Leightons72Duster
Member
Hello everyone! My name is Brad. I just bought my daughter a 1972 Duster this past weekend at the Spring Fling swap meet here in SoCal. I've been a lifelong Ford guy and have restored several Mustangs, and currently have a 1969 Mach 1 351 4-speed in Acapulco Blue that is my baby. When my daughter Leighton was born in 2016, I knew I wanted to do a project muscle car for her when the time came. Fast forward to now, and she's almost 8 (June 2nd). She is the daughter of a Nitro Funny Car dad and a Top Fuel Hydro mom, so she had no choice but to be a car nut! We've discussed it for a few years now and she has shown great interest in the car hobby which makes me happy. She told me from an early age she wanted a purple car and I told her i cannot bring myself to paint a Mustang purple! I've always had a soft spot for the Mopars, so I decided to dive in head first and told her I'd get her a Duster and paint it purple because they look damn good in FC7! She agreed when I showed her the bodystyle and shes been hooked ever since! This past weekend I walked the show with her on facetime going over the cars there asking again about bodystyles and colors. When asked about a yellow Challenger her response was, "Thats so not my style Daddy". OOOOOKKKKKK then. Haha! We walked the swap meet and a guy had a '72 Duster on a trailer for sale, complete less engine and trans and it had a V8 K member in it already. She saw it on the phone and said to me, "Daddy, I see a Duster! Can we get it and you can make it purple for me?" Needless to say, grandpa's heart melted in that moment. He was with me at the show. Grandpa ended up striking a deal and now she's the proud owner of a '72 Plymouth Duster! Well, I am as she's only 7 at the moment!
So here I am, on a journey to build something new to me. I've worked as a service technician at GM dealerships for 23 years, restored three '69 Mustangs, and worked on pro and nostalgia Nitro Funny Car teams for 18 years. I know my way around cars and engines very well. I've just never dived into a Mopar outside of some Top Fuel hemis. So here I am, at the bottom rung of a new project and hoping to gain some knowledge and insight. Not including the Nitro engines, the engine I build for this Duster will be my 300th in my life. I always build engines on the side at home for folks to save them a few bucks. This one will be for my baby girl. She loves the Mustang and told me she wants a shifter like her daddy's because mommy's car is boring. So finding this car was fantastic as it was a 225 3-speed car. It has the column and tunnel and pedals in it. Someone at one point put a V8 K member in it but that's it for updates. It's a complete roller other than the engine and trans. It was B5 blue with a blue interior and bench seat. The only option on the fender tag was a 2 watt AM radio. The car was a strippo base model. From what I understand there were no FC7 Dusters in '72, but it appears we're gonna make one! Looking forward to reading the vast amounts of knowledge here and interacting to the best of my ability. Thanks for letting me climb aboard!
-Brad (Leighton's dad)
So here I am, on a journey to build something new to me. I've worked as a service technician at GM dealerships for 23 years, restored three '69 Mustangs, and worked on pro and nostalgia Nitro Funny Car teams for 18 years. I know my way around cars and engines very well. I've just never dived into a Mopar outside of some Top Fuel hemis. So here I am, at the bottom rung of a new project and hoping to gain some knowledge and insight. Not including the Nitro engines, the engine I build for this Duster will be my 300th in my life. I always build engines on the side at home for folks to save them a few bucks. This one will be for my baby girl. She loves the Mustang and told me she wants a shifter like her daddy's because mommy's car is boring. So finding this car was fantastic as it was a 225 3-speed car. It has the column and tunnel and pedals in it. Someone at one point put a V8 K member in it but that's it for updates. It's a complete roller other than the engine and trans. It was B5 blue with a blue interior and bench seat. The only option on the fender tag was a 2 watt AM radio. The car was a strippo base model. From what I understand there were no FC7 Dusters in '72, but it appears we're gonna make one! Looking forward to reading the vast amounts of knowledge here and interacting to the best of my ability. Thanks for letting me climb aboard!
-Brad (Leighton's dad)
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