Rebirth of Dustbull-with 408ci, efi, t56, dana 60

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Well, heres the last bit of stuf i got to do before i had to come back up to tampa to go to work, i just welded studs to the firewall for my relay board, fuse for alternator, 12v+ bar:
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My friend and went to a u-pull-it yard today and got a few things. I took a set of ev1 plug ends off of a Northstar, unfortunatly i later remembered/realized i have ev6 injectors. I took a hydroboost off of an astro van, it looks like itll be real easy to adapt to the firewall (basically just drill 4 holes on hydro bracket), not sure about the linkage to the pedal yet..
I negotiated to have mon-fri off work next week, so hopefully i can get the roll cage in (fedex had shipped half to us, half got on the wrong truck-to Texas), trans tunnel fabbed up, all the floors finalized for paint prep, and play with the hood and hydroboost projects a bit.
 
Well it doesnt look like much, but heres what i got done today: I cut the transmission crossmember out and welded in the new, i accidentally made it about 1" wider on each side at the base than the dusters, but that wont hurt anything. I cut the hydroboost mount up to start fitting it to the firewall, i really want to run it upside down to hide the lines and get a lot more valve cover clearance. To do this though id have to cut up the firewall a bit, but I still have to see how the pedal to hydroboost linkage looks under the dash- i may need to make a spacer.
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Im going back out tonight to bring the roll cage out to our shop, and start fabbing it up
 
dustbull said:
Yea, we do, and that is a good idea i hadnt thought of before, but for the price of all the sheetmetal that would need to be replaced would probably add up to the cost of a donor. And inevitabley the duster will have a salvage title, so id need a title anyways. Plus that was such a hard impact i dont know what else the impact bent out of shape. The rear quarters were pushed into the door, and the doors into the front quarters. My dad and my friend made the point that the engine hadnt been pushed anywhere-the engines inertia caused it to sit there as the whole car left from underneath it, shearing the rubber mounts..thats why the engine rests 2" farther back now.
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Yes that was a helluva hit, when i first seen the pic's it looked like a Nova from the *** end.I then had to remind myself i was on FABO. I hope your doing ok.
 
Im doing fine, thanks. To add to that quote, i just noticed today that the transmission and driveshaft tunnel have buckled and bent in at least three places. I was going to re-use the back portion of the transmission tunnel to save some fabbing, but its too out of shape.
I also looked at the hydroboost a bit on the demons pedal assembly, It slightly interferes with the 1/2" angle iron bracing of the assembly. I currently see no reason to make a spacer (if i did itd be under 3/8") it should just bolt in, and use the Astro vans linkage even. Heres what i got done tonight, tomorrow i start the roll cage:

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Making good progress it isn't gonna take you too long to get her on the road at this rate. :prayer:
 
Thanks Dusted72, It feels like its taking longer than expected, but were only a bit behind where i wanted to be in the timeline.

Well, Its been a long day without much to show, but progress was made. I welded up the roll bar, I tacked it, then pushed it forward so i could weld the uprights all the way around more easily-that was a mistake. The cage had warped slightly from where i wanted it from the heat, i just had to use a bit of force to tack the tubes to the floor. I was working on the door bar and the 6"x6" floor mount but gave up early tonight.

6x6 trunk mounts
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pulled cage down after tacking to finish all the way around
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Finally in place where it needs to be
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Mounts in the trunk are a bit further back, i thought it would help strenght-wise
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More tomorrow, My dad and i are hoping to get the major welding done so we can put it on the lift to remove the suspension before i go (to start prepping for paint).
 
Hey man, read your story and view your pictures. let me just say that looks very bad. That really sucks big time, that duster looked awesome too. That is my No.1 fear - someone crashing into me and my daily Drive. I would have been shaking just as much as you did. Glad you got a new car and your OK.
 
Thanks Mopar King, Im optimistic that this iteration will be better with the few tweaks weve made from the duster and more unique.

just worked on tacking the transmission tunnel together (its nearly complete compared to the picture) while my dad notched out the firewall to fit the hydroboost (upside down). I welded the door bar in this morning, so the rest of the welding consists of the transmission crossmember underneath, and a few tiny patches of sheetmetal in the trunk and trans tunnel.

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dustbull said:
Well it doesnt look like much, but heres what i got done today: I cut the transmission crossmember out and welded in the new, i accidentally made it about 1" wider on each side at the base than the dusters, but that wont hurt anything. I cut the hydroboost mount up to start fitting it to the firewall, i really want to run it upside down to hide the lines and get a lot more valve cover clearance. To do this though id have to cut up the firewall a bit, but I still have to see how the pedal to hydroboost linkage looks under the dash- i may need to make a spacer.
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Im going back out tonight to bring the roll cage out to our shop, and start fabbing it up
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I put my hydroboost on the same way you have yours as it wouldn't fit the other way. I made the mistake of using a factory pump and its very hard on belts (used 2 last summer). did you have it in your old car? are you going to use a engine driven powersteering pump to power it or an electric powersteering pump?
 
66plyValiant said:
I put my hydroboost on the same way you have yours as it wouldn't fit the other way. I made the mistake of using a factory pump and its very hard on belts (used 2 last summer). did you have it in your old car? are you going to use a engine driven powersteering pump to power it or an electric powersteering pump?
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I didnt have it in the Duster, im planning on using an engine driven power steering pump, but i havnt selected which one yet (stock or retrofit a newer one). I still plan on using the v-belt, but now im not as sure if i should. I wouldnt have thought hydroboost was that harsh on belts, are you running power steering along with hydroboost?
 
Nice work so far. I'm surprised you did not get hurt. That was quite a nasty rear ender, WOW! Glad your OK and re-building.
Cheers
 
dustbull said:
I didnt have it in the Duster, im planning on using an engine driven power steering pump, but i havnt selected which one yet (stock or retrofit a newer one). I still plan on using the v-belt, but now im not as sure if i should. I wouldnt have thought hydroboost was that harsh on belts, are you running power steering along with hydroboost?
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my car has factory powersteering, I used a powersteering pump from a 1979 dodge 1/2 ton. I made the lines myself as I couldn't afford nice braided ones. pressure goes from the pump to the hydroboost and then to the box. the return comes from the hydroboost and T's into the return line just beyond the steering box but just before the pump.

last summer we put more milage on then normal (about 8000 miles) and it burnt through two belts. I had people say I should have used a higher volume pump and I had others say I should have gone with serpintine belts (mustangs run hydroboost and have serpintine belts)
 
Thanks Brad426, every time i look at the accident pictures i feel very fotunate that i walked away from it.

66plyValiant, thats very odd, from all that ive read, they say that hydroboost doesnt require much from the pump. Im still going to run a manual steering box, so hopefully my v-belts will fare better.

Im back up at school, my dads still tinkering on the demon when time permits. He's hoping to prime the engine compartment by Sunday. I helped him move cars around before i left, i saw a good oppurtunity for a shot of our 4 mopars (if you count my parts truck-4x4 cummins ram at the end that im driving until the demons finished):

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I almost spit iced tea all over my computer monitor when I clicked on this thread. I'm very sorry for what happened to your car. You're lucky to have walked away with such minor injuries. Threads like these make me very afraid to drive the Barracuda considering how many mindless morons occupy the roads here in NY. You can't let fear stop you from enjoying the hobby you love though, right? You are making some great progress on the new Demon. It's shaping up to be even nicer than the old one!

Chris
 
Thanks Chris! Thats my thoughts exactly with driving something you put so much into around morons. Now im just trying to make the best out of something bad; who doesnt always try to make the next one better than the last haha!

Progress has slowed on the demon- the throw out bearing in my dads corvair went out, so he's been working on that the past few days. Im going home for a friends wedding next week, hopefully ill have a day to finish up the last 1% of welding that needs to be done. We are also going to be taking the suspension/ k-member off and start the underbody prep.

One thing that bothered me about the accident was when the girl who called the cops kept saying 'a black mustang got rear-ended'. So this time around id like to give non-car-people a hint about what the car is. I came up with a demon emblem that im going to spray on and pin stripe. red letters, blue mopar "M", and black pin stripes outlining it all.
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dustbull said:
Thanks Brad426, every time i look at the accident pictures i feel very fotunate that i walked away from it.

66plyValiant, thats very odd, from all that ive read, they say that hydroboost doesnt require much from the pump. Im still going to run a manual steering box, so hopefully my v-belts will fare better.

Im back up at school, my dads still tinkering on the demon when time permits. He's hoping to prime the engine compartment by Sunday. I helped him move cars around before i left, i saw a good oppurtunity for a shot of our 4 mopars (if you count my parts truck-4x4 cummins ram at the end that im driving until the demons finished):

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If your running that same sb from before and an electric fuel pump, you cut the eccentric and put a magnum timing cover and water pump you'll be able to to bolt up a cheap serpentine setup on you car. Make a little more power and only have to carry the one belt around with you.
 
1970Duster said:
If your running that same sb from before and an electric fuel pump, you cut the eccentric and put a magnum timing cover and water pump you'll be able to to bolt up a cheap serpentine setup on you car. Make a little more power and only have to carry the one belt around with you.
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Thats a good point i hadnt thought about before. Ill be running an elecrtic fuel pump for my efi. Ill definatly look into how hard itd be to swap and how the end result would look.
 
Well i only had one day to work on the demon, but i made the best of it with my dad. My dad had primed the front fenders, engine compartment, and trunk lid the other day. Today we took the suspension off and i welded the t56's crossmember mounts to the subframe connectors. The dusters crossmember mounts were made of angle iron and were welded only to the floor sheetmetal (and the original crossmember up front). Although the setup proved itself, the demons will be much stronger. Sorry about the picture quality, i forgot my camera.
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My dads going to start scraping the old undercoating off of the floors and subframe while im gone...everything will probably be in primer by the time im home again. Thanks for checking on the progress
 
shaved firewall looks mint, props to you my friend, if you have any questions with insurance companies and lawyers and anything related to that pm me. Ill help you out the best i can. Keep it going your making me jealous
 
thanks guys for the compliments, and varlo on the offer. Ive got a bit of an update from my dad tonight:
The engine compartment and front inner fenders/sub-frame are painted grey now. He also started wire brushing the old dirt and undercoating off the rest of the floors to have them painted in a couple weeks.

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The last bit of rust was removed and patched with a patch panel donated by the duster:
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Planning ahead, hopefully in about 3 weeks Ill be able to go home and transfer the dusters wiring harness and dash over to the demon, as well as drop the drivetrain out of the duster.
 
Figured id keep everyone up to date by passing a few more photos of what my dad got done:
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Let me ask a maybe stupid ?. Where you welded on the tunnel bracing to the crossmember; you are putting back the lower crossmember?
 
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