I miss hunting for cars in Arizona. It was almost too easy to drive around and find something really neat that was in pretty good condition. Chances were good that it was probably even running and driving, and might still be in use as someone’s personal car, and not just as a nice weather or weekend driver, either. But best of all, they all weren’t the typical old-car fare. It was nothing to see a 1973 Coronet driving up the road one day on the way to school, or to see an unrestored late 1960s C-10 still hauling stuff around, wearing the same paint it left the dealership lot with. Now that I’m out in Rust country, BangShifter Joe Haber likes to send me cool finds from his local Craigslist just to torment me. And usually, he’s pretty good at it, but today I think he messed with his own head when he found this 1965 Coronet.
Normally, a ’65 Coronet makes us think of the Super Stock cars…stripped out two-doors with as little weight and as much engine as possible. Driven, of course, by tennis-shoe wearing little old ladies from Pasadena, California. Looking at this particular four-door Coronet, however, you could easily see someone’s grandmother pulling into the driveway. Four doors, dog dishes, a safe neutral color like Refrigerator White…ask anyone who lived when these cars were new: this was the normal, not some snorting Max Wedge owned by Mildred.
Now, here’s why Haber might have done himself in: this Coronet, complete with it’s Poly 318, automatic, and four-door usefulness, is selling for five thousand dollars. That’s good no matter where you are at, but that’s amazing in Arizona during auction season. With only 63,000 miles on the clock and maintenance records for at least the last fifteen years, this Mopar has barely lived. Which begs the question: what would you do with it? I’m of the mindset that the car has managed to survive close to sixty years unscathed and has earned the right to remain as stock as possible. Something tells me that Haber would Max Wedge this beast in half a second and not think twice. What would you do?
Craigslist Link: 1965 Dodge Coronet 440 sedan
Sorry but it’s tough not to put it under the knife. I would put on a newer Charger R/T powertrain (especially A/C), update the suspension, some mid-70’s police wheels and have fun!
You might think twice, the polyhead makes a lot of torque. Good motors.
It is a clean and neat as a pin. Candidly, other than maintaining it properly, I’d add A/C, and maybe an under the seat CD player to maintain the stock appearance. It’d probably be difficult to install factory A/C, but if the Sanden style compressor and hoses were mounted low, it’d work with and under-dash evaporator, like maybe a dealer-installed setup. It’s kinda special in its own right.
Just my .02
Again I ask, where are the pictures of the rust? And how can you not get closer to the vehicle when you’re snapping shots? Everything looks just dandy from 20/30 feet away……..
I don’t care how many doors it has . I WANT it
“Crew Cab”… lol!! I never thought of that