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

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Sorry, not much progress, im up at school now in Tampa. My dad had to replace the throw out bearing and pilot bearing in his daily driver corvair the past week, so other than a few stitches of welds, not much has changed.
My dad did say that the engine compartment will get primed this friday. Im going back home for a friends wedding, I plan to have enough time sunday to get the demon on the lift, remove the suspension, and weld in the crossmember for the t56 (its about 1.5' back from the stock location). Ill put up pics when it all happens



EDIT: i do have a few pictures i shared with another forum (FABO) that i didnt put on here, Heres the emblem that im going to spray on and pinstripe; my brushes just came in the mail the other day:

and our 4 mopars (if you count my 'parts truck' 96 cummins ram im driving 'till the demons done)

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Well i only had one day to work on the demon, but i made the best of it with my dad. My dad had primed the front fenders, engine compartment, and trunk lid the other day. Today we took the suspension off and i welded the t56's crossmember mounts to the subframe connectors. The dusters crossmember mounts were made of angle iron and were welded only to the floor sheetmetal (and the original crossmember up front). Although the setup proved itself in the accident, the demons will be much stronger. (Sorry about the pictures, they were on my phone since i forgot my camera)




My dads going to start scraping the old undercoating off of the floors and subframe while im gone...everything will probably be in primer by the time im home again. Thanks for checking on the progress

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Heres what my dad got done in about a week: The engine compartment and front inner fenders/sub-frame are painted grey now. He also started wire brushing the old dirt and undercoating off the rest of the floors to have them painted in a couple weeks.



The last bit of rust was removed and patched with a patch panel donated by the duster:


Planning ahead, hopefully in about 3 weeks Ill be able to go home and transfer the dusters wiring harness and dash over to the demon, as well as drop the drivetrain out of the duster.

[67cougnut]

Sorry, not much progress, im up at school now in Tampa. My dad had to replace the throw out bearing and pilot bearing in his daily driver corvair the past week, so other than a few stitches of welds, not much has changed.
My dad did say that the engine compartment will get primed this friday. Im going back home for a friends wedding, I plan to have enough time sunday to get the demon on the lift, remove the suspension, and weld in the crossmember for the t56 (its about 1.5' back from the stock location). Ill put up pics when it all happens

EDIT: i do have a few pictures i shared with another forum (FABO) that i didnt put on here, Heres the emblem that im going to spray on and pinstripe; my brushes just came in the mail the other day:

and our 4 mopars (if you count my 'parts truck' 96 cummins ram im driving 'till the demons done)

I like that idea instead of an emblem. your going to paint that Mopar M in the middle blue right?

[TT302Z28]

Holy hell! I had missed this thread originally.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Yea, the mopar M is going to be blue..and more symmetrical haha

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Figured id keep everyone up to date by passing a few more photos of what my dad got done:
Before:

After-ish:

Ready for suspension components and k-member after the rest is sprayed as well...

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Hey everyone, im home for a three day weekend, i didnt get much done today because my dad painted the underbody grey up to the differential area and it was drying. Tomorrow im hoping to get the trunk ready for paint, and finish up all the welding around where the fuel cell is going. I hope to also get a lot of the hood fiberglassed and ready for fine tuning. By sunday all of the grey will be sprayed, by next week the trunk and interior floors will be primed and ready for herculiner. We got a few packages from summit: about twenty -6 to -8 AN fittings, some 1/2 and 3/8 aluminum line, fuel pump, fuel rails, and a new set of black ceramic coated headers.

More pictures to come tomorrow.

[go-fish]

Did you add any support in the lower radiator brace area? Tool Grey looks sick.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks, i like how clean the grey makes it all look; im pleased with it. ..No i didnt add any support, it just has the stock brace to the k-member.


Today i just did a few hours worth of welding, grinding welds, and seam sealing. Heres the back end picture, tomorrow my dads going to finish all of the grey underneath. I spent some time fiberglassing the hood, but it still has a long, long ways to go, nothing deserving of a pic update.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

...My dad finished up the underbody paint, i finished the rough fiberglass work on the hood; its all in one piece now. theres a bit of body work my dad still has to do, but its mostly in primer and ready for green. Im ordering more stuff moday (Hotchkis springs, Hellwig sway bars, QA1 shocks, more fittings, exhaust, etc...)

[aps63]

You and your Dad are animals. Great progress.
Keep it up.

[go-fish]

I know I just commented on your progress yesterday but the progress you guys made since then is outstanding too. Great job.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks a lot guys, i really appreciate the compliments! The real thrashing is going to happen over my spring break in two weeks, itll start out by spraying herculiner on the floor and trunk, then dropping the dusters differential and k-member while putting them onto the demon at the same time ...but i dont know how much can get done in that week, well see.

[Chris 68]

Thanks a lot guys, i really appreciate the compliments! The real thrashing is going to happen over my spring break in two weeks, itll start out by spraying herculiner on the floor and trunk, then dropping the dusters differential and k-member while putting them onto the demon at the same time ...but i dont know how much can get done in that week, well see.

First: Demon is coming out great man!
Second: Slow the hell down! At this rate you are still going to be on the road before me haha
Third: Whens your break? I'll def swing on by if you need an extra pair of hands to get the most done while your off from school broseph

[rfalker1]

Loveee!!! its really coming together!! Love the grey too.

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Thanks a lot guys! and Chris, you just need to speed up is all haha. My spring break is mar 12-18 so ill be home like the 9th-18th hopefully.

[dusterbd13]

good luck, man.
you make me feel bad. its taken me almost a month to change a set of valve covers, make plug wires, and change plugs.
but then again, ive got four really good excuses: two jobs, wife and daughter.

im living vicariously through you right now.

if you had anything to do differently on your t-bar crosssmember rebuild, what would it be?
and what gauge steel did you use to weld in for your hoop? im going to have to do mine someday when i get the time and the rest of my parts for my tremec.

michael

[ALLstrokedOUT]

Haha, thanks, your changes are looking good too though. i know what you mean; projects always take a back seat to life. I pretty much changed everything i wanted to for the crossmember from the dusters design. The one thing i didnt like was how the transmission mount mounted to the car. I thought i had this pic up, but i guess not. The duster had a piece of angle iron with a piece of 2x1 tubing welded to it to bolt the trans mount to it:

The angle iron was welded to the stock crossmember in the front, and the floor sheetmetal in the back, which made me nervous (that bolt is for the seat, not very structural either). You can see how the 2x1 warped in the accident..im suprised my welds didnt break anywhere.
The demons trans mount is welded to the subframe connectors and the stock crossmember with 2x1 and 1x1 tubing respectively-lots stronger.

I loved how the dusters tunnel sheetmetal was removable; it saved me from having to drop the trans when the reverse shift forks' c-clip came off and i was stuck in tampa, in reverse. The 2x1 crossmember makes the tunnel a bit tall and boxy (carpet wouldnt work too well), but i think it fits in. I dont remember the exact specs of the 1x1 and 2x1 tubing, but i can get them in a couple weeks for future reference.

[dusterbd13]

yeah, id love that. hoping to use same thickness steel for my replacement hoop for ease of welding. probably gonna stitch weld the whole crossmember too while im in there.