Poor car, the brake fluid looks like dark coffee/mud.

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

My poor Duster is suffering its way through the freezing winter months sitting outside.






Three of my Mopars dealing with the winter without a garage.
(1974 Plymouth Duster slant six, 1968 Plymouth GTX 4-speed, 1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 440 Six Pack 4-speed)

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

Mopar Jail:

I see that you have fenced the beasts in, just remove their rear wheels next winter, that will keep'em home till spring.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Looks as if the gasket failed allowing moisture to enter the system.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

Actually, that's normal appearance for brake fluid that's been in service awhile, even with the master cylinder cap gasket and all system seals in good condition. This what we see is why it's recommended to flush and change the brake fluid every couple years.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

The Bee sat next to the road for a good month, I am surprised nothing inside of it ended up missing.

These are three of the Mopars I picked up this past summer. It kills me to have these cars sitting out side, but now that the spending season is over theyll get covered ASAP! Hopepfully next year they'll have a new building to get cozy in. At the very least they'll have their own cold storage domed tent to keep the elements away.
The GTX is sold and the new owner is just waiting until spring to pick it up.
The Bee is an eternal keeper and the Duster is my current slant 6 project. Speaking of which I may be picking up another slant project soon. Trying to pick up another rust free/stright 1974 Duster slant six with a column shifted 3-speed manual transmission and bucket seats that runs/drives. It is in NM and the owner swears it'll make it here no problem. He also has a nice 318 Duster that I am trying to make a package deal on. We'll see if it works out.

I just figured it was old, very old. The seal appeared to be in great shape, but I guess anything is possible.
The master cylinder does have some corrosion on the sealing surface. I wasn't that worried about it considering I have a new master for the car anyways.

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

I stored my 82' LeBaron in an old blueberry factory several of the local old car guys rented for the winter. My cost; 50 bucks a month, cheaper than property taxes on a new building...

Not having to snow blow around a car in the driveway, and scrape its windows all winter, priceless.

_________________
67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

My cars are in the back yard and I don't shovel around them or scrape the windows off.
We get way too much snow here to just have a snow blower, a plow is a fact of life around here.

I lost my job in late November. We still do ok and are not pinched for money, however I am not going to pay $50.00/month per car either. I have quite a collection of mopars so I'd beecome broke, fast.

I have my fathers non-R/T export (JH23N1B) 1971 Challenger 383 H.P., 4-speed, FJ6 paint, white roof/deluxe interior/stripe, F & R spoiler car in a storage unit I got for $30.00/month.
I also have my 1974 Dart Sport inside my home garage with my motorcycle, toolbox, compressor, workbench, a few complete sets of wheels/tires and most of my engines (it is just a single car garage; 15-feet wide x 23-feet deep).
I have a 12-foot x 24-foot storage unit I am paying $75.00/month on but it has my other motorcycle in it (which is for sale) and FULL of 30+ years of collecting mopar parts) I wanted to get rid of this unit last fall to save me some cash every month (I hate paying money out monthly), however I didn't get the 14-foot x 20-foot heavy duty round top storage tent up like I had planned. Then I thought of putting the Super Bee into the storage unit and tried to organize it better, however I have a lot of parts in there and couldn't make near enough room to fit that massive car.

Even if I found a few places to put my cars up for $40.00/month the 10 mopars that are worthy of being stored would still run me up a $400.00/month storage fee. Even if I found a good deal for one or two most places are $55.00+/month.

A new 30-foot x 50-foot garage is ~$16,000.00 and a 20-foot x 30-foot storage building (for the motocycle, parts, panels, snowplow assembly) is about ~$4,500.00
We only deal in cash (no bank loans for anything here) so it took us many years of saving up, but now we have just about enough. It isn't as easy as it sounds though with so many good deals being out there right now it's hard to not buy a lot of cars. We also have to fight the township zoning board. It would have to be built at my parents house/porperty and they live in a financially poor subdivision filled with mostly single wide mobil homes on 150-foot x 150-foot lots. They gave our buddy a hard time and cost him a few trips to court to put up his 30-foot x 40-foot pole building. Doesn't make sense to me as it would clean up my parents back yard (get the cars inside) and prevent any future projects from being stored out side being eye candy errrr I mean eye sores (so they say, I don't get it?). Not to meention raise their propety taxes. All the neighbors are in support of it so hopefully it goes through ok when the time comes. Because of this we are weighing possibly just buying a remote piece of property somewhere close, completely fence it off with an 8-foot fence and build on that. We'll see what happens. Between me losing my job, my grandma being on her death bed (wasn't suppose to make to Christmas), the holidays, and doing what I can for side money so I can buy parts it is hard to plan anything. Not to mention the two feet of snow on the ground. Once spring comes it's a rat race as we only have 6 months before the white stuff starts falling again. Unfortunetly I doubt we are going to get a building up this spring, but I am gonna try like crazy.

My parents bought/paid for their house new long ago (1992 16-foot x 80-foot mobile home) and already owned their 150-foot x 150-foot lot before that. They pay ~$1,500.00/year in property taxes so a new building isn't going to really increase it much. The property is valued around $50,000.00 so even if it bumped it up to $75,000.00 it isn't going to change much (+$700 - 1,000.00/year). Being that porperty is crashing so fast I bet it wouldn't even raise their overall value/taxes that much.


So that is my life story summmed up.

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

While most of you are enjoying spring things are just now starting to thaw around here. Got a little ways to go yet, however it is almost time!
I got some new 165/80R-15 Federal SS657 tires and UPS delivered them yesterday so I immediately ran into town and mounted them up. I used to work at the big tire shop in town that my cousin runs so I still have full access to all the equipment/machines.
They are definately skinny and have that 1960s drag race look. They also make the rear tires look much wider than they are. Now the front tires have an average size sidewall it makes the rear 235/60R-14 tires look too small in diameter.
I can't wait to get a wider & slightly taller tire back there.
Pay no attention to the flat right rear tire.

Anyways I got them back on the car and here is the result:














The hard launch look.
Unfortunately with the stock slant it isn't going to be looking like this anytime soon.





Unfortunately I didn't get anything accomplished on this car over the winter like I wanted to, but such is life. Hopefully once the weather warms up a bit I can get it set-up the way I want it.

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

nice duster I also know the fun(ha ha) of no garage to keep things in my 66 charger,75new yorker sit outside year round check them out on my myspace profile my user name is dodgelover75

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Nothing beats a slant six
1987 D150

I'm sure it'll work out Daniel when the snow melts away! Hope things on the income front improve as well!

MJ

Thanks, me too!

I'd love to find a set of 15" x 7.5" slotted aluminum mag wheels for the rear of this car.
It currently has 14" x 7" wrapped in 235/60R-14 Kelley Charger tires. With the taller 15"slotted mags up front the rear wheels & tires just look too small.
The 15" x 7.5" would fit the best, but I'd also take a set of 15" x 7" or 15" x 8" or even 15" x 8.5" slotted mags or ??


I wish I never sold this scomplete set of wheels, tires, lug nuts on my old 1974 Duster. They fit a sports roof A body perfectly (although they were 14"). I started with 235/60R-14s on the front, however they would run at full lock over bumps (pulling into my driveway so I installed 195/60R-14s and it was sweet harmony from then on, until I sold it.







You can kind of see the style of wheel in these pictures:
If I had known they were so difficult to come by/replace I would not have sold them with the car. My father just had these wheels laying around and they fit so nice I didn't think twice about it.
I really liked the look of them. They had a mesh type partial ring (painted black section) between the hub section and the hoop of the wheel. The looked slick, and were Mopar/Ford only bolt pattern (I don't like uni-bolt wheels).
Anyone know what wheels these were?
This photo is just after I got the car home so I didn't get a chance to get the front wheels installed yet.

I sold this car to two young kids in eastern Ohio, which was odd because that is where I bought the car from.

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

I went and started the old girl today, in fact I even drove her home!
Not only that, I even washed it.
The thick layer of grime from sitting outside for the so many years really hid a lot of the small nicks & dings. The flaws are alot easier to see now, but at least it's clean.
Two (or three?) more washes and all the scum will be off the car. My arms were tired after scrubbing so much (I also washed both of my Dodge Rams and our Hyundai Tiburon).
On the plus side it looks more like the color it is suppose to be.

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1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)

what flaws? Your car is in way better shape than mine

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What's that fuzzy blue thing being hurled this way?
::stick::
BOOSH!!!

Don't worry there is plenty of dings/dents.


It became nice and bright/sunny out this Easter morning so I decided to spend as much of the day as I could outside. While out there I thought it'd be nice to tackle some of the small projects on the Duster.
I figured I'd start with the easiest/quickest thing first, the starter. The starter on the car came right off with ease and was a brand "new" remanufactured unit, so that can go onto the shelf for future use if need be.
This mini starter is about 11 lbs. lighter than the original unit.
It really spins over much, much faster now too.

Original (reman) starter:






High torque mini starter installed:






That went pretty smoothly so I decided to keep marching forward and install the new lightweight aluminum master cylinder.
I bench bled all the air out first and just as I finished my father pulled up. Then I simply removed the original cast iron master cylinder and installed the 4-bolt to 2-bolt adaptor and the new aluminum 2-bolt master cylinder while we were shooting the breeze. He hopped in the driver seat while I bled the brakes at the calipers. It took about 20 minutes worth of bleeding and a lot of brake fluid to get all that 'mud' out of the lines until the fluid was perfectly clear again.
It's nice to have a rock hard brake pedal in this old piece of iron.
Before you had to pump the pedal once before you could stop really well.






Both of those jobs went super easy and all bolts/bleeders cracked loose with a small ratchet (or small wrench depending).
I finished much faster than anticipated so I pondered digging into the ignition switch issue.
The previous owner had purchased a new ignition switch for the car but never installed it in the steering column. It was just left laying on the floor so you'd have to put the key in the cylinder/tumbler in the column so it wouldn't lock the steering wheel while driving and then twist the switch laying loose on the floor to start. Last fall the new ignition starter switch came apart and the contacts, springs, and the detent ball went all over and I lost a few of the parts. After that I had to hard wire the "On" and "Run" wires together and when the car needed to be started I simply touched the "start" wire and the car would come alive. The criminal types would call this hotwired.

This is what the starter switch looks like (minus the 2-foot pigtail):
The key cylinder butts up against the right side of this starter switch. The 'nipple' goes into the cylinder so when you twist the key & cylinder you are turning the starter switch to the different positions (Acc., Lock, On/Run, Start).





Once the column was pulled apart I pulled the key cylinder and the starter switch out. The key cylinder/tumbler was still functional but the starter switch (located inside the column) was froze up solid and would only allow the key to turn from the 'Lock' to the 'On/Run' positions. It didn't appear serviceable, but I peeled it apart anyways. There are three tabs that get crimped inward to hold everything together on the switch so once loosened everything flew apart. Upon inspection (after finding what I believe was all the parts of the switch) the original grease had hardend causing the switch not to be able to turn. Once all cleaned up it was time for reassembly.
Getting the detent ball, springs, contacts, and insulating plates inside that switch all lined up and getting the pot metal bottom case to pinch the plastic top was a massive pain in the @ss. It's only about an inch & a half in diameter and there is no room for error. As you sandwhich everything together the springs are constantly trying to ruin your day by misaligning themselves/or the various layers of plates/contacts. :arge
I eventually got it though, and I am glad I learned how to do it. Plus it saved me $35.00 from having to buy a new one (or the time of pulling apart another good column to rob the switch out of).
It's nice to be able to just slide the key in the cylinder and turn to start the car. That's a feature I truely enjoy.

_________________
1969-1/2 Dodge Super Bee A12 (440 Six Pack, 4-spd, Dana 60)
1974 Plymouth Duster 360 (4-spd, 8.75")
1973 Plymouth Duster (225, auto, 8.25")
2001 Dodge Ram 1500 QC 2wd (5.9L, auto, Dana 60)