A tale of two Dusters

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I just got a package with my 1.09 Torsion bars and shock mounts as well as a couple other random pieces.. Here is a picture.

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More parts are flowing in, but I've also hit some hang-ups.

I was going to go ahead and go to a full three-link rear when I changed the rear-end. But I don't have coil-overs. And I don't know if any of the coil-over conversions will fit my Spax Shocks. Companies seem tight lipped about the specs for their systems. I had a cool idea for a torsion bar rear set-up, but that would take a lot of extra time to engineer. I might still do it, but I would like to get it running as soon as possible so I can drive it.

Also, I am having trouble finding an intake manifold for my 360. So if anyone has a good dual plane they might be interested in Selling, please let me know.

I also found a steel building with a concrete floor to work on my car in, so that is a good thing.
 
Ben! Long time no see.Good to see your still at it!

I have a 360 cast iron intake,stock from a 78 360. I doubt you want it as shipping is more than the intake is worth.
 
needsaresto said:
Ben! Long time no see.Good to see your still at it!

I have a 360 cast iron intake,stock from a 78 360. I doubt you want it as shipping is more than the intake is worth.
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Thanks, but I already have a stock one. I'm looking for a performance one. And the aluminum one would help shed some weight.
 
So today I finally got my engine up on stand so I can work on it now.

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It is always interesting opening up engines with unknown backgrounds. This 360 ran really strong when we took it out of the van so I was really wondering what was in it. Well, it turns out it has been over bored and I'm pretty sure it has some sort of cam in it. I'll know more when I take it the rest of the way apart. Which I can't do (on fear of my life) until I get a tote or something to let it drip oil and coolant in. My grandparents would kill me if I got any of it on the floor.

The overbore is really handy and will save me a good bit of money. All I need to do is touch it with a light hone and I already found a good deal on some better pistons. Once I measure the bearings I should be able to order the last of the parts and I'll be set. This should be fun. Here is where I am now:

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Oh, Sorry for the lousy pictures.. My USB ports aren't working on my laptop so I can't upload pictures except from my ipod.
 
I walked through the local zellers tupperware section and found a very wide,long and shallow storage bin with a lid. I use it on the messy jobs and it misses nothing! I paid $5!
 
needsaresto said:
I walked through the local zellers tupperware section and found a very wide,long and shallow storage bin with a lid. I use it on the messy jobs and it misses nothing! I paid $5!
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My thoughts exactly.. I was hoping to pick one up tomorrow.
 
More Parts... I now have Two-piece 11.75" x 1.25" brakes for the front. I also got my brake prop. valve, a bunch of aluminum rod-ends (I decided to upgrade to Aluminum and save some weight) and threaded rods for the suspension and my axle mount parts for my Watts link. I'll get pictures soon.
 
dang this was such a cool thread to look through man. I just bought a 73 duster and im barley finding time and money to work on it but dammit its mine lol. Planning to do a v8 swap and redo the interior.

As for the starquest (starion / conquest) ...i have a soft spot for those things lol. ive owned 2 (im only 20...and one was my first car) I know that damn car like the back of my hand! The second one i had i rebuilt the motor from the ground up and did allot of mechanical / electrical work on it. LOVE those cars...but theyre a HUGE PITA hahah...bittersweet if you know what i mean.

anyways, this thread kinda reminded me of myself i guess. So keep on with it bro, cuz this really makes me want to get my shiet done! lol
 
Keep up the work, man. Little by little. I have been working on my Duster for 10 years now. You'll get there soon! I like the direction you are going.
 
eviper21 said:
dang this was such a cool thread to look through man. I just bought a 73 duster and im barley finding time and money to work on it but dammit its mine lol. Planning to do a v8 swap and redo the interior.

As for the starquest (starion / conquest) ...i have a soft spot for those things lol. ive owned 2 (im only 20...and one was my first car) I know that damn car like the back of my hand! The second one i had i rebuilt the motor from the ground up and did allot of mechanical / electrical work on it. LOVE those cars...but theyre a HUGE PITA hahah...bittersweet if you know what i mean.

anyways, this thread kinda reminded me of myself i guess. So keep on with it bro, cuz this really makes me want to get my shiet done! lol
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Thanks for the kind Words. The conquest is actually for sale because with school and work I just don't have time for more than 1 project.

My Duster pretty much stalled when school started. I have been doing good to even have time to order a few more parts. And I have yet to put the engine back together. I'll be doing that soon, and hopefully get it swapped in over winter break. We'll see.

Judge Mills said:
Keep up the work, man. Little by little. I have been working on my Duster for 10 years now. You'll get there soon! I like the direction you are going.
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Thanks! It should be a blast to drive through the twisties when I'm done. I just need a couple parts like seats and stuff now...
 
Well,good for you! Sounds like your concenttrating on school which is what you should be doing. Im saddened you dont have time for your hobby,but you are making sacrifices to better yourself,and at least the car is still there. You didnt need to sell it,and thats a good thing!

Im looking forward to when you do have the time. You have some interesting idea's!
 
Bjkadron,

I know what you are going through my classes are killing me as well, but for me I have one more year then I will have my Bachelors degree in IT.

I am finding it hard to work in the garage with a statistics class final this week, I hate math.

So that and a Pepsi and I will have a well educated Pepsi, LOL
 
glad to see you back at it ben.
for financial concerns for an intake, i used an ebay magnum/la "professional products" edelbrock rpm air gap knock off. required some tweaking, but works pretty good. only cost like 150 bucks. if o could afford it, id get the eddy.

and it was a good think that i didnt get your shocks. clutch went in my truck 2 days later, and i was at the mercy of a shop for the first time in a decade. cost me 842 bucks to get it back.

keep us posted.
 
Well, This have actually changed quite a bit since I last updated this thread. I am getting married in July, so that probably won't help with the finances, but I might be getting a house with a garage so that will definately help with the workspace issues.

I have decided to just fix the engine in my Gold duster and drive it without any more big upgrades for now. I'll probably swap out the wheels but that is about it.

I have made a big leap forward on my original green duster project however. I found a really great deal on a dirt track racecar that is almost a full tube frame and included a full floating quick-change rear, all wide 5 hubs and a three link rear. It is LOOSLY based on a G-body frame but I'm going to be replacing most of that anyway. My plan is to sell all the spare parts and stuff that I don't need to mostly re-coup my costs and then convert it to pushrod suspension and skin it with my green duster. So far with my Duster included I have about $1400 total in parts and should be able to get a bunch of that back by selling parts.

Well, that is about it for now, I'll try to post pictures soon. Thanks again for following!
 
bjkadron said:
I got my new(used) shocks in the mail Saturday... I'll put them on soon. Should make quite a difference.

I was experimenting with different colors and I came up with these:

This is close to the new "Go mango" available on the new daytona truck. And VERY expensive, But also very Beautiful!
Dusterorange.jpg


This was supposed to be silver.. But it came out more of a dove grey. Still quite nice.. and cheap.
Dustergrey.jpg


This is sorta a "hopped-up" petty blue.
Dusterblue.jpg


So? What do you think?
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bjkadron said:
White:

Dusterwhite.jpg


Graphite:

Dustergraphite.jpg


Red:

Dusterred.jpg


Sublime:

Dustersublime.jpg


Yellow:

Dusteryellow.jpg
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Any chance you still have these pictures and can post them without the Photobucket watermarks?
 
Just finished up reading through the whole thread. I look forward to seeing your upcoming updates!
 
Hey Benjamin, it was great meeting you today and chatting with you awhile. Hope you made it home safe and I’m looking forward to following along whenever you get started working on your Duster’s again.
 
75slant6 said:
Hey Benjamin, it was great meeting you today and chatting with you awhile. Hope you made it home safe and I’m looking forward to following along whenever you get started working on your Duster’s again.
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Nice to meet you too! It was good to see all the A-bodies running. Definitely give me some more ideas for my own.
 
Well, here we go for dragging up a super old thread. I haven't made a real update to this thread since 2012. Life certainly gets in the way of our best laid plans but I wanted to provide an update as I hate it when threads just disappear.

So update: Both these cars have been essentially in cold storage since 2012. I ended up having to get rid of the Dirt track car I was going to use for the Green Duster. I have moved several times since I updated and lost parts etc over time. Late summer was the first time these cars have even been at the same location as me. After going over both and sitting down and realistically looking at the list of parts and time that would be required (Yes, I'm still an engineer so there was an excel sheet involved :rolleyes:) to get these going vs how much time I have with work and other commitments it was honestly depressing. I felt like I was never going to get anything going because my plans far outreached the budget and time I had to commit. I had to make some decisions about the direction I wanted to go with these. Do I keep building two cars? Do I rebuild the gold one stock-ish and use the green one as parts? Do I just cut my losses and sell both? A duster has always been my "achievable" dream car so how do I make this work? A lot of questions and very few good answers.

Well, after a couple months and going over the situation with my wife (buy-in is always important on stuff like this), there was a glimmer of hope. I found an 85 year old guy who, because of health reasons, was getting out of the hobby and he had a surprisingly good shape 1972 Plymouth Duster Drag car. It has been raced in various forms since almost new but was somehow in pretty good and largely original shape except for the drivetrain (more on that later). Well, we went back and forth for a little while but eventually a deal was struck that worked for everyone. Here is how it worked out. I now have a New to me Yellow 1972 Duster, The previous owner gets a fair price and the knowledge it is going to a good home, and my wife gets the promise that the two other Dusters (green and gold) will find new homes. So if anyone is looking for a a good project (or two) let me know as they will be listed soon.

So here is a quick overview of the new Yellow Duster and some pictures for those curious. I haven't decided If I'm going to start a new Thread for it or just continue with this existing one (open to input if you have any strong feelings on the matter). It is a 1972 Plymouth Duster in yellow, has 70 stripes currently and a sharktooth grille (I've always been a sucker for these). It is currently set up as a drag car which will change into a more streetable handling build over time. It has a stroked 360 Eagle crank & JE forged pistons with Edelbrock Performer rpm heads and a 750 proform race carb. It has a built 727 with a full manual valve body, somewhere around 3000 stall, 4:10 (?) 8 3/4", SBP all around and original Drum brakes (terrifying and will be the first thing to go). It's pretty rowdy currently and not particularly streetable. It will blow the 275/60R15 MT ET Street slicks off with just a punch of the throttle and it sounds amazing through a 2.5" X-pipe and Flowmasters with turndowns. I was told it did 10.80's with an 850 carb then they put the 750 on to slow it down so they wouldn't need a cage (I'll be honest, it is quick but I'm not sure I totally believe the 10:80s). Over the next couple weeks I'll be going through it to identify what exact parts it has and figuring out a plan to get it to where I want to be. I still want to manual swap it and make it handle pretty well but don't have exact performance targets currently.

I guess that is about all for now so enjoy the pictures. Excited to be back.

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Duster 02.jpg


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Glad to see the direction you have taken. Having a running vehicle is such a plus. I look forward to seeing you make your mark on it.
 
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