Nothing will hit harder than life... first love is coming back home

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ValerianMagnum

ValerianMagnum

the little car that could
Joined
Mar 17, 2008
Messages
1,153
Reaction score
465
Location
montreal , canada
The last 2 years were very hard, tried to do the best that i can with a modest salary , worked my *** off , bought the car of my dreams the same summer that my wife was pregnant with our first kid.... had a good run , car is so close but so far to be completed . Its been more than a year that i decided to take a year off , wife had 3 surgeries and covid all affected us in different ways , My dad as a retired bodyman is very sick and cant help me to finish the car , Its our 3rd year of saving up for our first house but with everything that is happening and having a 2 in a half to take car of , i accepted the offer that i had for my 1971 cuda ( deposit / reserved until september ) , car wasnt for sale Anymore but moneywise i needed the money for a good home for me , my wife and my daughter , Didnt have the time , room , budget to finish my dream car but ill have enough to go buy back my first love and the car that i had in my 20s , a very rare 1976 e58 Silver duster , sunroof car , not a cuda , not a roadrunner not a superbee or dart gts....but a good bread and butter plain jane solid car with a 400hp 360 crate and lots of souvenirs, its really hard for me to sell the cuda but im 35 and maybe one day ill buy another one , but i really think that theres a reason for everything so....ill follow these steps and grab the duster and will let go my dream car to take care of my familly.

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Difficult choice to make without a doubt, but I think you made the right decision for your family's future. Nothing wrong with the Duster in my estimation, no, it's not a 71 Cuda, but it's something that you can enjoy with your family instead of stressing about how you can manage to buy a home and spend a lot of money on a project car at the same time.
 
missing linc said:
Difficult choice to make without a doubt, but I think you made the right decision for your family's future. Nothing wrong with the Duster in my estimation, no, it's not a 71 Cuda, but it's something that you can enjoy with your family instead of stressing about how you can manage to buy a home and spend a lot of money on a project car at the same time.
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Thank you...its exactly what im thinking !
 
rumblefish360 said:
Wait.... you had the Cuda up for sale???
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It was for one week in january....changed my mind and had an offer last monday i have around 50-51k usd in the car and i accepted 44k , 75% of the parts are included , needs to be finished too....$$$$ papers done and its aside until september , of course if he doesnt respect the contract and payements it will be back for sale in the end of september / october, but im very confident that its a done deal , sad to see it go , its hard.
 
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E58 Duster with a Sunroof! That car is amazing too. I own a 74 E58, and I would rather have it than a 71 Cuda. Unless the Cuda is a Hemi or 440-6 car.
 
TF360 said:
E58 Duster with a Sunroof! That car is amazing too. I own a 74 E58, and I would rather have it than a 71 Cuda. Unless the Cuda is a Hemi or 440-6 car.
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Yes i understand.... for some people its just a piece of crap but with all my research and its breakdown ive found that it was 1 of 50 e58 360/sunroof car , "silver duster" fully loaded car. Its a bit custom , made it like i wanted and with a 400hp crate , 727 and 3.91s its a blast to drive, nothing fancy , nothing very valuable but very fast, simple and fun , the cuda is a real bs23 sassy grass green 340 4 speed car, 3500 hours of labor , lot of sweat , tears , courage and money involved , but i will never see the end of it , and dont wait to wait another 10 years to drive a nice mopar.
 
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I had a ‘73, 318, 3spd manual with a moon roof and fold down rear seat. 3.21’s in the rear. That was a cool and run car.
 
God, family, country, toys. In that order. The Cuda is cool but the Duster is, too.

Enjoy life and your family. And remember that everything we have comes from God. We’re just the caretakers of it!
 
If you knew me well you would know that I would have chosen the Duster over an E-body anyway. Enjoy the Duster.
 
Very cool car! Would love to hear more about it - did you restore it yourself? Original color? Any cool options? I am familiar with the Gold Duster package (A64) - was the Silver Duster a package with features also? Thanks!!
 
ValerianMagnum said:
but i really think that theres a reason for everything so....ill follow these steps and grab the duster and will let go my dream car to take care of my familly.
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Tough to let go for sure, but don't beat yourself up for being a responsible human being with priorities in order.
 
I applaud you for thinking of your wife and family first! I put my 2 cars "on ice" for 27 years when my daughter was born. They literally never moved 1 inch from 1 week prior to her birth until 2019 when they were rolled out of my garage as "barn finds" and washed. Stopped racing, car shows, everything. I was blessed that I was able to hang onto them but they never moved or got looked at. Once our children were raised, educated, and moved out on their own, we decided to get the toys back out. I DO NOT regret my choice one bit and I believe you will feel the same way one day. Besides, you've already been able to get another cool new toy!! Bravo!
 
Yeah man. That's hard. I've said all these years. Having an Ebody is like having dough in the bank. Don't beat yourself up. I've been there too. It's the right thing to do. Family always first. Good luck bro.
 
Thx for all that support , the guy made a huge deposit until september, dont think that he's gonna change his mind ! Im into the grief / acceptance phase..( i know its not cancer or a terrible thing like that ) but it really affected me , but hey its a car and ill be able to enjoy the duster a lot more, like i used to do in my 20s , im not beating myself up its just to see that it was so much work and so many hours to be at that stage of the resto that its hard to see it go , but indeed ..its the best decision i can do at the moment , and of course my familly will always come first . Cars are nice but they can be an addiction like drugs or gambling, we all need to enjoy what we have and be happy with it. A daily driver a-bodie is a lot more fun than a ferrari kinda deal muscle car parked in the street with 5000$ fenders on it ! Ahahahhaha
 
Demonx2 said:
I applaud you for thinking of your wife and family first! I put my 2 cars "on ice" for 27 years when my daughter was born. They literally never moved 1 inch from 1 week prior to her birth until 2019 when they were rolled out of my garage as "barn finds" and washed. Stopped racing, car shows, everything. I was blessed that I was able to hang onto them but they never moved or got looked at. Once our children were raised, educated, and moved out on their own, we decided to get the toys back out. I DO NOT regret my choice one bit and I believe you will feel the same way one day. Besides, you've already been able to get another cool new toy!! Bravo!
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We did about the opposite. The entire family did the car thing from the time our oldest was born (spent part of his first car show in the back of Roland Osborn's Chrysler Power big rig with my wife and Roland's wife along with their son, Coleman, who was born the day after our son - they were 3-months old). Both sons built their first cars. We still do car stuff together...Alan's second car show (he's in the playpen in the background) with my '67 Barracuda (21 years before it became mine) and my wife's GTS in the background.
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Every family does it different, but my best car buddies are my wife and younger son (I'd include my older son, but he doesn't live nearby...)
 
I made a similar choice, but wound up with '80s turbo Daytonas. I now have 3 of them (including a 1 of 181 1993 IROC R/T with a Lotus engine). I miss the cars I let go 20 years ago, which is why I'm here.
 
sdweatherman said:
Very cool car! Would love to hear more about it - did you restore it yourself? Original color? Any cool options? I am familiar with the Gold Duster package (A64) - was the Silver Duster a package with features also? Thanks!!
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With all my research ive found that around 304 duster 360 76 were made , around 50 of them had the sunroof package , its a silver duster with boca raton interior and a load of option , dual exhaust , delete cat converter from company , e68 pursuit package , heavy duty suspension , cruise control , rear defrost , ew1 alabaster white, i made my own personnal touches to it , it has fiberglass bumpers and fenders , race tricked out components , weights 2800 pounds and has a mopar 380hp crate, worked out a bit , ported etc , the engine combo in a heavier 71 demon ran 11.60 , 8 3/4 rear end with 3.91s , a couple of nick nacks needs to be fixed, my friend who i sold it too 5 years is not giving it away , so im giving him a very generous offetr on it , hope i can buy it back this summer if not it will be next summer , the cuda needs to be gone. Not a desired year the 76....but its very rare and uniquebon its own way. The same bodyman did the cuda and the duster , 40 years of experience is priceless , the duster is straight as hell even with 30 year old fiberglass fenders . Its a simple car but a tricked our one capable of 11s with slicks and its daily driven !
 
You have to do what's right for your situation. Your luckier than most to be able to stay in the hobby just with a different car. Your doing the right thing and your kids will grow up with the same memories just, with a different car and a home to call thier own.
 
Good for you man, I dig the duster more, but that's just me. A 71 cuda used to be my dream car but after driving a few I like a body's better. Didn't help that barret jackson made them chevyized, guys who should own corvettes now want a cuda. Still dig them allot but some of the guys driving them around at cruises are d**k heads, rant off lol.
 
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