1977 Chrysler Town & Country

[John FatFab]

Oh man, thanks for all that information and pictures! Yes the wagon is still in great shape and whomever had it in between you and I took good care of it. A couple of the cylinders are a little lower on compression when I first started going through it. I have not retested it yet as I wanted to drive it a bit with a fresh set of plugs and see if it improved with some run time. Next time I do the compression test if they are still low I will do a leak down to determine if its loosing some compression through the rings or valves. If its valves leaking I will probably buy a new set of heads, intake, and cam. If its rings, well then its time for an entire build I suppose. The front brake calipers were sticking as well. I went ahead and replaced all the brakes, rubber lines and wheel bearings as well. Might have just been the rubber hose, but I wanted to be sure everything was good. I will let my other siblings borrow the wagon from time to time and didn't want any surprises popping up on them. I think I will go ahead and get the woodgrain redone soon. It does bother me that it doesn't match lol. Another part of me wants to get the entire cars body work and paint redone before I pay to do the woodgrain. But I know if I do that, I wouldn't enjoy driving the car as much because I would be anxious about getting rock chips or any paint damage if it was pristine. Right now it is very presentable, but not perfect. Which makes is a fun driver that I very much enjoy cruising in. The AC system has lost its charge at some point. I have not dug into it yet, but will soon. Definitely need to have that working! I was planning on getting a rebuild kit for the compressor, but if it was a fresh reman in 06 it may still be in good shape. Hopefully just a small leak somewhere and not contamination. About the only other thing I noticed is that the pinion bearing is starting to get a little noisy. Probably will need to replace the bearing soon.

I have absolutely enjoyed having the chance to own this thing and share it with my family. It was so fun being able to let everyone ride and drive in one again. Even the smell of the interior just takes you right back to those old memories, something a picture could never do on its own. The expression and reaction of my Dad when I pulled up in it at our last get together was priceless. I didn't think he was ever expecting to see one again, let alone get to drive it. I do see why he loved them so much as guy with 5 kids. It was such a practical automobile. Trips to the hardware store, pulling a trailer, hauling the family, taking it on vacations, business trips ect. These wagons did everything comfortably, smoothly and quietly.

 

[John FatFab]

The wagon looks great. That’s my old t&c I bought it in 2005 off this forum and sold it in 2009 I think. It came out of western pa. I’m on Long Island. I put the cd player in it and upgraded the speakers. I also put the kyb shocks poly swaybarbushings, ball joints and control arm bushings. the wood sides looked like that when I bought it. It was very original and clean. I have pics from when I sold it. It had the deluxe hubcaps. I had it at Carlisle in 2005 and 2006.

I wonder what happened to the deluxe hub caps. Neither of our wagons had those growing up, but I do like the looks of them. I will have to try and find a set at some point. I do have some memories of chasing down the hubs caps when they would pass you flying off when you drove the car like a jackass kid would!

 

[John FatFab]

Found a couple more pics of our wagons in some of our old family photos. This is our wagon and my aunts wagon our in front of the Jay County High school in Portland, Indiana. I think is was maybe 1986 or so. I love seeing 2 in one picture!

 

[Jack Ryan]

Great cars guys

 

[John FatFab]

 

[John FatFab]

Put 4 new tires on it finally, now I need to find some white wall cleaner that actually works. The stuff I got at autozone won't even get the protection blue coating all the way off.

 

[John FatFab]

I don't know what bleche or wite is....other than it doesn't work for ****! Guess it's my fault for thinking that it would make something white when clearly it makes no claim to

 

[bronze turbine]

Geez. Bleche-Wite is what I always used back in the day. It worked great! Probably contained some toxic chemical or something they don't want to use anymore.

 

[azblackhemi]

I've bought two sets of whitewalls recently and both sets were hard to clean. Back in the day soap and water used to clean the blue right off but now it gets some off but the rest I guess has to wear off unless anyone has a solution?

 

[Jakter]

SOS or Brillo pad.
Bar Keepers Friend , Comet Cleanser and scrub brush.

 

[John FatFab]

Geez. Bleche-Wite is what I always used back in the day. It worked great! Probably contained some toxic chemical or something they don't want to use anymore.

Ya something has definetly changed. People are selling vintage bottles on eBay for a hefty premium

 

[John FatFab]

SOS or Brillo pad.
Bar Keepers Friend , Comet Cleanser and scrub brush.

I will try those next

 

[6PKRTSE]

I had to use a brillo/SOS pad and brake cleaner on a rag to wipe it on first in small areas and go around scrubbing to remove the blue. The usual regular products would not even attempt to remove it. It took quite a bit of effort and time to remove off of each tire.

 

[Boydsdodge]

I avoid using abrasive cleaners or pads on white walls, the abrasion will scuff the white making it easier for dirt to get a hold and difficult to remove. You then need to use more abrasives to remove dirt, so on, so on and so on. For my tire cleaning I use a dust pan brush and warm soapy water with a spray of all propose cleaner like Mr Clean. A good rinsing and after dry I rub the tire with some Lenno's Garage vinyl and rubber detailer cream, works great on all the rubber and vinyl. My roof looks great with the Lenno product.

 

[John FatFab]

Washed them a couple more times with just car wash soap from washing it with a microfiber towel. Still a couple littlle darker spots, but just about all white now. So excited to have 4 fresh white matching white walls

 

[chry73luv]

Just joined up as I'm a newly minted C body owner. Well I have been for about 6 months now, but figured I should start a thread introducing myself and my wagon. I'm in my 40s now, but grew up with Chrysler wagons. I was the youngest of 5 siblings, but my parents have always had the Chrysler wagons starting around the mid 70s. They had a few before I was born, I believe a 72 and 73 model. But not long after that had a few of the 74-77 models as all of us kids grew up. All of my siblings, me included learned how to drive and took our driving tests in these wagons. The 2 that I remember was a gold with tan interior 1976 (sold before I could drive) then a white with brown interior 1977. We had that wagon until the late 90s. Well now I have been reminiscing of the big wagons and wanted to track one down. Well that proved rather difficult to find one, let alone one in good condition. Aside from the couple that are listed that were far out of my price range. Eventually I found this clean survivor in Columbus Ohio at a classic car dealer. It was a absolute blast showing up to my parents house for the Christmas get together with it as a surprise. My Dad was so excited to see one in person again! It was fun getting to have all the sibling and family enjoy one again and get to take their kids for rides in it!View attachment 590914View attachment 590915View attachment 590916View attachment 590917
This one is a 1977 with the 440 engine and a fair amount of options. It has the tilt/telescoping wheel, side marker lights, roof rack, rear defrost, power antenna, front vent windows and now a original 8 track radio. The only option it didn't have that I really wanted was the heavy duty hitch!. It will probably be about impossible to find one, so will likely have to make one. Luckily I found some good pictures of one and should be able to reproduce a pretty close copy if need be. The wagon really is in fairly good shape. The woodgrain has been replaced in a couple sections, so it doesn't match uniformly throughout. I will get that all replaced sometime this summer. Also the tires are different brands front to rear, so want to get a fresh set of tires as well. It did have a front caliper hanging so I went ahead and did a full brake job and replaced the lines. I also did a full tune up and changed the oil. The AC currently isn't charged, but the AC compressor still turns over. I will rebuild the compressor and try charging it soon. It also had a modern cd player in it, which looked silly. I was able to find a new old stock in the box RCA 8 track for Chryslers on Ebay. So bought that and got it swapped back in. I have a few more little nick neck things to address, but overall am lucky to find one this nice. I will post content as I work through getting it all final issues addressed. Here is a video I made thus weekend when I had it out for Easter Sunday.

What a beautiful wagon.Love the color.Town and Country wagons are just so massive and striking in design..Welcome!

 

[John FatFab]

What a beautiful wagon.Love the color.Town and Country wagons are just so massive and striking in design..Welcome!

Thanks! It gets so many reactions when out and about in it. I especially cherish the reactions of one's that actually had or grew up around the town and country's. They seem to be stricken as if they just saw something they thought they would never see again. Then once they sit in it and take in all the familiar Chrysler feels and smells you can see the happy memories come more into focus for them.

 

[John FatFab]

Just realized I never posted pictures of the tags. Still need to dig around and see if the broadcast sheets are still around.

 

[jww427]

Super nice.
My parents had a green one, swamp green.
But it was awesome.