During the latter half of the 1960s, the Plymouth Valiant was a decent seller for Plymouth. But it was boring in appearance as a sedan, so they rectified that by creating a fastback in 1970 called the Duster. The front clip was all-Valiant, but from the windshield back the Duster carried all its own sheet metal. This 1971 edition has been garage-stored for 36 years and was likely a stripped-down version of the nameplate when purchased new. It will need a lot of work and may provide a foundation for a future Duster 340 clone. Located in Wayzata, Minnesota, this project Mopar is available here on craigslist for $6,000. Thanks for the heads-up on this old Plymouth, T.J.!
The Duster was hugely successful for Chrysler and was quickly spun off as the Demon (and later Dart Sport) for Dodge. From 1970 until the Valiant/Dart was retired in 1976, more than 1.6 million variations were produced, with 80% of them carrying Plymouth badging. Sales of the Duster were off a tad in 1971 as Plymouth gained a Dart Swinger hardtop variant called the Scamp which may have drawn off a few sales. The seller’s car, left all alone since 1987, looks to be a totally basic model. There’s no special paint, and it has dog dish hub caps, 3-on-the-tree manual transmission, and (likely) the 198 cubic-inch version of the dependable Slant-Six.
The seller doesn’t say much about this ’71 Duster as it’s likely he/she bought it out of the garage where it was found. For whatever reason, it was under wraps for 36 years and rust has become prevalent in at least both rear quarter panels, rockers, and the bottom of door skins. Perhaps the car was parked when an elderly owner got too old to drive and there it stayed until long after that said person’s passing. But that’s just a guess and any number of reasons could explain the hibernation.
The interior, except for the headliner, may be in decent shape once you put some elbow grease into cleaning it up. Doing a restoration on an auto like this will be time-consuming and expensive and – if you stayed stock – you’d still have a Plain Jane machine with a six-cylinder engine. That begs the question of the future of this Chrysler product. Will a hot V8 engine find its way into this Duster someday?
Dusty Duster
All you slant six lovers here you go, a little bit of the past. Little welding and some cleaning, dab some paint and get that power house up and running. Enjoy the ride, EV’s are coming.
$6k for this non-runner filthy crustbeast? Seller is Wayzata his mind.
I’m curious about the ratio of 198 to 225 engines in these plain Jane models. Old Popular Mechanics reviews of the Valiant/Dart show that a big majority chose the 225, even when they picked few other options. Along with a little more HP and torque, the bigger 6 seemed better with cold starts according to Consumer Reports. But I also suspect salesmen pushed them harder and dealers kept a bigger supply on their lots.
Either way, I have a fondness for these low-spec survivors which are true rarities in a marketplace filled with clones.
Six grand???!!! Good luck.
The Duster exists because of a bit of divisional slight-of-hand. Chrysler allocated a modest budget to facelift the Valiant and Dart for 1970. Dodge followed through and gave the Dart a restyle. Plymouth left the Valiant sedan largely unchanged and instead spent the money creating the Duster. Dodge cried foul and was given a version of the Duster to sell for 1971. In return, Plymouth got the Scamp. The Valiant finally got its restyle in 1974, when it was made into a clone of the Dart.
Not exactly – Plymouth wanted a sportier look for the Valiant to attract younger buyers, as they only had the Valiant as a 2 door sedan , and no hardtop like Dodge had. The success of the Duster prompted Dodge to want its own sporty model, and Plymouth was allowed to use the Swinger platform to even things out. The Valiant and Dart were largely unchanged until 1973, when both cars got a facelift to accept the larger 5mph bumpers the govt. required. They were always basically clones of each other ; sharing the same platform, not one a copy of the other
Not exactly. The Dart got new front and rear sheetmetal for 1970. Only the doors and roof carried over. The Valiant was unchanged except for a revised grille. My source is Collectible Automobile magazine, April 1999. What’s yours?
On the sedans absolutely right , I thought we were on the subject of the Swinger/Scamp Duster/ Demon.
This would be fun to play around with if it fell into my hands. I cant see any upside money-wise on a resto. I would get it running, new tires etc and detail the hell out of it and drive it as-is.
This was just about every other 16 year olds cheap wheels back in the late ’70’s. It was worth every penny of that $150. Now $6,000? Ha!
Rot box alert!
“If you stayed stock— you’d still have a plain Jane with a slant six”
And what’s wrong with a plain Jane with a slant six? Does every car need to be the top of the line, every option vehicle to be restored? Plain Jane’s were (are) a fact of life, part of the lineup, and personally, I get tired of fancy paint, vinyl roofs, huge engines. Every option checked on the list.. That’s all you see at Cars & Coffee. A plain Jane is a nice diversion from the norm.
Shows future generations this is what you drove if you were poor or frugal.
JMO
Preach it from the rooftops Angel Cadillac Diva!!! Can I get an “AMEN”!!!
Amen!!
AMAZING That someone can ask $6000.00 for this example. Who needs a 401 k when you can ask for double the original price new. You cannot get this kind of return with stocks or bonds!!!!!
I have always liked the Nova better .
I was one of those “younger buyers”. I was an assistant manager of a bank at that time and worked with several new car dealers.
I special ordered a Duster with my custom specs: V/8 so I could pull my ski boat ( previously pulled by a Corvair), floor shift, Bench seats with fold down armrest in front so could seat 3 couples, heavy duty suspension, A/C, high end wheels and tires. I only went with the 318 v/8, I was pretty frugal guy and a 3 speed.
I waited 6 weeks to get my car, it never arrived, they sold it to someone else.
Reordered it with another dealer and finally got it. Still have her as part of my collection of 30 cars. I take her out monthly for a trip. Great car.
Rust bucket for sure. A girlfriend in college in Michigan had one in the mid 70’s. Idt the leaf spring rear brackets are supposed to come into your trunk.
Rick,
Here in the Boston area. my girlfriend bought a 74 Duster in 1981. Same thing – those rear leaf spring brackets came right into the trunk. The Duster is long gone, but the girlfriend is now the wife of almost 40 years.
Johnny, Wow, it lasted 7 years! The ’73 Barracuda I bought out of Lawrence in ’78 was already rotting away.
PRA – I have a 68 Barracuda since 1981 out of Connecticut. Bought it with 30,000 miles on it. Now has 56,000 miles. Minimal rust. Has not seen rain or snow since 1985.
I have a ’73 Duster and a ’74 Dart Swinger, both with 225/6 and auto trans. Duster came with the original 318 drive train that the owner had swapped out; he didn’t want his daughter to have a V8 but never gave the car. I traded an old car for the Duster that was worth about $2500 and I paid $ 1600 for the Dart. Both were in good running condition and drove them for quite some time. Gave the Duster to one of my grand-daughters since she wanted it. If this car was local I would pay $1600 tops, but forget it since I would have to ship it to NC.
The frame where the torsion bars go looks scary to me. Sadly I like the car especially with the black rubber floor mat and 3 on the tree like my buddy’s 72 Dart. They didn’t mention if the engine turns freely? Might be worth half that to someone who welds.
Stored in a moist environment too long. The tin worm has been chewing away all over the place. Even the valve cover is rusty! Pass.
Sporting “The Wet Look”.
4kay = noway!
They built a lot of them this way and I’ve owned a few. All of mine were floor shift/bench seat but they also made them with 3 on the tree for die-hards. The last one I bought had thrown a rod and I had just rebuilt a 225 and it needed a home.
Something else about Mopars of this era was the distinct smell of the interior plastic components as they outgassed the plasticisors that kept those parts flexible and soft. The quality of the plastics used was not high and and a couple years in a sun heated interior would increase outgassing and cause plastic parts to disintegrate into dust. As explained here, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41529-019-0080-7.
Another bit of Duster Trivia is that the front track is wider that the rear track. But don’t be fooled by utilitarian feel of the duster. These were very good machines that fulfilled the mission Chrysler designed them for. The were cheap to buy and cheap to run and maintain. They were reliable and were remarkably easy to repurpose for performance like the well conceived 340 Dusters. Part of their appeal and success was that Plymouth did not waste much effort in refining the design. If anything the 1970 up A-bodies were less refined in quality, fit and finish of A-bodies of the previous two generations. raised expectation
Dusters were honest cars without a bit of pretense which is the kind of car most people need, and which no one seems to be making anymore. Auto design and manufacturing has come a long way since the Duster and buyers have raised expectations which the manufacturers are unabashedly exploiting by loading them up with standard equipment that was formerly optional and superfluous technology that is contributing to ever higher sales prices and maintainance costs. Average new car prices are over 40,000 dollars IIRC.