The Dust-Turd project.

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Ok, time for an update. Radiator and fan mounted with Grille and hold down strap for the hood. ( bows up in the center at speed, race weight hood)
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Lingenfelter fender/ bumper brackets.
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Removed 12 pounds on the fender/ core support by cutting off all the excess metal in that area.
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New brake lines and MC.
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Pulled the Dana out and cut off the upper and lower shock mounts. Needed to straighten shocks and lose the locator that was two 9/16 heim joints and a coupler(??) Rear end was offset to the drivers side by 1.5 inches.
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Took a lot of time to cut and grind the old mounts off the rear end and upper cross member. Car was a leaf spring with a panhard bar/ wheelie bars, then a ladder bar coil over with the wheelie bars removed. Lots of leftovers.:)
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Housing had a reinforcement on the right side axle tube so i added one on the left, welded on the new shock mounts
and boxed in the ladder bar mounts.
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2 days of grinding, welding and painting later, ready to go back in.

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Added adjusters to the ladder bars and a track locator.
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Off to the inside. Removed the rear filler panel (0.80 sheet metal - 6.5 pounds ) and the cardboard / duct tape filler panels for the rear cage bars.
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Made new fillers from aluminum and a cross panel to flatten the area under the package shelf.
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Found two panels that had no rivets or only thru one panel, might explain the rattles from the rear. Fixed them and made a new package shelf.
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Added sound heat shielding over the complete area.
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Gutted the doors, sanded and repainted them with the rear sail panels black.
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Rebuilt the doors with new seals, locks and handles and weatherstrips. Had to repair the inner doors where the doofy pull handle was installed in all it's billet glory. What are some people thinking?

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Sourced some original door pull mechanisms from a member here and installed them. New deluxe door panels and all new hardware inside. No problem with the arm rest clearing the cross bar.

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Installed new outside handles and door locks, now I can lock the doors! Don't have to keep it within eyesight when I take it out.
 
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Needed new harnesses as they were 8 years old. Bought Simpson latch type black 3" 5 points from Summit. Pulled the seats and removed the useless 12 pound seat bases and sliders as the seats cannot move very much back due to the roll cage.
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Made some seat brackets from aluminum 3" x 3/16th angle. I wanted to use quick release pins to hold the seats so they can be easily removed to work on the car.
Didn't know if the tech guys at the track would go for that, so to strengthen the hole in the bracket and to allow bolt to be installed if needed, I mounted 3/8-16 rivnuts in the bases. The 5/16 quick release pins fit them perfectly.
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So far I have taken 147.5 pounds off the car and added 36 back with the sound deadner over the complete floor pan and firewall. Dash and steering column replacement should save another 20-30 pounds as will installing fiberglass fenders. I want to be 2800 wet with me in the car. Might have to cut off my legs to make it. :)

Freshening up the motor, new scat rods, 644 lift 256 duration@ 50 cam is being ground now, new springs, valves and port work on the heads and intake. Re worked the piston domes and decked the block and heads, should be at 11.0 to 1 and still pump gas friendly, but I will be running 110. New BLP 1036 carb and super sucker spacer.
Should have it on the dyno this week. I will post the results.
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Looks great! I love how you put the doors back to stock and made the interior more detailed.

It's extremely hard and rare to find a pro street type of car to have a somewhat stock appearing interior. Everyone has their own way of doing things and that's OK by me....

JW
 
It's extremely hard and rare to find a pro street type of car to have a somewhat stock appearing interior. Everyone has their own way of doing things and that's OK by me....

JW
Yes, I agree. The goal is to recreate this back to an early 1970's Pro Stock car. I always considered "Pro Street" a compromise, take a street car and make it look like a drag car. This will be more along the lines of the Steve Lisk Challenger, a Pro Stock that is driven on the street.
 
Yes, I agree. The goal is to recreate this back to an early 1970's Pro Stock car. I always considered "Pro Street" a compromise, take a street car and make it look like a drag car. This will be more along the lines of the Steve Lisk Challenger, a Pro Stock that is driven on the street.

You and I would get along. As I told you this was a car I looked at and it was feasible for me to do with it what I wanted which is similar to your efforts.... I looked far and wide for a Steve Lisk type setup and never found it. So I decided to push forward with my current car. Keep us updated....

JW
 
I have a 74 drag race Duster with a higher compression 451 running E-85 fuel. Your find definitely has better suspension. And rear end upgrades. I would be curious on your take on value? I also have a higher HP E-body drag race project. As as well as a B-body street car. thus one may have to go. Due to space and time.

Yours looks to have different period builds? If older pro stock type build? Say mid 70s? That rear setup looks newer than what was available in 70s? So does the front's rack & pinion. My E-body has a 1975 Mustang rack in a Pro Stock attempt back in the day. (Though couldn't compete with the Landy's and Sox Martin's of the day.) And it doesn't look like the aftermarket setup of your Duster.

You have an interesting piece. And very nice car.
 
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Yours looks to have different period builds? If older pro stock type build? Say mid 70s? That rear setup looks newer than what was available in 70s? So does the front's rack & pinion. My E-body has a 1975 Mustang rack in a Pro Stock attempt back in the day. (Though couldn't compete with the Landy's and Sox Martin's of the day.) And it doesn't look like the aftermarket setup of your Duster.

You have an interesting piece. And very nice car.

Here is what me and some old race car guys have surmised about the car as I have run into dead ends trying to find any history.

Looks like the 2x3 frame was done and the cage at the same time. The rack in the car is a 71-72 Ford Pinto part. The lowers control arms are also Pinto, but the upper control arms looked to be Mustang II putting the build after 74. However, the mounting points were modified at some point so the uppers may have been Pinto also when first built.

The rear end was a leaf spring setup with front mounts boxed in the frame and sleeves in the rear rails for the rear of the spring. It had a panhard bar mounted above on the rail with a mount on the right tube of the diff. Five welded attachment points in the front left and four on the right. Looks like wheelie bars were inboard of the springs. Slider ? or ladder bars at this time??? Looked like a chain was welded to the Dana on the right and left sides from the cut off part still attached. Why???? chute???

When I got it it was angled coil overs and the 5 inch long X 9/16 heim joints locating the rear from the old panhard bar mount to the rear end cover. I believe this was when someone was attempting to convert it to a street car.

Brake master is moved about 7/8" outboard on the firewall, why???

The floor was removed from cage mounts back and replaced with sheet metal as were the tubs. Tubs are HUGE as I can fit a 16" x 33" Goodyears under there no problem.

Firewall cut up in places and then just covered with a sheet of .080 metal.

The whole front core and fender supports are made of 3/4" square tubing and held on the frame by two quick disconnect pins. Front bumper held on by a flat sheet-metal bracket.

So there it is.

I am going to replace the dash with a fiberglass one and add a aluminum steering column when I cut out the floor and firewall. Moving the firewall back 4" and the motor. The rest of the frame and car will stay as is.

The drive train will be a 426/ magnesium tunnel ram/ dominators and a CS1 lenco. Hunting a Lenco now. :)
 
I have posted some pics of the 70 Cuda I bought as a rolling body 15 years ago. The car was so modified I decided to keep it Drag race instead of making any attempt to put back to stock. However, I didn't anticipate the E-body explosion that occured. (I always seem to make the wrong choice. But still fun.) As you can see. The firewall heavily cut. The steering moved over to accommodate the 426 hemi that was long gone. Rear is adjustable latter with leaf springs. 32x15" just rub the springs. So smaller tire is needed if to keep standard dana width. You may recognize the Mustang II rack. Who ever did this? Real did a number on it. But ran low 9s in 76. So it had some success. But still was using crashbox A833 when the pros were going clutchless.

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Yes. Motor is off the,K-frame and bolted to plate on frame rail. Set back 7" (I have added mid plate mount on lower frame rail.) The stupid part is what I put in the bay. A 904 ci DOHC Schubeck. The monster does fit in engine well. I'm plumming exhaust forward. (Maybe to turbos?) Because 1200 horse on pump 91 is not enough? Lol. I figure why not be crazier than the small team that attempted running with the big boys?

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I thought you might appreciate some madness?
 
I am strangely aroused right now...........:thumbsup:
Lol. It's a size thing. But once you start thinking the safety factor? It goes away. This thing scares me. I'm anticipating some serious chassis and traction issues. The motor is all aluminum. Thus weighing in about 770lbs. Simular to weight of a steel hemi. And sitting right where the 800 hp hemi sat so many years ago. So it may take it. The Dana has 4.88:1 gears. Way too steep for this size motor. Red line of the 904 is 6500. (6" stroke. 4.9" bore ) So 3.54:1 is needed. This should knock down some of the lower end torque. Which is stupid high. 1150 ft /lbs at 3000 rpm on flywheel.
 
Sorry to hi jack your post. I am interested on your Duster efforts. As I posted. I too have a Duster. And am always interested in comparing apples to apples. Your 70 of course is more desirable than a 74. And as I noted. Your suspension and rear setup superior to my standard length 8 3/4 with Super Stock springs. The rear is Mosier axled spooled 4:56:1 gear. That grabs nice.

It also has a clever steel tilt front end. But I would trade straight up.

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Very nice work, and somehow silver paint on a Duster just looks right. You and Denny should get a photo of the cars together, again great work.

Jeff
 
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