Done and treated with RPM

Today I found orange splotches on the front of both leaf springs and yellow daubs on the backing plates.

I got the filler and ECS tubes cleaned up this morning. They look alright but could look better. I may send them out to be redone.

This morning I redid my shackles. I bead blasted them first, then painted gun bluing on the studs and then coated them in RPM. Unfortunately I don't have a before pic that I can post, but the were crusty. Heres a before and blued pic.

Heres the finished hangers,I just need to refinish the nuts. My kit should be here any day..

Last night I was able to paint my exhaust manifolds. I chose this route because it looks cleaner than the half painted/ rusty look. Since my garage isn't heated I made use of the laundry room closet as a drying room. With the door closed and the fan on it really cuts down on the fumes..

Looking good Brent! Keep the pics rolling

Thanks Dave!

I got all the rear brackets finished and coated with RPM today. Time to go watch my kids sing in their Christmas concert!

Im liking that RPM coatings , ill be making some purchases right soon! Duster is looking good too!

Your'e doing a great job Brent, keep it up! BTW, if you bolt on those cast painted manifolds and paint them with the engine you can still achieve a mostly stock appearance and hold off the rust when the orange paint starts to burn off. Trust me, the "right" look is something that will grow on you.

Thanks!

I do plan on painting the overspray on them, its the rusted look I don't care for. If I change my mind I can always bead blast them again.

I just try to do at least one thing on the Duster everyday, be it big or small. Any progress is good progress!


Heres a before picture of a bunch of the parts, notably the hangers and shackles.

Your moving right along. I never knew, or if I did...I forgot that the 71 passenger side 340 exhaust manifold changed to the newer style. I've toyed with the idea of buying an old oven off Craigslist to cure the Eastwood manifold paint when I need to do some. I no longer run fast enough to do it in the one in my wifes kitchen!

Your brackets and suspension parts look AMAZING.

Joe

Thanks JDMopar and jrwoodjoe! Yeah if stuck them in our oven my wife would probably try to oput me in there too! I'm not too worried as they will sit on the shelf for a few months and the motoro should be fired within 6mos for sure... but hopefully 3 months

Yesterday I was only able to get my talight lenses redone. Heres a before pic.

Heres the finished tailights. Unfortunately I grabbed the frog tape for masking, which left a nice adhesive behind after it got heated... Ohh well no big deal. They are nice, not perfect, but a whole cheaper than the NOS ones I've been drooling over. Plus they are the original tail light lenses, which is one of goals on this resto (to use as many of the original parts as possible).

Any good resto should include research. Heres a 2 magazines and a book that I reference A LOT!
That E body fastener book is truly amazing with all the info it contains.

Awesome build!! keep up the great work. !!! The Exhaust manifold to cure paint in the oven is funny. Good satire that only us car guys could understand .. Lol!! It could could put you in the dog house with the wife for sure.

Ain't that the truth! She draws the line at drying parts in the laundry room. Since I put a sink in the garage she's been pretty happy about me not washing parts in the kitchen sink. Good thing she wasn't home when I was washing and rinsing seat belts...

Quote:

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Good thing she wasn't home when I was washing and rinsing seat belts...

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Next time she's out neatly arange them in the dishwasher and let it do it's thing, works GREAT on old dirty seat belts, hang them to dry so they dry nice and flat, use a rag to wrap the webbing where it attaches to the ends and carefully spray the metal parts with WD-40.

I have cured wrinkle finish paint on an air cleaner in a kitchen oven before..