Good morning! Welcome to another Shitbox Showdown. Today we’re heading into steel country to look at some American iron in need of a little love. But first we need to settle the small matter of yesterday’s dented delights:
I mean, yeah, if you absolutely have to get there for cheap, and you don’t care how, a stickshift Toyota with a zillion miles on it is the surest way to go. It won’t be pretty, or much fun, but it’ll make it.
Today’s choices, on the other hand, are going nowhere fast. I know a lot of you groaned audibly when you saw the top photos, but hear me out. Both are projects in need of some work, but neither one is too far gone to save, and one has almost all the hard work done for you. Still not convinced? All right, how about this: they both run. And that’s a start – no pun intended. Let’s check them out.
1965 Buick Special – $3,000
Engine/drivetrain: 225 cubic inch overhead valve V6, two-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Moon, PA
Odometer reading: 55,000 miles
Runs/drives? Runs great, but obviously not roadworthy
First, let’s clarify what this actually is. The seller has it listed as a “Buick Super,” but the Super didn’t exist in ’65, and besides, it was a full-size; this is clearly a mid-sized A-body. It could be a Skylark, but the V6 and the plain interior upholstery makes me think it’s probably the lower-tier Special model. Of course, at this point, it could be any trim level you want; it’s just a matter of which trim parts you order from the catalog.
This Buick has only 55,000 miles on it, and is a three-owner car. It’s partly disassembled, but the seller says it’s all there. Most of it looks pretty clean, too. The seller (or someone) has done an awful lot of bodywork already, but there is still some patching to be done in the trunk and rear quarters. But I’m surprised by how much rust you don’t see in these photos.
This car has already had a lot of mechanical work done, and the seller says the little V6 runs great. It’s an automatic, probably a two-speed; it’s not the most powerful or efficient thing around, but it’s simple and reliable. You don’t buy a four-door Buick for speed anyway. The mechanical work, along with the bodywork that has already been done, is encouraging; someone thinks this car is worth saving.
There is still quite a lot of work to do, of course – I’m guessing the missing door panels are shot, and need to be replaced. But GM A-bodies are very popular among reproduction and performance parts manufacturers. You could easily bolt on power disc brakes, suspension upgrades, air conditioning, and just about anything else. And of course, the V6 runs, but that doesn’t obligate you to leave it in there.
1973 Dodge Dart Swinger – $2,500
Engine/drivetrain: 318 cubic inch overhead valve V8, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Gibsonia, PA
Odometer reading: 27,000 miles
Runs/drives? Runs, but looks like it has been parked for a while
This car, coincidentally, is also an A-body, but in Chrysler’s case, the A-body was the compact model. The Dodge Dart and its sister model the Plymouth Valiant achieved near-mythical status as unkillable beaters, largely due to the strength of their drivetrains. These cars were powered by either the legendary Slant Six or Chrysler’s small LA V8, typically with a Torqueflite automatic. Pair that drivetrain with a simple, tough unibody with leaf springs in the rear and torsion bars in the front, and you get a car that’s reliable because there just isn’t much to go wrong.
Nowadays, the remaining Darts are becoming collector’s items, especially a two-door V8 like this. It looks more like Grandma’s church car than a muscle car, but the shared DNA is there, somewhere under all that dusty green paint. I don’t know why, but it almost seems mandatory that these cars be painted in this particular shade of green. I’ve seen them in other colors, of course, but the a priori Dart in my head is green, inside and out, like this one.
This Dart’s green vinyl needs a good cleaning; it has a bit of a mildew problem. I mean, it’s nowhere near as bad as a certain Buick Park Avenue I could mention, but it does need some help. It’s remarkably intact, however, which makes me wonder if it actually has only 27,000 miles on it. Stranger things have happened than an old Dodge being stuck in a garage outside of Pittsburgh and just left there.
The seller does say it has “some rust,” but I think that has been true of every ’73 Dart since Jimmy Carter was elected. The place to look for rust in these is in the C-pillars; if there is any bubbling under the vinyl top, there’s trouble hiding underneath. But rocker panels and rear quarters? No big deal.
If there’s one thing that is beginning to annoy me about the classic car hobby, it’s that everything has to be considered an investment. Too many people buy old cars to sell for a profit, not to drive and enjoy. The cars that are for sale are either too expensive, or junk; it’s getting hard to find scruffy projects with potential like these. There’s no need to do a full concours restoration on ordinary cars; just fix them up, maybe give them a good coat of paint, and enjoy them. These are both cheap enough and solid enough to be “worth” putting some work into, not for monetary gain, but just for the joy of tinkering with an old car and driving it around afterwards. What do you think – half-disassembled Buick, or garage-art Dodge?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
I’m usually a GM loyalist, but these 60s/70s Mopars are so good. So I’d take the Swanger.
also, the greeeeen
I have always had an odd attraction to these cars, even though they are possibly the plainest looking car ever made. They look like the generic car you see on road signs, like the car from the Slippery When Wet sign. And I love them.
I had a Plymouth Valiant,the Dart’s twin under the skin, to drive in high school when I could borrow it from the parents. While it was reliable and unkillable, it was slow and numb soulless. I have no nostalgic warm fuzzies towards it at all. Though more work, I think the Buick is the more interesting car. I’ll take the V6.
Was it a V8 or the slant six? Sort of not surprised they’d be slow, but a Valies are really pretty.
Had one that looked almost like that, same green and everything.
They started rusting before delivery to the dealer
My first family car memory was of this generation of Dart. I think a 74 or 75 though, whatever year CA required the smog stuff. Ours was white with a green interior and vinyl top, but the same 318 and auto. I remember it being very comfortable, but not reliable. It got 10 mpg, ate radiator hoses regularly (memories of being stranded several times) and eventually ate a timing gear. Still the best looking mass market car of the era in my opinion, though, so I’ll go with it.
Clean up that Dart and stuff some gofast parts in it and have a grand ol’ time ages before that Buick is even safe to sit in.
Cockroaches and 318s will be the only things left after the apocalypse. Those two door Darts of that vintage are handsome cars. I need more Fratzog in my life. I echo your opinion on older cars. A nice quality driver is a better emotional investment.