Good day from southern Alberta!

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Doba76

New member
Long story short, just over 3 years ago a customer of mine gave me a 76 Cordoba for the princely sum of diddly squat, and after a couple of months of wrenching on it at his place we were ready to bring it home. Before we could we went on vacation for a week and when we came home, the old girl had been stolen. Unfortunately we located it about a month later after it had been destroyed in a derby.
Move to a couple of months ago and a friend phones me up to say that he's found another 76 destined for the crusher at his local wreckers. I tell him to see how much the owner of the yard wants for it, and two weeks later my second free Cordoba was home lol. The first one was in great shape needing only a REALLY good interior cleaning, had a great running 360 and was straight as an arrow. The new one isn't quite so pristine, but has the big block so I'm good with the shape of the body, it's nothing that can't be fixed. Anyway, glad to be here and I look forward to posting progress pics of the Cordoba!

Here's my first one, this is one of very few pictures I got of the old girl.

Cordoba1.jpg


And here's the "new" one wearing the rear rims and tires that had been destined for my Mustang. They look way better on this lol. Notice that it looks like it's sitting a bit high in the front, the previous owner had the torsion bar bolts damn near bottomed out. I think I turned them damn near 15- 20 times each to bring it down to a respectable height.

5532.jpg
 
Glad to have you here! I've had a couple of those old Cordobas, as well as a '79 300 with T-tops (board member Stretch later owned it, after buying it from the friend to whom I sold it). I even took a '77 400HP (VIN N) car on my honeymoon back in '94... of course, that car and the wife are both long gone now, but sadly only one is no longer with us. :D

It looks like you've got your work cut out for you, but they built about 10 zillion of these cars so finding parts shouldn't be too horrifying. The only problem you'll really have is with parts that directly interchange with the '79 300. Those can be a bit spendy. Mechanically, the car is very similar (identical, really) to the '73-'74 Chargers so any cool chassis stuff you find for those is a bolt-up, including HD torsion bars (not the same as the '72-down ones, sadly), swaybars, 8.75" or 9.25" rear axles, etc. Body-wise, if memory serves the fenders, doors, and quarters did not change between '75 and '79.

Tachs were readily available for these cars if you don't have one already, but the cluster for the tach is specific to it. Another neat addition is the 140MPH certified police speedometer. It was never used in Cordobas but any 4-door B-body cop car from '75-'78 such as a (non-Gran) Fury, (non-Royal) Monaco, Coronet, Satellite, etc. will have one, even the occasional 318 version. Those cars are also mechanically identical and great donors for Sure Grip 9.25" axles, HD brakes--which you may already have up front; most '77-'79s I've seen have the 11.75" front discs--and cooling options like factory auxiliary trans, oil, and even power-steering coolers. Measure your rotors; if you've got the 11.75" brakes up front, make sure your spare is on a 15" wheel. There's no such thing as a 14" wheel that will clear the brake calipers... ask me how I know. :doh:

Also, since the transmission tunnel and other relevant bits never changed, if you don't already have a floor shifter you can use the console/shifter arrangement from any '71-'79 B-body as well as the '70-'74 E-body. The console used through '74 looks a little out of place in that interior but it's not horrible-looking, either. If you do have a factory console shifter already, you can upgrade it with the factory "Slap-Stik" ratcheting mechanism used from '70-'74. The '70 E-body one (which for some reason reappeared in some '74 E-bodies) can even be made to use your OE "chrome Easter egg" shift handle pretty easily in place of its usual plastic-walnut knob, but if you use the '71-'74 version you'll upgrade to the T-handle version. The guy that bought my 300 did exactly that.
 
Welcome to here!
From Taber... my brother-in-law lives a little north of you in Airdrie. I love it out there.
 
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