Daisy Dukes Plymouth

this is my latest project, a 71 Plymouth GTX wich i hope to convert into Daisy Dukes Plymouth, not sure what hers was as it has been debadged ( along with most other vehicles in the series) so far i have debadged it and modified the bonnet, have started on the engine wich will have some small changes, the six pack is going to be replaced by a single carb ( not sure the six pack would fit under the modified bonnet !)

Hey there DV8. From what I can find, it was a 1974 Plymouth Roadrunner. But hey a Mopar is a Mopar.

And dad says "I never noticed the car, Just Daisy"

the 74 model was used in the first episode (not sure if it was in any after that) but this is the one she used most untill it was destroyed and replaced by the jeep ( it even made a few appearances after it was destroyed ! )

Adam Clark wrote:Hey there DV8. From what I can find, it was a 1974 Plymouth Roadrunner. But hey a Mopar is a Mopar.

And dad says "I never noticed the car, Just Daisy"

Dont worry Adam ...you were not the only one

will be watching,did they put out a kit of her car ?

AMT have a kit of the 74 Plymouth

or try here for the actual Daisy Duke car kit ..

http://www.modelexpress.net/cgi-bin/modelexpress/shop/MPC_708.html

I believe the 71 RR was used in the first couple of seasons then replaced with the 74 which in turn was replaced by Dixie, the Jeep, after the boys drove the 74 off a cliff & jumped out. They bought her the jeep as a replacement Keith Marks Decals sell's both decal sheets for the 71 & 74 RRs... If you need any other info, regarding Daisy's 71 or 74, I have all 7 seasons on DVD.
Cheers Cliffo

engines done

very cool engine

interior is finished and got some color on the body

Cliffo wrote:I believe the 71 RR was used in the first couple of seasons then replaced with the 74 which in turn was replaced by Dixie, the Jeep, after the boys drove the 74 off a cliff & jumped out. They bought her the jeep as a replacement Keith Marks Decals sell's both decal sheets for the 71 & 74 RRs... If you need any other info, regarding Daisy's 71 or 74, I have all 7 seasons on DVD.
Cheers Cliffo

i believe the 71s were getting to hard to find.
nice build so far. seems 71 GTXs are popular this month.

[/quote]
i believe the 71s were getting to hard to find.
nice build so far. seems 71 GTXs are popular this month.[/quote]

Yeah Yellow ones
Looks good so far

stripes are done, not real happy with how its turned out but gunna leave it as it is

Comeing along nicely 8, likeing it mate.

I havent been a fan of this body shape, but it looks awesome in yellow, I think you may have converted my opinion.

AJ

Lookin good John. I will try and get them wheels to ya thursday night!

Shoey wrote:Lookin good John. I will try and get them wheels to ya thursday night!

very cool john well done so far and as for shoebox dont hold ya breath for those wheels this thurs , he'll probly be getting a perm or somthing!

almost finished

Hahaha looks funny without wheels. whoops thats my fault!

By '71 the end of the Muscle car era was nigh, so those cars were not just hard to find but were already very valuable and had become even moreso by the time the Duke boys arrived on the scene.

To put things into perspective let's look at some numbers:

In 1966 Plymouth offered the new mid sized Satellite with a Street Hemi drivetrain and delivered 817 coupes and 27 convertibles.

For the '67 model year the Satellite was again offered with the 426 Hemi with 7 coupes and 1 convertible sold. In addition, there was a new upmarket Satellite option, the GTX which was offered with the big 440 Wedge or 426 Hemi engines and there were 11,429 coupes and 680 convertibles sold. Of these, 720 units were Hemi powered and of those, 312 had manual transmissions.

1968 saw the introduction of Roadrunner as the basic performance version of the Plymouth Satellite range and it featured a 383 engine as standard. However, this engine was more powerful than the 383 of lesser models, since it used the Wedge Cylinder heads from the big 440 performance engine. Of course the Roadrunner line-up also included a whole bunch of other performance goodies. Not the least being the option of a 426 hemi engine. A total of 46,054 Roadrunners were built in this first year, including 1,019 Hemi powered cars.

GTX was basically an upmarket Roadrunner and featured the 440 and Hemi engines only. Total GTX production for '68 was 18,941 units including 450 powered by the 426 Hemi.

For model year 1969, Plymouth built 17,017 440 GTX coupes and 1,010 convertibles. Hemi GTX numbers were 207 coupes and 16 convertibles of those, 98 hardtops had manual trans and only 5 of the convertibles.

Total Roadrunner volume (not including GTX) for '69 was 84,420 units, which includes 1,432 440 powered cars and 826 Hemis.

GTX continued as the upmarket Roadrunner and there were 7,148 of those. GTX offered only the 440 Magnum, 440+6 or Hemi. The 440 + 6 option arrived around the middle of the '69 model year and these are among the rarest of all '69 Roadrunner and GTX models as there were less 6 pack engined cars built than Hemis. In fact if someone offers you a six pack '69 GTX convertible as genuine, they are full of bull because no such car was ever built.

In 1970 the writing was on the wall for muscle cars. Plymouth Roadrunner volume was down to a total of 36,327 units across three body styles, coupe, hardtop and convertible. Road Runner continued to offer a wide range of engine options starting with the small block 383 V8.

In '70 the engine to model mix was, 3 Hemi Convertibles (which explains why they are now worth more than a million bux), 75 Hardtops and 74 coupes. There were 34 convertibles with 440+6 engines, 1,130 hardtops plus 651 coupes. The remaining cars had either the standard 440 Magnum engine or the 383 which made up the majority.

In addition for model year 1970 Plymouth built 1,935 Superbirds, 135 with Hemis, 716 with the 440+6 and 1084 with the 4bbl Magnum 440.

For model year 1971 there were only 8,275 Roadrunners and 2,703 GTXs built. The only body style available was a 2 door hardtop. However at least the engine line-up remained as for 1971.

For model year 1972, the GTX was deleted from the Plymouth line-up and only the Roadrunner was offered as a performance model off the satellite platform. The standard engine was a 400 cubic inch Magnum V8 and strangely a 340 small block was available as an option, as too was a 400 but only with a 4bbl carb, the six pack was gone as too was the Hemi. The total Roadrunner build for '72 was a paltry 7,628 units

For 1973, the standard Roadrunner power plant was now the regular 383 V8 as used across the MOPAR range and production actually increased to 19,056 units. However, based on the Satellite as it had always been, the car now looked somewhat similar to the Aussie CH Valiant Hardtop Coupe and any image or connotation of additional performance was completely non existent.

By 1974 The Roadrunner was little more than a heavy duty suspension option on the standard Satellite, it no longer offered any additional engine spec, appearance (other than a stripe package) or performance and volume was down to 11,555 units.

Roadrunner continued by name only, as an option within the Satellite range for 1975 with even lower volume of only 7,183 units before quietly slipping into oblivion.

The '70 models remain, in my ever so humble opinion, the pinnacle of all muscle cars, until you've driven a factory 426 or 440+6 four speed '70 Roadrunner you have not lived!

It's hard to look at any yank car as rare when you look at their build numbers, rare by their standards maybe but common as by Australian standards.
That comes back to population obviously but I've always laughed when reading how "rare" an American car is, "it's one of only 670 Mustangs that were made in that colour combo that year".
They didnt even make 670 A9X Toranas, or Ford Cobras, they made less than 100 HQ Sandmans and when you start talking early locally produced Chevs etc than some of them didnt even hit double figures.
So when I read production was down to 11,555 units I think it's pretty common.

Everything is relative, the Yanks generally don't look at many '60s and '70s era cars as rare either, but if you have one of the Hemi cars then you indeed have a rare and valuable machine, especially if it's a convertible or has a manual transmission. The post '72 Roadrunner is not even considered rare or of any value at all, it's just another Satellite which was kinda like the Commodore of MOPARS during that period.

However, just as build volumes in the US were high, so too was the attrition rate, so compared to Australia, everything is pretty much relative and the genuine muscle cars are indeed rare.

I used to own the only 1965 Pontiac Bonneville Sports coupe we knew to exist in Australia. But I never considered it a rare car, it was my wife's daily driver. However if you try and buy one in the US today it's almost impossible and finding one with a tri-power 421 HO engine and eight lug wheels is even harder, yet back in '65 Pontiac built 44,030 Bonneville Sports Coupes. Similarly they built 21,050 Bonneville convertibles that year and today they are more common than the sports coupes, but still very rarely do they appear for sale.

Mustangs were built in huge numbers, but few had V8s as most carried the same running gear as Falcon. Try and find one of those six cylinder cars today.

Yup A9X Toranas, Falcon GT HO's, Cobras and even genuine Holden Sandman vans are rare beats indeed, which is why they bring good money when a decent one appears on the market. However value or price, regardless of rarity is moreso driven by popularity of the model. More people want a GTHO than there are cars available so they are valuable and highly priced. On the other hand, there's probably fewer XR GTs still around but since they are not in demand they are comparatively cheap to buy. Mustangs are common as dirt, but they are also valuable because they are popular, their value is driven by demand. Same applies to EH Holdens, they were built in bigger numbers than most Holdens before or since (Commodore excepted) yet they are one of the most prized and expensive to buy, simply because of their popularity.

Among US Muscle cars, the MOPARS are more valuable than GM or Ford products of the same era, because there were fewer of them in the first place. And the ones that carry the highest value are like the A9X, limited volume models with special or unique drivetrains and equipment.

The Duke boys did their share in helping increase the value of Dodge Chargers, because they destroyed so many of them.

Lucky for me I'd still rather a 4 speed + Hemi '70 Plymouth Roadrunner than a Charger or A9X, Falcon GT HO or any Monaro.

But then I'd much prefacer a car made of wood, which I'm told makes me pretty rare too.

that's turn out great.

By '71 the end of the Muscle car era was nigh

and finished after 1974, mostly due to new anti pollution regulations that really restricted big v8's.

This is a sales graph of the dodge charger from 66-87
see how much it bombed in 74
when the charger changed from a sleek muscle car to a fat 'luxury' yacht.