j par
Well-hung Member
When I first got the (73) Duster about 4 years ago we did a 4-speed swap and upgraded the 7 1/4 to a 8 1/4. At the same time resealed the 318 (it came with) with new timing chain bla bla. That was before the first test drive. We mostly bought it for the rust free, original paint (making it easier to see there's no bondo from the 80's LOL), straight body.
The first plan was to not only get the drive train together, but put a nice interior as well. So I started collecting a lot of the interior parts. I got a new carpet kit three and a half years ago thats still in the box for a 4-speed a body and I've also collected almost all the black plastic interior parts. I just don't have cohesive seats. I have a front bench that's tan in good condition and I believe I have a couple choices for the fold down back seat possibly the original Green being good? Of course I need the Holy Grail of all parts the headliner and I've been thinking of some ideas to do it myself but if not I'll just have to bite the bullet. I have collected a bunch of other small pieces for the interior like the heater vents on the dash. I have some nice new ones and a passable dash pad.
So what happened was I got the motor and tranny and drive train running well got it out on the track had too much fun and decided that I didn't want to do the interior that I wanted to do race seats and make it more for the track and so the last 3 years went. Now my Big Daddy Don Garlits dreams are Fading Into the reality that I just like having fun with the car. I love going to the racetrack but I love driving it also. I haven't been getting the kind of use I really want out of the car, to dedicated to the track. I don't want to stop going and also don't want to go less I would actually like to go more. So in order to make it more comfortable to go more I'm actually going to cut the roll bar out and put the stock interior back in it. Even when my wife and I built that pink 318 motor and had it over 14 seconds so we can have a passenger we still had to wear a helmet because of the roll bar. I've only taken the car under 11.5 sec. one time and I believe that was a fluke of the timeslips anyways LOL. Having that motor in the car this summer that little tree 318 and automatic and being able to drive down the track and just put regular gas in it made it so much more convenient to just drive down on Wednesday nights or whatever and not have to load the car up on the trailer and change into the Slicks and all that kind of crap.
So you now reconfiguration plan A in my mind and now on for a bodies only! LOL:
Okay big breath here I want to completely rebuild the front end first and foremost which I have a current thread on the suspension part of this forum and we'll go ahead and continue with that thread as I go through the suspension in case; one I need help which I've been getting lots of thank you and two if by doing so piece-by-piece on the forum I could do something wrong which I usually do which helps other people not do something wrong. I want to now take the K frame off cut the roll bar out take the race seats out take dash out the steering column the entire front clip the doors everything. Then put it all back together with the wires and wiring de-spaghetti-fid and put under the fenders in looms instead of on top of the fenders in plain sight. I've got other doors with Windows and everything put those back in of course as said put the entire interior back in. I'm going to replace the front windshield as it's complete garbage. Also I need to replace my side windows which I sold my spare ones already damn it. I ruin those welding next to them with the roll bar which was my stupidity. Also I plan to take the vertigate out and right now the pistol grip is on the shifting mechanism but I'll switch that out also and put the old ball shifter back on. And no YR I will not sell my original Hurst vertigate shifter ever! Someone will pull that out of my dead cold hands! I did buy a $40 hood to cut a hole in so we can actually put a hood on it for the first time since I don't know I got the dual quad tunnel ram. I want to sell all my drag slicks and rims and all my street rims and tires and just buy crossover Street track package. I would like to reshape and mount the rear fiberglass bumper that I do have and really the only thing new I would like to buy for the car would be a fiberglass front bumper. Oh and she's going to be something to look at when she's done LOL . Black bumpers Sublime green hood, silver fenders, Brown doors, faded green body, red (fether duster) trunk lid - it's going to be a looker ! oh yeah and also I've got to see how well the stroker Motor os going to run on regular gas as compared to the 100ll I've always used in it . I will definitely put the carburetor linkage back to Progressive instead of 1 to 1 which makes it a lot more streetable . Now see this ain't much for a small little winter project?
The first plan was to not only get the drive train together, but put a nice interior as well. So I started collecting a lot of the interior parts. I got a new carpet kit three and a half years ago thats still in the box for a 4-speed a body and I've also collected almost all the black plastic interior parts. I just don't have cohesive seats. I have a front bench that's tan in good condition and I believe I have a couple choices for the fold down back seat possibly the original Green being good? Of course I need the Holy Grail of all parts the headliner and I've been thinking of some ideas to do it myself but if not I'll just have to bite the bullet. I have collected a bunch of other small pieces for the interior like the heater vents on the dash. I have some nice new ones and a passable dash pad.
So what happened was I got the motor and tranny and drive train running well got it out on the track had too much fun and decided that I didn't want to do the interior that I wanted to do race seats and make it more for the track and so the last 3 years went. Now my Big Daddy Don Garlits dreams are Fading Into the reality that I just like having fun with the car. I love going to the racetrack but I love driving it also. I haven't been getting the kind of use I really want out of the car, to dedicated to the track. I don't want to stop going and also don't want to go less I would actually like to go more. So in order to make it more comfortable to go more I'm actually going to cut the roll bar out and put the stock interior back in it. Even when my wife and I built that pink 318 motor and had it over 14 seconds so we can have a passenger we still had to wear a helmet because of the roll bar. I've only taken the car under 11.5 sec. one time and I believe that was a fluke of the timeslips anyways LOL. Having that motor in the car this summer that little tree 318 and automatic and being able to drive down the track and just put regular gas in it made it so much more convenient to just drive down on Wednesday nights or whatever and not have to load the car up on the trailer and change into the Slicks and all that kind of crap.
So you now reconfiguration plan A in my mind and now on for a bodies only! LOL:
Okay big breath here I want to completely rebuild the front end first and foremost which I have a current thread on the suspension part of this forum and we'll go ahead and continue with that thread as I go through the suspension in case; one I need help which I've been getting lots of thank you and two if by doing so piece-by-piece on the forum I could do something wrong which I usually do which helps other people not do something wrong. I want to now take the K frame off cut the roll bar out take the race seats out take dash out the steering column the entire front clip the doors everything. Then put it all back together with the wires and wiring de-spaghetti-fid and put under the fenders in looms instead of on top of the fenders in plain sight. I've got other doors with Windows and everything put those back in of course as said put the entire interior back in. I'm going to replace the front windshield as it's complete garbage. Also I need to replace my side windows which I sold my spare ones already damn it. I ruin those welding next to them with the roll bar which was my stupidity. Also I plan to take the vertigate out and right now the pistol grip is on the shifting mechanism but I'll switch that out also and put the old ball shifter back on. And no YR I will not sell my original Hurst vertigate shifter ever! Someone will pull that out of my dead cold hands! I did buy a $40 hood to cut a hole in so we can actually put a hood on it for the first time since I don't know I got the dual quad tunnel ram. I want to sell all my drag slicks and rims and all my street rims and tires and just buy crossover Street track package. I would like to reshape and mount the rear fiberglass bumper that I do have and really the only thing new I would like to buy for the car would be a fiberglass front bumper. Oh and she's going to be something to look at when she's done LOL . Black bumpers Sublime green hood, silver fenders, Brown doors, faded green body, red (fether duster) trunk lid - it's going to be a looker ! oh yeah and also I've got to see how well the stroker Motor os going to run on regular gas as compared to the 100ll I've always used in it . I will definitely put the carburetor linkage back to Progressive instead of 1 to 1 which makes it a lot more streetable . Now see this ain't much for a small little winter project?
