BreakStuff Racing

This Duster was going to be my race car. Had the 451 big block on the engine stand and 8 3/4 Sure-grip in the corner. I didn't want to cut up my Challenger so I went looking for another Mopar. Something light, something pretty clean, something I could just thrash at the drag strip. I found this Duster on Ebay and I bought it. We met the guy at Carisle, Pennsylvania and I let my loving wife take it for a test drive. I didn't realize the test drive would last all the way back to Michigan. By the time we got home I knew my race car was going to be a resto mod for her.

We decided to build this car smart; get the best quality for the best price. All the cars we parted out financed half the cost of building it. We are doing all of the work ourselves, including suspension, bodywork, paint, decals, vinyl top, engine building, & upholstery. In the past when I had a shop do work for me it seemed like I had to pay top dollar & then have to go back through it again. No more of that. Let's get started on the Duster.

Al Bundy would be proud. This is how the car looked when we first laid eyes on it.

That is a fake snakeskin vinyl top. Rear springs had a negative arch. At least it had a fairly solid body. The car originally was from Virginia. We bought it off the original owner. Yeah, I know EVERYONE says that but we really did!

Rusty quarter plus several years ago the passenger side quarter above the wheel well had been hit and had been hammered back into shape, using plenty of body filler, and repainted to hide. Isn't it nice to find nasty surprises when tearing into a car?

The leaning tower of power. Two hundred and twenty-five cubic inches of battleship grade iron.

Interior before. Dash pad destroyed, seats shredded, carpet stained, etc. And it smelled bad. Ugh.

Rear end. Not in bad shape, except for badly pitted taillight bezels and a rusty, pitted bumper. It is the Gold Duster package...which pretty much means it had GOLD DUSTER decals, a half vinyl top, and air conditioning.

She ran like a champ but couldn't pass a rusty rollerskate. Bye bye slant six, you gotta go. We sold her on Ebay for a surprisingly large amount, we thought we wouldn't be able to get $20 for it but it went for more than 10 times that much. More than enough to pay for brand new heavy duty 340 springs!

This was actually the fun part. We just pulled the V8 K-frame from a 1973 Dart parts car and the suspension was rebuilt using new rubber bushings. We also swapped in large bolt pattern disc brakes. There ain't too many things as scary as manual drum brakes on a rainy day. Plus small bolt pattern rims suck!

318 test fit, this is our "donor motor" until we can get the 360 on the engine stand built. This motor came out of a 1974 Dodge Challenger parts car.

We don't need no stinkin 7 1/4 small bolt grenade! This 8 3/4 has a Sure-Grip and is out of a 1973 Road Runner. It was narrowed by Moser Engineering with new large bolt axles. It was cheaper in the long run than buying one that was out of an A-body off Ebay or the classifieds. We also added new heavy duty Duster 340 springs from Springs 'N Things. New brakes, wheel cylinders, and hardware finish it up.

This rear end is looking a little better already.

Underneath, showing narrowed and painted 8 3/4 rear and the new leaf springs.

We've got a better looking stance here, (almost too high but she'll settle some). Now that body needs some work!

This is the donor engine! It will run the Duster til the bugs are worked out of the chassis and the 360 is finished. It's a stock 318 with 8.5 to 1 cast pistons, .444 lift SSI cam, a Holley street dominator intake and a pair of Flowtech headers. The carb is a 650 Edelbrock (picture shows a Holley carb). This engine has a rattle can rebuild and runs quite good. I can't wait to fragg this engine with nitrous!

New floor shift, floor boards painted with rust preventer, and the bench seat replaced with buckets from a '73 Cuda. My buddy had the bucket seats leftover from his Cuda race car so I swapped him for an E-body windshield that we just happened to have. Thank God for those parts cars!

Here is where the bodywork begins. This is the new driver side trunk extension in place. Installation was easy, the hard part was getting over the fact of how sloppy this car was built from the factory. It's amazing what the factory hides with seam sealer.

Trunk extension outside view.

New quarter panel patch in place, driverside. We are trying to keep as much of the original sheetmetal as possible, so are only replacing the damaged parts.I used about 20 Cleco's to hold this patch panel on while welding.

One side done! I flanged the metal and started to weld. Keep the beads short and sweet so you don't build up heat and warp the metal. After you grind the welds down it takes minimal filler for the seams. Believe it or not, there is less filler in this quarter than in the left C pillar roof seam on my Dart, that Ma Mopar slapped in.

Ready for primer. This was the easy side. Looks kinda like a leopard. Even though the lower quarters had some cancer the rest of the body was straight as an arrow. The car had only two parking lot dings.

Being primered in the garage. This is a feather fill primer. Works great with a lot of block sanding.

Driver side in primer. Ready to be wet sanded again.

Rear wing installed.

Passenger side quarter before. It might not look like it, but there is lots of work to do here, so it was saved for last.

After all the dents and dings were removed, I spent a lot of time blocking the car with a long board. This keeps the body straight. Nothing worse than having your car wave back at you.

New scoop courtesy of Ebay.

Here it is! She sure is green. This is the basecoat. Clearcoat will be applied soon.

First coats of clearcoat! There will be more added later after some wet sanding. I used OMNI acrylic base with a urethane clear. It's made by PPG. This paint was a pleasure to spray.

In this picture I had just finished wheeling it out with a buffer and some 3M cutting compound. The hood got treated to a new black paint job, too. Kind of mellows that green a bit.

Looking better and better! The putting back together stage is a lot of fun.

Custom made headliner! Looks pretty good for $10 worth of materials from the local fabric store. This car originally came with a cardboard headliner, and we used 3M spray adhesive to attach the headliner material to the cardboard. We also covered the package tray using black automotive fabric and 3M spray. An easy and inexpensive way to spruce up an interior.

Notice the green grill, which we got off a parts car. We've got the original Argent grill too, which is in better shape, but the green looks pretty good for an experiment. This grill will go back onto the Wall of Shame.

New 340 Wedge decal on hood! Looks kind of like the cover of The Cars album.

Newly applied 1971 Twister stripes. I know it's not year correct but we built it the way we wanted it. These decals were bought online for a good deal saving over $100 off the retail price. They are high quality product made by 3M. They were fun to put on, and make such a difference to the car's appearance. I noticed that the more work we do to this car, the worse those old tires look.

New tail panel stripe. And notice we painted the tail light bezels body color. They were too badly pitted, so we sand blasted, painted, and clear coated them. We'll keep them on until we find some nice replacement chrome ones for a decent price. *Update, we found a pit free bezel for the passenger side on Ebay for cheap, but these green ones are really growing on me. Maybe they'll stay on for good after all.

Close up of the Twister stripe and 340 decal on the back quarter panel. I've seen enough people put these decals on backwards that it really makes me wonder what they were thinking.

The floorpans right before we put in the new carpet. We're so used to seeing rusted out parts cars that this nice clean floor is a shocker to us. Carpet was bought online from a good auto upholstery source, it is a very nice quality and was a good price to boot.

Brand new tires and restored Rallye rims, sprayed with a fresh coat of Argent silver paint and fitted with center caps.

New half vinyl top. We wanted to make one from scratch, but couldn't find correct vinyl top fabric. We settled for a full Legendary top that we cut and installed ourselves.

Driver side view, complete except for exhaust.

Passenger side view. Notice the color change in different light? Sometimes it looks dark green, and sometimes it sears your eyeballs out.

Duster tornado decal on the taillight panel. Gotta love the '70's era.

Here she is right before we had the exhaust installed.

After....a new dual exhaust.

Close up of the 2 1/2" dual exhaust with a pair of Flowmaster 2 chamber mufflers and Flowtech headers. If you ever have to install headers on a Mopar A-body, pop a couple Prozac and keep the kids in the house! They will learn a few new choice words!

This exhaust was only the second thing we did not do ourselves. It was done by a local custom exhaust shop that came recommended by friends. We caused a bit of a stir while unloading the car off the trailer at the shop, open headers and a busy city street corner don't usually go well together.

Here is the passenger side bucket seat that will be installed after we upholster it. The pair of seats originally came out of a '73 Cuda. Note the classic duct tape repair job. The foam was in excellent shape, except for one bun on the driver's seat where someone got bored and picked it out. We had to rebuild it back up but it's all good now.

Bottom cushion pleats being sewn. We used automotive grade cloth for the center sections, and soft black vinyl everywhere else. Luckily our sewing lines stayed straight even after drinking that beer.

Bottom cushion done and hog-ringed into place. We got most of our materials from Michigan Textile and Fabric located in Ann Arbor. A great store and well worth checking out for automotive vinyl, fabric, headliner material, foam, and thread.

Front of the seat back almost done. Our first attempt at making our own bucket seat covers, and they are turning out quite nice. We did make a front bench seat cover for the Dart, and learned at lot by doing that. Like don't put your finger under the sewing machine needle while it is running. It hurts.

Back view. We did a French seam at the top and half French seams at the sides for strength. Make sure to use top quality thread for upholstery work. Cheap thread will break or tear right through any fabric you use. Don't skimp!

Done. The shiny stuff at the top is sweat, because pulling the seat cover tight and hog ringing it in place requires some effort. Next we'll make the driver side, then the full back bench seat.

New MSD ignition system installed. This was purchased from Summit Racing and was a gift from Santa. The best Christmas presents are car parts!

This is a dust cover made from leftover flat sheets we had around the house and just sewed together. I dig the Disney ones.

Rear bench seat cover made and hog-ringed into place.

Here is a shot of the interior with the bucket seats installed and a new steering wheel. Basic and plain, just the way I like it.

Another shot of the interior. Next we're going to take a shot at making our own custom door panels in the same cloth and vinyl as the seats. We'll see how they come out!

Door panel before. Vinyl is torn so there is no painting this piece. We've got another set of panels in case this experiment goes horribly wrong! But hey, it's worth a shot.

During...the old vinyl has been torn off and we've got a cover sewn up and ready to go on.

After....here is our new door panel. We sewed together the same black vinyl and automotive cloth we used on the seats so they match up perfectly.

Front and rear panels complete and installed.

March 2005. Waiting for springtime.

Here is the 360 we are building for the Duster. This picture was taken prior to being sent to the machine shop. I purchased this engine from a friend a couple of years ago for $175. It came complete with a good A727 torqueflite transmission. It came out of a 1978 Chrysler Cordoba that showed 78,000 miles on the clock.

I had the machine work done at R&M Machine Shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan. They do excellent work.

Back from the machine shop. Block was hot tanked, align bored, and punched out .030 over, and honed with deck plates. The crank was polished and we had the factory rods resized.

The factory crank was polished and reinstalled.

Instead of having the factory smogger heads ground out for 2.02 valves, it was cheaper to purchase a set of J heads and pay a little extra to have the bowls opened up. The heads are 68 cc.

The pistons are Speed Pro hypereutectic H116, with factory 360 rods and ARP fasteners.

We got the pistons installed with Molly rings and they sit .029 below the deck. With a .040 crush on the gasket and 68 cc's on the heads, we jave approx. 9.5 to 1 compression.

Heads installed.

First coats of primer and engine paint.

Freshly painted body color. A bit shocking to see a Mopar engine that color, huh?

Edelbrock Air Gap intake.

Color coordinated by the wife.

We started tearing off all the bolt on stuff. A-bodies don't have a very large engine bay. Throw some headers into the mix and it's a lot like removing a bowling ball from a marble bag.

My 318 grenade motor came out without damaging or scratching anything.

Side by side 318 and 360.

With a little help and a lot of cursing we got the 360 in place.

This picture was taken 5 minutes before we first fired it up. I figured if something went wrong, at least I would have one good picture before the rods slung out through the block.

All went well and it didn't explode. I donated the air cleaner from my Challenger for a while. Once I go through my 340 I will be forced to repo it.

Pre-burnout staging. I suppose we can consider the engine broken in, after this.

So my camera was slow and missed the best part of the burnout. But this "in motion" picture is still cool!

Here is the result. If we did this a few hundred times we'd have a fresh new surface on our blacktop driveway. And thank goodness for tolerant neighbors.

We decided to re-do the gauges to match our new white faced tach and also our oil/temp gauges. Here is the before picture.

And after. These gauges are easier to read, too, especially in the dark.

Interior with new white faced gauges installed, a new tach mounted on the floor shift, and some new oil/temp gauges, also a radio, and new speakers in the front kick panels. Don't worry, we didn't butcher our good kick panels, we had a scruffy pair that came out of a parts car and cut holes in those and repainted them black. The nice ones went up in the attic.

The Duster's first show! We drove across the state to Hickory Corners, Michigan for the 2005 Mopars at the Red Barns car show. Too bad we forgot to actually enter the cars for judging. You can tell we are a couple of car show rookies...

Here's the Duster and Dart parked side by side at their first show!

First annual Telegraph Cruise, we took the Dart and Duster. Nice cruise, but after the Dart almost overheated through numerous construction zones we decided to go home! Maybe next year will be better.

At the Onsted Car Show Nationals at Michigan International Speedway, the car was entered for judging for the first time ever....and it won a trophy! Vendor's choice for best car, Dayco company. I didn't expect to win anything, as there were around 1,300 other cars entered. So we were sitting far from the awards stand when we heard the Duster's number announced over the loud speakers. It wasn't until they said our name and "green, 1973 Plymouth Duster" that we realized it was OUR car that had won. We had to run across the showfield to go claim our prize.

And here it is. It's nice when other people recognize the hard work you've done. Thanks Dayco for our first win!

Parked on the infield at Michigan International Speedway.

Woodward Dream Cruise 2005! This picture was taken from inside the Duster.

Duster parked on Woodward Avenue. Right after we took this picture a bum hit us up for spare change. Then we saw a brand new Cadillac on fire. As you can tell, a good time was had by all. Detroit Rocks!

We took the Duster on a road trip, this picture was taken by a certain brother. :-)

We took it to the track for the very first time, Milan Dragway, Sept. 24, 2005. The Duster is a street car. It has 3.23 gears, a full interior, full exhaust, skinny radial street tires, iron heads on a mild 360, etc. With no tuning or tweaking at all, and even a couple of runs with a heavy cooler & chairs in the trunk! Here are the results. Husband & wife traded off running it.

Wife's times:

First run: 15.17 @ 96.53 mph

Second: 15.06 @ 97.15

Third: 15.32 @ 93.75

Fourth: 16.47 @ 94.33 (Slid at the starting line and had to let off!)

Fifth: 14.40 @ 99.09

Sixth: 14.52 @ 99.13

Seventh and final run: 13.94 @ 99.3 mph!!

Husband's times:

First run: 16.59 @ 93.34 (again, slipped on take-off)

Second: 14.41 @ 97.79

So can you build a super streetable and dependable Mopar that can also run in the 13's?? And beat some big block cars to boot? We've proven it can be done. Plus we drove it to the track and back. And did I mention I hit a dead deer on the freeway on the way to the track? Later that day we also drove it to a car show, with burnt rubber still on the quarter panels. Luckily we didn't enter for judging or we might have had points taken off for that. It ran cool and strong through the whole day.

It looks like my side windows are down but they aren't. The rear side window on the passenger side, however, IS popped open slightly, I forgot to close it for the first couple of runs! Hey, it was my first time running on a track, give me a break. And check out how skinny those back tires are. These are REAL street tires, radial, full tread. No wonder our best 60 foot time was only 2.1. Time for some wider rims & ET drag radials on the back.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

This car likes to hot-lap, it seemed to run faster when we ran it again & again down the track. It might not have been the fastest car out there that day, but it certainly wasn't the slowest. It didn't break like many others did & didn't need maintenance or a cool-down period between runs. It just kept going & going without a hiccup.

Here I am running a Newport with a 440. This big car could move, and ran in the low 14's!

Waiting to stage.

That's not mud, that is burnt rubber!!

Shifting at 5,600 rpm seemed to get the best results. Haven't pushed it beyond that yet.

Best timeslip, the Duster is car # 12. This was also my best 60 foot time of the day. I learned to ease up on the launch, let the car hook up and then nail it, shifting consistently.

Well, of course I had to try out the new line lock. And it works great! How many girls can do this with their cars?

New toy! A complete 340 for a very good price, it was too good to pass up.

We had no idea what was inside it when we got it. We did know that it has X heads and is a very early production 340, the build date is June of 1967. It came out of a 4-speed car.

Factory intake manifold.

Forged crank, still had the factory windage tray.

Oil pan, windage tray, and some beer.

Close-up of crank.

forged pistons.

X heads.

Yes it is green, like the 360! How many green 340's have you seen?

Here it goes into its new home.

Now we have a Duster 340. Okay, it's not "numbers matching" but it does match the 340WEDGE decal on the hood.

First fire-up!!!...and all went well. Now we have to wait for all the snow and salt on the roads to wash away, and we'll road test it.

A December ride! Relax...it had rained several times and the salt was washed away. Just a quick couple of runs around the block to test the new 340. So far so good.

We decided to make and install some sub-frame connectors. We started with a 10 foot section of two by two by one-eighth inch tube steel.

We decided that we did not want to cut the frame rail of the car, instead we cut the steel so we could weld that to the frame rail. If desired it could potentially be removed in the future without having harmed the structure of the vehicle.

Test fit to the front frame rail. We put the car on four jackstands and made sure the car sat even by using a level.

Test fit on the rear frame rail. Note: no cutting on the car itself!

This is how the cut looks for the rear rail.

Boxed the ends in to make it one solid closed piece.

Both sides cut and ready to be welded in.

Here it is welded to the rear frame rail.

Finished and painted.

We decided to get a set of Mickey Thompson street ET drag radials for trips to the track. They are mounted on 15X8 rallye rims. Here are what the old tires looked like.

And here are the news ones installed.

They fit!

The old rear tires and the new side by side, big difference!!

big meats.

Some race pics. Click on pictures to enlarge.

Either I was way out in front or way behind in this picture. Let's hope it was the first.

A light burnout is recommended for M/T ET street drag radials. But big burnouts are more fun.

Two green '73 Dusters. Which is ours?

I entered my first bracket race at Milan and did surprisingly well for a rookie. I ran almost right on my dial-in every pass. First round the other guy was way off so I beat him easily. No one was more surprised to see the yellow win light come on in my lane than me! Second round I left first, and the other guy broke out trying to catch me. Round two winner! Third round, I must have had too much caffine as I jumped too early out of the hole and lit the red bulb. It still was fun and I was proud to have made it that far my first time! :-)

I like the angle of this pic, it looks cool with the big back tires.

Duster and Jack Iron's F.A.S.T. Road Runner. I also raced the original Silver Bullet that day, but I didn't even know it until later.

Stock rockers don't always hold up. Two rockers suffered this fate and a pushrod also lost its head. Luckily no damage occured to the engine.

Our town had a car show with a burnout contest. Of course I had to enter. Heck, it was a chance to do a legal burnout. Well, the cops didn't show up so I assume it was legal.

here is where the snowball effect started once again. We decided to replace the MP 146K converter with this one from PTC that stalls at 3,400. We decided to rebuild the 727 trans while it was out, and install a Fairbanks shift kit. Then we decided we might as well pull the engine and do some cleaning in the engine bay.

I decided to repaint the 340 Chrysler Corporate Blue as I was tired of the green. The M/T valve covers were stripped of the black paint and repainted with cast paint.

Our handy dandy tranny stand that I welded together using some metal left over from another project.

Still looks good even after tons of abuse.

Transmissions turn into lots of pieces.

A light dusting of primer after heavy degreasing.

The PTC is on the left, stock converter on the right.

340's look good in a fresh coat of Chrysler blue.

We replaced the stock tranny pan with a deep aluminum one.

The new pan hangs a little lower, so raccoons on the road beware.

It took hours to strip the old black paint off, but it was worth it as I'm liking the plain cast look.

Boy was that a lot of work! Finally it is back together and it all runs great. The shift kit and new converter made a world of difference so it was well worth it!

RACE SEASON 2007 IS OFF TO A GREAT START WITH THE 340 DUSTER!

Semi-finalist at Milan Dragway Saturday, May 5, 2007 No-Box Bracket race. I drove the Duster to the track as usual, Dakota was on the trailer. We get to Milan and set up, Jr. Dragsters are running so we wait a while for the first of three time trials. My husband runs, and blows up the Dakota, we do a quick check, can't find anything, and load it back on the trailer. Now it's my turn.

My first time trial and first pass of the year nets me 13.78 @ 97.1 mph with a 1.96 60 foot time launching at 1,200 rpm. I screwed up the 1-2 shift (I shifted at only 3,000 rpm for some reason) and was surprised to even get that good an ET. I was disappointed in the miles per hour though, last year it was running 101-102 and it lost a good 5 mph. But this point there was really no time for fine tuning and I didn't want to make major changes since I wanted to keep it consistent for the bracket race.

Second time trial I try launching higher at 2,200 rpm and it was too much, I slid at the start and netted a poor 2.02 60 foot. I got an ET of 13.81 @ 97.80 shifting at 5,800 rpm.

Third time trial I launch lower at 1,500, shift at 6,000 and get 13.77 @ 97.23 mph with a 1.96 sixty foot time. I figure I will do the same on each round, the same 1,500 launch, the same 6,000 shift.

Click on pictures to enlarge................

First round of eliminations, I write 13.75 on my window for my dial-in and break out! I get a 13.700 @ 98.3 mph. The temp was dropping as the evening wore on and my car was getting faster. BUT the other guy red lights and I get the win light in my lane!

Second round I dial 13.65 to play it safe. I get a horrible .2639 reaction time but at least it is a green light, as again the other guy red lights and the win light turns on in my lane. I ran 13.72 @ 98.02.

Third round I tighten the dial to 13.68 and manage to do a really bad burnout on my drag radials, not nearly enough to warm my tires which gets me a poor 2.06 sixty foot and an ET of 13.76, but AGAIN the other guy red lights and I get the win light!

Fourth round I keep my dial-in of 13.68 and do a John Force burnout...this did the trick with a 1.9 sixty foot and a nice 13.69 ET, almost dead-on, for the win!

Fifth round, semi-finals, we are down to 6 cars from 70 or so. It is getting dark and almost everyone has gone home, the track is nearly empty. I know I am in the money no matter what at this point. I put a pretty tight dial-in of 13.67....big mistake. I run a 13.63 and broke out by mere hundredths. And the other guy does not red light.

It was a new best ET though so it was the best way to lose! I go up to the tower for my $100 payout and I am jumping up and down like a teenage girl at Britney Spears concert!

This picture was taken by Drag News Magazine in July.

Mopars at Milan Dragway, I entered the Duster in the trophy class

Video Duster 340 vs Hemi Dart ---Round one I found myself lined up against a beautiful original Hemi Dart. He dialed an 11.00 to my 13.63. He redlite giving me an early win light plus ran 11.40 which was four- tenths off his dial-in. I was proud that the Duster ran a 13.63 on a 13.63 dial, just perfect.

I've always wanted to race a new Hemi Charger. This is one of the special edition factory Sublime green ones.

The smallblock Duster prevailed! It ran a 13.6 to the Hemi's 14.56.

We swapped on the Dakota's old Ansons and mounted some drag radials on them. The aluminum slots are very lightweight compared to the Rallyes.

First race day of the year May 2008 King of Street.

Eaton Day at Milan Dragway June 17, 2008. New best time of 13.31 @ 101 mph with a 1.86 sixty foot time.

New best October 17, 2008. Took the Duster to Milan Dragway's Friday night King of Street race. The place was packed so I knew I wouldn't get many runs in. We decided that instead of going for consistency and reaction time, like I usually do, (it is a bracket car after all) that we were just going to go for the best ET possible. The air was cool, We had just put on a brand new set of Firecore 50 spark plug wires and installed new NGK plugs. The result was a new best by far....12.91 @ 103.7 mph with a new best sixty foot of 1.81. It's kinda cool to have a legitimate 12 second street car on all motor.

if you would like to contact me please email dustrag73 (at) yahoo.com