The Most Devastating Engineering Miscue Found in Early A-Bodies

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dibbons

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Should at least have had some way to close off the cowl vent (like antique cars had). Anyone else have another similar "miscue" on your list?

a body cowl vent.jpeg


cowl vent.jpg
 
My 47 has the cowl vent. Even has a screen to keep unwanted objects out of the cabin
 
One of the Mustang sites made a clear plexiglass cover with 2 spring loaded "T" fasteners a while back. I copied because 67 & later A bodies have wider cowls than early Mustangs.
 
Yeah that's a problem for sure.And a LOT of work to repair rust in that area.
 
The reason the cowl is open is so that you can use the heater for outside air. If the cowl vents had been CABLE controlled like mustangs and B bodies they would have been way more useful. Or if the heater had been configured to make use of cool outside air IE if only Ma had put WATER VALVES on all heaters instead of only AC

and just so ya know, those "antique" cowl vents leaked too!!!! My Dad had several of the 50's era GMC/Chev pickups and at least one of them leaked and dripped rain water. I was young then so don't remember. "It might have been" a rust problem.

What would have been nice is if the cowl was removable so you could clean the damn things out!!!
 
No reason to throw Mopar under the bus. Those barn door vents moved a lot of air. The best vents in the business. And, they were big enough to hide a bottle of wine in. That's a handy option when you're 16. :lol:
 
Not issue for me. But it is tough to open the passenger side vent from drivers seat.

biggest issue is the weak stud mounted idler arm
 
You guys talking about the "mail box" or "dog box" vents under the dash? They are great ,my 70 has no AC, inthe summer, between them and the vent windows,plenty of air dont need AC :)
 
You guys talking about the "mail box" or "dog box" vents under the dash? They are great ,my 70 has no AC, inthe summer, between them and the vent windows,plenty of air dont need AC :)
And they're good for hiding beer etc. from the cops in case you get pulled over........
 
No reason to throw Mopar under the bus. Those barn door vents moved a lot of air. The best vents in the business. And, they were big enough to hide a bottle of wine in. That's a handy option when you're 16. :lol:
Back when I was a teen I use to hide my snuff from my parents in the driver's side air vent. Good little storage area. I bet it would act as a good fridge in the winter time for a guys wobble pops! Lol
 
Keep the beer cold in them boxes.

I also liked the lipped under dash... as a teen i would hide my stash under the dash.

I found a NOS never installed "Custom" badge in that lip when I was cleaning out a '72 Dart at the junkyard a few years ago
 
Not a fan of the lipped rear fenders of the 64-66 A's. Saw a 66 solid axle gasser and they cut the rears to match the curve of the tire that stuck out 3 inches. Looked factory and it looked right.
 
Boy, this thread went from are there any other bad things about A bodies to wow what great hiding places there were for all of our contraband. LOL
 
5 x 4 inch bolt circle wheels (absolutely numero uno). 13 inch wheels. 7 1/4 rear ends. Limited room for exhaust. Weak clutch once you start getting real horsepower.

64-5 Barracudas: parking lights staying on when headlights are turned on. I know that's common today, but back in the sixties it was extremely rare. Can't tell you how many cars would assume my parking lights were high beams and flash their lights at me. Then when I did turn on my high beams back at them, they were so weak they would just laugh and leave their brights on. Fixed that when I put driving lights on it I ordered from J.C. Whitney. Found out later they were aircraft landing lights. Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - argued with them.
 
The reason the cowl is open is so that you can use the heater for outside air. If the cowl vents had been CABLE controlled like mustangs and B bodies they would have been way more useful. Or if the heater had been configured to make use of cool outside air IE if only Ma had put WATER VALVES on all heaters instead of only AC

and just so ya know, those "antique" cowl vents leaked too!!!! My Dad had several of the 50's era GMC/Chev pickups and at least one of them leaked and dripped rain water. I was young then so don't remember. "It might have been" a rust problem.

What would have been nice is if the cowl was removable so you could clean the damn things out!!!
80's Jeep CJ's were the worst for cowl vents, they had fresh air ducting that actually dipped down, than came back up, right over the drivers legs.
When it rained hard, the duct will fill up with water, then when you went to take off, it would dump about a qt of water on the driver, about midway down between the knee and ankle.
 
This is what the early Mustang cowl cover looks like. The fasteners had a cross pin & spring that made it stay in place.
cc1_1.2233.jpg
 
5 x 4 inch bolt circle wheels (absolutely numero uno). 13 inch wheels. 7 1/4 rear ends. Limited room for exhaust. Weak clutch once you start getting real horsepower.

64-5 Barracudas: parking lights staying on when headlights are turned on. I know that's common today, but back in the sixties it was extremely rare. Can't tell you how many cars would assume my parking lights were high beams and flash their lights at me. Then when I did turn on my high beams back at them, they were so weak they would just laugh and leave their brights on. Fixed that when I put driving lights on it I ordered from J.C. Whitney. Found out later they were aircraft landing lights. Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - argued with them.

I used to run A/C landing lights. 4537's are same size as 4 lamp round systems (PAR46), 4509's are smaller "PAR-36" size

Both are 100W each lamp, so you need substantial wiring and relays. The small ones don't last as long.
 
5 x 4 inch bolt circle wheels (absolutely numero uno). 13 inch wheels. 7 1/4 rear ends. Limited room for exhaust. Weak clutch once you start getting real horsepower.

64-5 Barracudas: parking lights staying on when headlights are turned on. I know that's common today, but back in the sixties it was extremely rare. Can't tell you how many cars would assume my parking lights were high beams and flash their lights at me. Then when I did turn on my high beams back at them, they were so weak they would just laugh and leave their brights on. Fixed that when I put driving lights on it I ordered from J.C. Whitney. Found out later they were aircraft landing lights. Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - argued with them.
Agreed 100% on the 13'' wheels and the sbp as well as the 7 1/4'' rear ends.
Also, I may add that the brakes were too small, the 7/16'' studs were too weak, and the ball joints were too small.
But, one has to remember that the cars were originally designed to be a cheap commuter slant six for the masses.
They competed with the Ford Falcon and the Chevy 2 which were also cheap light duty cars.
The problem is that when all three cars in the class started putting V8 power in these cars, the suspension upgrades didn't follow good enough to support the extra abuse that these cars were going to be put through.
That's for all 3 brands, of course.
The introduction of the 8 3/4 rear end and 10'' brakes was the only step in the right direction though........

I may get some flack about my opinions, but Chrysler should have scrapped the whole SBP, 9'' brake systems, and light duty suspension for the '67 model year across the board.
It wasn't until '73 that they finally went to big bolt pattern and 1/2'' studs with better and beefier suspensions on the V8 and performance cars as well as slant 6 cars with power brakes.
But, a lot of lower line slant 6 cars still had the sbp, small 7/16'' studs and the 9'' brakes which were barely adequate in '64, let alone a much heavier car in the '73 and up models.
After December 31st, 1975, all A-Body cars had the bbp brakes regardless of engine or options for the rest of the '76 model year run (finally) and then A-Bodies were discontinued.

To put it into perspective, A-Bodies were always cheap throw away cars from 1960 to 1976, so not a lot of money or time was spent on their improvements as long as they sold, and us cheapskates kept buying them.

They weren't designed to last more than 5 years or until the warranty lapsed, just like today..........
 
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