72 Duster Sharktooth grill to fit on a 70 Duster possible?

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Sin?
Maybe you’re being facetious. To me, if the stuff on your car was at least Mopar related, I’m okay with it.
I hear people complain about painting a 1969 car Sublime or Plum Crazy when those colors weren’t available yet. Some complain when people put late model Hemis in their cars.
Come on, man… why are Mopar guys so uptight about factory correct stuff? Chevy and Ford guys aren’t like this.
People that love these cars come in many stripes. I love some stock stuff but I like to update things where I can to make the car a better driver for me. None of these came with 5 speed overdrive transmissions or 4 wheel disc brakes. None had CD players either but we added that stuff to make the car more enjoyable. Sound deadening, brighter headlights, high back seats, 3 point seat belts too.
 
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The thing is that i am a numbers guy,In the past i restored a 69 Road Runner, a 70 rotisserie 340 Duster all numbers matching and i honored the build sheets to a T. I picked up a semi clean 73 Duster /6 car that had been sitting in a junk yard from Junkerup Chris Birdsong, he made a youtube video about a bunch of inexpensive mopars sitting in this yard and offered them for sale. I purchased the 73 Duster with the plans of building it with no rules, im taking the best and coolest features from all year Dusters...I added a 340, 8.75 rear, buckets,console,and a bunch of suspension upgrades and U.S Cartool goodies, subframe connectors, torque boxes, bilsteins, 1.03 torsion bars, welded the K frame and lower control arms, big disc brakes in the front/drum in the back, tinted windows and beautiful Bahama yellow paint with the twister hood treatment and a gull wing and a beautiful rally dash... none of that matches the original fender tag or build sheet. I dont care about numbers on this build so please forgive me that im putting a sharktooth grill on my junkyard 73..... thanks to @davescuda for all your endless help and to @72bluNblu for all those suspension tips.... I know you guys will ask for pics, i will start a seperate thread in the near future, my daughter will help me add the photos...Rich
 
David D Schnelker said:
Pretty sure he's got a 73' not a 70'. I could be wrong but I think it's a 73' or 74' And I don't think Chrysler ever made a 350 as you said to "drop in a 350". I could be wrong, but I don't think so. And I know at least 3 other cats here @ A-bodies only, who have put a shark tooth grill on their 70' Dusters, including myself. So, including Mad Dog, that makes at least 5 of us that are changing the look of their cars. And there's a lot more on the internet who did it too. It seems to be a very popular mod for a Duster. I changed the original 225 to a 360 and have a cowl induction hood. Cowl induction hoods were originally designed for GM. I'm committing all kinds of sins. LOL Heck! My bio pic is a B body, and it has a cobra hood scoop. Something that Dodge is copying on their newest challenger/durango/hornet models right now. LOL I don't think anyone really cares bro. We all try to be supportive of each other here. It's all good.

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I thought my comment was a pretty obvious play off your mortal sin comment in the first post but apparently it didn't land that way. I have no idea why mad dog randomly thought I was responding to him or why anyone would even get offended by my post. It was just me saying throw a 350 in to really piss off the goober that would actually be offended by a sharktooth grille on your 70.
 
mad dog said:
sorry guys i forgot to add that i converted my 73 into a 70-71 model, changed everything except the radiator opening support... should the sharktooth grill fit with no modfications?
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If you've got the hood, hood latch panel, bumper , lower filler panel and either '70-72 fenders or plan to drill some holes for the brackets on your '73 fenders the shark tooth grille should fit just as easily as a '70 will.

mad dog said:
The thing is that i am a numbers guy,In the past i restored a 69 Road Runner, a 70 rotisserie 340 Duster all numbers matching and i honored the build sheets to a T. I picked up a semi clean 73 Duster /6 car that had been sitting in a junk yard from Junkerup Chris Birdsong, he made a youtube video about a bunch of inexpensive mopars sitting in this yard and offered them for sale. I purchased the 73 Duster with the plans of building it with no rules, im taking the best and coolest features from all year Dusters...I added a 340, 8.75 rear, buckets,console,and a bunch of suspension upgrades and U.S Cartool goodies, subframe connectors, torque boxes, bilsteins, 1.03 torsion bars, welded the K frame and lower control arms, big disc brakes in the front/drum in the back, tinted windows and beautiful Bahama yellow paint with the twister hood treatment and a gull wing and a beautiful rally dash... none of that matches the original fender tag or build sheet. I dont care about numbers on this build so please forgive me that im putting a sharktooth grill on my junkyard 73..... thanks to @davescuda for all your endless help and to @72bluNblu for all those suspension tips.... I know you guys will ask for pics, i will start a seperate thread in the near future, my daughter will help me add the photos...Rich
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Sounds like a great build, you should definitely start a build thread!
 
B3422w5 said:
To me the biggest sin on 1970 340 dusters is putting the 71 340 side stripes on them with the 340 on the rear quarters.
I much prefer the factory 70 340 stripes. Not as gaudy and one year only.
Swapping grills is much less of a sin…lol
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I'm didn't know about the stripe on a 70'. Sounds like you really know your stuff. I just wanted Mad Dog to know that he's not the only one who has strayed away from the Chrysler Bible. And I don't care for any direct negative criticism of anyone else. We're all individuals w/ individual tastes after all. The cats here @ a bodies have saved me from a lot potentially costly mistakes on my build. I barely know anything about Chryslers. I just saw a clean slant 6 Duster for $3000 and thought, "no problem" I'll just find a small block, and drop it in, and be on the road in a month or two. That was 2-1/2 years ago and I still haven't driven it yet! LOL I consider myself very lucky to be part of this website/community...dare I say; brotherhood of the A bodies. I think most people stray a bit in the earnest pursuit of making "their" car "their" own. Weather it's just an air cleaner or a huge stereo/amp. We all do it to one degree or another. I mean, I don't know anyone who still runs those poly-glass re-pop tires w/ the red line. But I'm sure there's a purist out there somewhere who'd say it's a sin not to keep it looking stock. LOL Until now, if I saw the stripe w/340 at the back on a 70', I'd would've never known it wasn't stock. From now-on, if I do see one, I'll have to look and see if it's correct or not. Heh, heh. You're rubbing off on me bro! LOL.
 
ESP47 said:
I thought my comment was a pretty obvious play off your mortal sin comment in the first post but apparently it didn't land that way. I have no idea why mad dog randomly thought I was responding to him or why anyone would even get offended by my post. It was just me saying throw a 350 in to really piss off the goober that would actually be offended by a sharktooth grille on your 70.
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Clearly, I misunderstood you too. My apologies bro. I thought you were picking on him. Sorry man.
 
B3422w5 said:
To me the biggest sin on 1970 318 dusters is putting the 71 340 side stripes on them with the 340 on the rear quarters.
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Guilty. I love pissing off the numbers guys at Mopar shows. One so called "A body expert" walked across the parking lot, took one look at my VIN and walked away, despite my numerous attempts to get him to come back and discuss.

:rofl:

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Has anyone ever bought a "sharkstooth" grille new back in the day when you could still get them from the dealership parts counter ? I wonder what an NOS grille would cost today ?
 
This guy:

B.JPG


Was in our Sacramento Mopar club about 10+ years ago. He bought this car new and bought TWO grilles for it. He brought the receipt to one show and showed the guys....The Grilles were $44 each in 1972.
I told him I'd give him double his money.
He declined.
 
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