introducing my mopar loving self

[71dusterdan]

Hello All, my name is Dan Franks, I live in Rockford, Il and am in the process of building a 71 plymouth Duster. I've wanted to build a car in these Pro touring styles since i got my license 18 years ago, long before it became popular. At least now I'm no longer looked at as weird. About my righteous duster, Fast is pretty,and function will always come before form. My car is being built more like a barely legal racecar. it will have toggles for lamps and wipers and maybe a defroster. Other than that if it does not help it perform it will not be in there. I'm talking bedliner sprayed interior, tin panels, toggle switches, high quality gauges, full cage and harnesses, fuel cell, bulkhead, you get the idea. It is all about the mechanics of driving. i also deliver steel for a large steel distributor, so i have access to all the steel and aluminum i need and have a large network of fabricators and machine shops to scam deals from buddies. In fact the shell is in Moline Il at a customers shop having all the heavy metal work done. Anybody see the article in PHR magazine about XV motorsports? Well I may be" joe somebody in his garage with a chopsaw", but i'm not above ripping off his ideas to improve my car. So far we have done all of thier front end mods. Anyways the car is being built to be driven in any motorsports venue, open road, dry lakes, drag, autocross, track days, you name it,and then be driven on the street whenever i want. Anybody with ideas for my cage, i sure would appreciate the input. I will start with an Alston Group 12 or 14 pt and modify as needed. Thank you, Dan

[PeteRR]

Welcome Dan. Post some pics of your project when you get the chance. Stripped down for weight savings is a great thing, but don't forget sound deadener on the firewall so you can street drive the car and still hold a conversation with your passenger.

[Roger Poirier]

Welcome Dan. Post some pics of your project when you get the chance. Stripped down for weight savings is a great thing, but don't forget sound deadener on the firewall so you can street drive the car and still hold a conversation with your passenger.

I 2nd that! I did my car and its like the difference from night and day.

R.P.

[go-fish]

I used to have a powder puff(elderly lady owned/driven to church and grocery store kinda deal) '73 Duster. I just did cam, intake, carb, and wheels. It was gold with a factory snakeskin top and a brown body stripe. When I saw the W2W Nova I thought about the Duster and how good of a real sleaper it would've been. Sold it for way too much, poor guy. Moved on to the 'cuda. Oh well. Good luck and show us some pics.

[Ralph LoGrasso]

Welcome to the site, Dan.

[Bigblue73]

Explain that you have done all there front end mods? I'm curious to see what you did. Welcome to the site, I'm originally from Freeport, Il. Keep us posted on your progress.

Tony

[DusterRT]

+1 for pics and more details on the front end!

[71dusterdan]

Explain that you have done all there front end mods? I'm curious to see what you did. Welcome to the site, I'm originally from Freeport, Il. Keep us posted on your progress.

Tony

Tony, well first offwe carefully disected the sheetmetal lower core support. Then we fabbed a 1x2x1/8wall rect.tube lower core support, welded in underneath the front frame rails. we welded a 1/4 in plate to the bottom of that and drilled and tapped it twice. The plan is to triangulate this core support tube to the k frame. Then another ripped off xv motorsports trick, was to run round tube from the shock tower mounts to the cowl panel through the wheelwell area. That was made from 1 5/8 120.wall we put a 90degree bend in it ran it out from plates boxing in the shock mount at the top to a section of cowl that had two factory reinforcing beads in it. We made some pretty little plates that fit the crown of the beads vertically, and the flat in between the beads horizontally. My fab buddy is a wizard/artist this was all tig'd beautifully, like italian motorcycle frame welds. It just makes we want to touch myself. Then we got out the mig. First we peened the inner fenderwell down, from the engine side to meet the shock tower brackets in the wheelwell. (sorry all , I'm trying to let you see this in your heads, any abody mopar guy could look in his wheelwells and see exactly what i am talking about.) Once the inner wells and tower met we mig'd them together. Again the quality of work was amazing, He used the peening end of a ball peen hammer to make a nice bead/trough, it looks so nice I have no intention of trying any bodywork to hide it. Almost forgot we put the tin lower core support back on, it hides the tubular brace, except we had to notch it out for the lower corners. that tube will also double as a spoiler mount now. I would send pictures but i am too dumb to know how to download and upload my pics. Dan

[DusterRT]

If you can email pictures, I would be happy to host them! Let me know..

[71dusterdan]

Travis, Iwould love to email pics to you but again i'm to challenged to figure out how to do it. Hell i've been promising pictures to my buddy Mopork forever and just can not get it figured out. Maybe I can get the it geeks at work to hook me up.

[DusterRT]

Is your camera digital or does it use conventional film? If it's digital, I could try to talk you through the process if you would like to give that a shot.

[Bjkadron]

Cool cool! It is very similar to my buildup! Which makes it very cool!

[autoxcuda]

Tony, well first offwe carefully disected the sheetmetal lower core support. Then we fabbed a 1x2x1/8wall rect.tube lower core support, welded in underneath the front frame rails. we welded a 1/4 in plate to the bottom of that and drilled and tapped it twice. The plan is to triangulate this core support tube to the k frame. Then another ripped off xv motorsports trick, was to run round tube from the shock tower mounts to the cowl panel through the wheelwell area. That was made from 1 5/8 120.wall we put a 90degree bend in it ran it out from plates boxing in the shock mount at the top to a section of cowl that had two factory reinforcing beads in it. We made some pretty little plates that fit the crown of the beads vertically, and the flat in between the beads horizontally. My fab buddy is a wizard/artist this was all tig'd beautifully, like italian motorcycle frame welds. It just makes we want to touch myself. Then we got out the mig. First we peened the inner fenderwell down, from the engine side to meet the shock tower brackets in the wheelwell. (sorry all , I'm trying to let you see this in your heads, any abody mopar guy could look in his wheelwells and see exactly what i am talking about.) Once the inner wells and tower met we mig'd them together. Again the quality of work was amazing, He used the peening end of a ball peen hammer to make a nice bead/trough, it looks so nice I have no intention of trying any bodywork to hide it. Almost forgot we put the tin lower core support back on, it hides the tubular brace, except we had to notch it out for the lower corners. that tube will also double as a spoiler mount now. I would send pictures but i am too dumb to know how to download and upload my pics. Dan

I'd think about running the front down bars from the front frame rail up to the shock tower (connecting to it like you mentioned) then through the firewall into you interior cage. Those two bars should be connected across under the dash. Mopar suffer from cowl shake and it's a weak point. Also a removable shock tower type car running across would be nice. Picture below of Tim Werner's 68 Valiant.

Also reweld the firewall to front floor mount connection. The factory spotweld break and stretch apart. At that point stitch weld a bunch of the factory welds in the body. While your down near the floorboard might consider sectioning the floor to fit headers up to get good ground clearance. Mopars, headers, and ground clearance don't all go together well.

A-bodies also crack at the inner shock tower flange corner to the front frame rail connection (near UCA bushings)

Tim Werner's Valiant is fast. Because of the car setup and the driver is a road race track instructor. One of the fastest pre 1980 Mopars with stock suspension pick up points. Probably faster than most of the kit car Mopars too. And about what your are trying to do. No fancy complete aftermarket front end and still has factory rear leafs.



Some More pics of the car at the Spring Fling Speed Festival 2007: http://www.mrmopar.com/SpringFling2007/WillowSprings/

[6'9"Witha69]

Holy 3 year old thread Batman!!

[autoxcuda]

Holy 3 year old thread Batman!!

Opps, just noticed that. From another thread, it looks like he hasn't worked on it for a couple of years.

[Bjkadron]

Oops..
I have a real talent for dragging these old threads up! That's ok though... I learned something! :D

[Jim Nilsen]

I should call him and tell him you guy's miss him,lol.

last time I checked he is into Harley's and hasn't touched the car.

[Bjkadron]

Well Tell Him I have an open door policy for unwanted dusters!!! :D I'd gladly take it off his hands.