newbee: Need some sound advised on my 70 "H" code Duster!!!

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Dibs

Dibs

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Joined
Nov 21, 2010
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Location
Paris, Texas
Hello All,
Let me intorduce myself, first off Dibs is my middle name (really, it's on my birth cert.) for anyone curious.. I'm a new member and a new dad as of the November 17th!! Believe me, Carter will be raised right from the get-go, in a Mopar!

Here's the advise that I'me seeking: I own a 1970 340 Lime light J5 Duster that my father handed down to me.. okay, I'll be honest.. I went to his house and told him I was taking it ;) The car is all original with the exception of an aftermarket radio and some god aweful interior that my father had re-upolstered in 1987. I own a body shop in Paris Tx, Modern Autobody and the plan is to start restoration in March. My delima is whether to restore this car to it's original state or go to the G-machine side.

Things that I have been thinking about are that it's a mostly all original numbers matching 340 car in J5 green, 4 spd, bucket seats, ralley dash and vinal top. Kind of rare i guess. Oh, and it's a one owner. My father bought it new in Nov 69'. These things make me want to keep it original. On the other hand, I never plan on selling this car. It will hopefully go to Carter one day. And I really like modern technology so the thought of a supercharged 6.1 hemi sounds really nice with a tremec TKO 5spd and of course suspension that would compliment etc..

ps/ I'll post pic's tomorrow.

thoughts/comments?
thanks,
Dibs
 
Welcome to FABO! How about some pics of your car? We would love to see it. Just kind of up to you. It is your car build it as you like. I say build your G machine but don't do any thing that cant be undone so if you ever want to take it back to stock you can. Good luck on your build.
 
:hello2:welcome:hello2:Go stock because its all original. You can then find another duster that isn't a 340 car or anything special for cheap and build it to your wildest dreams8)
And P.S.:worthles:
 
hello and welcome....I also vote for keep it original as ther are enough wong cars out there......you are lucky to have so much originallity.....only my 2 cents cool car 4sp green buckets....go man go
 
restoring the car your dad bought new is just to cool not to do, even more so when it is an original 340 4speed car, so I say keep it stock.
 
Keep it stock. And then as 67valiant 100 says, find a slant 6 or 318 car and modify to your hearts content.
 
Welcome to the site and better yet welcome to fatherhood! My 2 cents are that you should only change things that you can change back. If it makes you happy go for it. But if your dad has a strong opinion maybe his 2 cents should be herd and respected. How would you like your son to handle the situation someday...Cool car, I think that orig combo rocks, abody, 340, 4speed, equals big block az kikker!!!!
 
First of all, Welcome to FABO!!! As for your dilemma, I'd say that you will get opinions on both sides here, but only you will know what path the car will take. I would vote for restoring it to original for a couple reasons...(1) Your Dad will flip when he sits in his car brand new again, and that's something you can't afford not to be there for, and ...(2), I'm a fan of the old school feel of these musclecars...the feel of those hard seats...the music from the motor, not the radio....those pesky squeaks and whistles...no A/C drivin' with the windows down on a warm summer evening...all of the things that make it fun for me!!! But, you do it your way and make your own memories, it's a win/win either way!!! Good luck with your car and welcom once again!!! Geof
 
I say leave it stock as it will always be a wicked cool machine and even better that it was originally built that way.

Regarding doing the resto-mod thing...let me put it this way,imagine if your dad pro-streeted the car in the 80's when that was the big thing...hacked the hood for a huge blower,tubbed it out for the ugly centrelines,multi-colored stripes everywhere,and fake wheelie bars out back.

Today,you'd probably want to slap him silly for butchering an original car then start tossing all that stuff in nearest scrap metal bin and return the car to stock.In 20 years,that's probably what your son will want to do with the resto mod stuff and make the car all original again,if it's possible.

Remember,it's only original once and while modified cars are everywhere,really nice survivors are few and far beetween.
 
Welcome aboard! I vote with the "keep it stock" crowd! As others have stated above, you can always find a /6 car to build to your wildest dreams.
 
I added a photobucket link for pic's of my Duster but I think it waiting on approval from admin?? Thnaks to everyone for the warm welcome. I hope that my other QR with the link is approved soon so that everyone can see what I'm working with. Thanks again.
Dibs-
 
Welcome, nice looking car! I would definetly go original on that one, what a cool rare combo!
 
Welcome Dibs, I think should restore it to original condition and then later build a twin the way you want it. When you are ready, i have the twin in Livingston. It's just a shell but H code 4 speed. Good luck with your car. it looks like a great car. Sometimes i find a-body parts at Canton swap meet. ever go over there?
 
Some information on the car and the pic's that I posted. The interior is abviously not original so be on the look out for some velour seat covers to hit ebay in the future;) The damage on the hood is around eighteen years old. A file cabinet fell in my dads garage and he started to repair it but never finished. The paint is factory color but not the original. Engine and trans are all original, all 153,00 miles of them. I still have the factory valve covers, air cleaner, intake and exhaust manifolds as well as the carb and AM stereo. For those that looked at photobucket, you may have noticed the original Bill of Sale, I found it this evening inthe glove box. There is one dark argent center cap and the other three are the lighter color...does anyone know which was OEM on this car? I have to assume the lighter due to the fact that there are three vs. just the one dark one. I have decided to go with the census and keep it stock. I may upgrade some of the suspension and wheel/tire combo but I'll definetly keep the factory stuff around for the future and shows. This will be a rotisserie resto or at least that's the plan right now. I'll keep everyone posted with photo's when we start the project in March. I will be relying on this community and my dads bad memory to make sure this goes back to "as close to original" as possible. So thank in advance to all that will be answering future questions.
 
You asked so here is my opinion. If you plan to restore the car to stock and get every detail as close as possible, then I'd vote for stock. Otherwise I don't see what it would hurt to restore the body and upgrade everything without harming the original parts. The car can always be put back and since you said you aren't selling it, end value isn't a concern.
 
shanson30 said:
Welcome Dibs, I think should restore it to original condition and then later build a twin the way you want it. When you are ready, i have the twin in Livingston. It's just a shell but H code 4 speed. Good luck with your car. it looks like a great car. Sometimes i find a-body parts at Canton swap meet. ever go over there?
Click to expand...

I have never been. Your talking about Canton Texas? If so that's in my back yard basically. I'll have to check it out, can you give me details as to when and where in Canton?
 
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