The 70 Duster......

[B-onefan]

First time all the drivers are in one place!

Where is the wife going to put her truck to keep it out of the weather?

 

[carcrazyguy]

cool pic. i would be proud to be standing in front on my garage and see all them sweet mopars!

Thanks. I really appreciate that!


B-onefan.....We were thinking outside the box! We took her truck to the place she works and put it in the garage. I have to go get it in the morning and try to get it washed/waxed and ready for Chryslers in the Canyon, by 8am. Should be about 40 degrees at the time I get started in the morning. I have worked on getting stuff cleaned since Tuesday. The sad part is I barely made a dent in them. Probably going to leave the hoods closed since I really never got to wipe the engine compartments down.

 

[carcrazyguy]

A couple of pics from Chryslers in the Canyon. Our 3 vehicles parked with my Dads Dakota convert (RHS 360 crate motor) and my brothers brown Challenger. My brother Mel was going to bring his Barracuda(s) but he was nice enough to drive the Charger down to the Canyon! jdr2483 was MIA (out of town for the weekend).

 

[carcrazyguy]

A lot of people have asked me how the Atomic EFI system is working. It is starting to "learn" and you can tell the car is running better each time you get it out. We have had it out 3 times now. If it is cool outside and you have not been in it long. One blip of the throttle will break the tires loose. And it does not take much to do it!!! After driving it around a bit if you mash the throttle it will stumble a bit but runs down the road smooth as you could want!! The cooler the weather and the car, the better the throttle response. I noticed tonight that even after driving around town and sitting in traffic a little, the car had better throttle response than it had in the past under those conditions.

We took it to dinner tonight and had a good laugh after we got seated at the table. My wife said "it looks like it did when you and your dad first saw it".

 

[carcrazyguy]

First time out in the sunlight since about 2006. Not sure what direction this project will go, but tired of the car sitting untouched.

 

[carcrazyguy]

A couple of days in.....from this to this....:banghead:

 

[carcrazyguy]

I went to the store before we got started and got 3 different sizes of zip lock bags (471 bags total) and a sharpie pen. The lady at the counter looked at me funny. I should have told her that I was going to dismember my car and put it in the freezer.


The plan is to go through each bag, clean the and paint everything. One bag at a time while the car is at the body shop. The Duster and Charger were built by someone else. The Barracuda will be built by us, as a family. The body work and paint will be done by a shop . The brake booster and wiper motor will be sent off to be redone. The seat covers and carpet by a local shop. But the tear down and reassembly will be done by the family. I don't plan to do all the fancy upgrades that the Duster and Charger got. This is a little by little project. Exhaust manifolds not TTI's, no fancy shocks, no 4 wheel discs, and no EFI.

 

[carcrazyguy]

Day 3.........from

 

[carcrazyguy]

To.......

 

[carcrazyguy]

Under side of trunk floor and inner quarters.......

 

[carcrazyguy]

Inside of tank looked yummy.......

 

[carcrazyguy]

Day 4 of the tear down.....dash

 

[carcrazyguy]

Windshield removed also and the window channel looks to be in great shape!!! Just have the drivers mirror, passenger door trim by window, side glass, back glass (trim already removed), headliner bows and some trim around the headliner/rear window, and rear view mirror left to remove. Oh yeah, the heater box needs to come out also. Once the car goes to the body shop we will remove the door handles, trunk lock and the suspension. I am going to look at the rotisserie the body man has and may order an Auto Twirler Plus if his does not look to be in good condition.


Total cost to this point (not including the car)...$30 ($17 in hand cleaner and $13 in zip lock bags)
Labor...4 days (4-5 hours each day) helping my brother and dad

 

[carcrazyguy]

Just glad it was not snakes..........

 

[carcrazyguy]

After a week off for a trip to Chicago. We got back to working on the Barracuda. The heater box was removed along with the brake pedal and throttle pedal. The roof rail moulding and rain gutter trim removed.

 

[carcrazyguy]

The side glass all came out tonight! Also finally got the E-brake pedal out. The cable was throwing me for a loop until I realized how it was really suppose to come out. But we got it done. Just have the back glass, door handles, door locks, trunk lock, headliner bows, sunvisors, and suspension!! We have successfully taken a $3500 car and turned it into a $350 car..:scratch: So much for a "barn find driver" project. :banghead:

 

[cd45harris]

Got the paint in from Mike Mancini today. So the bare dash frame is ready to be stripped and repainted. I really wanted a rallye dash since we have the car this far apart but I did not want to hold up progress. Now I need to figure out how to improve on the factory cluster look.

Thunder road dash inserts, got mine from summit, also see Classic Industries. These inserts actually fit non rally-eye dash. I did a lot of fab work to get a correct fit in my rally dash. This pic does not show finished product, it is awesome.

 

[carcrazyguy]

Thunder road dash inserts, got mine from summit, also see Classic Industries. These inserts actually fit non rally-eye dash. I did a lot of fab work to get a correct fit in my rally dash. This pic does not show finished product, it is awesome.

That looks pretty good. However I decided to go back with the factory rallye dash. It took some time to locate all the correct parts and pieces. But I think in the end. I am very very happy with the outcome!!

 

[carcrazyguy]

Last update for a while. Waiting on the body shop to finish a car so they have room FOR the Barracuda. Should be a week or two by the time they spray and buff out the car they are working on now. Meanwhile we got the headliner bows, sunvisors, and a few little items off today. I also sorted out the bags and got those stored away so I can start going through each bag to clean, paint, polish or whatever it needs. Rotisserie should be here next week. :thumleft:

We fought the back glass for a few hours each day this week. Still will not come out! So we will take the car by a local glass shop on the way to the body shop. Once the car gets to the body shop we will remove the suspension, door handles, door latches and mount the car on the rotisserie.

 

[B-onefan]

"Rotisserie should be here next week."

Did you buy a new one and where if you did? Got any pictures?

 

[carcrazyguy]

Did you buy a new one and where if you did? Got any pictures?

I asked around (and looked to see what some pro shops were using) and found a lot of people liked the Whirlyjig brand over a brand that I was originally looking at. So I went with the Whirlyjig Pro Plus and the optional mount stiffer kit. I ordered directly from Whirlyjig.

 

[carcrazyguy]

We finally got the back glass to come out. I am guessing at some point the glass was replaced due to the amount of sealer used to set the window. The good thing is that it also saved the window channel and the trunk floor!!! :thumbrig:

 

[SNKEBIT]

Wish mine was that clean around the back glass.............. waaaah!

 

[carcrazyguy]

Wish mine was that clean around the back glass.............. waaaah!

Several people have stopped by the shop to check on progress and have said the same thing! I got lucky for once!


While the Barracuda project is sitting idle the last few days, waiting on the rotisserie. I sent the Dart to the machine shop and had them swap to 4bbl. The air cleaner is just something to get by with until I can locate a correct 340 style air cleaner. But the car now runs like it should. No stumble, no bogging down, no more running rich and blowing black soot out the exhaust! Just a nice crisp throttle response!!! I wish I would have done it a long time ago! :banghead: So with that done the next part of the puzzle is to get an 8 3/4 rear end ready to go in the Dart...........oh and what are we going to do with the 340 sitting in the garage...:scratch:

 

[carcrazyguy]

Another piece of the puzzle for the Dart......