The infamous $50 Duster

Here it is at the house. Pushed it home on Friday. Then went autocrossing all weekend in Packwood so I haven't had a chance to do a thing to it yet. Anybody have a 1/4 window?

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/reader-rides/1690/

P71 wrote: Originally it was supposed to be a racecar... but she wants a Miata instead. ;)

they always do

It's OK, I've wanted a Miata too so this is good news for me

If you decide to scrap the vehicle let me plant a seed in your mind.

The transmission has the bellhousing that matches up to the 3.0 mitsu block (and many other mitsu variants) is cable shifted and uses a cable clutch. (think easy to adapt to any auto car)

The re-designed caravan's (96 +) had a better suspension and nice ride but when equipped with the 3.0 mitsu usually came with mopars wonderful 4 speed auto. What that means is clean newer minivans with blown tranny's are available for around the same price as you picked up the shadow for.

BTW, I have the parts needed to convert a minivan to a 5-speed, complete with the appropriate shifter and cables, clutch pedal, etc.

fiat22turbo wrote: BTW, I have the parts needed to convert a minivan to a 5-speed, complete with the appropriate shifter and cables, clutch pedal, etc.

For a '96 +?

Get them from Europe?

I got the title issue all cleared up, the Crop Duster is now legally ours. Total investment so far is $99.47 ($50 car, $10 Affidavit, $10 Notary, $29.47 Title). Found out that supposedly it ran really well but had electrical issues.

My mechanic built this Shadow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajTswi0dtwY

Lesley wrote: My mechanic built this Shadow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajTswi0dtwY

Wow. That's a Shadow in sheetmetal only. Nice.

Yeah, 9 second quarter mile. Insane.

My Duster can't do a 9 second 1/4 mile if it was dropped out of a plane.

I am looking forward to working on it!

VICTORY IS MINE!!!!

The Crop Duster RUNS!!!

I spent a few hours today on the old Crop Duster and man is this turning out to be a great car! I ShopVac'd out all of the glass, mold, and whatnot and then got the driver's door working and then the hood to open. What I found was a fairly clean specimen of 3.0L V6 with new looking coolant and decent oil. I bought a battery and an ignition switch and VOILA! Running Duster! After releasing the well-working parking brake I was off on a test drive. Even the cruise works!

Details and pics:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/reader-rides/1690/

After the successful day of working on the Duster I am torn on whether to fix it up pretty and sell it off for profit or throw my GRM number boards on the side and go rallycrossing! Stupid little car is growing on me.

P71 wrote: After the successful day of working on the Duster I am torn on whether to fix it up pretty and sell it off for profit or throw my GRM number boards on the side and go rallycrossing! Stupid little car is growing on me.

Why not both? Just be sure to pressure wash all the dirt off before selling.

P71 wrote: After the successful day of working on the Duster I am torn on whether to fix it up pretty and sell it off for profit or throw my GRM number boards on the side and go rallycrossing! Stupid little car is growing on me.

Drive it first, you can always sell it. You might notice a little chassy flex.

Then if you like it, raising the ride height should be really easy; swap struts+ springs from a 4d shadow or spirit or even minivan.

The rear can be stiffened easily too by using an aftermarket sway bar or by boxing in the twist beam axle.

If the open diff becomes a problem there are fixes but probably all out of the budget of a $50 car. Probably easier to overcome with decent tires.

I think I just may drive this little POS all winter and sell it next spring. Then I won't have to put snow tires on the P71's steelies, I could put them on the Duster's steelies instead.

Do you think Duster's are worth more fixed up nice and stock or as race car fodder?

Becarfull with the trans and it will run for ever. If the battery was dead along time you may need to retrain the ECM on how to shift the trans. I've got a new solinod pack on the self if you find you need one. Was in the wife daytona 5 minutes before i found the real problem.... Lost the diff pin and it cut a grove in the case.... allpar.com used to have a ton of good info.

44

44, it is a 5-speed.

To be brutally honest, you'll not get much money from the local enthusiasts for it since it isn't a turbo or a numbered car.

I would rallycross it. Move the ebrake handle to the middle like god intended and you can have a little more fun with it ;)

Even "not a lot" should be more than $200

The way I'm thinking is I'll drive it and race it and sell it as a sorted rallycross car. Since I'm thinking of taking welding classes after I earn my Bachelor's next year I can weld a cage in it.

I want a 5 speed caravan

The only use for it is an autocross or rallycross car. People looking for an appliance car probably wouldnt be interested, and most turbo dodge people would part it out for the trim and scrap the rest. Actually I think it would be a fun cheap autocross car. You can add stiff suspension easily ($15 for vw bilstiens plus a little welding and coilover sleeves for the front, kyb monotube shocks and race springs with threaded perches for the back), a 1 1/4 inch swaybar from a lebaron, and either sticky street tires or r-compounds depending on what class you wanted to be in.

Personally, I would adapt a better front sway bar as the stock solution just binds and causes more understeer from the spring rates going to infinity.

An adjustable bar from an oval track car could be adapted or perhaps a bar from a 924/944. The key is to get the bar and linkage moved far enough away to allow proper articulation.

The rear can be stiffened with springs and a piece of steel plate (2" x 36") clamped to the center bar. Adding/removing clamps or moving them around on the bar will adjust the torsional rigidity as will varying the thickness of the steel.

Be careful of the upper rear shock mounts, they are just steel plate and will oval out with rough use as we found with our TSD Daytona and AutoX CSX. Welding in some proper bushings should help spread the load.

Travis, can you expound on the VW Bilsteins? I have a set of 924 strut housings that I want to use on our Chump Car but decent strut inserts are impossible to find at a Chump Car price.

If you can disassemble them in the junkyard, strut inserts are the same as shocks (like $6). Junkyard bilstiens are rarely worn out, and the ones for mk2 vws arent that uncommon (someone i know has gotten 3 full sets for his cars) and are short enough to fit in most strut housings from other cars if you can modify them. BMW 320is commonly have bilstiens on them too, they might work as well.

For the swaybar, look into drilling/tapping the end for some 91-94 nissan sentra end links. I was going to do that with my shelby charger, but i sold it before i got around to doing it.

The Crop Duster has some other issues to take car of first, though I'm listening to all of this suspension stuff and taking notes. First thing (well after a window) is wheels/tires. One of the steelies is bent and most of the tires are bald and/or dryrotted. Any ideas for cheap alloys? Do Neon wheels work? I priced new wheels, and why cheap, putting $350 worth of wheels on a $200 car seems ludicrous.

What can I do about the bizarre rubbery/notchy shifter?

Neon wheels fit, common FWD 5x100 bolt pattern shared with some GM and other vehicles. Lots of aftermarket wheels are also dual patterned so even if they are used on a car with a 5x114 pattern, they might be useful on your car.

The trans in that car was also used in the 1st gen Neon, and they both have issues with the bushings failing at the end of the cables. Look up "booger bushings" or see if skateboard bushings, etc could be used if you want to be cheap.

Keep an eye open for the motor mounts. Polyurethane replacements are all I'll use in my cars, the Chinese/Indian rubber ones fail too quickly. PolyBushings.com has the mounts and I think the shifter bushings as well, plus he's relatively local.

Travis, I guess I'll go poking around the wrecking yards and see what I can find, maybe I'll get lucky. Thanks for the info!