This page was last updated: August 08, 2010

1972 Duster - Originally a slant six car, now a 340 4 speed

I bought this car in 1984, with the misguided idea that it would be my "winter car" so my '73 Charger wouldn't rot away as fast. The '72 Duster was in far better shape than the Charger. It was a slant six automatic that my Dad and I ran across in South Carolina. It had four-wheel drum brakes, a bench seat, 4" bolt pattern rally wheels, and air conditioning. I drove it that way for a short time until my Dad asked if I would like to put a 340 in it. A friend of his still had the engine, trans, shifter, pedals and linkage. This was my only car for some time. Then I got the brilliant idea to move out of the house and had no money. Eventually, the exhaust seats got so recessed in the heads that the car didn't run well. The vacuum gauge jumped all over the place. So I took the heads off to get seats put in. I looked at the engine and wanted to do more, but got discouraged and it sat like that for many years.

In the fall of 2003, I got the Duster out of storage (it was garaged) and started work on it. This time, I have another car to drive, and a garage to work in. I plan to do as much of the work myself as possible. Plans (so far) include widened wheel wells, relocated super stock springs, bigger torsion bars and anti-sway bar, and a few engine mods. I'm not sure at all what the 340 will end up like, but some things that might end up on the car are: Edelbrock aluminum heads, Mopar Performance M1 single plane intake, AFB carb, Competition Cams camshaft (thinking about a solid, maybe...), Milodon pan, TTI headers, and hydraulic clutch.

Here are some notes on what was done and what I learned along the way. Hopefully, someone will find this useful in their own project. Hey! What are you doing screwing around on the Internet? Get out and work on your car!