Bet those darts have rust in the tops of the fenders though. Multi layer
seam there always goes since it wasn't sealed and open enough to let crud
in. They were great cars though. Drove a 63 GT convert for work from 76
till 86 and new owners still use as a work car! Paid 250 for it also! But
had to do a bit of repair on occasion like new front end Sheet metal because
of rust!
-----Original Message-----
From: Gary <goers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <L-FORWARDLOOK@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sunday, January 30, 2000 5:47 PM
Subject: Re: [FWDLK] 58 Mopar rust problem? Fact, Fiction, or just way
overstated?
>I grew up in the Illinios rust belt. I bought my '58 300 in '65. It was
>already a rust bucket. The only cars that weren't were the garaged ones and
>especially cars that weren't driven much in winter. The salt on the roads
>killed them! At that time my friend's whole headlight assembly fell out of
his
>'58 Chevy! None of the cars in the fifties were dipped and therefore had
>absolutely no rust protection for the insides of rocker panels etc. The
only
>protection at all was in the thickness of the metal and wherever the paint
spray
>happened to hit. I moved from the area in early '66 and remember already
seeing
>rusty rocker panels on Mustangs. By comparison, my parent's '72 Chrysler
took
>10 years to begin showing rust and it was driven to work daily in the worst
>weather. Chrysler products of that era were actually better than most and
just a
>few years later were much better than the others. Early '60's Darts had
>galvanized rocker panels and they went through the multi-step dipping
process.
>They held up decades longer than the competition. Around here (Montana) in
my
>town there are at least a dozen '63-'66 Darts and Valiants still in use as
daily
>drivers. Guess how many Falcons, Chevy IIs, Corvairs, Mavericks etc. there
>are--zip!!
>
>JERRY J BROWARSKI wrote:
>
>> I was a senior in high school when the '57s came out and from my
>> understanding, it was that specific model year that had most of the
problems
>> due to the fact that Chrysler rushed the production for that year. My
good
>> friend's father worked for Chrysler and his '57 Plymouth began falling
apart
>> and rusting in about a year. I believe Chrysler had corrected some if
not
>> most of these problems by the time the '58s hit the market so they
weren't
>> as bad. Unfortunately, the reputation of the '57s carried forward for a
few
>> years after that and hurt the sales of Chrysler products for some time
after
>> that. Prior to that faux pas, Chrysler used to beat out Ford in sales on
a
>> regular basis. It was a major screw-up from which Chrysler never fully
>> recovered.
>>
>> Jerry Browarski
>
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