Dirtbag Duster

[fourspeed]

I bought my '72 Duster in 1985, I think. It was a nice clean car with a six cylinder, automatic, and air conditioning. Oddly enough, it had 340 stripes on it and small bolt pattern rayyle wheels. A sheep in wolf's clothing.

One day my dad asked if I wanted a 340 for my car. I said "Huh? Yeah." He knew a guy who had the 340 out of a '69 Barracuda. A friend of my dad's bought the car brand new and had low miles on it when the car was totalled while parked! I bought the engine, which included bell housing, four speed trans, shifter, and pedal assembly.

Dad and I put the 340 in the car. We used a '73 k member, '73 disc brakes, and an A body 8-3/4 I bought. I converted to electronic ignition at that time, too.

Later, I got 11" brakes off a big Chrysler in the junk yard and bought some Summers Brothers large bolt pattern axles.

I was living in apartments and the car went downhill. All the exhaust seats were eroded, the car would sometimes turn off, and occasionally the clutch rod would come off the clutch pedal.

I started rebuilding the car a few years ago. I intended to rebuild the engine, do the necessary body work, and paint the car. Well, the project "grew" and is now much more car than I imagined.

Pics to follow.

 

[fourspeed]

The car when I started rebuilding it:

Original paint, not too bad. There were a couple small holes in the rear quarters, but the metal was thin in the whole area. Turned out the trunk floor was pretty rough too. The tail lights might look cool, but they leaked.

 

[fourspeed]

Replaced the trunk floor and extensions. I found bigblockdart.com and decided to widen the wheelwells while I was at it. Yep, this is the first time the project "grew".

Then, I realized that you can't run a wider wheel unless you also relocate the springs. Damn, the project grew again.

 

[fourspeed]

Next, I painted the underside of the car. I figured I would use some Eastwood Rust Encapsulator and some enamel.

Well, I had to remove any loose rust first. So I got under there with a wire wheel and did the WHOLE floor. Yes, it was a lot of work. Then I sprayed Rust Encapsulator. Then I thought, why not use some epoxy primer to seal it up good? So I did that. Then I thought, why not paint body color under there? It no more work then spraying some Rustoleum...

So I went with my wife and her friend to pick out a color. We picked one off a color sheet, and it turned out to be "Clapton Green Metallic" which is a Fender color.

 

[fourspeed]

The engine compartment was next. I found some rust here as well. It looked pretty good until I removed the paint. Fixed a couple rust spots, used the Eastwood, epoxy primer and enamel like underneath the car.

 

[fourspeed]

Rebuilt the front suspension. Used RMS strut rods. Very Nice.

I also used Bill's tubular upper control arms with sperical bearings.

I bought a '73 anti sway bar, which goes through the K member. Nice clean look. The '72 would have worked too, but it mounts in front of the k member. I had to make mounts for the lower conrol arms either way, so it didn't matter whether I used the narrower '73 bar, or the wider '72 bar. I also made some end links that eliminate the upper rubber bushings. Without tosion bars, you could move the spindle by hand, and the spindle on the other side would move with it. Nice. The lower control arm uses rubber bushings and the anti-sway bar has a couple poly bushings. All the other bushings are gone.

 

[340john]

Looking really good...progressing nicely. I really like the color you picked and I look foward to seeing it painted with the black stripes back on.

 

[pastortom1]

That's some nice steel work..........Can't wait to see 'er progress. 8)

 

[fourspeed]

Body work
Patches were fitted carefully, butted to the existing metal, and tacked in place. Then my friend Craig used his mini torch to gas weld the seam. (I did some seams in areas that are not conspicuous) It causes a lot of warpage, but the weld is malleable. He would weld a spot, then hammer and dolly it to flatten the weld and stretch the metal back out. Once the welding is done, you can hammer and dolly the panel without much cracking.

You can see an area here where a strip of metal was butt welded below the tail light. This is after sandblasting, but you can see the dimples where the weld is.

I got an AAR hood and it RULES! I always wanted a hood scoop. Kick ***.

This is how the body work looks now. It will stay like this until the mechanicals are done. That way we don't jag up the body work.

 

[fourspeed]

Engine

Every Mopar guy's favorite - the engine.

I was going o build my 340 myself, but was talked into having the race shop build it. Good decision. If I had done it, there's no way the engine would run as well as it does.

The specs, for those who need them:
The 340 got bored .030
The crank was ground.
SRP forged pistons
Eagle H beam rods
Edelbrock heads
Edelbrock RPM air gap dual plane intake
Milodon oil pan
MSD distributor
Comp Cams Pro Magnum rockers
Compression ratio is 10:1 because I wanted the engine to run on pump gas, with no blending.
The cam is a hydraulic roller with .530 lift and 230 degrees at .050 duration.

The dyno produces a chart of numbers, not a graph. So I made my own in Excel.

On race gas, it made 465HP at 6000RPM and 466 lb ft torque at 4400RPM. 38 degrees advance. Yow! Power dropped when we backed off to 36 degrees advance, so back to 38. On pump gas, 458HP at 6000RPM and 462 lb ft torque at 4300RPM. Ran fine on pump gas at 38 degrees advance. The engine builder was pleasantly surprised that the pump gas number was so close to the race gas number.

 

[fourspeed]

Mechanicals
The engine is in. Clutch is in - Centerforce dual-friction. Bellhousing is in - man, that thing has a lot of bolts. Trans was checked out, it looked good, so it just got new bearings, seals, and gaskets. TTI headers went in as the engine was lowered.

Before final body work, I still need to do fuel system, radiator, wiring (Painless kit), and exhaust.

Ok, that's it! The posts are up-to-date now.

 

[fourspeed]

Looking really good...progressing nicely. I really like the color you picked and I look foward to seeing it painted with the black stripes back on.

Thanks. Yeah, it'll get the stripes and a black hood. The black will help tone down the green a bit.

 

[scamper340]

Engine looks great, and I love the color choice. BTW, what water pump are you using, doesn't look familiar.

 

[pettybludart]

Fourspeed,your drivetrain is similar to mine except I had my 340 stroked to a 372,dynoed at 452hp 440ftlbs. X heads p/p,XEH284 cam,air gap with 750 holley v.s,msd 6al,pro billet dist. hooker headders.Centerforce d.friction with lakewood bell(heavy and lots of bolts)8 3/4 4.10 stange bbp axels with comp eng. slide-a-link traction.I take my car to the track often,but I think I baby it a little to much(don,t want to brake anything on the launch)Car ran 12.82 at 108mph,60ft. 1.80.Should be able to get it down in low 12,s this spring.Now building a 66 Dart for mostly strip so I can use the Dart Sport for more of a street car.Keep up the good work and keep posting as you go!

 

[alleyoopmgv]

Looking good!

 

[fourspeed]

Engine looks great, and I love the color choice. BTW, what water pump are you using, doesn't look familiar.

It's an Edelbrock. The engine guy likes those, so I went with it.

 

[fourspeed]

Fourspeed,your drivetrain is similar to mine except I had my 340 stroked to a 372,dynoed at 452hp 440ftlbs. X heads p/p,XEH284 cam,air gap with 750 holley v.s,msd 6al,pro billet dist. hooker headders.Centerforce d.friction with lakewood bell(heavy and lots of bolts)8 3/4 4.10 stange bbp axels with comp eng. slide-a-link traction.I take my car to the track often,but I think I baby it a little to much(don,t want to brake anything on the launch)Car ran 12.82 at 108mph,60ft. 1.80.Should be able to get it down in low 12,s this spring.Now building a 66 Dart for mostly strip so I can use the Dart Sport for more of a street car.Keep up the good work and keep posting as you go!

Cool, thanks for the info on your car. The engine builder, before the dyno runs, figured I would be in the low 12's. From your info, it looks like I should be in the ballpark.

Do you run slicks, or street tires?

 

[pettybludart]

Cool, thanks for the info on your car. The engine builder, before the dyno runs, figured I would be in the low 12's. From your info, it looks like I should be in the ballpark.

Do you run slicks, or street tires?

Yes I run 26x10 M/T drag slicks.Gonna put a 2 stage limiter on for better launch.We,ll see in spring!

 

[70DartMike]

Hahah your stripe says Ruster..

Anyways. Great work!

 

[challengergary]

Great looking build. I like the color too - almost looks like the 999 code Rallye Green from 69

 

[Burntorange70]

Nice work so far. Keep up the good work.

 

[fourspeed]

Progress from the last couple weekends:

The trunk is painted. I used acrylic enamel with hardener, same as under the car and in the engine bay. Unfortunately, PPG no longer makes the stuff, it's only available in the Omni line. The Omni single stage paint is crap. It doesn't cover at all until you have about three coats on. There goes my money savings. Ah well, that does it for the enamel. The outside of the car will be in base/clear. Got the battery box and shutoff switch mounted.

Pinion angle is set at 5 degrees, perches are welded, backing plates are on and axles are in. The 3.23 will go in for now, but I hope to have my hands on a 3.91 sure grip before long. Right now, the budget is an issue.

This is one of my favorite pictures. The Milodon oil pan, Lakewood bellhousing, trans and headers are all visible. Sometimes I roll unde rthe car on a creeper just to look at it. Then I start to... uh, nevermind. Anyway, the driveshaft loop is in. The driveshaft itself needs to be shortened by about an inch.

A shot of the bottom. You can see the spring sliders. The cable hanging down is the massive battery cable I got from my friend's dad. Saved me a small fortune.

The line lock is in. I still need some brake plumbing that I have on order.

That's it for now... until the weekend. I can't believe we're actually doing such small things. Soon the mechanicals will be done, then it's time for final bodywork and paint. Major expenditures coming up: radiator, gauges, and paint.

 

[fourspeed]

More progress. Not much to look at, but progress none the less.

Wired the relay. I'm using a Painless harness, so anything I want to change is pretty much fair game. All this will get covered when the wiring is in place.

Moved the coil to the inner fender. I didn't want it on the manifold because it gets too crowded with the distributor. The primary wires are there and they look nice with the "Powerbraid" covering. I actually found an electronics supply house that sells the same stuff at half the price that Painless charges. I moved the regulator next to the alternator. Looks like it was meant to be there. All the alternator wiring will go through the core support, across the front of the core support, and along the driver's side inner fender. NO WIRES LAYING ON MY ENGINE!

The positive battery cable is routed and the length is ok. That's awesome, because my buddy's dad got the cable for me and it is 17 feet, I think. It's just right without cutting, and without much extra.

Fuel pump is mounted and electrical is half done.

 

[fourspeed]

It's close now. Real close. I need to buy a carb and waterpump pulley, reassemble my steering column, paint the black hood/cowl/window area, and get glass.

 

[fourspeed]

Not too much happened this weekend, but here she is with wheels and tires. The rear tires are from my pickup because the wheels for the rear are back-ordered. The rear will get 15x9 Convo Pros with 6.5 backspacing. The tires will be one inch bigger in dia and of course, wider.

Bumpers are on, door latches and locks are in, tail lights are in (they cleaned up great), and the steering column is in. I still need a coupler though. I'm working on the shark tooth grille. It's cracked pretty bad, but all the pices are there, so it should turn out nice.