Body Designations

[80mirada]

So the Imperial in the thread, '"C" What I Spotted', got me into digging. I had always thought 67-73 Imperials were D-body.

Starting in 1960 with the A-body Chrysler was "going with a chronological series" with their designations. The A-body was introduced as a 1960, B-body came in 1962, The C-body came in 1965, and the new Imperial was introduced on a Unitized chassis in 1967 (D, C+ ?). Chrysler kept this pattern in 1970 with the E-body, but stuff goes weird after that.

That means the next new car should be an F-body, but it isn't. The New for 1971 chassis is a B-body! In 1973 they heavily revise the B-body AGAIN! In 1976 the F-body is introduced, But know we skip to the M-body in 1978, with no significant platform changes structurally, or layout wise, I couldn't find any, anyway.

Next is the L-body, Yes the Omni and Horizon are in this series. The R-body debuts in 1979. The Cordoba and Magnum moved to the R-body for the 1979 model year, that's right, they are R-bodies even with no changes to the car. In 1980 we debut the J-body, which is an F/M-body with some structural changes. And finally the end of the series comes in 1981 with the K-body K-Cars and the Y-body Imperial.

So, I am more confused now than I should be. After looking at the "naked" Structures of some of these cars, a 73 Charger is less of a B-body more than a 71 Imperial is a C-body. However by Chrysler's own Engineering standard The 67-73 Imperial should have been a D-body, AND the 71 and later B-bodies should have been an F-body. Leaving us to love what should have been either a G or an H-body Volare/Aspen, but that isn't the way it worked out.

So is the 67-73 Imperial a C or a D-body? Hell if I know, I do know I wasted bunch of time reading a lot of interesting articles.

The thread that started this
http://www.forfmjbodiesonly.com/classicmopar/threads/c-what-i-spotted.4439/

 

[ramenth]

I believe the reason the new designed B-bodies were designated as B-bodies was because the name plates followed. The Road Runner, the Satellite, the Charger, the Coronet et al, came onto the new for '71 platform.

The C- and D- body platforms have always been muddied. I thought the only time they Imperials were designated as a D-body were when the Imperials was it's one make line (like Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth) and the were only designated under the C-body line was when they were back to being incorporated under the Chrysler make.

 

[Jack Meoff]

For what it's worth.

http://www.dippy.org/forum2/index.php/topic,109.0.html

 

[Dr Lebaron]

Imperials were D and built under a separate name plate from Chrysler.
When the fuselage C based Imperials came, they got called C's but the where built on stretched C platforms.

 

[Aspen500]

Regardless, we all know which body designations are the best ones don't we. It's F-M and J body!

I know, not a body designation but in the parts manuals (and VIN) "H" is Volare so they sort of had an H-body but not really.

 

[kkritsilas]

Practically speaking, there is only an F body, the rest is marketing. F body came in 2 door (108" WB), and 4 door (112.7" WB). While called J bodies, the Cordoba and Mirada used the 112.7" F body chassis. M bodies are F bodies, Chrysler just wanted to get away from the quality issues of the F body. There are very few differences in the actual chassis.

 

[kkritsilas]

There is no Y body. The imperial is a J body. It is a Y class car, like the Mirada is an X22 (specialty coupe).

 

[Dr Lebaron]

There is no Y body. The imperial is a J body. It is a Y class car, like the Mirada is an X22 (specialty coupe).

Y=90-93 FWD F/A, Imperial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chrysler_platforms

 

[kkritsilas]

I am speaking in the context of this board. Since we don't cover FWD Imperials, it isn't part of what I was talking about. For somebody who goes postal everytime we mention anything that isn't part of this board, that is a strange comment.

 

[Dr Lebaron]

LOL, I call RWD 80-83 Imperials Y's even though it isn't correct.

In the original thread ' And finally the end of the series comes in 1981 with the K-body K-Cars and the Y-body Imperial.'
I'm agreeing with Y Imperial FWD.

 

[80mirada]

Chrysler internal documents, Marketing and P-parts (Direct Connection) refer to the 81-83 Imperial as a Y-body, but it does not differ in any significant manner from the J-body. The J-body has a revise upper cowl, but nothing significant from an F-body. The 67-73 Imperial are called C-bodies because 2 engineers who didn't work on that program said so. Direct Connection and Mopar Performance catalogs have referred to the 67-73 Imperial as all three, C,D and Y. By Chrysler's own standard of the time, The 67-73 Imperial had enough structural changes to justify a designation change. As for the B-bodies, it appears that they continued the B-body designation because it was already a commonly used term for those car lines. However they changed the designation of the 79 Cordoba and Magnum to R-body even though there are no changes outside of minor cosmetics from the 78 B-body.

My only conclusion is that in spite an attempt to straighten out their Vehicle platform designations, someone still screwed it up.

 

[kkritsilas]

There doesn't seem to be any pattern regarding body designations at Chrysler. Sometimes they just randomly changed designations for the same body (see B body Cordoba/Magnums in 1978, R body Cordoba/Magnums in 1979 with no significant changes), some times they kept the designations even though the chassis was significantly changed (see pre- and post-1971 B bodies). Lets not even get into the re-use of both model names and body designations over time.

Basic conclusion from what I know and I am reading, they pretty much called them what they felt like calling them. No pattern, no logic need apply.