Anyone else have an a body ute

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flamindodgeute

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brisbane,australia
Just wondering if anyone else here has an a body ute.When I was over there in november I didn't see any.Here's mine.



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Very few UTES here. I've been looking online for auctions and sales but I've only seen a couple for sale. The only ones that ended up here were from transplants or Americans having them shipped over special. Chrysler only made and sold 1 type of what you would call a UTE here. The 1982-84 Rampage (4 cylinders/front wheel drive based on the charger of the same era) and the nearly identical 1983 Plymouth Scamp. We missed out Dude. We could have been blowing away Chevy El Caminos and Ford Falcons but the bean counters at Chrysler said no way since this car/truck platform already had a limited market. :salut:
 
By the way..is that a 265 6 cyl hemi setup? Something else we should have gotten here. :wack: Oh well.....I guess we all here have to live with our V8 hemis.... :-({|=
 
They called our 245 & 265's 6 cylinder engines hemi's but the spark plug enters from the side not the top.They do not really have a quench area either though like the v8 hemi's.They are really great engines & very hard to kill.In the aussie chargers they ran 14.1 1/4 mile standard from the factory which was as fast as our gt falcon v8's (also 14.1),together they were the fastest factory cars in australia for a long time (like 25 years or something).

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I read mopar collector guide & see the slant six races,I dont mean to be a tosser or anything but our 265's make the slants look pathetic.We got the slant too but they do not compare.

Thanks for all the possitive feedback
 
man i love thos utes. are they common at shows down under? if i had the fab skills id take a dart or valiant wagon and chop it into a ute. what is the wheelbase on thos utes???it just sucks we never got these. every now and then i eyeball those little rancheros on ebay. nice car bytheway. got any more pics of utes? thanks

check out the wagon i photo shopped. i did it in a short time so forgive the bad art. just wanted to see what a wagon converted into a ute would look like. ill work on more later, i notice now utes have a little more meat behind the doors.

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Hey Dodgenut64 I think you will like this going by your photo shopped one,its scanned out of an old magazine.It's a 64 ap6 ute same basic shape as your early cudas where as mine is similar to dart.

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There are not to many chrysler utes at shows down here in fact chrysler has only made a resurgance here recently.There are quite a few holden & ford utes but not many chryslers.Mine is actually badged as dodge but they did make a valiant version which had slightly larger rear window.Not mant of either were made though.Wheel base on mine is the same as the dart of the same shape.
 
cool pics thanks. the body lines of that ute follow the wagon very close, i would almost bet the wheel bases are the same. i think 106 for wagons and 111 for my 64 convertible. isnt the purple ute an AP6 model? im trying to figure out your guys models. so far chrysler valiant has come up alot in old aritcals from down your way. i guess someone could make a ute out of a wagon. there would be alot of fabing for the area behind the seats/back wondow area. cutting off a wagons roof wouldnt be hard, and making a bed wouldnt either. couldnt justify cutting up a good wagon, but a ruff one would do.
heres a few pics ive found

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heres a few more. see what i mean by the utes seem to be modified wagons? i love the utes and the wagons. just real cool different cars.

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My ute seems to have a standard floorpan & the tray goes on top of it,I was considering putting 4 x 12 inch subs behind the seat.I measured it up & they would fit in the gap between floor & tray still with heaps of room back to the rise for the diff where the gap closes.The red one you have pictured is a vc ute,the blue one is another ap6,they also made an ap5 which had a flatter grille.I really like the more rounded rear on the earlier utes,if I didn't already have the missus telling me to get rid of something I'd consider getting one.I guess 5 cars is enough for now anyway.
 
i noticed on the wagons you can see the gas filler neck, wheres the gas filler neck on the utes? what about a spare tire? can you take some pics of the underside of your ute? also maybe in the cab behind the seats? im just wondering how hard it would be to convert a wagon into a ute. so far i know the spare would have to go somewhere else so you can have a full bed, but i wonder what youd have to do to eliminate the rearseats and second row of seats to turn it into a ute. i notice also the bed lip is higer on the utes then the wagons, i guess youd have to bring that up to match the utes. tail gate on wagon would have to have glass window removed.
my idea would be to have a 63 or 64 dart looking ute. a 1 of 1 kinda thing. i wonder if the wagons glass could be used for the rear window of the ute cab. id need all kinds of measurements off a ap5 or ap6 to really help. for now im keeping my eyes open for a wagon. i need a good soild framed car, but windows and roofs broken arent a biggy. i guess a 65 or 66 would do as well, id just have to change a few things.
ive been looking on ebay for stuff on the ap5 ap6 models. i like all the utes, but an ap5 looking ute would look good next to my 64 dart convertible when its done. any pic you can take of your ute would be helpful for me, and if you hit any car shows this summer/winter, if you could take pics of some of them thatd be awsome.
 
I mini tubbed mine But only moved the leaf springs about 15mm to give a bit more clearance to the wheels.It was easier than moving them all the way under the rails,only took a few hours to drill out the spot welds on the spring hanger mounts & bolt them up right beside the rail,then made offset lowering blocks so the diff mounts are still in their original possition.

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fuel filler is on the lh 1/4 panel,I figure the spare tyre would usually go behind the rear seat were I was going to put sub woofers,but to be honest I don't carry a spare (dodges dont break down).I'll keep my eye out for some utes for you but our big chrysler show is not until about august I think.Its the biggest we have in qld but only has a couple hundred cars.
 
thanks for the pics. interesting how the bed goes in under the cab abit. thanks for any pics you can get this summer also
 
ok, got bored tonite and converted a 65 dart wagon into a ute. did it in a short amount of time so forgive the bad art (gotta master this photoshop program). anyway. i really think someone with great welding skills could take a wagon and convert it into a ute. doing the bed and rear window area would be the tough part. the 63-66 U.S wagon and AP5 and AP6 aussie ute must ride on the same wheelbase (106). looks like the spare would have to go, unless you made a cool bed that had a section that poped up to reveal the spare tire, although itd collect water more then lightly. maybe the spare could go underneath like on a pickup. one could probably cut the bed floor out of a pickup and use it for the bed. alot of work and skills needed, but doable. one tricky area would be the rear window, youd have to fab it up to fit a window seal. wish i had those skills. maybe down the road.
well what do ya think? instead of the wayfarer we could call it the dodge dart Walkabout or some other aussie related thing. crazy, but itd still be fun

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My ute has a couple of drain holes that run a hose under the window on the tray bed to another pipe on floor for water to drain.I just blocked mine off with a chrome cap for a kitchen sink.
Your photo shop effort may not be great but I'm confident that your better than me.I suck.
Would be cool though I was watching an episode of full throttle today were they raced an el camino & a rancher,I was thinking how cool it would have been if you guys got some of our utes.With your population I'm sure there would be alot of very cool ones getting around kicking chev/ford but.I'm thinking more than a few big block hemi powered utes would have been doing the rounds. :thumblef:
 
i guess if the ford ranchero would have taken off well in the US, chrysler may have made them over here, but i dont even think the dart wagon sold more then a handful of units. i just think utes went over so well in australia from way back that they had/have a big following. over here even the rancheros and elcomenios where kinda on the low production list. we did in the 80s get the Rampage, which is all ute, although it was a frontwheeldrive, some have been converted into rearwheeldrive. i see them on ebay all the time. i feel cheated we didnt get a ute in valiant or dart form back in the 60s. we didnt even get dart wagons after 66, which ive noticed you guys got dart wagons (or your dart looking car anyway). seeing a ute over here would be even more rare then seeing U.S mopars at aussie car shows.
i guess youve you seen this ute?

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Can't say I have but I like it.We did get wagons all through the range.It seems that over here we went less on the coupes & had more performance sedans as well,I guess it's the family thing.
 
well when you got a family its easier with 4 doors. as a matter of fact the last gen of neons never got just 2 doors, 4 only, and now the caliber, (neons replacement) is a 5 door. over here 2 doors does scream grannies car, but probably the biggest selling cars we have are mini vans. 2 door cars just dont sell like they used to.
 
Yeah I was over for a holiday in november & hired a dodge caravan for some of the time we were there as I took the family (mum,dad,me,wife & son) & needed the room.Was a little disappointed,I liked the chevy van more (cant remember what it was called) it had more room & more go.
 
was the chevy van rearwheel drive? some of those chevy vans are and they have a bigger engine. the big thing over hear is dvd players in the mini vans, kids can watch movies instead of fighting one another. it helps on long trips. spolied they are. i had nothing but coloring books and a few toys all the way from Missouri to California when i was a kid. it wasnt bad though.
 
I think it was front wheel drive,the first time I drove was on the way to vegas & dad was tired he drove from the airport.I pulled off the side of the road & gunned it up to about 90 & it seemed to have a lot of torque steer,but it may have just been me getting used to driving on the other side of the road.They both had dvd players which was great because my son is only 5,we stopped brought a couple of dvd's but by the end of the trip (4 weeks)I was sick of hearing them.Guess it's better than a whinging kid though.
 
pretty cool your whole family got to vacation together. my wife has a caravan (the small one). she had a pt cruiser but rolled it last year. its not a bad van, but it feels like im driving a bus compared to my little neon which after driving my wifes van feels like im driving a Go kart. were going to vegas in ausgust, any memorable stories about your visit to the U.S and vegas? were gonna get remarried (10 year aniversery) by an elvis impersinator. sounds silly, but we figure every 10 years well renew our vows some place different. i told her on year 20 i want to renew our vows in Scotland and have a celtic type wedding.
oh yeah i know what ya mean about hearing the same dvd over and over, but for long trips we bring a bunch of dvds, and we drug the kids drinks....just kiddin.
so whats life like in Australia? when i think of Australia i think of Men at Work (the band), AC/DC (werent they from australia?), Silverchair (the band), Mick Dunee (loved those movies, didnt see part3), Mel Gibson (mad max), chrysler utes, kangaroos, crocidiles,friendly folk, and lots of red dirt. but i know theres gotta be lots more.
 
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