Rocker's 1973 Duster "Clara"

[Rocker'sDuster]

Hey J-Mac, after grinding down just about all of the rust, I used POR15 "prep and ready" which works like a rust converter. After it dried I lightly wire brushed the loose material away, then repeated the process a second time. We then painted it with Eastwood's Rust encapsulator.

 

[sireland67]

Keep up the good work, and have fun with the family.
My first duster was a slant auto orange with stripes.
I also changed it over to a v8 4-speed. Fun cars.
I might have an extra v8 throttle cable, I know I seen one up in the garage about a month ago.

 

[daredevil]

Very impressive. Turning in to a gem for sure.

 

[Rocker'sDuster]

I was pretty pleased with how the pedal and latch assemblies were turning out, so I figured it was time to tackle something bigger. My wiper motor functioned just fine, but like everything else, was covered in flat black spray paint.

A few "before" shots.

I carefully pulled the top cover off and removed the actual motor. I carefully masked off the brush contact area and any other "access point" to the gears inside, then proceeded to sandblast. After blasting I noticed one of the contact brushes was cracking, so that had to be replaced (Lucky me to have a spare wiper motor too).

Right after solder and continuity check.

I was not able to remove the rubber bushings, and one even started to tear slightly. I am not sure how you would even begin the wedge a new one into place anyways, so I just opted to spend (a lot of) time and mask them off from paint, as well as the electrical.

Removing masking after paint. I used a dental pick to really get the tape in there.

Taken after all masking was removed.

Here's a shot with all components mocked up. Since this pic, the brass strip has been polished to new, and the ID tag has been sprayed as close to the original copper finish as I could get. I still need to purchase a plated bracket for the ballast resistor, then I can call this done!

Another quick project was restoring the headlight "cups". These were gently sandblasted. Although not as prominent as when new, the galvanized coating was still solid enough to see and know what it is. Clearcoated over these and called em done! To re-plate these cups would have been $100 inital fee, then the cost of parts individually. I am not going for perfect...I will be happy for pretty damn close.

The orange paint on the bottom right is long gone btw.

a wee bit more to come...

 

[Rocker'sDuster]

Time to resto the A/C blower motor! The before shots below will show you what I had to work with. Again everything functioned fine before the car was pulled apart, it just needed a good going through and cleanup.

The hamster cage was pretty nasty in between those slats.

Once I had the whole assembly pulled apart, I was able to sand blast the housings. The rubber gasket on the black cleaned up under warm water, and looks as if it were a NOS piece! Using IPA wipes, I carefully stripped the spray paint from both wires, the ring terminal, and the connector by hand. I then proceeded to carefully clean the motor itself.

Lots of Q-tips and a low pressure air hose helped clean it right up.

I sprayed the housing components with Eastwood's Cad silver. although not as shiny as the real coating, it does have that bluish tint to it like the real deal! Much more apparent in person.

I mocked up the two housings and rubber gasket for the pic.

I spent over 2 hours VERY carefully scrubbing each slat front and back. At this point my wife is concearned for my sanity.

OCD kicking in, I cleaned and coated the clamp for the hamster wheel.

I need to finish removing some surface rust on the motor shaft where the wheel slides on before I put it all back together. Not a "show stopper" by ay means, but I think that when you go this far, it would make no sense to ignore, or overlook one part.

So this now brings us to current. My latest task is redoing the underside of the car. Since everything is off of there I figure this is the best time! I plan to go over the whole underside with a good scrubbing with a wire brush before rust converting, encapsulating, & painting. I am very fortunate to only have undercoating in the wheel wells, and I plan to keep it there.

Before I could start brushing the bottom, I need to degrease the trans tunnel and central floorboard area. I will say this has to be the crappiest job I have done to date. I am starting by scraping the grease first, then using a degreaser. The up side though, as you can see in the picture below is the metal looks fantastic having been protected under years of grease wicking!

Almost done with the passenger side!

It is very hard to motivate ones self to get out in the cold weather and crawl under the car on the concrete and scrape. It feels a good 5-10 degrees under the car too! Mind you this is California, and our cold weather is nothing compared to other parts of the country so I have no right to whine. I have spent the last few nights taking a break to work on this thread, so it is time for me to get back to it!

My updates will no longer be as frequent, but I will update as I have worthy progress to show. Thank you for reading so far!!!

 

[eviper21]

i dunno if this was already asked, but where in socal are you locateD? im in ventura county currently rebuilding my 73 duster, pretty cool to see another member in the area! great looking car btw

 

[Old Tired Rebel]

You are really raising the bar on cleaning and redoing parts. Well done.

 

[Three A's]

Nice duster, the painter did a good job of color matching don't you think, in the pic's it looks that way. I also like the blacked out grille over the stock look. Your going with a 4 speed but what kind of engine are you planning on putting in her. Keep up the great work you and your family are doing.It's the little things in life that matter,if you know what i mine.

 

[RPM]

Great fun !!! Good Work !!

love the hand prints !

-RPM

 

[Mopar King]

:thumbrig::thumbrig::thumbrig:


Nice car and great job - its looking clean.

like the hand prints as well

 

[crackedback]

Looks great.

Jon and Craig are good guys. Good of them to help you out.

You still want that Dash Frame?

 

[Rocker'sDuster]

Thanks guys! The hand prints symbolize what this is really about for me. True, I wish my family could be over obsessed like me, but that fact they not only are supportive, but enjoy it too makes it all the better. I couldn't ask for more.

eviper21, I am in Northern San Diego county. Escondido to be exact. If you know that you will be down this way, shoot me a PM for sure dude!

Three A's, The paint is almost dead on. It is a bit brighter though, as the existing paint is a single stage, and the engine bay now is paint/clear. It makes the rest of the car look kind of dirty. When you pop the hood they will match well enough until I can get the rest of the car painted. As for the engine I am putting a 360 into her. I don't have the time/space/courage to attempt an engine build. As it is this is my first real attempt at anything car related. I am working with Brian at IMM to have him build the engine. Relatively mild buildup.

crackedback, Miss ya dude! I sent you a pm.

 

[PapstXX]

Good Work brother !!





=

 

[440jimr]

Excellent!

 

[Dartnut]

Nice build.
It's great to have the whole family involved, cudos to you!

 

[HemiDenny]

thanks for sharing....

BTW...do you sub out your miniture helpers?...I got some hard to get at....behind the dash stuff and they could come in a "little handy"

Mopar to ya..'all
Merry Christmas,
Denny

 

[J-MacsMopars]

Hey J-Mac, after grinding down just about all of the rust, I used POR15 "prep and ready" which works like a rust converter. After it dried I lightly wire brushed the loose material away, then repeated the process a second time. We then painted it with Eastwood's Rust encapsulator.

Thank you sir, I think I will probably do the same with my Dart shortly.

 

[ron john]

Great Work, I love your Details, You will have Show Car Soon!!, Love those A Bodies!!!:blob::blob::blob:

 

[Three A's]

Well you got me fooled,as this is your first attempt at anything car related.Your doing a very good job,keep the pic's coming.

 

[duster731]

Dude how did I miss this build thread.... Man your doing some amazing work.

Someday ill have to start mine lol .... Anyway. good job and I'm looking forward to seeing the aftermath


O and I don't know what v8 your going with but if it were me I would do a 360 build (I learned the hard way) lol. More power for less money

 

[USCG CHARGER]

Car looks great.. makes me what to repaint my engine compartment.

 

[Mad Dart]

Ok your new name is Crazy Chris! You are an animal on the details.

 

[Divenut]

Hey Rocker'sDuster, You're attention to detail is off the hook man. But even cooler than that is how involved your kids are with the project. Those pics are awesome. My daughters (10 y/o twins, little gearheads & rockers) and I started out Duster project about 3 months ago, and got her up and running, but have a long way to go with the finish/detail work. You have raised the bar brother! LOL!

Pat

 

[Rocker'sDuster]

Shortly before Christmas, I finished degreasing the floor pan up to the engine bay. I started by scraping the floor with a paint scraper for larger areas, then gasket scraper for the hard to reach spots. Next I sprayed a section at a time down with Simple Green and used a green Scotch-brite pad to really scrub. When it comes time to paint, I will go over it again and ensure I get all the small corners and crevices once more.

A couple pics of the underside as it pretty much sits now. The torsion bars are now out, so I still need to clean up the mess those made as they were pulled.

As I am working on prepping the underside for paint, I turned my attention to the bottom of the front rails. Again with the help of JonsGottadusta, we removed the front suspension as a whole. Damn thing will not fit into storage, so I will have to spend the time and break it down soon...well eventually, after I trip over it enough.

Thought this was kind of cool, but in the bolt holes of my K-frame, you can still see the original paint they used. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it is still glossy and new looking!

While removing the UCA bolts in a hurry, my hand slipped forward off the wrench and I proceeded to "punch" the undercoating. Mind you we have all had far worse wounds, the location of these are perfect for constantly reminding you to not be a dumbass! From being doused in Simple Green, to just putting your hand into your pocket, you feel it...and they take soo damn long to heal. I had to scrub dirt out of them again tonight actually.

Before cleaning the front inner wheel wells/frame, I decided to seal off any chance of debris and cleaner getting into my engine bay. This surprisingly did not take too long. I will doublecheck it all and fix it where needed before painting.

All masked off.

This is after a "once- over" with the brass wire brush. It came out surprisingly clean. I will really tear into it with Simple Green and the Scotch-brite tomorrow night.

For now, the plan is to paint this are in with Chassis Black.The next go-round on this car, I would really like to paint this area to match the rest of the car. As easy as it is to spray it all black under here, I think it would look pretty trick to give it that "from the factory" body color. Who knows, if it sits like this long enough to really get to me, it may just end up painted orange.

I did find this disturbing...The passenger side bushing on the UCA looks like it was spinning, and has bored a nice wear spot into the mounting point on the main body. I assume I can just fill this in with metal, and grind it smooth, but I am VERY MUCH open to experienced opinions!

This past Tuesday I made the trek across the desert to Indio, Ca. to drop off my 360 block and crank (thank you Mad Dart) with Brian at IMM Engines! If things go according to plan, I should be making my way back up there mid to late February for the Dyno run!:cheers:

Doesn't look like much yet, but it's my first engine, so I am beyond stoked!!!

Enjoy for now, I will update more soon...

 

[Three A's]

It's coming along you've got alot done, and pretty soon you'll be tearing it up with that new motor.