My 71 Duster work in progress

[b-body-bob]

We bought a 71 Duster out of an estate about a year ago. The story is the fellow used to work on it in his driveway, until one day he was sitting out there taking a break and decided to shoot himself. Bummer.

We brought the car home cheap, and so far I've put a new bottom in the trunk floor and put a new fuel tank in it. I'm currently in process of replacing the rear end. It came with a Ford 9" out of a Lincoln Versaiiles, so it came with the disc brakes that everybody knows don't work. No big deal, just switch to drums, right? Except that the housing ends are rotated so the bleeder screw isn't at the high point any more. So just weld the backing plate mounting holes up and redrill, right? Then I find out the axle offset on the rear is non standard and nobody's got time to search down an obsolete part and hope it will work when you get it.

So we bought an A_body width 8-3/4 and are waiting on that and leaf spring bushings/shackles to come in. The Versailles rear is the same overall and perch width as the A-body so the wheels/tires will stay right where they are. They fill up the wheel well pretty nicely. It's a shame though, the 9" has a 4.11 Track-Loc in it.

 

[b-body-bob]

I didn't spend a lot of time taking photos of the trunk repair. I spent days shining a light to find pin holes, and didn't worry a lot about making it pretty because, to be honest, that really doesn't matter that much.

I bet I was up and down under that car 200 times.

 

[b-body-bob]

A funny not funny story ... the car had no bumpers so I ordered some new AMD bumpers. I found the best price - $50 less than MSRP for some reason and ordered two. When they arrived about a month after I ordered them, I found this on the rear bumper.



It took another month to get the replacement. Now I have a matching pair.



After another month, I finally got a good one.

If anyone wants one of those damaged ones, PM me. I need to get some money back out of them. Other than that cut, they're perfect and new.

 

[Dr.Jass]

It came with a Ford 9" out of a Lincoln Versaiiles, so it came with the disc brakes that everybody knows don't work.

Damned-near spat my lunch out on that one.

Your bumper sounds like my decklid for the Challenger. Fourth time was the charm, the part being hand-delivered by my friend that works at AMD on a visit home. I briefly considered taking you up on the bumper offer, but Agnes is a bag of shyte. It would detract from her, uh, mystique.

Shockingly, at least to anyone familiar with A-bodies, the spare well was the most-solid part of my trunk... like freakin' new in there (and only there).

Keep after it... looks like a good car.

 

[b-body-bob]

Your bumper sounds like my decklid for the Challenger. Fourth time was the charm, the part being hand-delivered by my friend that works at AMD on a visit home. I briefly considered taking you up on the bumper offer, but Agnes is a bag of shyte. It would detract from her, uh, mystique.

I ordered an outer wheelwell that didn't look quite right, then I looked at the inside and it had ripped when stamped and someone had migged it and ground the outside smooth. That one came from Jeg's and they had a replacement here the next day - no waiting for AMD like I had to this time.

This was the worst place I've ever bought from. The only tracking number I received was for the last bumper. I ordered a pile of stuff but they would just send out whatever they could find and it would randomly show up.

Maybe that's the way the biz is now, I don't know.

 

[Dr.Jass]

It's not the way the business is run, and I'm surprised your experience with AMD was that bad. The owner of AMD is a Year One alumni from waaaaaay back, one of the original Goodmark founders, and one of the people responsible for YO's nearly-infallible customer service (their sole bright spot these days).

That being said, having a bit of an inside track on the place, they've had some tough times in the warehouse over the past year or two. One of my best friends works in product development for AMD and has been called in to work the warehouse more than once. Good help is apparently hard to find, and I know the facility is borderline size-wise... regardless, he's pretty tight with the owner. I'm going to ask him about it on our regularly-scheduled Thursday phone call. The boss man might not be aware that things get that far out of hand.

For my Challenger bumpers, I ordered supposed reconditioned originals (Goodmark) from a website called getallparts (dot com). According to the Goodmark numbers, they were the "lesser-quality" versions, but I'll be damned if I've ever seen nicer chrome. I looked very closely for a reason to yelp, and was just blown away by how incredibly good they are. If that wasn't enough, getallparts was signifcantly less expensive than even RockAuto -5% on the same items, coming in under $300 shipped for both bumpers (total expenditure). They don't have a huge selection, but what they have is quite often far less than anyone else.

 

[Dr.Jass]

It also bears mentioning that, much like any other shipping/receiving department, AMD does not open and inspect every part that passes into or out of the building. Neither did any other place I've ever worked... nothing would ever get done with that level of micromanagement.

I got my decklid hand-selected and delivered because one of their employees also happened to be Best Man at my wedding.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

That’s a nice a-body, b-body.

 

[b-body-bob]

It's not the way the business is run, and I'm surprised your experience with AMD was that bad. The owner of AMD is a Year One alumni from waaaaaay back, one of the original Goodmark founders, and one of the people responsible for YO's nearly-infallible customer service (their sole bright spot these days).

That being said, having a bit of an inside track on the place, they've had some tough times in the warehouse over the past year or two. One of my best friends works in product development for AMD and has been called in to work the warehouse more than once. Good help is apparently hard to find, and I know the facility is borderline size-wise... regardless, he's pretty tight with the owner. I'm going to ask him about it on our regularly-scheduled Thursday phone call. The boss man might not be aware that things get that far out of hand.

For my Challenger bumpers, I ordered supposed reconditioned originals (Goodmark) from a website called getallparts (dot com). According to the Goodmark numbers, they were the "lesser-quality" versions, but I'll be damned if I've ever seen nicer chrome. I looked very closely for a reason to yelp, and was just blown away by how incredibly good they are. If that wasn't enough, getallparts was signifcantly less expensive than even RockAuto -5% on the same items, coming in under $300 shipped for both bumpers (total expenditure). They don't have a huge selection, but what they have is quite often far less than anyone else.

I wouldn't bother bringing it up because they're just going to lay the blame at the vendor's feet. AMD has a monopoly on the parts and that's never good.

I tried calling them direct when the second bumper arrived with an AMD invoice. No dice. The kid just kept saying no, no, no. Then he told me the dealer wasn't buying from them by the name I bought them from - actually there were 3 different vendor names by the time I got to the bottom of it. It was a bad experience all around.

There was at least one other person who got one of the defective bumpers and reported it on for a bodies only. It just seems like once you see a pattern, proactive steps would be taken at the warehouse, but no.

I gave 300 each for the two bumpers. Now I've got 3 rears, and if I can sell the two defective ones for $100 each it might have been worth it.

 

[b-body-bob]

OK, this is madness

I had to re-bush the rear springs, so I searched the part number down for a 71 318 Duster, which is what the car was originally. Found an AC-Delco part number at rockauto for $11 each, while Mancini wanted double that. I also noticed that Mancini listed them explicitly by the size, so I searched more and found that there is a 6 cylinder and an 8 cylinder size that might explain why they listed two different sizes.

So I ordered them from rockauto.

When they arrived, I found out the part number is for what I guess is a b-body sized bushing. Maybe I'll use them eventually. So I ordered the smaller size from Mancini.

Several days later they show up, and this time they fit the spring, but they use a bigger bolt than what came on the car. I've got the bolts that came with the AC parts, and those fit the bushing but they sure won't fit through the mounting bracket. I guess now I get to figure out what size bracket I need and order it, or try to clamp the ones I've got in my cheap tiny drill press and enlarge the hole.

Again, madness. I don't remember it being this difficult in the past.

I don't even want to think about the shackles that I ordered from Mancini that are lost somewhere in the USPS system. They went from being here in WV, to being back in MI, to being "In Transit, arriving late". In other words, they're lost and I'll probably never see them.

 

[b-body-bob]

Holy crap, those hangers are expensive. $76 each, studs included but not nuts. $125 for both sides, all hardware, and reinforcement plates.

I found a 5/8 step bit and I think it's clamped down to the drill press good enough. I'll have to unclamp and flip it over to get both sides.

Still afraid I'll end up drilling it crooked. :-/

 

[Dr.Jass]

After a little research, the bushings you need are not evident to anyone. The OE number, assuming you have OE springs, is 2539127 (1½" OD, ½" bolt). I could not cross it anywhere I tried. However, it would seem that Dayton Parts part number RB109 is the right bushing for your car. It does not include bolts; "dealer" price in our system is about $16 with a $25 list. If you've got a spring or HD truck parts store in your area, they should be able to source them pretty easily--Dayton is a staple of the HD world. Some fruitcake is selling them on eBay for $48 each (!). I could sell you a pair of 'em for that, shipped, if'n my warehouse had any. They don't show 'em but it's possible they're hiding in the Bay City or Saginaw store.

Unless of course you've already pressed in the bushings and drlled the brackets. If that's the case, I was never here... nothing to see, move along... this post never happened.

 

[b-body-bob]

I have not drilled or pressed yet but I'm likely to do it this weekend. FWIW I paid rockauto $12 each for the b-body bushings with bolts, but paid Mancini $42 for 2 a-body bushings, without the bolts.

If the b-body bushings hadn't come with bolts, I would've had to pony up for those too, $11 more bucks at Mancini.

I'm still waiting on the rear end and the shackles too. FML.

I guess if I ever do another one I'll just suck it up and buy the poly junk.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Is there something wildly spectacular about the front bolts? I just used off-the-shelf grade 8 stuff on Agnes. They didn't wobble around in the bushing sleeves or spring hangers a'tall. They fit exactly like I thought they should, but then again those were US Car Tool spring-relocation brackets and Super Stock leaves. It never even occurred to me there was some specific hanger bolt oot yonder in the world, to be honest. I just gave 'em a coat of Nevr-Seez and let 'er rip.

When I was a kid I loved the polyurethane stuff... such a level of road feel! These days, not so much. I've found that my ability to sling a car through curves is no better when I can feel every pebble in the road surface, but that "feel" gets annoying on longer drives. The car doesn't handle any better with it in control arms, and one should never use it on strut rods unless they enjoy changing LCA bushings yearly. The only place I use poly now is swaybar bushings/end links, where it does seem to make a difference--without affecting the ride much. The Valiant has solid aluminum rear spring bushings (poly schmoly), but it doesn't have shackles either. Compliance or deflection is a liability with roller-bearing spring sliders.

 

[b-body-bob]

Nothing special about the bolts, other than they came with the wrong bushings I bought and so I didn't have to make a trip to buy grade 8 parts. I don't know if the hardware stores even carry a 5/8 NF 3" bolt though, so I'd probably have to order them from Fastenal or similar.

I learned to dislike poly bushings when I bought a gTx that had been rebushed with poly and it squeaked so much I just tore it all apart and replaced it with OEM type parts. I also question the poly LCA bushings that you can just push in, but I guess the whole system holds them in place.

FWIW, I pressed the bushings and successfully drilled the brackets yesterday. It was a bit of a hassle with my tiny drill press because it took two different (short, long) bits to make it happen, but its done nonetheless.

I had to press the bushings in a 2-step process. I was unable to get the whole thing stacked when using the borrowed ball-joint service kit, so I used the spacers/adapters to press the bushings completely through one side with my HF press, then finished it all up with the BJ kit. I even managed to not crush my foot when the press released and I didn't have a good hold on the spring. Man that would've hurt.

The rear end is ready and will supposedly ship tomorrow. Now if the USPS could just find my shackles and get them to me, I could move on to figuring out how long the driveshaft needs to be.

 

[Dr.Jass]

When I tried to order the driveshaft for the Valiant using the catalog measurement, I got nothing but a hard time from literally everyone involved including Stretch. I couldn't figure out why, since the spring segment length hadn't changed, the spring hanger location had moved only laterally (3" inboard on each side), and the dimension in the catalog was for a Valiant with an A833 and an 8¾" axle. "Don't do it. You need to measure the length with the weight on the suspension, including having the engine installed." Literally everyone said the same thing. Machine Service, who was building the shaft, would not let me order it without a measured dimension. So I waited and waited and waited until we finally got everything installed and the car on its wheels. That took more than a year. We measured the driveshaft length with the yoke extended the recommended distance past the boot. Our measurement was 48.625". The catalog dimension was 48.60". Well, golly gee-whitakers, thank God I waited! That difference could've literally been parallax error whilst reading the tape measure, or our less-than-scientific yoke insertion.

If my two cents is worth anything, spend a bit extra and overbuild the driveshaft. You never know where this project might take you in a few years, and the driveshaft is not a good place for a mechanical limitation. I told MSI that I wanted Spicer non-greasable 7290-sized joints and a 30-spline A833 yoke. Then I told them the measured dimension (mentioning it being .025" from the catalog dimension they wouldn't use ), and engine/trans combination along with intended use: 4,000RPM launches on sticky drag radials. He suggested a driveshaft built for a 3,600lb car with 600HP and a manual on drag slicks--and added "I agree on the U-joints. Good call!" I went with steel tubing due to budgetary concerns, and it was still around five bills. It's 4" diameter and weighs slightly more than the entire rest of the car, but I'm fully convinced I'm not going to hurt it. Ever.

 

[b-body-bob]

I came *this* close to buying a Dana for it, but cost got out of hand real quick that way.

Unless one of the two that came with it just happen to fit, I've got a road runner driveshaft that I will probably have cut down.

I had a /6 driveshaft cut down to fit a 340 duster, went by the factory dims, and had no problems but I never took time to mess around with it to be sure it was perfect.

 

[Dr.Jass]

I'll likely have a factory shaft shortened to go with the Valiant if/when I sell it. It won't have any of the main driveline that's in it now (engine/trans/center section), so leaving such an expensive trinket in place seems a bit daft.

'Course, then I'd have to build another 4-speed 108"WB A-body...

 

[b-body-bob]

I had to email the vendor twice on the shackles. The first time I "coincidentally" got an email the same day from USPS telling me nothing except they were arriving late. I emailed again yesterday and again got an email from USPS in return telling me they were in Detroit and being routed to the destination. I don't know how the USPS seems to be responding to my emails sent to the vendor, but I also don't know how the shipper side of a lost package works.

Either way, I'll believe it when I have them in my hands. I'm off work for a couple of weeks starting 5PM Friday so I'm hoping to be able to get back on track with this thing while I'm off.

 

[Dr.Jass]

The USPS' space-time discontinuum centered around the greater Detroit area is something upon which to marvel. I've had stuff disappear in there, occasional updates showing location flips between the Dirty D and Livonia, for 6-7 business days. "Priority" means "This one must be extra confusing" to those folks. 98% of the time, the packages emerge in good shape, though.