Steve explores a next-to-last year 1975 Dodge Dart Sport and shows how Dodge cut costs by recycling certain body parts from previous models and how Chrysler Corporation ended up near bankruptcy by 1980.
I had a 1973 Dart. Absolutely loved it. Just fill them with gas and keep a glove box full of ballist resistors and they would go forever. Good video Steve
The Dart with the beak. I have a '73 Swinger with the beak . Chrysler never made much of an attempt to hide the budget nature of these cars, but they looked less cheap than the Maverick - which I think Ford made that way to not compete too much with Mustang.
The first thing I did when I bought a Mopar, buy a extra ballast resistor,& bolt it to the fire wall! If the car would start, and stall immediately, Pop the hood, and move the wires to the new resistor!
@@randymack2222 I wouldn't trust the new one wasn't going to get worn, from heat cycles, like the other one. I would keep it in the glove box just in case.
Love the old Dusters. Demons and Dart sports... My Grandmother traded in a 63 Biscayne on a 1970 Duster when they first came out. It was black/black interior with a 198 slant 6 and a 3 on the tree. No radio, no power steering, NO options whatsoever!... This was how she ordered all her cars! Even as a 7 year old kid I was a car enthusiast and super excited when she picked it up new from Levick Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge in Queens NY. I think it cost her just under $2000.00 according to the window sticker... I can still remember that "NEW Car" smell when we got in it that first time to drive it off the lot! Hard to believe that was 52 years ago... Great segment Steve!
i always loved a stripper car once you bought it used....a lot less to go wrong to fix. Last week my old 42 mpg car died so i had to buy a newer car with all the "options" standard and it can only get 30 mpg with all the weight and an automatic transmission. But my female friends think it's cool I finally "stepped up".
@@geoffkeller5337 1999 Ford Escort. It would have been a perfect car to flat tow behind an RV (when I can, i like to nab old gas powered RVs--sometimes a big block drivetrain, along with the wood, wiring and windows to build a cheap storage shed. Just gotta tear it apart and sell off the generator and kitchen/bath stuff to someone looking to build a killer ice fishing shed). No AC to collect mold, no options to break down, manual transaxle. But i'm on the wrong side of 50 yrs old now, and that "4/50 AC" (four windows down 50 mph) just doesn't work after the third hour of driving the interstate with one ear full of wind noise. so, AC and cruise control is "refreshing". but i remember when gas went way up under Bush (Iraq occupation) and independent truckers were parking because they couldn't afford to work--Geo Metros suddenly sold like gold, getting 50 mpg as SUV owners said they couldn't earn enough paycheck to cover the gas to get to the office.
I got my Dart Sport in the mid 1990s as a teenager and I have lovingly cared for (and upgraded) it ever since. I thought I knew everything about my car…but I NEVER noticed that the headlight surrounds were common with the ‘67 Dart! Very cool.
When I was in high school these cars were extremely popular. Chrysler sold a ton of the 'A' body cars. My first car was a 1971 Plymouth Scamp that was a basic as you could get.. It was a metalic blue with a white vinyl top and a 2 tone blue vinyl interior. The car was so basic that the windshield washer did not have an electric pump. Instead there was a 'foot pump' located just above the dimmer switch that you would press to manually pump fluid up to clean the windshield. My next car was a 1978 Plymouth Volare' Brougham with a 318 'Lean Burn' engine. By the late 70's Chyslser was being plagued by poor build quality. They were doing things as cheaply as possible to save money and it was showing in their quality.
Basic: my first road worthy car was a 63 Savoy wagon, a former US Forest Service car in gov't green and rear seat delete, leaning tower of power and push button Torqueflite. Cost: $75 including the b-body ''67 hemi scoop that today would be worth more than the car. I miss "basic".
Thanks for the great memories with this one!! My Mom bought a 74 dodge dart sport new I was 9 years old It cost a total of $4300 after options and tax Dad had a pioneer am/fm 8 track put in with Jensen 6x9’s I learned to drive on that car We had it until 85 when the slant 6 lost the oil pump and by the time the idiot light came on the motor was toast. I was so glad Dad was the one driving when it happened! It was red with a white Starsky and Hutch type stripe on it. You have to be old enough and know these cars to know what I’m talking about.
Mine was a drab green 74 Duster. Loved that car. My "friends" dubbed it "The Green Loogie". Ran like an absolute dream but I couldn't get rid of that valve train noise to save my life. It sounded like someone shaking a box of glass bottles.
I knew about Darts using the old Barracuda hood after seeing an almost new Dart Sport with a Barracuda Formula S hood in the paint shop at the Chrysler dealership where my Dad worked(it also had American Daisy mags and a Go-Wing. SWEET)but I didn't know about the recycled headlight surrounds. So much wierdness about old Mopars, I love them so much
I remember seeing a Hang 10 Duster in the junk yard years ago. White exterior with red white and blue interior, shag carpet and sun roof. 318. It should have been saved but in the early 90s most Dusters weren't taken seriously 😐.
No VIN, can't win, but I got it figured out, no doubt: L for Dart, L for low price class, 29 for two-door special hard top, C for 225 CID Slant Six with one barrel, aka "Leaning Tower of Power", 5 for 1975 model year, B for Hamtramck, MI assembly or G for Fenton (St. Louis, MO) assembly (among other possibilities) and the rest is the production sequence. If it's a Hamtramck made vehicle this was the "Dodge Main" or "Factory Zero" and operated from 1911 to 1980. The Fenton plant closed in 2009 and was razed shortly thereafter. The Slant Six was a bulletproof engine that sounded like an IBM Selectric typewriter at full speed, but they ran, ran, ran, ran ran, ran, ran, ran, ran and ran some more. No tag, can't brag, but we might have LL29 for Dart low price class two door special hardtop, possible E24 for 225 CID Slant Six aka "LTP", X9 for black interior trim, R11 for Musicmaster AM radio, D34 for Torqueflite automatic transmission, U for USA spec vehicle, FE5 for Bright Red exterior paint, among other codes. Yes, about 70% of Chrysler products would have a converter in 1975, and all GM that year, except for some exceptions. Yes, the K car "saved" Chrysler, but the Omni/Horizon was the stopgap car that kept them afloat for a time until the K car could be introduced. Well yes, Chrysler's cars were outdated, but the biggest problem was that Chrysler produced cars on the "push" (speculation) method by producing vehicles (often with options that no one wanted) and then shoving them out into inventory to sell. This bloated the inventory and forced Chrysler to have too much on their books at any given time. When Mr. Iacocca came on board the first thing he did was to can that practice.
My parents bought a 1975 Dodge Dart Sport in light blue with 3 black stripes, which ran down the side around the rear side window then across the top to the other side. It had a dark blue vinyl interior. I didn't realize that the Sport on it meant anything. I used to think it was a gimmick the dealer put on it. It was the V6 and was always in the shop for days at a time. I was too young to ask why. But our 1970 2 door, tuxedo black with gold vinyl interior, Chrysler Newport 383 was a much better car. They both, however, rusted terribly in Wisconsin. My folks wish that they still had the Newport but it became to costly to keep fixing the rust spots. Thanks for video!
Back in 1974 I bought a 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus from my local Dodge dealer. One thing I noticed was it had the exact same dash as the 1974 Dodge Charger SE that was sitting on the showroom floor so yes Chrysler was cutting as many corners as it could back then and extending the life of tooling wherever they could.
Really nothing new to them. The 1957-61 DeSoto used the same dash as a Dodge. The 1958 DeSoto and Chrysler base models used the same chassis and fenders (and headlight doors with chrome eyebrows) as a Dodge. The 1962 Dodge 880, a full size car brought back to placate dealers, was a 1962 Chrysler body with the 1961 Dodge nose and dash, and unique taillights that bolted into the Chrysler opening. And so on
I still remember the Dolts arriving on the Dodge lots for the 73 year as they were already as rusty as 3 year old Darts just from the boat ride over from the Mitsu plant . This car and the Plymouth Ruster got me booted from many used car lots in the mid and late 70s when i pointed out the half ass rust repairs on the rear and front fenders along with the patched front aprons when i went with friends who were eager to buy .Twice i was on a CTA bus home from school that hit 1 of these that poked its nose too far into the intersection waiting to turn and the front end was torn off where the unibody rusts at the firewall .
This one brings back memories. I traded a 68 Satellite Sport for a 75 Dart Sport while I was stationed on Cape Cod. The Mass. rust on the rear of the Satellite was so bad I had no choice but to abandon the project. I gave up trying to get a A or B body on the road while I was there. Love the history Steve. Keep the content coming
2.5mph in 1973 only, 1974 5mph front and REAR. GM had 100% catalytic converters in 1975, but Chrysler didn't get them 'till 1976, and the lean burn... Oh boy... Adam covered that... Rare Classic Cars And Automotive History
In high school, I would charge $1 for fixing 8 track tapes. If the tape was just "eaten", I'd pull out about 5 feet of tape, grab one side and give it a good jerk, and it wound itself back inside. Mangled sections were cut out and literally, very carefully Scotch taped back together. Thanks Steve for the memories.
I wonder if that 8 track player was actually quadraphonic? Anyone else notice the 2 channel/4channel switch? The thing is that a real quadraphonic 8 track player doesn't use a switch like that, but rather a sensing lever which gets pushed in by regular stereo 8 track cartridges. Quadraphonic cartridges had a notch molded into them, so that the afore mentioned lever wouldn't get pushed in, causing the player to play two programs of four channel audio, versus stereo operation, which is four programs of two channel audio. Two times four is always eight, and the square root of 69 is 8-something...
I remember dad had a Cricket. It stayed in the shop more than he drove it. We took it back to the dealership in Charlotte one Sunday when they were closed and left it there. That's when he got his first Pinto and put over 250k miles on it.
I had a 75 Dart Sport with the 318 that I fixed up and it was so fast for just having a 318...I also had a 74 Dart Sport wiith the 198 slant six that I cut up to fix the 75. The last engine I had in the Dart was a built 360 and boy did it run good! When I found my 75 it had the rust in the trunk and the previous owner had mounted the rear spring shackles to large pieces of wood bolted to what was left of the trunk floor LOL!!! So yes I have seen the springs go through the trunk floor before too!!!
Instead of developing the R body on the older B body , I think the F body should have been made larger and the A body given another update. A Plymouth version might have been more sized like a BMW E-30 with an improved slant six. The Aspen and Volare weren't too bad overall but I think it was mostly the Fox body Ford that hurt the F body. Chrysler needed a decent big car during the K era. I think the Dart/Valiant deserved to be improved, nothing in their sales history justified it's demise.. A tidied up and lightened A body could have be fun with a V8 as an alternative to Mustang and nobody predicted that the R body would flop, but the downsized GM B bodies were pretty good in that era.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned the detuned but still fun 340 V8 that could be had in 1973 Dart Sports nor the 360 V8 that was an option in the 74's after the 340 bowed out.
Having lived in the 70s as a Chrysler crazed teenager I really enjoy your videos. It would be interesting to know what the mileage is on these 70 cars. Today 200k isn't all that rare, back then a car or truck was on borrowed time at 70 or even 60 k.
The Feather Duster was the Plymouth version of the Dart Light, and I think they also had an aluminum intake manifold. Possibly other special parts to cut weight. I had a Swinger with the light package that also had the Mileage Minder (I think that's what it was called), the drivers side turn indicator was connected to a vacuum switch and it would light up if you pushed too hard on the gas pedal.
Hi Ron Bryant, I have to admit it is in the "slow lane". I simply don't have enough time to do it...at least not right now. But I did buy re-pop floor pans and am absolutely planning to get to it. Thanks for writing, Steve Magnante
Steve isn’t that the second Dodge Dodge Dart Sport in FE5 Red you’ve found in your travels?! Great channel and always great to see a Mopar featured! Being a ‘72 Duster owner, seeing a fallen A-Body was a fitting send-off for that ‘75 Dart Sport.😮
I have a dart sport gt hood with the duel snorkel scoop on my 68 barracuda fastback. My bad worked over the front edge to match the flat nose of the 68.
The Dart Sport was the end result of the temper tantrum the Dodge Division had over the success of the Plymouth Duster. They didn't have anything comparable. The Demon was supposed to be the answer but of course that didn't last long so the Dart was revamped with Duster sheet metal. I've had my '72 Duster 340 since 1984. They'll probably bury me in that car.
One very important fact has been left out, what fact do i speak of? The fact that the great Al Bundy who once scored 4 touchdowns in one game done a dodge duster lol.
Chrysler did a lot of reuse of components. Some not as obvious as the Barracuda hood on the Dart. They had a Convertriple package for the Dart Sport that had the fold down seat and sunroof. On the 1971 Demon, the front side lights were from the Dart and the rear ones from the Valiant. The Scamp had the opposite.
Engine power just built up a leaning 6 calling it leaning tower of power. They made really good power. They turbocharged it too. The bottom end of those engines are beefy.
Father bought a 71 Dodge Demon ( new) and my mother made him take it back to the dealership and have the cartoon demon with pitchfork (the pitchfork provided the "m" in Demon) removed from both sides of the car.
nice but I preferred the original, the Plymouth Duster. learned to drive on a 70 and owned for a long time a 74, until I got ran over by a semi coming down the Olympic Peninsula
Mexico still has a lot of very clean examples of those cars. You would have to be content with a Dodge front and and a Plymouth rear end, however. Mexico has a lot of raw material that can be used to make cool cars.
Hello Mexican Spec, great point. I lived in Los Angles for 17 years and visited the Pick-A-Part self-serve salvage yards every single week. I used to jump with joy when I spotted cars from "south of the border" because they always had interesting details. In particular I remember the Mopar A-bodies were fitted with Spicer rear axles, Motorola alternators and awesome "200" speedometers. The "local content laws" were behind the non-Mopar axles and electronics and the Metric system was behind the 200 KILOMETERS per hour speedos. I loved this stuff and sure wish I had a RU-vid channel back then to share these items. You ought to start a RU-vid channel exploring cool "cousin" cars and trucks from the Mexico-market. Stuff like the Chevrolet "SS 350" pickups that have similar pickup bed graphics to the SS 454 pickups in the States. As you probably know, these SS 350 pickup markings NEVER happened on Chevy pickups built in the States. Cool "long lost cousin" details like this would make fascinating viewing for your efforts. I know I'd tune in! Just sayin'. Thanks for watching and writing, Steve Magnante
@@SteveMagnante Steve, I am starting to do videos on the Mexican cars but with pictures. I have already done a few videos on my 1963 Mexican Spec Savoy and my 1974 Chrysler Dart showing the differences. If you have time check them out.
I've got a 73 dart sport fold down rear seat car with 70/71 duster front sheet metal, doors and rear panel if anyone is interested needs full resto in WISCONSIN car came from Tennessee 3 years ago needs lower quarters and floor pans
Had a 74 with a 318 auto. My wife and I would sleep on the fold down seat at NASCAR races. Only problem I had with it was a misterious failure to start ocasionally. Would put in the spare ballast resister, no start. Swap ignition module from other car , it would start. Swap it back, start! After about 4-5 times over the next year ,I realized it was rust on the screws for the module. Drilled new holes and put a star washer betweenthe module and the body. Never happened again
When I was a kid in the '70's, my aunt's high school graduation present was a beautiful Dodge Hang 10. It was all white and had red and blue pinstripes down the sides of the body. I remember the interior having red carpet and the rear seat folded down like this car with access to the trunk from the interior. Many years later I saw the car in the local junkyard (which covered the side of a mountain and has long been cleaned out). It was the only Hang 10 around and I've never seen another one. Also, the girl who lived across the street from my grandparents had a gold Demon. I loved that car. Interesting how on the back of the '73 annual report that the Demon name has been left out.
It made me smile to see that little beauty sitting there this morning. It's too bad about the rust though. I'm actually looking for one myself. It's funny how at one time you couldn't toss a frisbee without hitting a Dart, Duster, or Demon, on that platform. Nowadays they're not seen so often. The ones I've seen were either full restos with a ridiculous asking price or like that one, rusted out to the point of no return.
Hello Mexican Spec, you really need to start an "Adopt-A-Dart" program. Mexican market vehicles DON'T RUST and they would be super desirable in the Rust Belt here in the states! Thanks again for writing, Steve Magnante
Im actually fond of the 225 cube Slant and theres a lot can be done to them performance wise with the 904 either as is or manualised, I have a soft spot too for the A body variants regardless of the badge and would cheerfully own one.
Hello tony66au, yes I always go with the manual valve body kit from B&M or A&A. Gotta lose that pesky kick-down / throttle pressure linkage!!! Thanks for writing, Steve Magnante
Nothing wrong with a Slant Six. They sounded like an IBM Selectric typewriter at full speed, but they were bulletproof and a wonder of mechanical simplicity.
Now it would be easy to get another 50 hp from the slant six , but it needed help in the mid 70s. I'd heard that Chrysler could only budget minor tooling changes for the slant six. They did the "peanut" head, the cast crank and two barrel carb,. But the motor needed a new head that would tolerate high compression, but neither Ford nor GM updated it's inline six during that era. A pushrod Chevy six with LS heads would be nice. Eventually AMC did the Jeep 4.0 but EFI was becoming a commodity by then and not much could save the beloved slant six.
My parents bought a new 1975 Plymouth Duster with the “gold” package. Alligator type vinyl roof, 225 slant six with auto trans. They didn’t keep it very long.
Hi Steve, funny thing just happened, I opened on old copy of Hot Rod magazine that was sitting on a pile on my work bench and there is an article called ‘doin’ the junkyard crawl’ ( August 1999) . You’re still going strong mate!
Hello Craig Jones, you found the "genesis" of all things Junkyard Crawl in that magazine article! Truth be told, the title "Doin' The Junkyard Crawl" was actually coined by my brilliant and funny Editor Ro McGonegal. Google his name for a lengthy review of his writings since waaay back in 1969 when he was "the automotive journalist" featured in a 1969 Plymouth 440 Six Pack magazine ad where he and Ronnie Sox both tested a new Six Pack Road Runner and their 1/4 mile times were posted in the magazine ad. WOW! Anyhoo, after I retired from HOT ROD (on Tuesday, January 20, 2004) I did a bunch of freelance writing for CAR CRAFT magazine where I revived the Junkyard Crawl concept for TEN YEARS in a long series of 1 and 2 page junkyard relic reviews that were the template for the modern Junkyard Crawl RU-vid video concept! Thanks for the memory! and THANKS for watching and r=writing. -Steve Magnante
Thanks Steve! I would’ve never guessed that was the same hood as the Barracuda. I think our family and friends went through about every Scamp, Dart, Duster etc model with the slant-6 and people loved them. If it weren’t for the rust belt living up to its name, I think loads of those cars would still be around with the 6’s still churning.
Must be a good neighborhood, someone left the keys in the trunk. HAHA 😆!!! I briefly owned a '73 same color, until some old dude ran a 🛑 and t-boned me. Today, I'm the old dude!
Thanks for the trip back Steve. My wife's Dad bought her a '75 Dart Sport for college. It was brown metallic with gold stripes and rally wheels. Slant six too. Really nice looking and reliable.
Thanks for the show and it is very interesting to see the A-body in its later years ,74 to 76, and growing up I wasn't a huge fan of them...my first car was a 73 Swinger... but as I've gotten older they aren't too bad. Especially the Dart Sport Special editions like the Hang 10
Lobbyist push a safety item to be mandated, politicians buy up the stocks for cheap, then they mandate that we all are forced to buy their new device.... The ATA is run by the top ten carriers, They have a lobbyist committee, and a group of engineers and inventors.
In 1972 I traded in my 67 GTX conv 440 Super Commando, in on my 1972 Demon. The insurance companies were eating us alive for muscle cars. Miss the GTX, but I still have my Demon !!! 50 years now. 👍
My brother won a brand new 1975 Plymouth Gold Duster in a sweepstakes contest, had the same 1/2 vinyl roof, slant six, nice wheels etc. Was a really nice car but within a year he fell asleep behind the wheel and totaled it out (he got banged up pretty badly too). After that he went to full sized Buicks.
That comment about the bumpers and saying that was back during the days when legislators were designing cars????(mean to tell me they're not still doing it to this very day?????🤔)
My aunt had one of those babies in the 8os and spanked her kids bent over the dirty rusty fender all the time . Seemed like the car ran better when that happened strangely enough. Although her kids didn't behave all that poorly so most of the time the car ran rough
My mailman drove one of these. He once upon a time had a Business in my town where he sold DeSoto cars and Allis Chalmers farm equipment. Congress is still designing cars. These new models will be defying the laws of physics.
The Demon carried thru to 1973. I bought one for $500 after it was sandwiched in the middle of a 3-car crash. Yanked the 340 4-bbl engine, 727 tranny, 8.75 posi, electronic ignition, etc out and basically dropped it into my 1967 Valiant. Goodbye oil burning 2-bbl 273. I’m sure it was a 1973 Demon because it had the large 5mph front bumper and an externally balanced cast crank that went tunk instead of ting when you tap on it (dumb new cost saving idea for ‘73 340’s which limits interchange) And it had Demon logos on both sides and the rear
