'70 Duster Revival: Drag Racing Heart | Pro Touring Soul

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

5 years, countless man hours and gobs of fun. I’m Ross and this is the story of my 1970 Plymouth Duster build.

I purchased the car in Fond Du Lac, WI in the fall of 2009. (My sophomore year of college) I’d always dreamed of owning a ’69 Dodge Charger R/T but on a Milwaukee’s Best budget, I set my sights to the more affordable A Body lineup. I found the Duster in a Craigslist ad with no picture but I had a gut feeling about the car, so we made the 5 hour trek from Minnesota to Wisconsin. After a thorough inspection, the body was relatively clean so we brought her home. Originally a Rally Red slant 6 car from Arkansas, it was now flogged in flat black primer and cobbled together for weekend bracket racing.

With the help a very close friend, the next 5 years were dedicated to the disassembly, prep, priming and painting of each piece; nut and bolt - bumper to bumper. Weekends were spent spinning the rotisserie doing metal fab, body work and also tracking down the necessary parts to update the engine and drive train.

Over the course of the build the original intent for the car changed from all out drag car, to pro-street to pro touring. The final result was a culmination of all 3 styles. After meeting my now wife my senior year I knew I wanted something we could both enjoy cruising in but I also wanted to be competitive when making the occasional trip to the strip and autocross track. Working 3 jobs while in school and saving every cent possible at my first "real" job out of school helped to fund the project. Having some good friends at the local hot rod shop also helped when it was time to paint and complete the wiring. After a mad dash to button everything up the night before the wedding we were able to drive away on our special day. (We of course left our mark in the church parking lot) The wedding day was on Mopars in the Park in Farmington, MN… so future anniversaries will be easy to plan for.

This was our first summer to enjoy the fruits of so much labor and it was amazing. I met so many wonderful people during duration of this project, including many of you through the forum. A big thank you to everyone at ForAbodiesOnly for the endless supply of information that helped with the reassembly process.

I know most of these threads work from the start of the project to the end, but I’d like to do mine a little differently. I’ll go into further specifics of the build in future posts and include more pictures, but for now I hope you enjoy the final product.

View attachment Sunrise 2.jpg

View attachment Sunrise 1.jpg

View attachment Church 2.jpg

View attachment Chruch 1.jpg

View attachment Engine Bay 2.jpg

View attachment PS Front 1.jpg

View attachment Rear 1.jpg

View attachment DS Side 3.jpg

View attachment Grille Closeup.jpg

View attachment PS Rear Quarter.jpg

 

[YoungBlood]

Really slick car. You nailed the look of the "three" genre's of vehicle you were going for.

What brand/size/back-spacing of wheels are those? Never seen them before. They slapped me in the face. I dig em'.

 

[limegreen70]

Outstanding! Car!

 

[DOHCeclipse]

Beautiful car!! I'd be interested in wheel specs also if you're willing to share

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Thanks fellas. The wheels are Weld Racing's RT-S Series (S71)
17's in the front and 18's in the rear

I'll have to get back to you on backspacing but they were custom made to the measurements we supplied Weld. I wanted the largest tire possible in the front and rear without cutting up the factory wheel wells. An RMS Street-Lynx triangulated 4-bar rear suspension kit helped to achieve that in the rear and the '73+ spindle swap up in the front.

More to come...

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Homecoming 2009

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Here is a brief look at the tear down. As you can see, the previous owner was not afraid of using zip ties or electrical tape.

 

[fez440]

Beautiful car

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Roughly 2 months after disassembly we took the car up to Princeton, MN to be media blasted then primed. While it was fantastic to have all the old paint, primer and years of caked on grime removed - a lengthy list of metal repair projects began to emerge.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

The next step was getting the old lead out of the car with assistance from the torch. That's my dad and my buddy Charlie helping. You'll see a lot more Charlie in the posts to come.

With the lead removed we used a spread of Dura-Glass in the joints and then lightly sprayed the areas with etching primer.

 

[limegreen70]

Good pictures, this is going to be a good thread.

 

[HemiDenny]

looks like you built it to your specs....perfecto!

 

[baracus]

Beautiful car, we need engine specs

 

[KosmicKuda]

For a young dude.....you nailed it.
Nice job. I like that you kept the red paint and factory lines.
Thank your dad and friends for their help and hope your wife likes it too.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Thank you! I'll have the engine build specs, first run video and more pictures added soon. I'm going to do my best to keep this thread flowing in chronological order. Stay tuned.

I appreciate the kind words KosmicKuda. Dad and Chuck were so instrumental in this build. Aside from being my best friend and best man - Chuck is a professional hot rod builder/fabricator at a local shop in Lakeville, MN. I couldn't have done this without his skills and expertise.

 

[MobileCustoms]

Nice!

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

With the aid of a repair kit from Dynamic Renovation we tackled the fatigued door jambs next. I can't say enough good things about Dynamic Renovation's products. It's a father and son run company from Michigan and they've created some real quality products to help repair and stiffen the trouble areas of our vintage Mopars.

Check them out: http://www.dynamicrenovation.net/index.php

The tape on template and thorough instructions provided made this a relatively simple job.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

As you can see from the pictures following the media blasting, the rear quarters were pretty well swissed. I promptly ordered a new set from AMD only to find the ones I ordered didn't have side marker openings.

This resulted in cutting out the original marker openings, then cutting new openings into the new quarters and welding them in flush. A lot of work there that probably didn't have to be done but I'm very happy with the end product.

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Media blasting also revealed a patch work quilt of miscellaneous pieces used to keep the trunk together. Out with the old, in with the new! A new trunk pan was ordered installed within an afternoon.

Drilling out the factory plug welds proved to be a pain but once done an air chisel made easy work of getting the old scraps out. The new pan actually didn’t fit to bad when dry fit. There was some trimming that needed to be done by the wheel wheels. Some extra encouragement from a body hammer got it all properly in place. Charlie then got it all welded in. I ground down the excess and fogged it all with etching primer.

 

[FJ5 Duster]

Subscribed!

 

[Dragger40]

Very slick. I think you nailed the build!

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

Appreciate it guys!

 

[HemiDenny]

satisfaction is doing it yourself (with the proper supervision)

Mopar to ya'
Denny

 

[DEVIOUSDUSTER]

After spending a week or so underneath the car trying to get rid of the old undercoating with a puddy knife and mini-propane torch - I knew I never wanted to do that again. The quarter repairs and trunk pan install also could have been done more comfortably. Chuck and I discussed and then decided to build a rotisserie. The end product was well worth the investment and saved many headaches during upcoming tasks.

 

[skep419]

looks sweet. great work. see you next year at mopars in the park