Project EH-Body - 1976 Plymouth Duster

[Riddler]

Well on Friday I found some time as my wife and son went shopping. I decided to try and complete the minitubs and get them squared away.

Here I show you what Ihave left. The old seatbelt mount was rotted away and I needed a new seatbelt anchor.


Here I show you how bad my welding it. While I penetrate the metal, I don't have a nice clean weld.


Inside view


Now with the metal replaced I grinded the welds down flat and seam sealed over it all.


Inside view


After all that dried I painted POR15 over everything to protect it. I did the entire trunk, the rear seat area and the inside tubs.





My plan is to put sound deadner on the inside of the car and then use rocker guard inside the tubs to cover the POR15 as it has no UV protection. Don't want the sun breaking it down.

Riddler

[Riddler]

About six weeks back I sent Modo Innovations some pedals. In the box they recieved every pedal that is used for A Bodies. I sent:

Manual 4 speed pedals
Automatic Pedal
Gas Pedal
DBW Hemi Pedal

I'm pleased to annouce with Shannon at Modo Innovations that the covers have been completed for our cars. They should be listed on his website very soon.

Here's the pictures of my pedals that are getting sent back to me.




I'm sure the Dark Series will follow as well.


Riddler

[Riddler]

Well it's been a while, for a few reasons. Saving money to buy parts, renovations on the house (new office) and an active 6 month old baby boy. I've recieved my 8073 Quicktime bellhousing a few weeks back.



The bellhousing did not come with instructions, lucky for my I've located some info about replacing the cheap bolts from quicktime with Grade 8 bolts. I bolted on the bellhousing to the trans.


As you can see only seven bolts are required as this one bolt near the starter opening doesn't line up.


Here's a couple of pictures of the bolts. Silver are cheap grade 5 and the gold are grade 8.



Then since I had the Hurst Billet Pro shifter I bolted that as well.



Well hopefully next time I'll have the mock up 5.7 block and T56 in the car and working on getting the floor finished.

Riddler

[Riddler]

So I had some time today and I really want to get the mock up hemi block and T56 into the car so I can finish the floor. Once the floor is done I can finish painting POR15 and then save to have the body work done.

Pictures were taken with iPhone instead of DSL.

Here's the block on the stand and engine picker getting ready to put into the car.



Here's the hemi block in the car with the mounts figured out. Small one on the passenger side, large on the driver's.


Then I bolted on the block plate to the bellhousing. Not all bolts used for mockup.


Last but not least I mated the Hemi block to the T56 trans. The trans slid on the dowels and the bolts fell into the holes. Was super easy.



I was unable to get the block and trans into the car myself. I'll have to wait until I can get some help. Hopefully I'll have updates quicker soon...

Riddler

[Riddler]

Well I haven't had much time to work on the car with life happening. My welder (brother in law, officially now) went and got married and we had his reception, my wife broke her foot and it's healed and I'm currently getting over a nasty flu with my 9 month old son. So there have been better days....

I may not have been working on the car but I have had my fuel tank designed and is currently being built by Tincup and White Trash (members on http://www.forabodiesonly.org). Here's the design.



The plan is to have the tank drop in through the trunk. The top will remain flat and the pump/fuel level sender will be hidden under a small acess panel. The lines will run out under the car and won't be inside the trunk.

Here's some pics that have been sent my way by the builder.




I've got some more surprised to let out of the bag soon.

Riddler

[Riddler]

First I want to show off my welder. It's setup for flux core right now until I can afford to pony up for a bottle of argon.


Now onto the new parts. I loved the new fender/front rad support covers Ross made and he offered to send me a pair. Thank you Ross. These are going to work out great!



Finally my fuel tank has been finished and shipped to me. Micheal and Eric did an amazing job on this tank. It's perfect! The welds are clean and the extra's I asked for were spot on. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

FYI - shipping folded over the covers slightly, nothing I can't straighten though.



Here's the filler tube with vent.


Here's the access panel.


What's under the access panel?




Well I'm super excited to cut the trunk floor out and get this tank installed. But I know I need to practise welding before I weld in 1" strips of metal to help strengthen the floor.

Riddler

[Riddler]

It's been a while since I've posted but I've been working on the car here and there with small updates and purchases. I've been working on the Peaks Dashes and working on getting it to fit perfect. Takes alot of time.

Today I found time this afternoon to cut the trunk floor out my car and install the fuel tank.

Here's the marking lines.


Here's the trunk floor cut out.


Finally the fuel tank installed in the car. I just have to get some sheet metal screws or nuts and bolts. I'm leaning towards nuts and bolts.


Here's the view through the filler door opening to the tank. Looks like a good fit.



More updates soon, I hope.

Riddler

[Riddler]

Well I had the entire morning to work today. Wife and baby chose to sleep through the 100* weather all morning.

I just finished up the fuel tank mounting. I took better pictures of what I've done as well as painted the POR15 up around the rest of the body work.

Here's the tank with the seal mounted.


Here's the before POR15 pictures.



And now the after pictures of it all painted and proteted.




I then moved on the the Peaks Dash I have. I've been working it and massaging it to fit for weeks on and off. Today I took drastic measures. I cut the glove box door up and made it fit the way it's suppose to.

Just a picture showing the glove box cover not really lining up and you can see what I've done to help that.


I chose to get rid of the half round as it wasn't in the right place and the knob just didn't fit it right. Glad I kept the stock plastic trim peice for the glove box door.


The glove box massaged and ready to install. It took hours to get it to this point.


Here are some fitment pictures of the gauge area.



Last but not least the final pictures. The glove box lines up with a 1/8" gap between the door and main dash and the bend in the dash finally lines up when you see it.



Here's the close up view of the glove box door.


I'm sure I'll have do play with it some more but for now I'm very happy with how it's come out. My future plan is to grind the heads of the screws down and fiberglass over them along with the bottom edge so it looks like one piece.

Riddler

[Riddler]

Well another day, more work completed. I wasn't able to weld much the last few weeks as I needed a welding extension cord. I was going to make my own but a local store had one go on sale for 50% off. So I snatched it up.

So I'll start off with the hydroboost unit I obtained from a local wrecking yard. Not a bad score, looked fairly new, was clean and the vehicle it was on had the steering column removed. I cleaned it up and gave it a coat of gloss black and high temp clear.

Painting the black...


All done with clear...


I then took my time to make a template to take to the laser cutter.



i then moved on the transmission crossmember. So far I've gotten it all mocked up and tack welded. Today I finally was happy enough to weld everything up. The picture shows the final welds I put on the ends and transmission mount. I'll clean those up some and prolly just primer it. It'll prolly be sent out to be powdercoated with the other parts.




Then finally between the coats of paint drying and the welds to cooling down I got to playing with the gas struts from the hood. I didn't like the way they didn't open the hood only kept it open at certain angles. So I used them on the trunk and with two 90lbs struts the trunk goes up and down with ease!





Finally a video my wife helped me take of the trunk lid opening. Just need to find an electric trunk release now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=424hdgJIF5s&feature=plcp

Riddler

[Riddler]

I painted the crossmember and bolted it up tonight. I then started tackling the floor and grew frustrated and walked away.



I was going to make a cross brace over the top of the trans out of 1/2" bar stock and combine 2 of those with some 1/8"x2" steel flat stock. But I think I might go out and try and find some 2"x1/2"x1/8" U channel.



Riddler