About to be shunned...

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mathewdylang

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It's been a long time since I have been on here. I went through some rough times, but the last few months have been much better. Now that everything is going better I finally want to bring the 74 duster shell home. I have a good running 318 for it and I have been playing with ideas for the car. As of now it has no k member or front suspension pieces. Snce this car needs a lot of help, I was trying to decide what to do with it. I have come to the conclusion I want to MadMax it. 4wd axles and driveline. Enough to clear 31-33" tires. Probably do some cutting since the rear fenders are pretty bad anyway. Has anyone ever done a 4x4 a body? Links to this? Not sure where to post this. And i'm sure people will hate the idea, but I couldnt decided between a muscle car or off road build. So why not both? Thanks for any help. And I am open to all hate I will receive for this.

Mat
 
Go for it. I think it will be badass. I bet a Dakota of some configuration is close to the same wheel base.
 
I was thinking either a dakota 4wd front end or jeep front axle with dakota or ramcharger driveline.

I would look at adapting the whole Dakota frame and drive train.
 
I'd grab a CK5 Jimmy or suburban; cheap and already set up for countless cheap mods.
 
I would look at adapting the whole Dakota frame and drive train.

Pretty much. Especially if the body shell has enough rust that it might be somewhat weakened, a unibody is "not" what you want for a 4x4.

This is NOT going to be cheap, even if you do all the work yourself.
 
I couldnt decided between a muscle car or off road build. So why not both? Thanks for any help. And I am open to all hate I will receive for this.

Mat
No hate. But I will offer you some food for thought.
Sure it's your car, do what you want.

"Why not both?"
Will you drive this off road very much?
If not....what are you actually going to do with it?
Car show?

Now we all know the old saying.
You will never get your money of it. (Maybe a Hemi car)

The point being if you are going to spend time and money on it, who will want it someday when/if you want to sell it.
I'm guessing you are going to be looking hard for a buyer.
 
I'd be looking for a Dakota. The wheelbase on a regular cab Dak is 111.9" from 1987 all the way up to '04. And from '97 to '04 you could get one with a 5.2 or 5.9 magnum. That would allow you to just fabricate body mounts to attach the unibody structure directly to the Dak frame. It would provide a little bit of body lift too. You'd probably have to section the Dak frame down so the wheelbase was 108" like the Duster though. Still, for this kind of project that shouldn't be outside of your abilities.

There's a General Lee Charger on eBay right now that was grafted onto a Durango chassis. They even used the Durango floor and firewall, I assume the Charger must have been pretty rusty as that would be a lot of work. Not to mention pretty much irreversible. If you bolt the unibody to a Dak frame it you would retain the possibility of making it a car again in the future.

Here's the ad on the Charger...

1968 Dodge Charger Charger with Dodge Durango Drivetrain

And below is a Duster I saw on craigslist awhile back. You can see this guy just welded brackets for leaf springs right onto the front subframe. Not sure that's a great idea for longevity...

00W0W_bGbltYbu4za_600x450.jpg
 
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I'd be looking for a Dakota. The wheelbase on a regular cab Dak is 111.9" from 1987 all the way up to '04. And from '97 to '04 you could get one with a 5.2 or 5.9 magnum. That would allow you to just fabricate body mounts to attach the unibody structure directly to the Dak frame. It would provide a little bit of body lift too. You'd probably have to section the Dak frame down so the wheelbase was 108" like the Duster though. Still, for this kind of project that shouldn't be outside of your abilities.

There's a General Lee Charger on eBay right now that was grafted onto a Durango chassis. They even used the Durango floor and firewall, I assume the Charger must have been pretty rusty as that would be a lot of work. Not to mention pretty much irreversible. If you bolt the unibody to a Dak frame it you would retain the possibility of making it a car again in the future.

Here's the ad on the Charger...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dodge-Charger-Charger-with-Dodge-Durango-Drivetrain-/151654145461?forcerrptr=true&hash=item234f4a9db5&item=151654145461

And below is a Duster I saw on craigslist awhile back. You can see this guy just welded brackets for leaf springs right onto the front subframe. Not sure that's a great idea for longevity...

If I would've had the money back when that 4x4 Duster was on cl I woulda bought the thing! It's badass!! :headbang:

Put the Duster body on a dakota frame, put in a 4bt cummins and have fun!!:D lol
 
yea , its awesome alright
 

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I thought about using a frame off of a Dakota, but I would rather put spring mounts on the subframe and run the car how it is. I feel it would be cheaper just to put mounts on the car since my uncle can custom make and weld the mounts for me.
 
I thought about using a frame off of a Dakota, but I would rather put spring mounts on the subframe and run the car how it is. I feel it would be cheaper just to put mounts on the car since my uncle can custom make and weld the mounts for me.

If you do it this way, put in subframe connectors at the very least
 
I put a 4 door Sundance body on a 72 Power Wagon frame a couple years ago. It was built as a fun mud today only. It was fun, but it was never street legal, and it's gonna get torn down this summer. I was surprised that the frame rails on the car were the same width as the truck frame. We used stock truck front cab mounts and custom build some C channel mounts for the back. We ended up having to run X braces in the back since the body started listing to the one side after it's maiden voyage. Ran a 318, 727, divorced NP205 and 84 1/2 ton axles with limited slip and 4.56 gears with 35" super swampers!
 
I thought about using a frame off of a Dakota, but I would rather put spring mounts on the subframe and run the car how it is. I feel it would be cheaper just to put mounts on the car since my uncle can custom make and weld the mounts for me.

It might be cheaper, but you'll want to reinforce those mounts very well. And as 75slant6 said, I would use subframe connectors with that at the minimum. How well you reinforce the mounts and unibody will determine how long everything lasts. Not as much of a problem if you just want to cruise this thing on the street, but if you actually have any kind of serious off-road aspirations for it the unibody will need some reinforcement. In addition to the subframe connectors I'd be looking at some kind of reinforcement for the shock towers (whether you use them for shocks or not) to triangulate the front frame rails. The unibody is not designed to carry suspension loads like that directly on the frame rails, the spring forces from the torsion bars are carried by the K member and torsion bar crossmember not the rails.

You can see here the "J" bars I added to my car, running between the firewall and front end of the frame rails. I also added subframe connectors, torque boxes, and a radiator support brace to my car to stiffen it up for handling purposes.

IMG_1915_zps32183594.jpg


The other issue that may come up is the transmission tunnel. Bolting the whole car down on a Dak frame raises the body and uses the truck mounts. Putting the hangers on the frame means that the transmission, transfer case, front driveshaft etc all have to clear the body too.

Doing this right, no matter which way you go, will take some time and effort. If you just slap some leaf spring hangers on the frame and redneck the thing together it won't even be safe, and who knows how things will work out for suspension geometry. Even assuming you end up with something that's tolerable, it's longevity would be an issue. You basically have to design an entire front suspension to do this right, although a leaf spring front suspension is pretty simple. But you still have to determine the length and arch of the springs, the angle of the springs, as well as the hangers and shackles, determine the shock length, keep the axle centered in the wheel well and maintain the wheel base, set the angles of the driveshafts, and then match the ride height front and back. And that doesn't even address what you're going to do for steering. The whole steering system will have to be redesigned, you'll probably have to come up with some kind of cross steer system to keep everything lined up. But with that much lift you can pretty much guarantee that the stock centerlink, idler and tie rods will be a disaster, and probably won't be anywhere near where they need to be for the to work with the front axle and spindles.

There's a lot of things to consider if you actually want something that's enjoyable to drive and relatively safe. After all of that, getting a Dak frame out of a wrecking yard and just sectioning it to the right wheelbase starts to look like the easier way to go. Everything is already in place, the suspension and steering all works, all you have to do is get the steering column from the Duster hooked up to the Dak's steering.
 
Finding a complete 04-08 Hemi Durango with a lot of body damage but no frame or drivetrain damage would be awesome. Use the complete frame with suspension and drivetrain, along with the wiring and computer. An all wheel drive Duster with a 5.7 Hemi would be badass on or off road.
 
This is just an idea ive let bounce around my head. It may not happen, i might just get a factory SB k member and the front end pieces and do a blow through turbo set up with the 318/360 head combo.
 
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