Is it just a coincidence that Pink Floyd’s “Time” was recorded in 1973 as was the song “Time Warp” in the musical-soon-to-be-movie, Rocky Horror Picture Show – the same year that this time warp 1973 Plymouth Duster was made? This car is listed on eBay with fairly heavy bidding and a current bid price of, gulp, $7,600 and the reserve isn’t even met! This one is located in Owasso, Oklahoma, what a car!
This is one nice looking Duster. The “original purchaser owned this car until just recently and took extraordinarily good care of it. She meticulously documented all service work that was done to the car through 134K miles, from Dec 8, 1973 to Mar 6, 2009. There have only been about 5K miles put on it since 2009. I don’t believe this car has ever spent a night outside.” Hagerty lists a #3 good condition car as being worth $7,700 and this one is certainly nicer than that. A #2 excellent car would be $10,600.
This car is in whiz-bang condition, it really looks like a museum piece. But, it isn’t all original like I assumed it would be. They say that the “body still carries the original B-1 Sky Blue paint, although there has been a partial repaint at some point. The new canopy vinyl top was just installed.” Bummer, so the exterior has been restored. The seller says that the “only rust on this car at all is light surface rust on unpainted underside surfaces.” The first thing that I would do is lose the chrome exhaust extensions, but that’s just me.
Just as the exterior looks great, so goes the interior. But again, it isn’t original as it “has a new dash pad and new carpet.” Of course I’m not knocking a great looking restoration what so ever, it’s what most of us dream about doing. It’s just when the seller said that it “is extremely rare to find a stock, unmolested 1973 Duster in this kind of condition”, I assumed that it would be original. Again, there is not one thing wrong with this car being refurbished, it’s just an observation.
The seller says that the 150-hp 318 “engine and engine bay look like new as well. The carburetor, master cylinder, power steering pump, and steering gear box have all been recently replaced. The car starts right up, runs and drives like new. The only caveat is that the oil light will flicker at idle when hot. I replaced the oil pump and it has good pressure. It’s possibly the sender, but is definitely nothing to worry about operationally.” What were you doing in 1973? Were you even alive yet?
with a 134,000 miles its probably something to worry about,like main bearing clearances. probably time for a rebuild on the old 318.
I’d replace the $10 oil pressure sending unit first before spending a ton of money on a rebuild. 318s are known to be good engines that last longer than most of their peers, especially when well taken care of as this one appears to be.
More likely (and common) would be camshaft bearing clearances from the use of incorrect heavy viscosity oils. The bottom end of the 318LA is fairly bulletproof, and when problems are present they tend to be noisy. Failed cam bearings are often silent.
Within the last 6 mos., I have replaced oil sending units on both my 66 Satellite and 66 Chrysler, both doing the same thing, flickering at idle, even staying on, new aftermarket senders are crap, but very cheap, $7ish. Change ’em once a year. A well taken care of 318 with 134k should be just fine, my 66 Satellite’s at almost 150k, runs great, but it is the old poly head, last year. I’m definitely liking this Duster, this would be a long term keeper.
Yes I was here in 1973. Great year. Great Saturday night line up in CBS. Watergate hearings. Meat shortages, OPEC with round one energy crisis. Big front bumpers of all 73 cars look like guard rails. Bad Leroy Brown, Stuck in the Middle With You, Exorcist, American Graffiti, Carol Burnett, MASH, Sanford and Son. Yup I was here.
freshie, geeky,crew cut!(dad) zit’s,hated parents,lookin’ for love? only love was my 4hp. monkey ward minibike. i was billy on his panhead! adventure for 28cts.per gal.
I was working at my father’s Amoco Service Station at the time dealing with the”Fake Gas Shortage ” dealing with the customers trying to get gas and dealing with the people who were not our customers turning them away . My brother had a 72′ Duster 340 Dealership Special . I worked on a few of them , weren’t bad to work on .v
I was born that year. Lol hahaha
Instead of a rebuild which is coming sooner or later I’d opt for one of great MOPAR crate engines available (and keep that gentle looking hubcap style going)!
Great car.
I was around in ’73 and I’m not going to lie, these are still ugly and the 318 was/is a turd. Also Chrysler has never made a reliable transmission.
well my moms beer bottle brown ’73 318 withstood endless neutral drops from near valve float revs all through grade 9 . . .
edh-
I thought the 727 was “bulletproof?”
Used them on second-gen Scouts and lots of other rigs too.
One person’s ugly is another person’s joy.
I’d love to own this one. I wouldn’t shell out that kind of money, though.
But this has always been a fav. Along with the same vintage (or older) Darts.
I would imagine this has a 904 in it, not a 727.
Boatman – I had a 1969 Plymouth Fury II with a 318 and a 727. I saw small blocks with both transmissions back then, so anything is possible. That combo – 318 and 727 – was pretty bulletproof.
The 318 was far from a powerhouse, I think it had 135 hp in 1969, but it ran like a clock. I bought the car from a retired teacher… a pampered car with about 60K miles on it. Being 16, I drove it like a moonshiner, but even so, when I sold it at 130K miles, it was still going strong, didn’t smoke or burn oil. The guy I sold it to drove it for another 4 or 5 years and didn’t have any issues with the driveline either.
Did you just say Chrysler never made a reliable transmission?
You have never head of the Torqueflight 727?
Edh?? Lol. Torqueflights were indestructible trannies and the 318 was a great motor. I’ve had several in half a dozen early 60s Plymouth and Dodges. Even a 61 Dodge that was a shell in a field in Utah. Rebuilt everything but the tranny torqueflights were miles ahead of any GM automatic pre 1964.
And you can push start the car with a Torqueflight.
That is handy.
Here I am in the mid 70s. With our ’73 Dart Swinger. It came new right when my little brother did when I was three.
I dig these cars.
And on this one I dig the console shifter. And the color. And that big butt.
Yeah. I like them. I’d rather have an earlier dart though.
How does it snow that deep and not get on the cars? LOL That’s cool.
4th of July in my home town, Buffalo New York
Never in all my years of buying/selling cars would I have thought a 1973 Duster would be worth $10k.
This one was very well looked after, but with 150k on the ticker.. no matter how well maintained, it’s nearing time for that 318 to be rebuilt. I’m just not seeing the $8k this car is currently bid to.
You don’t have to worry, it isn’t worth 10 grand.
Entry level cars, such as this one, were popular for one reason and one reason only. They were cheap.
I have 2 Darts of this vintage and while I like driving them, they are a bare bones entry level car.
Miguel, you could no longer push start any automatic after 66-67 maybe even before that. It got too expensive to keep the rear pump that allowed push starting. Before that every body had them
Norman, my 1963 Fury still has its original transmission and I have had to push start her a few times when I was much younger.
Now I can afford a starter if she needs one.
About the only thing I can say: What! NO AC!
Good looking car overall but I’m surprised that wasn’t included on it.
In 1973 I was a 12 year old drooling over a college aged camp counselors 73 Duster. I would love to have this.
That didn’t go where I thought it was going, Will! :)
What a great find. A little odd that the oil light is coming on, but perhaps the answer for that is no more than a Google search away.
It could need an oil change. If the oil has broken down, it could cause that.
Or someone was working on the distributor (tune up) and knocked the the wire off the oil pressure sender. Had a Sebring hardtop with a 318 that had that problem after every tune up.
An earlier post mentioned you could push start a Chrysler Torqueflite – not after 1965. The Torqueflites were reworked in 1965 to have a normal rear u-joint instead of the ball and trunion, and also remove the rear transmission oil pump. No rear oil pump, no push start.
And I agree the 318 and Torqueflite were the best in their class back then.
My mother had a 75 with a 318, it was peppy and fun to drive, too bad this one and my mother’s didn’t have AC. Whoever buys it should just maintain and enjoy it for what it is. Most of these, like my mother’s, literally rotted away.
Haggerty can say what they want. This is a $5000 car tops. Of course they are always worth what someone will pay.
My BIL bought one brand new in ’73. He
then proceeded to turn it into one bad-ass
street machine! His was originally a 318
3-speed car. But over time, the 318 and
3-speed were yanked and replaced with
a 440 magnum V-8 and a 4-speed complete with Hurst upgrades. The
engine was a built version of the police
interceptor unit featuring heavy duty
innards such as the crankshaft, rod
bearings, connecting rods that were
topped off by a set of Jahn’s 10.5 :1
pistons. Other upgrades included a
Crane hi-lift cam, reworked heads, an
Edlebrock tunnel ram manifold topped
by 2 750 cfm Holley carbs, an Accel
high output ignition system and a set
of Hooker headers mated to a pair of
Hush Thrush header mufflers. Out
back, you found a Dana 60 rear axle
with 3:90:1 rear gears along with a
set of HD rear axles capped off with a set
of Lakewood traction bars. The car sat
on a set of Ansen slotted racing mags
wrapped with extra wide Goodyear wide
oval tires. And how do I know all this you
ask? I helped him build it!! That car was
a monster that ate Mustangs, Trans Ams,
and Z-28s for breakfast,lunch,and dinner
all day every day! The car would run high
13’s in the B/modified production class
at the Assumption Dragway topping out
at just over 140 MPH. After all those
mods, the only things original to the car
were the body and interior! My BIL
drove this car for about 3 years before he
sold it to buy a house after he married my
sister. Seeing this car reminds me of the
fire breathing monster we built so long
ago. Good times indeed.
Got to give props on taking care of the car that nicely with 134K on it.
Really don’t like the color BUT at least it’s not GREEN !!!!! Or a 4 door !!
Should I lower my head in shame?
This is mine.
It is greenish.
Absolutely no shame for this car! Two roommates & I drove one to Florida for spring break. Slant 6 & 3 speed on the floor. Roomy, smooth, reliable. One of the most honest cars ever to come out of Detroit.
It would be downright unAmerican (edh – are you listening to me?) to diss one of these babies, especially with the Magnum 500s and the “greenish” paint.
My wife’s first car was a B5 blue Duster. The style has aged very well. It’s a lot more coherent design than the contemporary Novas or Mavericks.
Not sure about the oil pressure. Mopar engines of the day were designed with generous tolerances – the idea being that if nothing touches nothing wears out…
Mine happens to be a factory V8 automatic with under dash air.
That is an extremely rare combination for a Mexican car.
I had to go out of the country to find an exhaust manifold.
Yeah, you tell ’em, man. Two doors or crush it. Surely nobody ever made memories or had fun at stoplights in a 4-door anything, right?
I don’t know about that… I have a lot of memories from the back seat of my 4-door Fury II. But you are right, I had to get a Road Runner to win my first stoplight Grand Prix!! :)
The low hanging dual exhausts were a Mopar theme, but they don’t look right on a car with granny hubcaps and whitewalls. I’d swap out the wheels for rallyes and raised white letter tires
Is there anyone born between, say, 1959-1965 who did not know at least 3 people who owned a Duster? I easily can tick off the names of 5 people I knew who owned one back in the 1970s. Probably more if I thought hard enough. These were everywhere in my town.
I had a ’74 Space Duster in high school. The Space Duster had a pass-thru cargo area and reinforced body structure to allow for a fold down rear seat and trunk close out panel. Several sheet of plywood would fit in the back.
Mine was 6 cyl/3 on-the-tree. The only options were P/S, manual sunroof and AM radio.
I had one and a buddy 2 doors down had one. Good times!!
it looks nice, but it’s far from original. 73’s had big, ugly, black rubber blocks in front of the enormous chrome bumpers. That and the fact that it has been repainted, interior pieces replaced, and rather goofy looking chrome tips, I believe it has not been garaged all its life, nor taken care of as well as they claim. $5000 tops, but not to me, because it is not a performance model.
Just to clarify, this seller is asking $7600.00 and the car might have a major engine problem?
That takes some guts right there.
I say if you are going to ask all the money, take the car to a qualified mechanic and see what the problem is so at least you can inform the buyer.
This is a nice car and I do like the blue colors. For all us Mopar fans out there, The Van Der Brink Mopar auction is on June 9th in South Dakoda. It’s online and live. Lots of stuff there, wish I could go. Hope someone on Barn Finds can and keep us informed.
That’s a good looking Duster to say the least, these always interested me, especially the 340 Duster, but the vast majority in the local autotrader were slant six models, some had the 318. So many had cragars on them or some sort of cool wheels regardless of engine type. Thought the interior was fairly boring on these, but then again these were meant to be cheap anyways. Dusters and Nova’s were so common at one time and they were cheap fun rides, not anymore.
Do I see that right, there is no power steering on this car?
The more I read the ad, the more I see the car has been repaired and it is not original.
This line is from the ad
“It is extremely rare to find a stock, unmolested 1973 Duster in this kind of condition.”
Then he goes on to say that the following has been replaced.
New Vinyl Top
New Dash Pad
New Carpet
New Carburetor
New Master Cylinder
New Power Steering Pump – That answers my previous question.
I didn’t see the pump on the engine
New Steering Gear Box
That is a lot of work for a well cared for car that supposedly has never spent a night outside.
I is a good story though.
That’s why it’s extremely rare–even he doesn’t have one!
Somewhere out there, Al Bundy is smiling…
I love everything about this car especially the color.
My dad had a red 72 340 in 73 ,I was cruising around on my Bigwheel ,
Needs probably mainbearings, on thoose miles changing oilpump wont help.
Oh H#LL Naw…….. Over 7k for a 134k mile 70s era Mopar? Once you start driving it on a regular basis it will fall apart is short order. I wonder how much bondo is under that paint……LOL!
I had a 67 Dodge Coronet 500. I went through three 727’s before replacing with 904 with driveshaft and selling the beast.
Are you sure it wasn’t the other way around? The 904 was the small trany and the 727 was the big one. I rebuilt a lot of 904’s but not all that many 727’s
Nice time capsule car! Love the console & floor shifter! Before anymore parts get thrown at this car, put an old fashion oil pressure gauge on it as a test. SEE what’s really going on with that engine. Smokey Younic said years ago ” 10 psi per 1k of rpm ” . I like 20+ at idle, then 10-20 psi plus per 1k rpm. Unplug the sending unit & see what happens. Last oil change might have had a mini filter put on. I’ve seen it happen. Good looking car!
Back in the 70`s my father had a 71 Valient Scamp with a 318 and a 74 Satellite with a 318. I would sit at a light and smoke the tires on take off better than anything else Ive driven. Beat the crap out of them behind his back and never damaged either engine or transmission!
I think it may be the oil filter. Mopars did that alot with aftermarket filters .