Barn find 72 340 duster

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65dartcharger said:
Tim! The second picture in reply #117 there is a boot/plug. They were used by the assembly line workers to get out all the air of the water channels after the cooling system were filled.

On some engines these plugs were mounted before the engine was painted a.d some engines got unpainted plugs after the procedure was done. I guess they were not mounted in time or that there was a change in production. It was faster to not mount the plug for the guys who took the air out of the engine. Otherwise they had to take away that plug when bleeding the system.

I think you are right re the one piece mounted as gasket. A great source is to check out old magazines with color photos of the engine bay. It's a great resource for information.
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Got it Ulf, will clean and photograph tonight after work.
 
Well got the rear end and leaf springs out today and got the casters from crackedback in place on the rear of the body. Heavy coating of dirt and oil on the rear end . Initial cleaning turn up a few factory markings . Axel tube on drivers inside and the other markings so far are passenger side third member case. It was hot today and I am very sore. I remember why I told myself twenty years ago why I would never do a ground up again. also factory tag still in place 323 gears...
 

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Now to get the front suspension and the doors off, and then onto the sheet metal repairs...
 
va58 said:
I pulled the driver side exhaust manifold off this afternoon to check and see if the "shield" was in fact a gasket. this I believe answers the questions I had concerning the " correct" gasket for this application. the picture that Ulf (65 Dartcharger) sent me of the shield and heat stove is the top part of a two part gasket/shield that would be correct on this car/engine combo. My 318 parts car shows the same type of setup. In the first two photos you can see that the shield is a gasket on this driver's side manifold. in the last two photo's you can see evidence of paint that was not completely burned off. I would say at this point that the shield was put on before the manifold( Of course!) and would have received much over spray. The other shield was gloss black and along with the gloss black heat stove was place on the motor after paint. the passenger side manifold was also removed and was as Adamr and myself suspected that it was a clean machined surface, no gasket. the reproduction shield is not correct for this application, but i think will work as far as being the bottom shield of this two part system. the top shield will overlap and with the two attachment points (clips) it will held to the heat stove portion of the total system. the third photo down is on the inside of the manifold and in both photos it is hard to tell but is residual paint that in person you can tell it is blue engine paint. the last photo it is a piece of the gasket/shield with blue paint on it..
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I started my car up to pull it out of the garage this afternoon and heard a new exhaust leak. Yup, it spit out a chunk of the steal heat shield,
 
AdamR said:
I started my car up to pull it out of the garage this afternoon and heard a new exhaust leak. Yup, it spit out a chunk of the steal heat shield,
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I need to buy the repop gasket/shield and see how close it is to our application.
 
Tim! Do they repop the shields? I have checked all sources here in Sweden but I could not find any NOS ones for you.
 
AdamR said:
The earlier 68-71 shields are made repro but not the 72-74 shield
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I would say Adam is correct. I think the shield will work with some modification. I won't know for sure until I buy a shield. the upper shield will cover most of the lower shield. I have two lower original shields in bad shape but I'm hoping it is enough to work from.
 
65dartcharger said:
Tim! What the next in line plan for the project?
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Ulf, next in line is to remove the front suspension and get the dollies under the front end. Had hoped to get to that point by labor day weekend but working alot of Overtime and a death in the family has slowed me down for awhile. Will start drilling out the spot welds in the trunk pan and rear tail panel once the front suspension is complete.
 
va58 said:
Ulf, next in line is to remove the front suspension and get the dollies under the front end. Had hoped to get to that point by labor day weekend but working alot of Overtime and a death in the family has slowed me down for awhile. Will start drilling out the spot welds in the trunk pan and rear tail panel once the front suspension is complete.
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Sorry to hear about your family. They repop the trunk pans, don't they? But how about the tail panel?
 
65dartcharger said:
Sorry to hear about your family. They repop the trunk pans, don't they? But how about the tail panel?
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Yes the trunk pan is available. Also while at carlise this summer picked up the tail panel. Picture of sheetmetal is on page 5 I think..
 
Some things getting done, but work has pick up so very little free time. Car had been hit in the front early in its life causing some light damage to the radiator support. I had considered cutting out the radiator support and using the sheet metal from my parts car, but after doing some measurement from parts car, I found that the 340 car was just off a small amount. A few hours pulling and prying and a large hammer with a block of wood, I got the radiator support back where it should be. Took a lot of measurement off of the parts car and feel comfortable that the 340 car is correctly placed. Having the correct radiator helped mock up the the front end to check it for placement. Took a few pictures but the support was off such a small amount that the before and after pictures showed so little difference, I didn't post. Got the tension off of the torsion bars and will work on getting those out this weekend so the rest of the front suspension can be removed. then I can get the dollies under the front and then body is basically stripped. Did you see Dave Moore's Black 72 340 survivor car? I have been over to Dave's house twice in the last month to look at the car. It is a two hour plus ride but well worth it. The car is amazing!! What NOS things have you run across?
 
I will list all the parts that I have for you tomorrow. Great that you will get into the front end. Is the rest of the car stripped down?
 
Love your car! Cant wait to see it finished. Also cant wait to see my 71 finished. Good luck and keep the pics comming.
 
Glad to see ur still plugging away on the Duster. Daves car is just awesome. I'm really glad hes willing to share all the details that car for us all, great guy! Keep up the progress!
 
Well, got the car jack up and stands under the car to remove the Torsion bars. after removing many of these over the years, I am stumped. The cheap
crappy homemade bar remover i have had for many years is now broken. the clips are out and there is no tension on the bars but the damn things won't come out. I will have to make a new t-bar remover that can stand up to a larger hammer! I beat on them forever and still can't see any movement.
Sprayed them down with more PB blaster and will let soak. that part of the car has seen much ground moisture and guess they are welded into place with rust. Any ideas, guys?
 
Cut them out. You'll be replacing them with new one anyway so why fight it? Plus if they are still stuck in the lower control arm (after you cut them out) you can use a press to remove them from the control arm.
 
1970Duster said:
Cut them out. You'll be replacing them with new one anyway so why fight it? Plus if they are still stuck in the lower control arm (after you cut them out) you can use a press to remove them from the control arm.
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That may be the best way to go....
 
Tim! I've sent you an email with all the parts. Sorry it took a little longer then I thought. Hope you find something of interest.
 
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