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  #106  
Old 06-12-2013, 06:40 PM
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StellarTV StellarTV is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseljeep View Post
It's too bad so many of them were scrapped early in their life. The MoPars of the day, didn't have much of a demand on the used car market. Poor fit and finish, as well as an early rusting problem, sealed their demise.
I hear a lot of guys mention how they made great demo-derby cars... that or the Hemis were pulled out by the hot rodders.

This car came from the California central valley... only rust problem is a spot about an inch round on the rear passenger side rocker. It was garage kept and still has the original vinyl padded dash and door panels.
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  #107  
Old 06-12-2013, 10:03 PM
markdi markdi is offline
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I loved my grand am that i transplanted a w41 ho quad four into.
Drove it for over 20 years put over 450,000 miles on it
Very fast and cheap to own
I did all of the repairs and maintenance my self.
No prelude ever out ran me
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  #108  
Old 06-12-2013, 10:23 PM
markdi markdi is offline
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My w41 was extrude honed had hollow aftermarket cams - - etc
Lots of modifications
It had about 230+ hp and it was reliable

I drove it very hard all the time like a idiot.
I drove it like i stole it

Last edited by markdi; 06-12-2013 at 10:27 PM.
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  #109  
Old 06-13-2013, 06:22 AM
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Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KV-1926R View Post
My favorite Imperial is the 1966 "Black Beauty" from the Green Hornet TV series. It's also the only custom car I really like. The car I want most though is a base model 1981 or 1982 Mercury Lynx 2-door in medium blue metallic with a medium wedgewood blue interior, 4-speed manual and of course one of my factory 8-track stereos. Here's a pic of one, but in a different color.
I had two of those, back 20 years ago. Wait, three....one was a wagon.

I liked them, they were kinda neat. I made a body kit for one of them too.....out of plastic gutters, and painted it same color as the car. It actually looked really good!

Although I did like the 85 1/2 Escort/Lynx style better....when they came out, I was amazed at the sexy European look they had. Well, after all, it was 1985......
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  #110  
Old 06-13-2013, 08:23 AM
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DavGoodlin DavGoodlin is offline
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The Escort EXP was a good one too. Such an improvement over the Pinto-Mustang II "POS platform".
I knew many who had the Lynx-Escorts, always lending a hand to fix them. It was a "world car", using much design from Ford of Cologne Germany.

Ford of Cologne Germany gave us the Mercury Capri from 1971-76, a true pocket rocket with that wicked-running 2.8 V6, but the body rusted bad and electrical system was a disaster, they kept running long after the garages refused to pass inpsection on them.

The chevette also had lots of critics but the simplicity of rear wheel drive made them so easy to fix.
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  #111  
Old 06-13-2013, 08:39 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Originally Posted by DavGoodlin View Post
K-cars were easy to get parts for and keep running. My parents ordered a Reliant SE wagon with a 2.2 liter (I advised against the 2.6 mitsubishi, though it might have had more torque) and 4-speed and that K was a much better car than my Grandmas 1980 Pontiac Phoenix, which caused her first (and last) accident with its wacky-ass brakes. Changing the plugs on the back half of the 2.8 V6 was a pain, but it was a good motor. I still cant believe she traded a 1969 Mercedes 220 diesel for that POS

K's did have a negative image from day 1 because it was a result of a government "Bailout" IIRC, but Lee Iacocca had a good design compared to others. Too bad they never redesigned the transmission enough when they started making Voyagers and Caravans.

I could never get an Escort or Lynx to run right with that Italian-made Holley 2V progressive linkage carburetor. I had to buy a rebuilt carb every time.
A friend replaced the clutch on his girlfriend's Escort then found out the cheap firewall was flexing when the clutch pedal was pushed, after he was finished.

Yeah - the 80s...good electronics but not such good cars
I was sick when family members traded good, but worn 60's and early 70s cars in for that JUNK!!
The 2.8 GM, wasn't that good of an engine either. They used them in S-10's and Blazers. The people that bought the 4 cylinder, had a lot better luck.
GM, also sold those to AMC for the Jeep Cherokee. Bad choice.

Regarding the people that grumble about the government bailout of the auto industry, Chrysler paid back the money, with interest, in less time, than planned.
I have no problems with the GM bailout, even though, I'm not crazy about their products.
How many more people do you want on the unemployement line?
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  #112  
Old 06-13-2013, 09:06 AM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamakiri View Post
I had two of those, back 20 years ago. Wait, three....one was a wagon.

I liked them, they were kinda neat. I made a body kit for one of them too.....out of plastic gutters, and painted it same color as the car. It actually looked really good!

Although I did like the 85 1/2 Escort/Lynx style better....when they came out, I was amazed at the sexy European look they had. Well, after all, it was 1985......
I saw the wagon version of the one I want on Craigslist one time, seems that it sold fairly quickly. The '84 we had when I was a kid had some problems when we first got it that were mostly caused by abusive previous owners. Once everything was fixed it performed quite well, its performance in the snow being especially good. Unfortunately it was sold in favor of a hand-down Dodge Lancer that developed a myriad of problems, just because the Dodge was a 4-door. An upstairs neighbor had an '84 Lynx that held up quite well in a rear-end collision, only the bumper was ruined. Ford kind of shot themselves in the foot in regards to earlier models with the interference engine, they failed to educate the public to replace the timing belt every 60k.

I have a bunch of the harder-to-find, mostly NOS non-mechanical parts for the 1981-early 1985 models, including the little black hubcaps that were exclusive to the lower-trim models. A 1981-82 grille hangs on the wall above my desk. One good thing about this car's lack of popularity as that many parts can be had cheap. I figure it was better to start stockpiling these parts when I did, rather than trying to find the parts when the need comes up.
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  #113  
Old 06-13-2013, 09:40 AM
Rod Beauvex Rod Beauvex is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseljeep View Post
The 2.8 GM, wasn't that good of an engine either.
Maybe not in a Blazer, but my 88 year old neighbor(may he rest in piece) had an 89 Chevy Celebrity with a 2.8 and a three speed auto, and even with over 200k on the clock, that thing was zippy. I loved driving it.
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  #114  
Old 06-13-2013, 12:14 PM
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Sandy G Sandy G is offline
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Those Shitvettes were as exciting as watching paint dry, but were almost as reliable as hammers-Front engine, rear-wheel drive, a combination that was well & truly understood by the late Sixties/early Seventies..Didn't they soldier on til '85 or so ?
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  #115  
Old 06-13-2013, 12:19 PM
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DavGoodlin DavGoodlin is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseljeep View Post
The 2.8 GM, wasn't that good of an engine either. They used them in S-10's and Blazers. The people that bought the 4 cylinder, had a lot better luck.
GM, also sold those to AMC for the Jeep Cherokee. Bad choice.

Regarding the people that grumble about the government bailout of the auto industry, Chrysler paid back the money, with interest, in less time, than planned.
I have no problems with the GM bailout, even though, I'm not crazy about their products.
How many more people do you want on the unemployement line?
Roger that, Pontiac made the Iron Duke 2.5 4 cylinder a workhorse four, maybe because their experience making fours like the ones in the early 60's Tempest.
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  #116  
Old 06-13-2013, 12:42 PM
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mstaton mstaton is offline
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The only problem with the Chevettes is the front suspension was weak, cross-member issues and threw the camber way off. I remember seeing a lot of ads for alignments and in small print said "toe in only on chevettes". I owned a '76 Capri(or crappi) as a lot of people said but was a pretty good car except for the C3 automatic which started pouring fluid out of the torque converter seal. Only $300 to rebuild the trans(those were the days!!)
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Last edited by mstaton; 06-13-2013 at 10:58 PM.
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  #117  
Old 06-13-2013, 03:30 PM
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Sandy G Sandy G is offline
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IIRC, the Chevette was GM's 1st "World Car", a design that with small modifications, could be sold in virtually any market they serviced. I THOUGHT most of the initial design work was done in South America, I could be wrong. Think they called it the "T" car at the time..It was, in '76, however, a design that was on the way out, for the nominative car design from then til now has basically been a transverse-engine, front wheel drive set up..
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  #118  
Old 06-13-2013, 05:06 PM
markdi markdi is offline
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Super duty or ho versions of the iron duke are pretty kool
3200 cc ho 4 banger
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  #119  
Old 06-13-2013, 05:54 PM
egrand egrand is offline
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When I was in high school in the early 80's the student parking lot was literally half full of Chevettes or Pontiac T1000s with an occasional Ford Fiesta or Dodge Omni thrown in. They had absolutly no resale value, which is why they were popular with kids cause they were cheap. The other half of the cars were old farm trucks, or 70's era family trucksters (my group), or old muscle cars that had no resale value thanks to $1/gallon gas.

By the time I went to college in the late 80's Escorts had replaced most Chevettes. I can tell you they didn't last as long as either. But, like the Chevette, most people drove them 'till they fell apart because they just weren't worth anything on a trade in.
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  #120  
Old 06-13-2013, 06:15 PM
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davet753 davet753 is offline
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SandyG, I like your avatar. That is a REAL CAR!
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