Sneak peek at the finished look..

Yup that looks like the driver side head pipe and the recess/indent is to clear the tortion bar (do I win anything?)

The car looks great Brent.... and I did a double take

Even your garage floor is expoxied tan?

SWEET! Can't wait to trade cars with you for a quick rip next summer in Vegas

You are WAAAAY ahead of me, today I did the rust removal on the front suspension and various other parts (Leaf Springs, LCAs, UA-arms, drive shaft, etc.) with Evaporust, remember those days?

Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement! I took a new job that requires more of my time, so Duster work has been pushed back.

I got the gauges done this morning. The BEA panels fit and look great. Heres what I can relate about mine. You will have to drill out the hole for the tripmeter shaft, which isn't exactly centered. You will need to come up with some type of Green/Blue plastic lenses if you didn't buythe lense kit from BEA, as the red Brake & High Beam lense come out easliy. I scrounged around the garage and found a blue lid to cut a couple of circles out of. Then went over it with a green sharpie to get the same greenish blue hue. I used a hot glue gun to keep those and the upper bezel retainers in place. I had to melt the lower bezel posts, the same as the factory did it. I used Meguiars clear lens polish and cleaner to bring back the new appearance to my gauge lenses...saving $200. Whenit comes to the glove box bezel I'd highly encourage drilling out the holes to a larger size closer to the screw. Somebody over on FABO broke their post off the bezel trying to screw it on their glovebox, so I learned from their mistake. It fit and looks great. The only gripe I have about them, and its minor/anal is that some holes aren't 100% centered compared to factory, but its beautiful, its staying and I'm grateful to have this important part reproduced.

I picked up my new yellow top battery from Summit yesterday.

Bob, thats creepy!! Yes, tan epoxy coating on floor done by yours truly. You don't have any Robby Gordon posters in there by chance do you? Thanks for the encouragement.

Scott, I'm down to just buying a quart of Evaporust instead of gallons! I have faith you'll get yours done I'll be at MATS for sure. I plan to run the autocross with the E70's That way I can get a baseline of how it handles stock, then see the difference once I upgrade the suspension. Maybe I can pursuade Hotchkiss to showcase a before and after with my car in exchange for some free parts!

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Scott, I'm down to just buying a quart of Evaporust instead of gallons! I have faith you'll get yours done I'll be at MATS for sure. I plan to run the autocross with the E70's That way I can get a baseline of how it handles stock, then see the difference once I upgrade the suspension. Maybe I can pursuade Hotchkiss to showcase a before and after with my car in exchange for some free parts!

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Yes, I had to buy 6 gallons of Evaporust (OUCH!$) but it's all looking good. I find that after an overnight soaking 90% of the rust is gone, but a layer of black oily slime keeps it from getting more so I wipe the parts clean with thinner and then they go back in for another overnight clean up soak which gets the rest.

Your Hotchkis idea is a good one, thought of doing that myself actually. First I'm going all stock (every detail of the car to as close to the fender tag and OE correct as possible considering that I started with a "parts car"), then bagging all the OEM stuff and swapping on all the Hotchkis stuff and some big brakes and better wheels/rubber as I plan to drive the car a lot. I don't mind add ons that can easily be swapped back in a days work, as long as no welding or mods are needed.

That's my plan, unless I deceide to sell it and move away from the stock OE resto.

My decklid is finally painted and will be on the car this week!!!

Brent, ya just can't sell that car... ever! When you get bored, go the FAST route. A good 71 340 4psd Duster is a hard car to find. You don't know it but I should have had a FC7 340 4spd, V21/V24 houndstooth car.

It wasn't the one in Utah was it?

We'll see. Driving it may change my mind..

No Sir, it was actually black stripe car.

Wow Bob thats a nice one. FC7 on certain cars looks awesome. I got the gauges mounted and some little stuff done. Im working on cleaning up the wiring.... Just when I thought I was done with dirty parts. My friend called to tell me he dropped the decklid when loading it and was beside himself for it. He hates that decklid and it hates him apparently. Ohh well sh1t happens so that will be another week. We had a standing joke between us about the grille fighting me and the decklid fighting him, and that I understood how he felt...kinda like a crack in the finished grille. I feel like crap today and think I'm getting sick...

It's Duster fever!

Finally feeling better. Especially once I got home from work yesterday to find my tires waiting for me!! Thanks to fellow 71 Duster lover/restorer & member; fc7freak (David) for selling me these. Since they were the original E70 size I had to go that route. Hope to get the wiring cleaned and installed on the dash today. Although I really need to get busy and repaint my ralley wheels so I can get the tires mounted ASAFP!

Duster fever.. Might have been bird flu or something that came inside my recently acquired Chinese parts.. Ever seen the Simpsons episode where the sick Chinese worker coughs in the box before taping it shut?

Glad your feeling better Brent! In case you & others didn't know it David was once one of the caretakers of my car....and yes, I saw that episode

Dash is pretty much finished. I'm just waiting for my 2 3 1/2" speakers to arrive and get them mounted. Then its time to install the dash into the car.

I also got the battery charged and in place. I also got the hose clamps installed on the radiator hoses.

Engine compartment. It should be on its wheels again shortly. Then I can get some better pictures.
I also placed an order with Resto Rick today for my undercoating and some crimp clamps.

Incredible job

One step forward two steps back...

I finally got my speakers installed today. Amazon had them listed as a single item, but they were really a pair, so I have an extra pair now. Oh well. I got the master cylinder bench bled, installed, and the lines put tightened up.

Now for the backwards steps...
Seems I got a bad can of 3M spray adhesive that didn't bond well. I had adhesion problems when I installed the headliner originally. Sooo now I have to take the back half of the interior back out so I can reglue the headliner edges. Also,the exhaust hits the pass rear floor so it needs to come apart and adjusted. I'm trying not to get burned out or too upset over the delays, missed shows and the rework, but some days its hard not to.

Just write a to do list and go at it like an emotionless machine. Dude do you know how many folks are following this post?? You ROCK

Thanks Bob & Mu

I got back at it cause it aint gonna get done by itself.

This picture shows most of what I've done lately:
The decklid is finally done and installed!
Headliner is done for the 2nd time
Dash is in and most everything is hooked up.
All of the weather stripping (hood x2, trunk, doors, and roof) is done and permanently attached.
Wheels are off getting powdercoated.
Undercoating will get done in 2 weeks.
Only downside today was the discovery of some cat urine on the bottom of my car cover..