87 Diplomat: Carlisle Cruiser

[Opticon77]

Pops owned at least 4 M bodies and I owned 2 in my early driving years. I missed them. So I agreed to sell my Volare wagon project to a friend of mine (kept some of the parts for myself) and went in search of a Diplomat.

I found a gem built by a Mopar nut. Freshened up and pretty heavily modified for an FMJ. Nearly every part on the car had either a factory or dealer catalog part number.
He built it around 2008 and just drove it on nice days and down to Chryslers at Carlisle from upstate NY a handful of times. He had some amazing B bodies and such. This car was just a side project for him.
While he clearly cared for the car I'm pretty sure what he built meant a lot more to an FMJ nuts like me...

Exterior repainted with a set of the deep alloys and 6 slot steel wheels (with vented caps)
A tuff wheel and seats wrapped in your Italian grandmother's finest couch plastic
318 with a 4bbl Edlebrock on a Mopar Performance Intake
P4452759 cam with 260/268 on 110 degrees
Big valve 360 heads
TTI longtube headers into dual 2.5" 304ss exhaust with X-pipe and Spintechs
2400 stall (General Bracket) Mopar Performance converter in a rebuilt non-lockup A904 with a shift kit.
8.25" LSD rear with 2.95s and 10" drums
FFI Front and Rear Firm Feel swar bars
FFI Tie rods and quick ratio arms
FFI Bilsteins all around

 

[Opticon77]

I bought it to drive it so I made a couple changes and drove it to work on nice days for most of the year.

I pulled the well corroded alloys and crusty boomer Radial T/As (along with decorative plates and weird 90s Magnum v8 badges).
Rattle-canned the 6 slots and bought a set of smooth new whitewall Nexens.

Cleaned up a set of vented dog dishes that came with the car and ran it through the cold temps looking classy.

Built and installed a RetroSound New York headunit and replaced all the factory speakers with Infinity drivers. 6x9 upgrade in the back.

Works great but I still haven't reinstalled the trim around it in car so I owe you some finished pics on that.
I also have an underseat 8" powered subwoofer to wire in still.

 

[Opticon77]

Then when the weather warmed up things got a little more serious.

I moved the Bilsteins to the Volare I was selling and swapped on my Vi-King 2 way adjustable shocks.
I swapped on the Volare's old 16x8 5 slot rallys with thick BFG Sport summer tires.
ESPO 5 leaf rear springs recurved 1" taller
ESPO poly isolator pads and leaf mount/hanger bushings.
PST 1.5" drop leaf spring mounts
Mesh trans filter to support low viscosity John Deere Hy-Gard fluid (non-lock high stall converters suck for long highway runs)

Then I got it aligned, packed up the wife and little brother, and rolled around Ocean City MD making noises for Endless Summer Cruisin

This winter I hope to get around to installing the 3.55 rear gears with a new LSD carrier and a New Edelbrock 4150 in 650cfm flavor that I have for her.

Not getting too wild though. It's just a cool looking noise maker. Keeping the ride smooth and the radio up.

As I have better implements at hand for a more violent mood...

 

[Cordoba1]

Wow, lovely, lovely, lovely! My first car was a worn out '78 LeBaron. My next ride was a 84 Diplo. What are your impressions of the Retrosound system? I recently installed a Retosound unit into a very-low-mile Monte Carlo that I acquired. I picked the unit to preserve the period-correct look. It looks great, but I'm not thrilled with the sound. I have a sub attached, but the total sound sounds "compressed." All that being said, I have had great success purchasing Mopar head units on eBay that have been modified. They have either aux inputs added or Bluetooth added. The best part is they bolt right in and look like they belong. In my anectodical estimation, Moopar radios were ahead of the curve regarding audio quality during the '80s.

I posted a video about using a modified Chrysler radio in my J Body here:

Love the M Body!

- Adam , Chicago IL -

 

[Opticon77]

What are your impressions of the Retrosound system? I recently installed a Retosound unit into a very-low-mile Monte Carlo that I acquired. I picked the unit to preserve the period-correct look. It looks great, but I'm not thrilled with the sound. I have a sub attached, but the total sound sounds "compressed."

To be fair I have only connected it via Bluetooth (which very noticeably compresses the feed compared to the over-USB audio when I compare the 2 modes in my Challenger) and I've asked it to drive some 6x9" and 3.5" aftermarket coaxials without the help of even a factory amp (which I remember having in all my old 5th Aves). After tweaking the EQ bands and setting the high pass filters to be kind to the small speakers the RetroSound produces a very acceptable sound (current lack of a subwoofer considered). But because of the frankly ridiculous exhaust drone my bar for clear sound reproduction is pretty low. The end goal is to install that sub, a pair of less rowdy Vibrant mufflers, and set up the USB input from my phone for better sound.

It's probably also worth noting the kinds of music I use to set the vibe in the Diplomat are often compressed and distorted as matter of retro style.




I grew up a "victim" of an audiophile father. Hearing perfection through countless vintage 70s receivers through warm glowing tubes to bi-amped and heavily modified JBL C34s. My greatest mobile build was feeding the factory RB1 output to 6 German Maestro 6.5" component speakers and a 12" JLW6v2 through JL 300w 4channel and 400w monoblock "slash series" amps in a quiet and wonderfully dome-roofed Chrysler 300M Special. Shocking clarity and volume.

Like a recovering addict I am very hesitant to chase that HiFi sound in this car.

 

[Cordoba1]

Hot spit, you know what you're talking about. I recently procured a Pioneer RT-909 (40 YR Old Tech), and I have it playing through a bespoke Sonos system (State of the art Tech!). I record modern music onto 10.5" reels, play it back during parties. Guests don't believe it is really playing from it unless I stop it or change the speed.

 

[Cordoba1]

(JBL Control1 stereo pair, Yamaha powered sub, all driven by Sonos Connect. Reel-to-reel connected by aux-in.)

 

[Opticon77]

I record modern music onto 10.5" reels, play it back during parties.

HA! Oh you're sick. That is definitely some good looking analog vintage tech for it's own sake. I love it.