The Saga of Purple Haze
Well it's now spring 1990 and once again I am going to another duty station this time back to the east coast Baltimore Maryland. When I got to Maryland there was no place for me to keep the Duster, so it went into storage at my parents home in N.Y., for the next 4 yrs till I retired. After about a year there I found a nice 73 225 Duster for $600, so I figured I had all the stuff from the 70 I would put in the 73 and have a nice little 340 car again. So I purchased the car and used it for a year as a D.D. I located an 8 3/4 rear after searching for several months with 3.91 gears and a sure grip that would bolt right in. The next month I spent rebuilding it getting it ready to go. It was now May and warming up nicely so I took 2 weeks leave and went home to N.Y. to do all the work. Everything went together nice and when it was finished I took it to my sister's house in Patchogue for it's maiden voyage. The motor ran great, even better than when it was in the 70. The 3.91's gave the 73 some new found grunt that the 3.23 in the 70 did not provide. After about a year as my D.D. I put a six pack on it and used it till I retired in 94 and returned to N.Y. I'm real sorry I never took any pic's of that car before I sold it to a child hood friend back in N.Y. He had it repainted and it was absolutely gorgeous. Well it was now 97 and with the money from the sale of the 73 it was time to get back to work on the 70. I purchased the rest of the parts needed to assemble the engine and bought a full race 727 and tree master converter from ATI. As I gathered up the rest of the parts the hole family was moving to AZ. So we decided to join them. We put the house up for sale and I went to work getting the 70 together. It turned out I had just enough time to get it finished so we could move to AZ. So in July we loaded up the Rider put the 70 on a trailer and off to AZ we went. After finding a new home I needed a new vehicle that's when I purchased a brand new 98 Dakota R/T. I had an 86 Chrysler Le Baron turbo that I sold and an old 74 Ford F250 4x4 which I decided I would fix up and use as my hunting and D.D. Between the Dakota and fixing up the Ford I was pretty low on funds and put the 70 on the back burner again. I finished the Ford in the summer of 99 and used it for 3 yrs before selling it to my nephew. By this time the gas prices were starting to rise and I wanted to get a small 4x4. I found an 86 Toyota P/U which was pretty beat up in the interior and needed an engine but the body was in great shape. Even the paint later buffed out nicely. So I picked it up put a rebuilt engine in it and started building it. Which latter became a full blown rock crawler project. Needless to say the Duster sat idle. Just a couple of pic's of the Dakota and the Toy before and after.
More to follow.
Well it's now spring 1990 and once again I am going to another duty station this time back to the east coast Baltimore Maryland. When I got to Maryland there was no place for me to keep the Duster, so it went into storage at my parents home in N.Y., for the next 4 yrs till I retired. After about a year there I found a nice 73 225 Duster for $600, so I figured I had all the stuff from the 70 I would put in the 73 and have a nice little 340 car again. So I purchased the car and used it for a year as a D.D. I located an 8 3/4 rear after searching for several months with 3.91 gears and a sure grip that would bolt right in. The next month I spent rebuilding it getting it ready to go. It was now May and warming up nicely so I took 2 weeks leave and went home to N.Y. to do all the work. Everything went together nice and when it was finished I took it to my sister's house in Patchogue for it's maiden voyage. The motor ran great, even better than when it was in the 70. The 3.91's gave the 73 some new found grunt that the 3.23 in the 70 did not provide. After about a year as my D.D. I put a six pack on it and used it till I retired in 94 and returned to N.Y. I'm real sorry I never took any pic's of that car before I sold it to a child hood friend back in N.Y. He had it repainted and it was absolutely gorgeous. Well it was now 97 and with the money from the sale of the 73 it was time to get back to work on the 70. I purchased the rest of the parts needed to assemble the engine and bought a full race 727 and tree master converter from ATI. As I gathered up the rest of the parts the hole family was moving to AZ. So we decided to join them. We put the house up for sale and I went to work getting the 70 together. It turned out I had just enough time to get it finished so we could move to AZ. So in July we loaded up the Rider put the 70 on a trailer and off to AZ we went. After finding a new home I needed a new vehicle that's when I purchased a brand new 98 Dakota R/T. I had an 86 Chrysler Le Baron turbo that I sold and an old 74 Ford F250 4x4 which I decided I would fix up and use as my hunting and D.D. Between the Dakota and fixing up the Ford I was pretty low on funds and put the 70 on the back burner again. I finished the Ford in the summer of 99 and used it for 3 yrs before selling it to my nephew. By this time the gas prices were starting to rise and I wanted to get a small 4x4. I found an 86 Toyota P/U which was pretty beat up in the interior and needed an engine but the body was in great shape. Even the paint later buffed out nicely. So I picked it up put a rebuilt engine in it and started building it. Which latter became a full blown rock crawler project. Needless to say the Duster sat idle. Just a couple of pic's of the Dakota and the Toy before and after.
More to follow.
