Rapom's Rocket - just another Duster build thread

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Sorry I haven't posted any updates lately as I don't have anything to update you on. Very little progress has been made since June as my car time has been completely eaten up by other projects, namely building two computer desks for my son and his wife, the arrival of our first grandbaby, and rebuilding and redecking our huge back deck which has been the big sucker of time. Then on Labor Day I got word that the Mckenzie River Valley, where I grew up in Oregon, was wiped out from a forest fire. That ment bring my 95 year old Mother, who was evacuated from the fire zone, home to live with us. Man 2020 has been a year I will gladly forget. If, when, things ever settle down I'll be back on it hard. I'll keep you posted...
 
rapom65 said:
Sorry I haven't posted any updates lately as I don't have anything to update you on. Very little progress has been made since June as my car time has been completely eaten up by other projects, namely building two computer desks for my son and his wife, the arrival of our first grandbaby, and rebuilding and redecking our huge back deck which has been the big sucker of time. Then on Labor Day I got word that the Mckenzie River Valley, where I grew up in Oregon, was wiped out from a forest fire. That ment bring my 95 year old Mother, who was evacuated from the fire zone, home to live with us. Man 2020 has been a year I will gladly forget. If, when, things ever settle down I'll be back on it hard. I'll keep you posted...
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I understand. Just checking in.

Been building a garage myself, only 6 piece of trim left before I can call it done. Be 2 years since I paid for the kit this next month. But my Duster is finally in it an protected from the snow. And no real progress on any projects outside of that.
 
rapom65 said:
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.
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I am trying, but at the same time I keep thinking that I never get lucky enough to just buy something and bolt it in. :lol:
 
Any updates?

I finally got my battery relocated and all that working, including an electric trunk release. Even added a a radio I had laying around and some cheap speakers so I could pipe some music off my phone into the cabin.

Oh, and I ended up buying a Rallye dash, but haven't made any progress on that project.

Summer has been brutally hot so A/C is now at the top of the list so I bought a box out of a later Ram to see if I can make it work.
 
Jezz it's been 20 months since I last posted. Priorities changed over that time and my shop has grown ALOT of cobwebs in the mean time. I haven't looked at FABO in a year +. But... things are getting back into a kind of routine and I'm beginning to carve a bit of "me time" out of the week again. I've sporadically worked on some small projects and bought a few things like a couple cases of sound deadening mat but not much else. Haven't installed the mat yet as I want to get the windshield out, replace the dash and rebuild the heater box prior so I don't tear it up doing all that work. Recently I bought some sheet metal and fabbed up panels to skin the outside of the fuel cell cage. These along with the trunk floor panels were primed, painted and then the exterior side undercoated. Next step will be to seam seal and rivet the whole mess into place hopefully making the trunk air tight so I won't get affixiated by exhaust gasses. I made the cage floor removeable so I can lift/lower the fuel cell into place from underneath. Yes it is that tight of a fit plus it gives me access to work inside the trunk withought having to physically climb inside. I need to find some kind of thin material to use as a seal or I'll be sucking fumes for sure. I've also been fitting my new 70-72 rear bumper in place. Pics/commentary to follow.
 
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rapom65 said:
Jezz it's been 20 months since I last posted. Priorities changed over that time and my shop has grown ALOT of cobwebs in the mean time. I haven't looked at FABO in a year +. But... things are getting back into a kind of routine and I'm beginning to carve a bit of "me time" out of the week again. I've sporadically worked on some small projects and bought a few things like a couple cases of sound deadening mat but not much else. Haven't installed the mat yet as I want to get the windshield out, replace the dash and rebuild the heater box prior so I don't tear it up doing all that work. Recently I bought some sheet metal and fabbed up panels to skin the outside of the fuel cell cage. These along with the trunk floor panels were primed, painted and then the exterior side undercoated. Next step will be to seam seal and rivet the whole mess into place hopefully making the trunk air tight so I won't get affixiated by exhaust gasses. I made the cage floor removeable so I can lift/lower the fuel cell into place. Yes it is that tight of a fit plus it gives me access to work inside the trunk withought having to physically climb inside. I need to find some kind of thin material to use as a seal or I'll be sucking fumes for sure. I've also been fitting my new 70-72 rear bumper in place. Pics/commentary to follow.
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Glad to hear! Looking forward to seeing this car on the road, but understand life gets in the way sometimes.
 
Had to find an app to let my phone down load my car pics onto my tablet and then fix the issues. This will be the first test.
The sound deadening that I picked up during the hiatus. Wanted a black finish as some of it will be visible before the interior gets finished but I'll be driving it by then.

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Now i've got to figure out how to manipulate my photos. Sorry some are sideways for now.

Here's the fuel cell cage side panels and the removeable bottom panel. Spent the entire day going over every square inch of the trunk prepping for the permanent installation of the floor pans and cage panels. These are the straps I made to keep the fuel cell in it's hole. 1/8 x 1 aluminium strap with some left over foam tape for cushion. And a few trunk mock up shots.

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The last bit of progress catch up is fitting the 70-72 rear bumper. Years ago, during our Spokane junking frenzy, I picked up a rally dash frame with harness, the orange trunk lid that's on the car now and a rear bumper and brackets off a junker 70ish Duster. My 74 came with shock absorber rear and bracket mounted front bumpers. Kind of an odd combination and I've detailed how I pulled them in about 1.5" on both ends starting at post #107 on page 5.. Not much can be done with the width of the bumper up front but installing a narrower 70-72 rear is a well known mod to most late Duster owners. To mount the earlier brackets on the rear you have to drill the outer mount holes thru the sheetmetal but luckily they used the same inner structure as older models and that hole is still present. You will have to come up with inner mounts yourself and I showed my solution in the posts previously mentioned. Although the sheetmetal looks similar something was changed and the older brackets left a large gap between the bumper and the bumper cutout in the rear quarters. That wasn't going to fly so after long consideration on how to fill the gap I decided to chop 5/8" out of the bracket arms and save myself a whole bunch of bodywork. This was accomplished with the brackets bolted to the bumper so the bracket ears would stayin place while I refit the bumper to the car. I hung the bumper in position with tie downs, cardboard spacers and lots of tape then tacked the brackets back together. The outer sides were grooved out and welded together while on the bumper to help keep them from moving. Then they were taken off and the insides were welded, ground with a flap wheel and repainted black. Pretty happy with the way it turned out. It isn't perfect but these bodies were pretty sloppily constructed and are far from symetrical.

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rapom65 said:
The last bit of progress catch up is fitting the 70-72 rear bumper. Years ago, during our Spokane junking frenzy, I picked up a rally dash frame with harness, the orange trunk lid that's on the car now and a rear bumper and brackets off a junker 70ish Duster. My 74 came with shock absorber rear and bracket mounted front bumpers. Kind of an odd combination and I've detailed how I pulled them in about 1.5" on both ends starting at post #107 on page 5.. Not much can be done with the width of the bumper up front but installing a narrower 70-72 rear is a well known mod to most late Duster owners. To mount the earlier brackets on the rear you have to drill the outer mount holes thru the sheetmetal but luckily they used the same inner structure as older models and that hole is still present. You will have to come up with inner mounts yourself and I showed my solution in the posts previously mentioned. Although the sheetmetal looks similar something was changed and the older brakets left a large gap between the bumper and the bumper cutout in the rear quarters. That wasn't going to fly so after long consideration on how to fill the gap I decided to chop 5/8" out of the bracket arms and save myself a whole bunch of bodywork. This was accomplished with the brackets bolted to the bumper so the bracket ears would stay stationary while I fit the rest to the car. I hung the bumper in position with tie downs, cardboard spacers and lots of tape then tacked the brackets back together. The outer sides were grooved out and welded together while on the bumper to help keep them from moving. Then they were removed and the insides were welded, ground with a flap wheel and repainted black. Pretty happy with the way it turned out. It isn't perfect but these bodies were pretty sloppily constructed and are far from symetrical.

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Impressive work. My Duster had shop mounts on both front and back and have had the shock length "adjusted" to pull them in. I think the result is similar? Either way, mine ened to be shortened to match up to the body on the end.

BTW, if you ever make it back up to Spokane, give a shout. Welcome to stop by or meet up for a beer or something.
 
Hey Dion do you have a thread going on your car? If not, "Waz up with that"? I'm afraid that by the time I finish my car I'll be too old to drive it and they will have confiscated my driver's license.
 
rapom65 said:
Hey Dion do you have a thread going on your car? If not, "Waz up with that"?
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I don't. I have a huge Word document on it to create a thread but I haven't finished it so I haven't posted any of it.

rapom65 said:
I'm afraid that by the time I finish my car I'll be too old to drive it and they will have confiscated my driver's license.
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You're doing better than I am. I think it was 11 years between when I had my BBK laid out enough I could bolt it on and when I actually did.
 
Great work as always!

I may have missed it, but where did you get this little cover?

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I have the whole rear panel (which I love!) and have an electric trunk lock installed like you do, but that cover for the open section in the middle looks awesome!
 
72bluNblu said:
Great work as always!

I may have missed it, but where did you get this little cover?

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I have the whole rear panel (which I love!) and have an electric trunk lock installed like you do, but that cover for the open section in the middle looks awesome!
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I missed that. I have one of those full width rear panels with an electric truck release as well and haven't looked at making it fit.
 
DionR said:
I missed that. I have one of those full width rear panels with an electric truck release as well and haven't looked at making it fit.
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It takes a little trimming around the electric truck release to get it fit with the rear panel. Not a ton, but that cover is slick!
 
Hey blu, it's been a while.
Had the same issue with cutting a hole in the panel and I really didn't like the look. I made the cover out of a piece of 20 gauge then riveted it on but panel adhesive or seam sealer would work better. Didn't have any. I plan on covering the panel in some thing as part of the trunk finish whatever that turns out to be.
Spent the whole day underneath and inside the trunk sealing and riveting 5 of the six panels permanently into the car. Feels like progress.
 
rapom65 said:
Hey blu, it's been a while.
Had the same issue with cutting a hole in the panel and I really didn't like the look. I made the cover out of a piece of 20 gauge then riveted it on but panel adhesive or seam sealer would work better. Didn't have any. I plan on covering the panel in some thing as part of the trunk finish whatever that turns out to be.
Spent the whole day underneath and inside the trunk sealing and riveting 5 of the six panels permanently into the car. Feels like progress.
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See, I was afraid you were going to say you made it. 'Cause that's nicer than what I would make by a long shot. Here I was hoping it was just something I could buy!
 
72bluNblu said:
See, I was afraid you were going to say you made it. 'Cause that's nicer than what I would make by a long shot. Here I was hoping it was just something I could buy!
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Sounds like he needs to make two more so we can both buy one. :D
 
If I'm working on your cars who's working on mine? I wouldn't be apposed to making a couple but I would need another panel to shape them to as mine is riveted and glued together kinda permanent like. Speaking of rivets i've shot about 180 of them and expended a tube of seam sealer the last couple of days. The trunk floor is in! Next is selecting what finish to apply. I did the trunk of my Demon in a gray spatter paint many years ago but I don't know if I want to go that route again. There is a couple of pics of that back at post #24 on page 1. Thoughts???
 
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rapom65 said:
If I'm working on your cars who's working on mine?
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:lol:

rapom65 said:
Speaking of rivets i've shot about 180 of them and expended a tube of seam sealer the last couple of days. The trunk floor is in!
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Nice! Sounds like a bunch of work.

rapom65 said:
Next is selecting what finish to apply. I did the trunk of my Demon in a gray spatter paint many years ago but I don't know if I want to go that route again. There is a couple of pics of that back at post #24 on page 1. Thoughts???
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I’m not much help there as I hardly even think about the trunk beyond putting a things in it once in awhile.
 
rapom65 said:
If I'm working on your cars who's working on mine? I wouldn't be apposed to making a couple but I would need another panel to shape them to as mine is riveted and glued together kinda permanent like. Speaking of rivets i've shot about 180 of them and expended a tube of seam sealer the last couple of days. The trunk floor is in! Next is selecting what finish to apply. I did the trunk of my Demon in a gray spatter paint many years ago but I don't know if I want to go that route again. There is a couple of pics of that back at post #24 on page 1. Thoughts???
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Lol, that's why I was hoping it was something you bought!

If I ever finish all the welding and stuff on the back of my car I'm going to use a bed liner type product in the trunk. Virtually indestructible, waterproof, takes care of all the seams and does sound deadener duty as well. Only problem I see with it is if you ever want to remove it, good luck. So be sure you're done with everything back there first.

Like this, I think this is Raptor liner
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rapom65 said:
I like the looks of that alot, but your right it isn't going to come off.
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I’m sure there’s some way to take it off, but I definitely wouldn’t want to. Gotta be sure you’re done working on stuff before you lay that down.
 
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