My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head

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Kern Dog said:
I thought the early tanks were 18 gallons. Those are a direct fit, right?
The Charger tank is 19. I can see the advantage of more exhaust clearance though.
That Pistol Grip looks like a natural fit for these cars!
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All the one's I have are 16. I've heard the 18 gallon number mentioned before, but all of my cars' tanks are 16 and I believe all the reproduction tanks are 16 gallons. The Charger tank is 19 gallons. The in tank pump for an EFI system was another consideration, I didn't want to lose more capacity from the A-body tank with an in tank pump. With the larger 19 gallon tank giving up a little for the in tank pump is no big deal.

I really like the looks of the pistol grip, but I think it was a better fit for the 833. With the T56's short throws the long handle is kind of overkill. But I still like the looks so it stays for now.

Ottmundr said:
Nice, do you have more pictures of the trunk floor and fuel tank install process?
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I have a few. It didn't exactly go the way I wanted it to, and it was a lot more involved than what I thought it would be. So I didn't post everything because quite honestly it didn't turn out as I wanted it to and I don't think I'd recommend it for most folks

DionR said:
I am guessing you don’t carry a spare now?
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Correct, I ditched the spare for normal use. I've carried spares pretty much my entire life. I've only used one once, and that was over 20 years ago. On the Duster I run staggered heights and widths for the tires and a limited slip differential so using a spare is really only about getting off a freeway. And I have AAA, so, I get free tows if I need them. If I was planning a long trip I could still toss one in there, no big deal. But for around town I stopped carrying it.
 
72bluNblu said:
Pretty much everything I did is covered in the first two pages of the this thread. I made a template from a real rallye dash frame, used it to make my initial cuts to the dash with a set of tin snips making sure to leave some extra, and then just did a TON of fitting and trimming. It took forever. And you need to be able to weld or somehow attach the mounting tabs for the new dash, because obviously after you cut everything to fit the rally dash there won't be any mounting tabs.

Restoring the bezel is just patience. Lots of sanding with 220 grit or finer to remove all the imperfections, then cleaning up with alcohol and painting. I used Plast-Aid to do the plastic repairs, it worked pretty well and you can get it on eBay or at pool/spa supply stores. I really didn't do anything to the gauges, just cleaned them up. I did buy several rallye dash's though, so I picked the best set of gauges out of the few that I had.

As I mentioned already at the end of my little how-to, I wouldn't cut another standard dash frame up to fit a rallye dash. The rallye dash frames are easy enough to find, and not really all that expensive. If for some reason I HAD to do it again, I would remove the dash frame completely from the car. Working around everything under the dash is just a pain.
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Hate to bug you, but just curious what you did about the heater controls when you swapped the rallye dash in. I doubt you used the original '74 controls (at the very least the fan switch looks wrong) but did you use the original cables with the different controls?

Edit - Never mind, found it 70 fit a 67 ? Non AC Heater box

Just bought a bezel and cluster so trying to put together what I am going to need.

Been looking back and pictures to make sure you didn’t already answer the question and can’t wait to get it in. Haven’t decided if I will cut my dash or look for another one (I know your opinion), just not excited about having to pull the windshield to get it out or it wouldn’t be a question. Also still debating about modding the one I got since it looks to be whole and complete. Just fairly shabby.
 
Hey Blu, couple of questions for you:

When you cut your dash, did you have to cut the left side of the opening as well? Been looking at some pictures and just noticed that it looks like you did. I assumed that the left side would be ok, just the right side that had to be cut.

Also, been looking at pictures of the earlier heater box and the later one. Looks like the mix door mounts similarly so that swap wouldn’t be too bad, but the earlier box mounts the cable for the mode door on the opposite side so the controls would work backwards. Could the ‘71 down cable be mounted to the ‘74 heater box and the controls just work backwards?
 
DionR said:
Hey Blu, couple of questions for you:

When you cut your dash, did you have to cut the left side of the opening as well? Been looking at some pictures and just noticed that it looks like you did. I assumed that the left side would be ok, just the right side that had to be cut.

Also, been looking at pictures of the earlier heater box and the later one. Looks like the mix door mounts similarly so that swap wouldn’t be too bad, but the earlier box mounts the cable for the mode door on the opposite side so the controls would work backwards. Could the ‘71 down cable be mounted to the ‘74 heater box and the controls just work backwards?
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Yes, the left side of the dash opening had to be modified as well, the rallye dash cluster is a little wider on the left side as well. I notched and folded the lip back a little on the left to make it fit. Pretty much every single inch of the dash frame opening has to be modified to fit the rally cluster.

My heat controls are the earlier ones, I think they're '68? The dash that has a flasher switch. Anyway, my mode controls are not hooked up. I set the door to "defrost" and zip tied it there. The heat slider works as normal, it's probably hooked up with the later cable but I honestly don't recall.
 
72bluNblu said:
Yes, the left side of the dash opening had to be modified as well, the rallye dash cluster is a little wider on the left side as well. I notched and folded the lip back a little on the left to make it fit. Pretty much every single inch of the dash frame opening has to be modified to fit the rally cluster.

My heat controls are the earlier ones, I think they're '68? The dash that has a flasher switch. Anyway, my mode controls are not hooked up. I set the door to "defrost" and zip tied it there. The heat slider works as normal, it's probably hooked up with the later cable but I honestly don't recall.
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Thanks!

In the end I took your advice and am waiting for a Rallye dash frame to arrive. Annoying thing is, I bought it from the same guy I bought the cluster from. If I had my ducks in a row from the beginning I could have saved a fair amount of money on shipping. Oh well, live and learn.
 
Ok, time for an update. First, yes, I took a hiatus from FABO back in October and November. Part of that was fire season, I was deployed out on fires a couple times. Part of it was just being sick of all the BS that happens from time to time here. And part of it was because my Dad had cancer. He passed right before Thanksgiving. So frankly I've had a lot going on. Working on my cars has usually been therapeutic for me, and although my projects are definitely in need of some prioritizing and probably some thinning in light of things I have done some stuff with my Duster. During all of this I was running a lot of miles on my Duster and ended up running right into the cords on my tires. Of course my old BFG KDW2's have been discontinued for years, so I had to go looking for new options. I ended up with a set of Falken Azeni's, the front stayed the same (275/35/18) but in the back I went to a taller tire - 295/40/18. Which is great, but I didn't count on them being much wider. Because my 295's are on 18x10's, the taller sidewall allowed them to grow a bit, and I was already pushing my luck on the quarters after my rear disks added 5/16" to the width. So I decided to to a "reverse" mini-tub to take advantage of all the space the factory wheel wells steal away from the nice wide quarters. Not the first one to do this by any means, I've seen a few different takes on it but @fishmarket was my primary inspiration. Anyway, here's the issue-
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With the 295/40/18's there's only like 5/8" from the tread width to the lip, but of course the "bump" in the wheel house means there's really much less than that. It works ok with nothing in the trunk because I have some vertical space and a large rear sway bar, but a trip to Costco and I'll be in real trouble. So the solution looks something like this, making the tub look something like that red line
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Except that blue line indicates the section of C-pillar structure that has to be modified. But first the undercoating has to be removed
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Red line shows the plan for the cut, I'm not going to replace the full outer wheelhouse because I'm doing this right side up on jackstands with the quarters on. So just what I need to get the room for the tires (well, and then some). Factory welding looks good right? C-pillar spots are barely attached in a few spots on the driver's side...
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Drilled the spot welds and did some cutting
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And voila (yes, it was rubbing with suspension travel)
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But now that I've got the outer wheel house detached, the quarter is a lot more flexible. And the lip is a single layer. So if I'm going to do all this work I might as well really do some stuff. So break out the fender roller, we're going to make some more room. First, I'm going to use a 3/16" rod to make sure I give the lip some shape. It will keep the flange from rolling flat and give the lip some rigidity.
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Rod tacked in place and the lip primed
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And the "pre" measurements back to the inner wheel house- 13-1/8" on the driver's side, 13-1/4" on the passenger side
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The quarter lip is still pretty tough, so, I start the roll with some basic tools
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And then finish it with the roller. But I use the roller to do more than just roll, I crank that thing down until things start to move. Probably not it's intended use, but it works really well for it. The quarters were definitely harder to "push" than the front fenders were, but it works.
A nice rolled lip
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And the real money - 14-1/8" from the inner wheel house to the new lip. The quarters only pushed about 3/8", the rest was the lip roll
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But you can actually see some more flare on the quarters, baby's got hips!
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Now to fix the hole! First up is making the C-pillar structure modifications. I just notched the pillar and folded the metal up to make new larger landing flanges. I used the lines to gauge the length of the cuts
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Folded up and ready to go
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Then I used manila folders as my pattern to make the replacement panels. I did this in a few pieces, since I don't have a bender or wheel to do fancy stuff. 18G sheet metal was a little thicker than the original stuff, which was probably 20G.
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This Harbor Freight shear works great, btw...
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Final mock up
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All together and out for welding
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Welded up and primed
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Dartsun said:
Great work as always, sorry to hear about your dad. It was a very rough fire season here on the west coast.
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Thanks man, I truly appreciate it on all accounts.

Back at this thing!

Welding upside down is so much fun! One of these days I should buy something newer than my Millermatic 35, I think it's a '72?
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Once everything was tacked into place (I think I double the number of factory spot welds on this, maybe more) I covered everything with SEM 1k seam sealer. Worked pretty well! The 50°F weather didn't help getting it out of the gun, but a little shaping with a piece of cardboard and it was done
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re-primed
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And done, undercoating re-applied.
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And the moment of truth! Back on the ground, ready to go. Plenty of room to the quarter lip (1-1/8"), and with 7/8" back to the springs on the inside now I could probably manage 315's tucked in there next time around.
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The new 295/40/18's are 27.2" tall, so, a full 1" taller than my old 295/35's. So I added about a 1/2" of rubber rake. I'm going to put some more miles on it first, but I've got a set of 1/2" blocks assuming everything goes like I think it will. It wasn't flat with the old tires and the new ones put more rake on it than I want so I'll probably drop it back down to where it was before and tuck the tops of those rear tires in now that I have plenty of space.

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Dang!

Like to say cool update, but hate to hear about your loss. Sorry about your Dad.

I understand the break, appreciate you popping in to answer my question on the dash.

Wicked cool update on the Duster (Demon?). :D

Not sure I could do the same on my car, but I like seeing what is possible if I did. Nice job!
 
What a great set of photos! Thanks for taking the time to do that.

Sorry to hear about your dad too. I hate hearing about that crap. Hopefully the duster can keep you busy.
 
Sucks to hear about your dad. That news always sucks. Glad you have something to keep your mind off things. I like your outboard tub mod. I will have to earmark that for future reference.
 
Thanks for fighting the fires out here. My condolences, sorry to hear about your father. Glad to have you back.
 
How do you like the Falcon Azenis tire? I run that tire (615kr) on my Miata and absolutely love it. Although it does wear quickly on the street.
 
I always love your posts, even on other’s threads; I’ve learned a lot from them. I actually search for your posts for wheel fitment questions I have since most other’s answers are opinion oriented rather than being technical like yours are. Just finished doing an outer tub on my project as well.
 
DionR said:
Not sure I could do the same on my car, but I like seeing what is possible if I did.
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Just to be clear, not saying I think it is wrong or something, my issue is completely related to trying to not cut my car. If it wasn’t a low production 360 4M car, wouldn’t hesitate to do this and run 315 tires.

There are many times I wish I had a /6 or 318 car. So many things I wouldn’t hesitate to do.
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate the kind words both for my dad and my work.

TT5.9mag said:
How do you like the Falcon Azenis tire? I run that tire (615kr) on my Miata and absolutely love it. Although it does wear quickly on the street.
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So far they seem great, but I haven't done anything other than a little super mild street driving so far. I actually just finished the reverse tub job yesterday so I haven't had a chance to take it out for a little corner carving to see what they'll do, I didn't have the clearance to do anything fun before that. The 200 treadwear is a lot softer than the BFG KDW2's that were on there, I think they were 340? So I expect better grip and faster wearing. The Hotchkis Challenger pulled a .94G skid pad with the 615's, so, they should work pretty well.

DionR said:
Just to be clear, not saying I think it is wrong or something, my issue is completely related to trying to not cut my car. If it wasn’t a low production 360 4M car, wouldn’t hesitate to do this and run 315 tires.

There are many times I wish I had a /6 or 318 car. So many things I wouldn’t hesitate to do.
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Oh no worries, I understand. That's literally one of the big reasons I bought my Duster, /6 '74 car so open season on everything. Not worth anything factory stock. I have the same dilemma with my '71 GT, it's only a 318 car but it's all numbers matching and they only made ~1,250 of them in '71. I went back and forth on the chassis work I did on it a bunch, but I decided the USCT subframes, torque boxes and shock upright braces were tasteful enough. They're all pretty subtle unless you look for them, and really IMO they all need subframe connectors. And if someone else decides it has to be 100% stock later then they can deal with it, it can all be undone with the proper skills, time and money.

I have too many projects already so I shouldn't buy anything else anyway, but I won't be buying any numbers matching anythings anymore. The fun for me is in driving them, and a "clone" with the modifications I like to do will drive and handle better than any of the fancy rare factory jobs in stock form.
 
Good to see you back, I was just thinking the other day that I have not noticed you posting. I like what you did with the wheel wells...definitely real world mods with great photos anyone could follow.
I’m truly sorry to hear about your Dad and hope you got to spend some great times together, I know as my Dad is passing the 75 year mark l try to give him a quick phone call everyday no matter how busy I get, as we all know someday they won’t be there to pick up.
 
72bluNblu said:
Oh no worries, I understand. That's literally one of the big reasons I bought my Duster, /6 '74 car so open season on everything. Not worth anything factory stock. I have the same dilemma with my '71 GT, it's only a 318 car but it's all numbers matching and they only made ~1,250 of them in '71. I went back and forth on the chassis work I did on it a bunch, but I decided the USCT subframes, torque boxes and shock upright braces were tasteful enough. They're all pretty subtle unless you look for them, and really IMO they all need subframe connectors. And if someone else decides it has to be 100% stock later then they can deal with it, it can all be undone with the proper skills, time and money.

I have too many projects already so I shouldn't buy anything else anyway, but I won't be buying any numbers matching anythings anymore. The fun for me is in driving them, and a "clone" with the modifications I like to do will drive and handle better than any of the fancy rare factory jobs in stock form.
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I’ve got to agree. Was talking to a buddy just today and said someday I would like to build a ‘71-72 B-Body Plymouth and said “Oh, you want a Roadrunner”. I said no, just a basic Sebring or Satellite so I don’t have to feel bad about modifying it. No idea if I ever will, but right now I only have my Duster so it’s not like I have a bunch of projects waiting in the wings.

I have no issues with modifying my car, until I have to cut sheet metal. Some is ok, like the sub-frame connectors it has, and I am getting closer to being ok cutting the floor for a T56 but not all the way there yet. Taken a lot of years to get to that point.
 
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