A little over a year ago, I decided to look for an old Mopar to get back in the hobby after selling my '70 GTX in the mid '80s. I wanted something that was driveable or easily made driveable without a ton of work or money. I didn't want a long term project that I wouldn't be able to drive for years, because my daughter was 17 and a junior in HS at the time, and I wanted her to be able to drive it before she goes off to college (that'll be this fall). I had a few bucks available - about $9K. With the criteria I had set for the car, that pretty much eliminated most factory performance Mopars. But I started by looking at Craig's List ads in WI, MN, IL, MI, MO to get a feel for what was out there and what cars were going for. After we decided to go to Florida for our daughter's spring break in March, I expanded my search to the southern states.
I was pleasantly surprised that there were running cars available for just a few thousand dollars. A began to narrow the search toward '63-'65 B bodies (while still looking at others). I always liked those cars. We ended up with about a dozen good possibilities in the southern states when we took off for Florida. High on the list was a '65 Satellite in the Cinncinati area. I even reserved a U-Haul trailer down there in case we bought it. I liked the car - it was a 361, 4-speed needing some fairly minor body work from a fender bender type accident. It was a running, driving car. I could have gotten it for about $9K - seemed like an ok deal. But I ended up running away from it after I crawled underneath and saw that the front frame rails had undercoating applied over rust. One side was patched up and looked good, but the magnet doesn't lie - fiberglass! The other side crumbled when I pushed on it.
Sorry for the long post - to make it shorter, we ended up buying our Belvedere in Florida for $3500 - running and "driving". We hauled it home on a trialer and began work on it. Soon after, we realized the transmission wasn't really a driver. We spent most of the summer rebuilding all of the brakes and trying to get the transmission working properly. After we eliminated all simple solutions, we finally had the transmission rebuilt. The clutches and bands were all coming apart and kept clogging the filter. It got to where it would only drive about 5 miles before it stopped moving. LOL But now it's a driver - and the 318 Poly is a great runner. We still plan to put a big block in it some day - and it needs a repaint. But for the most part, it's a nice clean Florida car - no rust underneath at all (although the front floor pans have been crudely patched). Nice solid frame, etc... We're having a blast working on it and driving it - and our daughter is into it too. I was glad we were able to get it before she goes off to college and is out of the house. We have about $7-8K into including the purchase price, trailer rental, transmission rebuild, brakes, new rims and 4 new tires. So far so good, in my book.
More than anyone wanted to know - right? LOL Good luck in your search!
Dave
