My "new" '74 Duster- or why I need a project like a hole in the head

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72bluNblu

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So having a fleet of Mopars, I check Craigslist and classifieds and pretty much every auction site there is to keep my Challenger running and my Dart equipped with parts for the rebuild.

Which is good usually, as I come up with a lot of parts and things that are hard to find or really expensive for not too much money.

Of course, the bad news is every now and then I see something I really want that I don't need. Or, in this case, need like I need a hole in the head. :banghead:

But a little over a month ago I came across an ad for a '74 Duster. Nothing too spectacular, 91xxx miles, /6, 904, stock as a clock. But supposedly running, with the current owner being the third, and with the 2nd and 3rd owners being in the large minority of ownership time. Here it is as pictured in the ad...
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Nothing crazy, but the price was right. So I went down to take a look. MISTAKE. I know better. This poor thing is in a TERRIBLE neighborhood. And the current owners match the surroundings. Little old lady owned it forever, finally sold it to a neighbor, who sold it to the current owner. The last two transactions only being a year or so apart. It runs pretty rough, but it runs. "carb issues". I take it for a drive, pretty interesting. Won't idle, but surprisingly enough it goes under its own power. But the body is completely original, no rust at all. NONE. Few dents and dings, old lady car. Dash pad isn't even cracked, doors close solid and don't sag. Oh boy. Ok. Mistake #2, I talk the guy down and buy the car.

But I don't get very far trying to drive it home, I push it into the nearest gas station. :eek:
Yeah this was a good idea...

Thank you AAA, it gets delivered home.
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After some investigation, I remember why you can't buy anything that doesn't run right. You can only troubleshoot it so far, and a "carb issue" can be nearly anything. In this case, for example, my /6 is actually a /5. :BangHead:

Super. Soooo.....
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But when you're a mopar addict like I am, you have a few things laying around. Like, a V8 K frame from a '74 Dart I parted out. And, well, just about everything else. So, the K frame is fully welded, reinforced, gusseted, you name it. Firm Feel would be proud. Box the LCA's, adjustable strut rods (thanks Kyle!), poly bushings and greasable pins, offset UCA bushings, 1" torsion bars, 11 3/4" rotors, yeah, we're going overboard. :steering:

Toss in a "running" '86 318 with 302 heads for $250, match it up with the 904 out of that parts dart. Add some cop rims and tires, plus a wash and a wax...

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Oh yeah, we're in DEEP.

So far, the water pump seal won't seat all the time and the radiator leaks. And although that 85k 318 runs strong, it smokes the blue smoke of death. Valve guides and seals. But it drives straight, stops great, and actually pulls pretty strong despite the blue cloud. That 7 1/4 won't last long, 8 3/4 on the way (thanks John for the A-body 8 3/4!!!).

No turning back now!!! :D
 
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Very cool. Looks like you have room for 2 more pictures in your signature for your fleet of cars...LOL

Nice ride(s)

Pat
 
Very cool. Looks like you have room for 2 more pictures in your signature for your fleet of cars...LOL

Nice ride(s)

Pat

Oh no, we're all done here. I've got to get the GT's running and the Challenger torn down for a rebuild as soon as the EL5 GT is on the road. I've already reached "intervention" level. :D

Pretty straight looking car. Good luck!

It is! I love California cars. A little shopping cart rash but that's about it. Once I get the drivetrain sorted out I'm just gonna drive it and leave the rest alone...
 
Oh no, we're all done here. I've got to get the GT's running and the Challenger torn down for a rebuild as soon as the EL5 GT is on the road. I've already reached "intervention" level. :D


That's great...admitting one's addiction is the 1st step towards recovery. :cheers:
 
It is! I love California cars. A little shopping cart rash but that's about it. Once I get the drivetrain sorted out I'm just gonna drive it and leave the rest alone...


I bet! Hunting cars here in Mississippi is a different sort of game. What with the 90% humidity all year long...
 
Thanks guys!

Yeah it was a great find. Pretty much a zero option /6 car, but I like that. No worries about changing it, you can only make it worth more :D.

I feel for you guys back east. My challenger was a Utah car, it's bad enough from the salted roads. The duster and my EL5 GT are a trip, both little old lady cars. A little dinged up, but the paint still polishes up, and you can see nice clean paint overspray lines on the underside of the car from the factory underneath the road grime. Factory markings and all, like going back in time a little.

Should be fun, once I get the rest of the mechanicals sorted I'm just gonna drive it. It's now the latest model car I own :D .
 
Yea My dad almost bought a 73 that was the twin to yours but radio and heater delete. Someone bought it out from under us.

This one is really bare bones, the fender tag looks funny its so empty! But it has a heater and the original AM radio. Was surprised about that, especially considering the last owners. Guess they put the aftermarket radio in the glove box, because the original AM radio is untouched.

I had a '72 bought out from underneath me about a month ago, I was actually at the bank taking out the cash when the guy called me and told me he sold it. :mad: Glad he bothered to call, but still.:BangHead:
 
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Is there such a thing as too many projects? Nice start.:coffee2:

Yes! Absolutely. When you don't have the time or money to finish them all, you've got too many. I'm pretty much at my limit, and my time and money is pretty much spoken for until sometime a decade or so from now.

Quick update- Changed out my water pump, took care of that leak. Ordered a champion radiator from challengergary, great guy to deal with. Just got that installed, I did have to drill a couple of mounting holes in the flanges as the predrilled ones weren't quite in the right place. Might have something to do with me converting my 22" radiator support to a 26" radiator though.
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Also I finally decided to run a compression check on my 318 to determine for sure where my smoke was coming from. Check looks like this


  • 1- 165 psi
    2- 165
    3- 160
    4- 165
    5- 165
    6- 160
    7- 170
    8- 150

Other than 8, everything looks really good. One of the valves was stuck on the seat from sitting when I picked it up, so that's probably whats going on with 8. It freed up with a quick tap on the valve with a dead blow hammer, but the seat may be a little rough. But, the rest of the numbers tell me the valve guides and seals are the source of my smoke.

Guess now I have to decide what to do about it. The heads are 302's, so I suppose I can just get a rebuild done on them.

Or I could see if I can find a set of magnum heads and do the conversion. Might pick up a little more compression, plus of course bigger ports and valves, and even a little lift with the 1.6 ratio rockers. Decisions, decisions...
 
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Looks like My old Duster. It was up on Craig's list a while back.
The dude toasted the engine racing it and has run short of money
on the new build. He put the car up for sale.
It was tempting to buy it back.
 
Alright, its time for an update.

I've been working on this one for a few months now. I left the thread here with a running 318 car.

Well, as I already mentioned the 318 smoked pretty good. I drove it around for a bit, but got sick of all the smoke and the lack of power, so I devised a plan. I have 340 I built for my Challenger. It's done, but the Challenger is far from it. Soooo....

The Duster is going to be a 340/4 speed car. And why not? Its a non-numbers /6 '74, so it can be pretty much anything and be worth more than it was with a /6. So, here goes.

Lets start with everything out of this thing...
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Don't you just love California cars!
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No rust here either!

We need a bigger hole in the floor for the 4 speed. Turns out I have a floor pattern for this, so out with the sharpie

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A little cutting and...
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I've got a 4 speed hump, might wait a bit to weld it in though. Make sure it all fits first.
 
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I also decided that I really, really, didn't like the stock gauge panel. So, out it goes.
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Now, I like rallye dashes. And it turns out, I have a couple of gauge clusters. So, why not right? Except I'm not going to mess with changing the dash frame. I mean heck, its just a bigger hole right?

Don't try this at home. Seriously. Don't do it. :realcrazy:
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Now, after much cutting, hammering, flanging, hammering, fitting, hammering, welding tabs in, there you go. I should have take a picture of it with the dash I was fitting, but you'll have to trust me, it fits. And although the dash frame looks a little rough here, the rallye cluster and bezel covers everything. Not exactly what I was hoping for, you'll never mistake this dash frame for an original rallye dash frame. But, once it's repainted and the rallye cluster is installed, it'll look just fine. I swear. :D

And while you CAN modify a standard dash frame to accept a rallye dash while its still in the car, I don't recommend it. At all. Ever. Seriously. With the dash frame out of the car it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining, but, I have to say that for my time/money, its better to track down a rallye dash frame if you're going to do a conversion.

Oh! and on a side note, the radio location is DIFFERENT for a rallye dash vs a standard dash. By about an 1". So, although it may look like you can put a stock radio in the above dash, you can't. At least not with a stock rallye dash bezel, not without moving the radio mount in the dash to the right about an 1". But, since all of mine have been cut, that's not as big an issue as you might think. Believe it or not, I have a plan to fix the radio issue AND my rallye bezel so that it all works.

But you'll have to wait for that one, because I'm not finished with it yet...
 
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Following intently in case I ever decide to do this sort of dash swap in mine. Good luck. Like the progress.
 
Following intently in case I ever decide to do this sort of dash swap in mine. Good luck. Like the progress.

Like I said, it can be done without a rallye dash frame.

But, if I had to do it again I'd definitely remove the dash frame from the car for the modification. And honestly, I don't think I'd do it again. Rallye dash frames aren't so expensive or hard to find that it makes converting a standard one necessary.
 
Alright, another update to catch up to where I'm actually at. I cleaned up and installed a set of 4 speed pedals. And, while everything was out of the dash, I decided to replace the wiper pivot seals, which were leaking, and the heater core, also leaking.

When I opened up the cowl vents, they had some pine needles in them. So I figured I'd better clean out the cowl. After jamming my arm up into the cowl for longer than I intended, I got everything out.

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And in the process learned that my car had previously spent A LOT of time under a pine tree!!! :eek:

Since everything is out of the car for the most part, I pressurewashed the cowl space until everything was clean. Fortunately, things must actually have stayed pretty dry, because there wasn't any rust in the lower cowl. Moral of the story, if you've never cleaned out the cowl vents on your car, you might want to look. Well, probably not, but you should anyway. :evil4:

That pretty much gets you up to where I'm at now, which is restoring the rallye dash. Pictures to come soon. Hopefully. :D
 
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Fine job on the dash. I've done a couple of different ones myself. "Pain in the ***". But a little time and a lot of patience they came out nice. Good work.:coffee2:
 
Fine job on the dash. I've done a couple of different ones myself. "Pain in the ***". But a little time and a lot of patience they came out nice. Good work.:coffee2:

Thanks!

It looks a lot better painted, I'll get some more pictures up soon. It definitely is a PITA! I was hoping for a little better turn out on the work I did, but for a first attempt I think it went ok. If I did do another I'd have a lot better idea of how to go about it (like taking it out of the car!!!). Still, that's just how the dash looks without the cluster installed. With the gauges in, everything looks fine. :D
 
Lookin good. Need to clean my vents out forgot to open them when we brought it home on the trailer but shouldnt be too bad cause it sat in an open field

And cant wait to get the bearing in for my 74 darts column awesome idea
 
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