So much to do, don't know whats next, need advice

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OCswinger

OCswinger

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I have been trying to build this '74 Duster for sometime now, and I have NO idea exactly which order to go in.
Right now I have a built 360 / 727 ready to go in, the car is at the paint shop, the front suspension is all done, I have a Ron Francis wiring harness ready to go in, and the rear end is getting built. But other than that I'm stuck. I'm about to make a run to Summit but, I dont know what direction to go in.

NEED:
Fuel System - going Aeromotive and Russel lines with AN
Ignition system - MSD everything
Interior (which needs a complete over haul)
Exterior - Need new moldings and soft trim

I can't tackle everything all at once but, I can put a dent in it.

Those of you out there that have done a resto, what are your thoughts? My parts list is about 90% accurate (some parts I haven't found a price yet) and its coming out to about 2K more than I have, so I have to prioritize.
 
buy everything you need to complete the interior. buy everything you need to complete the exterior. buy everything you need to complete the suspension.
when you get all that done , you can focus on getting it running.
 
OCswinger said:
I have been trying to build this '74 Duster for sometime now, and I have NO idea exactly which order to go in.
Right now I have a built 360 / 727 ready to go in, the car is at the paint shop, the front suspension is all done, I have a Ron Francis wiring harness ready to go in, and the rear end is getting built. But other than that I'm stuck. I'm about to make a run to Summit but, I dont know what direction to go in.

NEED:
Fuel System - going Aeromotive and Russel lines with AN
Ignition system - MSD everything
Interior (which needs a complete over haul)
Exterior - Need new moldings and soft trim

I can't tackle everything all at once but, I can put a dent in it.

Those of you out there that have done a resto, what are your thoughts? My parts list is about 90% accurate (some parts I haven't found a price yet) and its coming out to about 2K more than I have, so I have to prioritize.
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Well, you have a pretty good list. I would start with getting the car running. The interior doesn't have to be perfect or complete to drive and enjoy the car. Make a list of ALL the things it will take to get it running. Then break it down to smaller projects. Don't jump from project to project, plan your work and complete a project at a time. It's very gratifying to finish a project. Go through the whole list the same way.
 
This
easyrider said:
Well, you have a pretty good list. I would start with getting the car running. The interior doesn't have to be perfect or complete to drive and enjoy the car. Make a list of ALL the things it will take to get it running. Then break it down to smaller projects. Don't jump from project to project, plan your work and complete a project at a time. It's very gratifying to finish a project. Go through the whole list the same way.
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This sounds like the way to go, thanks everyone
 
easyrider said:
Well, you have a pretty good list. I would start with getting the car running. The interior doesn't have to be perfect or complete to drive and enjoy the car. Make a list of ALL the things it will take to get it running. Then break it down to smaller projects. Don't jump from project to project, plan your work and complete a project at a time. It's very gratifying to finish a project. Go through the whole list the same way.
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Exactly this. There is no reason to have a complete interior in a car that doesn’t run.

Once the car gets back from paint do the wiring and then the fuel and brake lines. Then do the suspension, then install the engine and the rest of the drivetrain. Then get it running, then worry about exterior trim and stuff. Then finally the interior. Install the interior before that and it’s just in the way, you’ll either have to pull it back out to get access to other stuff you need to finish, or it’ll get thrashed while you’re trying to do mechanical work. And if you buy it early you just have to store it. Same with the exterior trim. It doesn’t take long to install, it doesn’t accomplish anything other than appearance, and you can ding it up if it goes on early and you’re still doing lots of mechanical work.
 
Well, IMO...if you don’t build the car the way to want it to be and take the time to get the body and trim right first before jumping to running and driving it...you may never go back and finish the vision you first had.

If you have taken the time to do the body and paint and are now working through the process of building what you want, stay disciplined and finish the body first. That means interior and exterior trim before moving into the mechanical side.

It’s too easy to get impatient and start rushing the process. If you wanted just a driver, you wouldn’t have taken the time and care to do the body first.

It’s all about what you really want out of the car.
 
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Ddaddy said:
Well, IMO...if you don’t build the car the way to want it to be and take the time to get the body and trim right first before jumping to running and driving it...you may never go back and finish the vision you first had.

If you have taken the time to do the body and paint and are now working through the process of building what you want, stay disciplined and finish the body first. That means interior and exterior trim before moving into the mechanical side.

It’s too easy to get impatient and start rushing the process. If you wanted just a diver, you wouldn’t have taken the time and care to do the body first.

It’s all about what you really want out of the car.
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I am certainly not going to rush things, hahahha waited three years to get it to paint. I completely understand what you are saying. And I completely understand what others are saying. It's a tough spot since it seems I'm at a cross roads as to what to tackle since the Duster needs something just about everywhere.
 
OCswinger said:
I am certainly not going to rush things, hahahha waited three years to get it to paint. I completely understand what you are saying. And I completely understand what others are saying. It's a tough spot since it seems I'm at a cross roads as to what to tackle since the Duster needs something just about everywhere.
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Take your time and think about it...and what you want out of it.

Only you can decide what is best to achieve what you want.
 
You certainly are getting a lot of advice, I can't disagree with any of it. Here is my $0.02 and what I did. First make two COMPLETE, DETAILED lists; one of what you need to buy, and one of what needs to be done. Comb over your car and write down absolutely everything you can think of. If you know how to use a spreadsheet, make one tab "NEED TO BUY" and the other "NEEDS TO BE DONE". In the "NEED TO BUY" tab, list absolutely everything you need to buy (down to cans of spray paint cans of contact adhesive, etc.), giving each item one row. Then have a column for what it will cost and a column for where the best price was. In the "NEEDS TO BE DONE" tab, list absolutely everything you need to do in great detail, giving each item one row. Then have a column for how long you think it will take to do each item. Be realistic with these time estimates. Then you can plan things easier. Then you need to decide on an order. I think that if you get it looking really good first, it will be easier to stay motivated when the possible trudgery of getting it to run and drive starts. Then, for example; let's say you have 4 hours free, and want to do something in the interior. Find something on you list of things to do with an estimate of 3-4 hours (maybe install door panels) and do it. Then cross it off. I realize I am a bit anal when it comes to planning, but my USAF career and 20 years as a Market Risk Analyst at a Federal Home Loan Bank got me used to making precise plans.
 
Ddaddy said:
Well, IMO...if you don’t build the car the way to want it to be and take the time to get the body and trim right first before jumping to running and driving it...you may never go back and finish the vision you first had.

If you have taken the time to do the body and paint and are now working through the process of building what you want, stay disciplined and finish the body first. That means interior and exterior trim before moving into the mechanical side.

It’s too easy to get impatient and start rushing the process. If you wanted just a diver, you wouldn’t have taken the time and care to do the body first.

It’s all about what you really want out of the car.
Click to expand...

If you do the exterior trim and interior before the mechanical work, you just increase the chances you’ll screw it up. You’re working around the car with wrenches and big heavy parts when you’re doing the mechanical work, if you accidentally ding or scratch something you don’t want the final clean and buff already done and all the exterior trim installed, you’ll just have to pull it off and do it over again.

And the interior WILL be in the way when you install the mechanical stuff. Do you want the grille in place when you’re swinging the engine in? Do you want the heater motor sticking out? Well if the heater box isn’t installed you don’t want the seats in yet, they’re in the way. Or the gauge cluster, which means the steering column is dropped. There is an order of operation, and if you start jumping around it just means repeating work.

God forbid the engine shifts over when you’re installing it and scratches a big chunk out of the paint. Then you have to send the car back to the paint shop fully assembled with an interior in it already. Good luck with that!

There’s no reason to have an interior in a car that can’t be driven. If it can’t move under its own power there’s no need for an interior, you can’t use it anyway. And if you install everything before it runs and then you have a mechanical issue and you have to pull the engine back out, you’ve got to pull all that other crap first.
 
harrisonm said:
You certainly are getting a lot of advice, I can't disagree with any of it. Here is my $0.02 and what I did. First make two COMPLETE, DETAILED lists; one of what you need to buy, and one of what needs to be done. Comb over your car and write down absolutely everything you can think of. If you know how to use a spreadsheet, make one tab "NEED TO BUY" and the other "NEEDS TO BE DONE". In the "NEED TO BUY" tab, list absolutely everything you need to buy (down to cans of spray paint cans of contact adhesive, etc.), giving each item one row. Then have a column for what it will cost and a column for where the best price was. In the "NEEDS TO BE DONE" tab, list absolutely everything you need to do in great detail, giving each item one row. Then have a column for how long you think it will take to do each item. Be realistic with these time estimates. Then you can plan things easier. Then you need to decide on an order. I think that if you get it looking really good first, it will be easier to stay motivated when the possible trudgery of getting it to run and drive starts. Then, for example; let's say you have 4 hours free, and want to do something in the interior. Find something on you list of things to do with an estimate of 3-4 hours (maybe install door panels) and do it. Then cross it off. I realize I am a bit anal when it comes to planning, but my USAF career and 20 years as a Market Risk Analyst at a Federal Home Loan Bank got me used to making precise plans.
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I have something along the lines of that going on. I have an excel sheet with parts, part numbers, the website, and price BUT.... what you're saying makes PERFECT since. I'm in the garage (fighting the heat) right now thinking about what exactly NEEDS to be done.
I knew it was going to be expensive but, in all honesty I knew that going in so its not a big deal. Thanks for the tip!!!
 
72bluNblu said:
If you do the exterior trim and interior before the mechanical work, you just increase the chances you’ll screw it up. You’re working around the car with wrenches and big heavy parts when you’re doing the mechanical work, if you accidentally ding or scratch something you don’t want the final clean and buff already done and all the exterior trim installed, you’ll just have to pull it off and do it over again.

And the interior WILL be in the way when you install the mechanical stuff. Do you want the grille in place when you’re swinging the engine in? Do you want the heater motor sticking out? Well if the heater box isn’t installed you don’t want the seats in yet, they’re in the way. Or the gauge cluster, which means the steering column is dropped. There is an order of operation, and if you start jumping around it just means repeating work.

God forbid the engine shifts over when you’re installing it and scratches a big chunk out of the paint. Then you have to send the car back to the paint shop fully assembled with an interior in it already. Good luck with that!

There’s no reason to have an interior in a car that can’t be driven. If it can’t move under its own power there’s no need for an interior, you can’t use it anyway. And if you install everything before it runs and then you have a mechanical issue and you have to pull the engine back out, you’ve got to pull all that other crap first.
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What you're saying makes perfect sense to me. I think I'll make the updated list, and since I put the cart before the horse with the paint, I'll have to schedule future work in stages. I see you're in Nor Cal as well. Might have to have you over to lend a hand when it comes back from paint
 
OCswinger said:
What you're saying makes perfect sense to me. I think I'll make the updated list, and since I put the cart before the horse with the paint, I'll have to schedule future work in stages. I see you're in Nor Cal as well. Might have to have you over to lend a hand when it comes back from paint
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Protect the paint with towels, blankets, moving pads, etc. You'll be fine if you are careful. Make sure to post pictures. Where in NORCAL do you live? I lived in Sacramento for a total of 5 years while in the Air Force.
 
OCswinger said:
What you're saying makes perfect sense to me. I think I'll make the updated list, and since I put the cart before the horse with the paint, I'll have to schedule future work in stages. I see you're in Nor Cal as well. Might have to have you over to lend a hand when it comes back from paint
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You didn't put the cart before the horse with paint. Paint gets done first if you're going to completely go through the car. If you do it any other way, you have to undo all of your other work for paint. That's the boat I'm in. I built my car mechanically first. Which is great, I can drive and enjoy my car as it is and that's why I did it. Being able to drive it means a lot more to me than a nice paint job, I don't care much about how my car looks for paint as long as it has enough on it not to rust. :D But eventually I am going to paint it, which is going to mean at least a partial disassembly (if not a complete one!). And all of the work to disassemble it and then reassemble it again after paint will be work I've done at least twice. When I upgrade my transmission to a T56 the interior that I re-did will have to be completely pulled out and then reinstalled. And my T56 has been sitting on my bench for almost two years, because my Duster is my daily driver and I haven't had the time to disable it for a couple weeks to do the conversion. Should have done that before I put it back on the road as my daily!

So yeah, in my opinion you did it right. The paint is done, so you don't have to go back and strip the car again later to do that. Now just work on the mechanical stuff until that's done, then the interior. And when it's all done you should have a car that you don't have to go back and pull apart and reassemble to finish something else.

AJ/FormS said:
Ok My 2 cents
If this is a streeter with 435 hp or less (like mine,lol), You don't need the MSD nor the fancy fuel system. The savings could make your day.
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Great point. The stock electronic ignition with a plate to adjust the timing advance curve works pretty well, as do a lot of the "stand alone" electronic distributors. Which will set you back less than a full MSD system. And for less than 450 hp or so a good mechanical pump works great unless you're going fuel injection. I just run a Carter "strip super" mechanical pump with 3/8" stainless hard line from inline tube on my 340 with a pressure regulator to dial the pressure back a little for the Holley 750 DP. Whole system probably cost less than an aeromotive electric pump, and it supplies my 400+ ish hp 340 just fine. Probably overkill as it is.
 
harrisonm said:
Protect the paint with towels, blankets, moving pads, etc. You'll be fine if you are careful. Make sure to post pictures. Where in NORCAL do you live? I lived in Sacramento for a total of 5 years while in the Air Force.
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Sorry for the late response, took the wife up to Tahoe for a much needed vacation. I'm out in Vacaville, moved up here about 7 years ago from SoCal and were looking at a move to Texas next year (probably June-ish).
 
Been to Vacaville a zillion times due to having several friends stationed at Travis AFB while I was at Mather AFB in Sacramento (now closed).
 
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