72 duster resto

Welcome to my build thread.

I snagged this 72 Duster at mid-October of 2022 for 7k. It came with a slant 6, 904 combo with a 7.25" rear, manual drum brakes all around, manual steering, and A/C! Interior was insanely clean for it's age, seats had been reupholstered. Suspension sagged, 14" steelies, but came with a bunch of spare parts.

Rust was pretty much non-existent, although it had some in the spare tire sump, but came with a replacement metal patch. A little surface rust across the bottom here and there, but no rot whatsever. Bought it off a guy who had run into some health issues in the middle of a repair of an exhaust leak so never knew if it ran when I trailered it home. here's some moments from that first arrival and trip.
First things first - getting that new gasket on the exhaust manifold and reinstalling the carb.
Next up while it was off was to start cleaning up the valve cover with some fresh paint.
Also noting the rotted repair of the spare tire well. Not sure what that foamy patch stuff is.



Now, digging down knee-deep into the suspension and brake upgrade so I figured I’d try to track some of my progress here with a new thread

All the parts are from Dr. diff, including 13 inch front disc conversion from the previous 9” drums. Since I’m already getting into the brakes I figured the suspension was the easiest obvious step to do along with it so here’s some progress