1972 Duster...is this a good deal?

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Roadrunner68

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I am going to check out a duster here pretty soon. It looks to be a 1972 duster with the "twister" trim package. Slant 6 with an auto trans. The seller said the brakes and radiator have been upgraded. It also appears to have been repainted. Not currently running from what I get

I have a decent cammed 383 that I would consider dropping into the car....I understand that I would need to change the torsion bars, transmission, drive shaft, rear end, and probably the brakes unless they are really upgraded enough.

Here's the question, if I can get the car for $3500 and the floors/body/frame seem solid, is it a good deal? It sounds good to me, but I this is the first A body I have looked at. I figured you guys would be the best ones to ask.
 

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i would think thats far seeing as how youre gonna swap the engine anyway. you dont need to change the torsion bars though. depending on your plans for it you can leave the slant t bars in. left them in mine and its fine. just some massive body roll around corners haha
 
Look at the quarter panels,trunk sections and everywhere else. Price is good,seems too detailed to trust .Bring a neutral friend that knows basic bodywork.
 
Yeah, I have a roadrunner with typical b body rust that I need to get fixed. I would only be into this if the car is solid. Any super common rust areas? I know those of the b body all too well by now, but this is my first glance at an A body.
 
hard to tell int he pics how solid it is but if its clean and rust free i'd say yes its worth 3500..

check the floors,trunk ,rockers,fenders behind the wheels,lower quarters,outer wheel house and trunk extensions along with the torsion bar cross member for rust..
 
Need to change k frame or get conversion mounts.B /rb k frame not easy to find.XCheck tail light panel closely. Prone to rust.
 
...great price if body it good....i even you southerners where rust never seems to be a problem..

...however, if you are going sb or bb the first thing I would swap out are the torsion bars..upgrade to disk on the front and put a 8 3/4 in the back....
 
Agree with others... If car is as solid as appears the price is right....Upgraded A/C is a plus.. What part of Texas are you in? I would be willing to go with you and look it over if not too far away..
 
SleeperScamp said:
Agree with others... If car is as solid as appears the price is right....Upgraded A/C is a plus.. What part of Texas are you in? I would be willing to go with you and look it over if not too far away..
Click to expand...

2nd in line? haha
 
If I were to buy it I would leave it just the way it is. It's an original car especially
since it's a six cylinder. You hardly ever see cars like this at a show.They are getting
very rare because everyone is swapping out to bigger engines. Why not try to find
at least try one with the engine you want? If this were closer to me and not rusty
I would buy it and enjoy it just the way it is.
 
The dash isn't all butchered up and it looks like the dash pad isn't total trash.
 

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Looks like a solid car!

Rust is easy enough to check for, Joe listed all the trouble spots. But I'd be more comfortable with a little rust than a shoddy paint job, and the paint/bodywork is harder to check.

If the bodywork and paint is decent, then its worth the $3500. If the paint and body work is good, its worth that all day long and maybe more, as it will cost you more than $3500 to do a good quality paint job. If it's been slapped full of bondo and painted at Maaco, RUN.

I bought my Challenger with what I thought was a basic, driver quality paint job. I knew it wasn't perfect, but I figured it would hold up OK. 6 years later the entire clear coat has fallen off, and there's bondo cracks, rust bubbles, etc. It also successfully hid some rust in the lower parts of the body. I got a decent deal, so I didn't lose a ton of money on the purchase price, but the car will have to go down to the chassis and bare metal everywhere to be fixed properly.

By comparison, I bought my '74 Duster for $2k. Poorly running /6, but its a '74 so it already had disk brakes etc. All original, no rust at all. Sure, it has a few dents, but I know exactly what I have, and I can paint it without stripping it completely down to the chassis and starting over. And in the meantime, it works great with its new 340/4 speed and 8 3/4, and doesn't look terrible with the original paint.

More info and pictures of my Duster here if you're curious.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=198098

Like I said, if the paint and bodywork was done well, you'd be way ahead. But if its borderline, you'd be be paying too much for a car that will have to be re-done later. In general, new paint is a red flag for me unless I can track down where the work was done or confirm that its was done properly.
 
grassy said:
...my '75 had drums up front....
Click to expand...

You're right, only the V8 cars got standard disks in '73, the /6 cars could still have come with drum brakes. Mine did have disks from the factory though. Disk brakes became standard on all of them after 1/1/76.

Sounds like the car in question may have been upgraded to disks already though.

And I forgot to mention it before, but there's absolutely, positively, no way I would run a 383 with /6 bars on the street. That may be fine for a drag car, but it's not a good idea on a street car. Too many crazy drivers out there to sacrifice that much handling. Heck, I don't think /6 bars are a good idea on the street even with a /6.
 
It looks like some of the trim on the drip rail was painted. I'm guessing it's a repaint. I intend on magnet testing this, but does it look solid from everything so far? I know it doesn't mean too much, but I can't see obvious bondo from these pictures
 
It's definitely a repaint, no doubt about that. The only question is how good of a job they did. A magnet will help, but it will really only tell you if its BAD. As in REALLY BAD. My car passed the magnet test, and its far from perfect.

As for the pictures, its nearly impossible to tell from those.The car does look decent in the pictures. But, the pictures are small and low resolution, and the car is dusty in them. Which means you aren't seeing much of the car. Plus, almost no pictures of the normal "trouble" spots on these cars. No lower fender shots, no rocker shots, only one shot of the lower driver's quarter and it doesn't show all that much. No pictures of the trunk, floors, frame, etc. And looking down the passenger side of the car in the pictures the bodywork doesn't seem super crisp, the reflections don't all line up. Usually an indications of some wavy panels. Not a huge issue, but it usually indicates a cheaper paint/body job.

Don't get me wrong, for $3,500 you're not going to get a perfect car, not unless you have really spectacular luck and timing. I'm just trying to say that I would do a very thorough job inspecting the paint and bodywork, because a new paint job isn't always the greatest thing if you're buying a used car. Let's just say that I have learned to appreciate dents and old faded out original paint. Not because of how they look, but because of what they can't hide.
 
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