The sporty-looking Plymouth Duster went virtually unchanged in 1974, yet overall sales increased by 6% as buyers were moving toward more fuel-efficient automobiles. However, the performance version of the car, the Duster 360, took a big hit, dropping from 15,700 units to barely 4,000, no doubt for the same reason though maybe buyers weren’t taking to the new engine (the 340 was dropped after 1973). The seller’s ’74 Duster 360 appears to have been a nice ride, but most of the photos were taken before it was disassembled for a restoration that got stalled due to COVID-19. All the parts and pieces are at a shop in Carrollton, Texas, and can be had here on eBay for the highest bid above $9,999 (no reserve).
You’d have to look hard to differentiate a ’74 Duster from a ’73. The bumper guards were bigger, and the stripes and decals were in different places. But the main change was under the hood where a 360 V8 replaced the 340. Using SAE net figures, the 360 was rated at 245 hp while the 340 was at 340 horses, so not much difference, right? Yet sales of the Duster 360 fell by 75%. Surely the OPEC energy crisis didn’t dampen demand that much.
From the photos the seller provides, you have to wonder why a restoration was even undertaken. We’re told the car has only 38,000 miles and the body and paint looked great (though the photos don’t do the car justice). Yet the seller, who bought the car in 2013, decided to have it refurbished sometime before 2020. It was handed over to a local shop and for $15,000 (and counting) it was disassembled and prepared for painting, along with having the numbers-matching engine rebuilt. When Covid hit, the seller put the project on hold. The buyer will have to have the shop finish the job or do it themselves. Unfinished work will be at least $11,000 (shop estimate).
This was a well-equipped Duster 360 when new. The 360 has a 4-barrel carburetor (of course), a 4-speed manual transmission, a performance hood, factory air conditioning, bucket seats, and all sorts of other goodies. The car as it sits now is in primer with all the body prep work out of the way. I think the car would be better presented by offering photos of how the car looks today, rather than what it looked like four years ago before the project began.
Not the kind of “Kit Car” I normally envision.
By 74 the 360 was a better engine than the 340. We had the national 55MPH limit and the 360 had more torque in a better range for those speeds. Really, a 318 4sp might have been the best choice.
Kool. We don’t have any current pics, but you need to bid on this. Um, pig in a poke comes to mind.
You have no idea what your talking about!!
Really cool. Mopar still delivering a very decent drivers car in 74′ w 4spd, 360, sensible 3.21 ⚙️ gear, w 3.55 optional.
I’d remove the spoiler. Put on the widest tires i could, sway bars, and drive er.
Why would you remove the spoiler…not originally on car is that why…just curious???
My friend had 73 yellow Cuda 340 black vinyl top, and black stripes. Spoiler very close to that not as tall non-adjustable and it looked Grand. And of course back in the day had to have the N50s bolted to rear axle.
As for spoilers, IMHO if they’re on an actual track car, fine,…but on anything on the street they look silly. Unless I’m keeping a car original as a points show car, I’d always remove one. They serve no purpose on a street car(no matter how fast you speed, they’re too small to be effective) other than to make it hard to brush off snow in the winter.😲😂
Original according to seller Rich.
I like cleaner look of no spoiler on 99% of cars.
The article title needs a verb, either “to be” (“needs to be finished”) or the gerund form (“needs finishing”).
I visit at least once a day and enjoy the write-ups. But this increasingly example of bad grammar is jarring to the few grammar nerds left.
Proud to be one of them!
I’m right there with you! The good Sisters of Notre Dame would leave my essay covered in red ink if I submitted something with spelling and grammar as bad as some of the posts I’ve seen on this site. To be fair, though, spell check can sometimes get too aggressive, so a careful proofreading is always in order.
“My boys come to me, with filthy mouths, and BAD ATTITUDES!” – The Penguin in “The Blues Brothers” (1980).
“And don’t come back until you’ve redeemed yourselves!”
I feel the same about people who should know better adding an “S” to “RPM”, and “MPG”. I guess it’s just a failing, as in saying the “ATM machine”, my “PIN number”, and the “hot water heater”! LOL!! :-)
“RsPM” or MsPH” would just look weird!
Hot water heater, Lol. My reply, if you had hot water you wouldn’t need to heat it. Elks, bisons, deers ! Oh my ! The only one spell check corrected was bisons ! Bison.
Nice car, 11k it is that 11g ? It use too be … 11 grand, what until Y2K ?
$11,000 to finish ? Paint and assemble ? Engine included ?
Not sure if I have ever heard, but I am guessing that Russ is from Western Pennsylvania or is influenced by local (and poor) grammatical usage found there. I think it is a Pennsylvania Dutch thing!? How do I know? I have lived here much of my life. In spite of that fact, I am in agreement with you Craig – the car either “Needs to be Refinished” or “Needs Refinishing.” Thanks for the write-up Russ. I had both a 1970 and 1974 Duster, albeit both slant sixes, back in the day. The 1970 was my first car!
I’m glad the car’s needs are finished. Now how about the writer’s?
Not so, the car needs to be finished. PERIOD. They don’t have a big .” . ”
It is in its way to being refinished.
Befriended? Wth did that ever come from because truly it is the opposite of Friended ! You wouldn’t day, refriended ? Or would you grammar scholars ? You’all talk how you like.
When the car is refinished or finished or sold it would be renice to see some pics ! Or is that pictures or photos ? Because someone could paint some pictures of it being refinished which is where that word should be used . Lol
No current picture of the car. Not much confidence to bid. Someone takes apart the car, loses fasteners, bends trim or sends it to a “friend” in the business who loses or ruins it.
I bought a half finished project once, just once. Not a good time. If someone is going to screw up something, I would just as well have it be me, that way I know who to blame.
He just wants somebody to take his bunk in bodyshop jail.
Never buy a car in pieces unless you’re the guy who took it apart, LOL! Even then, make sure you’ve “tagged and bagged” everything, and can find ALL of the parts you took off!
Do you suppose the bill at the bodyshop is paid up? I don’t have anything constructive to say so I’ll shut up now.
$10,000 for a disassembled Duster? You can still find driveable examples for less than that! And you just know that some of the parts have been misplaced.
There were a couple of reasons that the 360 Duster sales were a quarter of the 340 Duster sales of the year before. The gas crisis didn’t help, and the insurance rates on anything that even resembled being a performance car was out of this world. A third reason was that most people considered the 360 to be a smog motor.
This Duster would have been a nice buy if it was still assembled. I would agree that parts tend to disappear once a car has been taken apart. How much is missing? Does the body shop have a “Mechanics Lien” on this car? Is a buyer going to have to pay the owner and the body shop for this vehicle? How about any farmed out mechanical work? There very well could be 3, 4 or more people with a financial claim on this car, and it still needs to be completed.
The sccop only was available on Demons and Dart Sport, V71 is a paint treatment and there were tiny scoops originally used on 69 Barracudas, option on 73-74 Duster Twister which only had a 318 or slant six engine. I think those were A57 code.
I bought one from the local Junk yard in Providence, RI back around 1996 for a whopping $700-. It actually ran, but needed brake lines. Originally it was a 4 spd car but now and automatic or so I ascertained by the clutch pedal being wired to the firewall. I wasn’t a Mopar fan at the time but you have to appreciate any worthy muscle car. The days of cheap finds is over.