and Firm Feel sent the wrong power steering hose. Called Classic and they are sending the missing parts and have an email in to Firm Feel.
Before going full out on the new firewall patch I wanted to make sure the AC box fit in the car correctly. The biggest thing is would the air intake from the cowl line up and seal. They looked the same but you can be fooled. It fits perfectly but first we had to remove the cracked windshield and the dash to make it easier. I will probably weld from the inside as well to reduce the amount of grinding on the visible side under the hood.
Now that is a Tortured Dash Pad from the Az sun....
Before going full out on the new firewall patch I wanted to make sure the AC box fit in the car correctly. The biggest thing is would the air intake from the cowl line up and seal. They looked the same but you can be fooled. It fits perfectly but first we had to remove the cracked windshield and the dash to make it easier. I will probably weld from the inside as well to reduce the amount of grinding on the visible side under the hood.
Now that is a Tortured Dash Pad from the Az sun....
Finally a good days work in. Kaelyn is getting over a cold so she just wire brushed mounting hardware for the front end all day and got the Stage II Firm Feel gear painted. Everything is staged to assembly the K-Frame and front end tomorrow!
I finished up the firewall patch for the '73 AC system. I welded it from the inside so there was not so much to grid under the hood. It is shaped and ready for strip, sand and epoxy primer so I can add some filler to make it invisible from under the hood.
Lastly I finished stripping the undercoating from the right inner fender. Time for paint stripper to finish it off.
I finished up the firewall patch for the '73 AC system. I welded it from the inside so there was not so much to grid under the hood. It is shaped and ready for strip, sand and epoxy primer so I can add some filler to make it invisible from under the hood.
Lastly I finished stripping the undercoating from the right inner fender. Time for paint stripper to finish it off.
Milestone! First sub-assembly is together (sort of)! Those Chinese Rotors have a different size machining for the seal than factory so I need to hunt down a seal..... We tacked them together just to keep the parts in one spot, won't take long to pull the rotors.
65barracudaLA
Well-Known Member
Looks great, but the center link appears to be a slant 6 one, not a V8?
It was what came out of the '73 Dart with the Disks and the 318/904. I took the entire power/steering train out of the Dart. Neither of the two links in your photo look like the one from the Dart. This link actually looked like it was the same as my SB '68 Coronet.
Great job posting everything that you are doing. Reading and watching great build.
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mopowers
Well-Known Member
Awesome progress! You guys are getting this car done QUICK!
The centerlinks in that picture are for an early A body. After 66, there were no such things as slant 6 and V8 centerlinks.
The centerlinks in that picture are for an early A body. After 66, there were no such things as slant 6 and V8 centerlinks.
Gallon of Aircraft Stripper and a few hours with a the daughter and wire brushes we are getting closer to having the front clip completely stripped. This effort opens the door to weld in the left inner fender now (just setting in there right now)...
Hot and humid during monsoon season.... Beat but we did get some more panel stripped and I mocked up the front clip and have 1/2 of the spot welds in and ground down... Need to disassemble to finish the rest of the welds but we now have a '72 Duster with replaced LH inner fender, '73 AC firewall patch and '73 a 26" radiator and A/C condenser!
Oh and I straightened a bunch of of the condenser fins.
Got a little bit done today before the oldest called and told us she hit a curb in Tucson and cut her tire.... that sucked 3 hours out of the day....
With jack stands on the frame near the front of the rear spring shackle we found the balance point of the car with the rear axel still installed... The hood was the only thing that was keeping the front end down!!!! Without the hood wheelies are the only mode of operation! So we dropped the rear axel to get the weight off the rear of the car. The daughters car is behind the Coronet on a jack stand so I could not move the Coronet to get the axel out from under the Duster....
She did start getting the hood ready for primer.
With jack stands on the frame near the front of the rear spring shackle we found the balance point of the car with the rear axel still installed... The hood was the only thing that was keeping the front end down!!!! Without the hood wheelies are the only mode of operation! So we dropped the rear axel to get the weight off the rear of the car. The daughters car is behind the Coronet on a jack stand so I could not move the Coronet to get the axel out from under the Duster....
She did start getting the hood ready for primer.
I'm enjoying following along..... kind of feels like i'm visiting your garage now and then seeing progress 
Got a quality 1.5 hours in the garage tonight with the daughter... I broke down the rear suspension and got it out side in the bushes and she removed 25 years of Arizona patina, which I know some of you will find horrifying but she wants it to shine and look new...
Other than where the cardboard was in the trunk and got wet for the last 25 years the underbody has just started to get surface rust.... a little rotary abrasive disk, sanding and the sand blaster in a few area and she will be ready for epoxy primer....
Other than where the cardboard was in the trunk and got wet for the last 25 years the underbody has just started to get surface rust.... a little rotary abrasive disk, sanding and the sand blaster in a few area and she will be ready for epoxy primer....
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Oh any our A-Body drug dealer scored us an almost perfect grill for $200!
Interesting, I just noticed this looks like leopard stripes!!!!
Moparbrad
You don’t know me
Hey, love the build! I like how you’re actually rebuilding components rather than replacing them. Your daughter is learning a ocean full of info and that’s awesome!!! I’m glad someone is doing something with that car. Your “Mopar drug dealer” Johnny, is my good friend. Hope that grille works out nicely. I brought it down from Phoenix Sunday. 
If you need anything and Johnny doesn’t have it, I probably do. I can be your Phoenix Mopar drug dealer. Haha!
Keep up the excellent work!
If you need anything and Johnny doesn’t have it, I probably do. I can be your Phoenix Mopar drug dealer. Haha!
Keep up the excellent work!
Hey, love the build! I like how you’re actually rebuilding components rather than replacing them. Your daughter is learning a ocean full of info and that’s awesome!!! I’m glad someone is doing something with that car. Your “Mopar drug dealer” Johnny, is my good friend. Hope that grille works out nicely. I brought it down from Phoenix Sunday.
If you need anything and Johnny doesn’t have it, I probably do. I can be your Phoenix Mopar drug dealer. Haha!
Keep up the excellent work!
Hi Brad!
John gave me your number to contact for payment. He said Paypal works for you or he will pay you and I can settle with him. PM me how you want to handle it!
Well..... do you have a pair of factory hood scoops (she does not like the center snorkel). She really like the Twister package and wants to mimic that in B1 Blue.
Jim
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flamejockey13
Member
JDMopar
Well-Known Member
Off to the mountains for a Chuckwagon Cookoff for the weekend. We did get the RH door gutted and ready for stripping and bead blasting of the regulator parts. I plan to take it to the auto paint supply store in the morning so they can match the B1 and B5 blues for us.
New cat wiskers and Window hardware kit ordered from MrMoparts and latch clip kit ordered from eBay.
New cat wiskers and Window hardware kit ordered from MrMoparts and latch clip kit ordered from eBay.
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Dartn440
Well-Known Member
Very nice work. You are humming along.
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