Zezima
Member
Big Blue, AKA Polecat, AKA Struggle Shuttle AKA The Big Bluebowski.
1971 Dodge Polara, base, 4 door sedan, 383 2-barrel, 727 transmission, all manual drums. FQ5 Coral Turquoise, black interior, black vinyl top (long gone), black carpet, black everything; pretty much no options or as basic as you can get, I believe radio and A/C were the only non-standard things it was purchased with. It either has 122,000 miles or 220, but I'm leaning towards 120. Bought for $3,100 in driving condition January 2023. This is my first pre-80s vehicle I've owned, and my first American car (I own a Plymouth Voyager, but haven't gotten it driving yet, and not really a car), and I've been in love with all things fuselage ever since I was introduced to them, so C bodies quickly became one of my goal cars to own, and the 71 Polara in particular was among my favorite of the fuselage designs, so I spent about a month looking for a 71-72 Polara and going through options and eventually settled on a listing in Phelan, California, so drove cross country to pick it up and trailered it back - around ~3,200 miles of driving in total. Dailied it for a good while, then had a couple hiccups where it wasn't driving for some periods, but now it's back to being the daily driver, and it's the car I use for every little thing; so long as it drives, I'll be using it. It was designed to be, in Dodge's own words:
And that's exactly what it is, what it does, what I wanted, and how I use it. And I thoroughly enjoy pretty much everything about it.
Although I would be pretty interested in owning a 72 Fury, 72 Monaco, 70 Newport, or 69-70 300 some day, I've got to say I have pretty much no complaints about the Polara, and love how it drives and feels.
It was suggested I make a standalone thread for this, so figured might as well keep this as a record/blog of sorts to keep track of everything. Despite owning it for a while now, only yesterday got a chance for my first real (though still casual) photoshoot with it, so thought I'd put those pictures here and write down basically where everything's at as far as problems and goals and directions with it. It is rust-free, and the only rust that is present is surface rust, which I plan on addressing when able.
My budget will always be as low dollar as possible for the foreseeable future, since I just don't have hardly any money to begin with, so getting things done will be slow and cheap, but if it can be done with minimal resources, it will be tried.
Body/Exterior:
Problem areas:
· Lower valence needs to be hammered out, since it's pretty crunched up (pretty much all damage on the car was there when I bought it)
· Fender endcap needs fiberglass repair (planning to use a fiberglass repair kit to see how far I can get with that)
· Surface rust and general paint condition lacking any manner of clear coat, so the pigment/base coat is exposed
· Large dent/scrape in rear passenger door area
· Passenger half of the rear bumper trim is missing its argent coat
· All body molding is missing, which isn't an issue for me, but do want to do something about the metal hangers(?) that protrude from the body at some point
Good/fixed areas:
· Nothing appears to be missing other than the vinyl top, all the badging is there
· Driver tail light was busted with a hole in it, replaced it
· Passenger bumper trim was covered in some hard-stuck rust, scrubbed most of it off
· Driver rear marker light lens was broken and mostly missing; replaced
Goals:
· Get it back to all one color, either FQ5 again if possible, or the similar but distinct Q5 Bright Turquoise - undecided on roof color as of yet
Interior:
Problem areas:
· Not too many problems, but area where the driver sits has tears, but copious amounts of black duct tape makes this mostly a non issue. There is some minor cracking and tearing at the top of the backseats starting to form though.
· Dash has some cracks/rips, not too bad though.
· Black finish on some of the dash plastic is wearing and showing the silver/chrome underneath
· Glovebox closes, but not all the way flush, it hangs open about half an inch
· Driver carpet area is torn up, the rest of the carpet is pretty healthy
· Almost all of the headliner had to be taken out, there's only a couple rows left I believe
Good areas:
· Pretty much everything else, seats, doors, and carpets are pretty healthy
Goals:
· Originally I was thinking about a different carpet color when replacing it, now I'm not so sure.
· Also considered bucket or split bench seats, but also have since reconsidered
· Not sure what my headliner options would even be, and it's low priority, but I wouldn't mind an interesting pattern if that's possible
Mechanical:
Problem areas:
· Shaking: After getting it driving again a few days ago, it now shakes about 2-3x as intensely as it did before. There was always low idle vibration, but it was pretty mild. Now the shaking is getting pretty heavy by comparison, especially if you have it idled in drive with the brakes on. At higher RPMs, such as park or neutral, it smooths out more, but it's still more present than it was before.
· Braking: Also something new since getting it driving again recently, when braking it no longer brakes completely smoothly and it behaves sort of like it's going over a flat spot on a tire, but that's not the case. Just got an alignment as well, so still trying to figure that one out.
· Steering: All in all, pretty good, though the front suspension needs new bushings, and possibly ball joints, though at that point may need to look into the control arms as a whole eventually. Just wear.
· Backfiring: When engine braking or decelerating in lower gear, it'll do a snap, crackle, pop burbly sort of backfiring, but not at any other time.
· Brake lights still work, though the brake switch at the pedal is starting to go out, so will probably have to replace that soon
· Driver door handle button is getting sticky and doesn't want to pop back out once pressed
Fixed:
· Replaced radiator (original has pinhole leaks) and coolant hoses
· Replaced timing chain
· Replaced carburetor
· Replaced distributor
· Replaced coil, plugs, wires, ballast resistor, and voltage regulator
· Replaced compressor
· Replaced belts
· Replaced starter and battery cables
· Brake fluid leak at one of the drums
· A couple of the door handles and windows were stuck, now all the doors and windows operate as they should
· Replaced spark plugs
---
There's probably more in each area that I'm not thinking of right now, but this is already long enough, and covers a good area for just going off the top of my head. So with all that being said, here are some pictures. I have plenty more, but with the 10 attachment limit, I really had to pick and choose here, but I can always post more.
Sorry for the long post, just putting everything in one place took longer than I thought it would I guess.
1971 Dodge Polara, base, 4 door sedan, 383 2-barrel, 727 transmission, all manual drums. FQ5 Coral Turquoise, black interior, black vinyl top (long gone), black carpet, black everything; pretty much no options or as basic as you can get, I believe radio and A/C were the only non-standard things it was purchased with. It either has 122,000 miles or 220, but I'm leaning towards 120. Bought for $3,100 in driving condition January 2023. This is my first pre-80s vehicle I've owned, and my first American car (I own a Plymouth Voyager, but haven't gotten it driving yet, and not really a car), and I've been in love with all things fuselage ever since I was introduced to them, so C bodies quickly became one of my goal cars to own, and the 71 Polara in particular was among my favorite of the fuselage designs, so I spent about a month looking for a 71-72 Polara and going through options and eventually settled on a listing in Phelan, California, so drove cross country to pick it up and trailered it back - around ~3,200 miles of driving in total. Dailied it for a good while, then had a couple hiccups where it wasn't driving for some periods, but now it's back to being the daily driver, and it's the car I use for every little thing; so long as it drives, I'll be using it. It was designed to be, in Dodge's own words:
And that's exactly what it is, what it does, what I wanted, and how I use it. And I thoroughly enjoy pretty much everything about it.
Although I would be pretty interested in owning a 72 Fury, 72 Monaco, 70 Newport, or 69-70 300 some day, I've got to say I have pretty much no complaints about the Polara, and love how it drives and feels.
It was suggested I make a standalone thread for this, so figured might as well keep this as a record/blog of sorts to keep track of everything. Despite owning it for a while now, only yesterday got a chance for my first real (though still casual) photoshoot with it, so thought I'd put those pictures here and write down basically where everything's at as far as problems and goals and directions with it. It is rust-free, and the only rust that is present is surface rust, which I plan on addressing when able.
My budget will always be as low dollar as possible for the foreseeable future, since I just don't have hardly any money to begin with, so getting things done will be slow and cheap, but if it can be done with minimal resources, it will be tried.
Body/Exterior:
Problem areas:
· Lower valence needs to be hammered out, since it's pretty crunched up (pretty much all damage on the car was there when I bought it)
· Fender endcap needs fiberglass repair (planning to use a fiberglass repair kit to see how far I can get with that)
· Surface rust and general paint condition lacking any manner of clear coat, so the pigment/base coat is exposed
· Large dent/scrape in rear passenger door area
· Passenger half of the rear bumper trim is missing its argent coat
· All body molding is missing, which isn't an issue for me, but do want to do something about the metal hangers(?) that protrude from the body at some point
Good/fixed areas:
· Nothing appears to be missing other than the vinyl top, all the badging is there
· Driver tail light was busted with a hole in it, replaced it
· Passenger bumper trim was covered in some hard-stuck rust, scrubbed most of it off
· Driver rear marker light lens was broken and mostly missing; replaced
Goals:
· Get it back to all one color, either FQ5 again if possible, or the similar but distinct Q5 Bright Turquoise - undecided on roof color as of yet
Interior:
Problem areas:
· Not too many problems, but area where the driver sits has tears, but copious amounts of black duct tape makes this mostly a non issue. There is some minor cracking and tearing at the top of the backseats starting to form though.
· Dash has some cracks/rips, not too bad though.
· Black finish on some of the dash plastic is wearing and showing the silver/chrome underneath
· Glovebox closes, but not all the way flush, it hangs open about half an inch
· Driver carpet area is torn up, the rest of the carpet is pretty healthy
· Almost all of the headliner had to be taken out, there's only a couple rows left I believe
Good areas:
· Pretty much everything else, seats, doors, and carpets are pretty healthy
Goals:
· Originally I was thinking about a different carpet color when replacing it, now I'm not so sure.
· Also considered bucket or split bench seats, but also have since reconsidered
· Not sure what my headliner options would even be, and it's low priority, but I wouldn't mind an interesting pattern if that's possible
Mechanical:
Problem areas:
· Shaking: After getting it driving again a few days ago, it now shakes about 2-3x as intensely as it did before. There was always low idle vibration, but it was pretty mild. Now the shaking is getting pretty heavy by comparison, especially if you have it idled in drive with the brakes on. At higher RPMs, such as park or neutral, it smooths out more, but it's still more present than it was before.
· Braking: Also something new since getting it driving again recently, when braking it no longer brakes completely smoothly and it behaves sort of like it's going over a flat spot on a tire, but that's not the case. Just got an alignment as well, so still trying to figure that one out.
· Steering: All in all, pretty good, though the front suspension needs new bushings, and possibly ball joints, though at that point may need to look into the control arms as a whole eventually. Just wear.
· Backfiring: When engine braking or decelerating in lower gear, it'll do a snap, crackle, pop burbly sort of backfiring, but not at any other time.
· Brake lights still work, though the brake switch at the pedal is starting to go out, so will probably have to replace that soon
· Driver door handle button is getting sticky and doesn't want to pop back out once pressed
Fixed:
· Replaced radiator (original has pinhole leaks) and coolant hoses
· Replaced timing chain
· Replaced carburetor
· Replaced distributor
· Replaced coil, plugs, wires, ballast resistor, and voltage regulator
· Replaced compressor
· Replaced belts
· Replaced starter and battery cables
· Brake fluid leak at one of the drums
· A couple of the door handles and windows were stuck, now all the doors and windows operate as they should
· Replaced spark plugs
---
There's probably more in each area that I'm not thinking of right now, but this is already long enough, and covers a good area for just going off the top of my head. So with all that being said, here are some pictures. I have plenty more, but with the 10 attachment limit, I really had to pick and choose here, but I can always post more.
Sorry for the long post, just putting everything in one place took longer than I thought it would I guess.
