44 CAR CRAFT NOVEMBER 2019
T
he Dustbin Duster is a hard-core
street/’strip type of car, with a
gutted interior and minimal crea-
ture comforts, so you might expect us
to bolt on a set of lightweight drag-
race brakes. Maybe something with a
thin, solid rotor and tiny aluminum cali-
pers. Those types of brakes work OK at
the dragstrip, where the car stops once,
but we’re planning to drive this thing a
lot. Dustbin will have a weight-to-power
ratio in the low 5s, which puts it in the
same class as a Viper or a Hellcat. That
kind of power means it will jump totriple-digit speeds in a heartbeat, so we
need some great brakes to keep us out
of trouble. The Viper kit that we used
weighs a bit more than a drag-race kit,
but the performance and quality is far
superior to typical drag race brakes.
Of course, this level of performance
comes at a cost, but it seems like a
good trade-off to make.
If you want to do something unusual,
like hanging Viper brakes on a ’72
Duster, you have to dig around to find
the hard-core guys who craft stuff like
this. In our case, we went to Doctor Diffin Polson, Montana. Doctor Diff is a seri-
ous Mopar guy who has built a busi-
ness by solving problems that the big
boys overlook. He mostly focuses on
drivetrain parts, but he also has some
clever brake kits that solve problems
for Mopar vehicles. For the Viper kit, he
designed a custom hub and caliper
bracket to bolt a factory caliper and a
13-inch rotor to a Mopar spindle. The
caliper and brake pads come straight
from your local Dodge dealer, while the
rotor is a lightweight two-piece design
from Baer. The rotors and calipers are➔PROJECT CAR
PROJECT DUSTBIN
DUSTER: BIG BRAKES
The Viper Parts Bin to the Rescue!
By Andy Finkbeiner / Photos: Andy Finkbeiner
Car Craft’s Project Dustbin Duster has white paint on
the front clip now and a serious four-wheel disc-brake
setup. We’ve been busy bolting on some top-shelf parts
and are almost ready to drop it back on the ground.