Rapom's Rocket - just another Duster build thread

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Thanks fish. They are Mickey Thompson "Street Comp"s in 275/35R18 front and 295/35R18 rear. I have more room in the rear for wider but for me this was the best compromise in available sizes, performance, longevity and cost for a high performance street tire. Your results may vary.
 
The mail lady dropped this off on my door step yesterday. Hopefully I will get to work on the car today and get the project this goes on done.

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I've been a very busy boy this week. Completed three projects on the car and am stoked on the progress. First up was tearing apart the dash, doing the finish work on the instrument bezel and reassembling it for the last time. Back at post #120 (on the bottom of page 5) I started yapping about the incorporation of a custom rally dash to replace the missing grandma's original. To that end I bought a set of Autometer Carbon Fiber Ultra-Lite gauges and a rough and gutted '68 Barracuda bezel with the pot metal cluster cage. I got everything modified and wired and there it sat, for years...
Pic 1 & 2: Back of blown up instrument cluster showing skeletonized cage and reworked bezel with the support plate for the smaller gauges.
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Here is the front side after refinishing. First step was to wash it down with a strong de-greaser. Then the very worn silver plating was removed with a tooth brush and Easy Off oven cleaner. Washed and dried again the gauge rings were masked off and painted Fine Textured Black to match the small gauge bases. Then the black was masked off and the silver was resprayed with Aluminum Chrome (both Rustoleum products). Finally the Detroit Muscle Technologies, DMT, carbon fiber overlays were attached with dabs of 3M weather strip adhesive. Now it's starting to look like something.

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For you long time lurkers: Remember waaayyyyy back, when I bought the Cowl Induction scoop, I said "it will be functional or I wont even bother with it"?
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Well it's functional now. The box of Moroso air pan foam was the last component needed to finish up the air filter base plate I've been working on to seal the throttle body to the hood. First step was to make a cardboard template about 2 inches wider than the triangular cut out in the hood (black line around the hole in above pic).
I taped the template firmly to the hood and then set the hood back onto the car so the air filter stud in the throttle body would punch a hole in the cardboard. This gave me an accurate starting point for fabbing up the base plate. I cut the plate out of a sheet of aluminum, marked the hole for the throttle body and cut it out with a jig saw. I then attached the plate to the underside of the cast alum air filter base with rivets.

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I didn't extend it all the way back to seal up against the firewall as the foam would have been up against the coil and HEI chip which get damn hot. Keeping them cool has always been a concern for me as the location I chose to mount them probably wouldn't get much, if any, air flow. To solve that problem I beat a piece of aluminum into submission and riveted it to the back of the base plate to channel air onto the coil.
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Then I swiss cheesed the air filter base in a vain attempt to lighten up the dang thing. This is how it sat while I searched for some foam to make the seal out of.
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Now the fun really started. I laid a long piece of angle across the top of the core support to the top of the firewall, where the two rubber hood seals contact, and used that as a fixed point in space to measure the distance down to the base plate at several locations. Doing the same thing on the hood, across the seals, the distance from the fixed line to the hood underside was measured. Adding the two together gave me the space the foam needed to fill. If I measured it once I did it 30 times. Only going to get one shot at this as the length of foam was within an inch of what was needed. No mistakes or Moroso would be getting more of my money. The absolute toughest part of this whole ordeal was cutting angles in the foam. I used the sharpest implement I could find which turned out to be my wife's new wiz bang kitchen knife. She was P-0'd big time when she asked how I had cut the foam. Hell, I wasn't going to lie, she will get over it !??
3M weather strip adhesive was used to glue the foam to the base plate. I roughed up the plate with some 80 grit paper to give the glue something to grip to and commenced to join the two together. I then ran a seam of black silicon along the inside of the foam for S & G. Enjoy:

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rapom65 said:
Now the fun really started. I laid a long piece of angle across the top of the core support to the top of the firewall, where the two rubber hood seals contact, and used that as a fixed point in space to measure the distance down to the base plate at several locations. Doing the same thing on the hood, across the seals, the distance from the fixed line to the hood underside was measured. Adding the two together gave me the space the foam needed to fill. If I measured it once I did it 30 times. Only going to get one shot at this as the length of foam was within an inch of what was needed. No mistakes or Moroso would be getting more of my money. The absolute toughest part of this whole ordeal was cutting angles in the foam. I used the sharpest implement I could find which turned out to be my wife's new wiz bang kitchen knife. She was P-0'd big time when she asked how I had cut the foam. Hell, I wasn't going to lie, she will get over it !??
3M weather strip adhesive was used to glue the foam to the base plate. I roughed up the plate with some 80 grit paper to give the glue something to grip to and commenced to join the two together. I then ran a seam of black silicon along the inside of the foam for S & G. Enjoy the pictures:

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Next time use an elec carving knife , works even better ------------
 
That's what I was looking for in the kitchen! Evedently don't have one. So really it's all her fault I had to use her fancy new knife.
 
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Keep it up, looks like you are getting close enough to drive it over to the eastern side of the state soon. :)
 
No matter how many things I cross off the to do list it never seems to get any shorter. Still lots of pieces to put in place but the puzzle is starting to come together. I think this shot of the car pretty much personifies the direction I'm trying to go with the project. Someday, somewhere we will meet up Dion, that's a promise.

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Anyway I said there were three things done and only talked about two. Number 3 was this upper radiator bracket bent out of the last bits of cutoffs from the chin spoiler and air cleaner fabs. I think the next project is either going to be finish the rear seat panel and install the stereo, or, pull the windshield and repair any rust/swap out the dash/change out the wiper seals and linkage bushings/rebuild the heater box.

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Before I forget I wanted to give a thank you to Jim Fillmore at DMT. I have one of his dash kits, that he customized for me years ago, and recently inquired about getting some of the carbon fiber overlay material to do some matching touches to my interior. He sent me more than enough, on his dime and time, within a couple of days of my text. Awesome people to work with at DMT with really nice products. I highly recommend them.
 
rapom65 said:
...My opportunity to pick one up came before my move south when a friend of a friend, who had a field full of cars, was forced by the county to clean up his property. We got the word a couple of days before the crusher showed up to come get what we wanted from the 5 or 6 A bodies he had before they were remade into kitchen appliances. We made hurried preparations and hauled azz from the west side of WA state (Seattle) to the east side (Spokane)...
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Dang, just saw this post looking to see how or what you were putting your gauges in. I don't know everyone in the area that is into Mopars, but makes me wonder who the guy was.

Wish I could trip over a Rallye dash. Pulled the trigger on a cluster and now trying to decide if I am going the hard route (pull the glass to swap the dash frame) or the harder router (cut my existing dash). Decisions, decisions...
 
I like this build ALOT! This car reminds me of my 'Golden Fawn '74 Duster. One thing that I have always wanted to do, and sorry if I go off on a tangent, is remove the factory door handles and graft in C3 door Handles. I think it would work very well since both cars have the necessary ledge for them to work. I think it would look look awesome on yours! Man keep up the great work it is inspirational!
 
rapom65 said:
No matter how many things I cross off the to do list it never seems to get any shorter. Still lots of pieces to put in place but the puzzle is starting to come together. I think this shot of the car pretty much personifies the direction I'm trying to go with the project. Someday, somewhere we will meet up Dion, that's a promise.

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I almost posted "hay man what kinda badass wheels are those?" Then it hit me there are none. LMAO
 
Dion the guy who owned the A bodies lived north of Spokane out in the sticks a bit. He actually had the cars at his neighbor's house who had a junkyard going on in his back fourty. If it hadn't been on a hillside and fully visible from the road the county probably wouldn't have come down on the old guy to clean it up. I don't remember either of thier names it was so long ago.

If it was me I would try hard to find a rally frame to put your cluster into. I studied modifying a standard frame and decided against it and you know I'm not afraid to cut a car up! Of course having a rally frame drop in my lap out of the blue made the decision easy.
 
Vallyant glad your liking the build, but man, don't give me any more ideas!!! I'm trying to get this pig done and on the road someday.
 
Rusty Rat all black rims would actually look pretty good on the old girl but I have had these (see post # 447 as I can't access my photo gallery at the moment) sitting in the corner waiting for the day they get unboxed and tires wrapped around them finally.
 
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