1979 c900 5-door

[RadioFlyer]

More pics! These are from the '79 c900 5-door I found this weekend at the PickNpull. Sucks that it ended up there, but when I found out they would only sell it illegally and grind the VINS and would still charge me a ton of money, I figured it was worth picking.

The '79 and '80 had all these sweet little different things that later c900s didn't get. I love the dash details! The different headlight switch and the little streaks of blue in the vent control knob. Then the unicorn... the 130mph speedo!!! I knew it existed. Apparently the rear corners have different sized housings than the '80+ ones, so I had to grab the hole housing and lenses together - the lenses have a chrome strip on top that matches the chrome strip across the taillight-less hatch (also grabbed). The front corners have the white stripe that turned black in '81. The rear vents have the silver stripe that also disappeared in '81. And of course, the double vented hood without a scratch on it.

But the coolest find of the day was all of the original paperwork and owners manual were still there in a waterproof case stashed under the seat. The original bill of sale was there - cost for the car was $7670 in 1979 along with a $1300 trade in on their 1972 Ford!

[Jordan]

Still makes me sad.

[SwedeSport]

you should have gotten the whole car, and found a rusty car on CL with a clean title.

I really don't think anyone would know that you swapped vins.

[DrewP]

Damn that dash fascia insert with the blue in the arrows is cool. My green car had a later one swapped in at some point and the early headlamp switch that's cocked 45* degrees doesn't fit.

Good haul, lots of rare stuff there.

[RadioFlyer]

No kidding. If I had enough money, I would have considered buying the whole thing, but they seemed pretty intent on charging a lot for it because it was "their reputation on the line" kind of thing. Plus, there was some damage to it - big scratch down the entire pass side, big dent in the rear driver side door and frame, and the way they fork-lift the cars there, it would not surprise me if there was frame damage underneath. Plus the salvage title if they titled it. If I were going to buy one from them, I would want to grab it before it got that far.

You're right though, it sucks to find one like this. I found a nearly perfect 1994 Commemorative Edition at the Saab&Volvo dismantlers in Rancho Cordova, CA a couple of years back. No damage at all. I offered them a few thousand for it, but they wouldn't bite. In the end, I did the same thing - bought all the rare stuff I could afford and made the best of it. "YA CAN'T SAVE EM ALL!" the guy said at the desk. I wanted to kick him in the balls.

There is another 5-door in Salt Lake, pretty close by this one in a storage yard. I tracked down the owner of the yard about a year ago and he was getting ready to evict the guy's 5-door. I was thinking about going back there and trying to find that car as a frame to swap everything over to. We'll see what I can find out.

[SwedeSport]

If the fender lip trim is in good shape, you should grab that too. 87+ cars used a shorter piece of trim. The early flat nose cars are getting scarce.

[tweek's Turbos]

Wow, that car was in primo shape. Better condition than my old one. Too bad it went to the yard.

[gmreider]

In the photo of the rear lid and hood in your garage / basement, What is the red colored car partially shown at the right?

[SwedeSport]

Looks like an old 60's Chrysler product. 63-64 Dart or Polara maybe??

[RadioFlyer]

That's a Plymouth Valiant. It's for sale if anyone is interested.

[Shan]

The '79 and '80 had all these sweet little different things that later c900s didn't get. I love the dash details! The different headlight switch and the little streaks of blue in the vent control knob. Then the unicorn... the 130mph speedo!!! I knew it existed. Apparently the rear corners have different sized housings than the '80+ ones, so I had to grab the hole housing and lenses together - the lenses have a chrome strip on top that matches the chrome strip across the taillight-less hatch (also grabbed). The front corners have the white stripe that turned black in '81. The rear vents have the silver stripe that also disappeared in '81. And of course, the double vented hood without a scratch on it.

I've noticed that the rpm gauge goes up to 8k rpms too. Later ones were only up to 7k rpms.