70 duster: updating, and a no-dough pro-touring makeover

Does this mean Z06 suspension parts for other projects?

Glad they walked away from the accident, there just is no good way to have an accident anymore.

were hoping is fixable. after all, id really hope its not an 80k parts car.

bbut i couldnt help thinking about pulling all the good bits and suffing them in a 62 impala. mmm.....Z11 style crosed with Z06.....


im truly glad that my dads OK.

Michael

Glad to hear you dad's alright.

I think the valence looks pretty good on the car, I would paint it satin black and call it a day.

I read your last post first and thought you wrecked the duster for a second. That's good no one was seriously hurt. What happened that caused the accident?

he was 100 yards past turn 6 at VIR, going absolutely straight. apparently the stablity control system went nuts, locking up one of the wheels. he did a 360 completely in track, tried to correct, the car went into the wall. thats as near as we can tell from our investicgation with all the corner workers and other drivers.

we should be hearing back from insurance late this week or early next week. ive had customers get their wall incidents at VIR covered by insurance, so we hope that this one will be.

Michael

I would have the BCM read by a GM guy you can trust, off the books, and find out what happened with the TCS.

thats currently in the works. its got to have the telemetry and data stored from the accident. it HAS to be mechanical error the way it happened. i think GM and my family are about to have some words.

Michael

so, been a long time with no real updates.

and this isn't really one either.

since my last update, Ive been busier that a one armed wallpaper hanger. been working almost every night and weekend on customer cars. also got laid out for a little bit when i took a screwdriver to my left eye at my day job. and yes, i was wearing safety glasses. (picture taken a day or two later. caught both my eyelids, cut notches in them both. swelled my eye shut, and got metal shavings in it. it hurt. a lot. )


i did take a promotion at my day job, and have become a director over the mental health facility i work at. its currently temporary, but i find out next week if its permanent.

on my side job, i fix and restore other peoples cars. it helps pay the bills and get luxuries for my family. i also get to keep some of it for playing with my own junk.

Ive done a lot of work this summer so far, but ill fill you in on the interesting stuff, and even show some pictures of some of it.

1968 hemi road runner. fixed wiring gremlins and installed EZ EFI system. (lost some of the finished pictures in a computer crash. blame bill gates)





c5 vette. upgraded the shocks, sway bars, springs, and some bushings. aligned and corner weighted. also installed the corsas.




1960 corvette, rebuilt the carbs and ignition system, fine tuned the whole setup. its coming back for a brake job, wiper repair, and interior touch up.



and most recently, a 1967 GTO 400 4sp convert. re-resto work. the car is an older resto thats been driven a bunch, and neglected a little. i redid the engine bay, fixed some electrical gremlins, cleaned it up, mounted the redlines, dialed in the carb and ignition, adjusted all the linkages, painted the gas tank and exhaust, installed a new dash speaker (major PITA), etc. lots of little things that added up to almost 30 hours of work.
before:




during




after






1989 Chevy long bed. i redid the interior earlier, now i two toned it, added sway bars, and dropped it 3/4
before:


after


and now i can get back to the duster. which is a good thing, as Ive registered for RTTH in September, gotten the time off work, paid for the hotel, and arranged for my dad and a trailer to go with me.

Ive spent a lot of money on the car in last few weeks, but no real time. the last time i drove it, or even looked at it,  was the 4th of July for a parade my little girl was in. just before that, due to the heat, i finally addressed my cooling system problems. i replaced my thermostat housing with a trans dapt unit that i picked up for 15 bucks, thinking that would solve the leak. i honestly figured the Chinese chrome one i put on the car was crap, but i didn't properly diagnose it before spending money. therefore, it leaked worse than ever before. turned out that i had the wrong thermostat in it. instead of spend more money on a new thermostat, i took the cheaper way out. i cut down the diameter of the mounting flange of the thermostat to fit properly in the recess of the new trans dapt housing. took about 10 minutes. hasn't leaked since.
i also used a JAZ surge tank on the radiator (23 bucks). this car has always had a coolant level thats 2 inches below the filler neck ever since i put in the crossflow radiator. never had any major overheating issues, but its always bugged me. since the installation of the surge tank, its staying full, and oddly enough operating temp has lowered 10 degrees.



so, grand total for this update is 2699.64

take a good look at the last picture of the engine bay. cause its all gonna change next weekend. i finally ordered my AC that Ive been wanting for the last 10 years. seems every time i got close, something came up. like wrecks, dead appliances, baby, wedding, etc. this time i finally got it. I'm stupid excited. absolutely stupid excited. ill take pictures and update as soon as the box hits my front porch.

Michael

 

nice uodate! how did you get screwdrivers attacking you though?

i was installing the new yop and fence system on a radial arm saw in the woodshop, using flathead screws. i was working at eye level, and sweating. therefore, i tilted my head back to look out the bottom between my cheek and glasses. i slipped off the screw, and somehow bounced the flathead screwdriver off my cheekbone cought both my eyelids, and jemmed them into the bone above my left eye. permanant notch and loss of eyelashes on the upper, minor scarring on the lower. doc said if i had been a hair closer, i would have lost the eyeball. no retinal detaching, but scratched the eyeball.

scary as hell, man. scary as hell. just a freak accident. still dont know quite how it went from 10 inches in front of my face at eye level, sown and back up.

michael

^ man it's crazy how under appreciated eyes are when it comes to safety. I'm not trying to point the finger saying you should have been wearing glasses, as I probably wouldn't for putting in a screw as well, but damn it's scary when you get close like that. It's one thing you can't get fixed if you mess it up. A buddy of mine was filling his boat up and splashed a bit of gas and caught a drop in his right eye. 2 years later and his eye is still blood shot. Glad to hear you didn't do any major damage.

That's a pretty nice little group of cars you've been working on.

the sad thing is that i WAS wearing safety glasses.

and im living my dream right now. workikng on all sort of neat hardware, helping others at my day job, and being a family man. all i ever hoped for out of life. just wonder how much better it can get???

so, weve got a BUNCH of money to add to the budget. i spent 1397.50 on a perfect fit AC system from classic auto air. opted for the shorty sanden sd7 compressor, and the correct brackets from bouchillon to mate it up to my victor jr intake. bought the perfect fit, even though i wasnt too keen on some of the ways they did things. wouldnt have really saved any money to just buy the various components i need, and not the rest. well, would have saved about 50 bucks. id rather have the extra parts.
 
so it arrived thursday evening late. i did get my premanant promotion this week, and have been putting in a ton of hours learning and figuring out my new job duties. so i didnt even get to look at the boxes until i was loading them into the bed of my truck at 6:30 friday night. took them over to the shop wher i opened them up and took inventory to make sure i had everything i ordered. i did.
 
i forgot my camera, so no pictures of friday night.
 
first impressions were that the kit was VERY well packaged. custom made cardboard spacers, dividers, individually wrapped packages for various parts of the install, etc. i also learned that there had been some running design changes since the directions were made. so they arent the best instructions in the world. leave a good bit to guessing and figuring things out on your own.
 
started the install friday night. kinda. got my radiator drained, pulled my glovebox liner, passengers seat, and heater box assembley. got to looking, and found some things that mandfe me scratch my head in amazement.  like the fact that other than the dynamat and factory cardboard insulation, i had done nothing with the frewall, cowl, and kick panels. this makes no sense to me whatsoever of why i didnt do jute and insulation on these areas. really no idea.
 

 
so i spent the remainder of friday night doin the firewall and cowl from the passengers kick to the clutch/brake pedal box in foil backed jute. add 20 for a roll of that. used some leftover 3m adhesive, so were good with that price. i also shot the chrome foil with some semi-gloss black paint so it wouldnt show through.
 

 
saturday morning, i planned to sleep in. woke up at 7am. dang it.
went down to the shop, and started working on the istall side of things. got my control head modified after some head sctratching and unjamming my pop rivit tool. the directions were not clear in this area, but i figured it out. also cleaned, tightened, lubed, etc all the controls. one tip: attach the wiring to the fan switch before re-install. will make life a LOT easier later.
 
then, went to put the underdash assembly in place. the directions call for you to bolt in in from the engine bay side through a pair of nuts on the box. then you cover those bolts with a plastic cover that is retained with self tapping sheet metal screws. i hated that idea. just looked cheap and tacky to me. also, they tell you to run the heater hose valve cable and compressor clutch wire out through the origonal heater core tube holes. again, looked cheap and tacky.
 
this is the picture from their website:

 
instead, i decided to recreate the factory style a bit more. used the lupplied body plugs in my prigonal heater core trim, and reinstalled that on the firewall. them made a pair of studs coming from the underdash assembly that more or less mimicked the origonal studs through the firewall. put a pair of bolts through the lower two blower motor holes. drilled the plastic plate in 5 places. 4 for the "studs" through the firewall, and one for the heater valve cable. also trimmed the plastic plate to match the origonal blower motor reinforcement plate.
 
came out pretty slick.
when i went to hook up the heater hoses, i realized that they were too short for how i wanted/needed to run them. went up to the parts store, and spent 42 on a pair of gates 5/8 hoses with molded in 90 degree bends. a little cutting here and there, bent the heater hose bracket into a new shape, and viola. i like how their routed now.
 
all ive got left on the interior side is to finish running the compressor wire through the bulkhead, and install my dash vents/hoses/seat. also need to install the new glovebox liner that i modified to fit my shift light controller and ipod jack.
 






 
so, grand total as of today: 4159.14
 
wow, this is getting expensive. ive got just as much in what iove done to the red car in the last year as i did in EVERYTHING on the drivabeater.
but im having a ball.
more next weekend when i work on the inderhood some.
 
Michael

so spent a couple hours piddling and raiding my parts bins today. i love having leftovers from all sorts of stuff In my magic bolt bins. Ive got stuff from Honda's, race cars, corvettes, tractors, industrial equipment, etc. so don't ask me what some of the spacer stock came from, cause i REALLY don't know. ill wind up remaking some of it so it doesn't look cobbled together from my magic bolt bins.


but a long story short: the guy from Tasmania's setup will probably work with power steering. i will have to use 4 groove crank pulley and a 2 groove water pump pulley though, due to my edelbrock heads being a little further protruding than his iron heads.


i used a spare Chinese chrome alternator bracket swapped around a bit, and located it on the drivers side. lined up perfectly with the existing drilled and tapped hole. had to use a couple of longer bolts, though, as the ARP's just didn't have enough thread engagement. also made a temporary spacer behind the bracket on the upper bolt, as the power steering pump bracket spaced it out too much from the water pump to fudge.

this led to some interesting belt routing necessities, as the alternator pulley was now in line with the power steering pump pulley. my solution is to solid mount the alternator above the power steering pump, and adjust belt tension with an idler pulley which also helps route the belt away from the water pump pulley where it would otherwise rub. the idler is actually an AC idler assembly from a d-series Honda motor from a CRX i built three times.

on the AC pump side, the compressor fit well once i removed the radiator fans as the motor on the one was contacting the compressor clutch. i also had to remove my previously fabbed fuel pressure regulator (that was leaking from the mechanical fuel pump block off plate) so i could tuck it in some more. i believe that with the AC style pulleys, i will have a good belt routing for this one as well.


anyway, on to the pics of what Ive done today and Friday. first, the condenser from the classic kit that did not fit per the directions. wound up removing radiator entirely, and assembling the bracketry in place on the core support. they were nowhere near correct in the directions.




also got my 2/3 of my vents mounted in the interior. and my glove box liner installed. their glove box liner is an absolute piece of crap. it doesn't even come CLOSE to fitting the opening. i have it stuffed in there for lack of a better option at this point in time. in the process of reassembly, i broke my latch striker for by glove box. tried to bend it to get it to line up better, and snapped it in half. have to find another one soon, so i can close my glove box and hide the liner.




and now the interesting stuff, the AC compressor/brackets. mind you, its nowhere near finished, but more of a proof of concept thing. let me know if you see potential issues.
















more later when i have some more time. need to build a wiring harness for a mobile soda blaster in the next couple of weeks, then thrash on this car to get ready for RTTH.

damn... my magic bolts box died 2 weekends ago when it was being tossed around the back of my truck on the dunes.... i need a replacement container

i use a couple of 5 gallon buckets. i prefer old white paimt buckets.

weekly update time.



short version:

the AC is almost finished. all i have to do is wire it, and get a cooling fan in it.

budget: add 13 for brackets, 38.17 for two pulleys and tow electric fans, 169 for an intake, 27 for paint, and 97.56 for a fuel pump block off plate, intake gaskets, and AN fittings, and 9.88 for a belt.

total: 4513.75



long version:

my wife and i were talking about what to do with the ac compressor situation. i shared with her my plans to go with a fabricated setup. i also shared my eventual plans for an intake swap, but that i really wasn't ready to spend the 279 for an eddy RPM air gap.

she wanted me to have a backup plan in case my fabbed setup didn't work out. so while looking on ebay, i stumbled across the pro-comp Chinese knockoff of the RPM air gap. really started debating it, and my wife said shed buy it for me if i agreed to take off the nitrous kit and give it back.

so i bought it, with a little bit of nervousness. these have had bot ends of the spectrum on reviews. from great, to serious porosity and core shift.



mine is actually better from a casting perspective than my victor Jr was. much cleaner and more consistent ports.

i was also surprised by the hardware they sent. instead of cheap freeze plug style things for the magnum pattern like i had heard about, i got stubby wheel stud looking plugs. knurled, with a nice domed top.



heres pics, with port pictures matched to fel-pro 1213 gaskets.

the manifold will get a little porting and cleanup before install, as well as a coat of blue paint. has to match.....















the 27 was for a quart of POR15 Chrysler blue. and i WILL have it shaken at the paint store before use this time.



i also finished my accessory drive build. surprisingly, it all went according to plan, and a little better than i had hoped.

the most exotic things used in this accessory system, are, in order of oddity:

1. AC idler pulley and adjuster from a Honda D16Z6

2. heim joints and tube



other than that, it was all standard stuff.

for alternator support, i used a parts store Mr. Gasket alternator arm. by the way, the Taiwan chrome on those is CRAP. comes right off with a coarse scuffing pad on a zizz wheel







for all the spacers, i used some 1/2 ID steel tube that my dad had under the workbench. also used a little aluminum 3.8 fuel line for a couple of the spacers.

the major thing i had to find was AC/smog/PS pulleys. 4 groove crank, 2 groove water pump. got those for 8 each at pull-a-part this morning from an 85 new yorker that never went a mile without dripping oil. and the odo read 256,xxx. nasty, nasty car.



anyway, you can get the power steering dipstick out to check the fluid, too.

















and then i got the lines in. i did change the location of where the rubber hose comes through the core support. classic air has it coming at the top of the core support, and it looked ugly. so i passed it through the same hole that the metal like comes through, and built a little aluminum plate to keep the two lines in place.

did not have to adjust any hose lengths. this is how they were delivered, just the routing has been changed considerably.















still have to find a cooling fan that fits. bought a set from a 2.7 dodge intrepid, but they are about .5 too deep and contact my water pump pulley.

the k-car fans i had on there, the motors contact my new accessory locations

i do still have this HUGE ford s-blade fan that i found one time. no lie, this thing is about 18 in in diameter. it was sitting on the hood of a crown vic at pull-a-part, and i bought it just because i had never seen an electric fan that size. heres to hoping it clears.

also have to do some wiring

fill the cooling system

finish my fuel pump regulator replumb and relocate

vacuum and charge the AC

add drivers side AC duct



hopefully ill get most of that knocked out tomorrow, so i can have it charged and cleaned up Wednesday on my day off. next weekend were supposed to meet up with our old group of friends from college, and id like to take the duster.



Michael

so all has not been well in the world.
i blame murphy. and his law. pictures of the completed and assembled setup, pre AC charging







so, i go to get the AC charged. runs great the whole 30 miles to the shop that i have do my AC work. get it charged up, fire up the compresor, horrendus racket emionating from the compressor. aww crap.

so we figure out that its belt slippage. no biggie. just turn the AC off, drive it down to the junkyarfd to get my glovebox latch, go home, and get a wider and shorter belt. i paid my 75.04 and split.
never made it to the junkyard.

apparentyly i hooked the constant hot side of the circut to my electric fans. therefor, when my electric fans kicked on, it backfed the circuit, turning on the AC compressor and such. burned up the belt, throwing parts of it around the engine bay.
this is the same belt that also turns my water pump. remember that. its important.

so i have minimal tools other than a phillips screwdriver and a pair of pliers for getting my glovebox latch. nothing to swap a belt, no parts store within walking distance. so i call geico for my free towing, and have it flatbedded the 3 miles back to the house.

 honestly thought the compressor had locked up at that point. so i called classic auto air rather pissed. i will give lots of credit to the man out there ive been dealing withm greg. very great customer service, and very thick skin,. also willing to help any way he could. id recommend him to anyone.

after the motor cools off, i figure out what actually happened. call greg back, give him an apology, and go down to the parts tsore for a shorter and wider belt.
go out for a test drive, and wind up doing 100 miles. no problems, and ice cold air. life is good. very, very good. im stoked, and rather happy.

i decided since i have AC now, and since its getting close to RTTH, ill daily the car this past week to give it a real good shakedown so i know its solid for the event. dont want to take a car the whole way to pigeon forge, break it right out of the gate, and spend the weekend trying to keepp it together and salvage the weekend. thats just not my idea of fun.
so monday, i only made it 15 miles. then the new belt was thrown. oly noticed it when my AC stopped blowing, and my water temp got to 230. at least i caught it before i cooked something.
belt stayed in the car. still no tools, but im only a couple hunred yards from a shop thats run by some guys in my sunday school class, endy imports.
borrow some wrenches, put the belt back on, fire it up, go up the way to make the u-turn to get to their parking lot, and thrw the fricking belt again. now im pissed. really, really pissed. put it back together AGAIN 200 yards later (from first throw to stop after second throw), so i can go home. i tighten the ever living snot out of the belt, and pray it gets me the 8 miles home. it does, no problem. go to get in my camry that i just replaced an alternatopr in and charged the battery fully so i can get my daughter picked up. im an hour late already.

the camry wouldnt start. battery wasnt holding a charge.

i was beyond livid at this point.

get my wifes car. it needed gas.

finally got my daughter picked up 2 hours late.

when i got downstairs, i took a look at the belt problem. did a nut and bolt check, and came to the conclusion the the pullies were not lined up properly. shimmed the compressor out 1/8 inch to get everything square, and ran it around a little bit. no problems.

so the next day it makes in 19 miles to red cross before destroying the belt entirely. and spattering belt goo and shards all over my engine compartment.
my dad picked me up, took me up to o'reillies to buy another 19 dollar belt. put it back together on the side of the road. 2 hours late to pick up my daughter again. decide toleave the car there and take the CRX home.
dad and i check all the alignments again, and find that the nose of the compressor is pointed down. so i buy a 3 dollar bolt to make a sturdier mount, put it back together, and try it. doesnt even make it the 10 miles to oakboro friday for the cruise in before the belt turned itself inside out. WTF???
so i spend the time at the cruise night fixing my belt. got it back together, and prayed that it would get me home. it didnt.
only this time, it was the belt that drives my power steering and alternator.

ive gotta say, wide 17's, agressive alignmnt, powerless steering, and a small diameter steering wheel dont mix well when all put together unexpectedly. when the belt let go, it ripped the steering wheel right out of my hands in the middle of a turn. that was a seriou oh shit mmoment. i managed to save it from the ditch. it wasnt poretty, but i saved it. did tap a mailbox with my outside poassengers mirror. only chipped the chrome. i got damned lucky.
i drove it home the rest of the 15 miles with no charging system and no power steering. at night. in the country.
when i got to town where there were streetlights, i turned off my lights to conserve electricity to get me home.
got escorted by a cop for the last two blocks. when i explained in my driveway, he was cool with it. probably figured something, which is why he didnt light me up in the neighborhood.

and oh yeah, the water pump/AC belt turned itself inside out and ate itself to shreds too. dammit.
so, heres pictures of where i sit now.






so what the hell is goiung on here?
i really need to figure this out, or cancel ouyt of the event. next weekend is my go/no go date. any later than that, i cant confirm dependability, button up all the little details, and detail the car.

theres gotta be a reason that the belts keep going like this. i think the power steering/alt belt died due to old age. i have no idea about the AC/WP belt other than maybe the compressor is moving around or something.

gove me some ideas, things to check, something. I NEED HELP!!!!!

Michael

I'm betting that front AC mount is tweaking slightly causing the belt to walk up the side of groove in the pulley. Can you get a second belt on there, if just the water pump and AC compressor together?

my friend's 2nd gen firebird throws belts every 15 min or so, and rips them to shreds every time.
we know its a misalignment issue but after days of trial and error we gave up.
carry several belts with him at all times, and i donated my whole 4.3 serpentine setup to hopefully get it working