the"Busted knuckle duster"

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Cool Hand

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 13, 2020
Messages
332
Reaction score
438
Location
Middleton Wisconsin
So after many months of research, shopping,and chat room time we have finally started the duster project. The plan is to do a late model hemi,nag1 conversion with all qa1 suspension upgrades. I will be installing right stuff front, and rear brake conversion kits, as well as many other products that allot of people have been asking about. The project will start out a little slow as the shop still has customer work to complete,but it needs to be completed by the end of October for SEMA. So giddy up!
We bought the car in Texas after many months of searching for the right one( I like complete untouched cars that haven't been hacked on). We luckily got it to the shop (after all the covid delays, and shutdowns) and got the plan rollin. We started by yanking out all the drive train,and suspension(which is all up for grabs),and making some quick changes that I believe made a huge difference in the looks department. First thing was swapping out the 74 hood ,grill ,and bumper. Looked at all the standard swaps.Demon,or 70 72 flat grill, or the shark tooth grill, but finally settled on the 67 valiant front end. Next over the last few days we cleaned the under side of the car. Sealed it all with KBS coating for rustproofing,and installed a stage three qa1 kit, Moser 8 3/4, and rightstuff brakes.
The tear down went great. Being a Texas car the bolts all came out with little fight in them. Instead of the usual rust I deal with daily (being a shop in Wisconsin),I was only finding dirt,and mud wasp homes that were long abandoned. Underside clean up was dealt with easily with soap,and water leaving a beautiful unpatched, or pitted chassis. We use KBS coatings on all of our builds so it was of course gonna be what sealed the duster. It looks better than new under there now. I have also installed a qa1 k member,and front end kit before so that went flawless. The right stuff brake kit fits with it perfect you just need to remember to tell qa1 your brake plans so they give you the larger upper ball joints. The rear of qa1's kit was a little more challenging. Since I've never done a 6 link setup before I had to follow every step of the directions.(Would have been easier if the parts had the parts numbers on them anywhere) Took the entire day to install,and being that I used a Moser 8 3/4 (the housing is larger) I have to modify the panhard bar to clear, as well as make some spacers to drop the sway bar down 3/4 of an inch. Otherwise it looks great allows me to adjust my ride height easily, and has lots of adjustment for shock stiffness rebound and such. She will be a great street,and track day car when done.
Here are some pictures of the progress so far. Thanks for checking it out.
2020-05-23 10.46.36.jpg
first day home from Texas.
2020-06-07 16.24.58.jpg
2020-06-07 17.00.45.jpg
bowels in or bowels out? lol
2020-05-23 13.33.52.jpg
new front end. Way cool

2020-07-12 16.38.25.jpg
new moser 373's with eaton truetrac

2020-07-12 16.32.18.jpg
the parts tree. ready for paint

2020-07-12 17.28.57.jpg
part pile is growing. Anyone want?

2020-07-12 17.37.12.jpg
underside sealed ready for new parts
2020-07-13 16.32.00.jpg
qa1 k member and borgeson power steering box
2020-07-13 16.31.36.jpg
qa1 control arms,and right stuff slotted disc brakes. (gonna finish up and paint wheel wells after bodywork is done.)
 
I like that 68 valiant front-end way better than a 73 Style...looking great...moser rear is a nice piece of iron also..keep us posted
 
So after many months of research, shopping,and chat room time we have finally started the duster project. The plan is to do a late model hemi,nag1 conversion with all qa1 suspension upgrades. I will be installing right stuff front, and rear brake conversion kits, as well as many other products that allot of people have been asking about. The project will start out a little slow as the shop still has customer work to complete,but it needs to be completed by the end of October for SEMA. So giddy up!
We bought the car in Texas after many months of searching for the right one( I like complete untouched cars that haven't been hacked on). We luckily got it to the shop (after all the covid delays, and shutdowns) and got the plan rollin. We started by yanking out all the drive train,and suspension(which is all up for grabs),and making some quick changes that I believe made a huge difference in the looks department. First thing was swapping out the 74 hood ,grill ,and bumper. Looked at all the standard swaps.Demon,or 70 72 flat grill, or the shark tooth grill, but finally settled on the 67 valiant front end. Next over the last few days we cleaned the under side of the car. Sealed it all with KBS coating for rustproofing,and installed a stage three qa1 kit, Moser 8 3/4, and rightstuff brakes.
The tear down went great. Being a Texas car the bolts all came out with little fight in them. Instead of the usual rust I deal with daily (being a shop in Wisconsin),I was only finding dirt,and mud wasp homes that were long abandoned. Underside clean up was dealt with easily with soap,and water leaving a beautiful unpatched, or pitted chassis. We use KBS coatings on all of our builds so it was of course gonna be what sealed the duster. It looks better than new under there now. I have also installed a qa1 k member,and front end kit before so that went flawless. The right stuff brake kit fits with it perfect you just need to remember to tell qa1 your brake plans so they give you the larger upper ball joints. The rear of qa1's kit was a little more challenging. Since I've never done a 6 link setup before I had to follow every step of the directions.(Would have been easier if the parts had the parts numbers on them anywhere) Took the entire day to install,and being that I used a Moser 8 3/4 (the housing is larger) I have to modify the panhard bar to clear, as well as make some spacers to drop the sway bar down 3/4 of an inch. Otherwise it looks great allows me to adjust my ride height easily, and has lots of adjustment for shock stiffness rebound and such. She will be a great street,and track day car when done.
Here are some pictures of the progress so far. Thanks for checking it out.View attachment 1715562325first day home from Texas.View attachment 1715562328 View attachment 1715562329 bowels in or bowels out? lolView attachment 1715562330 new front end. Way cool

View attachment 1715562340 new moser 373's with eaton truetrac

View attachment 1715562342 the parts tree. ready for paint

View attachment 1715562344 part pile is growing. Anyone want?

View attachment 1715562345 underside sealed ready for new parts
View attachment 1715562347 qa1 k member and borgeson power steering box
View attachment 1715562348 qa1 control arms,and right stuff slotted disc brakes. (gonna finish up and paint wheel wells after bodywork is done.)
2020-07-15 09.43.37.jpg
2020-07-15 09.43.28.jpg
almost done here.Setting pinion angle,and attaching coil overs next.
2020-07-15 14.10.44.jpg
new stance with some moch-up rims. Will show more later.
 
Nice job. I love them rust free Texas cars too. That pile of takeoff parts would be great for somebody wanting to swap in a V8. Maybe offer a package deal on Fabo for the whole mess. If I lived closer than I do (Abilene Tx) I'd run out there with my pickup and load up.
 
Nice job. I love them rust free Texas cars too. That pile of takeoff parts would be great for somebody wanting to swap in a V8. Maybe offer a package deal on Fabo for the whole mess. If I lived closer than I do (Abilene Tx) I'd run out there with my pickup and load up.
I did got no response
 
Cool build, I might be interested in you take off parts.
 
I decided that if I was ever lucky enough to find a decent Duster/Sport, I would search & find a '67 Valiant front clip for it. I like the Plymouth emblem in the center of the grill (which the '68 lacks). Low & behold you are doing that very project!! Subscribed!
 
So after many months of research, shopping,and chat room time we have finally started the duster project. The plan is to do a late model hemi,nag1 conversion with all qa1 suspension upgrades. I will be installing right stuff front, and rear brake conversion kits, as well as many other products that allot of people have been asking about. The project will start out a little slow as the shop still has customer work to complete,but it needs to be completed by the end of October for SEMA. So giddy up!
We bought the car in Texas after many months of searching for the right one( I like complete untouched cars that haven't been hacked on). We luckily got it to the shop (after all the covid delays, and shutdowns) and got the plan rollin. We started by yanking out all the drive train,and suspension(which is all up for grabs),and making some quick changes that I believe made a huge difference in the looks department. First thing was swapping out the 74 hood ,grill ,and bumper. Looked at all the standard swaps.Demon,or 70 72 flat grill, or the shark tooth grill, but finally settled on the 67 valiant front end. Next over the last few days we cleaned the under side of the car. Sealed it all with KBS coating for rustproofing,and installed a stage three qa1 kit, Moser 8 3/4, and rightstuff brakes.
The tear down went great. Being a Texas car the bolts all came out with little fight in them. Instead of the usual rust I deal with daily (being a shop in Wisconsin),I was only finding dirt,and mud wasp homes that were long abandoned. Underside clean up was dealt with easily with soap,and water leaving a beautiful unpatched, or pitted chassis. We use KBS coatings on all of our builds so it was of course gonna be what sealed the duster. It looks better than new under there now. I have also installed a qa1 k member,and front end kit before so that went flawless. The right stuff brake kit fits with it perfect you just need to remember to tell qa1 your brake plans so they give you the larger upper ball joints. The rear of qa1's kit was a little more challenging. Since I've never done a 6 link setup before I had to follow every step of the directions.(Would have been easier if the parts had the parts numbers on them anywhere) Took the entire day to install,and being that I used a Moser 8 3/4 (the housing is larger) I have to modify the panhard bar to clear, as well as make some spacers to drop the sway bar down 3/4 of an inch. Otherwise it looks great allows me to adjust my ride height easily, and has lots of adjustment for shock stiffness rebound and such. She will be a great street,and track day car when done.
Here are some pictures of the progress so far. Thanks for checking it out.View attachment 1715562325first day home from Texas.View attachment 1715562328 View attachment 1715562329 bowels in or bowels out? lolView attachment 1715562330 new front end. Way cool

View attachment 1715562340 new moser 373's with eaton truetrac

View attachment 1715562342 the parts tree. ready for paint

View attachment 1715562344 part pile is growing. Anyone want?

View attachment 1715562345 underside sealed ready for new parts
View attachment 1715562347 qa1 k member and borgeson power steering box
View attachment 1715562348 qa1 control arms,and right stuff slotted disc brakes. (gonna finish up and paint wheel wells after bodywork is done.)
View attachment 1715562351 View attachment 1715562352 almost done here.Setting pinion angle,and attaching coil overs next.
View attachment 1715562354 new stance with some moch-up rims. Will show more later.
View attachment 1715562351 View attachment 1715562352 almost done here.Setting pinion angle,and attaching coil overs next.
View attachment 1715562354 new stance with some moch-up rims. Will show more later.
Here are some pics outside to see new stance and frontend. Huge difference. Ignore rims,and tires they are not staying(well maybe the backs will they are pretty cool. Will have to get fronts to match)
2020-07-15 14.23.14.jpg
2020-07-15 15.19.23.jpg
 
So after many months of research, shopping,and chat room time we have finally started the duster project. The plan is to do a late model hemi,nag1 conversion with all qa1 suspension upgrades. I will be installing right stuff front, and rear brake conversion kits, as well as many other products that allot of people have been asking about. The project will start out a little slow as the shop still has customer work to complete,but it needs to be completed by the end of October for SEMA. So giddy up!
We bought the car in Texas after many months of searching for the right one( I like complete untouched cars that haven't been hacked on). We luckily got it to the shop (after all the covid delays, and shutdowns) and got the plan rollin. We started by yanking out all the drive train,and suspension(which is all up for grabs),and making some quick changes that I believe made a huge difference in the looks department. First thing was swapping out the 74 hood ,grill ,and bumper. Looked at all the standard swaps.Demon,or 70 72 flat grill, or the shark tooth grill, but finally settled on the 67 valiant front end. Next over the last few days we cleaned the under side of the car. Sealed it all with KBS coating for rustproofing,and installed a stage three qa1 kit, Moser 8 3/4, and rightstuff brakes.
The tear down went great. Being a Texas car the bolts all came out with little fight in them. Instead of the usual rust I deal with daily (being a shop in Wisconsin),I was only finding dirt,and mud wasp homes that were long abandoned. Underside clean up was dealt with easily with soap,and water leaving a beautiful unpatched, or pitted chassis. We use KBS coatings on all of our builds so it was of course gonna be what sealed the duster. It looks better than new under there now. I have also installed a qa1 k member,and front end kit before so that went flawless. The right stuff brake kit fits with it perfect you just need to remember to tell qa1 your brake plans so they give you the larger upper ball joints. The rear of qa1's kit was a little more challenging. Since I've never done a 6 link setup before I had to follow every step of the directions.(Would have been easier if the parts had the parts numbers on them anywhere) Took the entire day to install,and being that I used a Moser 8 3/4 (the housing is larger) I have to modify the panhard bar to clear, as well as make some spacers to drop the sway bar down 3/4 of an inch. Otherwise it looks great allows me to adjust my ride height easily, and has lots of adjustment for shock stiffness rebound and such. She will be a great street,and track day car when done.
Here are some pictures of the progress so far. Thanks for checking it out.View attachment 1715562325first day home from Texas.View attachment 1715562328 View attachment 1715562329 bowels in or bowels out? lolView attachment 1715562330 new front end. Way cool

View attachment 1715562340 new moser 373's with eaton truetrac

View attachment 1715562342 the parts tree. ready for paint

View attachment 1715562344 part pile is growing. Anyone want?

View attachment 1715562345 underside sealed ready for new parts
View attachment 1715562347 qa1 k member and borgeson power steering box
View attachment 1715562348 qa1 control arms,and right stuff slotted disc brakes. (gonna finish up and paint wheel wells after bodywork is done.)
so

So I started working on the duster again this week. We had a small issue with the 6.1 Hemi I was planning on using. So while I save up the cash to build it right I found a good 5.7 to use for now. here are some pics of it, and it's donor.
2020-06-12 12.23.09.jpg

2020-06-12 15.55.03.jpg

2020-06-30 10.10.01.jpg

Here it is all cleaned up. I swapped over a few of the 6.1 parts ( Intake ,coils ,valve covers). I will get it disassembled paint the block ,covers ,and intake. Then we can put on the new oil pan, and all the conversion parts to fit it in the duster. (gonna be running the nag1 with the sound german engineering tcu setup)
With the drivetrain well in hand I figured I would get the patchwork, and panel replacement done. the only parts needing replacement were the trunk floor, and the the lower rear quarters. I started by cutting the main section of the floor out first. Here is what we started with
2020-08-11 15.17.08.jpg

Below is after getting all the spot welds cut out, and the flanges cleaned ,straightened ,and ready for welding in the new floor. I also had to replace the passenger side of the trunk floor as well ,so we cut that, and the lower quarter out while we where at it. Spent a little extra time to remove the spray on sound proofing, and wire wheeled off any surface rust ,loose paint ,and seam sealer. Then I coated the inside of the frame rails with kbs rust coating since we cant get in there later.
2020-08-13 15.42.26.jpg

While the floor was out I took the opportunity to make a few necessary modifications to the QA1 6 link. The Moser rear end we are using (even though it is a stock replacement for the original) has a larger housing than stock. this caused a few problems. I had to clearance the pan hard bar, move one of the tubes that goes behind the pumpkin about an inch, and make some spacers to lower the sway bar mounts so it would clear under the housing. I will post some pics of that later.
2020-08-13 17.47.02.jpg

Now its time to put it all together. We will leave that till tomorrow. Man that's a big hole!
 
so

So I started working on the duster again this week. We had a small issue with the 6.1 Hemi I was planning on using. So while I save up the cash to build it right I found a good 5.7 to use for now. here are some pics of it, and it's donor.
View attachment 1715577769
View attachment 1715577772
View attachment 1715577774
Here it is all cleaned up. I swapped over a few of the 6.1 parts ( Intake ,coils ,valve covers). I will get it disassembled paint the block ,covers ,and intake. Then we can put on the new oil pan, and all the conversion parts to fit it in the duster. (gonna be running the nag1 with the sound german engineering tcu setup)
With the drivetrain well in hand I figured I would get the patchwork, and panel replacement done. the only parts needing replacement were the trunk floor, and the the lower rear quarters. I started by cutting the main section of the floor out first. Here is what we started withView attachment 1715577746
Below is after getting all the spot welds cut out, and the flanges cleaned ,straightened ,and ready for welding in the new floor. I also had to replace the passenger side of the trunk floor as well ,so we cut that, and the lower quarter out while we where at it. Spent a little extra time to remove the spray on sound proofing, and wire wheeled off any surface rust ,loose paint ,and seam sealer. Then I coated the inside of the frame rails with kbs rust coating since we cant get in there later.View attachment 1715577749
While the floor was out I took the opportunity to make a few necessary modifications to the QA1 6 link. The Moser rear end we are using (even though it is a stock replacement for the original) has a larger housing than stock. this caused a few problems. I had to clearance the pan hard bar, move one of the tubes that goes behind the pumpkin about an inch, and make some spacers to lower the sway bar mounts so it would clear under the housing. I will post some pics of that later.
View attachment 1715577765
Now its time to put it all together. We will leave that till tomorrow. Man that's a big hole!
Ther are also pics ,and build videos to look at and follow. Check out Cool Hand Customs on Facebook ,Instagram ,and YouTube.
 
So I started working on the duster again this week. We had a small issue with the 6.1 Hemi I was planning on using. So while I save up the cash to build it right I found a good 5.7 to use for now. here are some pics of it, and it's donor.
2020-06-12-12-23-09-jpg.jpg

2020-06-12-15-55-03-jpg.jpg

2020-06-30-10-10-01-jpg.jpg

Here it is all cleaned up. I swapped over a few of the 6.1 parts ( Intake ,coils ,valve covers). I will get it disassembled paint the block ,covers ,and intake. Then we can put on the new oil pan, and all the conversion parts to fit it in the duster. (gonna be running the nag1 with the sound german engineering tcu setup)
With the drivetrain well in hand I figured I would get the patchwork, and panel replacement done. the only parts needing replacement were the trunk floor, and the the lower rear quarters. I started by cutting the main section of the floor out first. Here is what we started with
2020-08-11-15-17-08-jpg.jpg

Below is after getting all the spot welds cut out, and the flanges cleaned ,straightened ,and ready for welding in the new floor. I also had to replace the passenger side of the trunk floor as well ,so we cut that, and the lower quarter out while we where at it. Spent a little extra time to remove the spray on sound proofing, and wire wheeled off any surface rust ,loose paint ,and seam sealer. Then I coated the inside of the frame rails with kbs rust coating since we cant get in there later.
2020-08-13-15-42-26-jpg.jpg

While the floor was out I took the opportunity to make a few necessary modifications to the QA1 6 link. The Moser rear end we are using (even though it is a stock replacement for the original) has a larger housing than stock. this caused a few problems. I had to clearance the pan hard bar, move one of the tubes that goes behind the pumpkin about an inch, and make some spacers to lower the sway bar mounts so it would clear under the housing. I will post some pics of that later.
2020-08-13-17-47-02-jpg.jpg

Now its time to put it all together. We will leave that till tomorrow. Man that's a big hole!
 
Got the trunk floor welded in today, as well as the passenger side quarter patch. Here are some pics. The AMD parts from summit racing fit like a glove. If I have time tomorrow I will get to the drivers side quarter patch
2020-08-15 18.34.01.jpg
2020-08-15 18.33.45.jpg
2020-08-15 18.34.08.jpg
2020-08-15 18.34.15.jpg
 
Are you keeping the stock tail lights or going with something custom? I ask because you went custom on the nose (and I'm not particularly fond of the '73-6 tail lights).
 
Are you keeping the stock tail lights or going with something custom? I ask because you went custom on the nose (and I'm not particularly fond of the '73-6 tail lights).
Not sure. Haven't been able to find a nice set of stock ones yet so it is still up in the air. Skies the limit though if I find something new cool,or different that I like.
 
If I do another one I'll keep the 74 Tail lights but get rid of the trim around the outside. It really improves the look. At least it does in the couple pictures i have seen.

Cley
 
If I do another one I'll keep the 74 Tail lights but get rid of the trim around the outside. It really improves the look. At least it does in the couple pictures i have seen.

Cley
Thought the same thing ,or black the trim out. Still need to find lenses though for that plan.
 
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