The Disuster

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Loggato

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 28, 2019
Messages
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Location
Central Kansas
Hey all. Just thought I'd keep a picture account of my latest purchase - a '74 Duster. Previously I've had my arms deep in the engine bay of my V8 5.4L AMG swapped Mercedes SLK. Fortunately that project is now reliable and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. If anything, that project highlighted just how much I dislike computers and electronics. It's dark magic!

Anyways, I rescued this at a farm a few miles outside of town. Has the good ole 225 and was sitting for 8 years at it's current spot. The owner told me it was last Titled in 1999, but no title exists to this day! No problem as Kansas will allow antique vehicles to be sold with Bill of Sale.

anyway. some pictures from the grave..

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Disuster is a bad nickname for this car... because it's not really a disaster, in fact it's a pretty good solid starting point for a nice restoration!

I got to work pretty quick on it.. as I haven't had a solid project in a while. So far I've purchased a new gas tank, new fuel sending unit and pickup and spark plug wires. The Holley 1945 was functional, but took some fiddling to get the accelerator pump to function properly, almost like the rubber plunger was getting hung up. The engine was pretty tight. I poured some oil down the holes and spun it - did the trick!

Short version: it's now running on clean gas. took it for a quick spin around the block, makes good power, but only one of the brakes was kind-of working.. that will be my next job.

And now.. some cleaning and a set of tires later:

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Looks like a real good start!! Just needs a bath!
Don't let the guys back East in the Rust belt know about Ks. They will show up and buy all the old projects, No wait, they are too cheap to pay the trucking! They rather deal with rusted turds. lol
 
Don't let the guys back East in the Rust belt know about Ks. They will show up and buy all the old projects, No wait, they are too cheap to pay the trucking! They rather deal with rusted turds. lol
No time to trailer back a solid car when it’s all tied up in cutting and welding sheet metal lol
 
I had the gauge cluster out to replace the speedometer cable and also remove the crusty old dash pad.. and then I got carried away with the painters tape. Went with a metallic silver, then accented it with matte black, but the matte didn't work so well! At any rate, it turned out pretty good. I even ended up 2000 grit sanding the lenses and polishing them to get rid of the haze. I have enough pictures for a writeup if one doesn't exist already.

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So as for these door panels, does anyone have a good method of re-attaching it to the board? It was bundled up in the back seat when I got the car. Currently I'm getting it stretched back out little by little. I just pull on it and re tighten the clamps. It looks like it was stapled from the back, but on the bottom there just isn't enough material left! My current plan is to staple through the front in the seems and cover the lower area with some other fabric. not sure what just yet!

Either that or buy a door card in better shape!

more to come...

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I bet the vinyl is brittle. I have had luck sometimes softening the yinyl with baby oil Body man told me decades ago, ArmourAll is the worst possible thing for vinyl.
 
I bet the vinyl is brittle. I have had luck sometimes softening the yinyl with baby oil Body man told me decades ago, ArmourAll is the worst possible thing for vinyl.

yeah it's brittle on the edges where it has come unwrapped. everywhere else still feels soft and flexible. I think I'm just going to try and make it look decent until a replacement comes along.
 
yeah it's brittle on the edges where it has come unwrapped. everywhere else still feels soft and flexible. I think I'm just going to try and make it look decent until a replacement comes along.
Sometimes you can place a wanted ad for good used panels on here. Legendary repops the panels not sure for every yr duster?? They are quality but no cheap either.
 
This car reminds me of my Dart Sport when i started.
(See my build thread at the bottom of my post)
Good luck with the car and post as many pictures as you can, we love 'em!
 
This car reminds me of my Dart Sport when i started.
(See my build thread at the bottom of my post)
Good luck with the car and post as many pictures as you can, we love 'em!

Wow it sure does! Good ole Sherwood Metallic! I haven't seen many (or any for that matter) with that color.
 
yeah it's brittle on the edges where it has come unwrapped. everywhere else still feels soft and flexible. I think I'm just going to try and make it look decent until a replacement comes along.

I had some luck using a heat gun to soften the vinyl and then smearing 3m weatherstrip adhesive underneath and then stretching it out and placing books on top to keep it flat while the adhesive dried. Didn't get the small ripple effect out of some areas but overall they looked better than what I started with.
 
I had some luck using a heat gun to soften the vinyl and then smearing 3m weatherstrip adhesive underneath and then stretching it out and placing books on top to keep it flat while the adhesive dried. Didn't get the small ripple effect out of some areas but overall they looked better than what I started with.

Did yours have a layer of foam between the vinyl and the board? That's the only thing keeping me from just gluing it all down.
 
Did yours have a layer of foam between the vinyl and the board? That's the only thing keeping me from just gluing it all down.

Oh no mine was on a 67 Barracuda so it was just glued right to the board originally. I didn't know they put foam in on the later models.
 
Wow it sure does! Good ole Sherwood Metallic! I haven't seen many (or any for that matter) with that color.
Agreed.
If you need touch up paint, Dupli Color sells KG8 in small spray bombs, and it works quite well.
About 2/3 of my car is painted with them..............
 
Yesterday I made some new rockers using my neighbors little harbour freight brake press. just did a number or small steps to get the shape required.. of course I will need bondo to really smoothen it out, but the general shape is nearly dead on! Also started on a template for the shackle mount but it got late. I will keep notes, I'm sure someone else will need one eventually! The main bad areas are drivers floor, shackle mount, rockers and both rear quarters. There are also a couple of frame areas that need attention, but that will require removal of the K-frame.. for another time.

I was hoping to save money by doing the rockers and floor myself.. unfortunately the rear quarters are just a little too much shape to try and match!

In other news: I got all the gauges working! I am both super happy and also surprised! I've never had good luck with old gauges... The fix was to sand the copper surfaces that the two nuts (per gauge) tighten down onto on the back of the cluster. now I need to figure out why none of the lights work. They work in the radio and HVAC, but not in the gauge cluster.

Also Found a set of matching 14" tires. they are a little weather checked, but not as bad as what's on the car now!

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Tonight I began on the drivers floor. the worst spot on the entire car. I started with my wire cup on it, which revealed A LOT more swiss cheese than I thought was there. Fortunately, besides for a couple of small areas, the rear and the passenger side are both solid!

So in order to keep some of the original shape and also make it easier for myself, I sectioned off the area by finding which areas could be reused, and then I will essentially just fill in the areas which were rusted out instead of replacing the whole area. It looks like the sections that are above the unibody rails are still strong enough that I kept them there. I cut out most of the flat area and also some of the more simple rounded sections that will be easy to recreate. the toughest area will be behind the pedals, where the firewall flange mates up to the floor flange.. I will have to find a way to recreate this flange and then put a couple of minor bends in it so it matches up with what was there. In the end, I dont mind if you can see the patches, but I dont want this to look like someone just threw metal at a bunch of holes - I will try to keep all the steel flush with the old floor... butt joint welds instead of lap joints that is... fun!

before I started cutting, I determined this car will only be valuable as a driver... so I'd like to make as clean of a driver as possible.

before moving on, I need to do something about inside the unibody rails. Is there something I can spray inside there? a rust converter? what is everyone's recommendation?

thanks for watching! stay tuned!

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Grind the welds with a flap disc, some epoxy primer, some heavy rustoleum over that, some asphalt roof caulk in the seams, , good to go.
 
Check your rheostat in the headlight switch. It may be dirty, and may not have a good enough ground
 
Check your rheostat in the headlight switch. It may be dirty, and may not have a good enough ground

The dimmer works for the radio and heater, is it possible that the rheostat controls the cluster separately? I will add that the turn signal lights on the cluster stopped working too.
 
I bet it's a bad gage cluster to dash frame ground, Try separate ground wire from gage cluster metal bucket to the car body.
 
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