I am doing this car for a friend/customer. I have more pictures on my shops facebook page but Facebook changed the format and now I can't seem to get the pictures I take with my phone and upload to the shop page. So I saved a few pictures and thought I would share them here. I will try to keep uploading pics as best as I can. Below is the write up I did on the facebook page. Hope you enjoy. Yes it is crazy the amount of work that I have done to a 74 duster but it is the car he had in high school and his wife and him want to keep it that way rather than cloning it into another shell which would of been LOADS easier

.https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=Hartfordsbestpaint&set=a.2912599905456025

This car was the car owners high school car in the middle 70's. He bought it from I believe maybe the second owner. He drove it through high school then sold it. In the middle 80's he tried to locate it again. He knew it was traded in at the Chevy dealership in Howard SD. Back well before the internet he drove to the dealership and asked if they remember a yellow 74 duster and who might of bought it. They did not recall but were willing to let him look through the sales books. Imagine that happening now a days. Not going to happen. Well thankfully he remembered the last portion of the VIN number. As he scanned through all 74 dusters traded and sold he was not able to locate it until just about the end. Asked the sales manager when he located it and sure enough he remembered the car. Story was that when the new owners (which only listed the last name) left the boyfriend spun the tires and threw rocks back at the dealership showroom floor window and broke the window. Brian was able to locate the car had moved to Mitchell SD. Well before the ability to search out peoples last names he had to look through the white pages calling people with that same last name. He kept calling and caught a few people asking if they had a yellow 74 duster. Most said no but one said they did not but thought their relation did. Turns out she worked at a truck stop in Mitchell. Onto the next stop to ask if she was working at the restaurant. Manager was little reluctant to get her but he did. She did inform him she had owned the car and had some brake work done at a mechanic shop in Mitchell but the bill was more than she had so she gave the car to the shop. Onto the next call to the mechanic shop. Asked if they had or knew where the car went. Sure enough the car had been there and was actually still at the shop out back. The question was asked if it was for sale and sure enough they were willing to let it go for what was against it on the bill. Back to Sioux Falls it came where it sat behind Billion Chrysler Plymouth on 41st where Brian was a mechanic. That is where I come into play. I was a teenager at the time and having been raised around dusters my "dream car" was a Plymouth Duster. Needless to say I spent a lot of Saturdays hanging around my dad at Billions as he worked with Brian for many years. Being employed at a Plymouth dealership you get opportunities that some don't. Brian got just one of those chances. Chrysler Corp was liquidating old sheet metal in the 80's. He was able to buy both quarter panels,both door panels,both outer rocker panels,both fenders,a hood,a front stone guard panel and an upper radiator support panel. All for less than $300! Imagine that happening now a days! Well as time went buy the car was eventually moved to a pasture where it resided until 2020 when the decision was made to bring it back to life. Now most will and have said why not just start with a more solid 74 Duster. There are a few reasons. The biggest one is the story behind this car. Anyone could make a "clone" of the car but at the end of the day those numbers Brian searched out and knew would not nor could they be on another 74 Duster. The end of the day when this car makes noise and cruises back down the street it will be truly his teenage dream as well as my teenage dream. Stay tuned its been a fun ride so far!

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last one for tonight[. Body I just got in primer. Will be posting more pics on my shop facebook page. The NOS hood was stored in an old grainary that the roof started to come down on it. It had some wrinkles on the outer panel as well as I found a lot of the factory spot welds were either broken or never held. So I redid just about all of them as well as did some additional spots of welding in areas that I felt Chrysler should have had spot welds. Sure improved the way the hood flexed after that. Always seems like those 74 style hoods always flexed and twisted as you opened and shut them.

Wow, that's a lot of work but it's worth it when there is sentimental attachment involved. Cool to see a later A getting some love. Looks like you are doing great work. Keep this updated please.

thanks! I know there are ones that are thinking Why but with the use of NOS metal and AMD metal why not. It will never be worth what gets put in it but his boy is my age and has kept his grandpas jeep and will keep this car as well after the owner and his wife are gone. It will stay in the family. I am a firm believer that each car has a story to tell. Some just a few more stories and meaningful to some people. Below is all the metal I have done

Both qrts NOS
Both door skins NOS
Both fenders NOS
Hood NOS
Both outer rockers NOS
Tail panel AMD
Deck lid Used
Trunk floor AMD
Trunk drop offs L & R AMD
Left inner and outer wheel house AMD
Right outer wheel house AMD
Left rear frame rail AMD
Left rear spring mount AMD
Left front spring mount AMD
Under rear seal floor pan AMD
Rear shock mount AMD See the picture of what was welded in its place to mount the shocks!
main floor pan AMD
inner rockers patched
Both Rocker end caps AMD
all 4 door hinges AMD
Repaired 4 speed hump
Left inner fender panel AMD
Lower radiator support AMD

The car was completely media blasted inside and out then primed with PPG DP90LV primer. I did the metal work and seam sealed all the joints on the under side. Primed it with PPG epoxy and then coated the underside with Upol bed liner to give it some protection.

The car I believe was a rebuilder back in 75 or so. Owner I believe bought it around 76. It had been hit really hard on the left qrt. It had the drivers door and quarter panel replaced. There was evidence of some major damage both on the package tray and under the seat flor pan. as well as some on the inner left fender panel. I would almost guess it was side swiped from left front corner down the side. It is an original 360 4 speed car. Blaze Yellow with black side stripes and the V21 hood treatment. I am sure back in the day it was a pretty sharp car. Hoping that it will see color by years end. Speaking of color. Before I put the qrts and door skins on for the final time I chose why not color the areas behind those panels before welding them in place. Then come back and paint the areas that need to be. So look inside the rear panels on the qrts by back seat it is all yellow behind those areas as well as inside the door shells. Something I figured why not just get some PPG Shopline single stage yellow and coat those areas. Was just a little more instead of those areas just being epoxy primer coated. The inside trunk area is painted with PPG Concept as well as the under side of the hood. The interior floor pan is Shopline. Same thing figured paint those areas yellow and why buy the expensive paint when it will all be covered up anyway. I will be priming the body with PPG surfacer then when comes time to paint the body plan is to hang and paint body panels and do shell separately. Then assemble everything and do the V21 hood and install the side stripes. Owner will reassemble the car.

Body got primed yesterday with PPG DP90LV primer. I really like this stuff. Direct to metal epoxy that can be sanded and powders up like a surfacer. It dries with a semi gloss level so really can see what you need to focus on. Prime it with this stuff 2 coats. Let sit a couple days then block it out. Do any polester filler work that might need to be done then prime it with a regular primer surfacer.

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The hood had some minor flaws that took a light filler work in a couple spots. Got that primed up today with regular surfacer. I had after media blasting primed it with PPG DP50LV epoxy. I took and blocked that out with 150 grit then could do my filler work on top of the epoxy. One coat of filler was all it took on the 3 spots then primed it with surfacer.

found another of what it looked like in the field when I seen it after about 30 years. It had some coons making their home in it. Imagine they have been relocated by now. Probably in one of the other cars in the field.

Anyone know if this is what the V21 hood looks like on a 74 duster? Looking for any good measurements of additional pictures if anyone has them.

WOW! That is a SERIOUS project but after reading the backstory...I get it. You are doing a super job on it and he is going to be one happy guy when you're done.

Owner when he bought it at 15. He still has that hood tac.

Cool backstory on this Duster! You are doing awesome work on it...looks great so far I would like to find a nice 360 Duster with a factory sunroof...someday. Keep us posted on your progress!

Cool car. If I'm not mistaken you own a 1972 V21 Cuda, and now you are restoring a Duster with family history? We seem to run on parallel paths

Yes dad owns the cuda. This one is owned by a friend. I always say these cars can tell a story some you just have to dig deeper. We are also doing an 85 Ford F250 for a guy. That one his grand dad bought new. Hauled campers all over the US racking up 350,000 miles on it before selling it. He found registration papers for it and was able to locate it by the vin and a favor from someone in the knowing of looking up information like that. He pulled into the guys yard to find him leaving with it on a trailer headed to scrap yard. He bought it. At 1st I thought ok redoing grand dads truck but have since learned that he was kidnapped when he was 18 months old and found when he was 5 years old and this truck is what his grand dad and dad drove from SD to kentucky to pick him up. So like I said just have to dig deeper and learn lots. Its fun and rewarding looking at it from those perspectives rather than just we are restoring a car or truck. makes it more rewarding

it is in primer and will be blocking it. Just not rushing it with other work in the shop. Owner fine with that so that helps!

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Amazing work on a very cool car. Back in the day your rarely saw a 360 Duster and 4 spd every more rare.

Thanks. Not been working on it much the past 2 weeks. Other guy at the shop was out for Covid and the flood gates have opened up for other work. Just been trying to block on each panel as much as possible. Working each panel until I am happy with it then moving onto the next panel. Hand blocking always is a slow process so getting breaks between each panel sure helps my shoulders!

More priming and blocking as time and other work allows me. I am using PPG DP90LV epoxy primer. Stuff dries a semi gloss and blocks sands like a surfacer. Stuff works great being able to highlight the very faint low spots. Car is now in all 220 grit and will get 2 coats over everything of the 90LV. I will wet sand that and be ready for paint. Plan is once it is all in LV then I will tackle the few small areas in the engine compartment. Then get things coated in Yellow Blaze PPG Concept color.

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I loosely set the body panels. Then seen that they are all able to set I set them out so could block through the edges and not onto the other panels. So if the fender to door lines look off that is the set up.

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Great progress. Those character lines on the sides of that car, that is not an easy car to block out and get all of those lines looking good.

into its final priming. blow it apart to wet sand and paint.

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deck lid painted underside

engine compartment painted

last for tonight

Finally had a few days that I could devote to spraying the entire car after I wet sanded the car. Only things I have left are to paint the deck lid hinges as I originally thought I would paint them when I did the outside and the trunk jams but as I was masking the car off said to heck with it I would paint them separate. Then have the dual mirrors to shoot. Paint is PPG Concept single stage with DCU 2002 clear mixed in the final coats. Will scuff and buff everything then assemble.

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last for now. That's a lot of yellow!

Really nice !!
Is the paint code Y3 ?

Y5 Yellow Blaze

mocked up for scuffing and buffing

can't wait to see it with the side stripes and the V21 hood. going to paint the hood on instead of doing the decal.

That looks sharp!

Looks great!

been just waiting on glazing the car until I was ready to paint the V21 hood. It wont be like the original 74's with the paint and tape stripe. We are going to do it all paint and paint it like his AAR and do it with oragansol black. Since it will not be a high dollar car might as well make it the way I think chyrsler should of done it. Anyway here are some pics of it all buffed outside. The pic of the fender the reflection is of our storage building a good 40 feet way. The building is 20 feet deep and the car is the reflection is past that building. The trees and street light are a half block away. Yellow is so hard to get a nice reflection in it.

The hood is done. I played around with the gun and got some texture to the finish. I did it where I felt it had some texture of what I thought the lift off hoods and AAR's would of had if had the texture additive they were sprayed with.

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I think when it gets the side stripes it will look pretty cool. Tomorrow will put the hood back on. I masked it off before taking the hood off. Wanted to be able to fully paint all the edges.

That looks awesome! Lets see it with the hood on. Yellow looks really good when you have some black to break it up a little.

not been outside yet.

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You do some nice work there!

thank you!

That's sharp!

That hood looks great!

Great 74 Great job!

Any update on this car? Is it on the road yet? Any pictures of it outside? Thanks

It went home and not sure what the owner has done with it. This summer has been busy so imagine he will be messing with it over winter. It went home last september.

some more. I have more on my shop facebook page.

I have not heard any news on what has been done on the duster since it left here. I do have some work to do on the owners AAR though this spring. I will ask him.

Very, Very impressive!