1971 Dodge Demon

[74Dusted]

This car is nothing special, just move along... Ok i'm joking.

Custom Front & Rear Subframes, Subframe Connectors, Tubbed, Spring Relocation, Coilover Front Suspension, Cage, Reinforced Floorpans, Scattershield/Transmission Tunnel Shield and much more in the works.





















At the moment, it's just removing all the rust to give me a good platform to build off of. The pictures are a little old though, the Custom Rear Subframe is already welded in the car. 2.5" x 4" Custom Subframe vs the original 1.75" x 3" Subframe. The Tubs are ready to be knocked in 3" on each side. Which will allow me to squeeze roughly an 18" Wide Tire under the back of the car, more if i don't mind the sidewalls sticking out past the quarter panels.

Once I finish up the Rear half of the car (still have the Tubs, Rear Crossmember, Trunk Floor, Fuel Cell, Axle, Tail Panel & Quarter Panels to finish up) I'll turn the car around, at which point the front subframe gets cut out and the new one welded in.

A Modified 1973 (Big Bolt Pattern) Small Block K-Frame goes under the front of the car for more Clearance around the engine, Large Bolt Pattern Wheels, and to get away from the original Slant 6 K-Frame.

Then it's on to the Subframe Connectors, Floorpans, Transmission Tunnel, A Driveshaft Hoop, Fenderwell/Shock Tower Modifications.

Then Exterior/Body Work.

Why all the overkill on heavier parts and reinforcements? Because this is what's going under (ok... mostly under) the Hood of this 1971 Demon.



A Supercharged Hemi Engine. Backed by an 18 Spline (Hemi) A833 Pistol Grip 4-Speed Transmission and a 8-3/4" A-Body Rear (Large Bolt Pattern Moser Axleshafts), 489 Center Chunk with a Spool & 3.55's

Oh and the car will be sporting 4 Wheel Power Disc Brakes, Air Conditioning, Power Steering, and more creature comforts

At the moment though, my focus is building a strong frame under this car.

[pennyman1]

If its a Demon why does the rear look like a duster? Those are duster taillights on that rear panel... And yes I know they were the same body with different grille and taillights.

[Stunner]

Wow. This car is gonna be so awesome when you're through with it.

I haven't seen a Demon in a very long time. I can remember my dad working on one of these for one of his buddies, back when I was little. This was back in the late 70's, early 80's, when they all had suped-up muscle cars they'd take to the drag strip on weekends, but still used as daily drivers. I can still remember the smells, especially the Skunk Oil air fresheners they used in their cars to hide the dope smell, lol. Good times.

[74Dusted]

If its a Demon why does the rear look like a duster? Those are duster taillights on that rear panel... And yes I know they were the same body with different grille and taillights.

Cause pieces of the car came from different cars. It's a 70/71 Duster Tail Panel (I have the 71/72 Demon Tail for the car, it will replace the Duster tail i removed). The Hood is from a '72 Demon (71 & 72 were the same though), the Fenders are modified '72 Demon Fenders (with '71 Marker Light sections grafted in to make them '71 fenders), The Valance is from a '71 Demon. The Front Bucket Seats are from a 1975 Volvo (Power/Heated Buckets, the only reason they're not mopar parts), the AC/Heaterbox is from a '69 Valiant.

The Driver's Side door took a hard hit, so did the rocker panel. The damage should be visible in the last picture (i'm guessing someone slid the car sideways into a sign or pole). So that door has since been replaced with one from a Hemi Orange '71 Demon. That car is long gone, so is it's brother (a 2-Tone Blue 340/4-Speed '71 Demon... some of the parts from that car are going on this car).

Demon parts (actually any A-Body parts) are hard to find here in PA in a decent/restoreable condition. So i work with what i have, and what i can't find, i make.

To be honest, i've stockpiled most of the A-Body parts within a 50 mile radius. I've got fenders, doors, hoods, trunk lids, tail panels, bumpers, interior, ect buried in several garages. Slowly gathering them up over the last 10 years for my project cars (and future project cars). Some of the stuff is still eluding me though.

I never junk the parts i remove though, they're always kept for spares. Like the Driver's Side door i removed, someday i may need it for one of my cars (like the '71 Demon, or my '71 Duster project)

Here's what i mean, some of the assorted parts, dug out of storage (late spring/early summer.. old pictures. My '74 Duster/daily driver is visible too)





and for good measure, my '71 Duster. Gave this car to my dad, since he wanted to build a 5.7L Hemi Car with a Overdrive Automatic and all the creature comforts of a new car.

[pennyman1]

I understand the mix and match of a vehicle in PA - Geronimo has parts from every year (79-86) that body style was made. If you think they all just bolt on, think again - 79-82 are one group, and 83-86 are another. I wasn't critical of your Demon, just confused. As old as the car is, they used whatever was available that fit. So, are you going to put one of the A body rears under one of the D-50s you got - its a perfect fit, just change the perches.

[74Dusted]

Actually, the rear i removed from the Demon (originally a Slant 6 Car) is a 7.25" Open Differential with 3.23's. Not exactly desireable or considered an upgrade even for a D50. I've got a Cab & Chassis Dana 60 Rear and a Narrowtrack Jeep Dana 44 (with Dodge D44-HD 8-Lug Outers swapped on) to install under the truck.

Yeah i'm kind of familiar with the difference in body parts for the 1st Gen D50's. The Driver's Side Door on my '84 is from an '81. The hinges are different, so the door doesn't line up properly. One of these days I'm going to pull the door off and cut slots in the hinges to line the door up with the body lines on the cab. Actually, my '84 is pieced together from multiple trucks too. 2 of the Lower Quarters are from a 1981, the other 2 are from a 1985, the bed is from an '83, The cab is from an '84, the Fenders are aftermarket, the front valance is from a Ford Ranger (because i went with a Tube Bumper, i needed a valance to hold the turn signals/parking lights), The hood is original, so are the bucket seats & center console.

The Tail Panel on the Demon was replaced at one time (before i bought the car). I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but the welds holding on the inner supports & trunk lock pillar were cut off with a grinder and then rewelded (poorly) with what looked like an arc welder. Not to mention the 10 pounds of Bondo i removed from the Lower Quarters. And alot of the lead on the body seams had been removed and replaced with body filler too (by a previous owner, not me).

Not to mention the umpteen-million tons of fiberglass i removed from the inner wheelwell on the driver's side. Someone spread 2" thick Fiberglass from the edge of the rocker panel over halfway up the inside of the wheelwell to fill in a hole about the size of a half dollar coin. Most of the shoddy body work has been removed, and the rusted metal has been cut out to weld in new metal. I just have to clean off the car, it's buried under a mountain of parts at the moment since i've been cleaning the junk out of the garage and rearranging things.

[pennyman1]

Ya, the 7.5 is not what you want, an 8 3/4 with posi and big bolt pattern is the ticket. The door hinge alignment issue is odd though - my drivers door was a factory replacement door from Dodge - the last one in the country - and I had no problems fitting it on my 1980 cab. That Demon sounds like a 72 Javelin sst I had back in the 70's - I called it the newspaper special. I bought the car from a taxicab mechanic - went to have it inspected and found out one of the front coil springs was broke at the bottom. Not knowing what I know now, all I could find was V8 springs, but the car was a 6; the car had the dragster nose up look. One day, I noticed a blister on the wheelwell on the rear quarter; with very little effort, I had no bottoms of either quarter panel from the bottom to about 5" up from the door to the bumper - it was stuffed with newspaper and bondoed over. I ended up getting rid of the car after the body was fixed - sort of - when the hood hinge ripped out of the inner fender and the heater core went.

[RamMacro50]

are you on forabodiesonly.com

[74Dusted]

are you on forabodiesonly.com

Yep, I go by the same screen name over there. I'm also on earlycuda.org and forbigblocksonly.com (same screen name, I love my '74 Plymouth Duster) I'm also on 4btswaps and turbododge.

There really isn't a website/forum that condenses all of my vehicles into one location. Since I have a '65 Cuda (Early A-body/early cuda.), A '74 440 Scamp project and the '71 426 Demon project, A Dakota that is eventually getting a 4BT/NV4500, and TurboDodge because alot of the parts from the 80's Turbo cars will fit my '83 Scamp GT (2.2L Turbo II AWD Project Car)