Put Up Or Shut Up Challenge: Snatch This '66 Coronet From The Crusher's Jaws!
We had plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth over the fate of the cool cars I saw being eaten by The Crusher over the weekend. It’s too late for those cars, but here’s one that you can save! If you want the right to curse those who crush classic cars for a few bucks, your enraged thunderations will be more impressive if you rescue one yourself.
A guy I know just bought a bunch of cars that had been stored in a forgotten Denver warehouse since 1982, mostly to obtain a handful of seriously cool/valuable ones (such as a numbers-matching, low-mile, factory 383/4-speed ’69 Satellite coupe). Most of the others aren’t particularly collectible, so their most likely fate will be a trip to The Crusher; at $250/ton, most 1960s sedans are worth more as scrap than as project cars.
This Coronet is a tough call; it appears to have a freshly rebuilt engine and it’s damn near completely rust-free, but it’s a 4-door and the body and trim saw their share of wear and tear during the car’s 16 years of driving (yes, it has nearly twice as many years in storage as it has on the road). Its new owner could keep the engine and crush the rest, pocketing a few hundred bucks for the steel and whatever a Mopar small-block of mysterious provenance goes for these days, but he’d prefer to sell it to someone who could get it back on the street. I’d take it, but I’ve already got one ’66 Dodge project and don’t have room for another.
Since it’s a Chrysler B Body, restoration parts should be easy to obtain and it shares suspension/drivetrain components with vast quantities of Chrysler iron; as project cars go, it’s not particularly difficult. So, if you’re within towing range of Denver and you’d like to rescue a classic example of America’s automotive heritage for an easy three-figure price, shoot me an email and I’ll put you in touch with the seller.
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, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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Give me a price, location, and more info on the car. I have the money to save this but I don't want a car that dosen't run.
Say it with me: LeMons. LeMons! LeMons!!