What are the drawbacks of an F Body?

-
vonfilm said:
So, what do you think of the M body cars, Diplomat, Lebaron, Grand Fury, and Fifth Avenue? I am drawn to these 318 cars as a way to have an inexpensive V8 sport sedan.
Click to expand...
nothing cheap bout our hobby!!!! ha... it is bout what rows your boat! just always be ware IF you decide to sell any model car, what you have in it and what anyone will pay you for it ....one has nothing to do with the other! I say if you want one, go for it.
 
vonfilm said:
So, what do you think of the M body cars, Diplomat, Lebaron, Grand Fury, and Fifth Avenue? I am drawn to these 318 cars as a way to have an inexpensive V8 sport sedan.
Click to expand...

I want a St. Regis in the worst way!! I want to make a State Police custom, with a big Hemi, custom cop car interior, sweet paint, and a big shield on the doors that says "State Boys Pride"!!
 
I had a 80 Cordoba with T roof. Put a big block in it before the had all these conversion motor mounts out. Had to put manual breaks on it as the valve cover would hit the power booster. I liked the dash gauge layout, another one I wish I still had.
 
cosgig said:
I want a St. Regis in the worst way!! I want to make a State Police custom, with a big Hemi, custom cop car interior, sweet paint, and a big shield on the doors that says "State Boys Pride"!!
Click to expand...

i think ive mentioned it before, but the state boys up around Grand Haven still have a sport fury patrol car in service
 
The Australians may have embraced the 4 door car culture but as Americans, we have not.
I actually like the Aspen/Volare cars. Not as much as the Dusters or Darts but they are still cool. They carry with them the curse of catalytic converters and lean burn ignition systems. Here in California, they are subject to smog system inspection and testing every two years. Every car and light duty truck built for the 1976 model year forward is subject to testing. EVERYthing has to be in place and functioning properly to pass the test. They do a visual test to look for missing components, then the car is put on a dyno wheel and tested under a load. A smog era 318 2 barrel will be lucky to crank out 120 net HP to the tire. That makes for a really slow car. There have been proposals at the state capitol to relax the smog standards by moving the year model threshhold to 1980. This would really open up these mid to late 70s Mopars to the market. I'm talking the Cordobas, Magnums, Furys and the FMJ cars. I wish they would relax the standards. There are so few classic cars being driven daily it is not as if they are doing any measureable harm.
 
california emissions laws been crazy for years!!! and thay been doing "cash for clunkers" for decades! id imagine finding any older fixer upper muscle car would be a time consuming experience! i know the emissions regulations california imposed on big trucks has put many small company's and independents out of business as anything 2010 or older is illegal in the state!!! any truck older than '10 is being exported out of state or country for less than scrap prices
 
Everyone wants clean air but these jerkoff politicians take it too far. I never voted for these Liberal assclowns. It just so happens that the population centers in this state have so many people, they decide what happens for the entire state. The majority of land mass of this state votes Republican. It cam be compared this way....The left leg makes the decisions for the entire body.
I love the weather and scenery. It is just the politics that suck *** here.
 
exactly what my lawyer friend in escondido says, he restore's old peterbilts as a hobby for ATHS shows. sadly what ever crazyfornia dose, the other 49 line up to follow!
 
dirty white boy said:
exactly what my lawyer friend in escondido says, he restore's old peterbilts as a hobby for ATHS shows. sadly what ever crazyfornia dose, the other 49 line up to follow!
Click to expand...
Hopefully your leaders have the balls to make up their own minds, right?
I feel sorry for guys that have such a hard time finding clean project cars that aren't rusted through. We do get rust here but nothing like what I see from the East Coast and the snow belt!
 
Last edited:
Kern Dog said:
Hopefully your leaders have the balls to make up their own minds, right?
I feel sorry for guys that have such a hard time finding clean project cars that aren't rusted through. We do get rust here but nothing like what I see from the East Coast and the snow belt!
Click to expand...
makes me remember back to late 80's, early 92 before the "crash" of the first muscle car era. I was in Missouri, but there was a "company" that couple of Minnasota guys had that bought these "musclecars" out of Ca. and had them trucked to them in Mn. sold the heck out of them.. funny part was several guy called me p wanting to sell me their Mn project. ( ie. 70 hemi cuda roller, 70 challenger six pac project etc) NO rust hardly at all. they were deemed special and never drove in the snow! ha
this Ca. clunker crap has taken out how many thousands of good projects...????? lawnmowers and dairy cows put out , by far, more pollution than what old cars still on the road could ever possibly contribute!?? ha
FMJ cars are perfect for the Mopar guy that wants to be different. take one to the local Mopar show, cruise-in, and i bet way more people will stop and look and talk... than with the "typical" entry!!!!? being different has always ben the hallmark of Mopar-dom!! ha
 
I live in Travsis county, one of the few counties in Texas to do emission testing. Fortunately, they only go back 24 years so 1992 and previous years are not emissions tested. I don't know if their is any visual check for the annual state safety inspection, but I would think it would be perfunctory.

Four door hot rodding opens a lot of doors for inexpensive high performance. The four door M body is attractive and compact style. I have always liked Valiant sedans also.
 
dirty white boy said:
california emissions laws been crazy for years!!! and thay been doing "cash for clunkers" for decades! id imagine finding any older fixer upper muscle car would be a time consuming experience! i know the emissions regulations california imposed on big trucks has put many small company's and independents out of business as anything 2010 or older is illegal in the state!!! any truck older than '10 is being exported out of state or country for less than scrap prices
Click to expand...

When they launched the federal cash for clunkers program in 2009 it never applied to any 70's era cars, the cars had to be newer than 1984. The current program in California doesn't mention a date beyond the cars being older than 1995, but the cars have to run and drive in order to be considered, so it doesn't affect project cars. Under the current rules you actually have to drive the car to the collection center.

https://www.hemmings.com/blog/index...s-expansion-of-its-cash-for-clunkers-program/

California Cash for Clunkers Program – 2017 BAR Program

Kern Dog said:
Everyone wants clean air but these jerkoff politicians take it too far. I never voted for these Liberal assclowns. It just so happens that the population centers in this state have so many people, they decide what happens for the entire state. The majority of land mass of this state votes Republican. It cam be compared this way....The left leg makes the decisions for the entire body.
I love the weather and scenery. It is just the politics that suck *** here.
Click to expand...

Land mass doesn't vote. People vote. This isn't a political post, let's not turn it into one.
 
Boat tail Diplomat/LeBaron's are cool.
 
.....and F/M/J cars still turn up in U-pulls and don't get picked over on the first day.
 
F bodies are cool. and 2 of the coolest factory street cars of all time are the 1978 Aspen/Volare Street Kit cars. production = Aspen - 145, Volare - 247. large 43 door decals, 360 on the hood, large fender flares, 2 tone paint, rear spoiler, windshield clamps etc.
 
Marcohotrod said:
F bodies are cool. and 2 of the coolest factory street cars of all time are the 1978 Aspen/Volare Street Kit cars. production = Aspen - 145, Volare - 247. large 43 door decals, 360 on the hood, large fender flares, 2 tone paint, rear spoiler, windshield clamps etc.
Click to expand...
To me they are a great car to built into a nice street machine, there are a lot of ways to build these cars to what you want. From stock to pro-street. You can still find parts for spoilers, ect. at a cost, but they are out there. I have put a quarter panel on one for a guy and was easier than some of the older cars.
 
...and Super Coupes.
 
Sometimes the world is a valley of heartaches and tears
And in the hustle and bustle, no sunshine appears
But you and I have our love always there to remind us
There is a way we can leave all the shadows behind us
Volare, oh, oh! Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Let's fly way up to the clouds, away from the maddening crowds
We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of
Where lovers enjoy peace of mind
Let us leave the confusion and all disillusion behind
Just like birds of a feather a rainbow together we'll find
Volare, oh, oh! Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
No wonder my happy heart sings
Your love has given me wings
Your love has given me wings
 
I'm not sure that I wanted to know the words to that song...sorta ruins the "mystery".

:poke:
 
They are neat cars. I would say the number one drawback would be the transverse torsion bar suspension. I don't know of many available replacement parts.

It also is a fact that none ever came factory with dual exhaust. They had a wye pipe into a converter into a muffler and the R/T and Super Coupes had two tail pipes, but none were true duals. Ever. If you find one with real duals, it was not a factory job.
 
I like learning about new stuff, and I have never had a F,m,orJ body.. but, I have learned that to do the dual exh thing, you only have to move the gas tank over a little to the right, or maybe what I would like too, is duals that exit in front of rear wheels, also thinking TA style muffles????......I can see it now...
 
I've spent a lot of years owning and having fun with M-'s and F-'s and a J-' thrown into the mix.

Rust issues were pretty much figured out by mid '77. From there on up a rust free F- is like coming across a rust free A- or E-. The biggest thing to make sure of is the cowl drains being open and them to do their job.

There's a lack of parts availability, it's true, so you have to make a network for parts and beat the bushes. What a lot of us had to do once upon a time before all the restoration parts came on line for A-'s. Hell, some of the fun was hunting down parts and gaining those connections. For that, though, there are guys on FMJ's who have the parts you need for a price that's affordable.

The only drawback to the platform is a ton of rubber in the suspension. All the iso mounts, etc. It's all easy to eliminate and places like Firm Feel have the parts you need to help bring back road feel. There's also stiffer urethane parts out there that can be used to replace the rubber on the cheap without breaking the bank on "specialized" parts.

From there, the sky's the limits. Sure, they were produced during the smog era, but they don't have to be put back together with smog era parts in most states. A 360 you'd build for an A-body is the same 360 you'd build for any other car.

No hunting down disk brake conversions; the F-, M-, J- platform came with them. Big bolt pattern already there. Power steering, check, with quick ratio AHB boxes available. 8.25 rears with disk brake upgrades from a Jeep easily enough.

Pre-'71 B-body 8.75's are pretty much a bolt in and easier to find than 8.75 A-body rears.

I've got a buddy who just sold his factory '79 E58 powered Road Runner for almost $20k. That's about the same price you'd be paying for a fully restored A-body comparably equipped.

Another buddy is building a 413 powered '79 Road Runner with a Corvette front suspension, IRS from a Cobra, and twin turbos.
 
YY1 said:
Boat tail Diplomat/LeBaron's are cool.
Click to expand...
I really like my 79 Chrysler 300. For the year its a great running car with the E-58 360 with factory dual exhaust.

100_1365.JPG
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top