Believe it or not the rear seats is original, they only have minor sun rot on the top vinyl portion.
It'd going to be a copper and black two tone. The copper is little similar to the factory color which is burnt sienna metallic.
1974 Duster build
- Thread starter Cuprum-74
- Start date
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It'd going to be a copper and black two tone. The copper is little similar to the factory color which is burnt sienna metallic.
Not much done to the duster, been mainly busy with school. Finished the semester last week. I have this week so I'll be doing some work to it. Then it's the Christmas trip next week.
I have several questions:
Is there an aftermarket option for power steering for these cars? Dusters and Darts are in real short supply in the salvage yards around here. Only one Dart sport in a salvage yard 15 miles north of here. No other Salvage yards within 100 miles radius have any of them. I have found a 318 Volare' in one of them but the power steering pulley unit was pretty mashed up. Is there another option (keep in mind budget) I can use, maybe from another vehicle that'll work? My wife will be driving the car and I'm not sure she'll like the manual steering.
Is there an after market suspension system that is not super costly that'll help with the handling and make it on par with some of the newer vehicles?
I currently have a Energy Suspension Urethane bushing kit, but not sure that it will be enough.
And lastly, I have a set of Bassett rims I got real cheap, the only problem with them is I have to use special lugnuts and no center cap will fit on them. The special lugnuts are beveled 60 degrees and they are also not very cheap. So my question is what rims look really good on these cars? I was thinking about getting the factory style rally rims or some of the aluminum ones but just not sure yet. They have to be 15 inch, I already have brand new 15 inch tires.
I have a total of 6 rims this style, 4x7 in. and 2x8 in. wide rims.
Here is a picture of what I have at the moment:
Also to note that those rims are for sale if anyone wants them.
I have several questions:
Is there an aftermarket option for power steering for these cars? Dusters and Darts are in real short supply in the salvage yards around here. Only one Dart sport in a salvage yard 15 miles north of here. No other Salvage yards within 100 miles radius have any of them. I have found a 318 Volare' in one of them but the power steering pulley unit was pretty mashed up. Is there another option (keep in mind budget) I can use, maybe from another vehicle that'll work? My wife will be driving the car and I'm not sure she'll like the manual steering.
Is there an after market suspension system that is not super costly that'll help with the handling and make it on par with some of the newer vehicles?
I currently have a Energy Suspension Urethane bushing kit, but not sure that it will be enough.
And lastly, I have a set of Bassett rims I got real cheap, the only problem with them is I have to use special lugnuts and no center cap will fit on them. The special lugnuts are beveled 60 degrees and they are also not very cheap. So my question is what rims look really good on these cars? I was thinking about getting the factory style rally rims or some of the aluminum ones but just not sure yet. They have to be 15 inch, I already have brand new 15 inch tires.
I have a total of 6 rims this style, 4x7 in. and 2x8 in. wide rims.
Here is a picture of what I have at the moment:
Also to note that those rims are for sale if anyone wants them.
Well The duster is pretty much wired up now. And everything works except the tail lights.
The brake lights work, as do the turn signals, but when I turn on the park lights, the front park lights and clearance markers light up but nothing at back. Guess I have an electrical gremlin to chase, I'm sure there's more. :axe:
And oh yeah red LED lights in the gauge cluster is a BAD idea, cannot see a darned thing. Going with blue or white.
I also have a stubborn broken stud on one of the cylinder heads so I'm going to have to take it to a machine shop and see if they can extract and maybe repair the threads as the easy-out I was using broke inside as well. :banghead:
But other than that, it won't be long until I can fire her up!
Then I can start working on the suspension so I can get her on the road!
And finish the paint as well.
Gotta be careful I don't fall behind my college courses as well.
The brake lights work, as do the turn signals, but when I turn on the park lights, the front park lights and clearance markers light up but nothing at back. Guess I have an electrical gremlin to chase, I'm sure there's more. :axe:
And oh yeah red LED lights in the gauge cluster is a BAD idea, cannot see a darned thing. Going with blue or white.
I also have a stubborn broken stud on one of the cylinder heads so I'm going to have to take it to a machine shop and see if they can extract and maybe repair the threads as the easy-out I was using broke inside as well. :banghead:
But other than that, it won't be long until I can fire her up!
Then I can start working on the suspension so I can get her on the road!
And finish the paint as well.
Gotta be careful I don't fall behind my college courses as well.
Robj
Well-Known Member
Nice project!
Well I found out the flex plate to crank bolts were only finger tight, I believe that was totally my fault for rushing things :banghead:. Luckily no damage to the flexplate occurred, however I did find this:
Approximately 30-35% of it broke off. I can probably still run it, but I'm going to have to address it sooner or later... Right now I have tight budget constraints and I really can't afford a new transmission right now.
Approximately 30-35% of it broke off. I can probably still run it, but I'm going to have to address it sooner or later... Right now I have tight budget constraints and I really can't afford a new transmission right now.
That sucks, when it was toms auto parts, they were damn good at what they did.Assuming the one on main/1900 near the city center/courthouse?
Just need the side windows and interior done.
:thumbup:
Were you the one in that Chevy Colorado revving his engine? When my wife was driving the Duster?
Oh yeah she's drivable. There's only minor quirks left on it to fix. One is a moderate oil leak that just surfaced several weeks ago. I narrowed it down to the rear bearing seal (which is brand new, go figure). The second one is an exhaust leak from the headers and getting the exhaust pipes to fit better. The third one is getting a driveshaft that fits better (I got mine cut a couple of inches too short).
Then the last one is possibly getting a better carb for it. The 20 year old Carter AFB still works fairly well, but I can tell the linkages are starting to have a slight vacuum leak. (I've rebuilt that carb 3 times now)
I'm looking to get a rebuilt Carter TQ or a Street Demon.
Not much to update, been driving this thing around town and to my university from time to time.
I replaced the rear main seal, and reduced the oil leak by about 70%.
I stuck on another Carter AFB I had in the garage. (I have three by the way, 1 from a camaro, and the other 2 were from the Ram and Ramcharger) One that had a linkage that didn't shimmy so much. (Go figure a 30 yr old Carter AFB works better than the 20 yr old one lol)
I then had a really bad stumbling issue, come to find out the stupid Mr. Gasket fuel filter I used failed. The filter element somehow separated and began filling the carb up with really dirty fuel and pieces of filter element.
After 3 hours of taking the Carb apart (thank god these things are simple), cleaning all the passages with carb cleaner and an air nozzle, then re-adjusting the floats. She fired right up and idled perfectly.
I drove 30 miles to Salt Lake City and back.
I now have a very audible tick coming from the rear driver side valvetrain area. And a very slight tick coming from the front of the engine... What gives? Well I guess I need to start troubleshooting again *sigh...*
I also have a slight surging issue when I am cruising at lower speeds around 30-50 mph...
Grrr!
Maybe getting that Rebuilt Thermoquad or new Street Demon might happen sooner than I wanted.
Well here are the pictures:
I replaced the rear main seal, and reduced the oil leak by about 70%.
I stuck on another Carter AFB I had in the garage. (I have three by the way, 1 from a camaro, and the other 2 were from the Ram and Ramcharger) One that had a linkage that didn't shimmy so much. (Go figure a 30 yr old Carter AFB works better than the 20 yr old one lol)
I then had a really bad stumbling issue, come to find out the stupid Mr. Gasket fuel filter I used failed. The filter element somehow separated and began filling the carb up with really dirty fuel and pieces of filter element.
After 3 hours of taking the Carb apart (thank god these things are simple), cleaning all the passages with carb cleaner and an air nozzle, then re-adjusting the floats. She fired right up and idled perfectly.
I drove 30 miles to Salt Lake City and back.
I now have a very audible tick coming from the rear driver side valvetrain area. And a very slight tick coming from the front of the engine... What gives? Well I guess I need to start troubleshooting again *sigh...*
I also have a slight surging issue when I am cruising at lower speeds around 30-50 mph...
Grrr!
Maybe getting that Rebuilt Thermoquad or new Street Demon might happen sooner than I wanted.
Well here are the pictures:
Well I met another fellow Duster owner at Hill AFB. He owns a faded yellow 72 with a 318, has some cancer on it.
Awesome guy, I sold some parts to him. Looked at my duster for a bit.
Then said this: "You must've be a been a Chevy guy or somethin'?"
"Why you ask? My family were GM fanatics yes, and I do like some of their cars especially Chevelles and Novas."
He then said: "Well you painted the engine bay black instead of the body color."
...? I did not know that. Guess I'll have to change that sometime, it would've been great if someone told me that earlier when I had the engine out.
Oh well... Lesson learned
Awesome guy, I sold some parts to him. Looked at my duster for a bit.
Then said this: "You must've be a been a Chevy guy or somethin'?"
"Why you ask? My family were GM fanatics yes, and I do like some of their cars especially Chevelles and Novas."
He then said: "Well you painted the engine bay black instead of the body color."
...? I did not know that. Guess I'll have to change that sometime, it would've been great if someone told me that earlier when I had the engine out.
Oh well... Lesson learned
Well it has been a while since I updated this, I'm going to try to update this more as I'll doing some more to it.
Since the last post:
I have done a Cam swap, it now has a Lunati voodoo cam. (bye bye Thumpr).
Converted my A999 trans into a non-lockup and installed a Cheetah Valve body. Also put in a Hughes Torque converter.
Swapped rear gears from 3.21 to 3.55.
Installed a Custom gauge cluster.
Next things to do on this is:
Thermoquad rebuild and tune.
Replacing rear shocks.
Body work and new paint, still doing yellow, but I still might change.
Rear brakes.
New torsion bars (maybe)
Power steering conversion.
Rear suregrip rebuild. (in RustyRatRod's very capable hands at the moment))
Since the last post:
I have done a Cam swap, it now has a Lunati voodoo cam. (bye bye Thumpr).
Converted my A999 trans into a non-lockup and installed a Cheetah Valve body. Also put in a Hughes Torque converter.
Swapped rear gears from 3.21 to 3.55.
Installed a Custom gauge cluster.
Next things to do on this is:
Thermoquad rebuild and tune.
Replacing rear shocks.
Body work and new paint, still doing yellow, but I still might change.
Rear brakes.
New torsion bars (maybe)
Power steering conversion.
Rear suregrip rebuild. (in RustyRatRod's very capable hands at the moment))
Well since my Duster is out of commission at the moment, pending a suregrip rebuild.
I'm going to attempt a Thermoquad rebuild as I've managed to acquire three Thermoquads.
A 6322S, 6488S and a 9002S
The 6488S is going to be mainly used for part as it looked like it was dropped off a a roof or something.
The 6322S is the one I'm going to rebuild.
Bonus is I have two rebuild kits (one I got for free after I bought the 6322S for like $36)
I'm going to attempt a Thermoquad rebuild as I've managed to acquire three Thermoquads.
A 6322S, 6488S and a 9002S
The 6488S is going to be mainly used for part as it looked like it was dropped off a a roof or something.
The 6322S is the one I'm going to rebuild.
Bonus is I have two rebuild kits (one I got for free after I bought the 6322S for like $36)
SGGDuster
Dreaming of Burnt Rubber
I love your Duster! What is your wheel/tire size? I've got a stock 8 1/4 and some stiffer leaf springs and yours is exactly what I want mine to look like. Great work you've done!
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