'73 Duster "Pandora"

[Not A Nova]

Guess it's about time I brought the percentage of 73-76 Duster builds from .9% to 1%!

Starting from the beginning...
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$500, with a non running 318, interior nowhere to be found, and crashed at some point, evidenced by multicolor body panels. A bit of roof rust, and quarter panel rust, pieces of the two build sheets lying about here and there... Yep, she's a rescue dog.

I got the motor to run, the car went through a flat black stage in life, Then blue -
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then I finally happened upon this -
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Which turned into that.

Then this -
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And finally this -
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Then I got this crazy idea to make it more than just a rescue... Enter Pro-Touring.com, along with some other spots...

[Not A Nova]

At this point, I figured I needed to do some reading on parts selection. So I did. And I ordered some of these -
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And also a set of 1" torsion bars, which I can't seem to find a picture of.

And so these resulted in this -
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Then I came upon a cheap set of seats -
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And all was well with the world. Until...

Pop. -
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So, what better excuse to try out a new set of wheels could you possibly want? -
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So now we're all caught up...

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[NovaPilot]

cool ride!

[Not A Nova]

Thanks!

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[mmosley]

1 of 3... guess mine is 1 of 1. My K-frame, LCAs, spindles are '75 A-body. My car is kind of like an older 2nd cousin.

[Not A Nova]

I wouldn't doubt it - Not a lot of protouring A Body Mopars at all, it seems like.

Seems to me like the 73-up front end setup is a lot easier to find and run disks on - What are you planning on brake-wise?

Always nice to see someone with some Mopar love!

[mmosley]

Brakes? Cass at http://www.doctordiff.com/

Most likely go with the 13" four piston "brembo style" kit he sells, probably use his matching 11.7" kit in the rear.

[slotto]

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This thread is giving me hope for my A-body. Great mancave, I see those amps in the back ground.

Steve
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=223702

[slotto]

Did you recover or paint your door panels? I have yellow panels that I want to make black real bad!
Everything looks good so far!

[Not A Nova]

I just painted them for now - I want to recover them or maybe just do a custom set, but the paint came out alright.

[Not A Nova]

So I've been busy...

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And then, I finally spun a rod bearing in the original bottom end 1986 360, so I pulled the engine to build a stroker. Obviously now is also the perfect time to do a 5 speed swap, so I started looking harder, and for a NV3500 out of a 98 ram that will work it I can get to it first. Also while the engine is out, I've been doing frame and sheet metal repair. May as well rewire things too... And re-arrange things in the engine bay... And paint...

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[72BBSwinger]

Keep it up!

[Not A Nova]

Well, I was hoping to get back under the car and finish the frame work this weekend, but fickle Florida decided that it's supposed to rain Saturday, so no outside welding tomorrow... I may re-do my center gauge cluster and build a box for the glovebox instead. I didnt have my welder around when I did the center gauges the first time. I'll also be making some calls about a 5 speed transmission. Sunday, hopefully it'll be dry enough to at least start cutting and welding on the frame rail, if not actually finish it.

[mmosley]

but fickle Florida decided that it's supposed to rain Saturday

I thought it rained every afternoon at about 3pm? Seemed that way when I visited Orlando.

[Not A Nova]

I thought it rained every afternoon at about 3pm? Seemed that way when I visited Orlando.Haha - Down south where it's actually warm it sure does - up here in "South Alabama", I woke up to 13 degrees and frozen pipes on Monday morning! I haven't had frozen pipes since I lived in Colorado! The weather stayed that way til Wednesday too... As did my pipes(I'm sure everyone was happy that we've got showers at work). Up here it doesn't really rain nearly as much, even though we're right on the Gulf. Im about an eighth mile from the water at home, and you can see the beach from our hangar at work - I did expect it to rain more, but nope.

[Not A Nova]

Keep it up!Thanks!

[mmosley]

up here in "South Alabama"

Folks I know in the panhandle call it L.A. and say things like, yes, I am from LA. (Lower Alabama)

[Not A Nova]

Folks I know in the panhandle call it L.A. and say things like, yes, I am from LA. (Lower Alabama)

That does seem to be pretty common, actually... I guess it's not just my imagination!

[Not A Nova]

So plans change. I managed to completely fail to work on the glove box, decided to re-do the center cluster entirely, and the rain stopped before noon, so I got the last frame section formed, and ready to weld in in the morning. The transmission I was planning on picking up got snapped up yesterday, so I'm looking at another of the same model, freshly rebuilt. Frame should finally be finished tomorrow.

[SPDMETL]

Love me some Duster...had two. The first, a 1970 six cylinder that someone had thrown a paint bomb at, and the next was a 1972 340/4 speed/posi. Some old hag from a couple of blocks away creamed it at 8 a.m. in front of my house. Did I mention that she lived a couple of blocks away, and must have driven by it every day? Your car looks good, but please lose the hood scoop

[Not A Nova]

1972 340/4 speed/posi. Some old hag from a couple of blocks away creamed it at 8 a.m. in front of my house. Did I mention that she lived a couple of blocks away, and must have driven by it every day? Your car looks good, but please lose the hood scoop

That's pretty messed up - I get too attached to my cars to deal with stuff like that - Her car probably wouldn't have survived the week if it had been mine!

Yeah, that scoop is a remnant of the time when I was still intent on doing the PO's idea the right way - dragster style. I was also planning on a fiberglass hood, and still am, so it won't be hanging around for too much longer. That's after I finish the current projects though...

[Not A Nova]

So I finished the frame work today -

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Started sealing up all the random holes in the firewall -

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Then I ran out of wire. That was my last spool, too, and my stick welder isn't even going to try sheet metal.

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Waiting on a reply after the guy with the transmission figures out how much freight will be tomorrow... Tax time in another 10 days or so, so I'll be ordering my rotating assembly soon too. Or maybe just a supercharger. 408 naturally aspirated, or 360 supercharged. I guess for about the same price, you can get more power out of the supercharged 360... Thoughts?

[SPDMETL]

If you do supercharged, use one of those self-learning EFI kits

[rb70383]

I have been doing research on strokers and kinda came across a common thing that people are saying the 408's dont seem to have much life in them. Like needing to be rebuild within 100K. Read that numerous times. Been a while so not sure if that is still the case. Lead me to just keep the 360 stock and swap magnum heads on it later on. This is in a Ramcharger so little different application. Just an FYI. Not in the field for an engine so havent read up on current 408 life. Nor the 390 longevity either. Havent really heard any bad about a 390 however. (318 w/ 4" crank)

[sccacuda]

I have been doing research on strokers and kinda came across a common thing that people are saying the 408's dont seem to have much life in them. Like needing to be rebuild within 100K. Read that numerous times. Been a while so not sure if that is still the case. Lead me to just keep the 360 stock and swap magnum heads on it later on. This is in a Ramcharger so little different application. Just an FYI. Not in the field for an engine so havent read up on current 408 life. Nor the 390 longevity either. Havent really heard any bad about a 390 however. (318 w/ 4" crank)

I'd suggest a 408 using Chevy 6.200 rods. The rod/stroke ratio is much better than with the 6.123 Chrysler length. Less side loading means longer engine life, higher rpm, and a happier engine in general. Assuming your around long enough to build one…the 2x4's the car is being lifted with looks sketchy. Jackstands!!!

[novaboy009]

As noted, please use appropriate jack stands, or switch to the stacked 2x4 "box" set up that hugs the tire securely. What you're doing isn't safe - our hobbies shouldn't threaten our lives.

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=88526&d=1389570284

Kev

[Not A Nova]

Hey, as mentioned above, blocks under the wheels is NOT the way to do things. However, the weight of the front end isn't actually on those blocks, the unibody is actually supported further back, but in front of the balance point, and the rear frame is also on stands. Those tire blocks are my secondary measures, in case something magically overbalances things up front(I've got a 318 block sitting in the trunk, so it's unlikely. But still.) AND, while actually doing any work underneath, I have my engine hoist on the bumper mount points as yet another failsafe. I didn't use stands by themselves up front while doing the frame because I didn't want extra stress moving things around while I'm trying to get the frame going the right direction.

Of course, now that the frame work is done, back to stands front and rear!

[fez340]

nice project. i have a question. how big of an improvement did you see with the install of the rear sway bar? and which one is it?do you have a part #?

[Not A Nova]

nice project. i have a question. how big of an improvement did you see with the install of the rear sway bar? and which one is it?do you have a part #?

Thanks! The rear bar is a Hellwig 6907, 3/4" solid bar. The applications listed are 73-76 A body, I'm not really familiar with the pre-73 rear frame to say whether it will work on a 72-back. I believe they have a hollow(read: stiffer) set now too, which I didn't know about when I got mine. The cheapest place I found was actually a truck site, if you want I can pm you a link.

Because I did front and rear bars, and 1" torsion bars all at the same time, it's hard to say how much adding the rear bar to an already setup fromt would do. The front and rear bars are 1-1/8" and 3/4", respectively, the front is a single setting bar, the rear has three different settings for stiffness. Following Hellwigs recommendations, I drove it on the flexiest setting for a week, and the overall improvement over 6 cylinder t bars and no sway bars was great. I still had a little more understeer than I wanted, so I upped the rear bar setting and, to me, the difference was noticeable. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it does with this frame work and some subframe connectors, though. There will probably be some more adjusting of the rear bar then.

[fez340]

awesome! thanks for all the info. could you pm me the link when you get time. thank you :)