74 Duster 4 banger Street/Strip Build

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Wife is back to good health. She still has a slight limp, but otherwise life is good. With Spring/Early Summer being here, I haven't spent a whole lot of time on the Duster, as I needed to replace headgasket and clutch in OMNI. Got that done, then the speedo cable took a crap. It's too close to header and I didn't want to buy another one as they are made of unobtanium and $$. So, I decided to go with a cheap electronic speedometer from Summit Racing. It turned out great. Just got to button everything back up. Headed to the national Shelby Dodge Auto Club meet in Lancaster, PA next weekend, and then headed from there to Chryslers at Carlisle. Hope to see some of you guys there!

Here are some pictures. This was before and after on the OMNI gauges. And some pics of the AJE Fairlane front end hanging on the old frame rails.
 

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OK, a little update. Racing season is almost over, so I will be putting the OMNI back away for the long winter. I did get a 9.99 out of it though at Hot Rod Drag Week! :burnout:

Here's a video of that run from 1320 video:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r6NLSzI0XU"]Turbo Dodge Omni GLH 5-Speed RECORD! 9.99 @ 143 MPH! - YouTube[/ame]

And another from a friends camera:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rWtppyyuZ4"]Reeves Omni 9.997 Trackside View - YouTube[/ame]

Anyway, back to the Duster. I did get it over to a new friends shop to fix a little bit of the surface rust that happened after the sandblasting. He fixed those spots, and then put the whole car in an epoxy primer to prevent it from happening again while we work on it. I also had him paint the rotisserie to keep it from rusting.....and cause it looks cool.

Pics:
 

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Didn't realize that was you. Saw the video of your Omni, but had no idea there was a connection here. Cool!

Suggestion...find a way to use an Omni gauge cluster in your Duster. They have all 6 of the gauges I would want, and it is compact, and seems like it would make a great upgrade. I've looked at it, but haven't gotten very far. ;-)
 
Got a little more work done.

I'm looking for a trans cross brace if anyone has a good one they would part with. Mine it too rusted to handle any power. It works fine for mock up for now. One of the pics shows a trans mount a friend gave me supposedly from an A body. It is a lot different than mine and would move the motor/trans way far forward.

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nice work! not sure what that cross member is from but it doesn't look like any abody one I have ever seen.
 
Love the AJE front end! Congrats on the record as well!! I can't wait to see this car done, it is going to be KILLER!
 
James,
You are making great progress on the Duster....it's gonna be a blast! Oh, and you definitely won't need fenderwell headers...lol
Hey, Congratulations on March 2016 Hot Rod Magazine!!!!!
 
Nice build. Not sure how I missed this one. I'm building a 65 Dart with a 4 cylinder in it. Hope yo see more progress on your build.
 
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