1980 Plymouth Volare 340

[SVTInterceptor]

I’ve had it in my head for a while to do the MPC Plymouth Volaré with an AMT 1971 duster, chassis, suspension and drivetrain.  
it was never a question. I definitely wanted to put fireball model works Steelies on the car.  
It all started by making sure that the chassis line up underneath the Volaré body. 
Of course it pretty much lined up, but the interior was a problem.  I had to cut a hole in the interior tub of the Volaré to fit the duster chassis. This was really fun and I really do mean it. I’m not being sarcastic.
Seeing how the Volaré comes with no real detail in the engine bay, I decided to use the Duster’s engine bay. Also, because this was going to be a quick build just to see if the chassis would fit this model I decided to use the drivetrain from the Duster. I was quite impressed myself when I was able to get the engine bay to lineup under the.Volaré body. 

Paint: 

I have a hard time to decide what color to paint this thing I wanted it to be in the beginning just the kind of beater run around old grandma‘s car that was turned into a hot rod. I wanted it to be yellow like a banana and maybe have some primer spots or something like that.  I decided to use craft acrylic paint for the color.  I started with a banana yellow, and mixed in some other colors to try and shade it a little more pea green. However, I overshot the mark and added one too many drops of green to the mix and that is how we wound up with this color. 😂 Now I didn’t want it to be a show winning paint job, but rather a worn and faded look. I primed it with red oxide primer so I can have some primer and surface rest spots come through. I dig it. 😎👍🏾

 

Interior:

I am pretty proud of the interior. As I said, I cut a hole in the floor of the. Volaré to accommodate the floor pan incorporated into the duster chassis. Only a slight modification or rounding to the tunnel in the middle of the rear seat was needed to make it fit. The dusters bucket seats were used along with its shifter.  I added a few extra little details, like some reading material, a tarp, a roadkill sticker, and a gas brake and clutch pedal. I also noticed that for Volarés head shoulder seatbelts. Once I saw this, I had to put it into this car. I would’ve been mad later on if it wasn’t in there. I use some sheet plastic and cut slivers so I could slide some ribbon through it. Then I hung it from the roof of the car behind the drivers and passenger seat. I had a lot of fun with this.
 

Engine:

The engine is out of the AMT 1971 duster kit. My original idea was to put a 440 into this one, but like I said, I wanted this to be quick and to see if the duster chassis would fit this car. The motor is basically straight out of the box. I did add some 3-D printed parts such as the air cleaner and the distributor.  I used Grandpa Mark‘s hobbies method of wiring the distributor. Which is going from the heads back to the distributor using Protech wiring.
I decided to also do my valve covers in chrome. The whole engine has a used look because I used red oxide primer under a custom mixed orange paint that I airbrushed onto the engine.  I like it.

Exhaust:

The exhaust is straight out of the box from the duster as well, but I changed the tailpipes. I didn’t want to see the duster exhaust tips coming out of the back of this car. I wanted straight tail pipes coming out of the back.  

Body:

I’ve done this kit once before as a pro touring car but this time I wanted to do it a little more like an every day car. A daily driver turned weekend street machine run around play car.  The first thing I did was fill in the headliner and remove lines from the roof. As you can see in the pictures below, it takes quite a bit to remove the t-tops. I like the smooth roof.
 

At the time of this riding, the car is about 98% done. Feel free to take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think. Thank you for following. Have a great day!
 

 

[LennyB]

Always loved these cars. Haven't built one since they were new so I'm interested in seeing what you do.

[dwc43]

The Duster chassis won't work though. The F body has transverse mounted torsion bars mounted on the K frame. The Duster has longitudinal torsion bars mounted on the Transmission crossmember that runs up to the lower control arms. The A body Duster has the wrong front suspension for an F body Volare'. And the fire wall for the Duster has the old points type voltage regulator on it and it has the ecu box that would be on the right fender of the Volare'. And there were no 340 Volare' cars. No 340's after 73. The Volare' had three engine options. 225 super six or the 318 or 360. Some have put 440s in real Volare's but they don't handle at all and they won't hook up cause the F body is so front heavy to begin with. But that's the way it goes.