For The Adventure – The Odyssey of Logan Mullikin’s 1972 Plymouth Duster
Back in May of 2020, I was scrolling Facebook marketplace (like I always do out of habit) and came across a 1972 Plymouth Duster. Shit brown color, slant six-cylinder automatic, manual brakes, and oddly enough, power steering (grandpa or grandma spec). I’ve been looking for a clean ‘72 for a while now, since my dad sold his at the turn of the millenium.
I showed my girlfriend at the time (now my wife), and said “Babe, look! It’s a ‘72 just like my dad’s old Duster and it’s in Morrison, Illinois! What do you think about me selling the motorcycle and the wagon (1965 AMC Rambler 660) to buy this?” She said it was my dream car, so it was up to me. So, a couple hours and some pretty god-awful photos later, I had both up for sale.
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I had a couple of offers on both but nothing near what I wanted to sell them for to buy this Duster. Meanwhile, I was messaging the seller asking for more photos, videos and information on the car. He barely gave me any photos besides the ones on the for-sale post and not a whole lot more information.
A couple more days dragged by and I finally had buyers for both the motorcycle and the wagon. I also got the seller of the Duster down to $7k, which in my opinion was still too high, but when you want something that bad, you make things work.
The buyer for my motorcycle picked it up on a Thursday and I sold the wagon on a Friday. A friend and I loaded up some snacks and the cash to buy the Duster that night and started the four-hour drive to Morrison.
Once we got to Morrison, the car was outside and it looked rougher than I expected, but it was rust free for being a midwestern car it's whole life (bonus)! After a couple of calls to my Mopar friends and a long conversation with my dad, sending photos back and forth, we agreed on a price and loaded it up on the trailer.
Once I got it back to my mom’s house, I unloaded it and started to put a list together on how to get this thing running a little better. Plugs, cap, rotor you know, the normal tune up stuff. And I started to drive it little by little.
After a couple of months of driving me and my now wife decided to go to a friend’s house and had a little too much fun that night. In the morning, about half way home, I hit the brakes to slow down to 35mph and I had no brakes. My foot was right to the floor and amazingly we slowed down enough to come to a stop. Then I realized I forgot to disengage the parking brake. It sat for weeks after that, and me saying “I'll get it running again and blah blah blah.”
Well, in those weeks and what eventually tuned to months, I started to collect parts. Small block K-member, a legit A-body 8.75-inch rear end I picked up for $500, ‘73 Dart Sport front spindles and disc brakes, and slowly started the hoard of parts in a spare bedroom at my mom’s.
I set a date to pull the running and driving slant six out for a 318 (390 stroker) a random guy on marketplace was selling for $400. I had no idea it had work done to it until I pulled the heads and saw the oversized pistons and such.
Me being a machinist, I measured the stroke and the bore size and bam, a 390 stroker with REALLY worked over iron J heads with 1.88/2.02 valves. Couple weeks went by and in March of 2021 the engine went in, outside with two of my closest friends, in 35-degree weather.
Did I mention up until late in 2023 this car was stored outside and worked on in a parking lot? Yup, no garage or anything. During winters I would put it into storage in another family member’s garage.
Once the engine was in place, along with the shoehorned B-body headers, it was time to start the re-wire process to make the slant six engine harness work for a V8, which was pretty much the same, mount up the Dart Sport front suspension, and set the car back on the ground.
Weeks later, I got some more parts, sold some parts I thought I didn't need, and bought the rear disc brake kit from Dr. Diff, along with 35 spline axles once I received my tax return. My father rebuilt the whole rear end for me, including new brake lines and such. I ordered Mopar Performance 3200-pound Super Stock leaf springs with some cheap competition engineering shocks. I pulled the small 7 1/4-inch rear end out, and in went the new and improved rear end.
In early 2022 the car was "barely" street legal with open headers, no hood and an almost functional cooling system, but it ran and drove.
Crunch time hit when I wanted to attend an event called Automotion, a huge car cruise/show in May up in the Wisconsin Dells. With good help from a local shop, some bartering of more parts I've collected, and some good connections with friends, I added a super simple exhaust, got the car aligned, and fitted a Glasstek fiberglass hood with a monstrous five-inch Hemi scoop that I spray painted black in the garage.
It was time for a legit first drive to Gus's Drive-In, located in east Troy. And the first person to get that ride was my mother. Honestly I owed her for staining her parking lot, leaving oily fingerprints all over the house, and some really late nights after work wrenching on it until 4am. She loved it, and I did too.
I drove the car like this for months, doing burnouts with it and causing havoc around the area. I went to the track and was thinking it would run a 16 second time slip because of the slipping trans, a super tight 2100 stall converte,r a vacuum secondary 600cfm carb and a 3.23 gear, but it cracked off a 13.99 at 101mph.
Next step was a transmission rebuild, a better gear and a new converter. Well, those plans happened, but at the worst time. In a time span of a month and one week, I lost three out of my four grandparents. My work gave me my bereavement leave and I needed to get my mind off of the crap start to 2023. I contacted Cope Racing and got set up with a build your own 500hp 904 overhaul kit, along with a reverse manual valve body, 4.11 gears and a 3600-stall converter from FTI, and took a week off from work to work on the Duster.
After a week of wrenching on it in my mom’s "weekend" house two hours away, the rear gear, transmission and such were in the car. I later got rid of the eBay radiator that was zip tied in, for a Frostbite 4 core radiator, Spal 16-inch single electric fan and ran new transmission AN lines. By May the car was back up at Automotion for the car show and after that I beat the snot out it. July hit, and my wife got married where I did a huge burnout, and in October of 2023 we bought our first house with a garage just big enough to fit the Duster in.
Next plans for the car are bucket seats, a basic six-point roll cage, and a full rewire of the car front to back. Long term goal is to run a Sick Week event (I’m attending Sick Summer 2024), and to run 10s in the car, but I know it will never happen since I'm planning on doing a Gen-3 5.7-liter HEMI swap with a Hellcat blower in the next couple of years. So, maybe a mid nine-second street car that's still budget friendly.
I’ve got to give a huge shout out to my dad Tyler, who got me addicted to Mopars and drag racing in general, locating parts and helping me troubleshoot things that go haywire; my long time best friend Connor, for always being willing to help me out no matter what time it is and always giving me ideas; my wife Michaela for always putting up with my car antics, and talks about what I should do next with the car; my uncle Ben for shooting ideas my way, and telling me to bust/kick ass at life; my other best friend Chuck for helping me source parts and finding the best deals on stuff; my uncle Todd for always answering the phone on any questions I had about Mopars; and last but not least my mother Kari, for always supporting me at anything I put my mind to, for telling me to never give up on your dreams, and to keep pushing the envelope to achieve the dreams I have.
Written by Logan Mullikin.
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