Father-Son 1974 Duster Project

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So anyway, way back in post 11 of this thread the condition of the point that the lower control arms go into the K frame was questioned. 3 opinions later I decided to roll with what I had. fast forward to last Thursday and my son Aaron decides to take the car to school, without letting me know by the way. He goes to Monmouth University and commutes. So he’s pulling out of the lot and he gets on it. Hits some loose gravel, looses control, over compensates a fish tale, 180s the car off the road over a curb and LCA pivots tear their connection to Above mentioned K frame. No serious body damage, just 2 paint bruises the size of a quarter. The car is slated to go back to the paint shop to fix a few other nicks from assembly and a few their guy put in the door edge when they swapped in new hinge pins recently. The guy who
Painted my car four years ago still works there and did a great job blending the color and clear when I re did the gutter caulk after the whole car was painted. That is the plus side of
Non metallic paint and keeping the car in a garage under a cover when not
In use. No fade from the sun!
Fast forward to today and I buy a tubular K Frame from Jegs. DAMN IT!!

AJE Suspension MPA-7376: Tubular K-Member 1973-1976 Mopar A-Body | JEGS
 
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If you're going to do a upgrade on the brakes and control arms keep me in mind for the old stock parts. I just picked up a 71 Duster and need to upgrade to the bigger bolt pattern.
 
Ok boys and girls, something told me to call the manufacturer of the aftermarket Kframe after staring at a photo of the thing and didn’t see mountings for a steering box. Two different tech guys from Jegs and Cass (Dr Diff) were positive it was designed for use with with standard suspension and steering. NOT! Turns out you need to use coil over springs and rack and pinion steering.
There is another unit by another manufacturer that uses torsion bars and standard control arms but it’s nearly twice the price. Too rich for my blood and I’m very happy that I kept the car very stockish and originalish.
Turns out that fellow member @1973dust had a K for sale and got it boxed and over to UPS yesterday. It’s sitting at Newark airport now waiting to come to me tomorrow.

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You made the right call, have not heard many good things about AJE. I went with the QA1 tubular k-member after finding the repairs on my stock k-member left it a little uneven. If I could do my front end all over again I'd go with something from Gerst. Pricey as hell but can't beat a drop in unit like that if you're doing everything.
 
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So the K I bought had the steering box mount modified and the angle the box sits at was off so much the pitman arm hit the tortion bar. So we took the original k frame to Freehold Welding. Holy **** are those guys incredible. They reconstructed the tortion bar pivot shafts and reinforced the whole unit.
So the original k frame is back in the car and the suspension is is all back together using the QA1 lower control arms.
She is back home now with a fresh alignment, ready to go back for paint touch ups after the Covid-19 shutdowns here in New Jersey
 
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Glad you got it back together.
I guess your son is down to waxing duties this summer.
 
Looking for some advice and guidance to repair these two bruises my son inflicted on the car in a spin out that caused him and the car to come to rest up against an old fence.
I have the base coat that was used and it’s still good.
I’m going to do the repairs myself since the shop that did the paint is offline due to the covid-19 shutdown.
I’d appreciate it if someone will tell me how to go about it.

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Im not an expert but have you tried some rubbing compound on it ? It may clean it up some and then use some touch up paint on the deep spots and wet sand and polish. ????
 
I would buff it, but I also have a nice DA buffer and multiple pads and compound.
 
The spot near the headlight is going to need some paint and some clear too. The paint is gone down to the primer....
 
DusterDaddy said:
The spot near the headlight is going to need some paint and some clear too. The paint is gone down to the primer....
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Just my opinion....
First thing you need to remove any wax. If you don't have wax/tar remover, Isopropyl alcohol does pretty good. I would do brush touch-ups with the color on the spots that are down to primer. Then wet sand 320-400 to remove any scratched up clear and even up the color. While it is wet, you should be able to tell if the color blended in. Tape off the area and spray bomb a couple coats of clear. Then buff
 
zkx14 said:
Just my opinion....
First thing you need to remove any wax. If you don't have wax/tar remover, Isopropyl alcohol does pretty good. I would do brush touch-ups with the color on the spots that are down to primer. Then wet sand 320-400 to remove any scratched up clear and even up the color. While it is wet, you should be able to tell if the color blended in. Tape off the area and spray bomb a couple coats of clear. Then buff
Click to expand...
Great minds think alike. Gunna see if I can get the PPG omni clear
 
Decided to buff it out by hand and let it be till the shop can get the car in.

Now, I am planning to swap in some new used window regulators to my Duster. The windows are a bit clunky going up, and not as bad going down.
Any tips on what to do to these regulators before they go in?

Any advice on how to ensure a successful upgrade?
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What kind of shape are the plastic wheels in on the ends ? I replaced mine when I put guts in my doors. The kit from CI gives you more then you need...maybe for different year cars. I my have some extra ones. Post a picture of the plastic wheels.
 
Rd2Scamp said:
What kind of shape are the plastic wheels in on the ends ? I replaced mine when I put guts in my doors. The kit from CI gives you more then you need...maybe for different year cars. I my have some extra ones. Post a picture of the plastic wheels.
Click to expand...

These don’t look damaged and they spin and tilt on the hub nice.
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The bottom pic, the roller is flat spotted on the bottom.
 
Hope everyone is safe and healthy.
So I decided for now to compound out the two bruises by hand. The spot up front was down to the primer. So I chose to dab some base coat on with the match stick as suggested above. Then I taped it off and wet sanded with 1000. Compounded again by hand and polished by hand with red pigmented polish. It’ll do for now...

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