The 1971 Duster That Wouldn't Die

[LennyB]

We all have been in this situation one way or another. Maybe we were a kid sent off to college with a car their parents bought them in the hopes the kid and the car would make it through the next four years. Or maybe you were the parent who bought the car. Or maybe both. Or maybe you were the kid that bummed the ride with the kid who had the car their parents bought them to go off to college with. I have a car sitting in the driveway that was bought from the little old lady next door and sent off to college. It only made it one year. But I diverge as it's not part of this story.

This story is about a 1971 Plymouth Duster that my father bought from a little old lady and sent it off to college with one of my brothers. Spoiler alert, they both made it through four years but it was a bumpy ride. Car became the transport for the college newspaper and regularly made runs to the press. Returning with its ass dragging under the weight of many pounds of pulp. One such trip resulted in a close encounter with the posterior of a Cadillac. Off to the bone yard to find a new nose. A few years later a ski trip ended in similar fashion. Off to the bone yard once again for a new nose. Somewhere along the line the under-dash harness caught fire. Back to the bone yard. Just for future reference a harness from a 72 will work, just a few wires to swap.

Somehow the Duster made it through college and beyond. It was eventually passed on to my cousin who bombed around in it for another few years before she  passed it on. For all I know it could still be out there somewhere with the old slant six scoring a few more miles.

 Here is a pic of the unstoppable force. Where have you seen those wheel covers before?

I figure this should not be too tough a build. Using the AMT 71 Duster 340 as the basis.

Although when I took the kit out of storage it was not un-built as I thought but something someone else started.

Not a big deal as a swim in the purple pond and we are clean as a whistle.

Person who started this didn't bother to clean their flash.

We have other painted parts but I think we can manage as most of this will be black anyway.

Did strip that chassis as that will be primed and then over sprayed in body color.

Speaking of body color going with Scale Finishes Tor Red. You might ask why I am going with a 1972 color. Well, at some point before we acquired it the car had been repainted and this color seems to be the closest to what I remember. Maybe it was not painted the original color. It maybe it was a late year production and had a 72 color. Either way this is what I'm using. Got it? Good.

Other adaptations are a grill and front bench seat from Hart Resin Parts.

And a slant six from Lindberg.

After body cleanup needed to fill the spoiler holes (see I told you there was a spoiler alert) in the trunk.

Set her up for a vinyl top.

And we have to add side moldings.

Little more cleanup and some primer. Gas cap needs a handle if you want to get gas.

 

A little more cleanup and we're getting close to paint although I'm not sure if I want to do the top first or the body color. Going to spray the top in a Behr Texture paint. Same paint I used on the 41 Woody.

 

Until next time, comments and feedback welcome.

[slusher]

Those Mopars was tough!  I had a slant six 80 pickup long wheel base with just an am/ fm radio option but dad said no to the 318 80 short wheel base loaded. He didn’t want me with a v8 but an auto and am/ fm was better then a bare bones 76 Pinto. For a high school boy. I will follow along..

[customline]

 Always liked this body style, Len. Do you add anything to the purple power or just use it straight out of the jug?  A little birdie wants to know.

[stavanzer]

Nice Work, Len!

Like the story behind it.

[LennyB]

9 hours ago, slusher said:

Those Mopars was tough!  I had a slant six 80 pickup long wheel base with just an am/ fm radio option but dad said no to the 318 80 short wheel base loaded. He didn’t want me with a v8 but an auto and am/ fm was better then a bare bones 76 Pinto. For a high school boy. I will follow along..

Thanks for checking in Carl. Those Mopars just keep going and going and .....

8 hours ago, customline said:

 Always liked this body style, Len. Do you add anything to the purple power or just use it straight out of the jug?  A little birdie wants to know.

Straight up out of the jug. It was a fresh pour which I think might have helped. I had a batch in a tub and I it didn't seem to work so well so I went with fresh stuff. Also the fact that the previous builder didn't clean the flash off the body would probably also mean they didn't wash the body. That might have made it easier as well.

7 hours ago, stavanzer said:

Nice Work, Len!

Like the story behind it.

Always helps to have a story for inspiration Alan. Thanks for stopping by.

[ewetwo]

Nice. Those slant 6's never die.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Great story, cool build.  

[1972coronet]

Definitely following. 

Are you planning to keep the kit's Rallye dash ? 

EV2 Tor-Red / Hemi Orange was around from 1969 - 1972 . Not sure why Scale Finishes states it's a 1972 colour.

Those wheel covers resemble mid-1950's Plymouth wheel covers.

[Badge73]

Nice work Lenny! Can you share what you used to make the side moldings?

[LennyB]

2 hours ago, ewetwo said:

Nice. Those slant 6's never die.

As they say they don't build them like they used to?

2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Great story, cool build.  

Thanks Bill.

2 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

Definitely following. 

Are you planning to keep the kit's Rallye dash ? 

EV2 Tor-Red / Hemi Orange was around from 1969 - 1972 . Not sure why Scale Finishes states it's a 1972 colour.

Those wheel covers resemble mid-1950's Plymouth wheel covers.

Haven't thought as far as the dash yet but that will have to change.

They do have Hemi Orange listed for 1971.

The wheel covers are '57 Dodge. I had a set on my 63 1/2 Fury build but then switched them out for dog dish. Can't build 2 cars with the same wheel covers now can I ?????

[1972coronet]

1 hour ago, LennyB said:

Haven't thought as far as the dash yet but that will have to change.

They do have Hemi Orange listed for 1971.

The wheel covers are '57 Dodge. I had a set on my 63 1/2 Fury build but then switched them out for dog dish. Can't build 2 cars with the same wheel covers now can I ?????

- Dash from the new(er) reissue of the MPC 1975-1976 Dart Sport is the correct dash for the 1970-1976 Duster non-Rallye (1971 was its final year, 340 models) and 1971-1972 Demon, etc.

- EV2 originated in Spring 1969 ; the "E" prefix = 1969.

- I was close on the wheel covers. Tom hoover had them on his '66 Coronet Hemi (The King of I-696 ) , though his were from his '56 Fury. Glad that you still have a set for this build. 

[LennyB]

12 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

- Dash from the new(er) reissue of the MPC 1975-1976 Dart Sport is the correct dash for the 1970-1976 Duster non-Rallye (1971 was its final year, 340 models) and 1971-1972 Demon, etc.

- EV2 originated in Spring 1969 ; the "E" prefix = 1969.

- I was close on the wheel covers. Tom hoover had them on his '66 Coronet Hemi (The King of I-696 ) , though his were from his '56 Fury. Glad that you still have a set for this build. 

I was just looking at the Dart Sport dash. What I saw looked like it had 2 extra gauges next to the headlight switch.

 

[1972coronet]

Just now, LennyB said:

I was just looking at the Dart Sport dash. What I saw looked like it had 2 extra gauges next to the headlight switch.

 

Other than the headlamp pull switch, the other gauges are temp., ammeter, and fuel :

[1972coronet]

I don't remember if MPC added the new-for-1975 EGR "idiot light" , but I can't imagine that they'd go through the trouble :

[Moparman18064]

Lenny, you could do what I did with my 72 Demon resin build I am doing. The glove boxes are different on the newer dash, I cut out the sections of both dashes that I needed and grafted them. I then used one of the printed gauge faces on EBay to finish off.

[LennyB]

Well I found this overlay on eBay for the dash.

The pics of the kit dash that I saw you couldn't make out much detail.

[1972coronet]

13 minutes ago, LennyB said:

Well I found this overlay on eBay for the dash.

The pics of the kit dash that I saw you couldn't make out much detail.

He also does custom requests. The one exhibited here is one such request from yours truly : 1975-1976 Dart / Duster .

[Mopar - D]

Nice story for your Duster I had a collage roommate that had a red one but no vinyl top. I’m working on the same dashboard now for my Scamp and I’m using the Sport Dart’s dashboard to. 

[LennyB]

17 hours ago, Moparman18064 said:

Lenny, you could do what I did with my 72 Demon resin build I am doing. The glove boxes are different on the newer dash, I cut out the sections of both dashes that I needed and grafted them. I then used one of the printed gauge faces on EBay to finish off.

Rich, not actually having the 75-6 dash in hand I'm wondering if I could just cut out the rally gauges and fill the hole with flat styrene and then put one of the overlays on it from ebay.

[LennyB]

13 hours ago, Mopar - D said:

Nice story for your Duster I had a collage roommate that had a red one but no vinyl top. I’m working on the same dashboard now for my Scamp and I’m using the Sport Dart’s dashboard to. 

Dan, thanks for the pics. Gives me a better idea of what I'm dealing with.?

[Moparman18064]

Lenny, this is what I did. You can also see the  major difference in contour near the heater controls. I hope this helps

[LennyB]

57 minutes ago, Moparman18064 said:

Lenny, this is what I did. You can also see the  major difference in contour near the heater controls. I hope this helps

Rich thanks, I had seen that in your thread. I can go and buy the later dart dash off ebay for $10 which is no big deal, but it looks to me as if I could just cut off the cluster area on the rally dash and replace it with flat stock.Then do the overlay. You need to remove the dash detail before putting the overlay on anyway, so what's the difference?

[Moparman18064]

Lenny, I guess you certainly could do that. I just happened to have both dashes and really wanted to have the proper contours in mine. On the later dash, the area at end of cluster is raised, the heater controls are recessed and the glove compartment is different than 71/72. I was trying to be more correct to my actual car. I agree, much easier to do the way you stated, it all matters how involved you want to be in your project.

[espo]

Great looking build and the back story makes it all that much better. The hub caps you mentioned have a striking resemblance to the '57 Plymouth full wheel covers. 

[LennyB]

1 hour ago, espo said:

Great looking build and the back story makes it all that much better. The hub caps you mentioned have a striking resemblance to the '57 Plymouth full wheel covers. 

Maybe they were used on the 57 Plymouth also?? But the ones on the subject car originated on a 57 Dodge we had in the family. Or as my brother called it the BatMobile because of the wings.