72 duster Build progress

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bkd said:
Cool Stuff this great I always wondered if this could be done. Great job keep ,up the great work and I love the pics.
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Thanks..... I try to post as many pictures of whatever it is I do to the duster because I want a complete picture history of everything i have done to the car from the time I got it until the time it is done so I can show how far it has came and to remind myself of all the good times and of course to maybe inspire those out there who may want to do some of the same things
 
Been helping my buddy put a lift kit on his Jeep and I also just picked up a Jeep plus with the weekend I have been busy.

But tonight I decided I was going to do some more work to the column and I figured I would share with you guys on the progress so far.

I did some body filler work,sanded a bunch,got out the dremel tool and contoured/shaped around the ignition and pointer to give it a factory column look,marked all my low spots,filled them in,sanded some more,prepped surface,got out my spray gun and primed it,sanded it,primed it again,sanded it again and that where I left off.......

I still have to put some spot puddy in a couple of spots and prime it one more time and sand it one more time and then I can lay my satin black paint down and it should be done!

I should have a steering wheel on the way from another member ....should complete the look I am going for very nicely.

After it is all said and done I think I may do a write up on the process of doing this conversion because I know there are alot of guys that want to go manual column but can't afford to buy a different one....this is a great alternative.

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could you weld up the hole where the shifter was? i might be doin this same kinda swap on my car and was thinking thats the way i wanna go
 
tyler_s18 said:
could you weld up the hole where the shifter was? i might be doin this same kinda swap on my car and was thinking thats the way i wanna go
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Nope there is no way you can weld it.......I think it is cast aluminum? some sort of pot metal anyhow....I already tried and it just beaded up on top of the metal and then the metal would crumble away.

the way I did it is working great.
 
Looking good man! haha, I never thought about the manual from automatic column thing until today. Glad you do the work you do, its pretty budget minded and awesome
 
DarTT said:
Looking good man! haha, I never thought about the manual from automatic column thing until today. Glad you do the work you do, its pretty budget minded and awesome
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Thanks.

really I have no money invested into it because I already had everything laying around but if you were to do it yourself and buy everything.

you would be looking at buying a quart of bondo ($8.00),some sand paper ($4.00),you could use rattle can primer ($3.00),grinding/cutoff disc for a grinder or drill ($3.00),masking tape ($2.00),and a quart of satin black paint ($6.00)....so for roughly around $25.00ish you could do this project

or if you have everything already like I did than you will have nothing but time invested into it. ...I currently have about 5 hours or so into the job so far and about another hour left to go....I am sure it could be done in less but I like to take my time and make sure I get a good finish the first time so I don't have to worry about fixing a screw up.
 
I believe in doing most of my work myself, wish I could do uphostery. lol. Taking your time is important, doing a rush job of something results in a shotty product, take your time and your get something you are proud of and is well done.

Time x Work Exherted = Product Quality
 
Man I'm tellin ya it sure looks great so far and I am interested in your write up if you chose to do so.
Brad
 
Ok I spent another hour and a halfish today working on the column and I am proud to say that it is done and it came out looking very good and factory looking!.

I put some spot puddy on it and then sanded it down,did some more psot puddy and sanded it down,primed it again and then went over it all with 400grit sand paper and then I prepped the surface and mixed up some satin black and painted it.

came out great other than the fact I used an oil based satin black so it will need to dry overnight before I can handle it atleast.

I took these pictures (below) right after I painted so it was a little wet still in some of the pictures......thats not metallic black ....it just looks that way from the partially dried satin.

after it is dry i am going to clean up all the tape residue off of the ignition and it should all look like new!

Let me know what you guys think!

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Great looking column DusterDude72 I new it would come out sweet, I will definitely be doing this to mine. Great job
 
DusterDude72 said:
Nope there is no way you can weld it.......I think it is cast aluminum? some sort of pot metal anyhow....I already tried and it just beaded up on top of the metal and then the metal would crumble away.

the way I did it is working great.
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ok. ya it looks great! i dont like the idea of having an open hole on the side but you wont see it much and it dosent look bad at all on yours. maby i could put a toggle in it lol
 
tyler_s18 said:
ok. ya it looks great! i dont like the idea of having an open hole on the side but you wont see it much and it dosent look bad at all on yours. maby i could put a toggle in it lol
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open hole?

there is no open holes?

the only open hole is where the turn signal lever goes
 
That's what I was wondering where the hole was I kept going back and trying to find it but was convinced that was the so called hole and said huh wonder why that can't be gone over WAH LAH turn signal and it was gone lol
 
little bit of progress....been busy with alot of stuff.

Just sold my dusters bench seat to another member so bucket seats are in the near future.

dash is painted,once its all dry my steering column can go back in aswell as my new steering wheel and I can hook all my dash wiring up and put tranny fluid in the duster,some gas and a battery and I will be ready to start it up!!!
and I need to paint my doors and sail panels and I can move forward with putting my interior back together ....once all that is done I can focus on the body work and paint!

getting closer.....I should have it running and driving soon and not much longer before my interior is done either and then I will take it to the body shop at the end of summer where it will most likely be until spring and then I SHOULD be able to call the duster "done".....then again....projects are never really done lol

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nice work there . but why do we have a stop signs? my seem to work well for a small bench sum times and my no parking sign just hangs on the wall.
 
Thanks....just finished painting the rest of the dash (glove box,ash tray and so on) installed my column,steering wheel,A/C bezel and controls,stereo cage and hooked up the column wiring....still have to run my speedo cable back through my firewall and hook up my gauge cluster and then my dash is about done!

Been waiting to get the dash and column all wired up so I can be able to start it! just need to finish that up and pour some tranny fluid in,hook up the battery,pour some gas in and fire it up!!!!
 
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