1975 Duster Restoration Project - Freebie!

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J

jamesbratt

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Sep 12, 2010
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Location
Grass Valley, CA
I just picked this car up from my brother-in-laws cousin. It was free, his mom didn't want it sitting in her yard anymore. So good thing I have a truck and trailer!
Slant-Six
Holley Carb.
Runs great but has electrical problems of course!
Straight body - no rust!
original paint underneath the ghetto primer job
Anyways, take a look...I don't know too much about cars, I guess I shouldn't say I don't know anything, but never owned a muscle car more like. I know some and feel confident to learn more and get some experience working on this one. I'm wondering what to do to this thing....any ideas?
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the dog didn't come with it..i've had her for about 4 years...
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so far I have changed the alternator, voltage regulator, and battery(all brand new), but I've gone through 3 VR's, they work for about 15 min. and then burn up. I don't visually see any wires grounding out and I'm starting to go crazy not being able to figure this one out. I've checked lots of connections for corrosion, and cleaned a lot of connections...hmmm
 
WOW! That is a great find. It looks to be in good enough shape for just about any direction you could go with it, even if it's just to drive it. I suggest you spend a good bit of time here and a couple other sites and you may find that you have yourself a new hobby!
 
Moparmarcus said:
I suggest you spend a good bit of time here and a couple other sites and you may find that you have yourself a new hobby!
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I agree! It's definitely got my mind goin in circles, I'm pretty sure I'd like to have it to drive to the store and run errands, but also make it look mean.
 
What a deal, looks like a decent car! Does it have disc brakes? I see it has the chrome rallye mirrors, those can be expensive :-D
 
front disc/rear drum - they burned my fingers! they we're kind of lockin up a little bit, but it seems like they're workin themselves out some.
 
there is two spots, one on the roof and one on the trunk that are very mildly rusted. nothing that needs any bondo. the previous owner cut the vinyl top off and made it metal, it looks like a descent job. For right now I'm trying to get the electrical dialed before I decide to rip everything apart..hahahaah!!! This is definitely a healthy addiction.
 
Nice! Real nice.

your overcharging issue is the voltage regulator located on the fire wall (99% of the time), it's a (most of the time) silver box with 2 bolts holding it down and two wires going to it. The contacts inside are getting stuck togther and allowing the charge to run wild, just replace the box. They are inexpensive.

You can not get into the box to fix the problem.
 
COOL FIND !!

Personally , I'd be split on what to do with it ...
One side of me says : ' keep the six and warm it up , but retain a reasonably stock appearance .' , while another side says : ' OOOHHHHH ... 360 replica !! '

by the way , what disc brakes are on it ? Are they the yucky 4 piston deals with the small bolt pattern , or are they the good ones with single piston calipres and the big bolt pattern ?
 
@RumbleFish360- Thanks, I've gone through 4 brand new regulators and 3 different alternators, so I'm beginning to think that it MUST be a bad wire?? Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
oh not sure of which discs, I pulled the front tires off only for a second when I drove it the other day just to see. It looks like it got a brake job not too long ago.
 
Well today I got the charging system working, took the passenger door apart and lubed some squeaky parts. It's almost too nice:) hahah. Took it for a nice drive and everything seems to be running pretty sweet. I think next is fix the exhaust and put on the magna-flow.
 
03ramit1 said:
75 should be the big bolt pattern. and my 75 has the single piston calipers on it.
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Single piston calipres = big bolt circle . From 1973 through 31-12-1975 , those dumb 4 piston brakes were standard discs on 198 / 225 equipped cars , with the single piston jobs being an option on sixes .

Slightly off-topic : starting with the 1973 model year , non-power-assist disc brakes were standard with the 318 ; power-assist discs were standard with the 340 models ; 198 / 225 sixes still had the small bolt circle , small diametre stud setup until 01-01-1976 , when the good disc brakes were standardised across the board .
 
LH23H2R said:
Single piston calipers = big bolt circle . From 1973 through 31-12-1975 , those dumb 4 piston brakes were standard discs on 198 / 225 equipped cars , with the single piston jobs being an option on sixes .

Slightly off-topic : starting with the 1973 model year , non-power-assist disc brakes were standard with the 318 ; power-assist discs were standard with the 340 models ; 198 / 225 sixes still had the small bolt circle , small diameter stud setup until 01-01-1976 , when the good disc brakes were standardized across the board .
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Um all the cars I have ever seen (lots of them because I go to parts yards on a regular basis) had drums standard with LBP (single piston) as an option after '73 only. (I'm not talking about 340 cars here) Kelsy Hays (dual piston) were pre '72. Yes some of the /6 cars got sbp after '72 but that was only with the small 9in drums all the way around. I have never seen a factory car with KH after '72. (there may have been a few to use up parts though... most likely on a 318 or 360 car) The KH brakes seam to work very well as long as they have been maintained, they are just more expensive then the single piston brakes and don't seem to offer much better performance, not to mention they are sbp only.

Nice duster, looks like a cool project
 
well i'm stuck for the time being... I went to start the car and it caused an electrical fire and I blew a fuseable link. Looks like there is lots of wire tracing to be done..
 
That is really awesome. The sky is the limit [of course you will need some$$]....best of luck with that. Best, FP
 
Ouch about the fire! Looks like you've been pretty persistent so you'll have it fingered out in no time. Good luck!
 
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