Project “Ghost Duster”, 1970 Duster Corner Carver

fishmarket · May 11, 2020

Installed radiator core support and new AMD inner fenders.

I scuffed the back of the inner fender with red scotch brite and used weld through primer on the areas that would be inaccessible after they were installed. I really hate the primer, it makes the welds really crappy. Even if you grind it off in the spots to be welded it still contaminates the weld. Lately I’ve just been using POR15 and grinding off where the weld will be.

fishmarket · May 13, 2020

After the rails and inner fenders were welded I decided to make a lower rad core support. It’s .100” wall 2x2 tubing. I milled slots all the way through the tube and cut the metal away leaving only two sides. Then I cut out some plates with the shape of the radius bend that I was looking for. I tack welded a piece of sheet metal with the same inner radius as the plates, plasma cut a hole for a c-clamp to pull against and clamped the side of the tube against the sheet metal guide and tacked it in place.

fishmarket · May 13, 2020

Next I welded in the j-shaped plates and bent the outer side of the tube against the plate and tacked it together. I then cut the tacks off and removed the guide and fully welded the plates to the tube, inside and out, and cut the support to the desired height. Finally I dressed the outside welds and DA sanded with 60 grit to make the plates seamless and aesthetically pleasing.

fishmarket · May 13, 2020

...and here’s the finished product.

fishmarket · May 16, 2020

I made some subframe connectors from 1 1/2 x 3, 1/8” tube. It’s the perfect height to not have to cut through the rear floor. Held them in with a jack and tacked them in place.

fishmarket · May 16, 2020

Again, having the floor pans out made welding on top of the subframe connectors super easy. Now it’s time to replace those floors. I cheaped out and bought the Sherman parts units. I think I only paid about $75 each but they aren’t exactly the best quality. They’ll be covered with sound deadened in the end anyway but if I did it again I’d probably just buck up and go AMD. The Sherman’s have slits cut in them to prevent fold over because their dies are cheap (I’m a tool and die maker). It’s just extra work and grinding to have to deal with these. In the end, they turned out good. Nice and solid.

Tanker · May 16, 2020

fishmarket said:
I put an ad on Kijiji looking for a 1973-76 spool mount K-member and ended up finding one about 1 1/2 hours away, so me and a buddy road tripped and picked it up. OMG, the welds from the factory looked like they were done by a toddler. Must’ve been a Friday afternoon or Monday morning job.View attachment 1715524661 View attachment 1715524662 View attachment 1715524663So I boxed the steering mount, welded all the seams and crappy welds, reinforced the lower control arm mounts and made sure a large sway bar would clear in the area that it passes through on the spool mount Ks. I clamped the whole unit to a boring mill table with t-slots to ensure that all of the mounts were perfectly flat and that there was no warpage.View attachment 1715524664 Now I can use the k member on the install of the new front frame rails and know that all is level and square.

There is absolutely no excuse for welds like that. Any idea what company is responsible?

72bluNblu · May 16, 2020

Tanker said:
There is absolutely no excuse for welds like that. Any idea what company is responsible?

Company?

Those are factory original welds. And it’s very common for them to look like that.

Tanker · May 16, 2020

72bluNblu said:
Company?

Those are factory original welds. And it’s very common for them to look like that.

Sorry. The welds were such garbage I assumed some made in China aftermarket company had done that. As far as being common from the factory, I’ve been over every inch of my Duster and thankfully found nothing even remotely like that. I still can’t fathom how that was allowed to pass.

72bluNblu · May 16, 2020

Tanker said:
Sorry. The welds were such garbage I assumed some made in China aftermarket company had done that. As far as being common from the factory, I’ve been over every inch of my Duster and thankfully found nothing even remotely like that. I still can’t fathom how that was allowed to pass.

The welds he showed are definitely more toward the extreme end of what I’ve seen on factory stuff. But quite a lot of them are almost that bad. If all the factory welds on your car are good you’re definitely in the minority, typically they’re ugly at best. A-bodies seem worse too, I know my ‘72 Challenger and ‘71 Satellite both have better welds on average than my ‘71 Darts and ‘74 Duster did.

On the V8 K I installed on my Duster the welds on the steering box mount just broke straight through, when the steering wheel was turned the whole steering box would move left and right, opening and closing the cracks at the mount. Another spot that’s pretty notorious for breaking is the torsion bar anchors in the cross member. Even on cars with no rust at all the anchors have broken loose due to poor welds. The LCA pivot pin anchors are another spot that likes to fail. It’s definitely not every car, but it’s pretty common.

That’s exactly why I recommend seam welding, going over all the factory welds and reinforcing the K’s if you’ve got it out of the car. I do it on all of mine.

Tanker · May 16, 2020

72bluNblu said:
The welds he showed are definitely more toward the extreme end of what I’ve seen on factory stuff. But quite a lot of them are almost that bad. If all the factory welds on your car are good you’re definitely in the minority, typically they’re ugly at best. A-bodies seem worse too, I know my ‘72 Challenger and ‘71 Satellite both have better welds on average than my ‘71 Darts and ‘74 Duster did.

On the V8 K I installed on my Duster the welds on the steering box mount just broke straight through, when the steering wheel was turned the whole steering box would move left and right, opening and closing the cracks at the mount. Another spot that’s pretty notorious for breaking is the torsion bar anchors in the cross member. Even on cars with no rust at all the anchors have broken loose due to poor welds. The LCA pivot pin anchors are another spot that likes to fail. It’s definitely not every car, but it’s pretty common.

That’s exactly why I recommend seam welding, going over all the factory welds and reinforcing the K’s if you’ve got it out of the car. I do it on all of mine.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll definitely look into that when I get the K- frame out.

fishmarket · May 18, 2020

I made a rotisserie out of 90% scrap metal. I got the basic plan off of the internet somewhere and changed what I wanted. I used a sprocket from Princess Auto (the Canadian version of Harbor Freight), and designed a spring loaded pin so I can index the car wherever I need. It works great. I actually made tubing to link the two sides but the car doesn’t seem to flex without them.

Tanker · May 18, 2020

fishmarket said:
I made a rotisserie out of 90% scrap metal. I got the basic plan off of the internet somewhere and changed what I wanted. I used a sprocket from Princess Auto (the Canadian version of Harbor Freight), and designed a spring loaded pin so I can index the car wherever I need. It works great. I actually made tubing to link the two sides but the car doesn’t seem to flex without them. View attachment 1715530931 View attachment 1715530932 View attachment 1715530933 View attachment 1715530934 View attachment 1715530935 View attachment 1715530936

All right, I have to ask. Who are you people? I made a rotisserie out of 90 percent scrap metal? Who does that? What’s next? I couldn’t find a replacement for my rusted roof panel so I made a die and struck a new one? Jeez. I used to think I had some skills, but now I just feel like an incompetent turd. Thanks. Now if you don’t mind I think I’ll go out in the back yard and lay in the grass with the rest of the turds.

Great work by the way. This is an interesting thread.

fishmarket · May 18, 2020

Haha! Thanks for the compliment I think....my work was throwing out a bunch of old tubing. It had paint on it and weld beads here and there. I sifted through and got enough usable pieces to build the rotisserie, cleaned the paint and ground off all of the welds. They also threw out and bunch of old carts that had the heavy duty castors on them. They are awesome, rolls so easy and have brakes. Here’s a link to the plans that used.https://www.autobody101.com/rotisserie_plans.pdf

I really just referred to them to get a general idea of heights and widths as the tubing I was using was different dimensions and thicknesses than what were called for on the print.

Tanker · May 18, 2020

It was definitely meant as a compliment.

fishmarket · May 20, 2020

It took about a week of intermittent work but I got all the undercoating off of the car. Thank god for the rotisserie. This is a crappy job... propane torch and a putty knife.

fishmarket · May 21, 2020

I bought some torque boxes from USCar Tool. Painted underneath them with POR15 to make sure everything was protected from future rust. Had to trim a little here and there to get them to sit how I wanted and then burned them in.

I also poured myself a beer from the keg....red solo cup. Makes them welds better!

fishmarket · May 22, 2020

The bottom of the quarters, on both sides of the wheel tub, were crudely patched so I removed the bottom 10-12” or so. This exposed the rust on each rocker panel, the trunk drop downs, and the ends of the rear crossmember/bumper mount. I got a good deal and great service from Dave @ Roseville and ordered up the quarters and trunk drop downs. The rest of the rust I fabbed from home...
Here is the r&r of the rockers. Pics are with the car upside down on the rotisserie.

View attachment 1715533009
Sorry, I’m missing the picture of the piece I made for the side here. You can see it after it’s welded and dressed and painted in the following pics. You can see the large flanges I made for a future wheel tub modification. Stay tuned...View attachment 1715533010 View attachment 1715533011

fishmarket · May 22, 2020

Side two, shows a little bit more of the progress...

Riddler · May 22, 2020

Nicely done! Glad to see more A Body's in our area getting some love!

Riddler

fishmarket · May 23, 2020

Riddler said:
Nicely done! Glad to see more A Body's in our area getting some love!

Riddler

Thanks! I’m the guy who gave you the wiper pivot bolt....over by the freez

Tanker · May 24, 2020

Beer or no beer, those are some really nice welds. Very well done.

fishmarket · May 24, 2020

Thanks Tanker. I appreciate it!

fishmarket · May 25, 2020

Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures of the trunk drop down replacement. There are a lot of welds on these to drill out and I had to manipulate the new AMD units quite a bit to get them to fit. I ended up having to cut a pie shape out of the front area where the drop down meets the quarter wheel well lip. I bent it out about an inch to line it up and filled the opening with a triangle patch piece. Here’s what I started with and where I ended up.