F Body..... Last Great Muscle Car?

[SeventysevenR/T]

Hey guys, I just joined this last weekend... I've been snooping around this forum for years, never bothered to join.


I've got a 77 Aspen R/T "Super Pak", T-tops, 4spd. I had always thought that it was kind of a special car. I'm in the process of
tearing it down and starting from ground zero. I work at a sandblasting/painting shop, so it won't actually cost me anything to
blast and paint the underside, or the interior floor pannels. big plans for this girl, but thats a whole new bag of worms....


I was talking with a buddy down at the local coffee shop, talking cars, telling lies ect. We got onto the subject of my noise maker (Aspen has straight pipes). He refered to the Aspen R/T, Volare RR as the last great Mopar muscle cars...
there were a couple other V8 Rwd 2 doors that followed the f-body, but weren't really what i would concider to be a "Muscle Car"
to me the Mirada just seems a little too "boxy" to be a "muscle" car nice car but "Muscle"??


What do you guys think?


Is the F-Body the last great muscle car?
or am I just trying to pump up my ride?

 

[slant6billy]

Hopefully friends here aren't mad about that statement. Let's point out some of the colors and paint scheme of the f bodies. Rainbow seats from the factory, stripes, and option 4 speed. OK, no factory tach, but tachs were to mounted up somewhere to be seen. The Mirada had a sofisticated look and more Office attire maturity- nothing wrong with that. I like the fact that the F body was able to beat up the trans am and z28 of the time. The mustang 2 left the game and ford didn't come back until 81 (after the f was gone). The other major factor was the price of the f body- bang for the buck right out of the box. You can't buy a car today for that. I hate to point out that the Toyota Scion FR - S is 25 grand , rear wheel drive, and 6 speed- half the price of the SRT Challenger and half the weight (wait). So I'll hold on to my F body, since it was the end of a time, not just a car.

 

[Greg55_99]

Here I go again. I’m the guy that bought my 1977 Road Runner off the lot in 1978 as a leftover. I can tell you with some assuredness. The F-body was NOT a great car. Muscle or otherwise in those days of bell bottomed pants and 8-track tapes. My Road Runner came with a 318 2 barrel, catalytic converter, 3-speed with overdrive transmission and a LOT of problems. The 318 was the only V8 motor you could get with a stick and it had nice torque but would run out of breath around 4000 RPMs. The 360 had more power, but, I think they only way it came was Lean Burn (a NIGHTMARE) and automatic. Quality control at Chrysler was nearly non-existent. Rotting fenders, transmission sticking between gears, soft floaty ride from the side by side torsion bars, bias ply tires…. Easily “chirped” taking corners too fast… I suppose the R/T, Road Runner and Kit Car graphics and stripes make you think “Muscle Car”, but, off the showroom floor, not so much. Don’t get me wrong though. Once you bought the car, everything was readily available to make it a REAL Muscle car, but, that you had to do yourself (as I did)… In fact, I think the “L’il Read Express Truck” with a 360 was the fastest in the Mopar stable at the time.

Greg

 

[jasperjacko]

I think the 66-67 coronet/belvedere cars were also "boxy", but it was the chosen drivetrain that made them a muscle car. Even the AMC pacer could be had as a "muscle car" lol.

 

[SeventysevenR/T]

No intent to offend anyone, the Mirada/Cordoba are still very cool cars, one could even say they were ahead of thier time. Slanty, i think the expression "sofisticated" is the perfect expression to sum up these cars.

I absoloutely love my noise maker, and so does everyone that drives by my place. I get many comments on it "what kind of car is that?" "What year is that thing?" "Do you wanna sell that thing?" In my mind the 76-79 f Body was the last muscle car. i wouldn't
rate the diplomat or the 5th Avenue as muscle.... k cars were on the scene soon after... sure when it was stock it wasn't much of a car, however... My good friend Dean would say the same thing about his 69 Charger that came with a 318 2 bbl when he bought it... he now has a 451 stroker in that girl pushing in the neibourhood of 480 horse. now thats a car. he's got nearly 10 grand stuffed into that engine, not to mention the work done on the transmission and rear end. when he bought the car he had no interest in the drive train at all, the only thing he wanted was "the look", a body, a building block to start from... its now one of the sweetest cars around this area. not only to look at but to ride in, and to watch how that thing moves. truly amazing car. but 25 years ago when he only had the lil old 318... it was just nice to look at...

Muscle cars all had loose steering, bouncy ride, kinda scary thinking we used to take those old death traps up and over 120-130 Mph. all automakers mopar, fomoco, gm were starting to put thinner cheaper steel on thier cars in the mid 70's and it just got worse after that, its got nothing to do with "quality control", this is the direction all auto makers were going. As far as the Transmission is concerned, you must have had a lemon Greg... the A833 manual gear box in the Aspen/Volare's is the same A833 manual transmission that was created by Chrysler in 1964, with the exeption of 4th gear being a little larger. some would argue that the A833 was and still is the strongest, most robust manual gear box ever made.

Greg...
"Here i go again"???
"I'm the guy..."
sounds like im not the first person to hear your pouty little ramble.
Are you on a quest to knock down F-Bodies???

For some reason when i made a post in the "Welcome Wagon" section
I thought id feel a little more .... well....... welcome....
or is this site all about:
"My car is worse than your car"??

 

[jasperjacko]

O.K. , Don't want to stir the pot but..... you start with "No intent to offend anyone." Then you call the guys comment a " pouty little ramble." I think the original owner of a 35 year old car might know a thing or two about that car. You are welcome to participate in the site, but I think your smart remarks are not helpful.
As far as a "pouty little ramble" goes, I'd say your last paragraph fits that description to a T. :icon_cry:

 

[Shorty Thompson]

Are talking stock out of the box , or tweeked to satisfy ?

 

[old tired rebel]

Welcome

 

[Greg55_99]

Well, I guess I'll respectfully set a few things straight. This is my car after I took it out of storage in 2008. It had been IN storage since 1980. The last time I'd actually driven the car was in 1985 when I came home on leave from the Air Force and had to move it out of its place of storage and move it to another location (with no inspection, insurance, current tags... I didn't get caught thankfully..). "Knocking down F-bodies" is NOT the same as telling the truth about any car. I bought my car to drive daily. Not sit in the garage and go racing on the weekends. I drove it to work, school, cross country and visited Canada in it, rain or shine and snow. My cousin used it to go on his honeymoon in 1979. In other words, it was used as a real CAR, not a hangar queen. My observations don't come from people sitting around talking about the good old days of Mopars. With my Road Runner, I was the FIRST person to lay a fart on the front seat, and as far as I'm concerned, my son will be the last.

All that said, I'll lay it out as it was. F-bodies had POOR quality control. Front fenders on early models started rusting as soon as the car left the factory. It was so bad, Chrysler had a recall on F-bodies to replace them. Look at my car. It has UNPAINTED front fenders. Those are recall fenders GIVEN to me by the dealer in 1979. My fenders had rotted. They wouldn't paint them unless I paid. I took the fenders, tape stripes (still have those) and bid them farewell. The car came with a 318 2-barrel. After I got the car, I noticed oil seeping out between the intake and timing chain cover. It wasn't bad, so I let it go for over a year. When I finally got around to pulling off the intake to seal it, I found a 1" bolt sitting in the #2 port. Lucky me it didn't get further into the head. The A833 has a good reputation... however, my version was the aluminum case 3 speed with overdrive type. When I say the transmission would stick between gears intermittently, that's what happened. It was a common problem for those transmissions and an aftermarket Hurst shifter cured it. Now, I could go into other problems like the vibrating drive shaft, rear view mirror snapping off, heater element on the rear window burning out and other problems, but, I don't need too....

I drove it as a car, not as an investment or a toy. You say your buddy has a Charger that originally came with a 318 2-barrel. Well, way back in the day, somebody bought that car off the lot like that and drove it like that. To school, to church, to drop of the kids, whatever. Just a car to get from point A to point B. Mine did that because, that's what I bought it for. Not to worship or adore. It had faults, which is why it wasn't a great car by any means. Nor was it a "Muscle car". I looked at the odometer last night. After 34 years, it shows 65,489 miles on the clock. Between you and me.... I wouldn't buy another one.....

Greg

 

[slant6billy]

I have to agree with much of everything above. My 76 Volare had the fender issues, trim and weak steering and suspension. Blew rears like everyother day. I drove mine to the prom. I drove it through 5 years of Engineering school (I'm slow). I've bounced it off the wall. I took parts from my sister's 77 Aspen coupe until she finally squashed it in Washington DC under a truck. The F body was the first car ever recalled for RUST. All that aside, the 2 door F body looks good dirty with wide back tires, looks good clean with wide back tires, looks good with wide back tires, looks good waiting for a set of wide back tires, and looks good with no back tires (after they been shredded and caught fire). I like the fact the car is loved and hated. It was an under dog with a 1 barrel carb and buzz'n 1/2 dozen for sure. Not enough motor with that set up. However, I raced an Aspen with a super 6 and 833 with my 1988 GTA trans am. I got my butt handed to me. Turned out the guy with the Aspen had a 10 dollar 4 barrel adapter plate and some type of small holley 4 barrel. The cam and head had a 150 dollar work up. So, for under 400 bucks in the early 90s, I'll I got to see was taillights from that Aspen off the line. I did catch him around 90, but it was not easy. A few weeks later, the GTA put the engine in the sky and it was traded for a neon ACR. Owning a mopar is a disease that has no cure. Regardless of a rusty mopar, it does have a presence. I'm no doctor, but lame front wheel drive 4 door boxes, cause erectile dysfunction. When these boxes get the PEP boys make over and a 6 inch exhaust bazooka, it really is the decline of civilization as we know it. But then again, every kid wearing their hat sideways and watching Jersey Shore marathons should make us all be concern about more than a good looking F-body..... with wide rear tires, of course. .... Don't stare at them taillights too long now- they'll disappear.......

 

[Greg55_99]

And I think you've hit the major point I'm trying to make. With the right equipment, you CAN turn a sows ear into a silk purse. F-bodies can be had pretty cheaply (still!). For a few hundred bucks, you can put yourself into a platform that has good bones. Small block, big block, 4-speed, anything you can find from other Mopar lines will work on the F. It's a good (and fairly cheap)way to go fast with class..

BTW, welcome to the board!

Greg

 

[jasperjacko]

Boxy boxy

Boxy Boxy. I even entertained the thought once of installing the 66-67 roof on a mirada. It would be a decent fit and look I think too tie the new and old together. It's okay that some like more cars than others. I happen to be fond of the j-body.