1970 ​Plymouth ​Duster

1970 Plymouth Duster - Restore and More

Tree damage turned into restore

1970 Plymouth Duster Project
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I could actually write a novel on this car. It came to me because a tree had fallen onto the top and put some dents here and there. So I fixed the dents and was going to repaint the car due to many scratches from the tree. Then I was asked to replace a section of the right rear quarter panel and the adventure began.

The whole car turned out to be a "Bondo buggy". The right rear quarter panel was over an inch thick in filler in places. So after cutting out the section, I had to cut down all that filler to get back to the original body lines.

I found rust all over that had to be fixed. The driver's door striker post was pop riveted in, real safe. The trunk was rusted out, and the list kept growing. In the end he want to just pay me for the original tree dent repair. I will never again do another job like this one.

All of my cars in my pictures and videos are actual real customer's cars, so usually my main focus is to get the job done. However I plan to do better in the future.

I painted it with Dupont's Chromabase base-coat and used a Dupont clear called Nason. It was a very easy clear to use and to buff. This was a higher solid clear (498) Nason sells. 

Slide Show

Click on any image below to open a larger view and a slide show. You can click the arrows to the right or left. Each image has a brief description for each step of the process

Tree fell on car damaging many sections
The roof took the brunt of the hit from the tree
The cowl vent was bent pretty bad but time and patience got it straightened
Pulled the dent out with the stud weld gun and puller
You can I got the line straight again, very little filler
The cowl vent turned out great
The cartoon looking dent in top is now magically gone
So the car now started turning into a full restore when the quater panel turned out to be rust and 1 inch thick of Bondo
Got the patch panel welded in but now have to recreate that whole body line due to all that unnecessary body filler someone laid in it
Noticed that all the body line in the front fender was wrong
Actually the entire body line down the whole side was fading in and out and was crooked
Previous body man was an idiot and pop riveted and Bondoed that door latch in. You know that is safe
Had to weld a real piece of metal in and rebuild the door latch striker area
The repair turned out nice and the door shut great again, it wasn't before
This was probably the third time of block sanding this side of the car out. Prime and sand over and over
The body line is starting to look like a line now
Wouldn't you know I would have to find a rust hole in the spare tire area
Made my own patch panel and welded it in
Cut in the paint around the trunk lid area and shot the spare tire area
The gift that keeps on giving, had to remove the windshield because the jam where the glass bonds to was rusted out
Finally painted and now color sanding the paint
Buffed out the cowl grill to see how it would turn out, surprisingly well considering
Starting to see the excellent gloss of Nason's 498 clear
Finally the body line is back

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