While I was working at the auto parts store, my manager mentioned to me about an old car he’d heard about. He wasn’t interested, but thought I might be. He knew it was a Dodge, but that was about it.
We went to look at it, and it turned out to be a base model Coronet. It was all complete, and in remarkably good condition given that it was a local car. I got the complete rundown from the owner. It was his deceased uncle’s car, bought new from the dealer, but not the car he had wanted. The uncle had ordered a plain-Jane Coronet – manual-steering, column shift. Apparently somewhere in transit from the factory to the dealer, someone had dropped a cinder block on it from an overpass, and damaged it.
He was offered this car instead, apparently ordered for a taxi customer that refused it on colour, or something. It was a 225/Automatic, with power steering, AM radio, and nothing else. He bought it, and kept it till he died. It was greased and graphited, giving it a fighting chance against the elements. The nephew had been given the car in the will, he played around with it, replacing the worn-out 225 with another slant-6 he had gotten from the vocational school. The story on that engine was that it had been given to the school by Chrysler Canada as a demonstration engine the students could tear down and rebuild. The school had closed, and this fellow ended up with the engine. He’d had his fun with the car, and wanted to sell.
What a bumper!
I took it for a quick trip around the block. Aside from the massive hesitation, it sounded OK. $900 was exchanged, and the car was mine. Out on the highway, it was a struggle to get to 40 MPH. It had a huge, huge flat spot in it. I did get home in one piece and had a better look at my purchase. The body and underneath of the car was in exceptional shape, with the exception of the front fenders. The front end was tight, the tires good.
The inside was worse than the outside.
The dash was all cracked, the seats torn, but some blankets fixed that up. Everything else worked though, with the exception of the wipers. The plastic bushings had cracked on the wiper linkage, but new ones fixed that. The doors on this old sleigh closed nicer than any I had ever closed – with a satisfying click and thunk. The brakes were all good, as were the lines. It did have drum brakes all around, but the fronts were really big – something like 12 inch and 3 inches wide. It was time to familiarise myself with the engine and get it sorted.
A few things here for the keen-eyed…
I got a kit for the carburetor and put it in, and installed a set of points. That was not fun, given the engine was in the way. I think I had to pull the distributor out to get them in. After setting the timing, the car started and ran really well. It did have a tendency to run really hot – the radiator core was plugged with scale or solder bloom. A replacement from a late-70’s F100 was installed, and that took care of the overheating. The car was comically underpowered, though – a mid-sized early-70’s car with a small six? It wasn’t going to be fast, but this one couldn’t take any kind of grade without downshifting into second. When it would hit second, it would sing its way back up to 60 MPH, and go back into drive.
It loved to rev. With the little bit I knew about the 225 and its undersquare ways, something was fishy. I did some reading courtesy of Allpar, and some visual confirmation, I found what the previous owner had installed was a 170, the 225’s short-stroke brother. I was happy to hear that – even though this engine was short some 30 horsepower, it was a ball to drive. Getting on the highway, put it to the floor and enjoy the show. Passing another car? Don’t even think about it! It just sounded like a sewing machine, and never got coarse or rough. It’s in my top-3 favourite engines, along with International’s 304 and Chevy’s 283.
Still a nice instrument cluster, even in a base car. Everything you need.
The car ended up working well enough that I felt confident taking it on a weeklong trip with my wife-to-be and parents to Newfoundland to meet friends and tour around. I did have the Scout at the time, but I had some worries about its limited range and limited chances in NFLD to get gas.
Dad and his ’38 Ford at a picnic park in Newfoundland, Summer 2006.
We filled up before we hit the ferry, took the night crossing, and got to the island very early in the morning. It managed to keep up with the traffic so long as the hills weren’t too steep. Soon we had made it to Corner Brook, and had a lousy breakfast. We filled up the cars again.
Filling up the car.
If I recall, he burnt a little less fuel than I did, with his average being 20 MPG and mine being about 18. Flogging the car at 60 MPH wasn’t good for economy, but it never missed a beat. It was comfortable, and its heater worked well.
The Humber Valley Lodge.
We met up with our friends, and toured around the west part of Newfoundland for a week. We had a ball. A very hilly art of the country, the car struggled up the hills, being passed even by the Beetle pictured above. We took in Gros Morne National Park, and saw some small outports.
Pasadena, NF Car Show
We even got to take in a car show while we were there, with a nice barbecue and dance afterwards. The people were great and welcoming. I can recommend going to Newfoundland to anyone, it’s like nowhere else on earth.
Soon, life got in the way, and I wasn’t getting to use the car like I should. I decided to put it up for sale and let someone else enjoy it for what it was – not a performance car, not even a fast car…but a car that could be enjoyed. I always had a smile on my face when I drove it.
Sounds like it was a good car, great pictures! While I wasn’t a fan of this shape in the past, somewhere over the last few years (likely due to CC) this has changed and I can appreciate it. The grille is attractive and the gas station shot is one of its better angles to me. I’m even warming up to the color, it certainly beats the ubiquitous greens and darker browns.
It was a really good car. Usually a car being underpowered is a big turnoff, but the little Slant 6 and Torqueflite worked so darn well it endeared itself to me. As far as the shape goes – it was fairly well proportioned. After looking at a 4-door ’72 Chevelle, it seems to be a more complete look, at least to me.
Looks like a pretty fine old car…I’m just amazed that a 72 Mopar from the Maritimes would be relatively rust free ! Somebody must have oil sprayed it annually , or garaged it in the winter months.
My buddy had an anemic Valiant with a 170. I once saw a mint 72 Charger with a 225. I guess in those days you ordered it anyway you wanted it.
You can see two rustproofing plugs in this pic.
The bench seat, seating position, amount of roominess, arm rest and door pull location… much of the overall interior look and feel, reminds me of my dad’s Dodge Aspen. Without the oversized (and overstyled) bodywork.
Oh, is that what those are? I’m familiar with the “concept” of rustproofing/oil spraying but not the actual application or what to look for. So they drill holes all over and then fit rubber plugs after spraying oil or a corrosion inhibitor inside?
Exactly Jim. The location of the holes was usually quite consistent. Cavities most vulnerable to corrosion.
However outrageous as it may seem today, buying a new car in locales where road salt was used, paying additionally for rustproofing was mandatory at one time. If you wanted your car to last. As factory rustproofing was so poor. It says a lot about how cars were built at the time.
Use of road salt exploded in the 60s and 70s in North America. While rust protection didn’t keep up.
Yes, factory rustproofing, and the use of aluminum have made vast improvements.
I live in South central Ontario ..They start spreading the Brine , calcium, salt, whatever, before it snows. When the snow gets over a couple in inches they plow it. Then they salt it again. Given that winter temps here hover around the freezing mark, the concoctions do a quite effective job of melting the ice. Also cost effective.
During the day the sun melts the snow banks, and creates salt saturated puddles. If the temp drops overnight ?? The puddles will get slushy, or even freeze . That generates another pass of the salt truck.
Carefully washing your vehicle helps.. Then you drive home through the salt puddles.
Back in the 50’s -70″s, frames rotted, quarter panels, rockers, fenders all turn to junk . Vehicles today have vastly improved, but they still rust. The cost of replacing fuel/brake lines can send a vehicle to a premature appointment with the crusher !
After market Wax based rust proofing such Ziebart, sort of worked. After awhile though, the wax would flake off, or worse or trap moisture.
The farmers, and rural folk, took to spraying used motor oil, Transmission fluid ETC and just let it trip. Very messy, but it worked.
So these days they came up with an oil based “sticky” concoction, liberally applied annually . They drill holes, and plug them. Yes it can get messy. However it works real well.
Next month the 05 Mustang will stay parked in the garage until mid April. In November, the 15 goes in to the shop where they pull the body plugs, and spray everything.
I have watched too many beautiful vehicles succumb to the rust monster.
Also living in Ontario, I am quite familiar with the rust proofing plugs. In fact all of my own cars have them. While rust proofing and rust resistance has vastly improved from the 1970’s, rust is still a problem in Ontario. I have seem many vehicles less than 10 years old with major perforation rust. It’s not as severe as in past, but enough that rockers, cab corners, fender edges will still rot significantly. However, the difference is often times the car’s worth so little by then, it’s not a big deal to most owners. And of course its not nearly as severe as rust in the past.
I have been an avid Krown user for 20 years. The stuff works, and I haven’t found something that works better in this climate (the competitors like Rust Check and Corrosion Free are probably comparable). However, most people probably don’t keep there cars long enough to see the benefit.
It’s still not a bad idea. Full size trucks seem to be really bad for body rot, still. A friend has a 2012 Ram, the rockers are rotten, and the box has been repaired twice. Fords and GMs seem to not be much better.
I had a cousin who purchased a new Challenger with the 225 slanty/three speed manual combo back in the early seventies. He hadn’t had it very long until he swapped the three speed for a four speed and had someone fabricate an exhaust header for it. I remember him making some other improvements to it as well; I know that he replaced the stock carb with a two barrel. He was happy with the car after the changes, it was his daily driver for 8 or 9 years and a weekend cruiser after that. It finally got so rusty that it had to be retired, sometime in the late eighties.
A 170/six in a ’72 Coronet sedan (and an automatic, at that)? What, no trailer hitch?
Slow would be an understatement. I sure hope the smog equipment wasn’t still hooked up. Then it would qualify as being dangerously slow. Thrashing that little (but still very stout) six in such a big car would make for some interesting driving.
Still, quite an enjoyable endeavor and an otherwise great CC, the way they should all be.
GOTTA be quicker than my college dorm mate’s 1962 Falcon station wagon, equipped with the 144 six cylinder engine, 2 speed Ford-a-Matic transmission and dealer add on A/C.
Now THAT car was “dangerously slow”.
The 144/2-speed Fordomatic Falcon was exactly what I was thinking of when I saw the 170/six in a Coronet caption.
I’m going to guess that a drag race in the quarter mile between the two would be measured in minutes, not seconds. We’re talking Type-2 VW Transporter slow, here.
My friend’s dad factory ordered a ’71 Plymouth Fury I with the 225 slant six and 3 speed manual. It was the base form, without radio, power steering or power brakes.
I’d swear that 0 – 60 in that car was about 30 seconds or so. But it gets worse. They towed a small camping trailer (IIRC, about 21′ long) and 0 – 60 was then measured in minutes.
It was slow, but better than you’d think. There wasn’t any smog equipment there – but Canadian equipment was different from the USA at the time. The 170 made a bit of power everywhere – and it wasn’t coarse or rough when you’d wind it out.
I’d love to add a mid level/upper level 1971-72 Satellite or Coronet 4 door to my driveway.
318, Torqueflite, power steering and factory A/C, please.
IIRC – 1973 may be a better year. I wasn’t able to get a pitman shaft new for it, and 71-72 were the same. 73-up was much more common.
I kinda like Detroit’s 1972’s—from right before the Gas Crisis and pollution controls and “malaise” came into full force.
Can someone explain exactly what “greased and graphite” entailed? I know about the oil-spray thing underneath, and about drilling and spraying the cavities with the waxy-oily stuff (then putting in the plugs), Ziebart-style, but am uncertain about “G&G.”
I’m happy this car has had such a post-1970s afterlife—more than 45 years old now!
Anyone else is welcomed to clarify/correct my comment, but I think “greased and graphite” would refer to part of the regular annual service routine for you car.
Someone in the garage would apply white lithium grease to the door and hood strikers and hinges. And powdered graphite from a toothpaste-style tube to your door latches. As a kid, I used to it to my dad’s cars in the Spring and Fall. I know this used to be mentioned in owner’s manuals as part of regular maintenance.
…. Plus the trunk / hatchback hinges and strikers as well, of course.
huh, I always thought it was a grease/graphite mix applied as a rust proofing.
I just posted my views on rust proofing, earlier in the comments.
I really don’t understand the appeal of underpowered vehicles at all. I’ve only had one truly slow one, an ’85 Caravan with the Mitsubishi 2,6 L with a whopping 104 HP that required D-Day level planning to make a pass. With 3 people in it, and our luggage, it was floored so much on a trip through the Smoky Mountains that the A/C was pretty much useless, as there was no vacuum to open the doors up in the dash. We had it just over 3 years before I got fed up and we traded it for an ’88 S10 Blazer 4.3 with 160 HP that seemed like a rocket compared to the Caravan. We had the Blazer 5 years with almost zero issues and then sold it to a friend who drove it almost 27 years before it was a rusted out hulk. Two of his 3 sons learned to drive in it. At this point, my car has 485 HP and I’m “satisfied” with the power level. Finally.
I think the appeal lies with the fact so few of these lowly-powered vehicles from the ’70s are still extant in drivable condition.
If someone offered me the last remaining ’76 Buick LeSabre with the ‘231’ I’d take it. Or a ’75 Ford Granada Malaise-mobile. And I’d leave them just as they are. Automobile history doesn’t have to be about preserving the speediest cars.
I usually hate it too. I bought myself a ’79 Malibu with a 200/Automatic and I didn’t much like it. It was good on gas, but really, really lazy. An internal coolant leak made me decide to put a 305 in it, which improved it a lot, without much of a penalty in fuel.
Hmm. Looks familiar…
Plus the Chrysler by Chrysler luxury relative had the full loop bumper – https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/car-show-classics-1972-chrysler-by-chrysler-hardtop-brougham-australian-style/
The base model engine (in the base Valiant, not the C by C!) was a 215 ci ‘Hemi’, with 140 non-smogged horsepower and 200 lb-ft. Much better than the 173 in the base model Holden – 118 hp/168 lb-ft, which I’m not sure that I believe.
215 was real good on gas I had one with 3 speed manual in a VJ wagon conveniently when Georgie Bush went on the first crusade and petrol went up in price Mareeba in FNQ to Sydney NSW cost $450 in fuel and yep it went better than six cylinder Holdens.
Dropping the points screw in the distributor? Same thing I used to do in my 67 Valiant 170 until I learned to pull the distributor when doing the work 😀 At least the Valiant was a lighter car, so the 170 made adequate power. Great story.
One of the few things difficult about slant six maintenance. I once had the joy of changing a cracked distributor cap on my Dart at a Denny’s parking lot. At midnight in the rain. Lucky I had just bought tuneup parts and they were in the trunk.
Cool car, I’ve always had a soft spot for the ,71-73 B-body sedans, although I’m partial to the Plymouths as my Dad had a ’71 Satellite when I was growing up. I think they have the nicest interiors from the musclecar era.
I wonder why the previous owner replaced the 225 with the 170?
It must not have mattered much to someone when replacing a 6 cylinder compared to a V-8. I had a ’73 Duster that at one point had it’s 225 replaced with a 170. Drove it from Mt. Vernon, WA to the Gorge for a Lollapalooza concert. Got passed by everybody going over the mountain pass.
It’s my understanding that he had the 170 lying around. Too bad Chrysler didn’t get the 225 by boring the 170 instead of stroking it.
The car would definitely not have put a smile on my face!
Yeah – he had gotten the engine from the local community college when they were getting rid of it from their automotive course. I doubt he realized what he did.
Around 1980 (in the depths of Fuel Crisis II), I had a boss in the environmental firm where I worked who owned a ’72 Satellite sedan the same color as the featured Coronet. It had a 318 and automatic. He read in Mother Jones magazine an article describing how to get better mileage in a V8 by blocking off four cylinders. My boss followed the instructions and the result was not happy. Besides losing half the horsepower (from 150 to 75 net!), the car ran rough and the transmission would never shift into third gear. Fuel economy didn’t improve much since the accelerator had to be floored just about all the time. I don’t know the ultimate fate of the Plymouth as my boss was fired shortly afterwards.
Don’t see these enough. I find these by far the best looking of the big 3’s contemporary offering. What works for me? Loop bumper. Aggressive or at least assertive face Slightly tapered nose giving a bit of a sporty flair. Fuselargish body giving nice body profile and a no nonsense rear. Now that I’m writing this it’s basically an antithesis of some of those brougham beasts and their bloatardic excesses
The fundamental question for car buyers in the early 70’s:
A tiny under-powered French/German/Japanese car with will rust away and is hard to get serviced, or a big, roomy underpowered American car that anybody with a pair of pliers and a shadetree in his yard can fix? Sure, the American car rust away too, but there’s a lot more to rust away. The VW Beetle with its reliability/durability/ease of servicing was the wakeup call to Americans that foreign cars didn’t have to be pieces of junk, but it was a bit of a hair-shirt solution.
If I lived in the north where a heater and defroster are mandatory, I’d absolutely have gone for that Dodge without blinking.
Chrysler seemed to sell a higher proportion of strippers ahan any of the domestics then, except maybe AMC. I recall reading at the time that Chrysler’s owner demographic skewed older and less educated than for the other manufacturers.
I have shared before about the total strippo 74 Charger owned by my college roommate. It was the “sporty” version of the car the original owner of this Coronet ordered. The extra torque of the 225 was likely a huge help for a car of this size. The Charger was simply miserable to drive. The manual steering was extremely heavy in parking and the tall gearing made first gear starts without stalling a challenge. If you could drive that Charger you could drive anything.
God, how much extra was power steering that someone would not order it!
When I was in college I tried to leverage the skills I’d gained working on my parents’ and then my own Volvo 122S into making a few extra bucks, tuning up friend’s and neighbors’ cars. Synch the SU’s on a Volvo or MG? No problem. Change plugs and points on a Datsun 510? Easy-peazy. Plugs, points and timing on a slant-six? I definitely lost money – and maybe a customer – with the time it took me to do that job.
Try to do points on a Slant-6 with the distributor in place: you will lose a lot of time, a lot of knuckle skin, and probably at least one screw.
Pull the distributor: job’s done in 6 to 20 minutes, depending on how often you’ve done it before.
My ’77 Mercedes 240D had a factory-rated 0-60 time of 29.5 seconds, listed right in the owners’ manual. Other markets got a 200D which was presumably even slower.
Some folks say slow cars are dangerous, but I never even once died trying to merge onto the freeway.
It only takes one time. 🙂
Acceleration is relative; if all 3600 pound cars had a 170 slant six like this Coronet it wouldn’t be as big a deal. However, when there is a big discrepancy, along with inattentive drivers not thinking and generally lacking a world view in realizing not everyone has acceleration like they do, is when the problems arise.
You speak of your Mercedes in the past tense; would you really want to merge onto an at-capacity interstate today when all the other cars around you can accelerate to 60 in less than one-third the time?
Memories get hazy, but I owned my M-B somewhere in the range of 2001-2005, when cars were just about as fast as they are today. Yes, it took some thought and planning to drive it, but I’m still alive!
The slowest car I ever had was a ’75 Honda Civic wagon with the two speed Hondamatic transmission. It could cruise easily at 70 on the level and it went across the SR152 (out past Pacheco summit) to Los Banos and Fresno okay. It was the acceleration entering the freeway that was frightening. Especially if I had to slow because traffic wouldn’t allow me to merge. I would have to come to a complete stop on the shoulder and wait for a very big gap in traffic. Plenty thrilling at times. You had to gauge your merge very carefully.
I love these cars. Great color inside and out too. I wouldn’t change much if anything. Try to get a little more power from it but keep it simple. I like these a lot more than the later Furys and such. It is one of those shapes that just relaxes me to look at. It looks like every part was done as the designers intended without interference. Plus it looked cool when Dirty Harry drove it through the shopfront to get the baddies. (Satellite? Close enough…)
Great story Marc. That’s a cool car and I would have definitely bought that to drive around in. How long ago did it sell, and do you know if it’s still around?
I sold it around 8 years ago, and recall seeing it for sale on Kijiji around two years ago. It was painted bright orange with two black stripes running down the hood, roof, and trunk, and a big wing on the trunk. It still had the slant six, too.
I’ve never so much as sat in a Coronet, but greatly enjoyed reading about this one. Great article, Marc!
I hope the car’s current owner appreciates it as you did.
Great post, I love slant-sixes and The Rock.
Speaking of which, Rocky Harbor is a nice place to stay on the west end.
Relatives had a Coronet about this vintage. It looked so rounded and inflated compared to the sixties Dart they had before.
Is this the same car? If so then I own it. I’m slowly restoring it with a few slight modifications. I’m building a Mopar 400 big block to go in it. With 500+ hp it won’t be underpowered any more. Needless to say it’s getting modern four wheel disc brakes as well.
Oh man I owned this car for a little under a year before I sold it to Jonathan Smith. This car was truly the BEST car I ever owned. I was about 22 at the time and all my friends were blown away by how much fun a slow big car could be. I used to cruise downtown halifax with it all the time during the summer time. That car was one of the highlights of a really bad year, but the car helped me through it honestly. Was very sad to let it go but the new owner takes very good care of it.
Well now its my turn to keep this gem going!
I loved that pic of the steering wheel. I drove a Dart with that same wheel for many years. I forgot about the Fratzog in the middle.
That taillight setup on the Coronet is very underwhelming. Too low, lights too small. But it gave you a great ride to the Rock!