With me being at home doing all this work on the house I tend to run netflix in the background, and after they removed Magnum P.I. last year I recently got into watching The Rockford Files. Great show, but it's making me want some malaise era American iron in my driveway. Just how bad would a car from the late 70's be as a daily driver? I'm thinking, Chevy Monza, Nova, or Vega(maybe Cosworth if I can find one), maybe a Ford Fairmont, or AMC Hornet Sportabout. Anything else I should look at or am I just nuts? With modern tires and a working A/C system, how bad could it be? And because I've been looking, here's some pics of what's been in my daydreams.
Gross. Lol. Out of those pictured, the monza is the only candidate. Swap in an EFI four cylinder for all winning.
You will miss fuel injection.
Streetwiseguy wrote:
You will miss fuel injection.
QFT. Carb's are just loosely regulated fuel and vaccum leaks.
As a guy whos summer daily is a 78 zephyr wagon i love it. Then again i prefer carbs to fuel injection even in the winter. Unlike most people here. Perks to the fairmont/zephyr is its fox chassis so anything foxbody mustang aside from driveshafts and subframe connectors fit it.
I am so glad that era is dead...
Streetwiseguy wrote:
You will miss fuel injection.
If you choose the Vega, the Cossie version has EFI.
I think with the Hornet, an EFI 4.0 from a Jeep would be a bolt in swap, so I'd probably go with that one.
They can work very well as a DD, as long as you commute is within walking distance.
Here in the frozen North, most of those cars have returned to the Earth from whence they came. And that's a good thing.
For some reason, the Cosworth is the only Vega that hasn't completely rusted away.
jstein77 wrote:
For some reason, the Cosworth is the only Vega that hasn't completely rusted away.
I don't think most of them ran that long.
I have a friend who just picked up a "barn find" one(literally) with ~30,000 miles on it. The engine caught fire, but damage was minimal. The owner parked it in a barn for 30-years, and while it looks ok other than the hood damage on the outside, there's enough chassis rust that he's considering parting it out.
See my thread about the movie. Just this weekend I was around a variety of malaisey cars and trucks. Hard to start, sloppy, overheating, dieseling, stinky. But at least they were thirsty, unsafe, uncomfortable, and slow.
Modern cars are just so much better.
kb58
Dork
6/27/16 3:22 p.m.
KyAllroad wrote:
...Hard to start, sloppy, overheating, dieseling, stinky...
Many people of driving age have no idea what "dieseling" is. We're getting old.
This is almost an exact copy of my first car. Well in much better condition.
In reply to t25torx:
Don't let em' talk you out of it. That is my era. Carbs are easy. I would rather have a car from the 70's than any other decade. Do it.
kb58 wrote:
KyAllroad wrote:
...Hard to start, sloppy, overheating, dieseling, stinky...
Many people of driving age have no idea what "dieseling" is. We're getting old.
I had some trouble getting my '66 Pontiac tuned right, and it was overfueling for a while. At shutdown it would make the most hilarious noises. I had a friend in the car and it did the normal dieseling (k'chunk, k'chunk, k'chunk) and then finished off with a winding down "F'wizzzzzzzzzzzzz!"
I think it took us a few minutes to finish laughing and it still gets us going every now and then, 15-20 years later.
My buddy had a '78 Volare wagon I would occasionally borrow until he sold it. It was a blast to drive, but for all the wrong reasons. Terrible, floaty ride with Guess-O-Matic steering, a measly three speeds that overworked the hell out of the poor slant six on the freeway, hard starting and dieseling at shutoff, and a huge bench seat that was spacious yet pretty uncomfortable. Cool to cruise around in for a nostalgia trip here and there, but infuriating to drive daily.
I'd take any of those with a modern drive line swap.
Of small 70s GM cars, I'd recommend the Nova/X Body over the H body(Vega Skyhawk Monza, etc). A friend of mine has a Skyhawk (231/auto) that he drives full time in the summer, I'm more or less the mechanic. It's a pretty good cruiser but there are things that make me not like them. Like 4x4"/101.6mm wheels (custom E36 M3 aside, your best option is to find some period 14" slot mags or run adapters with 4x100 FWD offset wheels) there is exactly one properly sized 13" tire left in production that isn't from Coker that I'd trust (185/70R13 Kumho Solus TA11). The cramped engine bay (having done it once now, I think I could swap the starter in about 6 hours), plugs are easy though. The automatic models mostly had the notorious TH200, though it seems to hold up ok behind a maybe 130hp (with the pebble bed cat removed) engine in a 3000lb car. There isn't much left for aftermarket suspension stuff, whereas you'll never run out of parts with the Nova (it's all Camaro stuff). It is like any other 70s car in the ventilation department though, i.e. it's great, his doesn't have AC but you really don't even need to lower the windows until it hits 75F or so if you're moving, just pop the kick panel vents open.
Ha, wow I was not expecting such a negative response. I guess these cars really were that bad.
I'm thinking if I end up going the GM route, a 3800 and T5 from the 4th gen F-body would be a great cheap swap donor.
I found a '76 Skylark S/R hatch that looks promising. They can be made to look nice i found, from a google image search.
Nick (picaso) Comstock wrote:
In reply to t25torx:
Don't let em' talk you out of it. That is my era. Carbs are easy. I would rather have a car from the 70's than any other decade. Do it.
Im with him. Mine also doesnt do alot of the things i see mentioned in here. No dieseling, its comfortable, gets 17mpg with me driving and isnt a common car so people like too smile and wave.
You get alot of people who will tell you random stories about the one they used too own etc. I also drive mine much further then walking distances with no issues.
You want another boring econobox just buy a camry. I love my car.
