That’s how things are in Dusterville presently. Nothing too dramatic happening but lots of grinding away on Project Hemi Duster both literally and figuratively. Kevin at Fabrications Unlimited has all the plumbing for the Vintage Air installation worked out and will move onto the final installation now that the transmission tunnel is finished. While I had fun chopping out the old tunnel to make room for the NAG1, it was much more satisfying to see it all buttoned up again.

To the right of the tunnel you can see a hump which adds some clearance for the Street & Performance Mid-Length headers. To the left, you’ll find the drive-by-wire gas pedal from the ’06 Charger donor car.
In other plumbing news, the radiator and transmission cooler are in place and ready to go and make for a tidy installation which includes the A/C condenser and assorted hoses.

Sure, one could focus on the assorted surface rust, overspray and greasy thumbprints on display here,
but I prefer to take in the beauty of fresh new bits.

I think I mention in a previous post that Street & Performance sent me some tacked together headers we could modify, if necessary. Turns out, we left the headers alone and altered a motor mount and firewall.
The photo below does a good job of summing up my priorities for this project. The Duster is being built to drive and won’t be taking home the hardware and any car shows. I fully intend to hold an acceleration exhibition during the award ceremony. The combination of black etching primer, surface rust and shabby rattle-can B1 Blue with all those sweet new performance bits really appeals to me in some weird, rebellious way. Maybe you get it, maybe you don’t. We’re fine, regardless.

What we have here is success to communicate rpms to the transmission controller. This snappy setup is crucial to sorting out this whole NAG1 thing. Next time there will be a clutch.
So that’s where we are. Plenty to do but fairly close to lighting this baby blue bottle rocket.
Ugh, but there’s the wheels…