Beginning of the End - my 73, 340 Duster rest-o-rod???

[Joe Mc]

At this point its a "rust-o-rot" :cry: low milage and no matching numbers on anything. So its my artistic/hot rod pallet - so to speak. :cheers:

Just ordered the full floor from AMD http://www.autometaldirect.com/images/uploads/3636A_web.jpg

$429 + 125 shipping. 8)

I ain't touchin' nothin' till it arrives - then I'll open the can-o-worms in the rest of the car #-o

 

[Joe Mc]

Hey guys nothing earth shattering, and this is going to be a slooow project for me, daughter is finishing up her senior year, you know what that means - poor house for the next ??? till she's done college.

Anyway, I just received email from AMD that the pan is shipping. So, when I get the gumption to clear out the garage this summer I'll take some snaps of the Flintstone mobile and post them up. So at least there's something to look at because :worthles:

 

[J-MacsMopars]

Good luck on the build. I am also restoring a 73 340 Duster. I think they are the best looking year. Good colors on yours too. Does it still have the fender tag? I was looking at my car and it has 34,941 original miles. I wish it looked like thats all it had. But there are some nice parts on there that show that that is what it is. I know I speak for everyone when I say we need to see pics.

 

[pettybludart]

Glad to see both you guys bringing back the 73,s.Mines not a Duster,but a 73 Dart Sport 340 4 speed with about 107,000 on it with no rust.PO,s kept this car sparkling.Which is why I bought it.Stroked the motor cause it wasn,t 3,s matching,now goes like a scoulded rabbit!Good Luck on the resto,s!:clock:

 

[waggin]

I'm to poor to restore!!!! hell with numbers matchin crap ( no offence ) but I can't afford to do stuff that way!!! Heres my rendition of 340 73 duster ( not a clone) it's a six cylinder car with my 340 stuff stuck in it...hope you like :cheers:

Good luck on the build. I am also restoring a 73 340 Duster. I think they are the best looking year. Good colors on yours too. Does it still have the fender tag? I was looking at my car and it has 34,941 original miles. I wish it looked like thats all it had. But there are some nice parts on there that show that that is what it is. I know I speak for everyone when I say we need to see pics.

 

[J-MacsMopars]

"I'm to poor to restore!!!! hell with numbers matchin crap ( no offence ) but I can't afford to do stuff that way!!! Heres my rendition of 340 73 duster ( not a clone) it's a six cylinder car with my 340 stuff stuck in it...hope you like "

I agree with you on the numbers matching. However, I also think that if your car is a original performance car and is numbers matching. It deserves to stay that way. My car will not be build to stock specks. I am doing a "day two" build on it. Also, it won't be perfect. I want to drive the car. Thats what it was made for. I am not sure I will even take it to car shows other than the parking lot. The other thing is, is I want to do most of the work myself. I am going to try to buy another Duster that I know of that has been striped and practice replacing the 1/4's on it. I want to change them myself. The only thing I plan on farming out is the machine work. Everything else will be myself, my Dad, Brother, and friends.

That duster does look cool, I really like the Duster on the inside of the door.

 

[Twisted72]

I like the way you did the door also,decal or paint?

 

[Joe Mc]

I hear yah on the pictures, I doubt if I have any around? If I do they're from back when I was driving it the first time I owned it = no where near what it looks like now ukerigh:. If I come across any I'll pop one up - might be a scanned image of the picture on the wall in my garage ? ? ?

 

[Joe Mc]

This is from just before I sold it.

Well that didn't work out at all? ? ?

I'll try to figure out how to drop a picture from my Mac here some how?

 

[Joe Mc]

I think I've got it now? From Back in the day when you used to be able to drive on the grass . . .

 

[GTGrinly]

I think I've got it now? From Back in the day when you used to be able to drive on the grass . . .

I got arrested by the PA fish commission for driving my Harley onto a grass area.lol

 

[Joe Mc]

I got arrested by the PA fish commission for driving my Harley onto a grass area.lol

Sweet, got to love those wardens, you know protecting our wild life and such :thebirdm: I'm sure at one time we were "wild" too . . .:-D

 

[Joe Mc]

OK figured I'd post some pictures of the present sorry state of things. Plan today is to clear things off the hood - HA!

As you can see from the pictures, sitting in the garage has helped preserve "somewhat" the state of things, but clearing everything: on, around, in, under the car is going to be a challenge, not to mention getting the garage cleared out so I might be able to actually do something. Of course, finding a place to relocate everything may be more of a challenge than the actual car project, but that can of worms remains to be opened.

Here ya go!

 

[Joe Mc]

Nice huh? Just a few more - only allowed to post 10 pictures per post.

Not that it matters but here's the fender tag. It's a real 340, 4spd, bench seat, BBP, front disc brakes, W1 - Spinnaker White, black striped car.

No original engine, trans, rear = long gone. Anyone able to tell from the tag what the rear was?

 

[wish4hemi]

The rear was probably an 8.75, but without the build sheet, it is hard to say what gear ratio and if it was a sure-grip. Or the rear could have been an 8.25. I think the cutoff for A-body 8.75's was sometime around the end of '72 and the beginning of '73. That's no 4 speed car though. D13 means 3 speed stick.

 

[Joe Mc]

Wish for HEMI - thanks for clearing that up. No wonder there was an odd A-833 with a flange style slip-drive-shaft in it? Blasted thing would let loose almost every time I'd bang 2nd. At least my buddy got rid of that trans while he had it and put an A-833 slip yoke trans in it Not sure what process that one is, but doesn't matter at this point.

 

[needsaresto]

The heck with it,just build it the way you want it. It's your car. Keep us posted! Maybe take some progress pics for us. I subscribed btw!!

 

[Joe Mc]

Got the hood cleared:cheers:, opened up, removed the shop cloths from lifter valley and top of heads. When my buddy had it he rebuilt the 360 and said he put a purple stick in it, who knows if that's the case or what the stick numbers are at this point. The odd thing are the springs, their an orange-ish red, but it appears to be paint? I know there's not many miles on the rebuild he didn't get to drive it much afterwards.

Oh, removed the plugs, squirted some oil in - she's free still - spins pretty easily. Tear down coming after step #50, whatever that is?

Oh, apparently when my buddy had it he put some Black-Jack headers on it - note the lack of any space between the steering box and that one tube:wack:

Well here's some more pictures.

 

[Joe Mc]

Needsaresto. I am honored - my first subscriber :toothy10: thank you. It's going to be a "very long" process. If I'm lucky I'll have the garage cleared and be able to start work this summer . . . Not going to be as fast as some of the other members projects for sure.

In the first post my plan all along was as Frankie sung "Do it my way". There's nothing left original motor, trans, rear long gone - so its going to be "however" I "make up my mind" as I go along.

And the plan is to build the car to survive big block torture it will endure once the small block is gone.

 

[needsaresto]

Needsaresto. I am honored - my first subscriber :toothy10: thank you. It's going to be a "very long" process. If I'm lucky I'll have the garage cleared and be able to start work this summer . . . Not going to be as fast as some of the other members projects for sure.

In the first post my plan all along was as Frankie sung "Do it my way". There's nothing left original motor, trans, rear long gone - so its going to be "however" I "make up my mind" as I go along.

And the plan is to build the car to survive big block torture it will endure once the small block is gone.

LOL,I had to dig my Dart out this year too. I have a long way to go but every journey starts with a single step right? You have started~!

Sounds like you will be doing the same things I will do. Big block is my choice too,sub frame connectors and a 6 point cage for mine. I might just tie the rockers in with torque boxes too. This would make it a parameter frame in effect. Whatcha plannin for with the chassis/suspension?

 

[Joe Mc]

LOL,I had to dig my Dart out this year too. I have a long way to go but every journey starts with a single step right? You have started~!

Sounds like you will be doing the same things I will do. Big block is my choice too,sub frame connectors and a 6 point cage for mine. I might just tie the rockers in with torque boxes too. This would make it a parameter frame in effect. Whatcha plannin for with the chassis/suspension?

Yeah, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The small block will more than likely get blown before any big block goes in, but you never know.

Not sure w/chassis/susp yet? I gotta address the floor install and see what other can-o-worms gets opened . . . lower quarter sections, trunk, trunk risers etc. etc. etc.

Shooting for clearing off the roof tonight.

This thread may help me set and accomplish goals, or at least help me stay motivated now that I've taken the first bite.

 

[Joe Mc]

Wow! Last time I posted anything here was 360 days ago:clock:.

So here's the latest. I copped a Lakewood blow bell recently from MoParts, or maybe even here? Anyway the main parts were there; bell, shield and the ball for the clutch bar - $75 = sweet since new ones are around $400 +/-.

I took off this Thurs - Mon 1/20 - 1/24/11 in celebration of my 52 year on the planet (this Friday) and made a pact with myself to get "something" going with the car. So, I made a goal to accomplish by end of Monday before I go back to work, which is: get it out of the garage and back in on stands ready to get with the floor R & R. Sounds simple enough eh? scroll up and look at how deep it's buried in the small garage I have to work in.

So, today I spent about 5 hours or so (= 4 bottles of Harp and 3/4s of a fine cigar 'Ashton Churchill' worth of work - remember it's my birthday / finally getting to the car celebration time) and made some headway. See below pictures. Man this is going to be a slow and long project. Hope it picks up pace once I make goal and get it to a point where I can "Get at it".

Enjoy the snaps: I actually made more progress than shown in the pictures, it started getting dark and the card on the camera was full so, more to come tomorrow - snow or not I'm going for GOAL!

Thanks for looking.

 

[Joe Mc]

After spending about 30 minutes last night updating I went to insert a smile and the site crashed or?? At least I was able to save my typing (all thumbs) on a word doc and didn't loose it.

So this is an update from yesterday 1/21/11:

So this is what I woke up to this AM see picture. I actually made some good headway on the "Duster Dig Out Portion of this project" although nothing worthy of pictures. [I can't figure out how to paste a picture and then type info, post another type info etc??? Maybe someday]

Anyway, after shoveling the snow I loaded up the two old tires I was saving for when I take the truck to the drag-strip, (if I was ever able to find some spare wheels = never happened + taking up space in the garage for almost 2 years + already ran 13.25s with a 7,000# truck :cheese: - who cares about the truck it's time to get jiggy with the Duster) and gave them to a buddy of mine.

Then I started moving space killing items to the shed: full floor pan, 8-3/4 rear that I bought last summer and broke down = too many parts to be laying around in the small garage, and actually disposed of some "stuff" that god knows why it was sitting around for who knows how long . . .

I was able to relocate the blue tool box thats been between the two "big black baby buggy bumpers" on the rear bumper to the side of the garage - a major miracle - and now I can actually walk all the way around the car with the garage door closed :happy2:

So only the one picture today. More to come tomorrow (today). Thus far it looks like I should reach GOAL for the time I took off from work. I need to purchase a birthday present for myself (and Dusty) I think I need to get a bottle of Argon for the mig welder . . . Let's see, tomorrow's Saturday, I think the gas place is open on Saturday? Ouch! I just checked on-line and hit Northern Tool - about $250 for the bottle!? :crybaby: I hope that's not the case.

Sorry for rambling - today was a full fine cigar and 5 Harp workday + I'm presently sipping a Haig & Haig (Pinched bottle) 15 year Scotch Whiskey = yum. So I'm happy to be alive and 52 years young today.;-)

Later guys & gals.

 

[Joe Mc]

Way to cold today. Move daughters bike from where it was hanging on the garage ceiling to the shed w/other two bikes. At least something done today 15 degrees is too friggin cold for me . . .brrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[green1]

I have the same springs. I think they are Crane.