The Dust-Turd project.

William Gusler · Dec 9, 2018

Decided to post the saga of the 70 Duster project I have started. A little background, Found the car for sale on a Mopar facebook group. 1970 Duster 340 4 speed drag car converted to a street car, 452 Ray Barton 400 stroker 10.5 to 1, Stage 6 ported heads, M-1 intake, 750 Holley, a 727 and narrowed Strange Dana 60. Owner was unsure of the details of the car as he bought it in its current form. Would only accept cash on the pretence of tax reason. Flew up to Indy and checked it out, but no test drive as it was raining all day. Bought the car cash and paid an additional $400.00 to have the seller replace the mufflers with some stainless Flowmasters. (He owned a muffler shop).

Car was picked up 2 weeks later and delivered. Seller did not install the mufflers as he didn't have time and put them in the car. They were not the stainless, but the standard $99.00 outlaw mufflers. 400.00 for 200.00 worth of parts? Oh well.

Unloaded the car from the transport, ran it up to the shop and put it on the lift for a quick check up. Looked ok so we took it for a drive. Ran good, tracked correctly and stopped. full 2x3 frame and cage, tubbed with coil overs / ladder bar rear, Strange rear discs, Pinto rack and Mustang II control arms and GM disk on the front. Good starting point. Back to the house to fix the shifter ( Installed backwards) and then a short test drive. 1 mile out while cruising along at 2500 RPM it started popping back thru the carb. Killed the motor and called a wrecker.

Found the #6 EX pushrod broke the cup off the end. Found the cup and pulled the rockers. Yikes! Crane gold Race 1.5 rockers were all out of adjustment and some had the ball of the adjuster bottomed out in the rocker. Cups on the PR hitting the rocker body and the rocker also hitting the retainer on the other side. (looks like it had several valve train related failures in the past)

PR were stock length B block 8.565 Crower 0.80 (13) with 3 stock Mopar 8.65s. Noticed something under the valley plate, pulled the intake and found some cardboard in the lifter valley.

Safe to say someone with no business touching anything mechanical was fighting out of their weight class in this case.

Called Ray Barton and he said the motor would not use stock length PRs. I ordered a set of Harland Sharp rockers to replace the beat up Cranes and are waiting for them to be made and delivered. I can then get an exact measurement, check the valvetrain geometry and order some new PRs. Hurry up and wait.

Abodybomber · Dec 9, 2018

Nice find ,best of luck.

RustyRatRod · Dec 9, 2018

I wish my turds looked like that. lol

William Gusler · Dec 9, 2018

Had a couple of old racers and a chassis builder look the car over. Both think it was an old pro stock car or built very close to one. The master was moved over 1"to the right, so they think it had a Hemi in it at some point. The coil overs in the front also have heavy springs making the front ride kinda high with the current motor's weight. If my wallet can stand it, it will have a Hemi in it one day

Waiting on parts, decided to address the ugly insides. Pulled seats, shifter and carpet and the floor pans looked to be in good shape. Some surface rust and a lots of drilled holes. Looked like a test panel from a drill factory. Metal conditioner a wire brush, some zinc oxide primer and a double coat of rustoleum.
In round two of idiots working on cars, the roll cage in the car was completely covered in A/C line insulation for padding, but not with ty wraps like a normal person, oh no. The bars were painted with carpet adhesive and then padded. Took five hours of scraping and sanding to remove it all and then prime and re-paint the cage.

As much as I hate to add weight, I covered the complete floor pan and firewall with heat reflective sound deadener, cleaned and re-installed the carpet, shifter and two new Corban seats.

Removed the huge Tach and shift light( I guess it's for people who can't read/count and why do you need both???) mounted to the ashtray under the dash???? Gave the giant clock face tach to a buddy and put a old school Auto Meter on the dash. Found an old 14.5" Superior 500 three spoke racing wheel to replace the hideous 12" Grant ricer wheel in the car. Want to keep it as period correct as possible, and re create an early 70's Pro Stocker in the end. Raised the back up 2" , looks better now but still too high in the front. I will drop the front after I swap out the 7" Milodon pan for the 5.5" road race pan for clearance.

William Gusler · Dec 9, 2018

More pics. That grille will be up for sale soon.......shark tooth on the way

William Gusler · Dec 10, 2018

Have all the door parts now with the exception of the new door panels, that will be the next project. Doors had the inside actuators removed and a pull handle release installed up high with the cheezy billet handles. All the stock parts are going back on but no arm rests. I believe I can install the arm rest base without the pad and still clear the side bar. Without the base, no way to close the door. Anyone run into this with a cage and have ideas? Any shorter bases or a narrower arm rest?

cawcislo · Dec 11, 2018

Car is looking great. I also can't stand when people hack things up. If you don't have the skill and knowledge to do something - don't do it. And once you find one thing that's been hacked up makes you wonder what else is jimmy-rigged. You start to feel the need to go through absolutely everything in the car to make sure there's no other hidden surprises.

William Gusler · Dec 11, 2018

Yes, it is frustrating, but it also gives me the satisfaction of working my way thru the car and fix the messes. My son wants to drive it and others keep asking me to take it to the track. Not until I have gone over every square inch and make sure its all good. I'm not a great judge of how fast a car is by seat of the pants, but 2800 pounds and 500+ HP sure moves in a hurry to me.

I forgot how much fun that is.

HemiDenny · Dec 12, 2018

nice job....nice ride. Looks like you have built a good looking hot rod to have all kinds of fun.

William Gusler · Dec 19, 2018

So we received the correct .290 offset intake rockers from Harland Sharp and the correct length Smith Brothers pushrods on Monday. Cleaned everything up and got them installed on the motor. Didn't notice this until I was done..........

Oops! the rocker will not allow the valve cover to seat. Called HS and the said to just contour the corners on the 4 end rockers and all is good. OK.

The tech from HS said they may be a clearance issue with the valve cover in the intake side...........Yup. Started it up and could feel them hitting the cover. On their recommendation, took the rockers off and cut .080 off the adjuster flat end. Said it will not void my warranty. Started it up and it's all good. Need to get it up to temp and then re set the valves tomorrow and hopefully have time to change the oil pan. I'l, try to remember to snap some pictures of the cut rockers.

Speaking of oil pans, as an FYI, the road race Milodon pan part number 31580 from Summit suggests windage tray 32005. Nope, will not fit without hacking a holes for the pick up tube. 32006 is the correct pan according to Milodon. I will update at to the fit after install.

William Gusler · Dec 20, 2018

Rocker installed after milling them. Re set the valves hot and it runs great. Oil pan in the am

cawcislo · Dec 21, 2018

Well those are definitely "custom" one off rockers now!

William Gusler · Dec 21, 2018

Oil pan is done. Bit of a challenge with the windage tray. The openings for the pickup are a bit off, the pickup pushes the tray forward and bolts will not line up.

Had to do a bit of cutting to gain clearance.

Fit fine after this and is a bit safer for street driving now. 1.5 inches more ground clearance.

Replaced the rubber lines on the fuel tank and pump/filter today in addition.

New MSD 6A, distributor and wires tomorrow. I may take it out for a spin after.

William Gusler · Dec 24, 2018

Busy last 2 days, MDS 6AL, distributor and new wires installed, timing locked at 34 degrees. Newly built BLP 750 Holley on and it idles great runs perfect on 93 pump gas w/ no detonation. ( They are building me a 900CFM to replace it)

Replaced battery cables with 2.0 welding cable, ran both power and ground to the front, replaced the main fuse with a 60A breaker and replaced all the related wiring.

Replaced a leaking tranny line and installed the sharktooth grille. Grille came with black headlight bezels and the grille was argent. Sprayed the grille black on the top and bottom. Not sure if I like it or not, but its growing on me. Can always re shoot it in argent.

Driving it around for the last couple days, I can safely say that 500+HP in a 2800 pound car is some scary stuff. I rode 8 second street bikes with no bars that didn't faze me, this is diffrent. The Duster made me say "oh s***" out loud the first time I really hammered on it. Drove home smiling like a little kid. Merry Christmas to me.

turbodart68 · Dec 26, 2018

Man I am leery to buy someone else car because of the very reasons you are experiencing. Looks like you know what you are doing and all will be good. I love the black out on the shark tooth grill!!

William Gusler · Dec 26, 2018

Well, I am very happy with the car despite some of the questionable details. I guess you can always find problems when you buy and old car or someones project, but who wants a 100% completed car? Where's the fun in that?

I think I am going to keep the black on the grille, breaks up all the silver on the car.

Six pack hood is on the stand getting prepped for paint by next week!

William Gusler · Dec 28, 2018

Found an Auto Stick 3 NOS to replace the Turbo Action, keeping the period correct theme going

William Gusler · Jan 2, 2019

Auto Stick installed and new AN lines to the cooler that were leaking a bit. Hood is prepped and ready to get mounted and painted.

turbodart68 · Jan 5, 2019

Sweet! I like both additions!!!

William Gusler · Jan 11, 2019

Hood is painted and installed. All new front suspension and brakes are ordered and some new adjustable coil overs from Chassis Works.

William Gusler · Feb 2, 2019

Completed the trunk rehab, moved the battery, cut out the old floor center( it was .080 STEEL and heavy as hell) filled the drill holes in the floor and made new panels. Used the POR 50 two part epoxy for the holes, that stuff is great! Stripped out the carpet and put a couple cotes of Zolotone and back together.

William Gusler · Feb 2, 2019

Mounted and installed a set of 15x4 and 15x13 Crager Super Trick wheels, new titanium wheel halve bolts and two NOS center caps.

SLOPAR72 · Feb 3, 2019

William Gusler said:
Mounted and installed a set of 15x4 and 15x13 Crager Super Trick wheels, new titanium wheel halve bolts and two NOS center caps. View attachment 1715284571 View attachment 1715284572 View attachment 1715284573

Wow.... where did you find those at? I saw you had the other wheels up for sale.... I'm glad to see it went to someone who was going to clean some of the things up on it. You're having fun doing it or so I hope and it's already light years ahead of when you first got it.....

Keep it up,
JW