Tuesday, July 7, 2015

#1 Most Ridiculous Taillight Award winner!

THE DEFINITION OF AN NYC HOOPTIE
I was riding my bike blah blah blah let's just cut to the chase! LOOK AT THOSE TAILLIGHTS!
This is, or was, a 1967 Plymouth in what might've been Medium Blue. However, what's so glaring that I can't look past it is the fact that the owner stuffed a pair of late '70s Chevrolet Stepside Pickup taillights into the original Plymouth housings! I mean really dude; even if parts are hard to come by isn't this just surrendering totally? Then again, that is the theme for this heavily used and neglected remnant of Mopar history.
Originally the reverse lights would be where that square opening is next to the taillight. There was also an aluminum panel spanning the width of the trunk visually connecting the taillight surrounds.
The Belvedere name went back and forth between Plymouths highest-end full size cars and the more moderately priced mid size depending on the year. The higher-end trim model was called the Satellite, and the super-performance version the GTX. As this car has no emblems we'll try to discern which this car is. This was the mid size offering for '67.
Every inch of this slab is rough. No door handles or locks! The wheels are a motley assortment too but being the car obsessive person I am I think I've cracked the code! The fronts once belonged to a first generation Ford Taurus.
While the god-awful open mouthed rear wheels are from an '84-'90 Lincoln Continental Mark VII. I don't know how you all spent your last 20 minutes but it was probably more interesting than scrolling through endless guesses of straight spoke wire wheels (I found it interesting sadly).
The quarter panel above the rear wheel well certainly holds more mystery with those cracks, patches of touch up primer, and some material dropping down like a lazy eyelid on the left side. I bet there's the sort of bondo repair that involves chicken wire and an old shirt being balled up, shoved in a hole, and smoothed over.
The front is doing its darndest to hold its integrity, though the hood is attached with a small chain and a padlock. There were so many different engine and transmission combinations available for this car in 1967 that there very well could be a 340 or 360 V8 hidden within (or a 426 Hemi but I SERIOUSLY doubt it). However, if this is a GTX the standard engine would be the 440 which is an enormous powerplant for this ride. The venerable Slant-6 was dropped after 1965 for the mid-size lineup.
These cars with their sharp lines and crisp styling look great as a 2 door, especially since they have no pillar between the front and rear windows.
The headlights are a bit of an optical illusion as the inner set look smaller but all four are the same size.
Those 2 holes on the front fender originally held the emblem that would tell us what we're looking at. If it was an inaugural year GTX there would be a double-hood-scoop hood as well, but this could just be missing.
However here you can see above there are a series of clips below the door. The only model I could find with a chrome strip below the door as opposed to across it for this year was the GTX! This might just be the ultimate muscle Plymouth of '67!
Another way you can distinguish this '67 from the previous year is the 3-spoke horn ring. When outfitted with one (they weren't all) it was a 2-spoke in '66.
Piles of garbage inside to deter any curious passersby.
If this is indeed a GTX with the original motor and transmission it's certainly worth saving and restoring. And if you had one in a somewhat remote and dicey corner of Brooklyn with no parking spot this would be a great way of hiding it in plain sight. As usual I'm not buying the single out of state plate on the back as that will make any NYPD employee pass it on by without ticketing it.
One more shot at that hilarious custom hack-job!



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