1974 Plymouth Duster Restomod

[Dustin The PcP]

Here's somethin a little different for you guys =)!

First coat of paint on, not full coverage yet! Final product was three coats of case, and three of clear!

Gettin there

Here she is all done up, still have to put the timing chain and water pump on, it will make it look a lot better as well!

 

[Dustin The PcP]

I got half of the engine compartment painted today, and man does it look nice! I can't wait to spray the other side!

That color is just so beautiful!!

All mixed up ready to spray

A couple of it after paint, sorry the lightening sucks! It looks so much better in person.

 

[DionR]

Looks good. Glad to see that someone is making progress, 'cuz I aint.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Looks good. Glad to see that someone is making progress, 'cuz I aint.

Thank you, and won't be making progress much longer! About to get cold.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

I won't be doing a whole lot to the car this week, getting ready to go back to school and I am waiting on parts.

Parts I am awaiting:
A833 nonOD low gear tranny and everything i will need to go from automatic to manual
Billit aluminum flywheel
Clutch kit

Can't wait to get it running with stick!!!

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Well I have started school again. The only time I will have to work on the car will be weekends, however I am waiting for money and parts to come in, so there is not much I can do. School is from 7a.m.-5p.m. everyday and I leave around 6 and get home a little after six, so no time during the week for anything.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

It has been a while since I have updated this, but not much has happened. I have been in school full time and have lots of homework. But now that the weather is warming up I am going to get to work on it again. I couldn't paint with it so cold, maybe now this will give me some motivation to get to it!

I have everything I need to put the motor and new tranny in except the clutch, still need to get some cash before I can get it though. Hard to do when driving 600 miles a week with no income other than scholarships for school.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Well I have been at work for almost two weeks now and have quite a bit to update. I have pictures, but need to upload them first. I have a few on hand that I will post in a bit.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Here are two pictures of the engine compartment all done and everything rerouted to where it belongs, the pictures that were the process of this happening will come soon.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

The clutch brake assembly is in and all hooked up. The floor shift hump is mounted in place I do not have final pictures uploaded yet, but will soon. Had to patch two areas on floor shift hump, and have a picture of the bracket I made before it was welded in.

 

[Dartboy52]

Just read through the thread. Awesome build, I am a fan, keep up the good work and keep us posted

 

[Dartboy52]

Oh ya and BTW I am another 318 guy here, and your engine setup sounds like it should make some good power, I am jealous of those heads and pistons that you have... haha

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Finally got everything together and in the car, just working a few little things here and there. I had to repaint the engine because the paint was just flaking off after I had just painted it a couple months prior. I need a shifter mounting plate, and my clutch safety switch hooked up, and to prime the oil pump then put distributor and wires on and then I am ready to start it up!

But I didn't take too many pictures I only have two.

One just before it going into the car.

And one after it is in with mostly everything hooked up.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Well I fired the engine up last week and broke the cam in everything went fine, except some lifters are bad. Summit sent me new ones for free, going to put those in tomorrow. I got new shocks on the front some edelbrock classic IAS, they are a lot stiffer. Also have new brake pads and rotors on the front. I also installed some new 8k HID headlights in it earlier today I have not seen them at night, only in the day. They look good though. Slowly but surely things are coming together.

 

[rapom65]

Dustin - Good looking project and your making great progress. Don't be discouraged when if feels like your at a standstill due to work/school/lack of $. Most don't realize just how long a car build can take and the amount of work that is involved. Eat that elephant one bite at a time. I'm subscribed and look forward to more updates. You may not get a ton of feedback but you have 4183 views so your getting good interest in your thread.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

I will have pictures up of the headlights as soon as I can, I am having family here this weekend. But there is lots of not so good news for the car. Got the new lifters in and there is still a really loud tick, I now have a leaking head gasket, and I could only get the transmission into second and fourth gear. Things are going backwards right now.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Alright so updates on the car. Sorry for no pictures, camera is broken and I broke my phone. So no pictures for now. But I have a new head gasket on the way, an adjustable pushrod, along with some roller rocker arms. That should be fun. I also found out why I could only shift into second and fourth gear, I had the shift linkage hooked up wrong, because I had the wrong shifter mounting plate. So the correct mounting plate is on the way, and then I should be able to shift correctly. But I am in a hurry up and wait situation. I have to wait for the adjustable pushrod to get in so I can figure out the correct length, then order them. So I have hopefully by the end of next week I can be driving it... Seems like I have said that four weeks in a row now.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Alright so I have some updates for the car and a few pictures. Well I got my head gasket, pushrods, and intake gaskets in today. So of course they went on the car today!

Here are a few pictures of the new roller rockers before they were adjusted.

Once I installed the roller rockers and started it up it sounded like they were hitting the valve covers... Sure enough they were, this was my solution. A little red neck engineering.

You can see where they were hitting and digging into it.

This is what the valve covers now look like

And I never did get a picture of the headlight up, so here it is.
These have a blue halo in them, along with a blue driving light, with HID 8k high and low beam bulbs. They are VERY bright. They also have a removable bulb in them which is very handy!

 

[Dustin The PcP]

I forgot to mention that I do also have a front and rear sway bar to put on, and I have new rear shocks on the way along with some traction bars. I am hoping to stiffen up the suspension a little until I can afford what I want!

 

[dusterdan]

hey there, i'm a 20 year old college student with a 70' duster and i must say your car is looking awesome! i wish i had the $ that you had my build is going turtle-speed compared to yours! haha i want to ask what kind of buckets are you going to use for the back seat? that is thee most awesome seating arrangement i can imagine! also, did you get the lights off of ebay? perhaps you could send me a link i was looking at getting some myself...

 

[Dustin The PcP]

hey there, i'm a 20 year old college student with a 70' duster and i must say your car is looking awesome! i wish i had the $ that you had my build is going turtle-speed compared to yours! haha i want to ask what kind of buckets are you going to use for the back seat? that is thee most awesome seating arrangement i can imagine! also, did you get the lights off of ebay? perhaps you could send me a link i was looking at getting some myself...

Yeah I have gone broke the past couple months just trying to get it running again, it has been sitting for the past six months cause I was waitin on money for parts. It is slower than it seems, it's just all coming together now. I have not decided on what rear seats I want to use, because I am not there yet that is just what I am going to do. Lot's of things still up in the air for what or how I am going to do it, but it will get there one day. The link for the headlights I will put below, and if you want some more detailed pictures of them I will be glad to take them for you. They come with Xenon bulbs, but I got the HID upgrade kit for them. (Too many people pulled out in front of me at night and pissed me off, caused me to wreck pretty badly one time.)

You can also search for a Duster and get the blue halo ones like I did. For some reason the ones with blue halos were five dollars cheaper. And I didn't have any issues buying from this company either, actually got really good service.
http://www.prostreetlighting.com/product/6024EUROAMZN114

 

[dusterdan]

awesome thanks for the link!!! was there any extra "leftover" parts you have? i'm converting my car from a S6 to a 360 so i need lots of goodies haha

 

[Dustin The PcP]

awesome thanks for the link!!! was there any extra "leftover" parts you have? i'm converting my car from a S6 to a 360 so i need lots of goodies haha

Mhm, not at the moment I don't really have any extra parts that you could use, but if something comes up I will let you know.

 

[Dustin The PcP]

Well bad news. I drove it home yesterday pulling over many times to make adjustments to things here and there. But on my way back to work this morning my clutch fork broke, I was only about a mile away so I pushed it. But just more time I have to spend waiting on parts. But I did get some pictures of the headlights, and they are pretty awesome.

This is the running light it has in it.

The Blue halos

Close up of one of the halos

And here are two pictures of the headlights

 

[SpeedracerX]

that Duster is gonna turn out real nice.. thank God the 120 mph joy ride didnt wind up costing you more than just a little damage to the car.. As my friends would tell me, save that for the track.. Looking forward to seeing the progress on the car..