1974 Plymouth Duster

2 months from the day of pickup to on the road with new paint!! Lots of elbow grease and time, very little in the way of "cubic dollars!" 

At the time of pickup, August 17th 2008 , New Jersey.

The grill was broke into 7 pieces and the lower insert was trashed.

Some of the sheet metal was nasty but very solid underneath. 

The interior was a mess, but everything was there. The seat had several broken springs.

Like I said, a mess! The floorpan was good aside from a hole on the passenger side (fixed)

Under the hood was also all there, dig the 70's dealer installed Dana cruise control!

I completely stripped the body and interior and then sent it off to the bodyshop.

I did all the detail work including retaping the harness, re-spraying behind the grill, redoing the headlamp buckets, latches, etc.

Doesn't look like the same car does it? It took me 2 weeks to rebuild the grill! Several pieces were missing which had to be made from scratch.

I still have to reinstall the windshield trim, still polishing it and making sure the new gasket doesn't leak.

Now that looks a bit better eh? Tuff wheel is a reproduction.

The whole dash was pulled out of the car (I removed the windshield) and the odd holes were welded up and filled. I repainted the dash, repaired the harness, cleaned and polished the cluster and painted the steering column too. The radio is a JVC stereo with CD player and MP3 player input, the hole was already there and modern tunes would be nice. Speakers are hiding under the dash. The sill plates are original, I knocked out the dents and polished them up in the garage.

Still have to install the headrests but wish for the seat skins to settle a bit first.

Took a year or two but finally found the carpet I was looking for.

Before the 318 came out I tossed a Performer intake on with a 625 cfm Carter with a reproduction 4bbl aircleaner.

Out comes the 318!

5.9 Magnum power! Enginequest heads with Crane roller cam and 1.7 roller rockers. The a/c will go back on when it is detailed up.

Reproduction battery with AGM, ventless! No acid to spill...

Had lots of fun actually doing some of the detail work... Not finished yet but getting there. 

Exhaust system is from Summit racing with home grown H-pipe made from scrap. 904 was rebuilt and fortified.

Rear end was rebuilt with 3.55's and a Auburn diff from a Jeep! Tank, springs and area detailed while at it.

 

Installing the stripes, was going to go black but after looking at a lot of cars settled on the white ones.

At local car show (Ocean Beach)

Installing the slicks at Lebanon Valley.

Shakedown! Nothing exciting, 14.2 at 94 mph on first outing. Gratifying that the car ran best just as I drove it to the track! Any changes just slowed the car down. The 318 exhaust manifolds need to go into the dumpster as I think they are choking the engine. I have a larger roller cam for the engine too as the one that is in there is pretty mild.

Hanging out at the Berlin Turnpike.

Not done with the car yet- At some point in the future the a/c will be reinstalled, I'm going to install an overdrive transmission (already got it,) need to pull the engine to paint the engine bay and detail the front suspension along installing a front sway bar setup.

 

Thanks for visiting Donovan's Dodge Garage