70 Duster full rodstoration
A complete rebuild and modification of a 360, 4 speed Plymouth Duster
This is a car I built for myself. I learned to drive in this car, wrecked it, and left it for dead. I decided that we needed a car to show what we could do if given the opportunity, and this car seemed like the prime candidate. We built a new motor, upgraded the chassis front and rear, redid the paint, body, and interior, rewired it, and made it look as stock as possible. the goal was a solid low 12 second car that would be happy on the show field, drag strip, or mountain roads. we feel that we have accomplished this goal, while retaining the prigonal feel of the car from high school.
The Before Side
This is what we started with after I left the car for dead. I didnt get pictures of before this point, but you can see that the quarters have already been patched, and the body had been stripped. the pictures dont show that there was not a straight or undamaged panel left on the car. unfortunately, the pictures of the body restoration were lost in a computer crash, so we cannot show you the work that went into it.
The After Side
This is what the car looked like when we finally put the tools down. The car required both front fenders, hood, drivers side door, trunk floor from incorrect repair, front floorpans, and over 500 hours in body work. This was covered in Honda Rallye Red, instead of the origonal Chrysler Rallye Red. We also used PPG base/clear, wet sanded it and buffed it. The body is about as flawless as can be. The hood was sourced from AAR fiberglass, and is a bolt on unit. we used 15X7 steel wheels from a dodge diplomat, pained the same color as the body. we still need to hang new bumpers on the car, and we are debating an upgrade to a 17 inch wheel.
This is the interior as it started out. Notice the aftermarket gauges strapped here and there, the carpet over the dashpad, the ricer looking gauge cluster, and the generally worn apperance of it all. Most of the parts were reusable after a good scrubbing or refinishing.
This is the way it currently looks. It is still lacking some small details, but those will come shortly enough. We saved the origonal carpet and seats, built a new dash, refinished the dashpad and steering column, added a new steering wheel, polished the stainless, added new weatherstripping, and generally brought most of the interior back to stock. We added a bunch of sound deadening and insulation, which cannot be seen in the finished picture. We also added one heck of a stereo. Blaupunkt component speakers driven by a 200 watt RMS amp up front, Kenwood EZ500 deck in the dash, Sony 10 inch sub in a Q-Logic box in the trunk driven by a 1000 watt amp, and 3 way Sony 6X9 in the rear deck. All connected with Monster cables. We decided after driving it for a little while that we need to redo the front bench to make it more comfortable, add better seat belts, and put in new carpet as the old stuff is faded. Also considering a pistol grip shifter swap.
This is the last motor. It is a 78 cop 360 with an old LD4B intake, 600 Holley, Cal Custom Valve covers, and blackjack headers. It's grungy, running on only 6, and painfully slow.
We saved the block, crank, and timing chain cover. The rest of the motor was junk. Now it has a .30 overbore, I-beam rods, forged pistons, .564/.570 lift 236/242 duration solid roller, Indy modded Eddy heads, Victor Jr single plane. It is finished off by a modified Holly 850 CFM double pumper, 8MM black plug wires, and TTI Headers. We restored a 340 air cleaner, modified stock valve covers, and added a lakewood scattershield to finish the install.
This is the best engine bay picture to survive the computer crash. You can see how disgusting and trashed everything is, including the inner fenderwells and brake lines. It's kinda scary if you look closely at the wiring.
A before picture of the rearend. It's greasy, rusty, and the brake backing plate has over an inch ground off of it. Huh. Springs were new, and there was a rear sway bar on it.
Here you can see the refinished rearend housing, ADDCO 7/8 sway bar, 11X3 cop car drum brakes, Refinished Gas tank, Etc. If you can see it or think of it, its either new or refinished.
