Rarity of 100% OEM Restored A Bodies - Rant/Whine
A little insight into why I wrote this post. A flashback here. It's May 1971 and I'm hoping to make a 1971 Plymouth Duster 340 my first new car. This would be my first high performance car after starting with a 1955 Buick, then a 1962 Ford Galaxie 4 door and finally a 1960 VW bug (ugh.) I brave the C-P dealership sales people and go looking for an example to test drive. It has to be a 4 speed. The dealer has one and I think it's perfect: Autumn Bronze Metallic, vinyl roof, bench seat, four speed and AM radio. Everything else is pretty basic with manual drum brakes and manual steering. Even before getting on the road I was smitten. I came back from my test drive determined to execute my plan to make enough money during the summer to buy the car outright. Naive, yes. It was gone before August. Then, a miracle. The car attached to this window sticker appeared on the lot in a dealer trade. I jumped and bought my first Mopar - a 1971 Plymouth Cuda, 340, 4 speed, FC7, shaker hood and high performance axle package. It was a great car but I always missed that Duster. Now, almost 50 years later, I've seen examples of NOS-restored Cudas but hardly ever, if ever, a car like that Duster, complete and still 100% stock.
A little insight into why I wrote this post. A flashback here. It's May 1971 and I'm hoping to make a 1971 Plymouth Duster 340 my first new car. This would be my first high performance car after starting with a 1955 Buick, then a 1962 Ford Galaxie 4 door and finally a 1960 VW bug (ugh.) I brave the C-P dealership sales people and go looking for an example to test drive. It has to be a 4 speed. The dealer has one and I think it's perfect: Autumn Bronze Metallic, vinyl roof, bench seat, four speed and AM radio. Everything else is pretty basic with manual drum brakes and manual steering. Even before getting on the road I was smitten. I came back from my test drive determined to execute my plan to make enough money during the summer to buy the car outright. Naive, yes. It was gone before August. Then, a miracle. The car attached to this window sticker appeared on the lot in a dealer trade. I jumped and bought my first Mopar - a 1971 Plymouth Cuda, 340, 4 speed, FC7, shaker hood and high performance axle package. It was a great car but I always missed that Duster. Now, almost 50 years later, I've seen examples of NOS-restored Cudas but hardly ever, if ever, a car like that Duster, complete and still 100% stock.
