Finally getting to it!!! 1970 Duster 340

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Engine looks great, good luck with the dyno !
Thanks again Kevin !
I would tell them why, but im not sure you want it floating all over the globe. :)

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My tranny was rebuilt by a friend of mine in York. He told me that the sprag was pretty much chewed up into pieces. I guess somebody had fun with the car in the past. He reminded me to only do burnouts in 2nd gear.
I worked on detailing the transmission today. I did find some paint markings on the tail portion which I intend to duplicate.

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John,
Your engine compartment looks great! I'm glad I could help another A body brother.
 
I found markings on my 727 tranny after I cleaned off 44 years of grease and road grime. I have not been able to find info about their significance. I suspect that the colored mark was used to identify the speedo gear size.
The color was very faded but appeared to be orange on close inspection. I tried my best at duplicating both marks tonight.

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I worked on making an engine transport cradle today. I followed plans that krazykuda posted under the Shop, Garage and Tools forum. Everything went together as planned and is working accordingly. It's time to get an appointment scheduled at the dyno!

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FJRdoc said:
I worked on making an engine transport cradle today. I followed plans that krazykuda posted under the Shop, Garage and Tools forum. Everything went together as planned and is working accordingly. It's time to get an appointment scheduled at the dyno!
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Looks good Kevin! I might have to make one too. Shoot... I don't enough room in my garage the way it is.
 
Thanks John. I placed my cradle on a small furniture dolly from HF so that I can move it around the garage. I didn't attach it to the dolly. I can use the engine hoist to place it in the vehicle for transport without worrying about it rolling around.
 
Transported my assembled engine to the machinist today. The engine transport cradle worked great! The dyno test probably won't happen until the weekend of 12/12. I'll keep you all posted with how things turn out.

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What are you thinking the engine will make for HP and TQ ? Or should I say hoping for ?
 
Honestly, I have no idea what to even guess. It is a fairly stock build with original heads, intake, and exhaust manifolds. Block has been opened up .030. Cam is a Lunati Voodoo 703. I'm anxious to see how things turn out.
 
My Dyno guy schooled me on the various Dynos and the wide variation in what they "show" for numbers, either way it's a great investment and tuning tool. Looking forward to the updates, everything has turned out great.
 
Thanks Ross. I've had a lot of fun working on the old girl. It will be neat to hear the engine fire up again.
 
Looking great! Almost done with mine too. I love the eager anticipation and joy which accompanies our builds :)
 
I decided to try and spruce up my throttle cable and kickdown linkage yesterday. Both pieces were looking pretty tired. Almost all of the protective plating wore away over the last 40+ years.
I did a spray out of various aluminum, metallic and chrome paints that I have in my cabinet. I felt that the Rustoleum chrome paint had the closest resemblence to the original clear zinc finish. I don't know how durable it will be but it looks better than it did before.

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Looks like my engine probably won't get on the dyno until after Christmas. I was hoping they would be able to get to it this weekend, but it was a no go. I took some time today to work on my license plate light and bracket. The original was very pitted and rusty. I couldn't do much about the pitting but I think the assembly looks much better than it did.

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If you want to get some of those small parts replated, look around your town and see if there is an industrial plating place that does production work for factories and such. Last car I did, I took a bunch of small bits to them and it was very reasonable to get them done. I had it all separated in batches, like "These are to be clear zinc" "These are yellow zinc" "Those are black zinc" They ran them with other stuff that they were doing of each particular color, and called me when they were done. Turned out great. Just an idea if you paint something and end up not liking it. Everything you've done looks great, and I'm looking forward to seeing your Duster in paint. :)
 
Thanks for the advice JD. There is a local plater in Lancaster. I took my front ash tray apart and had them plate the inside. They did a nice job.
If my license light bracket would have been in better shape, I would have considered having it plated. I just decided to use some of my growing collection of spray paints to see if I could come close to duplicating the original finish.
 
I placed an order for a complete front end rebuild kit and new 1+ rear springs from Springs and Things last week. I believe that the components should be delivered sometime today. Yesterday, I sent my power steering box out to Firm Feel for a Phase 3 rebuild. I am going to upgrade to 1.00" diameter torsion bars and rebuild my idler arm with a roller bearing kit.
Haven't heard when we can get my engine dynoed. Progress is soooo slow on the body.
 
FJRdoc said:
Haven't heard when we can get my engine dynoed. Progress is soooo slow on the body.
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My Duster shell took over 25 months and I'm still waiting for other painted parts at 28 month's...so hopefully yours won't be anywhere that that slow. Everything your doing is looking better than New, keep up the great restoration work.
 
Thanks Orangewagon. March will be 2 years since the body man took my shell. I now know all to well about body shop hell!! I'm at a point where I need to send regular reminders about progress and request updated pics.
I had a goal of having this car on the road by my wife's 50th birthday in Sep. I don't know if that's going to happen.
 
Santa made an early delivery to my door step last night! Lots of suspension goodies for the Duster from Springs and Things. I went with 1+ spring height on the back and upgraded to heavy duty tie rod ends and sleeves.

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FJRdoc said:
Santa made an early delivery to my door step last night! Lots of suspension goodies for the Duster from Springs and Things. I went with 1+ spring height on the back and upgraded to heavy duty tie rod ends and sleeves.
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I think Santa went to the wrong place Kevin:D!
 
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