this is going to take quite awhile, and undoubtedly there will be numerous edits on my part.

I have taken at least a thousand pictures of this car, documenting everything. as I sort through them, I will post those as I feel relavent or funny.

a little background:

my 75 duster started out as my familys daily driver. when I became old enough to drive and got my license, it was given to me, as long as I fixed up what problems there were. it needed a new master cylinder, torsion bar, and the carb needed a rebuild.......badly.

my dad had already installed a set of clifford headers and 4 barrel manifold, and a holley 390. my first addition was a Jacobs Omni-pak, that I wasn't all that impressed with. The jacobs was later stolen, along with all of the chrome under the hood, out of a storage lot I kept the car in once I had decided to keep her and get a different daily driver.

years of working out all the "low" (yeah right....) buck details, and I hit a bad spot, and was laid off from my job. the car sat for at least 3 years. I just didn't have the money to pay for the apartment and do anything for the car. recently I have started to get back on my feet, but it is slow going, and I have to save a little each week for anything to add to the car.

currently the car sits in my apartments garage (I have my own individual garage) and the new owners frown on car repair. to top that off, there is no electricity in this garage, so everything I have done to it over the last seven years in the apartment has been done by sun or lantern light...in very tight surroundings. I'll post those pics once I scan them.



the interior I am proud of, considering how much work it takes. its amazing how some people that don't work on cars can look at something, and think it is nicely done, but it takes a true gearhead to really appreciate the time and effort. personally I am always impressed by others that are the numbers matching guys, that will go down to finite detail to make sure they are 100% original. my goal with this duster is to cusomize, keeping the six for originality (in my area) and "update" cetain other areas.



the dash cluster is soon to be replaced as I am starting my own custom dash business. we'll see how that goes, as people are interested and I finally have some test subjects to work on.



the car will be dechromed (possible fiberglass bumpers) and painted the same color as the engine, bay and body.

engine mods are now more extreme, and I will post those soon.......

I had some headwork done, 3 angle valve job with the oversized valves, and shaved .090 off.

here is my flow chart after the headwork:



it was based on the clifford cam with.498 lift (intake) and .5 lift (exhaust).

cam chart to come soon....

and here is the chart that came with my cam, I just got it in the mail a week ago:

another cam sheet:

engine mods will be/are:

block .060 over total, decked .135

head with custom oversized valves (not the usual 1.72 and 1.5), shaved .090 with full 3 angle job and port and polish

shooting for 11 to 1 compression

clifford headers, intake and cam

dual roller chain timing gears

holley 390

true dual exhaust system

the pics above will be going down soon, I have switched servers (and you wouldn't believe what a hassle that is...) and I will try to get them back up soon.

I am going to be getting a new house this coming spring, so the car will have to be put on hold once again. its sad too, because I was so close to having her on the road again, but at least I will be able to have a larger area to store it in, away from all the crime of the neighborhood I live in now.

I still plan to ship the engine off to the machine shop this winter, so at least I can get that far. I plan to have the engine on the dyno also, so then I can post some numbers of how well it turned out.

looks very nice where did u get those seats? what are they out of? those look nice

edit: o and what size/brand cam are you using?

_________________
Cuda Progress
The dart as it sits now

more than anything, that is the question I get asked the most.

the seats are actually pilfered from another vehicle I used to own, that I am ashamed to admit I owned...I had at one time a 71 chebby blazer that had been someones project car. it had captians chairs in the front, and those two buckets were in the "back seat". So, the short of it is, I really don't know where they came from.

before I sold the pig I yanked the buckets out and dyed them blue, and made my own adapters using angle iron and washers. It holds me up just fine, and I am a 230 pound bodybuilder of eight years. If it can hold a moose like me it can hold about anybody.

just for reference though, previously it did have a bench seat to begin with, that I replaced with another set of buckets from a 80's mazda RX-7. they even matched the original brown interior.

mazda seats are skinny enough to fit on either side of the tranny hump without much trouble. you will need to raise them up a bit to make it level with the height you are used to in a mopar, and I just used some washers. you will need to drill new holes in the floor, the old ones from the bench aren't even close, but as I said, do fit quite nicely between the tranny hump and the door.

I had to replace them (the mazda seats) after I re-did the entire interior; new vynil, and the back seat from a scamp.....sort of. since a scamps back seat wheel cut out is in the wrong area, I pulled the vynil and foam off of the cages and put them on the duster cages and stretched it tight, and re-hog tied them on.

....and the cam is from clifford performance.

.498 lift (intake) and .5 lift (exhaust).

the part number is 95-1192.

it is no longer a "keep in stock" off the shelf grind, it needs to be specially asked for.

looks awesome dude!

_________________
70 Plymouth Valiant 4dr

thanks, I appreciate that.

update:

right now the engine is at the machine shop, finishing the bore and hone, decking turned out only to need .065 to get me to 11 to 1 compression (because of my head cc), also getting the rods reconditioned, the block line honed (which I didn't plan on but it turns out it needed to be done), polished crank, and the whole assembly will be balanced.

a fully blueprinted engine!

I will be doing the assembly myself.

So, You currently have a head that is shaved .090 and the block decked at
.065 to get an 11:1 compression ratio?? Awesome...your project is lookin quite well....

Your car looks pretty good Sick6, at first look I thought those seats were from a Spirit, but now I read I need to tell you to not be ashamed.

Currently my front seats are from a 93 Spirit.

_________________
Mopar Muscle is well defend by Slant Six!

Valiant Duster 1971

thanks, glad you like it.

as far as the compression and decking goes, that is what the math said we needed to shave in order to hit 11 to 1, it is not a hard universal number to go by. you need to factor in the combustion chamber size, head gasket, bore and stroke, etc. could be way more or less depending on what you have. It really drove me nuts trying to guess what I would need until I had the machinist put my head up on the bench and see what the actual size was after all the headwork, all I knew were the flow numbers. I had the head done some years ago, and the block is now being done by a totally different shop.
glad you like it too. I am not fimiliar with what a dodge spirit seats look like though, maybe I'll have to look that one up.

just an example of my custom clusters.