Five years ago, this 1974 Plymouth Duster might have been a bit easier to work with than it is today, but there’s still plenty of potential to turn this one into something special. The seller says he bought this car half a decade ago from a dealer who claims they got it from an estate sale, and at that time, the Plymouth was completely stock and believed to have been garaged for years. Though both of the latter circumstances have changed, this 1974 Duster here on Craigslist still seems like a good base vehicle to start with, and at $5,500, it’s also not an overly expensive initial investment. This cool coupe is located in Everett, Washington, and we’d like to thank reader Rocco B. for locating it and sending us the tip!
Even though the owner mentions he didn’t have a garage handy to store the Duster, most of the sheet metal still looks pretty good overall here. There are a couple of exceptions, with the front section of the hood showing some corrosion, and the panel beneath the trunk also has a small area of rust. Neither bumper is straight, but thankfully, the vinyl top doesn’t appear to have wreaked too much havoc on the roof here, as it sometimes does. The powder Blue paint is somewhat unusual, and while it works well on this body style, I wouldn’t be surprised if a future owner eventually revises the exterior to something a bit more radical.
Upon the seller’s acquisition, the Slant Six was reportedly running, but the power it was providing wasn’t satisfactory. A 4-barrel manifold and carb were added, along with a set of headers, but the engine ultimately failed. In the bay now is a different Slant 6, said to have been sourced from a late sixties Plymouth Barracuda, although it has yet to become operational. While there is a spark and streaming fuel present, it keeps backfiring through the carburetor, and the owner has decided he’s tired of fooling with it. It’s probably time to consider replacing this engine with a more potent V8 under the hood.
This one has a fairly simple interior, including vinyl seats with a bench up front and a column-shifted automatic transmission. The glove box door is missing, but the instrument cluster still looks OK, and I’m not spotting any obvious cracks in the dash pad. If the buyer plans to restore this one differently than keeping with the stock specs, maybe a pair of buckets may be more rewarding, and perhaps switching the inside color to black. There seem to be a lot of good possibilities for this 1974 Plymouth Duster, and I’m kind of envisioning turning it into a Restomod. What would you do with this one?
I’ll take the nice 73 that was posted earlier for $8500 any day over this mess that doesn’t run.
Nice to see the two Dusters written up today. More like the old BarnFinds, before all of the fancy dealership cars.
Probably has put the distributor in 180 degrees off
He did something wrong. I’ve never seen a non-running Slant Six. :P
some people shouldn’t work on cars, especially if they don’t know what they’re doing.A slant 6 is pretty hard to screw up.
When your timing spec is 0 degrees +/- 6 degrees, you’re absolutely right.
a 4-barrel mod? I’ve heard of the “Super Six”, where a two-barrel intake and different headers were used..but a 4-barrel seems like overkill. That’s probably the least of this engine’s problems. It’s also probably a simple fix.
Particularly with an automatic transmission! With vacuum secondaries, they might open up just at the time the transmission shifts! And without a hot cam, the carb selection is just a,waste. This COULD be a fun project.
Al Bundy might need an upgrade.
this 2k duster has good bones. drop a 360 in it
One of my favorite cars with my favorite engine!!!!
I bought this car in 1974 . Straight out of the showroom. 3400. I’ve been looking for one just like it for a long time.
If it’s backfiring through the carb, the timing is probably off. Either the distributor was installed incorrectly or the timing chain has slipped a tooth on the timing gear. Both are easy fixes. I’d start by checking the distributor. Turn the engine over by hand until the #1 cylinder is at Top Dead Center (TDC) on the compression stroke, then make sure that the rotor on the distributor is pointed at the timing mark stamped on the distributor housing. Next, check the position of the timing mark on the crankshaft pulley, to see if it’s lined up with the pointer for the timing scale on the engine. If that all lines up, pull the timing chain cover and check that the timing marks on the timing gears line up with the timing marks stamped on the engine block. Adjust as necessary, and/or replace the timing chain and gear set if it looks like the timing chain is loose.
It’s been 55 years since I had the front of a slant six apart. But pretty sure it uses gears and not a chain for cam drive. Most likely plug wires screwedup.or distributor in the wrong place.
Good to know, thanks. Like I said, look at the distributor first. I might still check the timing gears if the distributor timing checks out though, because gears can also slip a tooth, particularly if they’re made of plastic, like in a Ford 2.8L Essex V6.
I like these cars and could be tempted to buy one. Just not this one at that price. It is screwed up and fixable at maybe $2,500!
Rip out the 6, beef up the suspension, put in a 8-3/4 & then dump in a warmed-over Gen 3 HEMI.
The timing is funny. I just saw a guy on Craigslist (Reno) selling the same pieces that this has on it. (Intake, headers, etc. ) His has the adapter from the 4 bbl. To the Holly/Motorcraft style 2bbl carburetor. In a former life I used to play with slant six cars. Back in Illinois where it was tough to find a non-rusty car.
Probably a really decent all original clean driver until this bozo got a hold of it. With that price, keep on dreaming for a sale to materialize.
I have replaced a few of them plastic gear on the bottom of the distributors because of wear of the gears. If that car was closer I would make a offer and have a nice winter project
I have always heard the slant 6 was a solid engine and ran forever. Near bulletproof really. I would restore it as it is as 6 cylinder cars are going the way of the 8 track tape