School me on C-body truisms

[cantflip]

Try copying and pasting the following into your local Craigslist search. It will pull up all relevant cars in a single search. Then start moving out to farther cities by just selecting a different city in the upper left of the Craigslist page. You can delete model years to narrow your search.

(1962|1963|1964|1965|1966|1967|1968|1969|1970|1971|1972|1973|1974|1975|1976|1977|1978) (dodge|plymouth|chrysler|imperial)

If you don't want to see trucks, Chargers, Barracudas, or other non c bodies in your search, try this instead:
(1965|1966|1967|1968|1969|1970|1971|1972|1973|1974|1975|1976|1977|1978) (polara|monaco|fury|chrysler|imperial)

Cool... I just learned something. Thank you.

 

[shooter65]

Try copying and pasting the following .............
(1965|1966|1967|1968|1969|1970|1971|1972|1973|1974|1975|1976|1977|1978) (polara|monaco|fury|chrysler|imperial)

This is good, the only difference I make is that I add VIP and I search searchtempest.com instead of craigslist. Same years (fury|vip|polara|monaco|chrysler|imperial)

The only caveat is that some sellers don't know how to spell Polara, Monaco, Chrysler, or imperial so obviously open searches occasionally will bring up cars you hadn't seen. Many of the nicer examples will end up on this site with decidedly opinionated views.

The only other piece of advice would be to be aware of the size of the car you're buying. My current garage space for the Fury is very small. I had to exclude all but 67 and 68 imps from my search when I was looking because they wouldn't have fit in my current garage.

 

[commando1]

Cool... I just learned something. Thank you.

You didn't already know that?

 

[Snotty]

Go for a convertible C body big block if you get the chance you won't regret it. Great riding cars that are a lot of fun in my opinion but I'm just a little bit biased

All Chrysler C Bodys, including 'verts, are big block until the introduction of the "Newport Royal" of 1971 which came with a 360. Small blocks, even /6 motors, could be found in Dodge and Plymouth C Bodies.

 

[Snotty]

The only caveat is that some sellers don't know how to spell Polara, Monaco, Chrysler, or imperial so obviously open searches occasionally will bring up cars you hadn't seen.

Amen to that! Don't forget the infamous Chrysler Cordova!

 

[Dobalovr]

Amen to that! Don't forget the infamous Chrystler Cordova!

Fixed

 

[Rwc]

I agree with most. Rag top fury is tops is a great choice. Big blocks are awesome, but the small blocks are great cruisers too.

 

[cantflip]

You didn't already know that?

Nope... my EB world opened up when you taught me to use -fits in my search... thanks BTW.

 

[polara71]

By this time next year, my last kid will be through with any more higher education that I'm paying for, and I'll get to transition from the awful-wonderful, blue-sky world of car dreamer to C-body owner.

I've had A and M-bodies before. But never a C. And I love 'em all, from Forward Look through Fuselage, from Plymouth through the Imps. I want to solicit your opinions as to which of the four generations (Forward, Slab, Fuselage and Formal) tends to have the highest number of survivors and the best availabilities of parts. Which gen produces the fewest headaches? I get the feeling it isn't always as simple as newer equals easier. Weight in. I'd like to hear what you multi-gen owners have experienced...

Im gonna offer a different opinion here . Obviously I am a fuselage guy. I have through the 20 years of surfing the net looking at Cs noticed......... The fusey cars are least plentiful . Slab years are most plentiful . Forward look cars are most expensive and the Formals are usually least modified.

The Slabs are most plentiful by far and I believe have the least amount of survivor status examples.

The fuselage cars have a good amount of survivors and not a lot of driver quality cars. It seems to me theyre either real nice or they are real rough. My presumption there is the ones that were taken care of were well taken care of, garage kept and pampered. The ones that are rough if they're still out there they've probably never been in a garage hence the reason they're rough.

The Formals, the least desirable of the three and yet as the years go by the more frequently I see them parade through here. Bob's right, so many look nice with many hidden rust issues under vinyl tops and trim parts.

Ive been paying attention to Cs for 35 years. I can not believe they've reached the prices they have. Regardless of what the price guides say I believe C's have at least doubled in price in the last ten years, some likely tripled. Grab your car now while the gettins good

 

[Samplingman]

Im gonna offer a different opinion here . Obviously I am a fuselage guy. I have through the 20 years of surfing the net looking at Cs noticed......... The fusey cars are least plentiful . Slab years are most plentiful . Forward look cars are most expensive and the Formals are usually least modified.

The Slabs are most plentiful by far and I believe have the least amount of survivor status examples.

The fuselage cars have a good amount of survivors and not a lot of driver quality cars. It seems to me theyre either real nice or they are real rough. My presumption there is the ones that were taken care of were well taken care of, garage kept and pampered. The ones that are rough if they're still out there they've probably never been in a garage hence the reason they're rough.

The Formals, the least desirable of the three and yet as the years go by the more frequently I see them parade through here. Bob's right, so many look nice with many hidden rust issues under vinyl tops and trim parts.

Ive been paying attention to Cs for 35 years. I can not believe they've reached the prices they have. Regardless of what the price guides say I believe C's have at least doubled in price in the last ten years, some likely tripled. Grab your car now while the gettins good

I have to agree with all of that, but then again I'm also a biased Fuselage guy. If not already said, these cars are not yet collector status unless you are talking SFGT or Hurst, so buy what you will truly love an enjoy. You can dump lots of money into them very quickly and never recoupe your investment. Also, don't confuse the passion of the members on this site with people willing to spend what ever it takes to get what they want, we are all a bunch of cheap old men! The passion is genuine however, not just a thing to buy and sell like stocks or E bodies. You'll find no better resource for these cars no matter the era.

 

[polara71]

don't confuse the passion of the members on this site with people willing to spend what ever it takes to get what they want, we are all a bunch of cheap old men!

We are not all a bunch of cheap old men, please, reconsider that statement

 

[drpreposterous]

Wealth of info for newbie me here--from generational snap shots to enhanced CL searches. Thanks one and all! BTW, while I know Forwards aren't technically Cs, they've always seemed welcome here. Does anybody have any info on '63-64 Chryslers and Imps in terms of their relative worth and availability? They're not really FL but then again, they're not slabs are they? Don't slabs begin with '65s?

 

[polara71]

Yes they do..65 is the starting point

 

[Bryan]

I really like the 63 and 64 Chryslers, but overall they are probably the least desirable of all the FL-C Body cars (They really are neither). Chrysler's attempt to redesign, downsize, and use the 122 inch wheelbase for all models led to lower sales and a drop in popularity compared to earlier and later cars. That said, the Hardtop wagons and 300 letter cars are beautiful and pretty pricey. The 63 and 64 Dodge 880 were based on the 62 Chrysler Newport and are arguably among the most beautiful Mopars ever. The design was a quick gap filler and turned out fantastically as far as I'm concerned. They can also be found reasonably with the exception of the convertibles and hardtop wagons which can be expensive. If I could find one, a 64 880 (followed closely by a 63) would be one of my top choices of all. Like the FL cars which they evolved from, they have their rust problems, hard to find and expensive parts, but are great. fun cars. 64-66 Imperials are D Body cars. I don't know a whole lot about them.

 

[BigCRig]

Keep your options open. Look at all the C bodies and buy the best one you can find. I have noticed that 67-68 C bodies seem to be the most plentiful on Craigslists nationwide. Dodge C bodies tend to be cheaper than comparable Furys. 300's are usually the highest priced C bodies (especially as convertibles), but are probably have the best return on investment. Imperials were well built, yet tend to be relatively inexpensive (except for the ultra rare convertibles). 65-66 Furys seem to be easy to find as 2 door hardtops, 67-68 Furys seem to be easy to find as convertible, 2 door sportsroof and as 4 doors. (2 door hardtop 68 Furys (non sportsroof) are a bit harder to find. 67-68 Polaras/Monacos are easy to find as 2 door hardtops and as 4 door hardtops. 69 Fury convertibles show up for sale often but are usually small blocks under the hood and usually need alot of work. 69-71 Fury 2 doors with the formal roofs are more commonly found than the regular 2 door hardtop roofline. 70-71 Polaras seem to be the most common of the fusie C body Dodges. Chrysler Newports outnumber the 300's and Newport convertibles are easier to find than 300 convertibles. 300 2 door hardtops seem to be just as common as Newport 2 door hardtops. Pre-72 New Yorker 2 doors are rarely found (most are 4 doors). C body wagons in decent shape are hard to find and even harder than other C-bodies to get some wagon specific parts for. Most commonly found C body wagons are 65-66 C bodies and 68 Chrysler and Plymouth C body wagons.

Sportroof is Fomoco. Fasttop that's Mopar.

 

[commando1]

 

[Snotty]

Fixed

Took me a moment - Ha!

 

[Snotty]

Wealth of info for newbie me here--from generational snap shots to enhanced CL searches. Thanks one and all! BTW, while I know Forwards aren't technically Cs, they've always seemed welcome here. Does anybody have any info on '63-64 Chryslers and Imps in terms of their relative worth and availability? They're not really FL but then again, they're not slabs are they? Don't slabs begin with '65s?

The dashboards of the '63-4 Chryslers is one of the best, in my opinion. Full gauges and a great layout.

 

[65 500]

We are not all a bunch of cheap old men, please, reconsider that statement

There are women on here?!

 

[polara71]

There are women on here?!

There are actually a few ....Not all of us are cheap, not all are old and not all wear hats ...... All of the three are relevant in terms