The Story Of The Chrysler A-Body - DDG "History" Time, Episode 1 

Yes! That’s exactly the intention here. I did include some clips and shots if one is so inclined to watch them, but the whole point is to have something “listenable.” I have come to a point in life where I am commuting two hours every day I go to work at the resto shop, and I listen to things just like this in the car.

I also like Story Time, but I listen while only wishing I had a classic Mopar and a garage to work on it.

I love that. A wagon would be great. I actually do really like F bodies. Because of the reasonable prices, they’re basically the new A bodies. Haha. But I really enjoy using them as the butt of my jokes.

A body were ugly but well done but yeah strange looking as f***

Oh absolutely. I definitely had that in mind from the start - there is a lot more I had intended to do - but the photos were almost meant to be extra. The amount of time it took just to put this much together compared to my normal video editing was nuts! I sure couldn’t turn one of these out weekly. Thank you - I appreciate the feedback.

Sounds like a great plan to me. Yeah, just a few A bodies on that list 😅 I think Mopars in total I’ve had 50-60. A bodies, maybe 20-25? I’m not totally sure - but I put pictures of a good few of them in this video!

@@DeadDodgeGarage 😊👍

Once again I kinda had you in mind while recording this. Haha. It seems a little more non-car-nut friendly I think.

@@DeadDodgeGarage the best dart is the C body.... Phoenix, Matador, Polara , Pioneer

Thanks Wiggy!

Thank you! Haha. The audio quality on this one had better be pretty good! I won’t promise that on any other type of video I do 😅

Thanks Jim!

You are paying me by watching my videos! (And the dang ol ads…) so thanks for that!

Just got your t-shirt that I ordered and my wife said I didn’t stop smiling for about an hour! ( Those things don’t happen so often these days!! )

Yes - and I understand why they are asking for that. The pictures seemed like a bonus afterthought to me. My real goal here was to make something “listenable” and it seems like that worked!

The music of my people… that’s awesome! I would love a nice slant six cruiser Dart. Bench seat. Auto is fine. I’d really like a ‘70 Swinger ideally. One of these days! I need to shoot Kathy another email. Really looking forward to that.

I totally get it! Honestly my style is probably a little too broad strokes to scratch that itch, but damn it I’ll try!

My friend taught me that 'trick' in his '72 Trans Am. I was able to adapt the technique it to my '86 Capri 5.0, and later on, my '93 Mustang GT especially in the rain. Never had scary issues.

Sooooo much material… way too much to cover in one go. Awesome!

That sounds like an awesome car! If you couldn’t tell from my comments, I love the 340. It lives up to the hype for me. Obviously I glossed over a lot of finer details and models - like the Hang 10! And the Spirit Of ‘76. I used to have a set of those buckets in a ‘74 Duster. Heck I’ve only just realized I never mentioned my ‘74 Duster. That was my first driving A body. By the time I got to the 73-76 cars… I was ready to be done I think. Haha. They were a footnote in this episode like they were in history. But I felt like it was running long. I love the Duster and Demon 340. I’m biased toward the latter - I just really love that ‘70/71 Dodge nose. And owning one helps. Haha. A B body episode is on the list! I have a bunch of ideas. It will be tough to decide what to do next. The response has been almost entirely positive - except the consensus seems to be that I need to include more pictures.

Me too! I love the poly. I’m fixing one in my ‘64 Power Wagon right now.

Haaaahaha. I’ll see if I have friends over there when possible 😅

😭 I wish I still had mine. One day I was under the car and saw something that looked weird. I reached up and put my finger through the frame rail… then it was dead to me. It would be such an easy repair now.

That would really suck. Putting your fingers in the frame and going through.

Nice! I’ve actually seen a late Valiant pieced together just like that before, with the ‘68 grille setup.

I sure did. Haha. That’s awesome. I actually had no idea that was the only way to get buckets. I’ve read about the Signet before, and I know that it brought a bit of class to the Valiant. I didn’t want to get into the weeds covering exactly what package did what - especially because I don’t have a bunch of knowledge there. I’m more of a broad strokes guy.

Yes I’ve gotten that comment several times now. And I totally understand. This was made more in the vein of an audio podcast. The pictures I did include were a bonus basically. It took me many hours to put together what I did. I’m not looking forward to that part of the next one 😅 but it’s what the people want.

@@DeadDodgeGarage Jamie, meaning no disrespect, but this is RU-vid, I do watch a few podcasts here- but not ones that are just audio, I NEED to see something- even if just pix to keep my attention going, and the podcast I do watch on YT are always 100% video of the podcaster speaking and also vid clips or still pix. If you won't be providing more of that in the future, I don't have the attention span to just stare at a still screen with occasional glimpse of you speaking into the mic. Sorry 😞

Awesome stuff. One of many things I forgot to say in this episode was that it was limited to American production - because those are the only ones I know the first thing about! I definitely need to learn more about the Australian cars.

The 160 hp slant six air filter lid is off the max wedge

Ouch… awesome! I’m going to other way and building a wild 273 for my ‘66 Barracuda. If that doesn’t get the job done I’ll go back to the 360 it had before.

Interesting - you just described exactly a Twister. Non functional scoops and blackouts, shark tooth, rallye wheels (with no trim rings,) but no performance engine.

Exactly. He was brilliant. His “idea cars” were really cool for the most part. He had a lot of interesting concepts rolling around in his head. Things seemed to get a little strange by the time they made it to production - and they got stranger as time went on.

Yeah, as before- so many Exner styling nods to Aerospace & Cold War Tech. Thing is- during the Exner Era- Chrysler WAS building the Thor nuke missles and sections of rockets like the Apollo. The Exner sports car project with the long projection behind the drivers head makes me think ot the interwar Boeing P-26 'Peashooter' and others, while his dashes often make me think of early televisions or radar sets. I've done mixed media presentations- Archer inset was great, but I wish viewers knew many images have copyrights- OK for student use, but not any 'Monetized Production', adding time to your research and editing hours. I think I'm going to need to buy that Exner book afterall now.

I wish that was a job that could be done easily and cheaply. The parts alone make it quite expensive. It’s cool that engine has that low of mikes - it might actually live for a while. Maybe. I am about to sell three of those total piece of garbage 5.7s for $400. I’m tired of looking at them. For the cost, you would have to end up at 25+ MPG and drive a whole bunch of miles to make up for it. Usually, that math does not work out. I used to think building for mileage with modern stuff like that was a good idea too. I don’t anymore. My brother’s ‘67 valiant gets 25 MPG with an edelbrock carb on a roller 360 with Magnum heads, a four speed overdrive, and a 3.23 rear gear - and it sure cost a lot less. And fries tires too. Hard to argue with all that.

well I said “so a lot of good came out of that!” in the recording, then I decided to just cut out the middle man. Haha.

@@DeadDodgeGarage hahahahah

I definitely did consider filming the narration. It might murder my storage space 😅 the footage that I did have was on my phone, while the audio is recorded separately, so I had to use sync marks and hand align those clips. The other big problem is, if it isn’t obvious… this is made out of like a hundred short clips, similar to how my videos are structured. There is no script, so I am thinking through my thoughts one by one, trying to get them in the right order, researching details i don’t know or have forgotten in between, and I re-record segments to fix the way I word things when it’s bad. I don’t think I can sync a hundred short video clips with the audio… I gave some thought to the different ways I could do that. I didn’t necessarily want it to just look like a slide show. The static image idea is based around what podcasts usually have when they are ported to RU-vid. There has to be a video, so it’s often just a picture. My thought was, I could do that, but add a bit more. I hadn’t quite anticipated this response. Haha. I definitely have some ideas for next time based on the feedback I’ve gotten. And I definitely do appreciate that.

Also - there are a lot of things I didn’t cover at all - *especially* in the ‘73-‘76 years. It was running long and I was out of time. I really wanted to hit on the broad strokes of the different generations and the interchangeability aspects and I think I did that.

@@DeadDodgeGarage Completely fair points. I don't do videos so I'm not up on the techniques and problems. And I agree you did a great job on the differences and interchangeability parts.

Yes! Primer gray with bare black front clip. They were intended for race teams, who would be painting them in their chosen livery anyway. I do think the Hemi cars are deserving of their own episode… some day.

Outstanding! Happy hunting out there!

Go for it, it’s almost noon!😊

I have one…. It’s for sale…

@@DeadDodgeGarage but would it make a 2200 mile drive back to WI? I only need a 71% confidence level. And 100% that there’s no pushrod sitting in the valley 😜.

It can if we do the brakes, radiator and exhaust 😁oh and an engine mount, and… and… anyway there will be more, but it’s got a sweet running slant and a four speed. Brand new clutch, tires, etc.

@@DeadDodgeGarage you had me at slant 6

Someone else said that. I had meant to say in this one that it was limited to US models and production - because that’s all I really know. But the A body platform lived a much different (and longer) life elsewhere in the world.

There are several specific cars I realized would’ve been worth mentioning on this one - and the Green Brick was the main one. I could definitely see doing deep dives on a particular car in the future.

Agreed. The photos are definitely secondary to the audio, and even putting together the photos that are there took me *hours*. It’s really time intensive. More than anything it’s intended to be listened to - but I completely agree. I would like to do a lot more of that.

Slant six with four speed definitely existed, and I’m not sure why it couldn’t be found in a four door. Someone would have ordered that special… I’ve never seen such a machine. But it sounds cool!

That car also had no power steering or brakes. It also had no air conditioning. Only one window would roll down. Try driving ithat in 95 degree weather. Mother HATED that car. Lol. I took many dates in it in high school. You really had to concentrate driving it.

I actually did mention that the Formula S existed, and that it was cool. I didn't go into the details on that one, and I wish I had. I absolutely love the 273. There are a lot of things I would've liked to discuss here. Unfortunately, if I get into the weeds on every detail... we'll be here for hours. Haha.

Me much want that too

Impressive. I really want to drive one of those. I was talking with someone else today and was reminded that the early car’s wheelbase was even shorter. I wonder how much twoish inches affects the handling.

That was my goal here. People want to see more detailed explanation with pictures and I totally get that, but I was really aiming to make something listenable, and have the pictures and clips as a bonus if wanted. There are many other history type videos and channels that use that style and don’t include pictures at all. I was aiming for a bit of middle ground. Another factor for me is just how long it took to get all that stuff together and aligned with the audio. I can usually knock videos out pretty quickly, but this one took me many hours! There is a learning curve, as with all things.

I’ve seen that a couple times. I don’t know how they end up breaking either. Awesome! Sounds like a party. You may have heard mention of this but I have big plans for building a hot 273 at some point in the future. I love those little magic guys.

@DeadDodgeGarage this is my first 273,iit was setting 20 years,haven't been able to trace its history yet but the engine work was done before I got it,it's literally a mystery motor but I've got it dialed in,can't wait to do some one wheel peels with that 7 1/4 lol

It’s not an A body, so it doesn’t merit mention in this context. I think they’re neat! I love the idea of the stripper midsize car for performance reasons. We have the Plymouth equivalent (baseline Belvedere two door sedan) at Rocket.

@@DeadDodgeGarage so is it a B body?

I was told at this time in Chrysler development you not only had to have the same car for parts it had to be the same color. (In jest of course )

It’s on my list!! “The Pony Car Late To The Party”

Exner - some brilliant ideas, mostly poor execution.

Yep! I *almost* said that during this video… but I forgot.