A tale of two Dusters

[racerjoe]

Well, here we go for dragging up a super old thread. I haven't made a real update to this thread since 2012. Life certainly gets in the way of our best laid plans but I wanted to provide an update as I hate it when threads just disappear.

So update: Both these cars have been essentially in cold storage since 2012. I ended up having to get rid of the Dirt track car I was going to use for the Green Duster. I have moved several times since I updated and lost parts etc over time. Late summer was the first time these cars have even been at the same location as me. After going over both and sitting down and realistically looking at the list of parts and time that would be required (Yes, I'm still an engineer so there was an excel sheet involved ) to get these going vs how much time I have with work and other commitments it was honestly depressing. I felt like I was never going to get anything going because my plans far outreached the budget and time I had to commit. I had to make some decisions about the direction I wanted to go with these. Do I keep building two cars? Do I rebuild the gold one stock-ish and use the green one as parts? Do I just cut my losses and sell both? A duster has always been my "achievable" dream car so how do I make this work? A lot of questions and very few good answers.

Well, after a couple months and going over the situation with my wife (buy-in is always important on stuff like this), there was a glimmer of hope. I found an 85 year old guy who, because of health reasons, was getting out of the hobby and he had a surprisingly good shape 1972 Plymouth Duster Drag car. It has been raced in various forms since almost new but was somehow in pretty good and largely original shape except for the drivetrain (more on that later). Well, we went back and forth for a little while but eventually a deal was struck that worked for everyone. Here is how it worked out. I now have a New to me Yellow 1972 Duster, The previous owner gets a fair price and the knowledge it is going to a good home, and my wife gets the promise that the two other Dusters (green and gold) will find new homes. So if anyone is looking for a a good project (or two) let me know as they will be listed soon.

So here is a quick overview of the new Yellow Duster and some pictures for those curious. I haven't decided If I'm going to start a new Thread for it or just continue with this existing one (open to input if you have any strong feelings on the matter). It is a 1972 Plymouth Duster in yellow, has 70 stripes currently and a sharktooth grille (I've always been a sucker for these). It is currently set up as a drag car which will change into a more streetable handling build over time. It has a stroked 360 Eagle crank & JE forged pistons with Edelbrock Performer rpm heads and a 750 proform race carb. It has a built 727 with a full manual valve body, somewhere around 3000 stall, 4:10 (?) 8 3/4", SBP all around and original Drum brakes (terrifying and will be the first thing to go). It's pretty rowdy currently and not particularly streetable. It will blow the 275/60R15 MT ET Street slicks off with just a punch of the throttle and it sounds amazing through a 2.5" X-pipe and Flowmasters with turndowns. I was told it did 10.80's with an 850 carb then they put the 750 on to slow it down so they wouldn't need a cage (I'll be honest, it is quick but I'm not sure I totally believe the 10:80s). Over the next couple weeks I'll be going through it to identify what exact parts it has and figuring out a plan to get it to where I want to be. I still want to manual swap it and make it handle pretty well but don't have exact performance targets currently.

I guess that is about all for now so enjoy the pictures. Excited to be back.

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Woohoo! We need you at Moparty grand champion regardless of its capabilities at that time. Ask @Dantra how much fun it is to drive a car around the cones that isn't setup to do it.

 

[75slant6]

Woohoo! We need you at Moparty grand champion regardless of its capabilities at that time. Ask @Dantra how much fun it is to drive a car around the cones that isn't setup to do it.

Or ask Charlie in that red 66 Charger!
But yeah, definitely bring that thing up to MoParty next year!

 

[bjkadron]

Glad to see the direction you have taken. Having a running vehicle is such a plus. I look forward to seeing you make your mark on it.

Yes, Going to try to keep it as close to running as possible as I progress for sure.

Woohoo! We need you at Moparty grand champion regardless of its capabilities at that time. Ask @Dantra how much fun it is to drive a car around the cones that isn't setup to do it.

Well, I already have a sway bar so I think I'm actually ahead of where he was this year Although if I still have this manual steering box I may need one of these:

Or ask Charlie in that red 66 Charger!
But yeah, definitely bring that thing up to MoParty next year!

Yes, that is my plan, get it to Moparty this coming year!

 

[Dantra]

Woohoo! We need you at Moparty grand champion regardless of its capabilities at that time. Ask @Dantra how much fun it is to drive a car around the cones that isn't setup to do it.

Probably the best time I've ever had in a car...

 

[bjkadron]

Not a lot of updates but I have a few. My first goal has been to find out what exactly I got myself into. Starting with the engine.

I did a compression test and got ~195 PSI cylinder pressure. Thinking that was pretty high for a pretty big cam I decided to break out my inspection camera and get a look at the inside. Found this:

Those are not flat tops like I was expecting, that is a pretty serious dome. So I confirmed my butt dyno readings, this thing is spicy.
Lets check out the lifters, I was told it was a roller cam but didn't have receipts or anything. Roller cam confirmed:

Anyone recognize these by this picture? I'm not sure what brand or really if they are solid or hydraulic. I'm thinking that looks like a retainer clip where the pushrod comes out but hard to tell for sure.
Heads were a bit harder to tell because I'm not finding a lot of marking and they were hard to get a picture of through the spark plug hole.

Hard to tell for sure but it looks like they are slightly open chamber. they just say "Performer RPM 6017" so I don't know if they are 60179 or 60175. My guess is 60175 since they are the roller lifters. Also has nice double springs and roller lifters. Intake is a Edelbrock torker 2. No idea what the oil pan is but it is kicked out and cad plated. Kinda looks like this one:

I have a line on a Kevco road race pan from another member here, which would probably be better for the intended usage.
Overall it is about what I figured going into it. A pretty spicy engine but should still run on pump premium if I watch the timing.

 

[bjkadron]

Not too much of an update but today I was prepping the duster for winter (fuel stabilizer etc) and while I was running it I figured I'd mess with the carb a little more. I ended up re-doing all the simple tuning: adjusting the idle, idle mixture, setting the accelerator pump linkage. It runs and idles a little better now but I think I need to look at the jetting because it is still smelling a little rich. Did end up making a short video of the exhaust sound. Enjoy!



Edit: I didn't do a full cold start video because it was 40* out and I don't have a choke. The starts are a little rough haha.

 

[JBrian]

Very nice catch. What's interesting is that chassis looks like a VERY old school setup with the spring clamps and shock extenders. That's not bad, but then you look inside the motor and it looks pretty up to date with nice matching components. Surely the gentleman had this car a very long time. I know we're all different, but I'd be inclined to perform a safety check, dump some VP C12 in the tank and drag it to the track and see what it runs. Those cylinder walls look brand new!

 

[bjkadron]

Very nice catch. What's interesting is that chassis looks like a VERY old school setup with the spring clamps and shock extenders. That's not bad, but then you look inside the motor and it looks pretty up to date with nice matching components. Surely the gentleman had this car a very long time. I know we're all different, but I'd be inclined to perform a safety check, dump some VP C12 in the tank and drag it to the track and see what it runs. Those cylinder walls look brand new!

Yeah, it has apparently been raced since basically new in various setups. I am apparently the third owner. They guy I got it from bought it from the original owner quite a few years ago as a race car. It only shows 23k miles but the speedo doesn't work so I don't know how many miles haven't been counted. Yeah, I'm very curious as well. First thing on my list is the disc swap. I don't know who would drive a "10.80"s car with drums. Not me. I may be dumb but I'm not stupid haha. After I get that done I may take it to a local track and get some 1/4 mile numbers before I change the rear. It supposedly hooks hard on a prepped surface. They said it would wheelie about about 6-12" on launch when they were competing with it. Would be fun to try that out. Never had a drag car before.

 

[Demonx2]

Yeah, it has apparently been raced since basically new in various setups. I am apparently the third owner. They guy I got it from bought it from the original owner quite a few years ago as a race car. It only shows 23k miles but the speedo doesn't work so I don't know how many miles haven't been counted. Yeah, I'm very curious as well. First thing on my list is the disc swap. I don't know who would drive a "10.80"s car with drums. Not me. I may be dumb but I'm not stupid haha. After I get that done I may take it to a local track and get some 1/4 mile numbers before I change the rear. It supposedly hooks hard on a prepped surface. They said it would wheelie about about 6-12" on launch when they were competing with it. Would be fun to try that out. Never had a drag car before.

I would not discount the 10.80's claim. An A-body with a stroker SBM can achieve that quite readily with the right combo of parts. And as you described yours, I think it is certainly possible. Traction is obviously also required but the motor may well be capable. I'm at 11.10 with not quite as much cyl head or cam but the PO of my car with a different stroker ran 10.80's all day with it.

As for drum brakes on a car doing about 125 mph in the quarter (10.80's), keep in mind you only have to stop one time before the brakes cool off again. And an A-body is relatively light. I used to race my 69 Charger that had power drum brakes (which gave you SMALLER brakes!) and had to slow all 4400+#'s of car and driver down from 108-110 mph. Those brakes did it without issue. And drum brakes don't drag as much as disc brakes so they are actually better for drag racing if you have sufficient capacity for that one stop each pass.

Looks like a very nice car you have there - have fun with it!!

 

[bjkadron]

I would not discount the 10.80's claim. An A-body with a stroker SBM can achieve that quite readily with the right combo of parts. And as you described yours, I think it is certainly possible. Traction is obviously also required but the motor may well be capable. I'm at 11.10 with not quite as much cyl head or cam but the PO of my car with a different stroker ran 10.80's all day with it.

As for drum brakes on a car doing about 125 mph in the quarter (10.80's), keep in mind you only have to stop one time before the brakes cool off again. And an A-body is relatively light. I used to race my 69 Charger that had power drum brakes (which gave you SMALLER brakes!) and had to slow all 4400+#'s of car and driver down from 108-110 mph. Those brakes did it without issue. And drum brakes don't drag as much as disc brakes so they are actually better for drag racing if you have sufficient capacity for that one stop each pass.

Looks like a very nice car you have there - have fun with it!!

All good points. I actually believe the 10.80s. I've driven a fairly good variety of fast cars and this one is definitely up there in the amount of giddy up. The main thing is traction but it was un-prepped and 50* out when I drove it. So on a prepped surface I believe it would crack into the 10s even with the 750 carb.

Fair point about the drums only needing to stop once. But they definitely aren't up to par for street or other track activities. Hence me wanting to upgrade them.

Thank you!

 

[bjkadron]

Not a bunch of progress to report but I'm slowly moving some upgrades I did to the old Gold car to the new Yellow one. over the last two weekends I've gotten most of the BBP disc equipment pulled and am slowly cleaning it up and getting it ready to put on. These are mostly new parts that have just been sitting since I blew up the engine but they will work for now. I will also move the bigger swaybar that is on there but I need to make some new brackets.

I am changing to the standard length UBJs because the long ones won't work with my 17s so I had to borrow a tool kit from the local auto parts store as they were in there pretty solidly. I will work on getting my own socket or wrench so I can do these on my own next time. Also while taking stuff apart I noticed that my LBJs are shot, So I will need to get them. We will see what else I run into as I go. Ended up going with just a plain grey for the brackets and calipers because I have it and because they hopefully won't be on there too long. I am going to braided stainless lines when I install them.

 

[bjkadron]

Got new LBJs, and new stainless brake flex hose for the rear since I've seen the stock ones swell up and reduce pressure before. I also found some blue washed grade 8 bolts at my local hardware store so I got the last few pieces I need for my Adjustable strut rods.

I've unfortunately been having trouble getting the old LBJ's off the spindles without them on a car. My impact isn't strong enough and I can't hold it to get the torque to get them broken loose (I don't have a vise). I got them mostly cleaned up though, they had a ton of caked on dried grease and such:

I also pulled the springs, Hangers and rear from the Green Parts car and am cleaning some of the pieces up so I can drop the rear back down to a reasonable level. I've considered doing new adjustable hangers but I may want to do an offset one for more tire clearance if I do that. The only ones I have designed are these stock offset ones:

I was also able to pull it out of the garage and get the engine bay a little cleaned up for some of the stuff I need to do there. Even just mostly idling it around it is a beast of a car. I hope to have it out on the road running around soon.

Here is a quick video for you to enjoy from post wash:

 

[bjkadron]

Good news this time! My PB blaster drip protocol and a fresh battery for the impact got the LBJ bolts loose last night.

After that I finished getting them cleaned up then mixed up some of my chosen suspension pieces color to spray with my new detail gun. Small cans of this hammered silver finish are like $8-9 each but I got a quart for $16. I had heard mixed reports about how the hammered finish worked with being thinned but after some experimenting I ended up doing a very light coat, then immediately doing one heavy coat and the finish turned out great. Definitely need to work on my mixing process because I made a mess and ended up mixing way too much so I went ahead and painted my torsion bars, the one spring hanger I had cleaned up and the fender braces (not sure they will stay silver). I'll get some better pictures in the daylight later.

I'm mostly traveling for the next couple weeks for work so likely won't get much more done but glad I was able to get these done and let them cure.

 

[bjkadron]

Small update. I've been out of town so haven't been able to do much. Also there has been a bit of hoopla with my job so my parts budget is uncertain currently. I did get to check the painted parts and the hammered finish is uneven on the round parts. I will probably leave the torsion bars but the braces will probably need to be re-done.

 

[bjkadron]

If anyone is looking for a good project, I just listed the Gold one.

[FOR SALE] - 1972 Plymouth Duster 318 w/AC

1972 Plymouth Duster 318 w/AC For Sale Near Oak Ridge TN Price: $5500 OBO 1972 Plymouth Duster project car. This needs some work but has some interesting options and is a very complete car. I've owned this car for over 15 years. It was actually my first car but life changes force the sale. You...

www.forabodiesonly.com