Project Riddler's Ride - 1976 Plymouth Duster

[rapidtransitric]

like the progress

[Tincup]

I saw them on Ebay, new.

[Riddler]

Well today my brother in law and best friend Jim came over to work on the car. I started work on the hood hinges with gas struts and he started on the Willwood front brakes since I had the front AlterKtion assembled.

Here's the Willwood Dynalite hub and rotor bolted together.


Here's the back of the rotor with the stainless steel safety wire. Jim is a master of this, I'm super happy to have a friend with these skills.


Here's a picture of the front hubs with the bearings packed, the seals installed and ready to be bolted to the spindle.


Here's everything bolted onto the car ready for some wheels.


Now the front wheels. We bolted these down with just a couple of lug nuts since I want to buy some better lugs. These are just cheapy ones.


Close up....



While Jim was working on the front brakes I moved from the hood hinges to the XV front brace. I figured the chassis needed to get finished before I started to do little things. I cut and removed the stock sheet metal and cleaned up the front for welding. Jim welded the brace on for me.



Then I primed the XV brace so it doesn't rust.


So now the front brace was done, I turned my attention to the floor pans. The welds needed to be grinded down and then I needed to seam seal and prime them. The rust was starting....


Now comes the seam sealer..


Here's the floor pans primed. The primer matches the Epoxy Primer used by the media blaster.


Just want to say thanks again to my brother in law Jim.

Riddler

[rapidtransitric]

i'm watching

[Tincup]

Coming along nicely.....

[jeffneal66]

Good Progress!

[RPM]

wow..... and I will een say it backwards.... wow....
Good work.... that is going to be a niiiice ride.

Keep it up !

-RPM

[Riddler]

Large update for today. Jim came over and we tackled the subframe connectors and the relocation boxes.

We started with the subframe connectors. The US Car Tool connectors were older ones and didn't fit perfectly. We were required to massage them in and I still have some very large gaps, which I assume are for the ebrake cables.



Here's the inside floor primer burning and the final burn marks before I primered over them again.




Here's Jim welding away...



Then we moved onto the relocation boxes. Not very hard just time consuming.





That ends another day....

Riddler

[Cevidicus]

Cool Beans, Bro! Looking Great! Nice progress...

[dustermaniac]

Looks fantastic!!!

[rapidtransitric]

whats next?...

[Riddler]

Next is minitubs and then rear axle.

Once it rolls, I'll start doing body work.

Riddler

[pettybludart]

Great to see good progress being made Joe.Did you do the rear holes on the frame?I had to get a 90* drill from C.Tire with a 1inch hole bit.Now that was time consuming.LOL.Keep up the great work.

[67Dart440]

Very cool build... I am using a lot of the same parts on my car. Keep up the great work!

[Riddler]

Originally Posted by pettybludart

Great to see good progress being made Joe.Did you do the rear holes on the frame?I had to get a 90* drill from C.Tire with a 1inch hole bit.Now that was time consuming.LOL.Keep up the great work.

The relocation boxes I had made I had the holes laser cut. There fit the stuff perfectly.

Riddler

[Riddler]

I woke up very early today and made it out to the WPC swap meet in Mt. Clemens, MI. I scored some great finds.

First up is a pair of 5.7L Hemi chrome valve covers.


I then found a repro seller who was very reasonable. I scored a complete set of marker lights.



and last but not least a new set of door handles.




Riddler

[pettybludart]

Originally Posted by Riddler

The relocation boxes I had made I had the holes laser cut. There fit the stuff perfectly.

Riddler

Joe,I meant the holes at the back for your leaf springs.Those are the holes I needed the 90* drill for,it,s fun drilling those with the spare tire hub in the way.LOL

[Riddler]

I'm not doing leaf springs so I don't have to worry about drilling those holes. The RMS street linxs will make my life easier and the car will handle better.

Riddler

[Riddler]

Well I got back to work on Sunday with my brother in law. He completed the last of the welding needed for the relocation blocks. While he did that I drilled and tapped the XV Motorsports front brace for the hood latch.



Then we moved onto the minitubs. While these are not really needed now I'm hoping to purchase wider rims and tires for the rear in the future.

Braces removed...


Then we removed the driver's side...



Lastly we made the passenger side match the driver's...



Of course I just had to stick the rear rims/tires under it to see. Measured the rear also, 54 1/2" mounting flange to mounting flange.


Plan is to be back at this weekend....

Riddler

[pettybludart]

Great to see more progress Joe.A question for ya.Where did you get your wheel dollies?I,m gonna need some for shufflling cars around.Thanks for any help.

[Riddler]

Originally Posted by pettybludart

Great to see more progress Joe.A question for ya.Where did you get your wheel dollies?I,m gonna need some for shufflling cars around.Thanks for any help.

Our favourite place Scott. Princess Auto. I believe it was $50 a pair.

Riddler

[Tincup]

Nice work, Riddler

[Riddler]

Well sort of a large update today. Jim and I and our friend Steve hit up Autorama Detroit this weekend and this really got our car juices flowing. So today we worked like crazy mad men!

Jim went right to work on the the minitubs. He grinded and welded and floor to the frame.



While he was working on that I removed spot welds and then removed the floors from the tubs. After that was done I got snagged on a stud for the rocker trim. Grinded those right off.


Jim and I got both tubs tacked in and solid enough for use to leave them. We were both sick of working in the grinding mess so we cleaned up.





One would think this is all we got completed today. But it was nice out and we worked with the garage door up. We mocked up the RMS Street Linx so I can have the read end cut down.

All laid out on the bench...


Now the mock up shots.






Well that's all for today!

Riddler

[340butterduster]

Nice to see how much a little bit of sunshine and inspiration can accomplish.

Looking good Joe!

[76orangewagon]

well as always looks great !!! thanks for the pics...keep em coming