Vive la Mexican F-bodies?

[occupant]

I'm actually kinda sick and tired of wading through rustbuckets and cars I don't like while I'm looking for a vehicle. I like my cars fairly simple and most of the ones I find in the USA are automatic, or V8, or have sporty packages, or are too loaded up with power options.

So I'm poking around some Mexican classifieds sites and well, they sold F-bodies and M-bodies down in Mexico as Dodge Darts, Dodge Magnums, and Chrysler Valiants. So these cars seem to have come one of three ways powertrainwise. You'd either get a 360/automatic in the top-end models like the Super Bee packaged cars, or you'd get a slant six with a 3-speed on the column or a slant six with a torqueflite. The sedans seemed to get the automatics and the coupes and wagons got the manuals. Well, I want a manual with a slant six. And I'd LOVE a column shift over a floorshift. So these little Dart "vagonetas" as they call them are probably just right for me. No air, manual steering, AM radio if any at all, some of them didn't even have heaters. I love it!

And the stupid keycapcha just reset. Now I have to assemble it again. It's hard to line it up with my mouse hand shaking the way it has been the last few weeks. That's kinda a turn-off. My forums and the others I'm a member of don't have that.

[AspenRT79]

I'm actually kinda sick and tired of wading through rustbuckets and cars I don't like while I'm looking for a vehicle. I like my cars fairly simple and most of the ones I find in the USA are automatic, or V8, or have sporty packages, or are too loaded up with power options.

So I'm poking around some Mexican classifieds sites and well, they sold F-bodies and M-bodies down in Mexico as Dodge Darts, Dodge Magnums, and Chrysler Valiants. So these cars seem to have come one of three ways powertrainwise. You'd either get a 360/automatic in the top-end models like the Super Bee packaged cars, or you'd get a slant six with a 3-speed on the column or a slant six with a torqueflite. The sedans seemed to get the automatics and the coupes and wagons got the manuals. Well, I want a manual with a slant six. And I'd LOVE a column shift over a floorshift. So these little Dart "vagonetas" as they call them are probably just right for me. No air, manual steering, AM radio if any at all, some of them didn't even have heaters. I love it!

And the stupid keycapcha just reset. Now I have to assemble it again. It's hard to line it up with my mouse hand shaking the way it has been the last few weeks. That's kinda a turn-off. My forums and the others I'm a member of don't have that.

Hi welcome to the forum!

[White Aspen R/T]

I'm actually kinda sick and tired of wading through rustbuckets and cars I don't like while I'm looking for a vehicle. I like my cars fairly simple and most of the ones I find in the USA are automatic, or V8, or have sporty packages, or are too loaded up with power options.

So I'm poking around some Mexican classifieds sites and well, they sold F-bodies and M-bodies down in Mexico as Dodge Darts, Dodge Magnums, and Chrysler Valiants. So these cars seem to have come one of three ways powertrainwise. You'd either get a 360/automatic in the top-end models like the Super Bee packaged cars, or you'd get a slant six with a 3-speed on the column or a slant six with a torqueflite. The sedans seemed to get the automatics and the coupes and wagons got the manuals. Well, I want a manual with a slant six. And I'd LOVE a column shift over a floorshift. So these little Dart "vagonetas" as they call them are probably just right for me. No air, manual steering, AM radio if any at all, some of them didn't even have heaters. I love it!

And the stupid keycapcha just reset. Now I have to assemble it again. It's hard to line it up with my mouse hand shaking the way it has been the last few weeks. That's kinda a turn-off. My forums and the others I'm a member of don't have that.45 More posts and it goes away. That's how we sort out the spammers. Welcome aboard and keep up the posting.

[kent]

Welcome to the site Alan, so when did you become interested in the f-bodies?

[occupant]

Well you can say I've liked them since I was a newborn. My parents had a 1976 Volare, silver on red Custom sedan, Slant Six/auto, all vinyl interior, when I was born. They had that car until I was 4 when they traded it in for a Datsun 210 wagon. I remember the rust issues. The front bumper falling off the car in the driveway when my Dad closed the hood while I was riding my tricycle. I remember my mother freaking out when one of the fenders popped loose going down the freeway and was flapping in the breeze. I remember eating Dairy Queen in the back seat while my Dad couldn't get it started due to carburetor icing and he borrowed my mother's scarf to wrap around the carb and intake manifold to try and warm it up. Also, after we moved to Erie and had the Datsun, our next door neighbors had a plain base blue on blue '76 Aspen wagon which was always parked outside (the wife had a Reliant wagon which got the garage space) and I just liked how simple it looked and how much bigger it was than my parents' Datsun yet not completely HUGE like the Country Squires and Custom Cruisers in other people's driveways. Growing up in the early 80's was fun. No video games, no computers, come home when the streetlights come on, and be nice to the other kids, because they might be who wanders by when you get stuck out in the woods and can't figure out how to get home.

More recent desires have been getting back to the cars I had when I was younger. I got my Gran Torino about 3 years ago. That's done, it's mine, I have my wife's name on the license plate and everything, it's a keeper. But I had a '65 Chevy Biscayne with a straight six and a 3-speed on the column as well. That might take awhile. But I can get the feel of it if I find a Slant Six/3-speed F-body wagon. That takes care of TWO vehicles I owned back then. The '79 Town & Country wagon and the Biscayne. Here's a Mexican LeBaron from an ad I found, this looks JUST like the copper woody wagon I had. And I ran it with no hubcaps just like this with nice fat tires. Was a $350 car, cheap, just the way I like them:

http://i44.tinypic.com/ojnsep.jpg

So anyway, I definitely like the simplicity of the F-bodies. And the M-body cars are the same mechanically pretty much. I like the way they feel. The cars are compact but it feels like you're navigating a boat because the torsion bar suspension makes the front wheels feel like they're behind you. At least that's the way the M's I've owned have felt. After the T&C I also had a '79 LeBaron sedan and an '84 Diplomat police package. Every one of these had a 2-barrel 318, even the police model. But all of them felt right in the steering, suspension, and the size departments!

I totally missed out on a red Aspen wagon 3 hours from me in Burleson on eBay a couple months ago. Didn't even SEE the listing until it was over. *smacks self in head* Think it was /6 auto though.

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys! You all have some very nice cars and I noticed one member has 25 of them under covers and in a barn or something. Oh how I wish I could do that. Wifey wants to build a house out in the country and I'm trying to figure how big of a metal building will she let me get away with, and 50x100 looks so big until you stuff 25 cars and 4000 car parts into it so I want to go as big as possible up front so I don't have to build a second building too soon!

Oh and Eric I figured out the puzzle pictures don't have to line up pixel for pixel, just be pretty close. I think I'm getting better!