Here is my ‘79 Magnum. A bit rusty. It is my second one. I purchased this from the original owner. The super tired 318/904/8-1/4, 2.76 ratio drive train came with his hand written paper work where he stopped recording everything & I mean everything he had serviced down to the windshield wipers and light bulb in the radio at 323,000 miles.
I asked him how he put on over 323,000 miles on the car in 10 years, where did you go? He smiled and said it is easier to tell you where I didn’t go, Mexico & Alaska. He continued to say twice a year he would load up his wife and two kids and drive to there vacation spot. A different one each time. Now that’s seeing America!
He continued to say…. I gave it to my daughter for collage in upstate NY for 4 years. (I could tell this was truthful and painful when he said) She came home every weekend. 4 hour drive one way. Then his son got it for 4 years at the same collage though he never came home unless it was a holiday. (I’m thinking, heck! Why would a young man come home when he can go to Philly for a cheese steak or St. Louis for beer? We England for clam chowder? Which I’m sure he did. Hell, I would!)
After 8 years of collage duties, the car returned to him where he then had an 80 miles round trip commute for his job where the car soldiered on faithfully for another 10 years.
Is anyone doing the math here?!?!
The 318 was tired and the bearing clearances were getting bigger. I initially swapped out the 318 for a P code ‘78-400 from a Cordoba along with the 727 & 9-1/4 rear w/3.23’s. I was not amused with it. That was later moved (400) to a Duster and I swung in a ‘00-5.9 w/80K on the clock. Hooker 1-3/4 super comps w/2-1/2 exhaust, RPM & a 600 AFB was used and topped with a factory trap door air cleaner. Chrome box ignition.
It is an excellent driver with good power and reasonable mileage for 3.55’s on a 26-1/2 tire. I highly recommend a 5.9 should the Opportunity arises.
I was initially attracted by the for sale ad where he stated it was a GT. Lacking everything GT, I’d didn’t care. The price was right. So in forked over the $500 bucks and said, Now that I just paid for it and I’m ready to take this ride home, I have one question, you said GT in the want ad where this is clearly an XE with….
He walked away from me, opened up the drivers door and shoved his pointer finger to the inside of the door and pointed, the stripe is right here, it was repainted a while back. I just never put the stripes back on.
He bought the car Literally!, right off the dealers showroom floor. The dealer did the GT stripe package to attract people into the show room.
Typical white & red, almost Ho-Humm boring but I like it.
Now that I’m retired, I hope to get some metal to get the trunk and rear 1/4’s fixed up. I like these late B body cars. Good styling for a horrid era. Ride quality is nice. I love love love driving this car everywhere. The only draw back to this particular car is he used it to trailer and launch his boat into the ocean… so yea… you guessed it, I have a bit of a rust issue. It’s actually not to bad considering.