To daily drive, or not....

Keeping the car closer to stock was the just for above. It just makes life a bit more simple. Adding HP adds heat and the stock cooling system only handles so much over stock. Don’t tax it.

As far as the rest of the car, I do put up with some rattles on cruddy roads. Otherwise, it’s pretty quite. I slowly upgraded what I thought lacked. For me it was mostly the stereo.

As parts crap out, I address them when I can. Door clips that fail to hold the door panel on…. Fix it later, it gets done but there’s normally no big emergency to do so.

My A/C system never worked and wasn’t a big deal in New York but now I’m in Florida, so I’ll be working on that soon enough!
My gauges work, but the needles broke off from being old! LMAO when it happens before your eyes! I’m considering upgrading them with speedhut gauges. The later B bodies gauge panels are about 4 inches.

After that, anything that pops up or needs to be addressed gets done when it gets done.

The only thing I’d add to an older car like a Duster is under carpet heat shielding/ sound deadener. If I’m going to spend a decent amount of time in the car in and out of work or what ever, I’d rather hear the music clearly and have a conversation without raising my voice to be heard.

While others proudly pound there chest on a loud cars exhaust music, which I love myself, I’ll save the ears on a car I’m in a lot and enjoy the racket of the hot rod on my terms. Call me old, I don’t care, I’ve always been that way.

For the most part, I haven’t run across an issue with replacement seals. On my Duster, I did the windshield wipers first. Stop that annoying water on the door drip quick! The door windows were next. Then the short coming seals on the firewall.

Once you get the car where you want it, it’ll be great.
IMO, there’s nothing like hoping in your ride that is capable of go any time, go anywhere and not get slayed by a gas guzzling monster that’s not using its power under cruise. That’s what I built the hot rod for.