Robby Stark
New Member
Hi everyone, new to the forum here. I recently was given a 1978 Plymouth Volare by an 88 year old woman who gave up driving. She bought the car new in '78 and I've had my eye on the car since I was 10 years old. It's a green 4 door Slant 6 car. This is literally the car that was only driven to the grocery store and the hairdressers, racking up only 31k in nearly 40 years. It has also spent much of it's life in a garage, but the PA salt has really caught up with the poor thing. It has some rocker/ quarter rot that I can live with, but after jacking it up today I saw some unibody rot that really scares me on both sides in the front where it curves down near the firewall. Is this car even safe to drive at over 25mph like this? Or is it not that big of a deal? Is it able to be fixed, and if so, is it worth the effort? The rest of the underbody is in pretty good shape, not even any floor rot. I applied for antique tags on the car so safety inspection is not required and the man that has been inspecting it for years was only doing so because the car never went faster than 25 or left town. I'm obviously not planning on making it a daily driver and would only be driving it occasionally when the salt is off the roads, but safety is a concern.
Otherwise than the rot, the car runs and drives great from what I can tell.