bjkadron
Well-Known Member
This thread is devoted to the build-up of my two 1972 Plymouth Dusters.
Hello everybody! My name is Benjamin and I am currently 18 years old and going to school for my mechanical engineering degree. Here are my two Mopar projects.
#1 My first Duster is one that I pulled out of a junk-yard that I am turning into a stripped down road racing street legal monster! I first found it when I was 15 years old. I couldn't actually buy it until a little after my 16th Birthday. Right after I bought it.. Our main vehicle Died and I couldn't get together with the guy to get it home until just after my 17th birthday. It is going to have a NASCAR/ Vintage TA theme. My eventual goal is to build it to be the fastest street legal road racing Duster ever(think Big Red but a Duster)! And The Name I've come up with is the "Aero Duster" to recall the "aero cars" of NASCAR.
The body is getting fully stitch welded to increase rigidity along with my custom designed "backbone" subframe connectors and probably a 10+ point roll cage.Although I'm thinking about going all out and building a full tube frame for it. I'm also going to shave things like the gas cap, antenna and front bumper (that mess up the lines). Its going to get a front splitter type spoiler and NASCAR type rear spoiler and a possibly Hemi Dart scoop. A primer gray and flat black "paint" job will make it pretty. I'm putting it on a Major diet with a lot of lightweight parts. All new fenders, hood, trunklid, probably doors will all be custom made by Me out of either carbon fiber, fiberglass or aluminum(I'm still deciding) as well as a full Bellypan and rear diffuser. I'll have lightweight glass(except for the front windshield which has to be DOT glass for it to be street legal)and I'm mini-tubbing it in case you haven't figured that out. If I decide to go the full tube route I have decided to make it a modular design so I can just swap out body panels and wheels/tires to totally change the configuration to be better suited to whatever I happen to be doing at the time(road racing, autocross, open road racing )
The interior could be described as "sparse" with just two(maybe 4)racing buckets, aluminum panels and zolotone along with a pistol grip(custom) shifter and a custom steering column.
Suspension will be, front: adjustable upper control arms with torsion bar lowers(all new high performance bushings) in the front or a custom clean sheet double a-arm fully adjustable suspension and k-member(depending what class I decide to run in) Steering will be stock box with a quickener that will make it 13:1 and aerospace aluminum tie-rods and drag-link(or maybe rack and pinion to loose some weight). Rear: custom adj. 3-link with panhard rod. Adjustable shocks all around. Also I'm fabricating some adjustable front and rear sway bars.I have been thinking about a torsion bar(non-stock)front and rear suspension (think indy-car)instead of coilovers so I can adjust the ride height and spring rates as well.
Brakes: Big discs with 6-piston front and 4-piston rear. and a separate "rally brake" for drifting and such.
Wheels and tires will be genuine NASCAR AERO wheels with "Big"(315's front and 345's rear or thereabouts). And forged aluminum w/ road racing slicks for the track.other wheel options are, a torque thrust type wheel(think Foose Nitrous or VWW v40's or the like),or maybe something like Big Red's BBS wheels(all in black).
Drivetrain: I've been looking at sequential transmissions.. But they are EXPENSIVE!!! So I'm not sure.
Engine: either a stock 360sb with ported heads and an Eaton supercharger that I found or a new HEMI(with the same). But eventually I'm going to put an all aluminum sprint car engine or a used NASCAR engine in it.
I'll have a big aluminum radiator, and a fuel cell with all new fuel lines.
Jegs headers(Custom on the new engine) with a custom x- or H- pipe and side exit exhaust to spit the fumes (I haven't decided what mufflers).
I'll be finishing it to show car standards(I'm a bit of a perfectionist) and I would be glad to accept sponsors if someone likes my Ideas!And would be able to get it done faster if I had some! In case I mislead you by saying that its going to be "show quality"... Its not going to be shiny! I don't do shiny(at least not on this one).
Probably the coolest thing that has happened with this project recently is My car being featured on page 67 of the August 2009 issue of Popular Hot Rodding Magazine! Unfortunately they spelled my name wrong its Kadron not Kardon.
#2 As you can see the plans for my duster were quickly spiraling out of hand.. And since I wanted to drive a duster soon.. I did what any mopar nut would do! I bought another nice clean, stock '72 Duster to drive in the meantime! Its a nicely optioned gold Duster with a 318 and an automatic transmission with 73,577.5 original miles. It has A/C, PS, AM/FM radio, and a bone white interior. I havn't decided exactly what I'm going to do with this one yet but I'm sure I'll think of something. Currently on the list are: disc brakes, better wheels/tires and some nice shocks.
Sorry about the lack of pics guys.. I've uploaded a bunch to photobucket and will post them here soon!!
Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!
Benjamin
Hello everybody! My name is Benjamin and I am currently 18 years old and going to school for my mechanical engineering degree. Here are my two Mopar projects.
#1 My first Duster is one that I pulled out of a junk-yard that I am turning into a stripped down road racing street legal monster! I first found it when I was 15 years old. I couldn't actually buy it until a little after my 16th Birthday. Right after I bought it.. Our main vehicle Died and I couldn't get together with the guy to get it home until just after my 17th birthday. It is going to have a NASCAR/ Vintage TA theme. My eventual goal is to build it to be the fastest street legal road racing Duster ever(think Big Red but a Duster)! And The Name I've come up with is the "Aero Duster" to recall the "aero cars" of NASCAR.
The body is getting fully stitch welded to increase rigidity along with my custom designed "backbone" subframe connectors and probably a 10+ point roll cage.Although I'm thinking about going all out and building a full tube frame for it. I'm also going to shave things like the gas cap, antenna and front bumper (that mess up the lines). Its going to get a front splitter type spoiler and NASCAR type rear spoiler and a possibly Hemi Dart scoop. A primer gray and flat black "paint" job will make it pretty. I'm putting it on a Major diet with a lot of lightweight parts. All new fenders, hood, trunklid, probably doors will all be custom made by Me out of either carbon fiber, fiberglass or aluminum(I'm still deciding) as well as a full Bellypan and rear diffuser. I'll have lightweight glass(except for the front windshield which has to be DOT glass for it to be street legal)and I'm mini-tubbing it in case you haven't figured that out. If I decide to go the full tube route I have decided to make it a modular design so I can just swap out body panels and wheels/tires to totally change the configuration to be better suited to whatever I happen to be doing at the time(road racing, autocross, open road racing )
The interior could be described as "sparse" with just two(maybe 4)racing buckets, aluminum panels and zolotone along with a pistol grip(custom) shifter and a custom steering column.
Suspension will be, front: adjustable upper control arms with torsion bar lowers(all new high performance bushings) in the front or a custom clean sheet double a-arm fully adjustable suspension and k-member(depending what class I decide to run in) Steering will be stock box with a quickener that will make it 13:1 and aerospace aluminum tie-rods and drag-link(or maybe rack and pinion to loose some weight). Rear: custom adj. 3-link with panhard rod. Adjustable shocks all around. Also I'm fabricating some adjustable front and rear sway bars.I have been thinking about a torsion bar(non-stock)front and rear suspension (think indy-car)instead of coilovers so I can adjust the ride height and spring rates as well.
Brakes: Big discs with 6-piston front and 4-piston rear. and a separate "rally brake" for drifting and such.
Wheels and tires will be genuine NASCAR AERO wheels with "Big"(315's front and 345's rear or thereabouts). And forged aluminum w/ road racing slicks for the track.other wheel options are, a torque thrust type wheel(think Foose Nitrous or VWW v40's or the like),or maybe something like Big Red's BBS wheels(all in black).
Drivetrain: I've been looking at sequential transmissions.. But they are EXPENSIVE!!! So I'm not sure.
Engine: either a stock 360sb with ported heads and an Eaton supercharger that I found or a new HEMI(with the same). But eventually I'm going to put an all aluminum sprint car engine or a used NASCAR engine in it.
I'll have a big aluminum radiator, and a fuel cell with all new fuel lines.
Jegs headers(Custom on the new engine) with a custom x- or H- pipe and side exit exhaust to spit the fumes (I haven't decided what mufflers).
I'll be finishing it to show car standards(I'm a bit of a perfectionist) and I would be glad to accept sponsors if someone likes my Ideas!And would be able to get it done faster if I had some! In case I mislead you by saying that its going to be "show quality"... Its not going to be shiny! I don't do shiny(at least not on this one).
Probably the coolest thing that has happened with this project recently is My car being featured on page 67 of the August 2009 issue of Popular Hot Rodding Magazine! Unfortunately they spelled my name wrong its Kadron not Kardon.
#2 As you can see the plans for my duster were quickly spiraling out of hand.. And since I wanted to drive a duster soon.. I did what any mopar nut would do! I bought another nice clean, stock '72 Duster to drive in the meantime! Its a nicely optioned gold Duster with a 318 and an automatic transmission with 73,577.5 original miles. It has A/C, PS, AM/FM radio, and a bone white interior. I havn't decided exactly what I'm going to do with this one yet but I'm sure I'll think of something. Currently on the list are: disc brakes, better wheels/tires and some nice shocks.
Sorry about the lack of pics guys.. I've uploaded a bunch to photobucket and will post them here soon!!
Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!
Benjamin
