Joe's 75 Duster

-

Joe334

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
129
Reaction score
0
Location
SE Kansas
Hey everyone, I have a 1975 Plymouth "Gold" Duster. It has a /6 in it as of now. With the snakeskin vinyle top (actually i took it off a couple months ago, it was starting to peel) and the white/brown/orange plade interior. Ya she's a babe-magnet. There is quite a bit of interior "unattractiveness" going on. But one of these days she will get a make-over.

Well i've had my duster for about 2 years now, been making good progess this past summer, but had been really slow up untill then. I bought a 318 with a 727 trans for $300. I have recently just got my motor done, here are some of the mods:
bored .040 over
mopar purp camshaft 268 int./272 exh. .450 lift
edelbrock performer intake
holley 670 cfm

I start taking apart my transmission today and prepping it for the overhaul kit, shift kit and new torque converter.
I am also getting ready to buy an 8 3/4 rear end and am going to rebuild that and stick 3.55 gears in it.
And slowy but surely im working on the body, doing a little bit here and there when i get a chance.

I will get some pics of it on here sometime soon.
 
Should be a fun resto, Joe. Make sure you post lots of pix and give us the blow-by-blow.....enquiring minds want to know!
 
I dont have any recent pics of my car, and my digi camera is at school, ive been taking pics of my transmission project, and it should be done next week sometime, so i will take some shots of my car sometime next week.
 
Here are the latest pics. They are of my new engine and my newly rebuilt tranny ( i havent painted my trans yet, but will be next payday). My motor is still without a bunch of parts (water pump, plugs and plug wires, ect...).

ecb1063d.jpg


ecb103c2.jpg



ecb0f5f3.jpg

Before the rebuild

ecb0ff00.jpg

After we got it out of the vat, its all clean now!

ecb0f50e.jpg

All of the guts

ecb0fc04.jpg

Partially together

ecb0fabc.jpg

Almost there, had some problems with the parking gear.

ecb0f75f.jpg

Getting closer

ecb0f31d.jpg

Got the valve body apart and getting ready for shift kit

ecb0f14a.jpg

Valve body back together with filter

ecb0f8d3.jpg

Got the pump back in

ecb10213.jpg

Finally back together!

Now hopefully i rebuilt the tranny right and it wont explode when i fight it up for the first time. I am planning on buying a new torque converter, i think im going with an Edge street converter.
 
Looking good. Did the motor/trany come out of a truck ? The tranny looks like it has a long tail shaft on it wich will cause problems.
 
Ya it did come out of a truck, how will that affect anything? Will it just reduce power or something?
 
If its a truck tail shaft your going to need a real short drive shaft. I may be wrong though it may be a standard 727 car tail shaft. It just looks long to me.
 
what do the standard 727's measure to from the bell housing back to the end of the output shaft? And what do the truck 727's measure to?
 
holy crap joe....thats looking good.
your gettin' closer!!!

Even if the trans tail shft is longer, I dont think.....it will be a probelm other than having a shorter driveline done up.... I have a '74 truck 727 loadflight in my car and didnt seem to have any problems, other than having a new driveline built. I can measure mine out for ya and let ya know via e-mail.

Lookin Awesome!!!!

-RPM
 
i hope ur trany works out fine i have a 727 in my garage that id like to rebuild but i dont think im up to it yet thats a sweet lookin car though gotta love them mopars dont ya
 
RPM pointed out to me the other day that my oil pan wont work in my duster, the rear sump will be hitting some steering linkage. I know a guy who has an old 318, he said i could just have the oil pan, so hopefully it will be a center sump pan. Also, this same guy is giving me a 383, how awesome is that?
 
a center sump from another 318 wont work on it? B/c i already got one all ready to put it on and it came off another 318.
 
you need the center sump 318 pan.....I think he thinks you have a 360.
 
Just got my loan earlier this week, so hopefully things will move a little faster for the ole' duster. Went out today and bought a fuel and air filter, spark plugs and wires, fuel pump, valve cover gasket (the knuckle heads at the engine shop put the old valve covers on my heads when i had bought new ones) and a couple other little things. Once i bought all of that stuff i felt like i was opening presents on christmas morning, i never realized how fun it is to buy a whole bunch of parts to put on your hot rod, well this was the first time ive actually been able to do that. Im hoping to take delivery on my rear-end sometime next week and get that rebuilt and all of that good stuff. But we are on the home straight-away now!
 
Lookin' good, seems like you are moving along at breakneck speed there. When you get tired of the 318 you can start again with the free 383, some people have luck and some people I usually do but it is the wrong kind. Keep us posted when the 83/4 starts.
 
The shorter driveshaft issue is the angle of the U joints can be a little harder to get right because the driveshaft is shorter. Take your time and you'll get it. It's a pain....
Whats the dilly on the engine?
Intake, carb, cam etc....
 
Intake is an eddy performer
cam is a mopar perf purple shaft 268int/272exh
carb is a holley 670 street avenger square bore double pumper

the block is bored .040 over, the guts are mainly stock, we put flat-top pistons in. i just have the stock heads, my machinist grinded them down just a tad, nothing big.
 
keep going it will get there i'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel
 
Strong work on the engine and tranny. Goodluck with the rear. Should be fun.
 
-
Back
Top