After looking it over thoroughly and noting the extensively rusted areas, I made an offer and later drove off in the vehicle I had wanted since I was in High School.
1995 - 1996
Body Condition
That summer ( 1995 ), as well as the next, I spent a great deal
of time sanding off any body rust and further evaluated the rust
inside the bumbers and in other areas underneath the car.
Somehow, that's where 99% of the rust decided to stay -
out of view of the body's Spinnaker White (EW1) paint.
Even further inspection resulted in almost no rust on the underside
or body panels, but instead seemed to be concentrated inside the
bumpers and bumper re-inforcement.
Aside from the trunk, there was really no exterior body rust,
except for some crumb-sized spots. These spots can be wiped out with a Dremel tool,
in one weekend.
The local Mattos automotive paint store mixed me up a quart of the factory paint and with these handy little spray bottles, I was covering the worked parts with a very close match.
Labor Day weekend, 1996, the car got a thorough washing, Mequire's #2 or #9 application and a final waxing brought the entire car out of this dingy suit which even when I purchased the car, had told me that this car had never had a bath. Of course, I didn't really believe that myself - it had to have been washed and waxed some time as it now shines better, with it's original paint than a later model car down the street (offspring from another big 3 manufacturer), which also has original paint.
The following summer, 1997, I'd not worked much on it as I had indulged in my 2-wheeled entertainment. This coming summer, 1998, is when I plan to deal with the underside rust situation, which when recently on a lift, didn't seem to be all that horrible.
Coming Soon: How I dealt with the rusty bumper and re-inforcement.
Engine
Mine doesn't have the power seats as I understand only the Canadian models do because the U.S. models have the catalytic
converters running right through the area where the resulting
bulge would be to accommodate the motors for the power seating.
Ain't that something?
Anyone out there know of a way to adapt power seats to this model,
without major work?
I'd have to describe the interior as "not too bad". This is because
it has that thin leather interior. I think Recardo Montalban called
it "Corinthian Leather" in the TV commercials, back in the days where
a 197? Chrysler was marketed as "The Smaller Chrysler". You gotta love it.
I wish they had used plain old "Corinthian Vynyl" instead. The sides of the back rest of the driver's
seat are corroding and exposing the beautiful yellow foam underneath.
I can only imagine how expensive this will be. I have another
Chrysler product with the identical material/style, and put seat
covers on it as a result of the almost 2 decades of exposure to
all kinds of temperatures. Maybe some day . . .
It has the 360 Four Barrel Engine ( E58 ) and runs smoothly.
I was disappointed to find out that it has lower compression than
than the non-high-performance 360 engine, according to the 1979 Factory manual.
Changes last made on: Sun Oct 26 09:23:37 1997
