Swapped to Muscle - 75 Duster Daily build

I'm shocked! What you have here is a near clone of my 75 Duster, which is a 318 with a factory three speed transmission, floor mounted shifter, white interior with black carpet, same dash panels, same tail end trim and same Lucerne Poly Blue paint. It looks as though you even had the white vinyl on the forward part of the roof as well. The only obvious difference is mine has bucket seats. I drove my car for years with aluminum rims in the rear and the stock rally rims up front. Nice!

Just out of curiosity, how are your white plastic interior parts holding up? By the time my car was about six years old the A pillar covers were beginning to crumble due to UV rays. I'm wondering if that's a common problem or was something up with mine? It's because of this issue that I traded my white interior for black.

The plastic interior parts like the pillars, doors, headliner trim, etc are "ok". Some places they seem to be brittle but mostly just discolored. They are more like a "cream" than a white. Definitely more yellow now compared to the seats.

The wire nuts under the dash are always a red flag for me...

lol I agree. Im guessing that is part of the reason for some of the oddities in the interior lighting and some of the exterior lighting. But I dont have a wiring diagram to check it out. I will be using the one that is on Moparts for a 74 (or 73?) to get a bit of a baseline when I dive into the electrical.

Cool build! And in my own backyard.

Trying to think of any spare parts I have that could be useful, but coming up pretty blank. I do have a pair of UCA’s with decent ball joints but one is cross threaded and is probably junk after the balljoint wears out. Should be useable, until then, though.

Couple of thoughts;

I would check any BBP axles to see what bearing they use. Many use “Green” ball bearings instead of the factory roller bearings. Some pluses and minuses to both, but I would avoid them for a cornering rig. No idea if they have any durability issues for normal (daily) driving. And I think most rear disk brake kits use them as well. Might be that they are ok, just something for you to be aware of.

You don’t need need lower control arms to replace the LBJ. The LBJ bolts onto the spindle and the stud goes into the LCA. I would look at new TB pivot bushings and bracing plates and just use what you have. Unless you want to spend the money for aftermarket LCA. Might add sway bar brackets if you don’t have them.

Can’t think of anything else, but I am local if you want to look at another 4 speed Duster to compare or something.

That is interesting about the green ball bearings. It will eventually become a bit of a corner carver for sure. I would get the tapered bearings if I had a press to be able to install them on the axles. I have been eyeing the stock axle package from Dr. Diff minimally and they install the green bearings but not the tapered bearings.

I will likely need to get new bushings for the TB pivot point... Some of the kits I was looking at for new TBs have that so that would be taken care of at that time. But that would be a later date. I am just looking to get it stable on the road to be a good driver.

Also, it would be great to be able to look at a good running Duster to see what all needs to get done and be used as a reference point for sure. :D That would be greatly appreciated, in addition, to any parts. :D