When I got my car out of the yard, it went to my brother Steve's house as he had room to store it and could help me with it. Just as a side note, this is the same Brother that built the orange '71 340 Duster with the AirGrabber hood on it. Seems to show up on the board once a year or so. Here's a picture.
My brother helped me get the holes in the cowl fixed, and fix the trunk and rear spring hanger where it was pushing up through the floor (wish I'd thought to take a picture of that). He hooked me up with a friend of his who rebuilt the motor for me and after putting some fresh paint on the engine compartment I put it in.
About that time, I graduated from the local Community College and got a job about an hour north in Colville. So, we towed the car up there so I could continue to work on it.
Found a set of 70 or 71 Duster buckets to put in it, a used carpet out of a Feather Duster, along with a bunch of other miscellaneous parts and got it running and driving. It was November of 1994 when I got it inspected by the State Patrol so I could license it. The officer didn't like that I couldn't find the paperwork for the suspension and transmission and wrote on the paperwork “RECOMMEND TITLE ONLY”, but whoever processed it ignored (or missed it) and I got my title about a month later.
Had to swap the rear axle out as the one I found in the yard to get it rolling was a 2.45. It was brutal just trying to get the thing rolling. Found a 3.21 gear axle in a third yard and swapped that in, which made a world of difference. After fighting with about 4 different ThermoQuads, I finally found one that would run right on the car, and from then on out it was my daily driver. Took it to a couple of shows just for fun, and the drags once or twice. Never did break into the 14's, seems like it was a mid 15 second car, but it was probably a 16 sec car as time always seems to make them faster. Never did a hard launch or anything, though. Drove that car all over the place and the only time I remember it letting me down was when the coil went bad and the car wouldn't start. Luckily, I had just gotten back from a 100 mile drive and it was already in the carport. Sure brings back memories.
Ironically, while I was working on finding all of the missing bits and pieces, I ended up talking to a guy in a wrecking yard while we were waiting for the rain to subside. Ends up he was working on a '72 Demon that turned out to be my Brother's old Demon. It had been rear ended while his wife was driving, totaled, gone through a couple of hands and ended up in Kevin's possession. He'd gotten the quarter fixed and swapped a 360 in and was looking for a couple of straps for a fuel cell. When he asked what I was working on, I told him about my Duster, and before I could get far, he was telling me what it looked like. Turns out it was his first car. We exchanged numbers and kept in contact and have been good friends ever since.
In fact, some where around 1999, due to me shooting off my big mouth, Kevin ended up buying the Duster back from me. I had been at a swap meet with my Dad and a couple of his buddies in the summer of 98 when I had foolishly mentioned that I wanted to build a 46-8 Plymouth streetrod. Well, one of the guys made a trip to Arizona a couple of weeks later to tow a car down for a guy who was retiring there, and rather than bring the trailer back empty he found a '48 Business Coupe and called my Dad who said bring it up. I ended up owing Dad $800 for the car. I tried to keep the Duster, but Dad needed his money and I needed to focus on one project, so I worked a deal with Kevin such that he got his old car back and I got Dad paid off. I should have kept the Duster. It was fun messing that Plymouth, but I went 12 years without a running car to enjoy, and I never got the '48 much farther than a rolling chassis.
Kevin tore the Duster apart for a restoration, which stalled for a while. He put a quarter on it and got it back together in primer about 5 years ago. Here are some pictures from about that time.
Later I will relate the story of how I got it back, and the fiasco that followed.
I do want to say that I have to thank Kevin for his friendship through this. Sometimes when cars trade hands among friends, things don't always go smoothly and the friendship ends. This could have been one of those times, and I didn't make things easy (to my embarrassment), but we have still managed to maintain a good friendship, of which I am glad. Thanks Kevin!
