halfafish
Well-Known Member
Howdy all. I'm a moderately involved member on FABO, mostly an early A and slant guy. I've been a member here for a while but haven't been much involved with the B's. However, it looks like I'll be hanging out with the B-body long roof crowd, as I just got home with this beauty yesterday.
I've been keeping a half an eye out for a 68-to-76-ish wagon. I started in the land-yacht department on FCBO but couldn't get the timing right for a couple of sweet Town and Country wagons. One 69 T&C that was local to me slipped through my fingers due to dithering on my part. Curses, Batman! Then I got interested in a 70 Coronet wagon in AZ but the owner didn't want me doing a detailed inspection on the car. Red flag duly noted sir, you can sell your car to someone else!
While farting around on Craigslist one Sunday morning I went snooping for wagons in cities up to 500 miles away and saw this 72 Coronet wagon listed on Spokane's CL but located in Kalispell, about 600 miles away. It was ridiculously overpriced at $19K so I took a good look at it and moved along.
Fast forward a month or so, and the price has been reduced significantly. Aha says I, that's more like it. I contact the owner for details and now I'm interested for sure. After a month's worth of back-and-forth, planning, and emails/photos, I made the trip up there this week with truck and trailer to inspect it. Inspection passed, car loaded, and road trip back home! It's a very clean, all original, unrestored, unmolested survivor. More photos you say? OK, here are a few...
A few details. It's a plain-jane 318 2-bbl with a 904 that moves along much better than I expected, especially with 2.94 gears. I want this for a cruiser so that combo doesn't hurt mu feelings any. Other than a recovered front seat the interior is all original and just about flawless. It has a 741 8.75 open rear end, 3-speed wipers, an AM radio that works well, power brakes with front discs, sway bar, power steering, no A/C, and virtually no rust. I went under the entire car and had some help from a pro paint-and-body guy and only found a few spots on the inner rear fenders that were rusty. Otherwise it's super solid. The road test had it going straight down the lane both under power and while braking. I think it's a nice balance between small car and huge car. It's a great size and super smooth to drive.
It does need some stuff done. The engine will need rebuilt on a sooner rather than later basis. Compression in six holes was 110-120, but the last two were only 80 and 90 PSI. It's oozing/leaking from both main seals. It's running pretty rich and the carb is showing ooze around the upper gaskets. There is some old body work to correct, as both driver doors were replaced and the color is off a bit. The left quarter has some bondo on the lower edge that's starting to fritz out. The gas gauge doesn't work, the washer pump doesn't work, and so forth with a bunch of small stuff.
The tires look excellent with lots of tread, no age cracks showing but they are 14 years old. The car was barely driven and stored inside heated shops for those 14 years, but still..........I see new tires in my near future.
Overall I'm super happy with this new addition to my Mopar stable (this is number nine). While it certainly needs work to get up to snuff, it has excellent bones. There will be more details as I get started fixing it up.
I've been keeping a half an eye out for a 68-to-76-ish wagon. I started in the land-yacht department on FCBO but couldn't get the timing right for a couple of sweet Town and Country wagons. One 69 T&C that was local to me slipped through my fingers due to dithering on my part. Curses, Batman! Then I got interested in a 70 Coronet wagon in AZ but the owner didn't want me doing a detailed inspection on the car. Red flag duly noted sir, you can sell your car to someone else!
While farting around on Craigslist one Sunday morning I went snooping for wagons in cities up to 500 miles away and saw this 72 Coronet wagon listed on Spokane's CL but located in Kalispell, about 600 miles away. It was ridiculously overpriced at $19K so I took a good look at it and moved along.
Fast forward a month or so, and the price has been reduced significantly. Aha says I, that's more like it. I contact the owner for details and now I'm interested for sure. After a month's worth of back-and-forth, planning, and emails/photos, I made the trip up there this week with truck and trailer to inspect it. Inspection passed, car loaded, and road trip back home! It's a very clean, all original, unrestored, unmolested survivor. More photos you say? OK, here are a few...
A few details. It's a plain-jane 318 2-bbl with a 904 that moves along much better than I expected, especially with 2.94 gears. I want this for a cruiser so that combo doesn't hurt mu feelings any. Other than a recovered front seat the interior is all original and just about flawless. It has a 741 8.75 open rear end, 3-speed wipers, an AM radio that works well, power brakes with front discs, sway bar, power steering, no A/C, and virtually no rust. I went under the entire car and had some help from a pro paint-and-body guy and only found a few spots on the inner rear fenders that were rusty. Otherwise it's super solid. The road test had it going straight down the lane both under power and while braking. I think it's a nice balance between small car and huge car. It's a great size and super smooth to drive.
It does need some stuff done. The engine will need rebuilt on a sooner rather than later basis. Compression in six holes was 110-120, but the last two were only 80 and 90 PSI. It's oozing/leaking from both main seals. It's running pretty rich and the carb is showing ooze around the upper gaskets. There is some old body work to correct, as both driver doors were replaced and the color is off a bit. The left quarter has some bondo on the lower edge that's starting to fritz out. The gas gauge doesn't work, the washer pump doesn't work, and so forth with a bunch of small stuff.
The tires look excellent with lots of tread, no age cracks showing but they are 14 years old. The car was barely driven and stored inside heated shops for those 14 years, but still..........I see new tires in my near future.
Overall I'm super happy with this new addition to my Mopar stable (this is number nine). While it certainly needs work to get up to snuff, it has excellent bones. There will be more details as I get started fixing it up.
