Ebay is wonderful and harmful at the same time. There are days where I get some of my best inspiration from surfing the listings and then there are days where I paw through the cars up on the block and quietly sigh to myself as I contemplate what could be if I wasn’t broke and insane enough to want to work on the junk I already own. I’ll let you guess as to what state of mind I was in when I was digging through the site earlier today, but this 1976 Plymouth Volare was certainly not on the expected menu. It’s strange…in Mopar-speak, I’m an “F-J-M” guy, which translates into Aspen/Volare, Mirada/Imperial/2nd gen Cordoba, and Diplomat/Fifth Avenue/etc. Compared to ‘Cudas, Challengers and Road Runners, it’s not a glamorous place to be. It’s like being a GM fan and liking Luminas…you have to be a sick, sick puppy to follow through on this deal. I like M-bodies, and I’ve grown to like the J-bodies, but I’ve never been that big of a fan of Aspens and Volares…no real reason why, I just haven’t been.
This example, however, just might make me change my mind. Someone spent some quality time with a first-year Volare…the one infamous for rusting at the drop of a grain of salt…and gave it a ton of love, a coat of Plum Crazy Purple paint, some nice touches like the window louvers, Super Coupe stripes and the Dart/Demon dual-snorkel hoodscoop, and finished it off by jamming in a 383ci big block and an A833 four-speed, complete with Pistol Grip shifter. It certainly doesn’t line up with reality, but it’s a nice hat tip to the past, as if the builder didn’t want to concede to the reality of the Malaise Era and decided instead that 1970 should live forever on. If I had to pick this Volare apart, I’d ditch the Super Coupe stripes for something black to go with the overall theme, spring for adding on the Super Coupe rear spoiler and wheels to replace the Cragars, which on this car look really, really small, but that is just personal opinion. It’s a cool car and actually makes the Volare body look pretty decent. It’s the right kind of Seventies look.
eBay Link: 1976 Plymouth Volare
Thanks for this one, Bryan. I used to have a Volare just like this, minus the paint, killer engine, killer interior, mean attitude and mine had 2 extra doors and a little 318. Actually, mine was nothing like this. Funny thing though; it was absolutely dependable and had almost zero issues while I owned it.
Cool! I’d own it! We used Volare’s in the Air Force when I was in Germany. Those things handled really well, like any Mopar I can think of, far superior to any GM product save a vette.
This one would be a nice driver!
WOW! A Volare that hasn’t oxidized back to earth! The hood needs a black out treatment similar to the AAR Cuda though.
i would pretty much use it as is other than the corvette master cylinder. that would get changed out a.s.a.p. for a MOPAR one. i am not sure what it takes to stop a plastic fantastic but this is a MOPAR people not a Goofy Mechanics car. it needs a correct master cylinder.
Move that front bumper back a few inches and get rid of that awful steel braided hose cover crap and drive the dookie out of it….
I like it, I’d take off the GM master cylinder, replace it with a lightweight Mopar piece, then drive the crap out of it.
My then girl friend had a 76 Volare with the leaning tower of power..
completely dependable, gutless and drove like a hay wagon…
We (I) drove the snot out of it and it never let us down.