This picture was taken around 1976 and it's my Dad in his 1967 Dodge Cornonet440. He had a 1966 Coronet440 right before this one but unfortunately he sold it to me. I wrecked it on the day of my High school graduation after a serious night of partying, but that's another story. I'm not sure, but pictures of the 1966 Coronet may exist in the family photo album archives. If they do, I'll add them here later. This car had a 318c.i. motor with the 727 torque flight transmission. It also came with A/C, power steering, power brakes, bucket seats and a console shifter. Not very common options for a Coronet440 in them days.
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This is my brother John's first car. A 1968 Dodge Coronet440. WW-1 white, with black interior. I loved this car. My brother purchased it used around 1969. This was your basic low optioned Dodge Coronet. It came with a 318c.i. motor and 727 automatic, column shifter, black interior with bench seat, but not much else. It did have the cool exterior mounted turn signals on the front fenders, an option that to this day makes makes me smile every time I turn them on. I have fond memories of this car and remember it as being one of the first cars that ultimately turned me into the Mopar fanatic I am today. My Dad purchased this car from my brother a few years later and I remember my cousins and I convincing him in letting us install a set of Hedman headers in it. Better gas mileage was the selling point. Boy, what a fiasco that turned out to be. We worked on putting these headers in all day and at around midnight, my cousin Robert and I had finally finished the job. We pushed the car down the street to start it. We were so anxious to test drive it and didn't want to wake up the whole neighborhood with open headers. We ended up having to install a 90 degree oil filter adaptor and relocating the filter up top near the fire wall. My Dad hated the new filter modification and sound of the exhaust system and eventually made us change everything back to it's original condition. Of course only having "glass pack" mufflers back then didn't help the cause much in the sound department.
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Well, my brother Mario eventually got with the program and quickly graduated to the big boys toys. Here is a picture of his 1969 Charger R/T. This car was equipped with the 440 Super Commando motor, 727 tranny and auto console shifter. I'm not positive, but it probably had a 3.23 or 3.55 sure-grip. Of course this car was not as strong a runner as his little brothers 1967 Coronet R/T, which you can read more about below.
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This picture is from around 1975 or what I occasionally refer to as100lbs. ago. The hair and bell bottom Levi's pretty much tell the story for that era. This was my first Mopar muscle car, a 1967 Coronet R/T. I loved this car and purchased it prior to graduating high school for around $1,500 dollars. I bought it off some joker from a local Auto body shop in the neighborhood. Although I was working full-time and saving money, my sister-in-law Lupe recommended I take out a loan for the car to establish a credit history. I did and she even co-signed for me. Thanks Lupe!
My 1967 Coronet R/T. ZZ-1 Poly Gold, with black vinyl roof and black interior. This car started life with a 383ci., Hooker headers and a A833 four speed, Hurst shifter and a 4.10 Dana rear end. As you can tell, I was a big fan of the slotted mags and still am to this day. Not many wheels to choose from back then so it was either slotted mags, American Racing wheels, Fenton mags or Craigers. Seems like everybody had Craigers, so I went for the slots. My R/T also came with bucket seats, hood scoop, and the console mounted tach. I eventually swapped the motor to a 440ci. of the same year. I owned this car for about 4 years and sold it to a guy from the neighborhood. It turned out to be more power than he was used to handling and he ultimately wrecked it. That was a VERY cool car.
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This is one of the few pictures I have of my first car, a 1966 Dodge Coronet 440. Originally CC-1 Light Blue, dark blue interior. My dad did a "in by nine, out by five Earl Sheib" B-5 like wanna be blue paint job on it before he sold it to me. This picture was taken around 1973-74 right before I totaled it on High school graduation night. Not a night I care to remember, but obviously a night of bad decisions. This car came with the 225c.i. slanted six cylinder with the usual 3-speed automatic transmission. Nothing fancy about this car other than the fact it was my most dependable and economical means of transportation throughout my teenage years. Note my novice attempt at body work in the typical rust areas common on cars from the Midwest. Needless to say, it never made it to the painter before it met it's demise. You'll also notice the incorrect hub caps. These were from my brothers 68 Dodge Coronet which were basically hand-me-downs after he purchased a new set of Fenton Mags. In the background sits my brother Mario's 64 Dodge Dart.
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Now on to one of my big sleds, and I mean SLED. This picture was taken around 1976 of my 1968 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron. This car was JJ-1 Sovereign Gold Poly, with Black leather interior.....not to be confused with "Corinthian Leather." It also had a "like leather" padded roof, and smaller rear window. This car was FULLY loaded and had every option available. Including the cool floor mounted button for changing the radio stations. Also had the split sixty-forty bench seat with dual armrests and six way power, and the cool power vents. This was one of the best C-body Chryslers I have ever owned. Unfortunately, this car was short lived and actually saved the life of both my wife, (then girlfriend) and I. We were broad sided by none other than some old, ugly, beat up Chevy pick up truck. A guy visiting Chicago from some small town in the south wasn't used to all the neon lights of a big city and got confused and overwhelmed while driving down a busy street (not road). Unfortunately he ultimately blew through a red light and we met in the intersection. You can guess the rest. He hit us with such impact that it flipped the car on it's roof. The car just rolled over like a big whale, a rather smooth roll I recall. Both my wife and I walked away without a scratch. Thank Chrysler for C-Bodies! Maybe if I had the Ted Nugent "Motor City Mad house" 8-track tape playing a little lower on the "Craig Power play", I wouldn't have missed this guy blowin the red light. In the background is one of two "69" Roadrunners my cousin Carlos owned. My cousins lived across the street from us and were into Mopars as well. Carlos traded a 500cc. Suzuki motorcycle to acquire that car. What a deal!!! Also note my cousin Robert's 67 Lincoln Continental Town Car. We went through our big luxury car stage early in life. Behind my Chrysler you can barely see the headlight of my "66" Dodge Coronet440 (post accident).
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Last but not least my Dads brand new 1976 Dodge Coronet 4-door sedan. This is probably my least favorite of all the Mopar cars my Dad owned, but hey, it was brand new. My Grandmother actually bought this car for my Dad. It was a very reliable car for many years. As usual, it had a well maintained 318c.i. power plant and torque flight automatic.
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This was the first Mopar car I owned since moving to Arizona in 1991. I found this 1969 Roadrunner (Post coupe) thumbing through the classified ads of the local newspaper one Saturday morning. I remember after spotting the ad, I immediately called the guy, and arranged to inspect the car that day. I inhaled my breakfast so I could be the first one there to look the car over. This Roadrunner was the epitome of an original rust free Arizona car. This car was amazingly straight with hardly a trace of surface rust or excessive wear. It was originally (B7) Jamaican Blue with a White (W1) PAINTED top, not vinyl. The previous owner re-painted it and thought it looked better in a some dark like navy blue custom mix......................NOT! Back in the day you could order cars with almost any color scheme combination, and it appears white painted tops were pretty common with dealerships in a desert environment, for obvious reasons. I still see older cars around town painted like this. The white top actually helps reduce the heat inside the vehicle. Roofs of houses here are coated in a similar way (called "cool coating"). The school buses are also coated with white tops. I wonder how many two-tone RoadRunners were produced........Galen?
The car actually sat in a shed since1978 and the last vehicle registration, was from 1978, but had a license plate from 1973 (see: photo below).
The interior and dash board were in fairly good shape considering the norm for out here. You see, in the southwest it's usually the metal and exterior body that holds up great over the years, due to the dry climate. However, it's the interior and rubber parts that take the beating from the heat. Just the opposite is true for cars in the Midwest and East coast. Nonetheless I installed new carpeting and seat covers from Legendary Auto, but kept the original dash as is.
Unfortunately, it was a non matching numbers motor, but it did have a 1969 383 4bbl, HP motor, with a very smooth A-833 manual 4-speed transmission, fresh -Air hood, and a 4:10 Dana rear end. I believe the transmission and rearend were originally ordered with this car. This was one of the few Mopar 4-speed transmissions that didn't pop out of second gear at de-acceleration. This was a very fun car to drive. I was about 50% done with it's restoration when I eventually traded it for the 1969 SuperBee I currently own. Another great deal!
And the beat goes on |
