'70 Duster Revival: Drag Racing Heart | Pro Touring Soul

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

As most of you know choosing the right wheel and tire combo for your project can be one of the most difficult decisions that have to be made. For my situation, I knew I wanted to do a little autocross from time to time and I also wanted to drive the car on the street as much as possible. After months of researching (flipping through countless catalogs, browsing the forums and second guessing every option I thought I liked) I chose Weld Racing's RT-S S71's Series wheels. I really liked their classic 5 spoke look along with the black center with a polished edge. I wanted to tie the wheels in with the black side stripe. They're a 3 piece modular design with forged billet centers and cold forged rim shells. They could definitely stand up to anything I could throw at them.

I provided the measurements to Weld and with a 3-4 week lead time I had them back in the shop within the month.

Wheels
Weld Racing RT-S Series S71

Rears
18" x 10"
5.6" Backspace

Fronts
17" x 8"
5.3" Backspace

I still had the fronts at the tire shop at the time these pictures were taken

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Everything was going great with the new rearend and the wheels installed... until it was time to mount the stock fuel tank. A new stock replacement tank mounting in the stock location underneath the spare tire bulge interfered with the Dana 60's rearend cover.

I was a little irritated after making this discovery but Chuck let me know "Hey... this is hot rodding." He was right. After a couple calming beers we put together a new game plan. I could have probably replaced the Moser Dana 60 cover with a stock one and been fine but we had a line a brand new stainless steel fuel cell at Chuck's shop and they were willing to part with reasonably.

So, after a long weekend of cutting out the old patched together trunk pan and carefully aligning and installing a new AMD pan... it was time to cut it out again. We welded in a new piece of flat sheet metal, installed the fuel cell mounting rails and then painted the inside and undercoated the bottom. I then rolled some new FatMat in the trunk. The new fuel cell went in pretty easily and gave us good clearance as well as good mounting points for the electronic fuel pump and the filters. Problem solved!

 

[fez440]

looking good. im enjoying reading about your car. really well done. also like how well your posts are written lol id be interested in seeing you suspension setup in the back and where did you hide the engine wiring?

 

[HemiDenny]

where did you put your spare wheel / tire for the "Oh crap, I got a flat moment" when you are cruisin?

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

looking good. im enjoying reading about your car. really well done. also like how well your posts are written lol id be interested in seeing you suspension setup in the back and where did you hide the engine wiring?

Thanks fez440! It's kind of fun going back and reliving the build from start to finish. This is definitely the biggest project I have ever taken on and I'm happy I can share it here with the FABO community. Stay tuned for more on the rear suspension and wiring - I'll have that posted soon.

where did you put your spare wheel / tire for the "Oh crap, I got a flat moment" when you are cruisin?

Yeah it's always a possibility HemiDenny and it always crosses my mind on longer trips away from home. Then I put the pedal down and forget about it. Getting a AAA card probably wouldn't be a bad idea!

 

[HemiDenny]

Just the boy scout in me......

Always be preparred.

 

[joeboy]

Beautiful Car, and great work! Keep the pics and stuff coming, that thing looks sweet!

Joe

 

[Riddler]

Thanks fez440! It's kind of fun going back and reliving the build from start to finish. This is definitely the biggest project I have ever taken on and I'm happy I can share it here with the FABO community. Stay tuned for more on the rear suspension and wiring - I'll have that posted soon.



Yeah it's always a possibility HemiDenny and it always crosses my mind on longer trips away from home. Then I put the pedal down and forget about it. Getting a AAA card probably wouldn't be a bad idea!

I did the same. Hard to do when you have mixed front/rear like us. I've got the same size wheels you do. I planned to just bring a can of Fix a Flat with me and if one goes I stop and have it fixed. I do have an extra pair of 17" front wheels that the tire place scratched up I could use.

Also I love the build, you're inspiring me to work harder at getting mine done.

Riddler

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Beautiful Car, and great work! Keep the pics and stuff coming, that thing looks sweet!

Joe

Thanks joeboy! There's a lot more to come!

I did the same. Hard to do when you have mixed front/rear like us. I've got the same size wheels you do. I planned to just bring a can of Fix a Flat with me and if one goes I stop and have it fixed. I do have an extra pair of 17" front wheels that the tire place scratched up I could use.

Also I love the build, you're inspiring me to work harder at getting mine done.

Riddler

I really should get a spare 17" with a cheap tire just for an emergency.

Riddler your build is looking great. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on that thread as things progress! Not a lot of '76s out there! A hard deadline was the biggest motivation I had to keep things moving. The wedding just wouldn't have been the same without the car there!

 

[Alex5280]

Your Car/build is awesome, thanks for posting...truly loved reading your thread!!!

 

[oldcarnut]

nicely done

 

[fez440]

That is great motivation for sure ! Have any wedding car photos to share ?☺I'm under the same dead line

 

[prrc]

Looks great. A very nice job. I like the wheels I had looked at them myself.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

A big thank you for the feedback guys!

fez440 I'll post a few wedding picture towards the end. Good luck with your deadline! There's definitely a lot of pressure to finish but it's well worth the long nights, busted knuckles and depleted finances. (At least I think so!)

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

At this point in the build I was dabbling in a little bit of everything. We were beginning the process of wiring the car. The front buckets, rear bench, and dash pad were sent out to be reupholstered. The smaller interior and exterior items were being blasted, primed and painted. Brake lines and fuel lines were in the process of being mapped out. The instrument panel, radio bezel and glove box door were shipped for refurbishing. It's funny that for how much progress was being made the list of items for things to do was still growing.

If I learned one lesson in this entire build - its work on 1 task at a time and finish it before starting another. Some days, I'd overwhelm myself with how much needed to get done! Never the less, we were checking tasks off and it felt great.

One of the projects I took on while waiting for a parts order was restoring the dash. The original dash was disassembled, hardware labeled and stored in baggies and then the paint and primer was removed with a wire wheel and sandpaper. Once down to bare metal the dash was cleaned, re-primed and then sprayed with gloss black.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

The firewall needed to be slightly modified in order to utilize a non-A/C heater box, the fuel lines were ready to be mounted and the motor was ready to be dropped in... so naturally I started restoring the tail lights.

After seeing the price of reproduction lenses I knew I had to make what I had work. I had 2 sets of used tail lights so I chose the best pieces and made 1 good set. With the housing and lenses disassembled, I blasted, primed and painted the metal parts. After carefully taping off the outside of the housing I then shot the inside with Duplicolor Chrome. The lenses were polished with the clear headlight polish that can be found at any major auto parts store. This helped to remove the bulk of sun faded blemishes and minor scratches. With a new set of gaskets from DMT I reassembled the pieces and installed them on the car. I was very pleased with the results!

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Happy Veterans Day to all the men and women who have and continue to serve this great country. We sincerely thank you for your sacrifice and for protecting our freedoms.

As I stated earlier, I met so many wonderful people throughout this build and one of my favorites was Air Navy veteran John Manush. John is the owner of 2K Inc. He provides Mopar instrument panel restoration services at his shop in Burlington, IA. I attempted to redo my instrument panel myself but soon realized I’d bit off more than I could chew. John was highly recommended through the various forums I was browsing at the time so I figured I’d give him a call.

The level of customer service I was given was unlike anything else I had ever experienced. Detailed pictures and step by step emails of the day to day progress made it so easy to keep tabs on what was going on during the restoration process. The images below are all from emails John provided during disassembly and final assembly of my instrument panel, radio bezel and glove box door. (These are actually only a handful of what he sent.) Every one of John’s emails were filled with details about what was being done, what pieces needed to be replaced, suggestions for improvements and honest - upfront pricing.

I gave John the information on what I wanted for a final product, and after I sent him my pieces he put together a very accurate quote. What’s even more amazing, is that the final bill was actually below the original quoted price! John is a standup guy, a real Mopar enthusiast (See his ’71 Duster below), and I would recommend him to anybody looking for a quality instrument panel restoration. The bar has been set!

John can be reached @ 319.758.0100 or his cell: 319.601.9135

 

[Riddler]

Thanks to all the great wheel/tire threads on FABO, I had a good idea of what size tires I could realistically fit under the car. I ordered a set of Nitto NT555 285/40ZR18's for the rear and 245/45ZR17's for the front. The Street Lynx system allowed a little more room to get a wheel with a deeper offset in the back.

With help from a Tire MountMate we were able to get an accurate reading on what offsets gave proper clearance in the front and back. If you're ordering custom wheels I'd strongly recommend using a tool like this just to ensure you get proper measurements.

Your car is like looking into a mirror on what I've been doing with mine. My tire sizes are 245/45-17 on the front and a 275/40-18. These are mustang size front tires and corvette size rear tires. Makes buying tires cheap and easy.

I'm using a American Auto Wire harness as well. I think it's the same one as you posted. How did the install go? Did you change anything wire wise?

What kind of paint did you use on the insides of the bezels? Looks like a chrome type of paint.

Thanks,

Riddler

 

[70Duster440]

Beautiful car - nice job! There were some deja-vu moments looking through your pics.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Your car is like looking into a mirror on what I've been doing with mine. My tire sizes are 245/45-17 on the front and a 275/40-18. These are mustang size front tires and corvette size rear tires. Makes buying tires cheap and easy.

I'm using a American Auto Wire harness as well. I think it's the same one as you posted. How did the install go? Did you change anything wire wise?

What kind of paint did you use on the insides of the bezels? Looks like a chrome type of paint.

Thanks,

Riddler

Rear tire size really was a hard choice. 285/40ZR18's aren't the most common size and if you're going be consistently burning them down a more popular size like those found on the Mustangs and Cameros can definitely save on the pocket book.

Wire wise it was a pretty straight forward installation. I did have help from a buddy who has used this kit before and that really sped things along. We made a few modifications to the harness in terms of routing (to keep as much hidden as possible) and also for functionality sake to make troubleshooting easier. I'll include a little section on some of those upgrades after the engine install.

For the inside of the bezel housings I used Duplicolor Chrome spray paint (PN# CS101)

Beautiful car - nice job! There were some deja-vu moments looking through your pics.

Much appreciated 70Duster440! I absolutely love your car. I actually had a picture of your Duster pinned to my collage of inspiration on the shop wall.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Here are some pictures John sent back after I shipped the pieces to him. Note the instrument panel had a crack in it when I shipped it to him. As soon as John received everything he did a visual inspection to make sure nothing was broke during transit. A free function test was also done just to see how everything was working.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Next the instrument panel was disassembled (including the circuit board). The metal pieces were blasted, primed and painted. The needles were detailed and the gauges were resurfaced. John also removed the blue panel light lenses to help brighten things up. Further more, he also soldered the circuit board and voltage limiter sockets.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

The next step was to calibrating the gauges to make sure they read accurately. I had John set the odometer to 77,900 just so I could have a nice square number to start from and still be within the car's original mileage. All the gauges were now within spec and then reinstalled back into the cluster, along with the circuit panel.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

John does ship out the rechroming work for these bezels. The actual process for plastic chroming is done in a vacuum chamber. It requires very expensive equipment and the waste is pretty hazardous to the environment. Apparently not many places in the US actually do this. 2K Inc. utilizes a company located in Canada that specializes in automotive parts. I was warned that the turn around time could be a couple months.

When the chroming company received my instrument panel bezel, they notified John that they'd need a better core. (Due to the crack) They could repair it but it would take a lot more time and money than it was worth. John then informed me of the news but rather than leaving me to supply the new core he took it upon himself to find one locally and ship it back up. (All for only $30 more) The customer service is unparalleled!

Here are some pictures of the replacement bezel John supplied in place of my damaged piece. It came from a later model but that didn't matter to me as long as I didn't lose the stock look.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

The chroming process took about 2 months. (How much of that was actual work time - I don't exactly know) But the proof is in the pudding and the instrument panel, radio bezel and glove box door came back looking amazing. Well worth the wait I think! The pictures really don't do the work justice.

Since my original bezel was a '70-'72 piece and the new one came from a '73-'76 there were 2 openings for a "Fasten Seat Belt" and "EGR" light. My harness wouldn't have had provisions for these functions so John created filler lenses for these holes and plastic welded them to the backside. Very inconspicuous and well done in my opinion.

John then began to reassemble the pieces and prep everything for a final check before shipping.