Junkyard Find: 1965 Plymouth Belvedere

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Chrysler got a lot of mileage out of their midsize B platform, which was used for just about the entirety of the 1960s and 1970s. The Charger was a B, the Cordoba was a B, and so was this well-used Belvedere that now awaits The Crusher in Denver.

The good old 318-cubic-inch A engine was much heavier than the later LA version, but had the same reputation for reliability.

Even the kind of Ayatollahs-of-rock-n-rollah that like to bomb around cities in big 60s Detroit sedans know that they can always get another one for cheap once the current hooptie breaks something that costs more than a couple hundred bucks.

That’s probably what happened to this one, judging from the telltale cryptic stickers in the back window.






Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Obbop Obbop on Aug 06, 2012

    Bow down to your Mopar Masters ye incorrigible miscreants and sundry heathens. Note the pic of the starter upon the ground next to the tire. That is a MAN-sized starter and built to last pert-near forever, y'all. Carry on.

  • Mr Nosy Mr Nosy on Aug 06, 2012

    And that air cleaner.Hardly used at all.I guess Mr Belvedere had to be sacrificed in order to pay for a new run of bumper stickers when the two members of the death metal band merged with that keyboardist from a local declining queercore outfit because one of them knows someone who is a friend of a cousin of Skrillex,and he heard their tape and liked it and...

  • MaintenanceCosts Poorly packaged, oddly proportioned small CUV with an unrefined hybrid powertrain and a luxury-market price? Who wouldn't want it?
  • MaintenanceCosts Who knows whether it rides or handles acceptably or whether it chews up a set of tires in 5000 miles, but we definitely know it has a "mature stance."Sounds like JUST the kind of previous owner you'd want…
  • 28-Cars-Later Nissan will be very fortunate to not be in the Japanese equivalent of Chapter 11 reorganization over the next 36 months, "getting rolling" is a luxury (also, I see what you did there).
  • MaintenanceCosts RAM! RAM! RAM! ...... the child in the crosswalk that you can't see over the hood of this factory-lifted beast.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Yes all the Older Land Cruiser’s and samurai’s have gone up here as well. I’ve taken both vehicle ps on some pretty rough roads exploring old mine shafts etc. I bought mine right before I deployed back in 08 and got it for $4000 and also bought another that is non running for parts, got a complete engine, drive train. The mice love it unfortunately.
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