Sell my Duster or 360 Swap??? Help?!?

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myasylum

myasylum

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O.k. I bought my Duster with my intent to do a 360 swap, but the more I read more more I question if it's worth it (time, and money). Do you think it might be more of my best intrest to sell my Duster, and find a car with a V-8 already installed? My Duster is a CA car, with next to no rust, just a few dents, and dings. I paid $900.00 for it, so sticking $1500.00 into it seems like it still would be a deal, but at the same time since it is a good shape, I might be about to sell it for $2500.00 and find a different car with a running V-8, you know?
Any thoughts???

Thanks!
 
If you can make that much of a profit on that Duster,sell it. Get what you want. I bought a cheap car and I'm going to spend about $1,500-2,000 on drive train. But I'm going to have what I want. I can also make quite a profit on my car. But I wont because thats what I want.
 
But if you upgrade it yourself you learn more about it and have fun , taking pride in your work. Plus, you know what was all done and that it was done correctly. I would keep your car and work on it, it is a decent car, who knows, after you sell it, you may not find another you are happy with.
 
myasylum said:
O.k. I bought my Duster with my intent to do a 360 swap, but the more I read more more I question if it's worth it (time, and money). Do you think it might be more of my best intrest to sell my Duster, and find a car with a V-8 already installed? My Duster is a CA car, with next to no rust, just a few dents, and dings. I paid $900.00 for it, so sticking $1500.00 into it seems like it still would be a deal, but at the same time since it is a good shape, I might be about to sell it for $2500.00 and find a different car with a running V-8, you know?
Any thoughts???

Thanks!
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Unless you're saying someone off-site has offered you $2,500, I wouldn't publicize the amount you paid for it, especially if you're trying to flip it. I wouldn't give you $2,500 for a car I know you paid $900 for. Plus, might be hard to find a Duster with a running 360 in it for $2,500. Would likely be a rust bucket. I've been looking at Dusters for years, I can't recall seeing one in decent condition for that cheap, though I could be wrong...

Now, if your car is an original /6, it's really a no-brainer to put a V-8 in. Parts are readily available to do the swap, just let your fingers do the walking on the 'ol keyboard and you'll find what you need. Shumacher Creative services will have your mounting problems solved. Dusters came with both the 6 and 8 in the same engine bay so a 360 belongs in there. You may have some issues to contend with but nothing that hasn't been solved thousands of times by the majority of the people on this board.

Engine swaps have been around since the earliest days of hot rodding really, kind of a rite of passage. I say if the car is in decent shape like you say, keep it and build it up. Hot rods are a labor of love and not investments. Once you realize that, it all becomes clear.

Hope that was the answer you were looking for.
 
A good rust / dent free body is worth alot! You can sink a ton of cash in bodywork. Start with a nice car end up with a Super nice car. It takes alot of time and polish to make a lump of coal into a diamond. The polish that i am refering to is money , time is money and good bodywork is not cheap or fast. So my advice to you would be take your good CAL. body and put what ever motor you want in it, because that is a lot easier.
Matt
 
I agree with Matt. Unless you are a body guru, it's a lot harder to fix a body than change a drivetrain. I can change the drivetrain in 2 days taking my time, the way I do body work, takes months.
 
Having a nice body on a car is way better than having one thats crappy with the engine you want. Motor/tranny is CHEAP and EASY and FAST compared to body stuff.

A nice body V8 duster is going to cost more than $2500 by a long ways, and then you'll probably end up with a 318 and want to do the swap anyways.
And even if you found a good car for cheap with a 360, you'd have to pull the motor anyways to seal up all the oil leaks.

If its nice, you're way way way way way way way way way better off sticking with it.
 
#1....don't worry about listing your invested monies right now. You are doing the right thing by getting feedback on the proper direction to go to accomplish what you want. I could care less if someone paid you to make it go away, if I am in the market, and I deem the car is worth 123456, the it's worth 123456 to me.

#2 I would be cautious with the idea of selling right now. Market is terrible, so that USUALLY equates to great deals for buyers, and bad deals for sellers.

If your car is as solid as you say, I would hold on to it. A properly done swap will raise the value, and while it will not be as valuable as a numbers matching V8 car, most would still buy a converted car if it was done right.

In your other posts you were worried about the rear end. You have several options to getting this swap done right, and without breaking the bank. An 8.25 out of 73-76 Dart would be adequate for your needs. Perhaps invest in a Lock-Rite to replace the spider gears to avoid a single spin situation, but my point is there are options, via swap meets, forums, junk yards, to complete the task.
 
Yea, you would pay a lot more than $2,500 for a Duster 360 that is in nice of shape as your car now. I paid a lot more than that for mine and the work that needed to be done wasn't even finished.
If your car is in good shape like you say, I'd keep it and do the V8 conversion. It's not that big of a deal. IMOP. Good luck...
 
Plus, you live in WI, add more $$$ to have another rust free car shipped to you........Keep it dude!
 
If you have a car with a good body already I would stick with it and do a V8 swap, even if you spend 5k on the swap you will still come out cheaper than buying a V8 car with a good body.

I had a 73 Duster I'm kicking myself for selling, it had a great body with no rust, 90k miles and I had just finished swapping in a 318/998/8.75, it was a /6 car, I got an offer of 7k and took it but in hindsight I can't buy another car in the same shape for that price.
 
MoparJoe20 said:
If you have a car with a good body already I would stick with it and do a V8 swap, even if you spend 5k on the swap you will still come out cheaper than buying a V8 car with a good body.

I had a 73 Duster I'm kicking myself for selling, it had a great body with no rust, 90k miles and I had just finished swapping in a 318/998/8.75, it was a /6 car, I got an offer of 7k and took it but in hindsight I can't buy another car in the same shape for that price.
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I had a guy offer me $7k for mine. I just laughed At him and said,"Sorry, not for sale."
 
I'd definitely do the swap. Finding any of these cars with a solid body is hard enough, and finding one that's solid and has a running V8 is likely going to cost more than $2,500. That being said, I found my Dart with a 318 and a near perfect CA body for less, but it's got 82k on the clock and a blown head gasket at least, so its not exactly running.

If you really want a V8 soon I'd head down to the wrecking yard and try to find a lowish miles 5.9 (360) and just pull the whole thing. They can be had for pretty cheap. You'd still have to sort out the rest of the driveline, but it'd be a good start.
 
Galactic_eyes said:
I had a guy offer me $7k for mine. I just laughed At him and said,"Sorry, not for sale."
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Yeah I probably should have done the same, it was the 6th Duster I've had so I didnt think much of it at the time, It was just another Duster so I figured I would go pick up another one. The bad part is it's now wrecked and sitting on blocks in the guys driveway.
 
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