For our final entry in Despised Car Week, I’ve chosen a type of vehicle I know a lot of you aren’t fond of: sketchy projects. These both run and drive, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do on them; you’ll have your hands full with either of them. Which one is worth the effort? That will be up to you.
Yesterday we looked at boring, invisible cars, and by an overwhelming majority, you would really rather have a Buick, it looks like. And from the comments, the bench seat was actually a selling point for some of you. The Buick’s simpler and more trustworthy V6 engine helped as well.
You’re probably right, but if the seller of that Malibu is telling the truth about all the work that has been done to it, you can’t count it out so quickly. With all the new parts, it may end up being the better deal, even with a little rust. I’d have to check them both out in person to know for sure. But really, for fifteen hundred bucks, either one would be a fine cheap beater.
Selling a half-finished project is hard. You have to find someone who shares your enthusiasm for the car, and who can see your vision for it, or has a vision of their own. And you have to be honest about its condition, and why you’re not pursuing the project any further. You have to be patient, too, because the right buyer isn’t just going to magically appear just because you put the car up for sale. I harbor no delusions that the right buyer for either of these cars is out there reading this right now, but if you are, a finder’s fee is customary. Let’s check them out and see what you think.
1969 Dodge A100 Pickup – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: 225 cubic inch OHV inline 6, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: South San Francisco, CA
Odometer reading: Unknown
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Product planning for automotive companies is often a case of “monkey see, monkey do.” One company comes up with a brilliant idea, and everyone else has to follow. Dodge’s A100 trucks, introduced in 1964, were a reaction to the Ford Econoline and Chevy Corvair 95, which in turn were designed to compete with the VW Transporter. Like the Ford, Chevy, and VW, the A100 was available as either a panel van, a window van, or a pickup truck.
Whereas Chevy and VW chose to locate the engine in the rear, Ford and Dodge kept it up front, between the front seats. Under that hump with the blanket on it is a 225 cubic inch Slant Six, in this case equipped with an aftermarket intake and a big four-barrel carb for more power. It drives the rear axle through a Torqueflite automatic, and the seller says it runs and drives just fine and has current registration.
The cab-forward design is a great way of maximizing cargo space for a small vehicle – witness the endless parade of kei trucks from Japan – but it is lacking in the safety department. Best advice: If you like your legs, don’t hit anything. I’ve always liked the automatic shifter in these; it sticks out of the dashboard, with a big round knob on the lever, and it feels very satisfying to drop it into gear.
This truck dates back to the days when you bought a truck because you needed it to do work, not because you wanted to look cool. Somebody added a crude set of utility boxes to the bed sides of this one, because they needed a secure place to put tools. Yeah, they’re ugly, but they tell a story. Getting rid of them would be a monumental task; you’d have to either find another A100 in a junkyard to cut patch panels from, or have someone fabricate new bed sides. Either way, it’s probably not worth it. Just lean into the old work truck vibe.
1973 Mercury Cougar XR7 – $4,000
Engine/drivetrain: 351 cubic inch OHV V8, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Atwater, CA
Odometer reading: Unknown
Operational status: Runs and drives well, but needs brake work
This car has been for sale for a long time, and I’ve thought about featuring it before, but I haven’t because the photos are so small. But I finally decided it was time. This is the second-generation Mercury Cougar, the last Cougar to share a platform with the Mustang. But the move from muscle car to personal luxury coupe had begun; you could get a fast Cougar still, but most of them leaned towards comfort.
The seller says this car has a 302 V8, but the info I found says that a 351 Cleveland should have been the base engine in a ’73 Cougar. And I’m pretty sure the air cleaner says “351 2V” on it, so I think the seller is mistaken. Regardless, it runs well, and the car is drivable, but the seller says it could use new brakes. It does have a new radiator, and the transmission was just rebuilt.
The ad doesn’t have any good overall interior photos, but what we can see is that the seat upholstery is shot and the door panels are off, but the seller says they’re included. That’s good, because the reproduction parts places don’t cater to the Cougar as well as they do the Mustang. Have the seats reupholstered and put it all back together, and it should look fine. This is never going to be a show car anyway.
The outside, frankly, is a mess. Someone has done some rust repair, but badly. It has Bondo slathered on like cake frosting, with no attempt to smooth it out at all, with primer just sprayed over the top. It’s a great example of how not to do bodywork, but what was done can be undone. If you ever wanted to learn how to do bodywork, it’s actually not a bad starting point. The convertible top works, and it’s not in terrible shape, but the plastic rear window is more or less opaque.
Neither one of these is really “worth” restoring, but they don’t really have to be. Some cars are just good practice, a way to learn how to fix stuff just for the sake of fixing it. If that’s not your cup of tea, I apologize, and I’ll make it up to you next week. But if you think you would enjoy having an old car around just to teach yourself some things, which one interests you more?
If the Cougar hadn’t been a convertible, I’d have thought more about it. But the Dodge is all right, and in a non-flashy solid color, it could be a handy truck for odd jobs. The more I look at it, the more I like it.
I would love to hear your definition of a solid color. That Dodge has every color of the earth spectrum. From tan, grey, rust, bondo etc
I genuinely want the Dodge. That is a cool truck. I wouldn’t even consider it a project vehicle – ugly trucks are just as much fun as nice trucks. If nothing else, it runs and drives and isn’t rusted out. I would much rather have this truck than $4,000. I yet again lament the vast distance between me and this vehicle.
The Cougar is also cool and I really want to like it, but I can’t. It is too far gone. Also, the body work is so bad I wonder if it is even bondo – it looks more like play-doh. And frankly, it looks like it might have been done by a small child. This is a car to avoid – if the work you can see if this bad, the work you can’t see isn’t going to be any better.
No, that looks like my first Bondo experience before I sanded it.
At second look, you are right. Playdough also looks like that.
If I’m getting a pickup like that, I want it to be a VW. Or at least one with an unmolested body.
Dodge, please!
I’m not too fussed about the tool boxes: they’re utilitarian and once they’re painted they’ll blend in well enough. (They might even work.)
The Holley 4bbl is probably a 390cfm, which is plenty for the 225. The biggest benefit is being able to drive around on the small primaries so you get (slightly) better mileage than you would with e.g. a large 2bbl. Good thing there’s a 727 behind that Leaning Tower o’ Power – wouldn’t want to blow up a little 904 with all that twist. 😀
The Mercury just… isn’t something I would want.
(Some clarification: a 4bbl carb will generally have two small primary venturis and two larger ones. The small ones are for low throttle settings, like stop-and-go-traffic. When you put your right foot down, the larger secondary venturis come into play; they are actuated either mechanically or by vacuum.
Compare this with a large-ish 2bbl, where the engine is breathing through the same two large venturis all the time, no matter what it’s doing.)
MoPar for a long time marketed “Hyper Paks” which was a kit to convert the slant 6 – either displacement – to a 4bbl. You even got a new cam. Friend had one and it worked well – didn’t ice as easily as my Duster did.
I saw one of those at a swap meet years ago and thought about grabbing it just in case I ever found a slant-6 project car, but it was just the manifold and headers – and the headers were like good pasta: all dent-y. 🙁
It makes all the sense that you understand pasta.
“a 4bbl carb will generally have two small primary venturis and two larger ones.”
What you are describing is what is commonly referred to as a “spread bore” carb. Yes that is the way the Rochester Quadra Jet is designed as well as the Carter Thermoquad but Holley, Autolite (Ford) and the other Carter(Edelbrock) 4bbls are typically “square bore’ where the primaries and secondaries are the same or very close in size. (Yes Holley did make some spread bore versions to replace QuadraJets) So if anything I’d say that generally they have the same size primary and secondary bores.
A100. The tool boxes are cool. Anyone considering removing them (or wishing they weren’t there in the first place) is wrong.
No, you!
Fifty six years ago I would have bought the A100 for its weird coolness. Granted I would have only been 13 years old but it still would have looked great in the driveway. Fast forward to today and despite not having a driveway I would still buy it.
Forward control is always the answer! plus the weird custom tool boxes kind of work. I could get a lot done with that thing.
The A100 is cooler, so that’s what I voted for
That A100 has potential to use as is or go crazy with modifications…glad it is on the left coast or my wife would be mad at me.
I think the vans are cute, but my legs being the crumple zone, and the general disregard for public safety I observe on the roads everyday make it a non-starter for me.
I’ll just do what I can to make the Cougar nice and drive it until it splits in half and have a decent driveline for some other project.
“Operational status: Runs and drives well, but needs brake work”
To be fair, the Cougar probably needed brake work from the factory.
Cab forward truck and slant 6 has been on my list a long time. Only wish it had 3 on the tree because that would cover another thing on my list. I was meh about the Cougar until I saw it was a convertible. Big American boat of a convertible is also on my list. It’s a long list…
I expected to vote for the Cougar, but one look at the bed slathered into the rust holes on the right rear, and I jumped right to the A-100 vote button.
Since the A-100 is utterly ruined by those tool boxes, I’d just leave them in. It’d be a good junkyard parts puller, or rallycross support truck.
And someone just offered a Miata with hardtop near me for reasonable $. Flat-tow for more RX shenanigans. It’s been a few years.
Oh, that would be so much fun!
…I bought it last night. $5500 ’92 black with tan interior.
That’s fantastic! I’m jealous, although I probably wouldn’t fit in it anyways. Have fun!
Those of us on opposite-lock.com would love to hear more about it, and see pictures, if you care to join us.
I kinda like the van-trucks of this era, and I don’t care what the vuck people think. But those tool boxes ruin it for me.
I’m also a big fan of PLCs, and this was the transition point for the Cougar. Obviously, the luxury part of that equation is long gone in this one. But it is ripe for a resto-mod, and no one would cry about losing originality in this instance.
In reality, I would pay more for a better version of either one, and at $4K, both of these are the proverbial crack pipe. But sticking with the game, I’ll take the drop-top V8 and hope it doesn’t break in half on the tow home. And if it does, at least I’d still have a 351 Cleveland to play with.
I could see acquiring the A100 , with the intention of turning it into a Little Red Wagon tribute, but never quite getting around to it and driving it as is.
I’m not thrilled by it, but the Cougar is the only one of these I could imagine myself enjoying if both were in good shape.
Yes, but the A100 is the only one of these I could imagine myself using at all as-is. And as-is is a whole lot more likely to happen for me. A100 would make a great (if overpriced) dump and big box store runabout.
I was at the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona Beach about 10 years ago and I saw a Dodge Truck like this, but the builder decided to go apeshit on it and just turn it around. The engine was in the bed, the cab was at the rear. Headlights swapped for taillights. Amazingly well done. One of the craziest show cars I’d ever seen in person.
They’re both pretty bad today. I’ll go van because COE vans are cool. This one ought to look okay with some cleanup. I could see someone leaning into the whole classic work van motif with a fake “bob’s hot rod shop” or somethign of the like painted on the door.
This. Do some body work to clean up the surface rust and fill some holes, give it a respray with a vintage-looking fake shop name on the side of the truck, and it would look pretty decent.
That Cougar represents the absolute nadir of ungainly baroque Malaise styling. Let the tinworm keep eating it.
I voted the A100 always loved these old trucks and the van variant. This one is probably to far gone to want to restore but it looks much better shape then the merc.
First day this year I’ve actually dreaded having to pick one. Well done.
I saw one of the van pick up things running around MN this week, like getting on a 65mph highway. I cannot imagine there are that many running examples in an area that uses 250K tons/winter of salt.
I think that recovering the body of the A100 and figuring out what more modern 4×4 frame it would fit on would be fun.
“Hiding” the damage on that Cougar is worse than just showing it. All I can think is it must be SO bad, the seller just covered it and is trying to unload it on some sucker.
A100 for me, and I’ll be careful out there.
If these sellers get half that, I will be surprised
Neither one do anything for me, but at least the A100 is different. What would the tow capacity be? Like an open trailer and rusty old Miata?
“Like an open trailer and rusty old Miata?”
That’d be a tall order for a slant six. I could see flat towing a Metro or Festiva to the rallycross course maybe.
Better than the average six cylinder pickup.