75-79 dodge/chrysler/plymouth history

i had previously started some of this in the wrong section of this forum so i am starting over again here. what i am wanting see is any and all pics you guys may have ,or can find , of any Promos, Adds and media releases, car testing or production photos of the 75-79 chrysler B body platform, to include nascar or drag racing,any information or stories. information on these cars is virtually non-existant as the racing of these cars was quickly coming to an end and it seems that King Richard Petty was the only one still running this platform anywhere in the country. my knowledge of these cars is very limited and i want to see more pics. i have a few and as previously stated, most of you have probably already seen these, but i will post them again here and try to consolidate any information we can gather. thanks in advance for your contribution....

production photos, allpar.com

random pics

a few more...

a few more

more

...

...

one more

:hello2:

oh man a 77 charger stocker NICE

Man, good stuff. Some of it I've seen around but some of those ads/pics I've NEVER seen before....it's kinda like taking a Cordoba/Charger/Magnum/Fury/Road Runner et al to a show...people WILL stop and look. Why? Because as cool as they are, everybody's SEEN about all the A, B, and E bodies they need to. At shows, in magazines, calanders, coffee table books, whatever. Everyone knows what they're gonna see when they look inside a 'Cuda. What does the inside of a '78 Magnum look like? Well, bunkie, take a look.
The ads of the 60s and early 70s (ESPECIALLY Mopar's) have been played and replayed and shown in magazines and whatnot dozens of times. EVERYONE is familiar with the ScatPack and Rapid Transit System ad campaigns...they're legendary and been done to, if not death, at least til they need life support. The mide to late 70s ads don't get nearly that kind of play and as such are WAY more interesting. Even if the cars themselves (to some) are not.
Thanks for the soft, Corinthian leather wrapped road trip down memory lane.

times 2 for sure, i will keep digging ,there is more,just gotta find em'. and for the record , i have never known of ANY cordoba ragtops to have been built. that pic was protected but ,well, you know. any ways i think that one was custom built. and a while back i ran across a SUPPOSED 1 of 1 77 cordoba ragtop on craigslist. i dont have any pics, but it was not the one i posted. im pretty confident there were not any built from the factory or any kind of dealer option, or special order unless it was for someone famous, but even then it would have been sent out to be converted.

No factory convertibles, they were all done as conversions much the same way as the later J body Cordoba and Mirada drop tops. Personally, I think the J bodies make a better-looking convertible. They're boxy, but better proportioned, at least to me. Here's a few and some information... http://www.forfmjbodiesonly.com/classicmopar/showthread.php?t=328
I'll leave any comments about the proportions of the decidedly UN-boxy lady standing proudly next to her 1st gen 'Doba ragtop to someone else. Chickenshit, yes...but you never know who might read this.
BTW, its hard to tell from the picture cuz the nose and tail are cut off, but the Marty Robbins stocker is a Magnum. Theres a story and a video of it here... http://www.mopardealer.com/

No factory convertibles, they were all done as conversions much the same way as the later J body Cordoba and Mirada drop tops. Personally, I think the J bodies make a better-looking convertible. They're boxy, but better proportioned, at least to me. Here's a few and some information... http://www.forfmjbodiesonly.com/classicmopar/showthread.php?t=328
I'll leave any comments about the proportions of the decidedly UN-boxy lady standing proudly next to her 1st gen 'Doba ragtop to someone else. Chickenshit, yes...but you never know who might read this.
BTW, its hard to tell from the picture cuz the nose and tail are cut off, but the Marty Robbins stocker is a Magnum. Theres a story and a video of it here... http://www.mopardealer.com/
yes, i was going to edit my post saying it was a charger. i saw some pics earlier of the 42 magnum. from the side it looked like a 77 SE with the opera windom trim, like you said ,about the un boxy chick LMAO,that was a good one,and i too,will leave it alone. thanks again for the links,great stuff.

I'd love like hell to get ahold of some of that Charger opera-light trim and some tail-lights and fender extensions. I don't wanna build a Charger clone (all my emblems are already off), I just like how they look. Magnum tail lights are very similar if not identical. I have already filled my opera window trim to make it smooth and it was labor-intensive enough that I dont want to repeat the process with the back window trim. I had designs on the trim from a junkyard 79 (smooth stainless. Or aluminium, whatever) but when I went to get it the junkman had already crushed it. What a dick. He was bound to make more money from me taking parts off it than he got for scrap and he knew it. He wouldnt sell it to me outright, then just crushed it. The guy hates cars and crushes EVERYTHING. I won't even go to his yard anymore, it gets me riled up and I really have no business telling him what to do with his junk, so I just stay away. Much better for both of us.

we have a yard out here that has been out here forever. the guy has a buttload of cars. 70 300 hurst, 68-70 charger R/Ts , magnums,chargers,dobas, RRs, a little of everything. this guy is such a dick. if you ever watch dog the bounty hunter, there was an episode where they went to a yard looking for a fugitive and beth got in huge yelling match with the yard owner and the sheriff came out and it was chaos. the yard owner is webb. this is the same guy im referring to. this guy has you wait outside the gate, while he sends his kid out and pulls the specific part for you ,sight unseen, and in whatever condition, and if you dont buy the part for his ridiculas price no matter the condition, he tells you not to bother coming back. it is completely out of hand and i will never go out there unless it is to torch the place.on another note, i found some pics , but no information ,on some 4th generation funny cars.as far as the tail lights go, as you know the front and rear end treatments changed from 77 to 78. the magnum got its own treatment as well. 75-77 chargers rear end was different than the cordoba. with the magnum taking over the charger badging in 78, the same rule applied to the rear end treat with the doba/magnum, each having there own.you can use the magnum taillights on a 75-77, but you would have to have ,the deck lid,the bumpers,extensions,fillers and taillights.the charger stuff is all different from 77 to the magnum, but the opera window trim carried onto the 78 magnum. i included some pics for you to see the difference.it appears that the 78 doba and magnum shared the same rear bumpers.the first pic is the 78,the second is 77

....

emmits coachworks did the conversions for the convertable cordobas.

hey jonnyuma, ever since i started that pics and posts added 77 charger se thread, our cars show up in google images if you google 77 charger se. pretty cool i thought.

Very cool stuff. I am getting a fever to work on my doba again. Hurry up winter!

Now thats pretty damn cool!!!!!!!!!!!.....wished they had advertizing like that for the 76 Coronets....really hadn't seen a whole lot....

So, are the trunklids different from Doba to Charger too? I thought it was just the lights and quarter extensions. The wrap-around lenses make the side markers unnecessary, but I thought besides that they were the same. Actually, I'm probably more likely to just fill those side marker holes and find some different lights and mount em in the sheetmetal. The old B body round ones would look cool, but they'd have to be overpriced repops.
If you know of anyone wanting to sell a set of the bumper-to-body filler pieces, I'm definitely interested in em. Especially, the rear...my fronts are salvagable.

the 75-77 doba and charger deck lids are the same. the 78-79 doba and magnum are the same. if you wanted to use the magnum rear treatment stuff on a 75-77 you can, but you would have to change evey bolt on piece on the rear including the decklid. the style lines on the quarter panels are identical for all 75-79s.you can even use the magnum doors on any 75-79 charger or cordoba, which eventually ,i am going to put on my charger because they really look cool. the only things that changed are all the bolt on pieces. i have access to a ton of 75-77 doba parts and 2 78 dobas and 2 magnums. most have been pieced out but there are still good parts on them. i found a bunch of magnum stock car pics and some adds , you may have seen them,but i will put them up anyway

...

....

...

and a couple more

some random pics

a few more

a few more random pics. the seldom seen 76 base charger, of which was actually plymouth bodied. and the 78??? charger SE? i dont think so.i emailed the company that has this "factory photo" and asked them if they added the text to the photo stating that 77 was the last year for the B bodied charger and the SE.no response as of yet.

a few more of interest..

Here's a 78 Charger for sale in OH... http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/cto/2721591010.html.
I thought 77 was the last year for B body Chargers, Magnum took over from there. In case the ad gets deleted, the 78 is white, has a white interior, black steelies with poverty caps, and is delightfully devoid of the tons of "classy" trim and lights and baroque shit n geegaws that adorn the upscale Chrysler variant. It's what my Cordoba wants to be when it grows up.

Here's a 78 Charger for sale in OH... http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/cto/2721591010.html.
I thought 77 was the last year for B body Chargers, Magnum took over from there. In case the ad gets deleted, the 78 is white, has a white interior, black steelies with poverty caps, and is delightfully devoid of the tons of "classy" trim and lights and baroque shit n geegaws that adorn the upscale Chrysler variant. It's what my Cordoba wants to be when it grows up.A quite common thought. They only made a couple thousand as the Magnum replaced it that year. Edit: Hmm, interesting ad... the LAST year Charger B-body...

this raises a lot of questions for me, does that make it a 78 and a 1/2 charger SE ? so was the magnum and the charger SE both offered at the beginning of 78? did they drop the SE midyear? that is the first i have ever heard of a 78.those production numbers have got to be extremely low.the grill appears to be a 77 carry over but there are no shots of the tail lights. i am going to email them and see if i can get a pic of the rear.in all the production number stats i have seen, not a one refers to 78 charger SE production. that is weird that they would change the cordoba styling in 78 and not the charger SE. the 78 SE must have only ran a couple of months because it still had round headlights and the doba had square double stacked headlights in the beginning of 78. im so confused lol

Everything I've ever read said that the Cordoba-based Charger was a 2 year only deal because of dismal sales. Whereas the Cordobas were selling 150,000+ per year, the Chargers were only selling at a rate of 25 to 30 thousand per year. The Charger nameplate was dropped after the 75-77 run and the Magnum took its place. A Chrysler executive stated that not carrying over the 74 Charger body style was a HUGE miscalculation.
I have no idea where a round-lighted 78 Charger came from...maybe a late production 77 that sat on the dealer's lot and first got titled in 78? Just one of those "had ta be there" mysteries, I guess. For $1800 I'd sure like to have it.

heres a few "78s" i found looking around. the 78 carried the 77 rear treatment as well. there was no change from a 77 se to 78 se from what i can tell..

as i stated earlier, production numbers had to be low.judging by the chart, it would appear that MAYBE 4000 slipped out but im guessing it was less than that. goes to show that sometimes you just never know....

3500 bucks for this one! are they gaining value or is this guy just trying to make a buck.. they say its a 78.

heres another one didnt catch the price.this is how 85% of them ended up im sure.

i noticed the opera window louvers carried over from 77 to 78 as well and made it on to the magnum.i dont know why i found this so interesting lol

$3500 huh? Seems a little optimistic, although I see a few interesting bits on the blue one...the sport mirrors for starters. Its interesting how sales dropped in 74 and stayed level in 75. As if buyers were holding out for the exciting all new 75 Charger to debut and then when it did...they all said nevermind and went and bought a Malibu.
Like WileERobby said, the 78s would be a carryover. They probably made just enough to use up what hoods, nose pieces, emblems, etc, they had in stock. So, it seems, that at least for the first part of the year, you could have had 78 Chargers and Magnums on the same lot. Even though the Chargers were 78s on paper only, the VIN would reflect that and make it a pretty rare piece.

something interesting is my charger was originally titled as a 1976. i am the third owner and it was titled that way from the original bank that financed it to the first owner. the vin # is XS22K7R171111. the 7 is for 1977 and the build date of the car is 11/76.another strange thing is 77 charger se production was around 36,000. but the sequence number is 171,111 and production numbers start at 100,000 ,thus making this car the 71,111 to roll off the assembly line in 77. which doesnt make any sense because the cordoba had there own body code which began with an SP23 or similar.unless all dodge /chrysler B bodies were combined as total production. IDK , if any one knows can they clarify ? thanks.

my charger came with dual chrome remote sport mirrors as well. it was still an option apparently up until 79

$3500 huh? Seems a little optimistic, although I see a few interesting bits on the blue one...the sport mirrors for starters. Its interesting how sales dropped in 74 and stayed level in 75. As if buyers were holding out for the exciting all new 75 Charger to debut and then when it did...they all said nevermind and went and bought a Malibu.
Like WileERobby said, a carryover. They probably made just enough to use up what hoods, nose pieces, emblems, etc, they had in stock. So, it seems, that at least for the first part of the year, you could have had 78 Chargers and Magnums on the same lot. Even though the Chargers were 78s on paper only, the VIN would reflect that and make it a pretty rare piece.
ya 3500, and that thing is ragged out, 360 car, no motor ,split bench/armrest, colomn shift and the interior is trashed. as far as the 78s,i think you guys hit it on the head, with using up the extra noses and stuff left over, and then started in with the magnum.

Were all Cordoba/Chargers built at the Windsor, Ontario plant? I can't explain the production number weirdness. Could be that all Chargers were built in sequence from 75 on, but that would have resulted in a higher number for a late 76 build. I think. 1976 was a banner year for Cordobas built and sold too. They went down from there to almost 0 in 82 or 83 when they finally killed it and went all K-car kablooey on us.

Looking back at the chart you posted, I think that's exactly what they did...numbered em sequentially from 75.

that would make more sense, but how would anyone be able to break down base charger,charger sport and SE production, or could you? the charger daytona was only a trim and paint code option and does not reflect any where but on the fender tag.and further reading tells me that the XS body code is SE specific:X=charger and S=special 22=2 door coupe. it then carried over to the magnum when the SE was dropped in 78.unless you are saying that the 71,111 is total SE only production from 75 up to that point that mine was built? in 1975 the B Body ,body codes are as follows;X=charger SE and S=cordoba. no other b body codes other than the fury.1976 saw the addition of one, W=dodge coronet/dodge charger, of which was the charger sport. in 1977 the W coded charger was gone again.its looking like the 76 dodge charger sport was a one year only model based on the plymouth fury.

im looking around trying to find out about the ontario plant. i have owned a factory yellow/black top 76 cordoba with 400 and 727, that was built in canada. i also had a 77 doba with a 360/904 with buckets/console that was a maroonish color that was also canadian. was yours as well? my charger is also a canadian car.

allpar.com. windsor ontario plant 1975. and it appears there is a pic of a 78 doba. so far this is all i can find.

...

....

...

...but the sequence number is 171,111 and production numbers start at 100,000 ,thus making this car the 71,111 to roll off the assembly line in 77. which doesnt make any sense because the cordoba had there own body code which began with an SP23 or similar.unless all dodge /chrysler B bodies were combined as total production. IDK , if any one knows can they clarify ? thanks.

Hmmm let's see if we can sort this out.

Each plant had it's own VIN numbering meaning each plant started the year at 100001.

The assigning a VIN is an administrative function and not one of production meaning that, theoretically, car 100101 may not have rolled off the line until several months into production and well after 100102. The VIN number has nothing to do with the actual production of the car or in what order cars rolled down the line.

All models, and therefore VIN assignments, are mixed up. They are not issued sequentially by make or model. VIN assignments have nothing to do with total prodution numbers.

1978 Cordobas (SS VIN), Charger SEs (XP VIN) and Magnums (XS VINS) were built at the Windsor plant.

Here's the info on 78 Charger SE's http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/dealerships/1978DealershipDataBook-07.shtml

That's a very cool site. Thanks 69Coronetrt. And some good info on VINs.

Hmmm let's see if we can sort this out.

Each plant had it's own VIN numbering meaning each plant started the year at 100001.

The assigning a VIN is an administrative function and not one of production meaning that, theoretically, car 100101 may not have rolled off the line until several months into production and well after 100102. The VIN number has nothing to do with the actual production of the car or in what order cars rolled down the line.

All models, and therefore VIN assignments, are mixed up. They are not issued sequentially by make or model. VIN assignments have nothing to do with total prodution numbers.

1978 Cordobas (SS VIN), Charger SEs (XP VIN) and Magnums (XS VINS) were built at the Windsor plant.
i see ,thank you for the clarification.one more thing though, you state XP for the windsor plant for the SE. my VIN is XS22 and an R for the windsor plant.

my VIN is XS22 and an R for the windsor plant.

Is it a Magnum or Charger SE?

Super77se doesn't seem to be on right now, but his car is a 77 Charger SE.

Super77se doesn't seem to be on right now, but his car is a 77 Charger SE.

thank you.

XS22 would be appropriate for a 77 Charger SE.

XS22 would not appropriate for 78 Charger SE.

VIN designations can change from year to year.

i ran across this from lhmopars.com.
1978 Codes:
First Digit = Car Line
C - Chrysler Newport / New Yorker
F - Chrysler Le Baron
G - Dodge Diplomat
H - Plymouth Volare
M - Plymouth Horizon
N - Dodge Aspen
R - Plymouth Fury
S - Chrysler Cordoba
W - Dodge Monaco
X - Dodge Charger SE / Magnum XE
Z - Dodge Omni
Second Digit = Price Class
L - Low
M - Medium
H - High
P - Premium
S - Special
Third and Fourth digits = Body Style
22 - 2 Door special coupe
23 - 2 Door hardtop
29 - 2 Door special coupe
41 - 4 Door sedan
43 - 4 Door hardtop
44 - 4 Door hatchback
45 - 2 Seat wagon
46 - 3 Seat wagon
Fifth Digit = Engine
A - 1.7 Liter 1 - 2 BBL 4 cylinder engine
C - 225 1 - 1BBL 6 cylinder "RG" engine
D - 225 1 - 2BBL 6 cylinder "RG" engine
E - Special order 6 cylinder
G - 318 1 - 2BBL 8 cylinder "LA" engine
J - 360 1 - 4BBL 8 cylinder "LA" engine
K - 360 1 - 2BBL 8 cylinder "LA" engine
L - 360 1 - 4BBL 8 cylinder "LA" engine (high performance)
N - 400 1 - 4BBL 8 cylinder "B" engine
P - 400 1 - 4BBL 8 cylinder "B" engine (high performance)
R - 360 "Lean Burn" 8 cylinder "LA" engine
T - 440 1 - 4BBL 8 cylinder "RB" engine
U - 440 1 - 4BBL 8 cylinder "RB" engine (high performance)
Z - Special order 8 cylinder
Sixth digit = Model year
8 - 1978
Seventh Digit = Assembly plant
A - Lynch Road, MI
B - Hamtramck, MI
C - Jefferson, MI
D - Belvedere, IL
F - Newark, DE
G - St. Louis, MO
R - Windsor, Ontario, Canada

:3gears:

Two cool Mopars! Are both yours?

Knew they didn't make a lot of Chargers, but didn't know it was such a low figure in 1978. Really any 75+ Charger is a rare sight.

Here are some links to magazine articles on Google Books about about late 70's B's.

First are two Popular Mechanics Owners Reports on the 75 Cordoba and 77 Charger. It is interesting that owners thought the trunks and back seats were so small. Wonder what they would think of today's cars?

http://books.google.com/books?id=9OEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA84&dq=chrysler%20cordoba&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=9OEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA84&dq=chrysler%20cordoba&pg=PA84#v=onepage&q&f=false)
http://books.google.com/books?id=tOIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA58&dq=dodge%20charger%20owner's%20report&pg=PA58#v=onepage&q&f=false

This is an article on making convertibles, including Cordoba convertibles:
http://books.google.com/books?id=quIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA78&dq=chrysler%20cordoba%20convertible&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q&f=false

This a Popular Science comparison test with a Cordoba against a T-Bird and Grand Prix:
http://books.google.com/books?id=RgEAAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA22&dq=chrysler%20cordoba&pg=PA22#v=onepage&q&f=false