Project Demon Spawn: the rebirth of my 70' Duster-efi, 408ci, t56, dana 60

[SRD art]

Dang! That looks nasty. So sorry to hear about your loss. I'm with everyone else, you sure do have a great attitude under the circumstances. Glad to hear no major injuries, that would just add insult to injury. Um ok that was a bad joke, ;)

The Demon would tempt me. Oh shoot there's another unintended pun . Seriously though, If I werent' a GM guy a Duster would be my next choice. But in my ever faithful dare to be different attitude, the Demon has even more appeal.

Why not do something a little more bright? Just my opinion but satin white is a little too subtle. If you like the satin look, how about Lime green with satin clear and a black hood. Would make a very unique ride. It'd be easier to see when it's stopped too so ignorant people wouldn't trash it again. This is a great opportunity since you're starting fresh and you're working with a blank canvas. If you can't afford a professional rendering on a students budget, grab some prismacolor pencils, trace a good photo and have fun with it!

[CruizinKev]

OMG NOOO! glad you're ok!!

[David_396]

Soory abut your car. At least you weren't hurt too bad. I know these are a long way from ya but if you can score it cheap and not have to deal with rust issues, it mught be worth the tranportation costs.
http://fresno.craigslist.org/cto/2667560237.html
http://fresno.craigslist.org/cto/2634918627.html
http://fresno.craigslist.org/cto/2547355656.html looks good for $1200
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/2663468500.html has some rust factory 340 car 4 speed
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/2663984440.html 78k miles
http://bakersfield.craigslist.org/cto/2647166788.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac...669981060.html $1800
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac...619013813.html
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb...672572494.html

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks a lot guys, and David for looking up some potential bodies for me...I went to look at the car with my dad at the tow yard, its apprent the trunk rolling up and forward was stopped by the roll cage. A guy at the two yard confirmed our suspicions..the insurance company will take book value of the vehicle IN 1970 and deduct DEPRECIATION from that...so to get back the quality car we had at no additional cost to us is going to take a big struggle with the insurance company.

I wanted to take pictures of the roll cage, but i found out that my back broke the seat back such that the recline/fold mechanism is broken.

[406 Q-ship]

Oh her insurance is going to try to screw you over, that is what they do. Tell them any settlement involves you getting the car back at no cost to you, if they balk........awwwwww my aching back! I am glad that you are OK so far.

[dusterbd13]

ive been screwed hard by far too many insurance companies.
when they offer you next to nothinng, offer that they find you a car EXACTLY like yours, and buy it for what they are offering you. when they say it cant be done, tell em to offer you more. you do NOT have to take a settlement from her insurance. i hate to say it, but with the value of your car (7-8k), and from the sounds of it inaddaquate insurance, youre gonna want to get a lawyer involved. find the sleaziest, lowbrow, bottom sucker you can. they fight the dirtiest. had to do that when my heavikly modded daily got whacked by a truckoad of illegals.

if i can help you out up in NC, let me know. i know where a nice, rust free scamp is right now.
and im truly glad you are OK. glad you showed restraint at the scene of the accident. hope you said a prayer of thanks for walking after a hit like that.

michael

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks guys, my dads fully prepared to find a good lawyer for us to set everything straight. Like i think i said before, i dont want anything more than what i had a week before the accident..thats all. Im having a guy sending me some pictures of a stripped demon two hours from school. Ill have my ram and access to a friends trailer, so well see where it goes

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Well, i went and looked at it, took some pictures, made a deal and shook on it, so as long as the guy honors our agreement, heres the new 'duster' that i should be picking up friday: A 1971 Demon (I'd call it "Demon Spawn" if it needs its own obligatory build name haha)




Its gunna need a lot, front/rear driver/passanger floor pans, new trunk floor, inner fender wells...but hopefully some of that we can re-use from the duster, and as i said before, id be doing a lot of cutting up anyways.

[speedfreak68]

Man, I'm glad you are ok. I don't know I would have been calm enough not to knock the frat guy's head off if it was my car.... Glad you found a replacement project already!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Man, I'm glad you are ok. I don't know I would have been calm enough not to knock the frat guy's head off if it was my car.... Glad you found a replacement project already!

Thanks..for you and all the people that have said that about the frat guy..believe me, i was about to lose it but what was overwhelmingly going through my head was: 'cops, jail, court, police record...etc' all saying it wasnt worth it and wouldnt look good on my part if it went to court or a cop just saw the scuffle and none of the precedings.

But im excited about the project, and getting my car back...i miss my daily merge onto the interstate w/ cutouts open, it was always the highlight of my day (more or less).

[dusterbd13]

take the demon. go satin black like the duster, only copy the visual elements of the sizzler package in gloss black. subtle and cool.
and just remember: anything mopar derilect is fixable with the proper application of welder, steel, and balls.
the demon looks rough in the pictures, but saveable. especially since youve got a lot of the parts to start with.
you going to finish the megasquirt this time around?
and any thoughts about heat/AC? now is the perfect time to do a super compact vintage air setup under the dash, with hidden lines and a serpentine conversion from a magnum. believe me, it makes my duster SOOOOOO much nicer to drive with the good heat/AC/Defrost?blower motor package i have in it.

any damage to suspension other than the rear springs? need spindles, heater box, etc? ive got some spare a-body stuff collecting dust now...

michael

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks a lot michael, Im still tossing colors around im my head. Part of me wants an obnoxious color that cant be ignored. With that said i LOVE everything about 'project "DEMON"', and have inevitably been influenced by it since day one but dont want to be seen as 'copying' its sassy grass green. Its between that, a light 'mint' green, light blue, white, or the flat black.

For the MS II I only need to have the intake welded up, and to purchase ~$500 of AN fittings, pump, filter....etc. The only reason i was holding off on the MS II project was the down time required to convert and tune it..needless to say thats no longer an issue.

Considering id need to cut the rear floors up for my subframe connectors, trans tunnel for the 6spd, and the trunk for the fuel cell-the rusty floor pans are hardly even a speed bump to me haha.

I really appreciate the parts offers. My vision of the duster is just raw, brutal, purpose built all around competative race car of any genre...that i drive every day on the street. ive driven the duster for almost 4 years and never missed ac/heat.

Luckally, theres no suspension damage other than the leaf springs, and most likely rear shocks. With that said im currently looking into Viper 13" front brakes (with hydraboost), bigger front sway bar, rear sway bar, Hotchkis leafs, new (adjustable) rear shocks. Im also looking into new rear wheels/tires for funsies-since ive decided to mini-tub it and trim the outer lip of the wheel wells, id like to get ~315-335's on it.

[rustomatic]

How cool is it that your reaction is "I have to build a new car," rather than "I must be repeatedly abused by a car dealer and a finance company?" This is why the car guy is cool... It's all in the reaction, and better suspension will just make your future reactions that much better.

On a side note, the main thing I learned from a similar ordeal was this: Don't ever swerve to avoid, unless it's a person you might hit.

It's good to see that your safety equipment was exactly that!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks rustomatic, im hoping with a few affordable upgrades ill be able to stop, and turn a whole lot better, maybe enough to prevent an accident (not one like this-caused by neglegance and inattentiveness, but still...) I am glad that i 'swerved' to try to avoid hitting the nissan in front of me though, if i hadnt i probably wouldve punctured the radiator and had even more costly damages.

speaking of costly damages..I bought the 71' Demon for a good price and got it home friday. In the process of towing it home, the auto transmission in my 'parts truck' (96 cummins ram 3500) that i was going to use for my 68' Kaiser build took a crap. I knew the trans was going to go, just not as soon as it did; the autos are notorious for not lasting behind the cummins, i was told this was the 3rd one in this truck.. So now im waiting on a rental from the girls insurance company.

The duster was apparently looked at by a claims adjuster 11/3/11, but no report has been made up of the estimate yet...

[ryeguy2006a]

That is so ****ty man. Nobody at that scene could possibly understand your pain there. When you build something you put a little bit of yourself into it. Sorry man.

[silverdenali22]

Sorry to see that happened to your car... It sucks I just went through the same thing with my 09 Procharged Challenger R/T... A girl run a stop sign and tboned me right in the drivers door and knocked me a 168ft off the road!... So I fell your pain!

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks guys for the condolenses. No real update with the insurance company- My claim has been moved to their total loss department, but the rep. is still collecting info (from the police report from what i gather) before she can give me their offer. In the mean time my dads taken a few hours out of his 'fun time' to work on the demon instead of his projects (i think he just wants to get my heap out of the shop asap haha):


Like i said, its more solid than the duster originally was, but still needs all the same panels replaced.

[muthstryker]

Thats cool man, glad to see your jumping back into another car so quickly.

[dusterbd13]

mmmmmm.......
demon.............

im gonna be waiting for this to finish. im excited.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Haha thanks guys, since for the most part its just going to be plugging in, bolting in, and swap over it should go pretty quick once all the chassis mods, body work, and paint are done on the demon. Im hoping its done in well under 6 months, but by now i know my goals are way too optimistic