Late A preferences--a survey

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drpreposterous

drpreposterous

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What do you like/dislike about each generation of later As? (parts availability, quality, styling, performance, etc.)
Supposing that they might naturally divide into these subsets...

'67-69
'70-72
'73-76

From what I've gleaned from this forum, there are those that feel quality control took an upturn in '70 and '71. At any rate, sound off on it. I'm eager to see what everyone thinks! Also, if '73-76 are called "beaks," who has names for the other two subsets?
 
73-76 is much more likely to have disk brakes and/or AC, and to a lesser extent, bucket seats.
 
It depends on what model were talking about. On the darts I like the tail lights of a 71-73 and the grill on the 72. So my favorite dart is a 72.
The beak front on 73+ darts is ugly in my opinion but the plymouth beaks were much less pronounced and looked better.
73+ A bodys seem to be for sale everywhere these days. The problem is the aftermarket has not caught up with them and there are a lot of 73+ specific parts needed.
Favorite A bodys are 71 Duster and 72 Swinger.
 
'67-'69 - best styling in my opinion. And '67 in particular, still has doorjamb vin so I can run a 'glass or aluminum dash and not worry about legal issues.
 
I like the 67-69 Darts and Cudas best, owned two 69 Darts, bought the first one new, it had a couple real minor QC glitches, have a 67 Cuda now, like it a lot.

As for QC being better in the 70s, It went downhill across the board for all the car companies, everybody was turning out some pretty crappy product. I bought a new 74 Dodge B300 van that was a major POS build quality wise. My wife bought a new 79 Firebird Formula that also had build quality problems but not as bad as my van.
 
'67 to '69.

Positives:

Great styling and performance.
8 3/4 rear ends.
340 was a great package out of the box for the street.
Available in big block.
Who can argue with the badass '68 Hemi Super Stock package cars?
Light weight and a variety of models to satisfy all tastes.
Inexpensive to buy and easy to maintain.

Negatives:

Lousy small bolt pattern wheels and brakes, especially 9'' drums on slant six cars. also only 7/16'' wheel studs in LH and RH thread. Kinda weak.
Ball joints and front suspension in general were too small, especially for performance models.
Lap belt seat belts are not that safe really.
Only designed for leaded gas.
Lousy puck style motor mounts and transmission mounts.
Charging system and wiring were not very good.
Points ignitions were very reliable for the day, but spark wasn't that great unless kept up and required frequent tune ups.
Tires were too small in general for performance cars, and a lot of the low line cars had 13'' wheels. Terrible.

'70 to '72.

Positives:

Dusters. They sold a million of them!
Phasing in electronic ignition and hardened valve seats to accommodate unleaded gas.
Better wiring and charging systems.
A safer car overall.
High impact colors with wild graphics and styling. Example....... shark tooth grilles on '71 and '72 Dusters, gull/go wings, hood scoops on Demons and Dusters.
Still had the strong 8 3/4 rear ends.
Thermoquad carbs on the 340 cars beginning in '71.
Rally wheels........ a great option that put Mopar on the map for many years.
Crossover cars like the Demon and Scamp gave even more styling options and became quite popular.

Negatives:

Still had the lousy brakes and suspension etc. of the '67 to '69 cars.
Although, gone were the LH thread on the driver's side so that is a positive or negative depending on how you look at it.
Vinyl roofs on Swingers. No paint or primer under them and poor prep almost guarantees a rusty roof if not garaged constantly and not driven in winter. They looked good, but were a ticking time bomb.
Lowered compression ratio in '72 for emissions purposes castrating performance a lot.
Impact standards raised weight but improved safety.........your call.
Fit and finish not as good as previous years.
No big blocks.

'73 to '76.

Positives:

Big bolt pattern disc brakes with 1/2'' wheel studs and beefed up suspension on all small block and slant six power brake cars.
Spool mount K-Members and mounts with similar transmission mounts.
Much safer cars with better seat belts.........impact side beams in doors and bumpers. ('74 and up)
Better gas mileage overall.
Better quality control. (not much but better)
''Space Duster'' fold down rear seat option on fastback Dusters and Dart Sports. Quite innovative..........
Electronic ignition and hardened valve seats for all engines across the board.
Radial tires in the later years as an option.
Better heaters.
Better electrical and charging systems.
E58 360 that replaced the 340 in '74 was really a better engine than the 340.
Feather Duster and Dart Lite of '76 were really unique and proved a point with good gas mileage.
Police package cars and taxis were cool.

Negatives:

Heavier by quite a bit. (but safer)
Demon was gone replaced by the Dart Sport.
Interiors were plasticy and cheap looking.
Cardboard head liners, (beginning in '72 actually) didn't last and looked cheap.
Love it or hate it styling.
8 1/4'' rear end vs 8 3/4'' rear end. Was adequate, but not as strong as previous years.
Fancy plush interiors in '75 to '76 looked cheap and tacked on.
340 option ended after '73, the end of an icon.
Plastic side marker lights looked like they were tacked on and cheap. and they were.

Final notes:

With a mixture of the 3 generations and take the best from them all, you can build a well thought out A-Body that performs, brakes, and is very reliable.
Pick your poison styling wise and go for it!
BTW, in my opinion, the beak cars as they are called in '73 and up were good looking cars.
And, all ''beak cars'' began with the Barracuda in '67 and ended in '76.
The hood on a '70 to '72 Dart or Demon isn't really different than the '73 and up Dusters and Valiants when it comes to beaks, and the '67 to '69 Barracudas aren't much different than the Darts beak wise, and in fact, the hood off of a '73 to '76 dart will fit a '69 Barracuda..........
Beak cars?
My ***....................
 
Even just early lap belts can be pretty effective. I walked away from totaling my very first vehicle, a '66 A100 that I stuffed head on into a telephone at about 30 mph because I was using them.

Without them I would've been seriously injured or dead.
 
67-69 , no need to change from 67 when it came to the valiant and if only they used the same 68 dart front from 67-69.

67, 68, hard years to come by front ends,lenses.
70-72 certain grills....hard to find. 71-72 was the fav rear bumper dual lenses setup.
Best thing to do with any 67 k member is to swap it for a 68+ yr.
 
You can not beat the Graphics and exterior body options and impact colors of the 71's. A full dressed 340 Duster or Demon in a high impact color attracted people to them. My duster in a show field stood out like a pumpkin in a pepper patch. as did many other 71 mopar's including B-bodies and E-bodies . The A-bodies were available with all the add on's you could get on an A-body 340 car

spoiler pics 660.jpg
 
I think 1971 was the outstanding year for A-Bodies:

Best graphics, new Thermoquad, maybe the strongest 340 ever, new entry Demon, sharktooth grill on Dusters, everything screamed performance...

I also like the restyling of the Dodge Dart in 1970, one of the few cases, when restyling improved the original styling.

This cannot be said of the restyling in 1973. The cars got bulkier, lost their flowing elegance...and the rest of factory-built-in performance.

Therefore the - short - 70 - 72 period was in my opinion the best time for A-Bodies - mainly because of design and styling. High performance started yet in the years 67 -69.
 
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