My 71 Duster work in progress

IMO 28" is pushing it with a 3.91. I don't even want to imagine a 25.8 tire back there.

My gTx had a 4-speed and 3.91s with a 30 inch tire and that thing would drive you nuts at interstate speeds. I don't have any plans for more than a 50 mile drive for this car so I'll just deal with it.
 
69.5CUDA said:
oh man id KILL for an old machine, i worked at a tire shop fr a few years as well, but i still get a lil satisfaction mounting the ones i can..i wont even try anything smaller than a 50 series tho...50 and up can damn neer be stomped onto a wheel, 70 and up can be thrown at the hweel and just mount LOL
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It's getting them off that's the problem unless you've got some way you can bolt the wheel down, and even then, prying with long screwdrivers and crowbars are prime ingredients in a recipe for injury.
 
b-body-bob said:
IMO 28" is pushing it with a 3.91. I don't even want to imagine a 25.8 tire back there.

My gTx had a 4-speed and 3.91s with a 30 inch tire and that thing would drive you nuts at interstate speeds. I don't have any plans for more than a 50 mile drive for this car so I'll just deal with it.
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Well, in fairness, those are my drag tires. My street tires are 25.1". 🤪

In deference to the tire size, though, the car has 3.23 gears in it at the moment. I have 4.10s for the track, which combined with the tire size and 3.09:1 first gear, should have me on the 1-2 shift around, I dunno, the 60' mark?
 
Dr.Jass said:
Well, in fairness, those are my drag tires. My street tires are 25.1". 🤪

In deference to the tire size, though, the car has 3.23 gears in it at the moment. I have 4.10s for the track, which combined with the tire size and 3.09:1 first gear, should have me on the 1-2 shift around, I dunno, the 60' mark?
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Start pulling as soon as the tires bite.

I'm priming front wheels today, this process is taking forever, mostly because hunching over that blaster puts me down in the back for a day after or longer. I'm thinking about instead of addressing the paint on the rear wheels, just leaving them as is with the old tires for right now and buying a set of reasonable passenger car tires for the fronts. It's the quickest way to get it back on four wheels so I can align it and finish the brakes and parking brake.
 
FWIW the date code on the rear tire is 4004, so they're almost old enough to drink

The rear wheels really could use a good sandblasting so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to get out of that. I've got the front wheels painted - probably too shiny but so what. I used Rustoleum aluminum, it didn't look so shiny judging by the cap color but it is.
 
"Aluminum" paint is a slippery slope. Too often they apparently try for a "polished" look and fail. I've not yet found one with which I'm truly happy. For wheels, I just stick with the overpriced MP wheel paint, but I don't do much with Rallye or any silver so a couple of cans generally lasts about a decade.

I got my air system quasi-fixed this weekend (an auxiliary tank sprang a leak) so I, too, need to get after sandblasting wheels.
 
i had found a nice aluminum paint 2 years ago, and then couldnt find more....docs right they useualy over polish or over metal flake it into some goofy silver, worse is most aluminum paints actualy rub off

what id found was used on a badly prepped rebuilt soobi engine, it matched the OE cast where it was still clean so perfectly that you couldnt tell what you had n hadnt sprayed save for the "ugly" going away on the bad spots.....i think it was just a lucky batch
 
I received the dark wheel centers yesterday and they look pretty good on the silver wheels. Not perfect, but that's for the snobs to worry about, not me.
 
Good enough

The car has 3 different beauty rings on it :D The wheels are the same size as the ones that came off so they should fit OK but I didn't actually put them on the wheel yet.

IMG_2652.JPG

IMG_2653.JPG
 
So fancy! Those'll look sharp on it!

The lower picture is a great execution of the design... the reflection on the trim ring makes the holes look almost perfectly round, which I really think was the designer's original intent since the 1970 rings were polished.
 
I agree, and really like the wheels. If they hadn't come on the car it would've most likely ended up with a set of Cragars on it or some black steelies with dog dish caps.
 
Rock auto has the KYB shocks for the rear now, $32.99 each.

The rear tires are off now, the rims are 15x8. The rim has you paint it you bought it sticker on on it, definitely aftermarket. The place had do the work could only get a BFG in 275R60 and those are $241 mounted and balanced, right about $100 more than the Coopers are at tirerack.com. The Coopers didn't even show up; maybe his inventory ends at the local warehouse.

He also showed me a 70 BS 340 'cuda with a hemi in it. I didn't crawl around it, but maybe could go back near closing time and talk to him more. He had 5 to 7 projects going on, other people's and his.
 
I like rallyes with the 70 or 71 cap, not so much the later ones.

Hooray Rockauto. I will receive one front shock today, two rears and the other front by next weekend. It's usually good to not be in a hurry.

I patched up the panel that bolts inside the fender near the door. It had some holes in it, in an impossible place to cut out and replace, so after blasting all the rust out I welded in a backer then welded the edges of the hole to that. A little grinding, some bondo and good enough. You'd have to get down in the door opening to see it anyway.

Does anyone know how to fix this? It's the top front corner of my rear window. The other side has the same problem. Is it just a matter of replacing the rubber parts? It looks like something is missing.

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I'm just guessing, but I'd say you're dealing with gool ol' shrinkage. I believe that complex shape at the front is designed to intersect with the moulding and seal at the forward edge.
 
Dr.Jass said:
I'm just guessing, but I'd say you're dealing with gool ol' shrinkage. I believe that complex shape at the front is designed to intersect with the moulding and seal at the forward edge.
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There is an air gap all the way around the glass, it's like it shrunk on two axes, length and "height".
 
There's nothing like a stiff shock that has to be compressed in place to make a person feel their age. I couldn't do it. I took the bump stop off, still not enough room. Next stop, pulling the t-bar back out and loosening up the strut rod so the LCA will drop more. I'm not kidding.

OTOH, these shocks should really do their job keeping the tires on the ground and under control.
 
b-body-bob said:
There is an air gap all the way around the glass, it's like it shrunk on two axes, length and "height".
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That makes sense. I'd think it would've shrunk in all three dimensions.

I don't recall having that much difficulty with the KYBs on my car. I think I just compressed them against the floor with the lower half of the bushing already in place, then got that in place and was ready with the shock bolt for when the holes aligned. In the rear, I left the banding in place which on my car meant they were exactly the right length for installation.
 
I tried that but I can't hold it compressed long enough to get it in there. Will try harder :)

I also thought about laying under the car and bench-pressing it up, but it just didn't seem like it should be that difficult so I'm saving that as a last resort. And no, a jack doesn't really fit in there.

It wouldn't be half as hard if the car was on a rack so I could stand up. At my age sitting on a stool or laying on your back trying to muscle something is just another way to pull a muscle somewhere that will hurt a long time. I try to be thankful that my insides are still inside, meaning no hernias.
 
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