My Duster Adventures

[75slant6]

Also, I'd planned to get USCartool subframe connectors since I like how clean they look but do to having a lot of stuff I want/need to get done to the Duster before the Nats (yes, I'm hoping to drive the car to the Nats. Not like y'all have heard that before! ) I think I'm gonna save money and get me some 2x3 tubing and make my own subframe connectors.

I also bought me some 1.03" TB's from member Gerty last Saturday so I want to get the TB sockets in the crossmember gusseted before I install those.

I changed the wiper pivot seals a few weeks back but have discovered that those weren't the cause of the water puddles on the floor boards after it rains.. turns out I need a new windshield and gasket installed sometime in the not too distance future! It's not all bad though since it's sort of a pain to drive toward the sun since the windshield glares so bad from hazing and knicks. Just costs money...

 

[gerty]

Nice job

 

[barbee6043]

nice work! you can make your subframe connectors no problem. why buy them?? git er done! nats will be here in few month! GO!

 

[75slant6]

I got the steering column stripped down and repainted this week, also re-packed the upper bearing and put in another turn signal switch.

Here's the repainted column.

 

[75slant6]

I also did the lower column bearing upgrade like Brian (@72bluNblu ) did in his "how to" thread here.

How To Replace your Lower Column Bearing: Better and Cheaper!!!

I also upgraded the steering shaft and installed a vibration dampening u-joint like Brian did in this thread here.

Steering shaft upgrade

Here you can see the section I cut off and what went back on.

I got the car running again Friday night for the first time since February and got the column bolted back in yesterday (Saturday) morning then stopped by a car show for a little bit. I didn't enter, I just parked outside the taped of area and walked around some. Out of probably 20-30 vehicles, the only other Mopar's were 2 Prowlers and a Hellcat Challenger.
Then last evening Marge and I went to a cruise in. I always forget to take pics of the car at shows and cruise ins.

All in all, I put about 90 miles on the car yesterday!! It's SO nice to have her running again and the upgraded dash really helps!! As soon as I get the glove box door back on and get the badass radio delete plate (@Kegan B had a GENIUS idea for that!!) installed I'll post before and after pics of the dash!

Oh, and today we took the Duster to church for the first time! No pics of that either...

 

[75slant6]

Well, I got some more work done to the Duster this week. I finally got the transmission crossmember and tunnel welded in!

Here's the crossmember welded in. Oh, and I now have the utmost respect for people who can lay under cars and weld worth a crap!! I enjoy welding most times but welding in the crossmember SUCKED!!

Now's when it starts getting bad.... I had a great design thought out in my head, but the execution of that design was pretty terrible!! Lol Oh well, couple CASES of seam sealer and some flooring and it should do it's job and look pretty good doing it!

I painted the bottom side of all the pieces with rustoleum high temp, BBQ paint so they should be mostly protected against any flash rusting or anything.

I also bought materials for subframe connectors and a driveshaft loop but this evening right after I finished the last spot weld on the tunnel, the wire feed on the welder stopped turning So I have to see about getting that fixed before I can install those. I also have to weld up where someone had installed bucket seats without reinforcement plates and it ripped the floor pan.

Next up on the list of things to do is install my 1.03" TB's and get the alignment rechecked, I think UCA's slipped a little, it looks like it has way too much negative camber and I think the car handles worse on back roads than it did last fall.

 

[75slant6]

Well, got some more done on the car the past few days!! First off, I got some seam sealer and sealed up the new tunnel.

Today I painted the top side of the tunnel with rustoleum BBQ paint, shop vac'd the floor and put the front seat back in. I thought about pulling the vinyl floor out of my valiant parts car but decided to to do that until I either get my welder fixed or get another and install the subframe connectors and patch the rest of the floor where it needs it.

Over the past few days I also installed the 1.03" TBs and today I set the ride height back to where it was and torqued everything down again. And WOW, what a difference those bigger TBs make!!! The car rides a lot better and is a lot more fun to drive!!!

I also installed the remflex header collector gaskets today so no more leaks there!! Between that and getting the tunnel put in, the car is much quieter!! Gonna be awesome once I get the insulation and vinyl floor mat put in! But then I'll discover all the wind noise and rattles! Lol.

My fuel gauge has never worked and yesterday I discovered why, the sending unit float was full of fuel. I've got a new plastic float on the way so that should solve that! It'll be a GREAT day when I get that gauge working!! Tonight I ran out of gas for the 5th or 6th time with the Duster in the last 8 months!!! Marge was along tonight so we "killed time" in the front seat till a buddy brought us a few gallons gas.

We're gonna be gone all next week for our anniversary but we'll be coming home Friday and Saturday I'll be driving the car to Beech Bend for the Holley Hotrod Reunion!!

 

[sireland67]

Lol the old run out of gas trick!

 

[MonkeyMadness]

It's freaking Oct! No updates yet...!?!

 

[75slant6]

It's freaking Oct! No updates yet...!?!

Sadly, I didn't do anything to the car or even drive it between the end of June until September 28. On the 28th I finally got the gauge cluster and steering column put back in, washed the car off (btw, it's a royal pain in the *** to try to wash off a ratty muscle car! Lol) and took it to a car show that evening. I put about 80 miles on the car that day and other than the tach not going beyond 2100rpm and the fact that if I wiggle the fuse box or wiring harness under the dash I lose all power to the dash and ignition system, the car ran GREAT!!

I did buy a $17 Camaro chin spoiler and new front wheel bearings from rock auto this last week. The chin spoiler came but I haven't installed it yet. We have our last big cruise in/car show Sunday so I'm hoping to get the spoiler installed by then.

And here are a few pics to appease the masses. Lol

Here was right after I washed the car (can't really tell a difference from before in pics. Lol)

Here's my gauge cluster that I designed, I'm thrilled with how the high beam indicator turned out but I think I need to drill out a few of the LED's in the bulb... it's BRIGHT!!! The gauges all have blue LED's in them but I can't get my phone to focus properly.
(Btw, don't mind the dust all over the interior... no shifter boot and a gravel drive don't go together too well. Lol)

And lastly, here is a 1930 Dodge Brothers coupe with a blown 426 Hemi!!! By far the the most badass car at the show and the most badass 30's hotrod I've ever seen!!!

 

[75slant6]

Oh, and I also got the new plastic fuel float installed so I now have a functioning fuel gauge!!!

 

[ChrisRomello]

I’m thinking about doing the same transmission swap in my 65 Valiant. I’m sure you have been asked this a lot but how do you like the gears? I’ve been trying to do research but I haven’t found a satisfying answer yet and since you have been driving your car for awhile now I thought you could give me a good answer. Thanks!

 

[75slant6]

I’m thinking about doing the same transmission swap in my 65 Valiant. I’m sure you have been asked this a lot but how do you like the gears? I’ve been trying to do research but I haven’t found a satisfying answer yet and since you have been driving your car for awhile now I thought you could give me a good answer. Thanks!

It’s probably the cheapest option for a 5 speed swap in these cars. And that’s exactly why I did the swap. I might have $500 total in my swap.
As far as gearing goes, I’m currently running 3.23 gears in my Duster and that almost makes first gear useless, I have a set of 2.76s that I’m hoping to install over the winter and that should really help on take off and will also lower the cruising RPM even more. @ralphie361 has the same trans behind a 5.7 Hemi and has swapped his rear gears to 2.76s and said it improved it a lot!

 

[75slant6]

Well guys, I haven’t been doing any work on my Duster the last few months but I did pull it out of the lean to yesterday for some snow pics!

 

[barbee6043]

Cool! That car has soul!

 

[75slant6]

Well since someone.. *cough* @MonkeyMadness *cough* thinks it’s been too long since I updated my thread, I guess I’ll post some pics I took a few months ago. I really haven’t done anything to the car since I posted on here other than drive it some. I do have a list of things I need to get done though...
1. Change the leaking mechanical oil pressure gauge for an electric one.
2. Buy/install tuff wheel and adapter to allow more leg room to get in and out.
3a. Check and correct transmission/driveshaft angle
3b. Swap in 2.76 gears and longer driveshaft
4. Change front wheel bearings
5. Install QA1 UCAs and get new alignment.
6. Patch floor, install subframe connectors and install vinyl floor mat and padding from valiant parts car
7. Finish painting interior and install door panels.
1-7. Drive the piss out of the car.

Anyway. Here are the pics.

And here’s two with black and white backgrounds.

 

[75slant6]

I might try to take the car back over to the lake tomorrow afternoon and take some high res pics now that the trees are green

 

[MonkeyMadness]

Damn. It's about time someone blew the dust off this thread....
So did the 2.76 gear help much with the manuals low first gear?

*cough, cough*

 

[75slant6]

Damn. It's about time someone blew the dust off this thread....
So did the 2.76 gear help much with the manuals low first gear?

*cough, cough*

Umm... uhhh... yea? I’m sure it will! Lol

 

[75slant6]

Well, I drove the Duster quite a bit Saturday and Sunday, then Sunday afternoon I was feeling kind of ambitious so I ripped out the rest of the interior, minus the front seat and dash. The good news is now there won’t be any more powdered black “foam” falling out of the headliner, but the bad news is I didn’t find a build sheet above the headliner either... that was the last place that there could be one so I guess I’ll never be able to prove it was a real Twister...

Here’s all the interior pieces sitting in the driveway

And here’s the interior filled with that nasty powdered foam!

Next up will be to sweep out the interior, remove the front seat and wash the inside out real well, patch the floor pans and install subframe connectors. The front seat will be getting dyed black, the black vinyl floor from my 72 Valiant parts car will be going in along with a new abs headliner, new homemade door panels and new retractable 3 point seat belts. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me but I’d like for the interior to be “done” in time for the Nats in August.

I also want to run all the wiring for a sound system while the interior is gutted.

Oh, and I installed new LED bulbs from superbrightleds.com in the front marker lights, tail lights and backup lights. I also order new blue dimmable bulbs from them for the gauge cluster and ordered a white LED for the dome light.

Can’t really see a difference in brightness, old bulb on the left, new red LED on the right. I’m planning to take the tail lights apart and line them with reflective, aluminum tape to help with brightness.

 

[zkx14]

Can’t really see a difference in brightness, old bulb on the left, new red LED on the right. I’m planning to take the tail lights apart and line them with reflective, aluminum tape to help with brightness.

Chrome spray paint works well. I used Krylon...

 

[75slant6]

Chrome spray paint works well. I used Krylon...

I tried chrome spray paint on another project and just couldn’t get it to work right. Here’s an example of how @76orangewagon used the chrome tape. As you can see, it’s a lot more reflective than the “chrome” paint.

Here’s better quality pics of that.

 

[zkx14]

Not as reflective as the tape, but here is mine...

 

[75slant6]

Not as reflective as the tape, but here is mine...

View attachment 1715181516

Wow! That’s a LOT shinier than I could ever get it. I’d used duplicolor chrome on a grill once and it turned out bout like the pics I posted of Ross’ tail lights

 

[75slant6]

Well, I drove the heck out of it today!! Had to run errands in 2 not very close towns and since my wife was gone with our good car and I discovered yesterday the radiator in my truck is cracked, I had to take the Duster. I put 152 miles on her today in the scorching southern Ky heat. A wheel bearing that I knew was a little sloppy is now making a lot more noise but other than that, the car ran flawlessly!! Well, except the ac, which was never installed on the car, just wouldn’t kick on.

So I just stopped at about every town and got a drink. I drank a can of Dr Pepper, a 28oz Gatorade, 3 small glasses of water and 2 medium sonic waters and didn’t have an urge to pee once. I just sweat it all out!! Lol

Oh yea, and this happened....

Thanks to the slop in my gear box, he pulled me over just to make sure I wasn’t under the influence of anything.

I did stop buy a guys place that I knew had a lot of Mopar’s but just never stopped in before. I grew up 2-3 miles from his place. He sold 40-50 cars the past few years but still has over 100. Amongst them is a 70 440/auto Superbird a ‘69 Charger 500 and a Hellcat Charger. He had a BUNCH that I didn’t see, some day I’ll go over and just walk around with him and see everything he’s got. He goes to the Nats every year and normally takes a trailer full of parts so I’ll have to look him up up there this year.