Duster coming together after paint...

[75Dart440]

Very nice work on the Duster!!  Did you coat the floor with something or is that paint.  I am thinking about using Dupli-color bed liner on the floor pan inside on my Dart and painting it body color afterwards.

[Duster440]

Just before we painted the car I laid down a coat of Eastwood Rust Encapsulator on the floor just to seal it up. There was no rust. I had used the same stuff on the inside of the trunk lid between the outer skin and inner bracing to treat the surface rust inside. It's like Rust Bullet or Zero Rust - not POR15. I wasn't too concered about body color inside knowing it would be covered with carpet and upholstery. That would have been extra paint materials and labor too.

[75Dart440]

Sweet! 

I am only going to paint the floor just because it bugs me knowing about it even if it will never bee seen! Of course this depends on the cost of the Citron Yella paint too......if it goes up much higher before I get around to painting the car, I will just trim in the visible stuff and leave the floor black.

Nice work on those quarter panels by the way!  If I remember right, the right side quarter was a real mess wasn't it?

[Duster440]

Yeah, the quarter had been replaced once before and was already rotting out. It was pretty sad. I replaced it, part of the sail panel, and the door jamb on that side.

[The 1]

  Nice!!

[MikeR]

Wow, it's coming along very nicely!

[Duster440]

Thanks Mike. Thought folks might enjoy a couple more pics of the dash completed.

[Bakaruda]

Looks nice.

[CudaSRT8]

That's lookin' REAL SWEET!    That's going to be a real nice car...

[IL.DART340- 4SP]

Yeah I like the dash.When you look inside the car you will think what year Duster is this!The old and the new a very good combo.It looks like something Mopar should be building.Hey they can bring back some of the E-bodies why not some of the A-bodies?

[75Dart440]

That'd be sweet if they started building the Duster again, with the Challenger running gear.

[Joe-Dokes]

I think this has been posted before, but where did you get that dash?

Very nice, like the wheels, very clean.

regards

joe dokes

[68GTconvert]

Man that looks good.

[440 ValiantCharger]

  WOW that looks great, nice work keep the pics coming 

[Duster440]

Some more progress pics. First off is the modified fuel filler tube. Since I did away with the external gas cap and installed a door the angle was different. I had a piece of stainless exhaust tubing bent into shape and joined it to the lower section of the original pipe with a coupler.

I housed the electronics for the door poppers in a plastic junction box I found at Lowes. It's perfect as it has mounting tabs and everything. Cheaper than some electronics project box. Mounting it in the truck for better access and I didn't want all that crap under the dash. It's hard to see in the pic but I also have a hidden radio antenna in the trunk.

Finished the headliner install this weekend. Not the easiest thing in the world but not rocket science either. I used a combination of tips on Resto-Rick's site and something I found in an upholstery book for the install. It's wrinkle free except for the back corners on each side which I think I can reduce or eliminate with a heat gun. They look worse in the picture.

Next up: Finish the wiring in the engine compartment and install a few more things so I can fire this thing up! BTW, I had to send the fuel gauge to Auto Meter for recalibration. It was reading 1/4 full with an empty tank. I have 76 ohms at the dash and Auto Meter says anything more than 50 ohms should read below empty on the gauge.

[bOb shingler]

WOW your trunk looks better than my hotrod.

[Capt Jack]

man I just love those rockymountain dashes.  just wish I could justify the cost. 

that looks fantastic.  and great tip on the plastic junction boxes.  I have an idea or two that those would lend themselves to extremely well.

[x360x64dart]

Man your car looks AWESOME!  Thats your dash on rocky mountian web site, isnt it. Was that dash as much work as it looks like it would be, or do the gauges just plug rite in to the harness, assuming you went painless. Looks like a head ache to me. Unless of course your an electrician.

[Duster440]

Thanks. Wiring the gauges in really wasn't that hard. Did it all on my dining room table. I used a small Painless harness just for the gauges and interfaced that with the original factory harness - which was mostly just a matter of changing the plug and matching less than a dozen wires.

[x360x64dart]

Where did you get most of the parts like plugs etc.?

[Duster440]

The universal gauge harness came with everything needed.

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=PRF%2D30301&N=700+301199+115&autoview=sku

[Small Block]

Very similiar to what i have for rims and tires. Mine are torque thrust and the color of the car is Sherwood green. I built me a new guage cluster with Equeis (spelling)guages. That dash of yours is very nice. I have seen it exposed but How much was the dash?

[moparchop]

You guys are hard core.Just hope my duster turs out somewhat close to what you guys are doing.These a bodies are sweet!!!!

[That One Guy]

that thing looks very nice

[redfastback]

your attention to detail is great.  the dash looks great finsished like that.  did you put any color caps over the bulbs on the gauges?

the wheels really set the orange off.  when do we get to see fenders and grille??

[Duster440]

Thanks guys. The gauges use internal LED illumination. They're very bright (unless you turn them down), crisp, and even. Maybe I can get a pic up soon. They look great.

Fenders and grille won't go on till after engine breakin (hopefully within a week) and the glass is in. Just finishing up engine plumbing.

[Duster440]

Got the engine compartment is mostly finished up today. Just have to install my Pypes exhaust, prime the oil pump, lace up the plug wires, add vital fluids, and fire this thing up. Maybe by next weekend... 

[x360x64dart]

Man it looks like your jammin!, or maybe im just crawlin. Anyways keep up the awsome work.

[Duster440]

Thanks. Well, I have a goal to try to be pretty much done by the first part of May. That's when we have our annual "Apple Blossom Festival" here. There's a "Classy Chassis" parade and car show and so forth. Soon after that is the Mopar Spring Roundup so I didn't want another year go by. Don't know if I'll make it but I'm going to try. And, and I just plain want to enjoy this thing before I die.

[moparchop]

Looks like most of the hard stuff is done.I have parts in the basement,garage,storage shelters,and bedroom closet.My wife is about to throw my car and me out.