Project “Ghost Duster”, 1970 Duster Corner Carver

fishmarket · May 7, 2020

Ok, here we go.... many years ago I bought my first Mopar, a 1972 Plymouth Cuda 340, 4 speed. Love that car. It was quick in a straight line (had a slip from Milan Dragway in the glovebox, 12.2 in the quarter), turned like crap and 4 wheel drum brakes were good for one mediocre stop every 5 minutes before they faded into obscurity. The lower quarters started getting cancer and the trunk floor needed rehab so before I pulled it off the road for a makeover I bought a 1971 Plymouth Roadrunner to drive in its absence. This car had 43000 original miles, and was unique with its EL5 Bahama yellow paint. I rebuilt the original 383 with a 432 stroker kit, added ported stealth heads, a comp hydraulic roller, edelbrock rpm intake and a new Holley HP750. I rebuilt the original 727 and added a transgo tf2 shift kit and paired it with the mill. New tires, 15” steelies with dog dishes and front discs make this car a great cruiser, and the 3.23 gears love the highway.
I had been procuring parts for the Cuda for many years anticipating a resto and having the RR gave me the opportunity to tear into it and still have a driver. After spreading Cuda pieces about my whole shop I stumbled upon two 1970 Dusters in North Bay Ontario. A package deal. I have a cottage in the area and while on vacation, I took a ride over to see what the deal was. One was rustier than hell and had a broken torsion bar cross member. It was basically a parts car, BUT it had a later 360, 727 trans and a b-body Dana 60 underneath. Nice score. The car was full of parts, rallye dash, 1970 air cleaner, trim, dashes, gauges etc. The other car looked pretty good and was recently on the road. It was a 225 slant 6 beast with a 904 trans. The body seemed solid and the car purred like a kitten. My wheels started turning..... I had another 340 at home that came with my Cuda. I thought I could use that 340, the 727 from the other duster and the brakes with 4.5” bolt circle from my Cuda and slap together a cool little driver on the cheap. Things don’t always work out as planned.....especially with old cars.
I bought the dusters and transported them home individually over the next few months, drove slant for a little bit as is and then pushed the Cuda to the back of the shop to make way for the “quick” Duster project and the tear down began.

Here’s the 6 banger as I bought it.

fishmarket · May 7, 2020

I pulled the slant 6 and tranny out with the k-member from underneath and sold it.

fishmarket · May 8, 2020

All hell breaks loose.... I noticed the splash shield on the bottom of the frame rails had a bit of Swiss cheese on them, they are steel on a 1970. I took them off only to find fist sized holes in the bottom of both frame rails, hidden by the shields. I wish I took pictures of the holes but I didn’t. My irritation wouldn’t let me. I checked the parts car Duster hoping that I could use the rails. I knew it was a pipe dream because the torsion bar cross member was rusted in half. When I checked, the frame rails were “braced” with angle iron.....I checked with goodmark, they don’t make a-body front frame rails. I checked with AMD, they don’t make a-body front frame rails. On to the inter webs and Tony Defeo. He had some nice solid rails in Tennessee. We agreed on a price and he shipped them to buddy’s place in Michigan for me to pick up.

This is where I went from cheap, quick fix, driver to “I’m in this deep, I’m building exactly what I want.” This car is going to turn, stop, cruise, be comfortable, reliable and safe. Looking the rest of the car over while I had it in the air, I decided the torsion bar cross member was too weak for what I had in mind, the inner fenders were more work to repair than to replace and the front floor pans had been patched by Ray Charles himself. The snowball started.

fishmarket · May 8, 2020

Now that you have a bit of the back ground, I just want to point out that while a lot of the ideas used in this build are my own, there are a ton that are “my take” on ideas used in the builds of some of my favourite cars. Builds like 72bluNblu’s Demon, Beck’s Kustoms Kuda, and the Hotchkis “Ugly American” ‘76 Dart Lite owned by Kevin Wesley. I hope these guys take this as a compliment and thanks for keeping my wheels spinning while I surf the net. Cheers!

Before removing the offending frame rails, I measured, marked, plotted, schemed and prayed before amputating the offending metal.

I made adjustable jack stands with threaded rod and a custom block to cup the pinch weld as well as adjustable stands that bolt to the leaf spring mount in order to make sure the car was perfectly level and square. My shop has a drain in the middle of the floor that makes a lot of projects harder than they need to be. Beggers can’t be choosers though, so I make it work.
The stands in the pic are not the adjustable ones, I used those behind the firewall on the rocker pinch weld. For the rail ends I clamped a 2x2 length of tubing in place leveled with a couple washers on one end. Now I have a perfect place to set the “new rails” when they ready for install.

fishmarket · May 8, 2020

Before the rails can go in I needed to replace the torsion bar cross member. I bought an AMD unit and the fit was not great. Basically the width was too short by about 1/4”-3/8”. I strategically used my 30 ton press to manipulate the cross member “arch” to flatten the rail out just enough to make it fit properly. I tested the trans mount and checked the floor to arch area and all was well. It actually fit better everywhere after I gave it 30 tons of love.
Because I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided that it would be a great time to reinforce the torsion bar hexes and anchor the landing area for future sub frame connectors.

Kendog 170 · May 8, 2020

Good luck with your build. Nice looking welds. Keep the pics coming.

lilfontleroy · May 8, 2020

dukeboy440 · May 8, 2020

replicaracer43 · May 8, 2020

Very interesting! Keep us updated!

BWDart · May 8, 2020

Rust never sleeps pulled the trunk mat out of my Dart and could look right into the gas tank yikes I had been driving it like that scary stuff these old cars

fishmarket · May 8, 2020

The issue with my “new” frame rails was that the shock mounts were cut off when they were removed from the car. This added a ton of work. I had to graft the mounts from the old rails into place. While I was there I welded anything that looked suspect and boxed the ends for added rigidity.

fishmarket · May 8, 2020

With the help of my friend Mike I was able to remove the offensive torsion bar cross member and install the new one into place. Removing the floor pans that needed to be replaced made this task much easier.

BWDart · May 8, 2020

fishmarket said:
With the help of my friend Mike I was able to remove the offensive torsion bar cross member and install the new one into place. Removing the floor pans that needed to be replaced made this task much easier.View attachment 1715524165 View attachment 1715524164

My next project is floor pan on driver side as soon as I get my mig

fishmarket · May 9, 2020

I put an ad on Kijiji looking for a 1973-76 spool mount K-member and ended up finding one about 1 1/2 hours away, so me and a buddy road tripped and picked it up. OMG, the welds from the factory looked like they were done by a toddler. Must’ve been a Friday afternoon or Monday morning job.

So I boxed the steering mount, welded all the seams and crappy welds, reinforced the lower control arm mounts and made sure a large sway bar would clear in the area that it passes through on the spool mount Ks. I clamped the whole unit to a boring mill table with t-slots to ensure that all of the mounts were perfectly flat and that there was no warpage.

Now I can use the k member on the install of the new front frame rails and know that all is level and square.

fishmarket · May 9, 2020

Demonracer · May 9, 2020

Yep, Ray Charles & Stevie Wonder welds. LMAO!!!

fishmarket · May 9, 2020

A few pics of the k- member make over.

72bluNblu · May 9, 2020

Yeah the factory welds are terrible. The K frame on my car was bad enough that the steering box mount cracked along all the welds, so the whole box would move when you turned the steering wheel.

Great job on the K frame reinforcement. What welder are you using?

fishmarket · May 10, 2020

72bluNblu said:
Yeah the factory welds are terrible. The K frame on my car was bad enough that the steering box mount cracked along all the welds, so the whole box would move when you turned the steering wheel.

Great job on the K frame reinforcement. What welder are you using?

Yikes! Thanks for the compliment. At home I have a Millermatic 180 MIG with 75/25 and will soon be getting an AHP Alphatig. At work we have a Lincoln 375 TIG, a Lincoln 175 TIG and a Miller 250 MIG. I did the K-member and torsion bar revamp at work.

fishmarket · May 10, 2020

I removed the inner fenders, core support, basically anything from the firewall forward. The car looked pretty scary like this, but really, as long as the frame is square corner to corner it’s pretty hard to mess up. Once they are in there’s not much movement . I test fit many times and triple checked my measurements before finally welding the rails into position.

72bluNblu · May 10, 2020

fishmarket said:
I removed the inner fenders, core support, basically anything from the firewall forward. The car looked pretty scary like this, but really, as long as the frame is square corner to corner it’s pretty hard to mess up. Once they are in there’s not much movement . I test fit many times and triple checked my measurements before finally welding the rails into position.View attachment 1715525494 View attachment 1715525493 View attachment 1715525496 View attachment 1715525495

I’ve got to do this on my Challenger, the left front rail is pretty bad right. I just patched it initially but now that the car is torn down and I’ve replaced sections of the floor, rear rails and firewall I bought a frame rail too. Always intimidating when you’re cutting it all out. But as long as you measure it usually goes pretty easy.

And good on you man for sticking with this one. Plenty of people would have already written that car off as parts.

fishmarket · May 10, 2020

The drivers side frame rail to rocker panel brace was toast. The parts car brace was also toast. I drilled out the remaining spot welds, hammered the brace flat and traced it onto a piece of cardboard. My version of CAD..... cardboard aided design. I used material slightly thicker than the stock unit for added strength, aound .050”. The original piece had beads run down the front and I wanted it to look stock, so I took a piece of 1” cold rolled and machined a few different length slots with a ball nosed end mill and made matching dies to press beads into the new brace with my 30 ton press.