Player1up's 73 Duster

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player1up

player1up

Well-Known Member
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I wasn't sure I was even going to start a post of this kind but I have forgotten so much already I figure I better start.

I picked up the 73 gold duster for $1800 from a guy in on the west coast of FL in July 06.
I have owned a couple of dusters in the past so I thought I had a good idea what I was getting into.

The plan was to build a nice daily driver...with that in mind I set out to repair the rust and replace all of the rubber on the car and sell my truck to pay for the paint..... That was the plan anyway.

Shortly after getting it home I realized that I was in for some surprises.

Here is what it looked like the morning I got it home.

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So there was a lot more rust than I though, although not as much as some of the other guys here have dealt with.

So, the day after I came home I bought all of the front end rebuild stuff and set out to knock it out the first weekend.. 4 weeks later...(damn LCA bushings!) it was all painted and back together. at this rate, I again thought, "man I'll be driving this thing in a coupla months"

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Well, The front suspension was done and all I had left to do was the rust repair and some body work.......Now, I'm glad that I stopped to do other things in the mean time as the bodywork is more tedious than trying to get a teenager to listen to something other than their iPod.

So, I allowed myself to be sidetracked from the body work just long enough to find rims, pick up a super six, paint the dash, redesign the interior, fab some seat mounts and everything else I could think of NOT to have to do the Chinese water torture/bamboo shoots under the finger nails task that is body work.

I will say that I enjoy the hunt for parts almost as much as the actual part on the car. but the hunt was over and now, if I wanted to ever drive the beast, I would have to hunker down and git 'er done.

don't worry, I'll throw those colloquialisms in there on occasion just to keep the folks in the south up to speed. :lol: :poke: JK
 
Present day..( I would kill if I had to re-live the body work fiasco)

The not-so-mild mannered DBA finally begins to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Here she is with a slightly shiny wet sanded coat. just a few more times of running my hands and eyes over every inch to find the tiniest imperfections...found some not so tiny ones as well :angry5:

I'm sure even my neighbors will be happy to see her done :argue: :boxing:

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looks like youre headed in the right direction with your project.it alwys looks like you have it all done in a couple months or so,doesnt it?yea,i thought with all my experience building cars from the ground up,i would have mine done in a month,yeah,right.its been like 4 months,and im barely getting started good.i think your car will be sharp,keep up the good work!
 
Thanks for the kind words.
Yeah, It is easy to miss the fact that there are sometimes months between posts. mine has taken me 15 months so far, not the 6 that I figured it would take. oh well I've found a great community here in the mean time.

It is funny to watch some of those "resto" shows and see them do it in no time, but what you don't see is the team of like 50 people working on it 24/7 to get it done, or the mountains of new parts where they just unbolt the old stuff and put it all back together with new everything. It's people like us that have to deal with getting stuff to fit or buying a part and spending weeks cleaning it up or rebuilding it. oh yeah and our real lives on the side :)

It is a labor of love though.. if I didn't absolutely love these cars, I would have gotten sick of this junk a loonngg time ago.
 
Thanks.. double on the sanding thing, I can't count how many times I've sanded the whole car, but every time I do, I find one more little thing that could be fixed. better now than when the color goes on. A friend of mine got a 68 mustang a couple of days ago and my car is already straighter than that furd.
 
Looking good player. now that i think about it, it has been a year for me and still not puting anything back together. still piles of parts in 2 different garages. I guess I should start on of these resto post but then it would be a long time between post and forgotten. anyway. good job, good luck and hope you get-r-done soon.
 
Got the jambs painted this weekend..... and yes happiness is watching paint dry :mrgreen:

beautiful in the sun..

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I hear ya on the bodywork thing, man. Mine was the same way in the rockers and startnig to go along the frame seams in the trunk, few spots in the floor too. I ended up gutting the whole interior and spent probably every spare minute for at least two weeks getting everything properly welded back up and sealed. Major PITA, but well worth it. Now all it needs in the body area is finished/sanded and a good paint job. But that'll be awhile, finances permittnig.

Keep up the good work!
 
yeah I saw that pic in your thread and was inspired, I freakin love it so far, mine is the daytona electric blue from trinity1945 ( paintforcars.com ) it seems to be very forgiving for an extreme novice like myself. Whitey, how much clear did it take to get 8 coats?
 
Ok so after another week of wet sanding and $250 in paint later. here is what she looks like. SEXY..

The color is a 72 cricket color 154 (14290 Blue Carib) but might as well be petty blue.

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The car looks great! I know what you mean about being reluctant about doing the body work and the search for parts is at times a real pain.......especially to find the right stuff at a decent price. It's like most places want a premium for their parts. Anyway, they know that they will get it cause you don't have much choice. It took me from March 2004 to end of Sept 2007 to complete my car (not working on it everyday but when $$$ was available.) Before ever getting in restoring a car, I'd heard people talking about 'working on their old car for 5-6-10 years'.......I wondered, "why in the world do they drag it out so long to finish something?????", Well, I found out.........it takes $$$$$$ and a lot of it. Not to mention patience and searching. In the end, it will be a job well done and you'll be very proud of it. Not to mention being an eye catcher when you go crusin around.....you'll get a lot of attention........I know that when I got done, it was like that. Keep up the great work and good luck on the car!!!
Here's a link to mine before and after and finished!!......:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mtnjake
Greg........mtn_jake
 
thats a nice ride,looks nice and straight all the hard work is worth it in the end, i painted mine about 3 year ago

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Wow !! you have dun a great job player1up!!!
The color is real nice, and your sanding sure looks like you got every thing ready before you painted. Great reflection and smooth.
you have dun this before. :thumblef:
I just noticed your post! Wiffie has kept me busy.
Keep us updated on your 73 duster.
I see it had a trailer brake on it and a hitch when you got it home.
Never seen that before on a duster, or a center brake light.
Keep up the great work sir.:notworth:
 
Thanks for the comments on the paint.
I spent ALOT of time on it and I still see little things I missed, but hopefully I'm the only one that will see them. Funny thing about the paint, it seemed to get more orange peel with every coat so I STILL have some wet sanding and buffing to do.
Well yesterday I drove it to work (kicking and screaming the whole way). I have some bugs to work out, but don't we all. The amazing thing is that it doesn't even have all of the trim on it and when I was at the gas station, some guy just about got rear ended while he was slowing down to take a look. -- I LOVE that :) --- now on to the interior..

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2789359
 
i love the fact you have been doing all this work yourself. You will appreciate this car sooooo much more. I have had mine in restoration for..... oh.... 19 years. HA HA .... body an paint is the last thing i am doing, but there is TONS and TONS of sanding being done. I am not doing the body work myself, but everything else I did. I am just paying dearly for the body work myself.... Looks great. Enjoy every minute of it, even the frustrations, remember.... this is why we do this.... the final product.

Keep up the great progress...

best of luck

-RPM
 
RPM, I just wanted to do one of these myself. I want to be able to say that no matter how it looks I did it ALL. I have talked to a lot of people at shows and they are like " yeah, had a local paint shop do the body and friend of a friend do the interior.... so on.. and I'm like Yeah I can pull a loan for 40k and buy one too. but at the end of the day it is MY car, I know where every last little bolt goes because I put it there, I have a full exploded diagram of what the thing looks like on the inside because I have SEEN it with my own 2 eyes for weeks not just the couple of times I stopped by the shop while the guys were working on it. I guess that is just my personallity. I have to know why and how it works. It isn't good enough for someone to just tell me.

Now don't missunderstand me, there is nothing wrong with paying to have a car built,( as a matter of fact my next will probably be done that way) not everyone has the patience or love of oh.. 19 years to put into a project but I wanted to be able to say I did it, and learn a few things along the way (like I don't believe I have the patience to do this again) . I have sooooo much respect for the "body men" out there. I sanded my hands raw, literaly, because I thought there was no way I could sand that much in one week, but I digress....the main reason why I'm doing all of the work myself is 'cause I'm a poor/cheap bastard :) not because I'm mr awesome.. anyway
A couple of people at work were telling me that there are some inperfections in the paint and stuff, and all I can think is "man they can't see where the marker lights should be or where the quarters were replaced, Damn I did an awewome job".
Thanks again all.
 
I know what you mean about doing the work yourself. I did a lot of work myself......that I knew I could do.....I had so much invested in the car before the body work, I didn't want to ruin it with my limited knowledge of doing it and messing up something. I did go to the body shop very frequently to watch the progress and in doing so, I was able to see where each piece was welded, patched or whatever was needed. The seats and door panels, I had done by a reknown lady in town that does outstanding work, other than that, I did pretty much the remaining work.......just no exterior body work or paint.
Under the car, I can tell you just about where everything goes on it, the spots that may need attention in a few years, etc.
I feel as if I'm a big part of the restoation of my Duster, but I do give credit to those that helped or did the work. I've made a plaque to put on the dash when going to shows to advertise to the public who was involved in the making of my car. I don't take all the credit in the least and I'm sure that you will be VERY proud of your ride when completed. Keep us posted as to the progress.
I know what you mean about getting the attention......I've only had mine back on the road (sparingly) since the beginning of Oct this year. Had my (cars.....LOL not mine) picture taken cause they were so taken that they wanted a picture. Plus, had 1 person practically run me down to ask if it was for sale and told him........no. I've got too much of me in the car.
Like you say..........I LOVE IT!!!
Keep up the good work!!
Greg........mtn_jake
 
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