My Duster Adventures

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well I'll be a skunned skunk - I somehow have overlooked this thread... I have only read this page so far, but am planning to back a read it all.. good stuff!! :thumbsup:
LOL - ok, I ended up at the top of page 5... so.. I've read the last page only...
 
Thank mike:) hopefully be more/bigger updates in the coming days/weeks. Was gonna go work on her again tonight but got home later from the farm, did some things around the house and now it's almost 8 and my shop is 15 minutes away. Guess I'll hang out with the wifey tonight
 
To say tonight was awesome would be an understatement!!!

But let's back up a little. Last night I painted the transmission crossmember, took the 2 10 gauge wires from the alternator to starter relay back out and cut em shorter/rerouted em to go to the battery instead.
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Tonight, I started by putting in the nice, shiny crossmember!!
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I then bolted the fuse holders on the 10 gauge wires to the body.
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Then i set in a battery, wired up the starter, sprayed some starting fluid in the carb, hit the key and.........nothing. Remembered the neutral/clutch safety switch post on the starter relay wasn't grounded so a ran a temporary ground to the battery... Hit the switch and the starter just clicked a few times then spun the engine over, (discovered later timing was way past tdc) finally sputtered somewhat to life on starting fluid. So I went and got 5 gallons gas, put some in a bottle and the rest in the tank.. Dumped some gas in the carb and fired it that way a few times till the pump got gas to the engine. Set the timing and now I can hit the key and she roars (more of a meow lol) to life!! The stock 5.9 definitely doesn't sound as good as the 318 did.

The other night when I set the radiator in place I knew I wanted to put some rubber spacers under it and thinking of Denny's reply about hotrodding it dawned on me that I could use hood bumpers. I didn't wanna spend and wait on a-body bumpers so was gonna get some in the help section at advance then it dawned on me that I can take the ones off the 02 corrolla that was my daily beater car till the engine blew a month or 2 back. So today I pulled em off and tonight I drilled 2 5/8 or 11/16, I'll have to check, holes in the radiator support and turned the bumpers all the way in. Set the radiator in place put the playdo on the cap, shut the hood and still have 3/4" clearance!! first pic is showing how they look, second pic is one installed.

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Now your talkin'......I like that application, might have to use it.
 
Got the cooling system in and ran the car awhile. Need to read up on how to tune my carb. It's running rich and the adjuster screws don't make much difference. But she fires right up!!

I didnt have a lower hose that fit so I cut 2 short ones then put a smaller diameter hose inside the 2. It's a temporary solution till I can get the the parts store Monday.

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Well I didn't get a whole lot done the last few weeks (other than snapping a damn intake bolt) until today.

I got the driveshaft installed, finished putting in a few fuel line hangers, put the front wheels and tires back on and set the frontend on the ground. Also finished installing the clutch hydraulics and had the tires spinning with the rear of the car on jack stands! Last thing I did today was pull off the intake, get the broken bolt out and put the intake back on. I had to leave and go do chores so I didn't get everything reinstalled but I'll go over again sometime tmrw to hook everything back up and hopefully take back her out of the shop under her own power for the first time!!!

A few pics, nothing much.

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Need to get me some wider front tires sometime, hopefully before spring.
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I think it might need an alignment. Lol
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Love it, love it, love it!!!! Keep up the good work Caleb, I see a trip around the block very soon!!!
 
cosgig said:
Love it, love it, love it!!!! Keep up the good work Caleb, I see a trip around the block very soon!!!
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Today might be the day!! I'm gonna drive it to the end of the road (bout half mile) and if it drives decent I'll take it another mile or so to the gas station and fill her up. Then take her in next week for an alignment
 
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ScampMike said:
lookin' good!!! hey, what did you use for an upper radiator hose?
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Tell you the truth I cant remember if I bought this one or if it came with the car. There were some numbers on it so I'll see today if I can find out what it was. If I bought it I probably just got one for a 72 Duster with 318 or 340
 
Well folks, she runs like a top!! Backed her out of the garage, set the ride height, torqued the pivot pins, torqued all the lug nuts and drove it out the drive a few times then headed down the road to the gas station!! No speedo so Idk exactly how fast I was going but not over 45-50 since it BADLY needs an alignment, I'll be getting that done Monday! I did discover that either my fuel sending unit gasket is leaking or I didn't plug the vent tube in the sender. Either way it's leaking gas.

Oh, and that 5.9 has a lot more torque than I was expecting!! Going out the drive in 2nd gear I blipped the throttle just a little and the backend wiggled a little and gravel went flying!! This things gonna be a blast!!!
 
Spent about the whole day today at the alignment shop getting her aligned!! She don't drive like a new car but she drives pretty good!! First gear is almost useless with the ax-15 and 3.23 gears. Gonna swap in my 2.76s this winter. She sits nice!!

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Well, took the car over to dads again today then took it to town a few times. I did learn something today, don't take a car that sat for 20 years to Dairy Queen and get a Sunday then on the way home while eating the sunday, open your fresh air vents at 60 mph!!! LOL
 
Well haven't been doing a whole lot with the car recently other than driving it some but I did get a few small things done yesterday.

1. I got the new fuel sending unit gasket and lock ring from DMT installed so hopefully the tank won't leak anymore. (Haven't filled it yet to see.

2. I went to install the remflex header collector gaskets but like everything else on Project Take 2, I bought the wrong ones so I just put the old one back in and tightened it up and the exhaust leak improved a lot!!

3. I installed the rear seat.

Between the seat blocking off most of the trunk noise and the collector not leaking as bad, the car is now much more pleasant to drive! You can now talk to a passenger without yelling as loudly. lol. Once I get the new remflex gaskets in and get the tunnel closed up it should quiet down even more.
 
I always forget to check my last post and update it... The DMT sending unit gasket did indeed fix the fuel leak. I've probably put 1000-2000 miles on the car since September but with no heater and no transmission tunnel I can only stand to drive her when it's about 50* or warmer.

I did make a change to the rear window today... Our landlord owns/runs a used car lot and our house shares the same gravel lot as the car lot and he was getting a lot of people in that were asking what he wanted for the Duster. He even said he had to run out and tell people it wasn't for sale when he saw them stop and open the doors and try to pop the hood!!! (Doors are now locked) So today I did this... MAYBE it'll help.....
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Also, the only gauge that works is an old aftermarket water temp gauge so the past week or so I've been messing with an extra bezel I have and when I'm done I'll have a speedometer, tach, oil pressure, water temp, volt meter and FINALLY a functional fuel gauge!!! I'll also have one other feature that I'm not gonna reveal just yet and a custom idea that I'll also wait to reveal till its done. This gauge setup is gonna be fairly temporary (a few years maybe) as eventually I wanna put a rallye dash in so it's definitely budget minded but will really help the overall appearance of the interior (can't get much worse anyway) Here's what I have so far....

Here's just the paper template laying in the bezel.
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Here's the bezel after a few rounds of oven cleaner.

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I bought a 6x18" piece of 22 gauge steel at TSC for $5 that I cut the face out of. I just have a little bit of finish grinding to do to get it to fit perfect then I'll take it to a fab shop and have them cut the gauge holes out, hope to get that done tomorrow. I'll post an update when I get it all done.
 
Thanks Rani! I did drive the Duster up to the farm day after Christmas (it was 75* :D) and took these pics. I really need to get it somewhere nice and take more good pics of it.
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One of the best views in my world....
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75slant6 said:
Thanks Rani! I did drive the Duster up to the farm day after Christmas (it was 75* :D) and took these pics. I really need to get it somewhere nice and take more good pics of it.
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One of the best views in my world....
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I love that view!! I know you do too!! Great job Caleb, I'm so glad it's running and driving, it's a testament to your hard work and perseverance!
 
My phone fell out of my pocket up at the farm this morning so when I went back to go look for it I decided to take the Duster. Once I found my phone I figured I may as well take some pics of the car since I don't have that many good pics. So here are a few.

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