Birth of the Blue Missile

[blue missile]

Guys,
I appreciate the comments, It's nice to know the story is being read by you guys, and as the new car is built I can only hope you guys become part of the continuing tale.

PART SIXTEEN​

Back to the road trip:
When we caught up to Barry it was dusk and he was sitting on his porch jamming with a couple of old delta blues players. They were doing a slow twelve bar blues thing. And all I remember is the old black blues player constantly telling Barry to slow down. “Take it easy boy, take it easy” he would say, while he laughed. He knew taking it easy didn’t come naturally to Barry. Barry was just sitting there ripping it up. It was flawless and seemed effortless. Barry said he wanted to go down town to a ‘supper club’ sort of place that BB King was playing at that night. We agreed to take him, and off we went. We got to the club, I can’t remember the name of, I think was either on or just off Peachtree street.

When you entered, it was one large expanse of a room with a bar the full length either side, and a four-foot high stage with curtains at the far end. It could have been an old converted theater. There were about fifty tables, seating four, in the center. You showed yourself to your own table, and a waitress was there in a flash. We ordered some beer and waited for the show to start. Now there was an opening act we had never heard of, so we really weren’t paying any attention. All of a sudden the curtains opened up, and there was Kiss in full makeup screaming, and carrying on doing their thing! We both looked at Barry and asked him if he was sure we were there on the right night? Looking mortified he said he would check. He got up from the table and went to talk to one of the staff and returned. He said that yes BB King was playing that this was the warm up act. Well after some length of time, what ever it was it was wayyyyy to long, their set ended and the curtains closed. A few minutes later the curtains opened up and there was BB King with his band. He stepped up to the microphone, with one of his famous grins and said “ Well, wasn’t that interesting?” Obviously he wasn’t aware of who they were either.LOL He was marvelous that night and played all the songs we wanted to hear. We went back to a club across the street from where Barry was staying and watched him amaze the folks there for the rest of the night. I actually remember in the middle of him playing, half the place emptied out, so we followed them all. It turns out that a smuggled shipment of Coors had arrived in the back of a semi and every one went out to help get it inside fast. We all then went back to nickel beers and listening to Barry play. We crashed there and went back to Ted’s the next morning.

A few days later the trial took place. The courtroom was a small county court. It was a very formal dark oak interior with the normal benches and box for the witness next to the Judge’s bench. I was dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, a nice one though. You see I wasn’t really planning to be in a courtroom on that trip, of course everyone else was either in a suit or a uniform. The prosecution went first and after putting the arresting officer on the stand, the other officer was sworn in. When the officer who found the seeds was on the stand my attorney took the bags of seeds and spread them out in front of him on the ledge of the witness stand. He then asked him to pick out the pot seeds. He said to him, since his ‘cause’ rested on his identification of a pot seed on my seat in the middle of the night through a window with a flashlight, there should be no problem in him identifying a whole bag of them two feet from his face in the well lit courtroom. Well I will confess, see it keeps happening, the real pot seeds were all the dried out shriveled ones I could find in Ted’s stash, so they did not look the part. He picked out a sample and said he was positive they were pot seeds. My attorney snatched the bag up, and threw it up on the bench in front of the judge. The judge asked my attorney what they were, and my attorney said there is a label inside of the bag. The judge opened the bag and opened the label, which was blank. He looked at us and said “The label is blank”. Then addressing me he asked “Son do you know what these are?” while he held up the bag. Since there was only one sample with a blank label I knew which bag he had opened. I said “No sir, All I know is I got them out of the pickling jar in Mrs. Neugent’s kitchen.” He looked at the officer and slammed his gavel down and said, “Case dismissed!” He then said ”Officer this is the third one this week. I want to see you in my chambers now.”

​

We all were relieved and went back to the Neugent’s and we got ready to leave the next day. What I have not told you is that there was a small stash in the car tucked between the console and the seat, which the cops never found, but that my ‘buds’ consumed while I was in the JOINT. How could they?

The other thing I remember is the water pump’s seal went out and I had to change the water pump in Ted’s driveway with a pair of pliers. I remember that Ted could not get to his dad’s tools and we were on a tight schedule. I was not yet smart enough to be carrying a road kit of tools, yet another confession. But here is what I love about mopars doing the work with pliers was a pain in the *** but it was still possible!

More later
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

PART SEVENTEEN​

The rest of the trip was fairly without incident until we got to New York. We stopped only once and crashed at a rest stop about half way there. We continued the next day taking turns driving. I also remember there was a very slow oil leak at the back of the intake manifold, and we had to find some oil in Virginia. Back then I was running Castrol R, which is a castor bean based oil, it was far superior to petrol based oils. At the time, synthetic oils were not invented yet, or at least not available to the public, so I was running the best available. Since it was bad mojo to mix Castrol R with conventional oils I had to find an actual distribution warehouse and then, they would only sell me a full case. Well at least finding oil for a while wouldn’t be a problem.

When we got to New York and were about to get on one of the freeways I was asleep in the passenger’s seat. All of a sudden I awoke and the world was spinning at a freighting rate of speed. OH ****! IT WAS THE CAR! Glen had come over the hill at the full legal speed and traffic was stopped about fifty yards in front of him. All he could do was put the car in a spin and try to absorb the forward motion that way. By the grace of God we did not hit anyone and he managed to drive it out and come to a safe stop at the back of the line. We hung out with Bill for about a week and returned to Miami without any further incident.

I continued to work at the CB shop and took a part time job at a restaurant a couple of the CBrs also worked at. It was News Year Eve at the end of that year. A young lady and I had just gotten off shift at the restaurant; we hopped in the Duster and were on our way to a party of CBrs of course. While driving through a small residential neighborhood, I entered an intersection where I had no stop sign, but cross traffic did. We got hit broadside by an obviously drunk black couple who ran their stop sign. Before the car had stopped spinning RHL (her handle was red headed lady) had grabbed the mic and was on the radio with the REACT monitor calling the police. When the police got there the other couple was still in their car and both of us were on the street looking at the damage. My car was totaled, this time the frame really was toast, and I was in tears. Keep in mind that we both were stone cold sober; we were on the way to the party. After all the paper work was done and they were issued the ticket I had the car towed to the CB shop.

There was an empty slab at the end of a small driveway behind the shop. I put it there and started to dismantle the car. I pulled the engine/tranny and pulled all the electronics out. I boxed up anything I could get off the car; I also pulled the rear end with the leaf springs attached. While the engine was out I contacted Crane Cams, which is in Ft Lauderdale and asked them about porting and flow benching the heads. They dissuaded me from that by telling me, that just by gasket matching the pieces I could accomplish 90% of what they would accomplish, for very little money. I did drive up there and purchase a set of crane high performance hydraulic lifters. I borrowed a Dremel tool from Tommy and proceeded with the gasket matching process on the heads and the intake manifold. I also did a lapping type valve job on the heads.

About this time the CB thing wasn’t making enough money and I got a job in a general motor shop in down town Miami. A friend and I transferred all the pieces to the shop so I could rebuild the car.
I was still insured so I contacted them and got a settlement of $750 for totaling out my car. I was blown away, the car was only a few years old, I could never get a good looking replacement car for that. I ended up settling for a ’72 duster with a slant six. Schumacher was not around so I dropped the 340 into that body and had to fabricate the engine mounts. This was an effort that in retrospect was not fully successful. The engine sat hard against the firewall at the tranny tunnel, and at a slight downward angle. I still had the headers so they were installed. But from the collector back I ran flexible exhaust pipe without mufflers. This was just to get the exhaust out from under the car. Boy was it loud. The car ran but I knew I would have to do something about the way the engine was sitting. I installed one of those dual level AAR prostock hood scoops but put it on facing the rear. I cut out the leading edge of the base and fabricated a vertical piece to fill the void, and installed the oil pressure and temp gauge so they were visible from the cockpit. One more thing, during the time the wreck was on the slab someone stole the two bucket seats, so I was without proper seats in the new body. I was using a couple of orange crates for temporary seating. When I took the car for tuning rides down the alley next to the shop I was also shifting the tranny with my fingers through a hole in the floor board,

More later
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

Guys
Here is the part that brings us to Texas and the next part will bring us up to date I hope you enjoyed this journey.
Andrrew

PART EIGHTEEN​

During one of these late afternoon test rides, while going down the alley, a guy in a brand new emerald green Thunderbird with the sticker still on the window, ran a stop sign and broad sided me. Now understand when I would pull the Duster out of the shop you could hear it for blocks and a large number of the workers in the surrounding business would go hang out on the corners of the cross streets to watch it go by. After the accident I walked back to the shop I told the owner what had happened and he said “don’t call the police that guys the mob.” Of course my response was I don’t care and the police were called and all the witnesses convinced them that he had indeed ran the stop sign. The frame again was trashed, hey but at least there was less to take off the car this time. I pulled and boxed up everything put it all in the back storeroom. One other thing during the crash, because I had solid motor mounts installed, one of the drivers side motor mount tangs was cracked. After a couple of years I got all the stuff that was left, strangely some things had grown legs and walked off, out of the shop and brought it to the house. Through the years I gave up the rear axle and springs, I sold the two M-50s and rims to lighten the load. But I held onto the motor/tranny and all the boxed parts. I started to put together a plan to rebuild the car and started to build a number of electronic systems including digital gauges, and an electronically controlled anti-dry start system. I designed the circuits and actually etched the boards. Most of the boards used simple transistors and early integrated circuits. In 1983 I got heavily involved with windsurfing and ramped up my involvement with music. So the work on the car basically came to a stop. My obsession with windsurfing gave birth to my composites business and took up every spare minute I was not working and the sun was up. Music was every waking hour after dark. I spent the time either in practice or in the studio, or building studios.
While I continued to live in Miami I lubricated and turned the engine, on the dolly I made for it, every couple of months or so. I got married in ’86 and continued the affair with windsurfing and music. When we moved to Texas I brought all of those items with me. That was in 1998.

 

[blue missile]

PART NINTEEN​

In 2000 we moved to Austin and because of distance windsurfing took a back seat to music and church. A few years later I joined the local mopar club and went to most of the central texas car shows. I don’t know what kind of ratio exists in yalls neck of the woods, but here mopars are a very rare breed. Chebbys and rice burners are the invasive species. At one of the meetings an owner of a Texas muscle car shop showed up and introduced himself and his shop. I ended up selling him my 727 and some other items off the original car. In passing I mentioned I would EVENTUALLY be looking for a replacement 73 duster.

About six months later out of the blue the Lord spoke up and said call Jeff he has your car. OK you have read enough of my life to know I have a relationship with the Lord but I am still human. I brushed off the suggestion for about a week and then called him. He was surprised to hear from me and I told him what had happened. He said as a matter of fact I just picked up a 73 Duster out of San Antonio with you in mind! I drove out to his shop and took a look at the duster and knew at once it was just what I had been looking for. At that time there was no money in the budget to get the car but a month or so later someone who owed me a fair amount of money paid me back more than enough to get the car. It was the end of 2006 when I purchased the current project Duster.

It is a ’73 six cylinder gold Duster I picked it up for $2500. I thought the price was a little high but there are only a couple of quarter sized rust spots on the trailing rear edges of the rear quarter panels and a little rust to deal with on the front floor boards. There was no rust in any of the gutters or window channels. There are a few minor dents and the two front fenders need to be reworked or replaced. There were a few interior parts that disintegrated when I stripped out the interior, but over all it is a very solid car. I recently got a chance to crawl under the car to inspect for rust and to my delight there was virtually no rust and there was also no undercoating forward of the back of the rear floor pan. What it looks like is that there was a massive oil leak and the entire underside is coated with oil, and has been for some time. Here are the start of project pics.
The final pic is of the shaved and smoothed rear bumper, it has since been painted with black primer.
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

I have been posting some of the small progress on individual threads. Should I have Adam move them over here? Or should I deal with the topics individually?
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

Work has started in earnest on the interior.
There are a bunch of interior posts about the dash pad, package tray, side panels in the body and interior forum, but I thought I would post the pics of the interior clean up here. I am forced to use a 4" grinder and a wire cup type wheel to get at the surface rust. I know its not as sexy as writing a check to have the car blasted, but it is still in the driveway.
The two front floor pans definately need replacing and a small patch in the trunk passenger side right next to the exterior panel, but thats all I can find in the interior. As I get a section down to metal I am spraying it with rattle can primer as a temp coating. I am astounded at the lack of welds I am finding.
More as it happens.
Andrew

 

[Captainkirk]

Looking good!
You know from my story what MY feelings are about writing a check.....
Poseurs!!!!!
Keep on keepin' on with that wire wheel, my bother!
Any dim bulb can scribble his name on a check and buy a muscle car.
Cars like ours are labors of love....which is why they look so good and run so well.

 

[blue missile]

Captin,
thanks for the encouragement.
I have not given up on the telling of stories from Miami, There are still a few stories to tell that won't comprimise the reputation of a woman or national security. Comming soon.
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

OK guys,
I have been racking my brain for a black-ops story I can tell, so here it is.

The mission was to silence an alarm signal in a very large compound heard by a couple of hundred occupants. There were regular sentries, and taking them out was not allowed. The signal was a large brass bell in a bell tower a couple stories up from the ground surrounded by a security cage. In order for us to cover our tracks everything had to look untouched. There was no way to get the bell out of the tower and disposed of. Cutting the rope used to ring the bell was also out of the question, it would be noticed immeadtly.

Battery powered power tools were not yet invented; so cutting the clapper loose from the bell was out of the question. We discussed CAD Welding (the use of thermite) the clapper to the bell but the possibility of starting a fire down below was real. On top of that the bell tower could be seen all over the compound so the light caused by the reaction would give us away. Cyanoacrylate adhesives were just being developed by Kodak, so they were not yet in our arsenal. Whatever we did we had to do it silently.

We were a team of five and were camped about a quarter of a mile away from the bell tower. Under the cover of darkness about one O’clock in the morning, dressed in all black and navy blue, we made our way to the objective. This compound was located in the mountains off the north east coast of the United States. It was summer and the air was very still. Lighting was sparse and the moon was about half full with a clear sky. All we had to work with were the tools and supplies we had in our backpacks.

We left our camp traveling through the woods at the perimeter of the compound until we were directly across from and about fifty yards away from the bell tower building. Between us and our objective was the main headquarters building. The other fly in the ointment was the fact that the sentries’ office and barracks were in a wing attached to the mess hall, which contained the bell tower. If things went wrong their response time would be momentary, this also meant they could come around a corner without notice.

Using the main headquarters building for cover we moved along one side keeping low and between the landscaping bushes and the building. From the corner of the building it was about ten yards of open exposure to the mess hall. The barracks were on the opposite side the building so we still had a shot. We arrived at the mess hall undetected; there was a large covered patio on our side of the building we could access from the deck. The four of us got a boost from the ground level lookout man and he then retreated back to the bushes next to the headquarters building to keep watch. From there he had a clear enough view to warn us in time to take cover.

In this case taking cover is a dubious term, the roof was a shingle roof with a 6/12 pitch and the bell tower was four feet square wrapped with a wire cage, but other wise open to view. We laid low and flat on the flat patio roof until he gave us the all clear then we climbed the main roof and got to the tower. We proceeded to cut our way through the cage with a small pair of bolt cutters. With each cut of the cage the snap could be heard echoing in the compound. About half way through the process the lookout signaled for us to cease and lay low so we flattened ourselves against the roof which was also dark in color. At that moment two sentries came around the corner to check the camp but they never looked up. We watched them make their rounds and go back to the barracks with us remaining undetected.

We completed cutting our way into the tower and with one person holding back the cage two of us were able to get inside the tower to work on the bell. We wrapped the clapper with washcloths and taped them in place. We then took and stuffed towels inside the bell until there was no space left and completely taped up the bottom of the bell. This left the bell mechanism fully operational from down below, but there would be no alarm when the rope was pulled. We exited the cage and wired it back in place so it looked undisturbed.
We quietly scrambled down the roof and made our way back to camp to await the continuation of the mission.

The continuation of the mission would have been the wake up bell at summer camp. The year was 1968, we were fifteen years old, you see habits start young. Not only did the wake up bell not sound neither did the mess call. Because of how well we had done our job, and because it was almost impossible to tell what had been done by looking up from down below, It took the lightingly fast waiters quite a while to figure out how to fix the problem. Oh yes the cage was installed a few years before because some of the waiters had temporarily borrowed the bell for a few days. The sentries were the waiters, for them removing the bell as a team was easy. So extra security measures had been taken to make sure that it would not happen again.

Hope you enjoyed
Andrew :glasses7:

Captain,
just for the record youre nuts. After laying on my back cleaning up the firewall and under the dash with the grinder and wire wheel there was no love left in the labor. Only a large collection of pieces of wire that had been launched from the wheel at supersonic speeds into every part of my clothing and hair. I would have gladly written the check for blasting and saved the labor of love for many other projects on the duster.
LOL Andrew

 

[blue missile]

Bump

 

[overrever]

Very interesting story. Glad to hear you have another Mopar to rebuild. Hope that it doesnt get a scratch on it! Good luck with the build.

 

[blue missile]

And the hits keep comming,
I knew about the corner patch at the rear wheel well. I however thought there was a very small one at the front wheel well, NOT!
It looks like someone tried fixing the panel with a ball-peen hammer.:angry7:
After I meet with my body guy next week I will evaluate the comparitive cost of trying to find and purchase a new fender.
Glad you liked the story, there is still more to come but the time to write is pretty scarce right now.
Andrew

 

[pettybludart]

Mopar Missile!Yeah!!

 

[blue missile]

Yes Petty,
Don had a very cool car. I will be doing a very different hood scoop though, I think its one yall will like.
Andrew

 

[Captainkirk]

Captain,
just for the record youre nuts. After laying on my back cleaning up the firewall and under the dash with the grinder and wire wheel there was no love left in the labor. Only a large collection of pieces of wire that had been launched from the wheel at supersonic speeds into every part of my clothing and hair. I would have gladly written the check for blasting and saved the labor of love for many other projects on the duster.
LOL Andrew

But you DIDN'T. So, who's nuts????:cheers:

 

[orangecrush]

What's a picture worth ? ....

 

[Captainkirk]

What's a picture worth ? ....

Unauthorized use of copyrighted material carries a hefty fine.....pay up, sucker!irat:

Although.....that's a great picture of me in my younger days, ya think? LOL!

 

[blue missile]

Captain,
I didnt say I wasnt nuts!:toothy10:
But If I didnt have all my capital tied up right now I would have gladly written the check with no appologies.Right now by continuing to go foward, even if its at a snails pace,helps keep me sane.Ok, Mostly sane. Now that its warming up will we see some progress on the Duke?
Andrew

 

[Captainkirk]

Captain,
I didnt say I wasnt nuts!:toothy10:
But If I didnt have all my capital tied up right now I would have gladly written the check with no appologies.Right now by continuing to go foward, even if its at a snails pace,helps keep me sane.Ok, Mostly sane. Now that its warming up will we see some progress on the Duke?
Andrew

Quite soon, my friend.....:munky2:

 

[blue missile]

the minitub starts, and I cannot say enough about the Rapid strip disc. After attacking the undercoating with a torch and a putty knife the disc made very short work out of cleaning up the remains. I managed this in the course of one day and will clean up and prep the removed material tomorrow.
Because the car is on an incline I can only do one wheel at atime.
More pics and stories later
Captain, Live long and Prosper--3Jn1:2


Andrew

 

[blue missile]

I got the first side done. God knows this loaned welder is giving me fits. The wire starts and stops or hesitates in the middle of a bead, Im having quite a time tweaking the machine any suggestions would be welcomed.
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

Close to the end of this task, I still have to gring the welds down and recoat the interior of the wheel wells.
Andrew

 

[BarracudaBrian]

we all know there is more to classic cars than full frames and displacement engines...
some of us younger enthuisists enjoy tales of another time when gas was leaded, a nickel and pumped for you! those of us who chose to drive "muscle" cars do it @ our own risk & with complete responsibility...

i guarantee and kids driving mopars are more responsible than those driving crackerjacks box imports ricky raced out! before anybody gets upset in high school and now i own and drive both minus the ricky racer bs i like my honda quite keeps the heat off...

cops'll stop a ricer with an exhuast or radio before noticing i may have been going around him...

long story short can't wait for the next chapter!!!

sorry for rambling along and hijacking the thread

great story!!!

 

[blue missile]

I got another bit of work done.

I was very unhappy with the large gap at the side of the car where the rear bumper and rear quarter meet. It was over an inch on both sides. So I sectioned the bumper and took the gaps out. In my usual zeal I made it very tight but the bumper still fits. I will probably ease the sheet metal to create a slight gap.
More Later
Andrew

 

[blue missile]

The question has been asked; is there any way to remove the dash and leave the front windshield in place? The resounding answer has been NO!
In the imortal words of James T. Kirk "I don't believe in the no win senerio" neither do I.

So here are the steps you must follow to remove the dash and leave the front windshield in place:

1-Strip out everything behind the dash for access to the connectors at the windshield joint.

2-disconnect all fasteners that are attached to the dash including the parking break and the hood release.

3-Drop the stearing colomn enough for the dash sheet metal to clear the studs that the colomn hangs on.

4-At each connection there is a clip and a bolt that must be delt with. First cut the sholder of the clip with a grinder or a dremmel tool so the top is seperated from the bottom. Then with the same tool cut the bottom of the clip and the bolt as close to the sheetmetal as possible. Then push up what remains of the bolt and that connection will have been delt with. Do that with all of the clips and pull the dash straight out.

Klingons, dashes, what's the difference:cheers:

Andrew