'73 New Yorker

[TheIronSausage]

Hi all,

My name's Matt, I'm a noob here, and I'll go post about myself in the welcome thing in a minute, but first..

Two years ago, I helped a hundred year old lady when I put rear door glass in her New Yorker. She's just passed, and her grandson has offered me first right of refusal on the car. It's a green four door, the 440 runs, the trans wants the car to move, but the brakes are stuck. I managed to move it under it's own power when I put the glass in. There's minimal rust, the interior is in great shape, but there's a huge swipe down the driver's side where some mouth breathing snow plow driver hit it years ago. The car is in Gore, VA on the eastbound side of rt. 50, you can't miss it. I'm going to look at it on Monday, and get photos. They only want a couple of hundred for it.. $140 on Rock Auto rebuilds the entire brake system... Somebody needs to snap this up before some knuckle dragger smashes up a bunch of good parts in a saveable car at a demo derby, which is the only other option for this thing in this area. Anybody want it? I've already got eight cars, in a two car garage and a shared driveway with my neighbor.. Another twenty foot land mass would be pushing it.

Matt

 

[Dr.Jass]

TheIronSausage? Man, that's going to be a great source of fun. Welcome to the lighter side of Mopar forums!

What year is said New Yorker? I have friends down that way...

 

[TheIronSausage]

It's a '73..

The screen name is a Zappa reference, 'cause I'm a big dork

 

[Dr.Jass]

That's OK. We tend to shorten/use synonyms once we get to know you. I'm just "Doc", I don't think anyone's ever called ThrashingCows by that name (it's just Cow, AbusingBovines, etc.--whatever comes to mind), and I've been referring to Fishy as "SmellsLike" for about a decade now.

Were it an earlier car, I might be interested but only for the drivetrain and some other bits. I've got a '61 Plymouth Suburban with no engine... and not a lot else, either, actually.

 

[TheIronSausage]

I totally understand, I don't even mind if somebody gets it and parts it out so it can keep other cars on the road. I just won't see it go to some meathead demo derby who's going to smash up a bunch of useable body panels and redline a perfectly good 440 with a crunched up radiator for 45 minutes, after they rip out and throw away an interior that's nicer than any I've had in any of my cars.. I really despise it. It's such a sadness

 

[Dr.Jass]

Why don't you grab it for the interior (use it in your Fury) and part the rest of it out? That '73 disc brake front end is worth a fortune, y'know. '72 & older C-body guys will kill each other to get those parts. Put that front end on eBay and you'll probably triple your investment in the whole car and still have a nice interior and a spare 440/727 lying around. Very possible a Sure Grip 9.25" axle, too, which is a beautiful thing.

 

[TheIronSausage]

I am the Indian who uses every part of the buffalo... Don't think I haven't thought of it. I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment, I just rebuilt the brakes and rear suspension in my 145, bought seats I can recover for the Valiant, put Konis, huge sway bars, and better springs in my 245, and sourced and bought all of the stuff I need to rebuild the front end in the Fury. There's also the problem of having nowhere to put it.. I've got a customer's long term Porsche project in the garage, and three of my cars are in the parking deck at work, because my wife got a Pilot, and we have yet to sell her penalty box of a Subaru.. I could leave it on the trailer, and park it out at my work's storage building, but I know we need that trailer all month.. If I can get it, I will.. My wife will be so happy. In the meantime, if somebody else buys it, then the lid on Schroedinger's box stays closed. I won't have to worry about it being fixable, or having to part it out.. I'll just go to work on Tuesday like every other idiot, who won't be spending hundreds of dollars to resurrect a sleeping giant, or spending at least fifty man hours getting every scrap of useable parts off of a car to then spend even more time putting said parts on my junk, or selling them off to other like minded fools.
But I kinda want to...

 

[69.5CUDA]

ok...you totaly sound like me on the wrong coast..especiely with a friends pooch in the garage..dont tell me its a 944

 

[TheIronSausage]

Nope, not a 944.. But one of my customers does have a 968. It's a 914, it got attacked by a shady body shop after the car sat for ten years, so I'm sorting it all out. They did stuff like cut the hood release cable out of the door jamb and weld over the hole.. The cable was laying on the floor of the engine compartment, cut in half. By the way, I hear you're into Alfas.. I'd push my mom down a flight of stairs for a sorted out 60s or 70s GTV. Those things are sex on wheels.

 

[thrashingcows]

Welcome to the Board IronSausage...I can tell by your posts that you should fit in fine here. Love your reference to Mouth breathers, and knuckle draggers....I use those terms all the time! Seems like you have the same affliction most of us do...Nice to have another partner in our insanity!

As for the car...if you don't mind I will post up the info over on the C-body board I frequent. Perhaps there is someone close by who would want it.

 

[TheIronSausage]

I've thrown it and bits of this conversation up on cbodydrydock, and forcbodies only

 

[69.5CUDA]

theres one on my lift that was "too far gone" for anyone else to touch that im doing for a guy....i have no clue why everyone wants one..they handle like shit for an alfa..and arnt half as pretty as an early alfetta setup for race(or a well done gtv6) and certainly have NOTHING on the late 50s sprints those are down right sexy enuf for my wife to take claim of one

oy someone had there way with that poor pooch..ive always liked the 914..till i "attempted" to sit in one....still love em tho..my buddy and his buddys have a "pack" of 944's...the last one i worked on had an s2 engine wedged into it

 

[TheIronSausage]

I like the GTVs because I tend to gravitate towards Bertone design language in the seventies and eighties. The GTV has more classic lines than the other cars they made at the time, but still reminds you that somebody in Turin had a good source for mind altering substances.. I also spent a lot of time on one for a customer that came out brilliantly.. modified suspension, DCOEs, great exhaust note, and so much more.. The guy knew exactly what he wanted his build to be, and it was awesome when it was finished, you could stare at it for an hour, and keep finding really subtle and tasteful modifications. That particular car got me into Alfas.. I'd also dig a 60's Guilia sedan, or a GTV6, that Busso motor is incredible once it stops munching timing belt tensioners.. I have little to no love for the spiders after the Duetto.. They're just meh for me.

As for the 914, I'm 6'6" and I can cram myself in one... Mostly.

 

[69.5CUDA]

"mostly"..lol yeah 6'4 here

see thats what gets me..the gtv....under the skin is just a spider..like seriously ALL of the parts...dont get me wrong..the quad headlight gtv is pretty but the coin they demand is NEVER worth it...and a fetta/gtv6 will run circles around it all day long and the fettas are the same engine that has that great 4cyl exhaust note ..ive got a fetta with a pair of dellorotos header 11:1 comp all the race goodies in the suspension..lets just say..YOU will chicken out long before you ever find that cars limits...my gtv6 is just as much of a handfull and the full song of that hemi v6 is just perfection..you dont want or need a radio

the spiders..yeah..they get boring in a hurry and theres WAY to many of them running the streets..however if you go looking for "demon" spider you come across something ive had alot of hours in....or go looking up g-sprint youll find my hand work of swapping suspension..then..theres my lloyd..thats a book in itself

i got suckered into finishing a "wont run" engine swap on a gtv6 and fell in love on the first drive.....a few months later it was "left behind" as a gift

id toss ya a few shots of the gtv on the lift in my lil shop but i cant find any handy

 

[TheIronSausage]

Yup, quad headlight, lowered, bumpers shaved, real pretty Maroon color, yellow hi beam/fog light, whatever.. That's the one.. I know their underpinnings are spider, I don't care. Nothing about liking any Alfa makes sense. That one popped my Alfa cherry, couldn't be helped. Everything I worked on before that one was a spider, not even a dual gauge pod.. Really crappy ones from the eighties like the quadrifugly. GTVs are stupid expensive, you're right.. Mostly because of all the cheap Russian steel used to make them.. There's hardly any left in streetable condition, and those are fetching 911 money. I really do like the Alfetta/gtv6/Milano. The handling is superb, that 6 is absolutely awesome and I love all the quirks.. But the wet spot in my pants still goes to the sheet metal on the second gen GTVs. For those of you who don't know what we're talking about, this is a GTV



This is an Alfetta



This is a GTV6



This is a Milano.. It's hard to find a decent picture of one.



The last three were all based on the same platform with a DeDion tube transaxle at the back, (I'm pretty sure, I've never been under an Alfetta) which made for excellent weight distribution, and handling characteristics. It also threw gasoline on to the fire that is shifting an Alfa. All of Alfa's synchros were made of tinfoil, so if you can find any Alfa that doesn't chunk into second gear, that gearbox has been rebuilt in the last twenty thousand miles. Or its owner double clutches.. At any rate, add six feet of linkage an shifting takes time, like an old Beetle.


Sorry for the thread jacking to those of you who think this should be a Mopar site. Clearly, we've lost our way.

Friends?

P.S.

All
Loosely
Fitted
Accessories

Remain
On
Motorway
Enraging
Others

 

[69.5CUDA]

BZZZZZT wrong....
the fetta came in 2 flavors..much like early 64-66 you had your valiant and your barracuda...a sedan AND a fastback coupe..and later with the gtv6/milano it was like gen2 cuda vs valiant cause in europe you could get a wagon version too

heres whatcha do with spiders

as for the highjacking we ALL do it here..its pretty normal

as for the shifting..thats only about half true...the real problem stems from AMREICAN hamfisted FORCING it into 2nd gear..a well taken care of trans doesnt crunch..and ones you learn to "feel" the shifts you can even shift a crunchy one with zero crunch....its not the scyncros its the drivers...the white alfa above..you cant force it to crunch..the red one on the other paw crunches if you dont know what your doing....but doesnt require a double clutch i CAN speed shift it...my gtv6 on the otherpaw has much much much less crunch but is happiest being shifted into 2nd bouncing off the rev limiter

true 50/50 weight balance, clutch in the rear, inboard discs in the back..basicly a brand new corvete underneight and the dedion tube suspension back there is a work of art..while the front with its wishbones and torsion bars just flat works ..nothing is under build on them

alfa..always looking for another

 

[TheIronSausage]

Ha! Thanks for schooling me.. Like I said, I've never seen a 'fetta in the wild. I always assumed the coupes were all GTVs, and I've only seen sedans labelled as Alfettas.. You've probably got a lot of them still running around, but we've got none left because the crap they put on the roads on this coast is just effin' brutal. My truck's already rusting, and I had the bodywork done recently.. Also, turns out one of us is a doppelgänger..

 

[TheIronSausage]

So, back on track..

 

[TheIronSausage]

 

[TheIronSausage]

So, the worst of the rust is in the driver's A pillar, lower left fender, below the back window, and the right quarter.. All floors and trunk are solid. There's a mouse or two, but they haven't gotten inside the car from what we see. They're mostly in the bodywork. It's a 440, thermoquad, 727, and 8 3/4 rear with unknown gears.. Just around eighty thousand miles on everything.. Considering this has been sitting in the same spot with the rear driver's window smashed out of it for years, it's in great shape. Radiator full of green coolant, clean oil, bright red trans fluid.. Demo derby guys have been slithering around it for a while, but the owner keeps telling them they want $3000 for it to make them go away