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Cordoba Convertibles Were Built In 1977

RWG75

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The topic came up in a recent thread. Some hadn't even heard it as rumor, so a thread on what I know of them with pics to prove it.

We all know Chrysler was up to some odd and interesting things at the end of the 70s. Adult Toy truck line including shaggin wagons, Warlocks, etc. Aspen Super Coupes, sponsoring 2 legendary off road racers and top nascar drivers. Developing the boring but dependable front wheel drive revolution. They were also going broke and I think some of the adventures were about doing something interesting on the way out. I did have opportunity to talk one on one with Dick Maxwell, just before his death, about a lot of things but not that one. He was a father of the LRE among other things.

http://www.semahof.com/Dick_Maxwell_2006_Inductee

I think the 77 only Doba Drop falls in that "interesting before we leave" category like the later 300. While selling Dobas like hot cakes helped keep the company afloat, the handful of drop tops build and sold through dealers couldn't be given away. I find that very surprising.

Only Chrysler knows the exact number built as I think it was their idea. The first number I ever remember hearing is 17. I've heard smaller numbers. I think the most believable number is probably how ever many fit in one train car. Built in Windsor like the rest, shipped to Florida for conversion, shipped to dealers. I don't know sequential build or not but never checked VINs. My guess is a pool of orders placed in the system and the truck loaded when they came out.

Every one I've seen was 400-4 ELB, floor shift, dual round mirror, power widow / lock/ seat, air, cruise, tilt, leather. Colors and rims varied. All but one that I've seen looks like it was built by Emess Coach Builders and was called the "Classic II". These all had air shocks, compressor, reservoir and dash mounted pressure gauge. Emess notched out the rear seat and wheel houses to make room for the folded top. The air shocks raised the body so the tire didn't rub.

I've had my head under more than one of them and haven't seen anything added anywhere to the uni-body. No frame connectors, no nothing bolted, welded, nothing. On these examples the doors worked nice, gaps were 70s typical and in one case, the car drove absolutely great. Only one I ever rode in.

This looks like a copy of the placards given to dealers. Might have been "drum up orders" like other dealer docs or show room display.

ECB_1.jpg ECB_2.jpg
 
So, this is just an aftermarket conversion, not something built at the factory. Many cars in the 70's had aftermarket T-tops installed. Many of these crappy aftermarket abominations leaked.
 
not factory , yes. they were farmed out for the conversions. somewhere I have pics of a couple of 78 dobas farmed out to another "coach works" outfit that did those. I've never seen one in person but ive done a little digging on the subject.
 
The progression of this thread is going to be the ones I've encountered in the order I've found them. It will probably also get kinda long winded.

This is the first one and I resisted buying it twice. Both times it was represented as being 1 of 27 convertibles built but never saw the source document. It's equipped just like the rest: 400-4, floor shift, dual round mirrors, etc, etc but I don't think it's an Emess Coach Classic II. Don't have a pic of any conversion shop tags on the body. The reason I think a different shop is the roof detail. Doesn't have the wheel wells notched and the top sits about 6 inches higher in the down position.

Sometime around 1995 I was at a CP parts counter. Ya could still find dusty NOS through the Dial System in those days. My buddy behind the counter told me about seeing this one in the Car Corral at Carlisle for the previous couple of years. I went the next year and it was still there. Something like 45,000 on the clock and asking around $5k. $5400 sticks in my mind and that seemed pretty high based on condition / market demand.

The one thing that looked "wrong" that I couldn't figure out for the longest time was the stripe down the side - it's actually from a 77 Charger. It had been repainted and the emblems put back in the wrong places. It wasn't exactly a maaco paint job but it was a very obvious repaint. I never figured out where the rims came from. A good looking car but white is for refrigerators and washing machines. The green interior was perfect and I want to say the back seat was also cut down less than the Emess ones.

The ugly part of this one was under the hood. ELB removed in favor of the more dependable electronic ignition setup. TQ swapped to some holly mess, edlebrock round air cleaner, sloppy wiring work on the conversion. Firewall and rad support rattle canned black which used to be the tell tale sign of some rapid resto rattle trap. It still had the original exhaust pipe running down the passenger side complete with cat, muffler and resonator. A second full exhaust was added on the drivers side with muffler only.

At the time I was hunting for my first house and really didn't have the spare coin for this sorta diversion. Even with color, issues and price it was a tough call. Being a responsible adult can suck as do these pics.

77_F_SM.jpg 77_R_SM.jpg 77_I_SM.jpg 77_E_SM.jpg
 
Around 2004 I was talking to a Classic II owner that had a lot of knowledge about these things and was told that it went to a collector in MD named Doc. Rumor was he traded a K car wagon for it. Apparently he was known around the hobby to have a warehouse full of unusual Mopars and most of them were white but that's just rumor.

A couple years later it showed up in a Hemmings classified then made it to ebay. It was being represented by a flipper that specialized in estate cars as Doc had died and the family was selling off his assets. The ask price was $20k and I'll explain how they got that number a few cars later in this thread. The pitch was meticulously maintained since bought at Carlisle and in excellent condition. It had maybe a few thousand miles more on it since I had seen in it 1996 (10 yrs) and all of the same problems I noticed. At the time I had garage space but couldn't get them below $12k which I considered to be way too high of a profit for simply parking it a warehouse for 10 yrs. A claim was made about an independent classic car appraisal but I was never able to get a copy of that. I think it would have been entertaining to say the least.

Seller claimed it ran great and that had just been given a tune up and a thermostat on GP but was still running hot. If you look real close, ya can see the fan belt routed wrong and that probably didn't help. There's also a bit of heater hose patching the one a/c line and pretty sure the temp control valve for heater core was completely missing and by-passed. I feel pretty confident it was bought, parked, found and washed 10 yrs later. At least a couple better pics this time. In one ya can see where the snaps for the front of the roof had been painted over - that was about the overall level of the repaint.

1977 Chrysler Cordoba Convertible.jpg IMG_1330_2.JPG IMG_1342.JPG IMG_1352_2.JPG
 
Just noticed for the first time that it also has the smaller 60 amp alternator. Every power window Doba I've ever seen had the bigger square back 100 amp alternator. I always had the feeling this thing got more sketchy the closer ya looked.
 
Great info! Keep em coming!
 
I see that snap on roof and doubt any major car manufacturing company would allow that .
I've had convertibles and we all know even the power ones with the clamp down still leak air when cruising ..
Those snap ons are just waiting to open and then the roof will rip open .
 
I see that snap on roof and doubt any major car manufacturing company would allow that .
I've had convertibles and we all know even the power ones with the clamp down still leak air when cruising ..
Those snap ons are just waiting to open and then the roof will rip open .

I wonder how common that kinda closure is on British roadsters - MGs and Triumphs from the mid 60s or earlier. As for Chrysler allowing it: the optional factory soft top on 74-80 Ramchargers has the exact same snap attachment at the windshield frame. Ok, so ya don't see many of those either but I've never heard of one blowing off.
 
Not sure it was the roof or tonneau cover that was snap on. . It is am ugly roof .
 
I agree - FUGLY roof. All I can say is that if I had one, it would likely never be up. This is a pic of Emess Classic II roof and while different, it's still fugly. Came across this one around 2000. It was living in Long Island at the time and I think that's about all I know about it.

Mvc-003s.jpg Mvc-005s.jpg
 
I found this one in early 1999 and was never able to get good pictures of how it existed at that time. Ask price was a bit lower than the white mess above and it was about 8 hours away from me. At the time, I had bought my house but filled all the garages and had a lot of personal and job chaos going on. The description from the seller:

The cordoba was ordered from the factory and shipped directly to Florida for the conversion by the Chrysler dealer in Wheeling WV. He personally used the car for the first few years while it was for sale at the dealership. It was sold to a friend of mines father who had the car for about 2 years and then traded back to the chrysler dealer for a motor home. My then future wife bought the car (1983) and she used it very infrequently. I`m pretty sure we haven`t put a 1000 miles on the car since 83. It currently has about 24,000 on the odometer. The Chrysler Dealer had a tonneau cover made for the car, It is Buckskin in color and covers the interior from the dash to where the boot hooks on, It zip apart to uncover the drivers seat only or both front seats. The car is equipped with power windows, door locks, convertible top, steering, brakes, and I think it has power seats and trunk release. It has air conditioning, leather buckskin interior, styled steel wheels, I think it has tilt wheel. It only has an AM radio.

The Cordoba was stored indoors most of its life, last winter was only the second winter it sat outdoors but was not driven in the salt, since we owned the car. It has had some minor bruises while at the dealership that were repaired there, now with the age of the paint the repairs are noticible only because of the color difference, A good buff job would probably remove the difference. The body is in very good condition with only 2 minor surface rust spot where the front assembly that holds the headlights, meet the front fender. The Cordoba classic II is in great shape and now that it has to sit outdoors (under carport) we think its time to find someone who can enjoy the car. We are asking $4500.00.

77dt.jpg
 
Years later I did come across that custom interior boot mentioned - it somehow ended up with Wendels pristine drop top that I'll get to later.

On a side note, while rummaging around the archives to post this I found a pic of the VIN for the white one a couple messages up. The last 6 are 241813 with a build date 2/77. Wendels VIN ends 247570 with a conversion date of 7/77. More rummaging around turned up a VIN ending 248740 which was claimed to have been ordered in late 76 and I'll get to that one later.

I think that's enough evidence to prove they weren't built in one batch. I just stumbled across another archive piece I had to back that up and will post that later. That somehow makes it even stranger that they all had pretty much the same options.
 
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Late in 2005 I checked up on the fate of that tan one. The owner sold it to his uncle in Denver in 2004. The uncle was 70 yrs old and willing to sell it for the same $4500. I managed to get some pics that I really didn't need seeing.

This first set shows the interior with the usual (I think all of them were optioned this way) power seats, power windows, air, cruise, tilt, floor shift. The engine VIN code "N" should be 400-4 ELB.

It looks to me like they put the switch for the power top where the rear defrost switch would have been. There's also a pretty good shot of how Emess cut the back seat to make room for the soft top. The other thing of interest is that you can see some sort of fasteners on the dash pad for the interior cover mentioned above.

int_1.jpg int_2.jpg int_4.jpg
 
These pics where taken around the same time as the interior pics. The car was reported to have 25,000 miles on it at the time. They speak for themselves.

front.jpg top.jpg back.jpg engine.jpg qtr_1.jpg
 
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