70Polara440
Well-Known Member
I swapped some 7 leaf springs in from a 73 NYB I parted out. Got some new cheap Gabriels for shocks. Don't need air shocks with its current stance
For our younger members, can you explain a bit about your interst in the muscle car era?
- Thread starter SteveSS
- Start date
I swapped some 7 leaf springs in from a 73 NYB I parted out. Got some new cheap Gabriels for shocks. Don't need air shocks with its current stance
70Polara440
Well-Known Member
)
I have to say that is one of the best looking Polara's I have ever seen !!!
Cool story as well
[/QUOTE]Thank you!
Its 1 out of 6 that I am hoarding.
My triple black 440 ragtop is kinda cool too...
69bird
Well-Known Member
It all started for me when my father told me all his stories of his two roadrunners about him racing them he took me to Mopar Nats. and I fell in love with all the muscle cars there so I had to find me a roadrunner it's in stage of get redone
That ride get a "beefy" award. I like it.
I'm 51, and my first muscle car was a 67 Mustang I dug out of a salvage yard in North Texas in 89. In the early 90's I scored a 76 Trans Am and really started to crave a more authentic muscle car.....so I swapped it for a 74 dodge Dart 318 car. After the Marine corps I got married and had kids and really didn't get back into it until my 67 Coronet 440 ......then I got hooked.......3 Coronets later....I'm with the 67 500 convertible now and will probably never leave that one.
ESOXER
Well-Known Member
My old man moonlighted body jobs when is was a kid, first car I helped him sand was an orange 70 Cuda thought it was awesome. I also grew up watching the Dukes. Now I'm not a fan of orange lol. We always had Rods around the house until I was @8 and my dad sold his equipment. The coolest thing I saw him and my uncle do was weld a front and back half of two LTD 2s together. That was the first car my uncle had that wasn't an AMC Javelin. He always bring home some pos Jav for my dad to do and his buddy Scott to do the engine, then sell it for another one.
Gus chiggins
Well-Known Member
I always thought those polara's were the bad asses of the c barge group. I even love the four door cop car look polara's they just looked like a brawler.
cal30_sniper
Well-Known Member
Dad was a cop, mom was a teacher. It was the 90s and old 50s/60s/70s stuff was still dirt cheap for a low income family.

Growing up, our house was a revolving door for cool old Mopar and GM iron, and even a few fords. A staple of the family was dad’s ‘79 Lil Red Express that he bought when his was still in the Marine Corps in 1980. I came home from the hospital in a Smokey and the Bandit W72 4-speed Trans Am (no A/C, and a 90 mile drive home in the dead of the west Texas summer). At the time, the fleet was rounded out by a 70 T/A and an ‘81 NASCAR T/A that had lost the turbo 301 in favor of a hot 455. With two kids in the picture, along came the bigger cars, a 77 Chrysler Newport, 66 Olds Toronado, 73 Buick Riviera GS 455, 74 Chrysler Town and Country, 68 Coronet 440, and 77 Grand Prix SJ T-top car are the ones I remember most. Mom went through a battery of cars through that era also, always chasing that black W72 T/A they sold when my brother was born. One of the ones that wasn’t ‘up to snuff’ was a bumblebee yellow Cuda 340 4-speed. What I wouldn’t give to have kept that one around!

Dad’s pursuit units early in my childhood were a mixture of THP Diplomats, and the stories of the old big block Monacos were still legendary amongst the older troopers.

As a pre-teen, dad decided the 81 NASCAR T/A was too small, and the 73 Riv was too big, so he sold both and settled on the Goldilocks solution of a Rallye Red 71 Charger R/T 440 Magnum. I grew up in that car, and we used to take it annually to the Boerne, TX Dodge Charger Registry gathering. Those were good years, and really solidified my relationship with the Mopar muscle car world.

When it came time to learn to drive, we pulled a ‘66 Barracuda out of a field near Abilene TX for $500. We polished out the old single stage paint, and tuned up the worn out slant six. Manual steering, manual brakes, and a 3 on the tree made for an interesting learning experience for a young driver.


My first car, which I went 50/50 with my brother on, was a triple white ‘76 Chrysler Mew Yorker Brougham. I drove that car all through high school when gas was still cheap enough to feed the big 440.


Other notable cars from High School included a 72 Plymouth Scamp that we bought from an Airman stationed in San Angelo that had turned the poor car into a wiring disaster. I spent my sophomore summer in and out of the junkyard and garage, pulling a harness from a scrapped 66 Valiant and rewiring the Scamp bumper to bumper. As a reward, I got to drive it to school until it sold.

A 78 Monaco 440 CHP pursuit unit followed the Scamp, and after we pulled it out of a barn on Iraan, TX, and got the old girl running again, I drove it for a year while a repainted the New Yorker.

By the time my brother also had his license, the 50/50 car split wasn’t working so well, so I payed $350 for a ‘78 T/A with a worn out 403 Olds that hadn’t moved from the side of the street in 15 years. After a summer of tracking down the title and getting it running right, I finished out high school in that car and sold it for a 1000% profit when I left for college.

I’ve wandered in taste over the years, but my current ‘old car’ fleet pretty much mirrors the best of what I experienced growing up.
‘72 Satellite 400: as close as I could get to Dad’s 71 R/T (and I always liked the Plymouth better than the Dodge.
‘79 Chrysler 300: a mix-mash of my old New Yorker and the CHP Monaco.
‘77 Volare: here’s my love for 4-door sedans and 80s box body pursuit units showing through. It’s also sprinkled with memories of the Scamp and Barracuda.
‘73 Formula: this one’s reminiscent of all the cool 2nd Gen F-body Ponchos I was around growing up. It’s in the midst of a full resto, and will be a few years until I finish it up.
And a 72 Charger SE 400 car: Chargers will always be a part of my soul, and this one is slated as a resto project when my two kiddos are ready to learn the trade.
Limited to 10 photos, but the ones I chose should give the right flavor.

Growing up, our house was a revolving door for cool old Mopar and GM iron, and even a few fords. A staple of the family was dad’s ‘79 Lil Red Express that he bought when his was still in the Marine Corps in 1980. I came home from the hospital in a Smokey and the Bandit W72 4-speed Trans Am (no A/C, and a 90 mile drive home in the dead of the west Texas summer). At the time, the fleet was rounded out by a 70 T/A and an ‘81 NASCAR T/A that had lost the turbo 301 in favor of a hot 455. With two kids in the picture, along came the bigger cars, a 77 Chrysler Newport, 66 Olds Toronado, 73 Buick Riviera GS 455, 74 Chrysler Town and Country, 68 Coronet 440, and 77 Grand Prix SJ T-top car are the ones I remember most. Mom went through a battery of cars through that era also, always chasing that black W72 T/A they sold when my brother was born. One of the ones that wasn’t ‘up to snuff’ was a bumblebee yellow Cuda 340 4-speed. What I wouldn’t give to have kept that one around!
Dad’s pursuit units early in my childhood were a mixture of THP Diplomats, and the stories of the old big block Monacos were still legendary amongst the older troopers.

As a pre-teen, dad decided the 81 NASCAR T/A was too small, and the 73 Riv was too big, so he sold both and settled on the Goldilocks solution of a Rallye Red 71 Charger R/T 440 Magnum. I grew up in that car, and we used to take it annually to the Boerne, TX Dodge Charger Registry gathering. Those were good years, and really solidified my relationship with the Mopar muscle car world.

When it came time to learn to drive, we pulled a ‘66 Barracuda out of a field near Abilene TX for $500. We polished out the old single stage paint, and tuned up the worn out slant six. Manual steering, manual brakes, and a 3 on the tree made for an interesting learning experience for a young driver.


My first car, which I went 50/50 with my brother on, was a triple white ‘76 Chrysler Mew Yorker Brougham. I drove that car all through high school when gas was still cheap enough to feed the big 440.


Other notable cars from High School included a 72 Plymouth Scamp that we bought from an Airman stationed in San Angelo that had turned the poor car into a wiring disaster. I spent my sophomore summer in and out of the junkyard and garage, pulling a harness from a scrapped 66 Valiant and rewiring the Scamp bumper to bumper. As a reward, I got to drive it to school until it sold.

A 78 Monaco 440 CHP pursuit unit followed the Scamp, and after we pulled it out of a barn on Iraan, TX, and got the old girl running again, I drove it for a year while a repainted the New Yorker.

By the time my brother also had his license, the 50/50 car split wasn’t working so well, so I payed $350 for a ‘78 T/A with a worn out 403 Olds that hadn’t moved from the side of the street in 15 years. After a summer of tracking down the title and getting it running right, I finished out high school in that car and sold it for a 1000% profit when I left for college.

I’ve wandered in taste over the years, but my current ‘old car’ fleet pretty much mirrors the best of what I experienced growing up.
‘72 Satellite 400: as close as I could get to Dad’s 71 R/T (and I always liked the Plymouth better than the Dodge.
‘79 Chrysler 300: a mix-mash of my old New Yorker and the CHP Monaco.
‘77 Volare: here’s my love for 4-door sedans and 80s box body pursuit units showing through. It’s also sprinkled with memories of the Scamp and Barracuda.
‘73 Formula: this one’s reminiscent of all the cool 2nd Gen F-body Ponchos I was around growing up. It’s in the midst of a full resto, and will be a few years until I finish it up.
And a 72 Charger SE 400 car: Chargers will always be a part of my soul, and this one is slated as a resto project when my two kiddos are ready to learn the trade.
Limited to 10 photos, but the ones I chose should give the right flavor.
Similar threads
