1973 Plymouth Duster Build

[mehansen81]

This is the start of many, many months of work! A few weeks back we brought home this 1973 Duster 340. Originally a gold/parchment 340 with black stripes - someone changed it quite a bit. It has been driven in Wisconsin for many winters is my guess based on how this thing rotted.

It has its solid points and well it’s low points too. We started tearing it down, pulled the driveline, and started a plan of attack, which included some pretty large orders to AMD.

The previous owners started on the car and gave up pretty quickly. We’re looking forward to the challenge.

In the next few weeks we’ll be getting going on the inner and outer rockers, then torsion bar crossmember, drivers side front frame rail, some floor patches, door lock pillars, rear wheelhouses and trunk floor extensions and quarters.

Stay tuned for updates!

 

[abdywgn]

Watching...and hopefully learning. Looks like you got your work cut out for you (not trying to be funny).

 

[67dartgtgo]

Welcome......looks like you’ve got your work cut out for you. Can’t wait to see the progress.

 

[Mtrhead]

Nice car will be well worth it when you're done!!!

 

[QuickDart360]

Not in too bad of shape. Once the issues are sorted out she will once again grace the streets! And look great in the sea of cookie cutter cars.

 

[mehansen81]

So with the data loss issue on the forum reposting some cliffs notes of updates that went missing.

-got the duster fully stripped
-have a huge pile of AMD and NOS parts here ready for the car to be stripped
-built a dolly to make transportation easier
-dropped car off at the dipper last week
-3 to 4 month backlog at dipper so going to get started on other aspects of the car and also some phase 2 work on our 1966 Satellite
-tore the rear axle down (8-3/4 cone style suregrip in a 489 case) and it’s largely trashed short of the axle tube and the case, so that will be a major project

 

[72dustervs]

Nice work , good looking project

 

[mehansen81]

No major updates here, the 73 is still in the queue for getting stripped before all the sheet metal work begins and is expected back before the end of the calendar year. In the interim we have been focused on the next phase 66 Satellite project - all new PST suspension components, poly-graphite bushings, stiffened LCA's with added sway bar brackets, new PST torsion bars, PST strut rods, Hotchkis front sway bar, leaf springs from ESPO, Billstein shocks. Also did a Cordoba disc brake upgrade (11.75" rotors) using the Dr Diff brackets, on the existing A-body spindles on the car along with upgraded SS flex lines front and rear.

 

[4.7Light]

Sounds like you got a couple nice projects. I feel very fortunate I found a low mileage car. Those rails I would not have wanted to do. But still mine is a Rochester NY car so got some rust none the less. Keep us updated you saved a Duster!

 

[mehansen81]

Alright - the Duster is back from chemical stripping and it looks great! The service and quality from Restoration Specialists for their work was absolutely top notch. Highly recommend to anyone looking to do a project like this. They hit the mid point of the time and cost estimates. This day in age all I can ask for is a company that gives their work and follows through.

Will post some updates and some WTB posts for some additional panel needs shortly. The roof has a spot that likely needs a donor panel, and unfortunately the donor front frame rails I purchased are not usable (cracks and previous repairs, so yeah, back to the drawing board there.

 

[j par]

.......

 

[mehansen81]

Well as the story goes - this car is definitely a bit rougher than I expected. I am super impressed by how clean the shell got from the dipping process at Restoration Specialists. A couple unexpected patches and minor rot spots were found, so definitely more work than I expected ahead of me. This is a original 340 car however, and at this point I am committed to being the caretaker of this car, and bringing it back to the best of my ability. I've also shifted my mindset that this Duster will become more of a resto-mod, with a stroked 340 under the hood. I likely will make the US Car Tool stage 3 investment as well to stiffen the chassis up further.

Onto the progress.

I've welded in some 1" steel square tube support structure connecting front/rear frame rails, front to rear on each door jamb, drivers side to passenger side at each door jamb and then from upper and lower support structures. My first goal was to replace the inner/outer rocker on the drivers side. It was toast. I was able to remove the entire inner/outer rocker panel as an assembly, but also found some rot in the base of the inner panel below the rear quarter window where the inner/outer rockers are sandwiched together with that inner panel. Luckily I have found a semi-local person who has that panel already cut out of a Demon and it appears to be clean, so will be picking that up this weekend.

Unfortunately AMD no longer makes the inner rocker panel for the Duster, but I was able to procure AMD inners for a Dart. This required some sectioning to shorten 3" and relocation of the seat belt nut. Drivers side turned out quite nice.

Next up: I'll be tacking in the drivers side inner/outer rocker assembly along with the replacement inner panel next.