72 Duster 392/ 8hp70 Build

[DusterMike72]

it was this one but havent used it yet. im just going off this youtube video i watched where he had one of these setup in his hemi swapped monte carlo.

this video (he has the first part but this is where he recommends going with this and some other stuff):

 

[DusterMike72]

well went to arizona for the weekend to have some thanksgiving with friends out there. while i was out there i decided to look around for duster parts. found a guy literally next neighborhood over from my buddies i was stayin at who i guess parts out A bodies. went over and really nice dude let me look around. picked up a pair of decent front fenders, rear bumper and non woodgrain glove box for a decent price. while i was out there a bunch of stuff i ordered came in. still waiting on some other things.

 

[Ozyduster]

Nice lot of parts there, just fitted my kaltracs with split mono leafs, looks like you went the calvert 9 way adjustables as well.
What brake kit is that? Any reason for the new spindels?
Is that a new steering shaft next to the u bolts

 

[DusterMike72]

Nice lot of parts there, just fitted my kaltracs with split mono leafs, looks like you went the calvert 9 way adjustables as well.
What brake kit is that? Any reason for the new spindels?
Is that a new steering shaft next to the u bolts

Was doing some googling and found a guy that makes brackets to bolt mustang brembos up to 73+ drum spindles or disc spindles but you'll have to get dr. diff hubs like i got.
Yes that's a new toyotaish shaft i bought to test to go with the sienna epas column i mounted. We'll see if I can get it to work.

 

[Ozyduster]

O nice one, i just got my wilwood kit at great expence and running ford pbr rear calipers that i will rebuild. Interested to see what you do with the shaft i am just about to fit my new shaft to see if it fixes my pipe clearance issues.
Yep Dr Diff is great got all my spring offsets and multiple other parts from him. Waiting for him to get the special A body booster brackets in stock so brake booster clears the valve cover

 

[DusterMike72]

O nice one, i just got my wilwood kit at great expence and running ford pbr rear calipers that i will rebuild. Interested to see what you do with the shaft i am just about to fit my new shaft to see if it fixes my pipe clearance issues.
Yep Dr Diff is great got all my spring offsets and multiple other parts from him. Waiting for him to get the special A body booster brackets in stock so brake booster clears the valve cover

nice. yeah i gotta figure out a booster. guess i should wait and see what they come up with.

 

[DusterMike72]

alright well lets see.... what have i done the past couple days. um i modified a toyota sienna steering column to fit the Duster. need to make a plate for the firewall and mount the back part of the column. cleaned up and painted the gearbox. finally got all the floor panels welded and sealed up. got the trans mount loosely bolted up. started on building the tunnel. coming out alright but that safety hoop thing made the whole thing taller than i wanted. need to get some poster board to make the final front parts. mounted then dismounted the gas pedal. got more parts and ordered more parts. its nice to see parts going on finally although they gotta come off again. gotta pull motor/trans out so i can remove the old brake lines and install the new stuff oh and also install the HDK torsion bar eliminator stuff. i wanna clean up some of the cuts and welds under the car. clean off old grime and apply fresh undercoat. i also need to pull apart the 8.8 so i can take it to someone to narrow. thought about trying it myself but im not good with all those measurements and getting everything all straight and crap.

 

[DusterMike72]

so depending on if i take this new job things may or may not slow down. one of my buddies is offering me a job at his shop working on muscle cars and well just american cars. he mostly does like audi, vws, porsche etc.. but they wanna expand and do more muscle car stuff. its kinda far away for me at the moment but hes willing to let me stay at his place for a while. pretty much double what i get paid now and ill get all his discounts he gets with like holley, OER, sparco etc... plus he said if i want i can take the Duster to the shop and work on it there. eventually hes going to be the one thats gonna tune it anyways and when it gets to the point he has a guy in mexico thatll most likely do the paint and body. he had his Dart done there and a couple other friends cars. ive been at my current job for coming up on 13 years (this time, i was there before for 4 years), i love what i do but money isnt really there and dont think ill get much more since our corporate office is in Ohio and they think california is on the same price range as out there.

 

[85glht]

so depending on if i take this new job things may or may not slow down. one of my buddies is offering me a job at his shop working on muscle cars and well just american cars. he mostly does like audi, vws, porsche etc.. but they wanna expand and do more muscle car stuff. its kinda far away for me at the moment but hes willing to let me stay at his place for a while. pretty much double what i get paid now and ill get all his discounts he gets with like holley, OER, sparco etc... plus he said if i want i can take the Duster to the shop and work on it there. eventually hes going to be the one thats gonna tune it anyways and when it gets to the point he has a guy in mexico thatll most likely do the paint and body. he had his Dart done there and a couple other friends cars. ive been at my current job for coming up on 13 years (this time, i was there before for 4 years), i love what i do but money isnt really there and dont think ill get much more since our corporate office is in Ohio and they think california is on the same price range as out there.

Sounds like quite the dilemma... I hope all goes well

 

[DusterMike72]

Sounds like quite the dilemma... I hope all goes well

thanks i appreciate it.

 

[DusterMike72]

well decided to take my buddies job offer. so well see how that goes. i dont start til mid january, my GM asked if i could give a month so i can finish up any pending jobs i had and i kinda did it just in case to not burn any bridges.

had someone 3d print up a gauge cluster blank for me but after getting it i dont think itll work with my gauges. the screen is kinda big. might have a guy on here try to remodel it to fit but if not i might just try and make something out of sheet metal.

didnt get much done this weekend had a concert (kroq almost acoustic xmas) saturday so didnt really get to do anything. sunday had a migraine all day but decided to try and get something done. was going to pull the motor so i can start putting all the front suspension and stuff together but ended up just cutting off all the mangled lower support bracket and welding in the usct lower rad support brace thing. i need to brace the lower half on the main core support to the lower brace but ran out of metal and migraine was really bugging. everything is coated in steelit so i can still weld onto it with no issues. left a small gap under the radiator.

i wil