Rapom's Rocket - just another Duster build thread

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This rusty hunk of junk is an engine/trans/K member skate I made out of an old cart I had built years ago to perform maintenance and over winter my jet ski on. It used to be on four casters but I chopped one side off and converted it to three which made it way easier to maneuver with a heavy load. The less rusty parts are what I added. The uprights have pins which fit into the bolt holes on a K member. The thing on the end is an adjustable, for height, trans support which slides along the main tube on some homemade rollers. I really should give it a coat of paint to make it more presentable.

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No pics of the following but it’s fairly mundane work and covered in depth in many threads already. The power steering and front suspension components where dismantled, thoroughly inspected and wire wheel cleaned. The LCA’s and the K were sand blasted of rust and old paint. The factory welds and all seams on the K were fully re-welded and a gusset plate added to the steering box mount. A small notch was made for oil pan clearance on the passenger side and plates were added to the bottoms of the LCA’s . After a good scrubbing with acetone everything was painted, the K with POR 15 chassis coat black, the rest in Hammered Silver.

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The parts procurement program continues in full swing. Some goodies for the front suspension: Chrome Moly adjustable strut rods from our member John (BADART), at Dillinger Performance. John makes some nice products but is on hiatus from manufacturing parts for a while due to work commitments & family needs.

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I had the opportunity to go to SEMA last fall and saw these new offerings from Proforged for our Mopars. Solid aluminum tie rod sleeves in 9/16" rod end size. They also offer these in the C body 11/16". I stayed with the 9/16" as I don't believe the 11/16" are needed on an A body. IMO most of the deflection debated in handling circles would result from the split steel tubes and clamp system of the stock set up.

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Thank you sir.

Here is the latest addition to the front end. These are the non adjustable version of the Fox-Hotchkis shocks. Once set up I'm not planning to make further changes to the cars handling so I didn't see the need for additional adjustability. These shocks get good reviews on the handling sites and are valved for torsion bars in the 1.06 range (A body) which is what I'm looking at upgrading to from my current .890s.

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A little help in the handling department is made by shifting the weight of the battery from the nose of the car to the trunk. I toyed with the idea of mounting it on the floor between the wheel tubs for best weight balance. After building some temp mounts I decided that location would make getting to the battery an exercise in contorsionism. So the normal placement in the right rear area of the trunk was chosen. A support frame was built and welded into the frame rail at floor level. The aluminum marine battery "box" was picked up at the MATS swap meet several years ago and put in the parts pile for the Duster. An appropriately sized cardboard box gives you an idea of the final product.
 

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A little more work getting done on the junk in my trunk. As I stated before I wanted a flapper valve in the fill neck which would close in the event of a rollover. I needed one with a neck angle of about 30 degrees and an approx OD of 1 7/8" to get from the stock gas cap opening to the top of the tank.

After looking over what was available I was pretty disappointed. There was the extreme high end ($$$) and the somewhat extreme middle ground. My opinion is if I have to pay several hundred dollars for every nickle and dime part on the car then I might as well get out of the hobby. I just don't have that kind of disposable income to blow on such a narrowly focused toy. Out of necessity I do a lot of improvised fabrication and sometimes the result is not what/where I wanted to go. This is one of those cases.

Narrowing the search to the range of affordability I found Jaz had two 45 degree offerings, in the $90 range from most vendors, but were only available in 2.25" or 2.5" necks. Damn, talk about over kill for a gas station nozzle! I placed some low ball bids on a few Ebag listings then sat back and waited. Seems I was the only bidder on a new, no box, unit for $12.50! I can make that work!

Yeah, now I had to make that work...

I quickly found that large diameter fuel hose is expensive and difficult to find. After a lot of fiddle-dinking around this is what I cobbled together from the remnants of several attempts with several material combinations. If I do it over I'll spend the $ on a longer length of 2.5" gas hose and shorten the metal adapter considerably.
Recipe:
6" section 1.875" fuel hose - parts store (sold by the foot)
1.875" to 2.5" exhaust adapter - parts store
2' section 2.5" exhaust pipe - parts store
1' section 2.5" ID high flex fuel hose - McMaster Carr
4 high quality hose clamps - Fastenal

This is how it sits today. Still playing with supply & return line routing, venting, mount straps and cell padding.
 

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Back up front this is what greeted me when I popped the wheels off. Someone had wasted some $ by doing a brake job and then letting it sit in the rain. Those are new pads and freshly turned rotors under all that rust and dirt.
 

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Over the years systematic purchases were made of upgrade parts by keeping a sharp eye out for opportunities to buy cheap. These were tucked away in boxes and on shelves waiting for the day to be dusted off and installed on the car. Here is the front brake pile:
Raybestos PN 7138 11.75" rotors - closeout Rockauto
Moroso 3" studs/open end lug nuts/DOT approved stainless braided brake lines PN FH111S - Summit
Timken inner and outer bearings and grease seals - Rockauto
Moog K7103 offset UCA bushings - Rockauto
11.75" caliper adapters - Ebay
2.75" single piston calipers - Rockauto (prior to '76 A body calipers are 2.60" piston)
Wagner severe duty semi metallic brake pads PN 1CM-7017 - closeout Rockauto

Stayed with 11.75" factory based front disks as these are the biggest that will fit 15" rims. That is until I can save up the jingle for 17s or 18s then a 13", or bigger, brake package will be included.
 

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Rear brakes are 10" x 2.5" off a junkyard '85 New Yorker. All new hardware, shoes, cylinders, 3" studs, open end lugs and freshly turned drums.
 

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A brand new aluminum power disk master cylinder was found on the same New Yorker as the rear drums so it followed me home from the yard too. I wish I had the forethought to yank the booster at the same time. For it to mount to my '74 booster a 2 - 4 bolt adapter (Mancinci Racing) was needed. Next project is to get the booster rebuilt by "Booster Dewey" across the river from me in Portland, OR.
 

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Looking good! Coming right along. :thumbup:
 
Thanks guys. Although the page views show plenty of interest it has pretty much just been me and the crickets... I thought there would be more questions?

The goal for this car is a cleanly executed purpose built base. No desire to compete in a specific class or have a show queen. This one is going to see a lot of usage and will get scruffed up over time. My background has been mostly drag racing. On this car I'm trying to strike a balance between streetability and capability for road course/autocross. Not knowing where my interests will ultimately focus I want a base that is upgradeable as my driving skills improve. It has to handle/go fast but also have the creature comforts for driving to events within the Pacific NW. That is why it will have an OD manual trans, power steering, power brakes, wipers, heater ect. This makes the car heavier than it could be but this is a "gentleman's hot rod". Ultimately I'm planning for a Jammie Pasion 5 speed and throttle body fuel injection so current modifications are aimed at being easily upgradeable as the need arises.
 
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