Knuckles 71 Duster restomodification!

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71dusterdan

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Jan 30, 2011
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Location
rockford il
It is on like Donkey Kong! I just sold my Harley, had guilt issues and poorly aligned priorities. Now I am taking the proceeds to finish my Duster. I just bought the complete Hotchkis system including tbars and short shocks. Waiting on an email from Elite Custom Body regarding the AMD quarters and tailpanel. I still need to order the wheels, and then i have a complete roller. All of the bolt on body panels are done, and trimmed in for final paint. I'll get this much done and then start phase 2.
 
I called Summit, the basic kit was just over $2k, as opposed to the $2500 list price on Hotchkis' website. Everything rang up to $2800 to my door! Waiting for my return email from Elite. He once quited me a savings of $150 ish per quarter, hopefully he is still that strong. I still need to contact Firm Feel for a steering box, and find a 73-76 steering center link.
 
Well Booooo! Seems that if Summit doesnt have the part in stock, and they have to have it dropp shipped, you pay full price! Bummer, the shocks are coming from Hotchkis, or Bilstein direct...yup, all $399. Oh well the 500 saved on the tvs kit is pretty good, should have the brown truck at my house in the next day or so. I ordered both quarters, trunk gutters, and the tailpanel. I did a bunch of price shopping and NOBODY mentioned around here on FABO was willing to discount any of it...including Dixie, and 521 restorations. If you are looking for AMD bodyparts, I implore you to give Stefan at Elite Custom Body a call. Actually you need to email him with your part numbers. He got back to me in 24 hours, and gave me a nice discount. I dont know if he wants it advertised...the prices he sold them to me for, but I will say including $145 truck freight to a business, I spent $1250! So I contacted the body shop that did all of my bolt-ons, they are making a hole for me next week. Still debating taking on the task myself, but so far they have really taken care of me. If I can get the panels put on and ready for color at about $1500-$2000, I wont mess with it! After that I need to have my 9" ford rearend narrowed to fit my 17x9's with 5" backspace into the wheelwell. Then it is Hell Bent for Leather Baby!
 
cool deal on getting your project up and around. seen you mentioned quarter panels and tail panel. not sure if you got anything else or not but I know through summit racing ...a set of full quarters and tail light panel can be got for about $700 shipped. AMD panels.

I got my tail panel and both lower quarter panel patches for my 72 for about for about $480.00 shipped a little over a year or so ago. all was drop shipped from AMD and showed up within about 5 days of ordering them.
 
Thanks for the info Dusterdude...I called Summit this week on the body parts...they only offered a $50 savings on the quarters, nothing on the trunk gutters and about 20 on the tailpanel. I know when you catch Summit feeling frisky or have some special code...they will hook you up. However I had neither going for me this week...lets just say Elite dropped more than a $100 bucks on each of the quarters! Believe me brother if I could have had full quarters and a tailpanel to my door for $700 I would have done so. yes it is really cool after owning this car for more than 15 years to finally settle down and actually make something of it! I am gonna drive the wheels off of it...in fact it will be a daily driver 8 months out of the year! When I wear it out...I will do it all over again! Gotta thank E-booger from Mopar Action magazine...the new issue rains all over Hotchkis's adjustable steering arms, they use heim joints rather than tie rod ends! He just crucifies them and RMS in regards to Cornering performance/longevity! maybe I had better not sell my C body tie rod set-up I have for this car! I tend to take note when he says something regarding handling and durability...he has walked the walk with his Green Brick! That is the biggest reason, I have decided to stick with t-bars, and leafs!
 
yeah they are tough to get to give you good deals on anything. jegs however is normally a bit more forgiving. I find alot of the times jegs will drop the shipping charges and even give a decent discount on the price also. you can normally get killer deals through yearone but they charge so dang much for shipping that it ends up costing you the same or more than most anywhere else.

I spent all last spring doing metal work...lots of cutting/tapping/welding/grinding. it can get old after awhile but its the best way to do it an to do it the right way.

good luck on your project. check out my build thread sometime if you want to see some of the stuff I did on my duster if maybe you need to see what your getting into or need some ideas.
 
I came home from work to Christmas in April!!!! I large pile of boxes from Summit/Hotchkis! WooHoo! It was awesome, the parts look great, well made, quality welds, and paint/powdercoat. The Upper control arms are seriously beefy! I already own an unused set of CAP upper control arms...compared to the Hotchkis arms, I wouldnt use the caps on a quadrunner! My old again unused adjustable strut rods...American Muscle parts....yeah they dont compare either! Back in the late eighties when I only dreamed of a Mopar that cornered and stopped, I prayed and wished that someone like Global West or Hotchkis would finally grace us. That was back when a 1' front sway bar was huge...my prayers were answered and then some! A 1.5" tubular front sway bar!!! Who would have ever imagined that years ago! This car is gonna be a blast! So I mentioned the Car Gods smiling down on me...yup They werent done yet. Talked to the bodyshop, it goes in next week. When the rollback drops it off, it will return to my house with a resident of the bodyshops back yard! My new 73 Duster parts car! Triple Black, partial vinyl top, leather guts, v8, sure grip diff, fold down back seat...BPP ralleyes, I believe it even has air and power windows. It has a bunch of little stuff I need, that was gonna nickle and dime me to death! I will get it home, clean it real good, and give it a thorough assesment. If it is worth saving...I may do so. It also has decent bodyparts. The car also affords me the distinct advantage of having a scale model to copy upon reassembly! Yeah it has been torn done that long, I have forgotten quite a bit! I have a ton of Hotchkis and car pics...but my darn iphone cant upload pics direct to FABO. Gonna have to take a few minutes soon and back up to my computer! hahahaha So tonight I say my prayers of thanks to the Car Gods!
:burnout:
 
oh and if anyone is looking...I have a set of CAP tubular uppers with heim joints and a set of adjustable strut rods for sale cheap! If you are interested pm me, and we can work it out, otherwise look next week for the proper for sale ad.
 
If only I knew then what I know now....UGH my freshly powdercoated k frame needs to be stripped....The front sway bar brackets get welded to the kframe! Put a bunch of the Hotchkis parts together and on my kframe just to see it, and have fun! I have absolutely no idea how the adjustable strut rods are supposed to actually work! I mean I understand the theory, but the space available to get to the adjuster....hahahah not with these Gorilla sized hands! The guy that sets up the alignment on this car is gonna develop a very colorful vocabulary! still havent uploaded my pics to the computer! Spoke to Dick at Firm Feel at length today...gonna be about 3 weeks for my stage 3 steering box, and a small pile of small stuff to wrap up the suspension front and back! Cant wait to bring home my parts car, things will start flying then!
 
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