7072duster
Active Member
Just wondering if 70-75ish gutted empty shells where the same besides tail light panel and rear bumper mounts?
Duster shells all the same?
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mikedevore
Well-Known Member
Side markers are different on the 1972 & up.
There are also differences in the door shells. The earlier cars had the inner door handles down by the arm rests and later versions had the inner door handles in the upper part of the door frame with a plastic cup behind them.
74Dusted
Stock Piler of 340's
Some differences I know of
Side Marker Lights (which mikedevore mentioned) are different for 1970-1971 and 1972-1976
Floor Pans (Late 74+) on cars that had Catalytic Converters
Rear Crossmember 1974+ on cars that had Rear Bumper Shocks
Tail Panel, 1970-1971, 1972 only, 1973-mid year 1974, Late 1974-1976 (late 74-76 are shaped different to match up with the 74+ Rear Crossmember, otherwise it's the same as the 73-74 tail panel)
Trunk Extension (Driver Side) on 1970 California Emissions cars and all 1971 Cars is different from the 1972-1976 Extension
Package Tray will be different on 1973+ cars ordered with the Fold Down Rear Seat Option (aka Hang Ten, Conver-Triple, Space Duster, etc). Package Tray will be different on 70-76 cars ordered with the Rear Window Defroster Option (will have additional cutouts for defroster vent)
Core Support Opening will be different (1973+) on cars ordered with A/C and/or a 26" Radiator
Firewall is different on A/C and Non-A/C models (1970-1972), Firewall is different (73-76) from the 70-72 versions of A/C and Non-A/C.
Roof is different on 1971-1972 cars ordered with the V3X Canvas Convertible Roof Option, Roof is different on 1973-1976 cars ordered with the Sunroof/Moonroof Option
Torque Boxes on certain High Performance models (usually 340 cars and 340 4-Speed cars), usually not found on regular base models.
I know I'm forgetting some stuff, but that's most of the differences you can find on a Duster throughout 1970-1976
7072duster
Active Member
I was thinkin bout turning this 74 dart into a 70 duster. 70 is rusted to bad but drivable. it was my high school car 30+ years ago and i have a 74 dart i just got to transform maybe. It has good rails and rockers.
7072duster
Active Member
Dart Sport not Dart by the way. Same as Duster
Locomotion
Well-Known Member
They started putting the crash bars in the doors in 1972, I think. Also, '74 started using the shock absorber bumper mounts in the rear and '75 - '76 included the front.
Lots of people have swapped years around, on the street as well as on Stock and SS cars.
Lots of people have swapped years around, on the street as well as on Stock and SS cars.
7072duster
Active Member
Black 70 duster parts onto the dart. Here's my neglected sublime 72 383 hp I did in high school also waiting it's turn for rebuild.
7072duster
Active Member
Why are my pics always sideways? ??
Burntorange70
Well-Known Member
Lots of little differences but nothing to major if you want to back date one. Especial if you have a parts car.
74dusted hit all the major points. If you're not looking to be concourse correct, ie, you just want it to look like a '70 Duster, all you need to change on the shell is the marker lights and tail panel. The '70 front clip will bolt on, and that will solve the front markers.
The rear cross member is only different because of the cut outs for the shock mount bumper, you can put an early bumper on the later cars just by either making patches for those openings, or making an additional set of bumper brackets. I put an early bumper on my '74 Duster, you can see what I did here http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1970342487&postcount=70
The tail panel is really the most labor intensive part of the swap. I just finished putting a '71 Demon tail panel on my Duster. Not horrible, I did it in a couple days. Probably could have done it faster, but I ran into a few minor issues as usually tends to happen.
Oh, the interior panels on the later cars are plastic. So, the interior panels will still appear as the later ones unless you swap the doors over.
The rear cross member is only different because of the cut outs for the shock mount bumper, you can put an early bumper on the later cars just by either making patches for those openings, or making an additional set of bumper brackets. I put an early bumper on my '74 Duster, you can see what I did here http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1970342487&postcount=70
The tail panel is really the most labor intensive part of the swap. I just finished putting a '71 Demon tail panel on my Duster. Not horrible, I did it in a couple days. Probably could have done it faster, but I ran into a few minor issues as usually tends to happen.
Oh, the interior panels on the later cars are plastic. So, the interior panels will still appear as the later ones unless you swap the doors over.
7072duster
Active Member
I've got new 70-71 quarters, half a dozen doors, lots of fenders, and 72 older interior stuff. Tail light panel swap no problem. Plus of course the complete 70 duster now. Think I have my winter figured out, unless I go forward on 72 charger. To many projects.
74Dusted
Stock Piler of 340's
The Tail Panel is shaped a little differently at the bottom on cars with Rear Bumper Shocks, a regular (Pre-Shock) Tail Panel fits, but will require 2 small sections of metal to grafted in to fill the gaps where the crossmember met up with the tail panel in the shock area.
Yeah the Tail Panel is a pain. There are 120+ Spot Welds holding a Duster/Demon/Dart Sport Tail Panel in place, I know, I've drilled em out on a few cars. Usually about 8-10 on each side where the quarter panel meets the Tail (There's 16-20 spot welds already). 3-4 on each side inside the Trunk Channel, underneath the Seal (There's roughly 24-28 spot welds). 4 on each corner at the top. You're up to about 36 spot welds total by this point. Trunk Latch Support, there's about 18 spot welds holding it to the Tail Panel & Trunk Floor. The rest of em (And there are a lot) are along the bottom edge of the tail panel, holding it to the Rear Crossmember.
No need to graft in any metal for the tail panel, the shock bumper cars' tail panels were just bent in to meet the floor. I'm quite sure, having removed mine, that the '74+ tail panels started just as flat at that section as the earlier one's did. Of course, if you want it to look like a pre-'74 car under there you'd need to do that.
You can see what I mean here. If you look at the bottom edge you can see it's pulled up where the bottom of the panel is bent in, so the panel started flat and was just bent in to meet the floor pan.
As noted the 72 and down doors are different.
The 73 doors are a one year only thing, the windows and mechanism are different than the 74 and newer.
The 73 doors are a one year only thing, the windows and mechanism are different than the 74 and newer.
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