72 Duster: You can lead a horse to water, but...

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It’s a shame all the effort you put into it and parts and he couldn’t be bothered with it anymore I’m glad you bought his stake out and are going to finish it . Will be a nice ride once completed. Good work mate it would have costed him $$$$ if a shop was doing what you provided . Looking forward seeing the finished product.
 
Very impressive work on your part, really sucks that BIL doesn't really appreciate all of the effort that you have made to make sure he had a decent car. Looking forward to seeing more progress on this project.
:thumbsup:
 
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Even monks like it!
 
Thanks, guys.
I have always liked the Duster models. I have had a few over the years.
This one is going to need some attention. The clearcoat has dulled out and will need to be brought back. The interior is still ugly as a mud fence too!

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I figured he would just say "I will sell it to you for a bargain price of $30,000 since you did 99% of the work!"
Sell the darn Chargers for a boat load of $$ and keep the Duster!!!!! :poke:
By the way good story!!
 
mopowers said:
It's a great start! What's the plan of attack?
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Taking a break from it after some success this morning.
I was working on the fuel delivery issue. Again, I blew compressed air from the filler neck to pressurize the fuel line and got gas to make it up to the filter. Also again, once the car ran a few minutes, it stalled and the fuel bowl was almost dry. I’m surprised that a few minutes of idling would use up that much gas. Also, this told me that the fuel pump was weak. There were small pulses of fuel visible through the filter but it obviously wasn’t enough.
I replaced the pump with a new one from my stash and fired it up. It runs great now! I can reach in the window and turn the key and it fires right up. This is with the engine warm though.
 
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I washed it and was happy to see that it still shines pretty good. I painted it about 10 years ago and it has been outdoors much of that time without any cover.


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These wheels and tires have got to go!

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Since the Holley 600 from the 67 Dart had the car running great, I knew that with a good carburetor, the engine would run right.
I pulled the carb and intake and swapped in the Edelbrock Performer 318-360 and the Thermoquad.

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Some don't like the Thermoquad. When they do run right, they are great.

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I actually took the time to look through the parts and find a good choke assembly to use.

Sometimes you have good luck, sometimes you don't.

I started it up and within seconds, it started to sputter and stall. Gas started shooting up from inside the carburetor like the fuel pressure was too high and the float was stuck down.

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This Thermoquad was rebuilt by a local guy with a carburetor shop. It was done a couple of years ago. It looks as fresh as the day I brought it home. It has been in a box all that time and never installed on any engine. I rightfully assumed that it would be okay.
I changed the intake manifold because the only known good carburetor I had here was this one and the Weiand intake was a square bore!
Son of a *****....
I put the Holley back on for now. I may keep it and put something else on the Dart.

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Just for the heck of it, I decided to take the first Holley apart and see if there were any obvious problems. There were none. the primary float had no holes in it. The needle valve was clean and moved freely. I sprayed carburetor cleaner through all the passages and nothing was plugged up. I put a Demon carburetors primary metering block in and bolted the bowls back on. I put this Holley on the Dart, a car that seems to run consistently good even though it sits a lot.
It fired right up and ran as good as it always does. All along, I could have just worked on this Holley when it was in the Duster. It would have kept me from doing the intake swap too.
I often seem to learn the hard way.

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Kern Dog said:
Just for the heck of it, I decided to take the first Holley apart and see if there were any obvious problems. There were none. the primary float had no holes in it. The needle valve was clean and moved freely. I sprayed carburetor cleaner through all the passages and nothing was plugged up. I put a Demon carburetors primary metering block in and bolted the bowls back on. I put this Holley on the Dart, a car that seems to run consistently good even though it sits a lot.
It fired right up and ran as good as it always does. All along, I could have just worked on this Holley when it was in the Duster. It would have kept me from doing the intake swap too.
I often seem to learn the hard way.

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You are not alone!:lol:
 
Kern Dog said:
Just for the heck of it, I decided to take the first Holley apart and see if there were any obvious problems. There were none. the primary float had no holes in it. The needle valve was clean and moved freely. I sprayed carburetor cleaner through all the passages and nothing was plugged up. I put a Demon carburetors primary metering block in and bolted the bowls back on. I put this Holley on the Dart, a car that seems to run consistently good even though it sits a lot.
It fired right up and ran as good as it always does. All along, I could have just worked on this Holley when it was in the Duster. It would have kept me from doing the intake swap too.
I often seem to learn the hard way.

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You don't have a monopoly on that lol.
 
Great thread or post or whatever you call it.

I like the car and the talent in building it.

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Back in 2007 when we got this car, they would still show up occasionally at the Pick-N-Pull yards. Small parts like door handles, screws, clips and such could be picked up cheap.
I haven’t seen a Duster at a junkyard in years.
I have some bucket seats that came from a 74 Valiant that originally had that bolt down center buddy seat. I only took the buckets. Those seats have been in my 67 Dart for over 15 years. I may have them recovered for this car.
I don’t know what color to do this interior. Black looks good but is so common. I may keep the car, I may sell. I like a dark red. To me, red on red cars looks great. Upholstery shops are at least two months out around here. I need to get cracking!
 
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I'm pretty sure we' all do stuff we shake our heads about lol makes it interesting the voices in my head.....​
 
Kern Dog said:
Then, the car sat.
And sat.
BIL rarely called and when we spoke, he never brought up the issue of the car.
2014. 2015. 2016.2017.

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Every so often, I'd go out and tinker on it, start it up, drive it up and down the street. It runs great and peels out nicely. The 11" front discs and 10" manual brakes are amazing.
I parked it up the hill and put a car cover on it....If there was any more work to be done, I wasn't going to do it alone anymore.
2018. 2019. 2020.
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Beautiful car. Just bought a 72 Demon about 6 weeks ago.
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I have never been fond of the stock gas cap on Dusters & Demons. How difficult was it to mount this fuel door on it?
Can I assume it would be the same procedure for a 72 Demon?
 
You did an amazing job on that car it looks great. That paint looks amazing to be 10 years old. So did your Bil agree to sale it to you or is he gonna be difficult over it?
 
He signed over the title just past Christmas 2020. He was relieved to be done with it!
The gas cap is attached with a plastic adapter that was once offered by a member of this forum.
 
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