Our land boats, barges and bulldozers

[Marian]

Q: Why do we do this stuff?
A: What stuff are you talking about Marian?
Q: Why are we on this C-body forum?
A: Cuz we love C-bodies.

With those questions being asked, (No, I don't have dual personality disorder) I'm wondering why our story hasn't been told. Here is what I decided to do...tell our stories. No, I'm not a writer and it's possible that our stories will never be published. But what the heck...I'm bored and retired and waiting on finishing my car. So if you want to participate...go for it.
Chapter 1:
What was your first experience with a C-body? For what reason made you want to own/restore a C-body?
If you don't want your answers possibly published please do not answer. This is my disclaimer. If published and you want to be anonymous you can can send your answer to MGustafson61@outlook.com.
This is so much more fun than cleaning the cat box, trash can...making low carb pizza crust from califlower rice!

 

[saylor]

When I was 16 (?) or so, a friend of mine was getting his first car, and looking thru autotrader. This is when AT published weekly, and you had to go to 7-11 to get the new copy. Pre - interwebs. Maybe 1986 or so.
Anyways my friend found a car - a plymouth road runner. we never heard of it really. No one we knew around us growing up had a mopar. It was in Arkansas - far as hell away from us. The price was cheap. This is the 80's.. all us kids in this timeframe learned how to drive in these 'beaters' from the 60s and 70s that were old and tired...

So he and another friend went up there, bought it, and drove it home. It had been parked by the owner. it was his sons car who went to war and didn't come home.
It had a hurst 4 speed, 383, solid orange with black interior. Red line poly tires still on it. And the beep-beep horn, so freaking funny. And the speedo moved HORIZONTALLY - wth? that was crazy. and a road runner on the dash pad staring at you.

What sold me on mopar was we raced this local nova at quaker (635 @ quaker, garland) and the RR kept up with the heavilly-modded nova nose-to-nose from start to finish, and this was a bone stock car and sitting for years. and we had 3 people in the car the nova only had the driver.

Quaker dead-ends into jupiter rd. Homeboy held the pedal thru the 'end' of the track, and then locked it up. We slid about forever, out into the middle of jupiter, facing back where we came from. Good times.
- saylor

 

[Fratzog]

Hell my story is no where as good as Saylors. It was 1970 and at 16 it was time for me to get my drivers license. Up to that time the only experience I had driving anything was some practice runs down the service road in my Dad's 54 GMC 1 ton with a stick shift about a yard long. Our family car at the time was a 2 door beige 67 Dodge Polara with 225 leaning tower of power in it. That thing couldn't get out of its own way but I loved that car particularly the bench seats that came in handy in other ways like at the drive in. Skip ahead 30 years my wife is back in the old country with the kids and no major projects at home so I get the urge to fix up an old car. My initial target was an early 50`s Belair which my wife saw one time and said it was the coolest thing she ever saw. Figured if I bring home one like that she can`t ***** too much can she. Well the few I could find locally were all total rot boxes so when I saw an ad online for a guy that had solid project cars in Windsor Ontario I planned to make the trip out to see his inventory. Thought I`d make the trip worthwhile and see if I could find any cars to look at on the trip out there. Found the Autotrader ad attached below for a 70 Polara ragtop which a little research told me was very rare. At the time I didn`t understand that rarity has nothing to do with market value when it comes to C Bodies. When I stopped to look at it my infatuation with big Dodge cars was reignited. It didn't matter that there were grapefruit sized holes in the fenders and the lower quarters were also rotted. We made a deal at 1200 and it turned out the mileage was actually 154K not 54K but it didn't`t matter I was obsessed and in love with this land yacht. Needless to say I didn't complete my planned trip to Windsor and I'm still married to the same lovey girl (she wasn`t too upset). The rest is history.

 

[polara71]

I think Fred found the Polara board the very next day.

 

[mcmlvii]

My parents had a full sized '62 Buick wagon in the mid 60s and for some reason Dad didn't like the car (I think he was tired of feeding the 425 engine). In 1967 he decided to get a 1-year-old 4-door 1966 Plymouth Fury VIP with 383-2bbl from an acquaintance of his brother in Oregon. Here's a photo from the mid-70s.

My brother and I got immersed in all things Mopar after our parents got the VIP, from Chrysler 300s to Barracudas, Road Runner, Dart, Valiant. I think Dad's interest in Plymouth wore off on us. That VIP was our family's every-day driver for 20 years but the time came for Mom and Dad to unload the VIP, so I volunteered to take on ownership in the late 80s. Space being a premium at my house and the old barge being just a little too large for the times, I got rid of the VIP after only a couple years of ownership. Here's a photo from the late 80s. Boy, the old car still looked good then.

Fast forward almost 25 years to 2013. Kids are nearly out of college, the house is almost paid for and we're thinking about retirement in the not too distant future. So what do I do? Poke around on Craigslist for V-8 4-speed cars naturally. I'm not even thinking about buying one but just like to look. Well, wouldn't you know what pops up in the ads but a 1966 Sport Fury in the same color as our old VIP, but it was a 383-4bbl 4-speed car. I remember as a kid longing for a nice looking 2-door hardtop Sport Fury instead of the plain-jane 4-door VIP we had. Back to the present, I tried to hold out and not think about the Sport Fury over the next couple days, but one thing led to another and I just couldn't resist. I'm once again the proud owner of a 1966 Plymouth Fury, but of the 2-door variety. It's a real blast from the past.

 

['69FuryIIIConvertible]

Chapter 1:
What was your first experience with a C-body? For what reason made you want to own/restore a C-body?

My story is a long and stupid one, but one worth telling.

It all started in a land far away (From Texas anyway), I started my Search for a Anything in May of 2012, I looked at everything you can think of, '65 Mustang Coupe 289 Hi-po 4spd car, '72 Grand Prix SJ 455 car, '69 Impala coupe 327 car, '73 LeMans 350 car, '82 Grand Prix 307 car, '76 Firebird Formula 400 4spd car, and finally a friend called me at work on a Wednesday, he said hey I seen an ad on Kijiji of a guy selling a car for scrap value, I gave the guy a call, he said he had a guy who was interested coming that afternoon, this was at about 12 PM, I called again around 5 PM and was told the guy never showed stop by and have a look!

This was what was going to be the start of a long and painful task that would lead me through good and bad times, teach me new skills, teach me about people who were in my life and bring people into my life that I would end up calling some of my best friends!

6:30 PM, I got off work, picked my buddy up, got lost, figured out where the hell Andy's house was and met Andy for the first time, at that moment I didn't know that Andy would become one of my closest friends.

As I entered his backyard I couldn't help but see a '70 Duster is Primer with the hood up, a brown turd sitting in the corner of the yard covered in tree crap and dirt, and a white something poking out of a home made garage, I didn't realize these 3 cars would leave a lasting mark on my life. They were Mopars.




Here I met Andy, he told me about the two Fury's, what the hell is a Fury I thought, I instantly pictured Christine, I knew Roadrunners and 'Cuda's, not Fury's, as we walked over to the Brown car I couldn't help but think "Why am I wasting my time looking at this junk?" Then we went in and looked at the white car, the frame was solid, and it had been on the road in the last 6 years, it looked okay, Andy turned to me and said "Keys in it Nick, see if she'll start", I cranked it and it turned over no problem and tried to start, My hopes grew a bit, I made one big mistake,

I had sat behind the steering wheel looking down that hood, I was hooked.

Now it was time to talk Turkey, or Car or money, whatever. We talked and Andy threw out a sum around $800, I said "well scrap is around $200 a car and these cars are pretty rough man" Andy Asked me a question I'll never forget "What are you going to do with the cars?", I said "I'm going to build one car from the two and have something I can enjoy" Andy shook my hand and said "$450, $400 now and $50 later, there yours"

We shook hands, Now the hard part, I had to go and get "A" parent, I chose my dad, I figured he wouldn't murder on the spot, he'd hear me out first, then kill me, much to my disbelief after seeing the cars and talking to Andy my dad said "I don't see how you can go wrong, there's probably $400 worth of parts and steel"

My dad gave me a deal, find a place to put them and you can buy them. It was now 9:07 PM, by 9:43 PM I had exhausted a few leads when it hit me, it was peddle down old 305 screaming time, at 9:50 PM we arrived at Bill's, By 10:01 I had a place to put the Fury's.

August 14th I called Andy in the morning and told him I would be coming to get the first car that night, after a long list of mishaps, I ended up with a second truck, and a 3rd person, by 11 PM we arrived at Andy's with the whole crew. By 11:53 PM The Fury I would call Angel was at his new home, The next day my Dad, one of my best friend's and one of my High school teachers/Friend moved the Brown Fury that would later earn the Title of "Rusty", That night after I got off work I went to see what my cars looked like. After 15 minutes we had the white car running, it ran good!



I never intended to buy a C Body, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

It wasn't till nearly a year later I realized how important This car really is to me.

I bought it on August 13th 2012, it was an F8 '69 C body, My grandfather passed away on August 13th 2003, in October of 1968 he ordered an F8 '69 C body.

With all the good this car has brought me, I KNOW it was meant to be.

The day I take my Fury for it's first good romp I know all the blood sweat and tears will be worth it!

Thats my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Nick & Angel

 

[70NPORT]

Growing up I spent lots of time in the back seats of big Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth cars. My dad either bought them personally or had them as company cars. One particular car I remember was a 1966 Plymouth Fury. It was a 4dr stripper sedan. When I was about nine or ten yrs old my dad came home one evening after work in a bright yellow, black top 70’ Dodge Polara sedan. The car was actually for my mom to drive because dad was driving a 63’ Plymouth Fury and then 65’ Dodge Coronet at the same time.

Since then I’ve has a succession of C body cars over time.

1971 Plymouth Sport Fury
1970 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron
1973 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron (got away -- was a freaking mess anyways).

Currently own a 1970 Chrysler Newport. Although I like most large body Chrysler automobiles from each era, I particularly admire the “Fuselage” design/look cars that were built between 1969 and 1973. There was little if nothing on the road at the time that looked like them. It was all Chrysler. The design made the big cars look low and swift in my eyes.

 

[Marian]

These are amazing stories. I'm seeing a common thread here, so I'm asking anyone on this forum to tell their favorite story on how they got hooked and why.

 

[commando1]

<quick hijack>
Gary, I didn't know how extensive your history was. Very NICE!
<back to topic>

 

[Marian]

<quick hijack>
Gary, I didn't know how extensive your history was. Very NICE!
<back to topic>

We gonna hear your story Stan?

 

[commando1]

No. I talk too much already. People already know most of it. I like reading about other people though. YOUR story fascinates me.

 

[Marian]

No. I talk too much already. People already know most of it. I like reading about other people though. YOUR story fascinates me.

Ok...I'll search all 18,366 posts and find your story. Is it ok if I were to include it? I want to make sure I have everyone's permission.

 

[commando1]

Go at it. I"ve bared all already.

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Not long ago I did the timeline history of all my cars but not so much how I got there.

I was a car kid, collected Matchbox, Hot Wheels and built model cars. My father was a car guy and we’d go to shows, everything from the local shows and LA AutoShow to Concours d'Elegance so I saw it all. A few things stood out early, movie cars, Corvettes and customizing. My dad grew up in South Gate when Barris has his shop there, my dad was always hanging around watching many of the classic leadsleads being built, I still not sure why he never ended up working there, probably family we all know the drill.

Growing up you would have thought I’d end up a Corvette guy but the constant exposure to Mopars probably swayed me early. My grandparents had a 1967 Barracuda that I loved, my parents a 72 Coronet wagon and a 1955 Chevy 2-door sedan. While I was still in elementary school my parents got a 1973 Barracuda, I think my fate was sealed.

Although those two Barracudas were staring at me regularly I was still into a little of everything. One of the things I like building models of the most were service vehicles, the first being a 1934 Ford tow truck. As a kid I was into the Budweiser label and I got a tractor trailer kit, soon later an auto hauler, all along I am building customs and phantoms my favorite being a 1965 Pontiac truck like the El Camino.

It was obvious early on that I was into the odd stuff not the typical sports cars and muscle cars. In time I acquired both the Barracudas and the model stuff faded away. It was about 1985 and the City of Lompoc was selling some old Diplomat police cars and I thought it would be cool to have one, not to restore but to do up all black with push bar, spots and antennas. That never happened. Fast forward life gets in the way and the 67 Barracuda ends up in storage and the 73 sold.

Now 1995 or so and I’m at a show in Pismo Beach and there is a 50’s Buick California Highway Patrol car restored in CHP trim. WOW, talking with the owner changed things, I had to have one, a restored CHP car. Years later the Barracuda was still in storage and I was finally able to restore it, after 18 years in storage it was done.

That opened the door to doing the CHP car, had to be Dodge, 1975 (no smog checks) or older, didn’t want a 50’s car. Found a list and damn, the 67 was an Olds, no having one to match the year of my Barracuda. Being in the internet world I was able to look through all the other years and settled on the 69, to me was the nicest looking of the bunch, early 60’s to old looking, mid 60’s too boxy, the 71-73 just didn’t look as cool (and the 70 was a Mercury).

Over the years I have gravitated toward the oddball stuff, having been born into the Mopar world and liking service cars it is no surprise that I ended up with a C-Body CHP car. With my diverse interest I can’t even comment on what my next project will be.

Alan

 

[70NPORT]

<quick hijack>
Gary, I didn't know how extensive your history was. Very NICE!
<back to topic>

Thanks. guess I've never mentioned it before.

 

[Marian]

Go at it. I"ve bared all already.

Guess I missed that pic. Definitely going digging now. :th_krazy:

 

[Catfish]

I would include mine with lots of pictures, but I got into this from smashing these big old cars in the derby arena. Imperials were/are still my favorite.....tough SOB's. Junked a lot of really good parts in the process until I found out that people were fixing these cars up....then I started giving away, trading, and selling parts for peanuts to help guys/gals fix up their c bodies. Photos might just be too much for some folks on here to handle.

 

[Marian]

I would include mine with lots of pictures, but I got into this from smashing these big old cars in the derby arena. Imperials were/are still my favorite.....tough SOB's. Junked a lot of really good parts in the process until I found out that people were fixing these cars up....then I started giving away, trading, and selling parts for peanuts to help guys/gals fix up their c bodies. Photos might just be too much for some folks on here to handle.

You could always email me the pics. Ohhh, the carnage.

 

[vdk2010]

Very interesting stories! Mine is not that interesting... I'm pretty young compared with the others around here and I've never owned an American car.

I never had one of these cars. I always wanted to have one of these cars. Now, finally, I bought one of these cars. And sometime, it will be here to start my first project.

 

[Marian]

Very interesting stories! Mine is not that interesting... I'm pretty young compared with the others around here and I've never owned an American car.

I never had one of these cars. I always wanted to have one of these cars. Now, finally, I bought one of these cars. And sometime, it will be here to start my first project.

That in it's self is a story and very interesting. The younger generation viewpoint. Also, why did you always want one. Curious minds want to know. BTW...love the chive but love vodka better.