Late 70's LeBaron
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77 LeBaron
Well-Known Member
I have a 1977 LeBaron made in 06/77 as per door label and it was originally from an area with extreme winters and it has no rust issues, granted it was well maintained. The only problems I have encountered on my 77 is the heater core leaks. I guess when the 1976 Aspen/Volare line were launched there was a problem with the paint process which led to a recall on rusted body parts. This was early in production . There are several articles out there. Your best bet is to find a well maintained one unless you are good at body and mechanical work which I am not. As for the heater core it seems to be a Chrysler problem I had a 67 Imperial that also leaked. Never had it on any other make from that era. Good Luck and what model Lebaron are you looking at ?
77 LeBaron
Well-Known Member
I would read up on it and ask some of the other forum members who are experts on the M body. I have read that rust issues were prevalent on the early 1976 Aspen/Volare models . My 1977 is fine as far as rust is concerned. I do not think the LeBaron/Diplomats suffered the same rust issues as they were rolled out at a later date but I could be wrong. Fellow board members please post your thoughts on this .
M-bodies can and will rust out – but, overall, are way better than F-bodies.
I "think" the reason is the F-body was the low end car when it came out in ’76. That position went up a notch when the L-Body came out (Omni/Horizon) in ’78 – but quality of F-bodies didn’t change, any.
My opinion as to why, is they didn’t take time to dip cars correctly (if at all), didn’t take time to prep car before paint and/or didn’t apply as much paint as they should have when cars were built – like they did with M-Bodies (or other bodies).
Pretty much all ’76- (to ’79?) F-body fenders will rust out on top side. The recall fenders are to fix that concern. Even my ’77 Volare wagon, with 40k miles and has been kept inside of a garage 95% of its life, has rust through holes on fender tops.
Trunk rust can be an issue – but not as much as A-body or earlier B-bodies are.
Seems like front frame rails and floor pans might be (I think) the big rust areas.
Floor pans are not being repop’ed (that I know of) but can be found.
Saf-T-Cap makes front frame rail caps for our cars – which I’ve heard good things about (but not personally used).
Floor pan rust can normally be seen under the car and is normally at any of the 4 lower outer corners (of floor pan). A camera picture from the 4 corners will usually tell you if floor pan has rust damage. The front frame rails take a little bit more effort to look at – but can still be done without jacking car up any.
M-bodies, for the most part, do not have a rust problem – except for extreme conditions.
F-bodies, well – are not in the same category – even though the chassis/metal body are exactly the same (except for outer skins and such).
In '80, the F-body fenders are the same as M-body ones are.
BudW
I "think" the reason is the F-body was the low end car when it came out in ’76. That position went up a notch when the L-Body came out (Omni/Horizon) in ’78 – but quality of F-bodies didn’t change, any.
My opinion as to why, is they didn’t take time to dip cars correctly (if at all), didn’t take time to prep car before paint and/or didn’t apply as much paint as they should have when cars were built – like they did with M-Bodies (or other bodies).
Pretty much all ’76- (to ’79?) F-body fenders will rust out on top side. The recall fenders are to fix that concern. Even my ’77 Volare wagon, with 40k miles and has been kept inside of a garage 95% of its life, has rust through holes on fender tops.
Trunk rust can be an issue – but not as much as A-body or earlier B-bodies are.
Seems like front frame rails and floor pans might be (I think) the big rust areas.
Floor pans are not being repop’ed (that I know of) but can be found.
Saf-T-Cap makes front frame rail caps for our cars – which I’ve heard good things about (but not personally used).
Floor pan rust can normally be seen under the car and is normally at any of the 4 lower outer corners (of floor pan). A camera picture from the 4 corners will usually tell you if floor pan has rust damage. The front frame rails take a little bit more effort to look at – but can still be done without jacking car up any.
M-bodies, for the most part, do not have a rust problem – except for extreme conditions.
F-bodies, well – are not in the same category – even though the chassis/metal body are exactly the same (except for outer skins and such).
In '80, the F-body fenders are the same as M-body ones are.
BudW
