Out with the old in with the old

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MattP

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2012
Messages
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Location
Baton Rouge
I reached a point I was happy with on the 72 Duster and sold it.
I picked it up as a barely running carport space taker upper and with lots of help from you guys and a little effort brought it back to a dependable cruiser.

Beginning -
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End -
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I learned a lot during the process and wanted to continue building my A body knowledge so I started looking for a Dart.

I found this one on Racingjunk. We haggled a little bit and reached an agreement.

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It's got a healthy 360 with a TCI streetfighter 727. 8 1/4 rear with a stronger cover. All new bushings and a full disc brake conversion.

Changes so far include:

Swapping out the tires for a set of 245/45/17 nitto 555r drag radials with a pair of the same size 555s up front.

Swapped out the single chamber flowmasters for a pair of dynomax straight through mufflers I had from a previous build. "My ears thank me every time I crank the car.

Removed the wing. I was surprised to see that thing is adjustable.


In the works-

I want to play with plastidip on this car to see how a few different paint combos might look. Basic exterior cleaning up/replacement like the grill, blinkers, tailights. Flaws you see walking around it that can be fixed with a little time to give it a cleaner look.

Gauges- As usual the only gauge that works is the volt meter.

Figuring out what is causing an oscillating vibration at freeway speeds.

Seats - The APC seats aren't comfortable and even though I'll be going back with a high back modern bucket the APC is a little too much for me. A local guy has a pair of black S2000 seats that might find their way in though.

Shocks - This one has air shocks like the Duster did. Looking for a good adjustable street/strip setup now.

Motor mounts - Solid motor mounts are shaking my fillings loose.

HID lights

New Windshield - Current glass has so many scratches and swirls driving at night is dangerous.

Tint- Once the windshield is swapped the Dart will get the same treatment as the Duster.

Nitrous- I had a plate kit sitting around and this car is going to be the lucky recipient. 100-125 shot

Dynamat/Dynapad - It worked great in the Duster for eliminating rattles and keeping the interior a little quieter.

Dougs cutouts - I like the loud rumble for car shows but needed the quieter exhaust package for driving

Short Term-

AC- I live in South Louisiana. It gets ridiculously hot here. I have until April.

Interior recovering. Back seat is done for, missing pieces here and there. Needs a thorough going through.

A better stereo setup than the 2 Sony Xplode 6x9s


Long term-
Complete body and paint

Suspension update with larger T bars and at least a front roll bar.

400 based stroker targeting a streetable 600+ hp.

mini tub / wider wheel tire package

I'm sure I'll have some questions for you guys and I'm looking forward to continuing the learning process. Pics will be posted as I go through the process. My racing buddies are starting to come to grips that I'm sticking with Mopar. lol
 
Problem 1- Oscillating vibration at Hwy speeds plus shuddering when first moving from a stop.

Suspected cause - Busted trans mount + solid motor mounts

Solution - New rubber motor and trans mount + Schumacher Torque Strap.

Will report back once parts are installed. I'm looking forward to not having my guts shaken when driving the Dart around.
 
Both are great looking cars. I'm a big fan of those darker gray wheels on the Duster; what were they?
 
rymanrph said:
Both are great looking cars. I'm a big fan of those darker gray wheels on the Duster; what were they?
Click to expand...


Bullits off of my 2003 Mustang. There is a ton of info on guys running them in a thread on here.
 
rymanrph said:
Both are great looking cars. I'm a big fan of those darker gray wheels on the Duster; what were they?
Click to expand...

they look like mustang bullitt wheels. You can get sets on ebay for under 400 bucks. A good bang for the buck PT wheel. IMO
 
MattP said:
Problem 1- Oscillating vibration at Hwy speeds plus shuddering when first moving from a stop.

Suspected cause - Busted trans mount + solid motor mounts

Solution - New rubber motor and trans mount + Schumacher Torque Strap.

Will report back once parts are installed. I'm looking forward to not having my guts shaken when driving the Dart around.
Click to expand...

Found out the cause was a neutral balanced converter & busted trans mount. Supposed to be a weighted converter on these external balanced 360s. A weighted flex plate and new trans mount fixed about 95% of the problem. Now the only vibration is very light at hwy speeds.

This nice cool weather and smoother driving has the dart feeling pretty good cruising around town.

Bad news is I broke my finger and had to have surgery to put it back together. 7 screws and a plate later I'm on the injured reserves list for a few weeks.
 
More work on the Dart today.

The trunk was pretty grungy and I figured the rest of the interior was the same under the carpet.

Step 1 - Wire brush everything to loosen crud and vacuum
Step 2 - Simple Green and wipe down floor
Step 3 - Rust Converter to help out with surface oxidation
Step 4 - Prime
Step 5 - Paint
Step 6 - Dynamat floor and dynapad cardboard pass through.








I also installed 3 pt retractable seat belts to replace the old green lap belts. New seats will be here in a few days.


On the outside I tried a trick someone told me. Aluminum foil and coke " I used coke zero" to remove oxidation without scratching the metal underneath. My front bumper is HEAVILY oxidized so I figured I had nothing to lose if it messed it up.

This is after about 10 minutes of polishing. At this point I was wore out from the rest of the day and called it quits. I'm impressed with it and will finish it out when the weather clears back up.

Test spot


Bad spot before


Bad spot after
 
I plan on using plasti dip on my duster, I cant wait to see how yours works out. Nice pair of a bodies btw!
 
This ought to fun to keep an eye on-you ain't lyin' about needing A/C...I grew up in Central Texas (Temple), moved to Abilene, and have family in Houston. Whenever my Scamp finally all goes together, it'll have the A/C system reactivated as well.
 
New seats and brackets showed up. The brackets didn't match the floor holes or humps at all. I sorted it out using a longer bolt and using an extra nut. Now the Driver side bracket sits perfectly level and is adjustable. Now that I've figured out how to do it the passenger side should go together pretty quick and I'll have new pics with the seats soon. I wore shorts yesterday while working on it. AC deadline is approaching very quickly.
 
MattP said:
New seats and brackets showed up. The brackets didn't match the floor holes or humps at all. I sorted it out using a longer bolt and using an extra nut. Now the Driver side bracket sits perfectly level and is adjustable. Now that I've figured out how to do it the passenger side should go together pretty quick and I'll have new pics with the seats soon. I wore shorts yesterday while working on it. AC deadline is approaching very quickly.
Click to expand...

You are going to have a nice car when it is finished.

Working in shorts? Just shoveled the driveway, about sick of this snow.
 
Looks like you'll have a nice car when you're done. You plans are very similar to mine. Stroker, mini tubbed, gonna fat mat the floor similarly (I hate adding the weight but oh well), electric cutouts, Dynomax Ultra Flo's, etc. You're gonna have some fun with that! Just keep that ambition going.
 
Nice build color combo is great. I cant wait to do something similar to dynamat in my Dart.

How do you like the "Projector" Headlights on it? Is the light output pretty good?
 
74DartSwinger360 said:
Nice build color combo is great. I cant wait to do something similar to dynamat in my Dart.

How do you like the "Projector" Headlights on it? Is the light output pretty good?
Click to expand...

The dynamat is worth the effort. The headlights are absolute garbage. I have crackedback's wiring harness now so I'm going to try out a sealed beam again. If I need brighter I've heard good things about the led 7" housings.

New seats are in. I think they look nice. But are a little high. If the cushion doesn't settle in a little I'll be modifying the sliders since that's whats preventing the seat from going lower. I expected a little more plug and play with the brackets.
 
Seats are in. They sit a little high for me. I can't lower the front due to a floor hump so I'm going to try lowering the back to see if it's comfortable. I like to sit in a seat rather than on it anyway. If that doesn't work it won't be too hard to trim one or two slots off one corner of the mounting bracket so it can go a couple inches lower.


 
Hope you installed sub frame connectors before you put in the dynamat.
 
I ordered Crackedback's headlight mod http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=216514. Results are way better than I had even hoped!

Before I didn't drive the car at night much because the headlights were so dim. Now it feels like driving a modern vehicle. The lights are very bright and driving is much much safer.

Install took just a few minutes and everything was plug and play. Overall this kit is 10/10 on build quality and performance. If you haven't done this yet you should.
 
Hey Matt, how you like those seats? I'm about to get some for my Duster. Where did you order from?
 
I ordered these from summit. The brackets were usable but not at all plug and play. The seats are very nice and have gotten compliments from every who's seen them in person
 
Car-1 me-0. Plan-remove grill and prep for paint. Results- remove normal amount of Phillip screws and attempt removal only to find 3 additional screws that must have been installed by a double jointed midget. "I think we call them little people now" .. remove headlights to allow access with tips of fingers and remove those three screws. Put shoulder back into socket and success.. grill is free... oh wait the bumper has to come off. Ok it's only 4 bolts. 2 bolts are easy "relatively" to access. The other two must have been installed using some 70s non union voodoo. At the moment the car is the victor and I'm finding something else to go do.
 
Round 2:

Figured out I had to take out the head light buckets to gain relatively easy access to the bumper bolts. Grill and healthy surround received a primer coat today. Not sure how much weekend progress I'll make though. Finding out tomorrow if the baby on the way is a boy or girl. :)
 
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