I see the zinc but I don't trust it.
There are tooling marks and scratches on the metal. If anything gets through the zinc it can corrode like a cheap chrome wheel.

Meh. Surely there are other areas on these old cars to lose sleep over while worrying about corrosion.

...less worry, more driving Alex!

The rest of the car is corroded. That doesn't worry me. Just a might as well add on to the car.

How did this engine swap turn into a suspension thread? COME ON MAN lol!

It's kinda been about everything I'm doing. I'm bored like that haha.


Back to the engine swap tomorrow.

Update of the day:

I found radiator hoses for a B-body with a 26" radiator opening and a Champion Hemi swap radiator. Just universal gates green hoses and they fit really well. I'll post the numbers up tomorrow.

Oil temperature and oil pressure gauge is in. Had to take the alternator off but it was worth it.
Cooling fan brackets are almost mocked up. Just need a little bit more work.

Also, my spring swap is complete. The car is sitting really nicely with the 2x right side XHD springs, 2" steel lowering blocks and the AR engineering front spring hanger set on the -1" setting.

Killer!

Oh yeah, I like it a lot!

Looks awesome but I'd be worried about a little side to side wiggle.

Once I roll the lip, I'll have even more room. Doesn't worry me.

You have twice as much room between the tire and fender than I had on my 72 Swinger, and that was after I rolled the inner fender lip. I had a bit less than one finger width between the tire and leaf spring and it would just slightly rub under hard cornering, not enough to hurt the rubber but just enough to keep the leaf shiny in that one spot.

The leaf spring clearance was about an inch before the spacer. 5" bs is the sweet spot for this car on a 9" wheel.

You need 94-04 Mustang wheels then.

So you have 2" of leaf spring clearance and 2 fingers of fender lip clearance? Consider me envious! That's a 315 all day long.

can you get a pic of the leaf spring arch with the car at rest?
are they pretty much flat?

That's a bunch more room than it looks like in the other pic.

The hot rod rears rubbed the outer wheelhouse about 3 inches above the opening. I introduced it to the Rubber Enforcer and got the clearance I needed.

Awesome car!!! This is what hot rodding is all about...taking a sweet looking old car and putting in a superior modern engine (and suspension). Great build, cool idea, and I think we all can relate the problems on the old engine, oil leaks, gas smell, reliability, etc. Thanks for sharing, I am a neophyte to the suspension and engine upgrade scene so I really enjoy seeing builds like this that aren't using the magic of television.

Thanks, you've basically summarized what I expect and want from the car.

I want to build it to be left alone. I want to not have leaky cork gaskets, a tune that doesn't need to change with the weather, to be able to drive the car day in, day out with out rolling the windows down or smelling like fuel....

Get in, take off a minute after starting it and getting onto the freeway with a range that I decide. The silly fast speed I expect from 550hp in a relatively light weight combo is the best part.

This is all being done in my driveway, with no special tools or super expensive parts with the help of some really good friends. Wade, Mike and Brian all come to mind.

I won't say that this swap is cheap or for everyone. My case is unique and this car is swapped for about half the cost of the average person but I've horsetraded and stashed parts for 3 years before I turned a wrench on it. I saved a ton of money by being broke and patient.

In the past, I enjoyed the tuning of the old 340, COMP XE268 and thermoquad, but with the wide temperature swings we have in Houston in the fall, winter (Ha!) and spring, the daytime temps can be from the 30's -> 90's (October 14th today and it's 94 as I write this).

I also want to be able to drive this car (Assuming I ever get it back from the body shop) anywhere in all weather conditions and be able to cruse down the freeway @ 75Mph all day long with the A/C running (Passion 5-speed, 3.73's 285/35-18's), approach or exceed 20Mpg and run 118Mph in the 1/4 mile as well as stop and handle with a modern muscle car.

Thanks to Alex (Assuming he's right!) and Wade and Steve, both our motor are essentially identical and my '71 Duster should be a couple of hundred pounds lighter than Alex's '68 Runner.

This should be a fun, go anywhere, do anything resto-mod Duster. Hopefully it's first outing at a track will be at Royal Purple Raceway in February and the Big Bend Open Road Race in April! Time will tell...