Project 72.......

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Texas Red

Old Flunky
FABO Gold Member
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Location
Lake Corpus Christi
Project 72 came from craigslist around the Austin Texas area. The car came from the Midland TX area so it was fairly clean body wise and does not have too rust areas to repair and it had good paperwork so after striking up a deal it came home to my outside storage garage. I am currently trying to put the finishing touches on Project 53 Dodge B series tuck which is another story. I am a new-be here so if I post something incorrectly I am sure that I will get corrected but did read the guidelines on posting. I will Post Project 53 at a little later date but check out project 72 . It seems that it has been raced in the past but has not had too much abuse ...thus another reason for bringing it home. It needs lots of Love ...Chime in Gary
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That looks to be a very good start for whatever build you have in mind.
 
Love the old 80s Dodge trucks ......They were bullet proof with just a little care....
Project 53 has a 87 roller cam engine 318 ...mild build. Runs excellent and pulls the truck around great.
In all my years of having cars I have never had a big block car other than a 1968 Chrysler New Yorker. Talk about a boat....That thing had a 383 in it and rode better than ANY other car I ever had in my life. I can still remember how that car would float going down the highway.......Enough on that

Got some things still pending on Project 53 center console, overhead console, stereo sub install, amp, finish stereo wiring, kich panels speakers .............you get the drift....

So just like project 53 got a legal pad out writing down a few ideas .....mainly trying to figure out a engine transmission combo for the build.
Let me make this statement ......This is my first Dodge/Plymouth car build. There has been Fords and Chevrolets in my stable because of partnerships reason, past race cars etc..... Most peoples been here before.....
If I am going the wrong way during this build.....Please feel free to point me in the right direction.....
My Main objective is to build something very safe, good handling, good running and something that will handle power if its there under the hood and a car that can be something I am not ashamed to say Yep I built it.

So Chime in
I WANT TO BUILD IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME
I will doing 99 % of the work myself and will have very little outside help (other than my bride ...hold this while I tack it etc...) Yes I am lucky to have one of those wives ....
No matter what I do I want to build it for a big block and then if I do decide to go the small block route then if at a later date I will not have any problems doing the swap.......Maybe that's the wrong approach but I don't think so.......
Looking at the car and it being a uni body the first thing on the list looks like to me getting some kind of box frame built underneath the car, select a cage (8 or 10 point), right K member as it has a K member for a slant 6 in it ......
I am one of those whom has to have a game plan, have a things to do work board and go from there.....
This will not be a rush build ......

Your thoughts?
 
Good morning from South Texas....Wow the good lord blessed us with some great cool weather...but today we are back to the good old gulf breeze...hot and muggy. Gotta love South Texas. ..................................
Been racking the brain my (that 1/4 of one cell I got left) trying to come to a decision on exactly what direction to go and what exactly I want to end up with with Project 72 at the end of the day. Everybody knows there is never enough HP and yeah adding another kit is only good for a little while until the next bottle is needed.......
First I have to take in consideration that Project 53 (Which I am still working on detail wise is still not finished up...Its never finished) has exhausted a very nice bank account and I made mention to the wife that The duster was out in one of the out buildings just colleting dust and she said it can just keep on collecting dust because the bank is closed! Indefinitely!!! She will come around so I finely decided that I want to build a low budget street car, No AC, manual steering manual brakes Small block 360 stroked out to 408 CI, 4 speed car with a good built rear end 3.55 rear gear so it can be driven on the street to go to the local burger joint, a cruise in etc.... I am still going to build a cage, box frame it all the way to the front, sub frame tie ins what ever is needed to build it right. Does anyone have a good book out on upgrades to the A body that I can purchase? Please advise

This being my first Mopar car build I am thinking a 8.3/4 rear end will handle 500HP without any problem. Looking underneath the 72 Duster rear fender well I can already see that the spring perches will have to be moved to the inside of the frame rails, mini tubs are in order and the addition of a single mono leaf will be the ticket to get some decent rubber under the back of car...... Please chime in as I probably should have done a search as this has been asked several hundred times. Just looking to not go the wrong direction ....Thank you in advance.

ope
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Dumb dumb me probably never mentioned that this was a slant 6.... 3 on the tree car so I have to do something with it. Thanks
 
Tell her you will build the Duster for her as a mild street car & add improvements as you go. Once you have it built, let her drive it & 10 to 1 she will drive it a few times & walk away from it. LMAO
 
Alright Mopar Duster builders ...pictures are worth a thousand words
Picture #1 underneath the right side of the car, looking at where the front of the leaf spring bolts to the body. At this point the leaf spring is parallel with what seems to be a frame rail, (This is not a frame rail but body strength but is a boxed in portion of the body forming what looks like a square frame rail)
The front of the spring bushing mount is nothing more than a flat plate that is bolted to the body
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This next picture is on the inside of the frame rail where I want to move the leaf spring to (build new point which will be a flat plate mounting point in which to mount the
front leaf spring bushing mount to (Front leaf spring mount is shown out side the frame rail but in its factory location) My goal mini tub project 72 and move the leaf springs inside the frame rails. Keep in mind that I have a 7 3/4 rear end in the car. Its not going to handle any kind of power. So a 8 3/4 or a 9 inch Ford is going to have to be built to replace the 7 3/4 ...........Keep looking
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Rear leaf spring mounts .....Looking at rear leaf spring mount ....MUMMM I see bolts and what looks like a flat area that the spring mount is bolted to...
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Red, been there, done that. How do you think I ended up with my bracket car. My wife wanted to drive it so I put her in it & let her make a foot brake pass. She left on green, front end came up about 6", she shut it down & coasted down the track, back to the pits, took off the helmet & jacket. She looked at me & said, "It's all yours honey, I'll just help out in the pits".
 
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Lets look at the back of this mount ........The back of this mount cant be seen but again its nothing more than a flat area that the rear leaf spring mount is bolted
to..HUMMMMMM. Lets look to the left ....the frame rail looks to be open there ...where I could move the rear spring mount to with a little fabrication
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Finally lets look at the inside of the frame rail.....By golly it appears to me that moving the spring location mounts on project 72 will be easy creating a whole lot of space between the frame rail in the wheel opening. I little metal fab and we will have a big rear wheel opening....What do you think? Yep that's the rear spring perch
mount in the bottom corner of picture so the inside of the frame rail is open and free game

t in
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The spare tire well has had it ....and the factory tank has got to go since the leaf springs will be taken up some space there but a new foam fiolled fuel cell should be in order anyway.

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Well look at that you might not see a new 10 gallon polyurethane fuel cell right there in that spot ...but I do

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As far as the springs go, look into a spring relocation kit from Mancini it moves the springs inboard of the subframe.
 
Get a patch for the tire well & put the fuel cell with a frame in it with a hole cut for the sump.
 
10-4 .....where is this spring relocation kit available from ???????????? Or who? Never heard of those folks . Please advise
 
Project 53 (53 Dodge B series truck- Factory 9 foot bed) 318 runs about 3500-3600 running down the road at 75-80...with the current 3.55 rear end. So after some digging in one of my junk yards I came across a 1985 Dodge d-150 that had this 3.21 factory limited slip "Holbrook " Carrier in the rear end. My buddy whom owns a clutch and rear end shop tells me that that Holbrook is aftermarket and a find. (A blind hog can find a nut every now and then) I do believe that the good Lord was smiling on me that day. It was in need of a go over so here is what it looks like now ....ready for rebuild .. This is a 9 -1/4 rear end....31 spline axles ...yep that folks is a real rear end.
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