Wrecked: A ’70 Duster Gets Reincarnated As A ’71 Demon

As gearheads, we enjoy building and modifying classic muscle cars to improve upon them in as many aspects as possible; the way they look, sound, and ultimately, run. To many of us car customization is an art form, and the car is our sculpture. We put our hearts and souls into our project cars, and we make it a point to keep them in top-notch condition.

Since we love our cars so much, we try to drive them as much as possible -even to work and to the corner grocery store. Unfortunately, not everyone shares our enthusiasm for the automobile and there are less than cautious drivers on the road. A good portion of the motorists on the road today are too busy fiddling with their iPod, eating lunch, or talking on their cellphone to pay any attention to the road.

Such is the case with the demolished ’70 Duster you’re looking at on this page. Tim Harper, the owner of this car, was on his way to work from school back in October, when a girl driving a Ford Focus filled with college kids plowed into the rear end of the classic Plymouth. While Tim was mostly OK, save for a few abrasions, the Duster was a write off even with roll cage and frame connectors. We’ve heard about this story through Pro-Touring.com.

Not one to be deterred from such a fate, Tim went on to rebuild his Duster. But instead of trying to repair the destroyed body, he elected to purchase a ’71 Demon as a replacement, swapping everything over from the Duster carcass.

That included the fuel-injected 408ci Mopar stroker, T56 6-speed gearbox, and the Dana 60 rearend. Tim also put a rollbar in his ‘new’ Demon, to help stiffen up the chassis, and is trying his best to keep things to a budget, so you won’t see any massive “bling” wheels on his car anytime soon.

His car isn’t quite finished yet, but it’s getting close. We’ll continue to monitor the Demon build, dubbed “Project Demon Spawn: The Rebirth of My ’70 Duster” on the pro-touring website.