1973 Gold Duster-Slant 6 -Retirement Gift to Self

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kelleherdl

kelleherdl

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Ok, Here we go. I traded in my original 1973 Gold Duster (Autumn Bronze / White Vinyl) in 1980 when I was commissioned as a naval officer. For a good 20 years I have been thinking about getting another one. In August 2014 I bought the one below on eBay. Those members who frequent eBay, may have remembered seeing this one. Truth is I did not know it was also a Gold Duster until I got it shipped from Indiana and decoded the half-rusted fender tag.

View attachment duster 1.jpg

VIN decoded as an A64 Gold Duster, original JF1 Mist Green with White Vinyl, 225 ci, auto, power drum brakes, factory air, and AM radio. Car ran when I bought it, but I did not trust the brakes to drive.

I originally planned to 'learn' how to do some of the work myself, but I quickly resigned myself to spending quite a few large ones to have it done right. The intent is a 'very nice' stock appearance driver for retirement weekend drives around the south, including Mopar shows.
More to follow.

Dennis
 
Engine: I am keeping the car as a /6.

View attachment duster 2.jpg

Body Trim: The overall restoration will be a stock appearance 225 Gold Duster. I will go with a 1973 color combination, likely not the JF1 Mist Green.

I spent a whole day at the Fall Auto Show in Raleigh speaking with a variety of restoration shops. I selected a shop in Durham. They agreed, after checking out the car, to take it for a complete mechanical and body restoration. They got the car in October 2014.
 
Bumpers back on. Re-chromed replacement 73. I don't think the replacement rear is a 73 as it does not have both the holes for the rubber bumpers. The original bumpers had been painted and were horrible besides. Shop did a superb job on the grill. This is the original one that a previous owner had blacked out. The only thing they needed to do was swap the 'Plymouth' from a spare grill I provided them.

As you can imagine the floor pans needed replacement. Nice job.

DennisView attachment 4196 21 may 2015 010 25%.jpg

View attachment 4196 21 may 2015 013 25%.jpg
 
You can see that the vinyl roof is going back on. They have dry-fitted the molding. Vinyl is supposed to go on tomorrow or early next week. The car did not originally have side mirrors. The remote driver side one here is from the exclusive whitepunkonnitro collection as advertised on forabodiesonly :cheers:

Dennis
View attachment 4196 21 may 2015 015 25%.jpg
 
I must commend you on your choice of body color and keeping the engine! Everybody has to always swap the good ol' slant 6 to a V8. It's coming together real nice and looking good, I look forward to seeing the progress updates and pictures.
Congratulations on your Retirement also.
 
Nice!

I like the Amber Sherwood you chose, that's what color my Plymouth is. Also, even though you don't care for the shade I take it, the Mist Green is a one-year only color and rare at that, so you have that pedigree going for it. Keep up the good work.
 
Awesome looking ride. Hope to see you at some car shows when I finish my 65 Barracuda. I'm in Kernersville, NC. Thank you for your years of service and hope all goes well with finishing and enjoying your new car.
 
I did struggle with the decision on color. My first inclination was to go back to original build (we do have the build sheet and fender tag). I had looked up online for good examples of F1 Mist Green/White Vinyl and there was just a couple. As you said it was a one-year-only (1973) for JF1. To be honest side-by-side I liked the contrasting nature of the GF3 and White over the JF1 and White. My original 73 Gold Duster was Autumn Bronze and White, which was very contrasty. So I opted for 'like the combination' vs 'rare.'

Dennis
 
congrats on the retirement!!! and your years of service. years ago, everyone just had to change out the color of original green cars. it got to where they were so rarely seen. people have finally learned green cars are really beautiful!! with shiney new paint. any color cars looks BAD when the paint is 40- 50 years old!!!!!
and yes, not everyone one of us has to change out that slant for a bigger mill!!!! way to go!
 
Well things are moving along. Motor arrived back from the engine shop on Friday.

View attachment motor 031 20%.jpg

And several boxes arrived from Legendary. My shop needs to move a few cars out to give the guys more room, but things will be moving again.

Dennis
 
Long time coming, but the motor went in yesterday..... My Duster finally made it to the top of the shop's priority. Shows and auctions got in the way. I can understand that. Now that the car is sitting in the primary shop space it will need to move faster. Here is just one picture from yesterday. All the rest of innards have been ordered. Classic Auto Air, new radiator with electric fan, new heater core, and installation of other stuff already here (second audio system, Legendary upholstery, AAC carpet, and other odds and ends). I am stoked.

Dennis
View attachment motor in 10%.jpg
 
I really like the color and engine choice's you've made.......Nice job.
 
Sorry. It has been a long time since my last update.

Motor is in, and running.

All wiring is being completed this week with stock AM radio in dash and new in glove box setup with Sirius.

Good thing I got a just-in-case 'spare' gauge cluster on eBay, the original was fried.

Upholstery is done. Legendary looks absolutely stunning. The new stuff is replacing truly original as the shop found another build sheet under the front seat.

My restorer is promising the car now before I have my last day at work so I can show it off.

Here she is last Friday...

DennisView attachment 21 nov 2015 pass front quarter 10 percent.jpg
 
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Thanks for the comments. The whole build team is really getting excited about rolling this job out.

Greg's Classic Auto in Durham is the leader of the team. Greg has really taken a shine to this project and his guys are great. They are handling all the mechanical, interior, electrical, and whatever. I have felt a part of the rebuild the whole way through. I admitted to myself early on that I was never going to be able to acquire the skills to do this kind of work; even though the dream was temporarily in my head.

The body and paint was done by Carolina AutoBody Center in Pittsboro NC. As you can imagine there was a lot of fabrication. About 40% of the sheet metal was replaced. Cliff and his team are master craftsmen. I had seen some of their work at a local Raleigh show and was blown away. They gave me the same quality.

Dennis
 
Congratulations! Car looks great. Good choice on getting the car done in a short period of time instead of dragging it out.
Funny how the /6 bug bites people sometime in their life and they never forget.
 
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