Phantom C bodies

[Mid70's Chrysler Fanatic]

The problem I have with most of these truck conversions is that they often start with a station wagon and use the front doors, where it probably would have the longer doors used on a 2-door.
The other problem is the roof line, the wagon had a taller roof than a hardtop and these would look more natural had they taken that in consideration. Lets not even get into vehicle selection to start with.

I have yet to see one of these conversions that looked as if it could have been a factory vehicle.


Alan

Except in Australia, New Zealand and a few others, where the side windows and upper door frames are borrowed from wagons/sedans to make the utes. The first one I saw - an early Sixties’ Valiant in Crocodile Dundee - looked homemade to me except for the “V” emblem embossed into the C-pillars. (Members from those countries can provide more information.) I assume that it was for cost savings.

The worst aesthetic flaw I see in the conversions is the unused-but-intact rear doors complete with handles. Filling the spaces with Bondo wouldn’t work, I think; I’d expect it to crack eventually.

The ’68-’69 Dodge “Durango” that exists only in my mind would use the two-door Coronet and blend in a pickup box derived from the wagons. I bet Ma Mopar’s stylists would’ve made it look awesome!

 

[Gerald Morris]

I am still in NJ. I have everything you would have needed to fix the front end of Mathilda and build a "Chryslerado" with enough left over to sell for parts. I also have two decent longer doors from a 2-door Newport that I was going to try to use and the chrome door trim to go with them. Unfortunately I did not save the Newport B-posts. I had never considered measuring the roof line. I did the initial chop job in 1980 and worked on it for a few years as time and money allowed. I just never had enough of either to complete it. At this point in my life the amount of structural metal work needed to strengthen the frame and make the rear doors part of the rear quarter panels is way above my abilities and finances.

This is the parts car. Current pictures of the "Chryslerado" are impossible to get right now because it is buried in the garage behind a lot of other stuff and this one is in front of the garage.

Tilly's FRONT end would be pretty straightforward, but it was the REAR which convinced me to declare her DEAD. I saw right away the superficial sheetmetal, paint and filler work when I bought her, but DID'NT see the deterioration of the rear frame rails, shackle perches and such until I got into her this past year. This car originated in Indiana, and while she long abode in Toostoned, the initial rear end collision, half assed repair of that, then rust erosion all occurred long ago 'ere she left her birth state.

Be this as it may, we STILL got her for a GOOD price, and somebody rebuilt that 383 well enough for me to have driven it 6.5 years, and to drive it yet, with nice, smooth, clean bores sans scuffing or ridging. With the new heads, the only time she uses oil is when I WOT her around on a warm day. I don't do that much.

Be this as it may, we need another RUNNING engine, as a backup. I hope to get one of my B blocks under reconstruction now too, having replaced the 516 heads on that 383 w the 915s I got off a Good Moparian from this Forum. There's a putative running 413 around the county here I want to check on, though a 413 in a '68 is a little uncanonical I guess.