As a Chrysler enthusiast and foreigner to this board, let me say I love all 1980s economy cars. It took a lot of hard work, but the Chrysler K Car Club is finally taking off. We are up to 160 members and we are now having car shows. We have 16 members in Los Angeles alone. There is hope that the K car can be preserved for future generations. The K car convertible is the biggest seller. You can check out my website at www,chryslerkcar.com. You guys are welcome to borrow any ideas from my club website to further expand your club.
I really wish there were car shows for J bodies from the 1980s. I almost never see J bodies from the 80s anymore. Also, no pun intended, but they seem to garner very little respect. The K car does not get much respect either. I am not saying this to start a flame war ( and I hope I am not), but I am really a fanatic about all cars. Maybe it will just take time, maybe you guys don't have enough members yet, but I wish to see a HUGE 80s J body organization with car shows and part resources and more. Yeah,it is just a car, but it is up to us to keep the economy car of the 80s alive. I don't care what people say, if I did not have a fascination with J bodies, I would not be on this site. By the way, I think this is a great site and good luck with it.
Sincerely,
Guy V.Coulombe
Chrysler K Car Club
aries89@chryslerkcar.com
Guy- That's exactly what I hoped for when I signed up here in 2001. Heck my wife & I went to a few of the early J-body bashes and got to meet a few folks from across the US who shared a love for these little cars. We seem to have had a larger number of active First gen members back then, and as life goes on it seems that things change. People sell their cars, find new ones, get different jobs and gave kids...that's life.
Having said that I think we still have an active group of members here and we're pretty active for the small group we are. We help one another out when we can and hopefully we all teach & learn from our projects. I wouldn't change that for the world.
I would like to see more activity here though, and perhaps more of a restoration parts source. But that only happens when there's enough demand (and cash) to make that happen. Maybe we'll get there, maybe not. In the last few months we've seen people buying older economy cars like J-bodies and K-cars because they get great mileage. Who knows, we may have more of an interest in these old things yet!
Daryl-
Good points. I would love to get to a j-body bash soon. I have 4 kids under 8 right now and that in itself is a logistical nightmare...
I had my 84 in the GM Tech Center Employee car show two weeks ago. I was one of two J-Cars in a field of 1100. I had had some good comments from passers by on my restoration. A few kids checked it out but lost interest when they saw it was "just" a 1.8 Turbo. I guess the word is out that the 2.0 Turbo cars can be modified.
Most people that comment are mid-30s (my age) and love to talk about the Sunbird they had and sold or crashed or whatever.
Over the past 5 years, I have driven in to many car shows and my car gets ZERO respect as most are just not interested in 80's GM if it is not an F-Body, Corvette, Regal Grand National, or Monte Carlo SS. Although, I would like to see any one of those cars get fuel economy like ours do, especially you Daryl, you have to be laughing at the pump when you pull up in the Blue J.
Once slow and I get the engine tuned to where I can use all my boost, I am going to take it to Milan and run it. I have a Dodge Spirit R/T that I want to run against. I just want to see how fast it is compared to my other cars (I take them all there
)
I don't know if these cars will ever get respect or street cred. Who cares? I like the way it looks and God knows it is easy to find in a parking lot. I get in mine, put the top down and go, and the stress goes away. I can't put a price on that right now. I have never had a car that makes me feel this good when I drive it, so it stays with me.
I like the size of our little community here. I have been in web-based clubs that grew too fast and almost self-destructed. I feel we have a good group of people here who care about these cars and each other. I feel we all help each other out as best as we can.
Go J-Body.org!
I ditto the sentiment. I have a ’06 Magnum RT and granted it is fun to stretch my right foot now and then but my first love is my Sunbird GT that I have owned since ~1990). This little car gets around 31MPG (with the turbo), looks good (especially the ‘trick’ headlights as my nephew points out), handles good, for the most part is easy to fix and is reliable (and I have 265K on it). I too have people who come up and trade stories of their Sunbird which end up with ‘blown turbo’ or ‘totaled the car’. I also travel quite a bit, and I am underwhelmed with some of the new cars at the rental. I would love to see this car come back with some simple changes to the body lines, but I digress. I have to give a big thanks to the people who started and contribute to this board.
Well all the above says most of what I think too.Right now my car is half way on my work with the intake engine paint restoration.It's all painted and doing some extra things with the starter wiring like new loom and rerouting and etc.I post alot on my projects here and find things to share.Most people who see my car find it pretty cool being a 85 and my interest in redoing it with 100% dedication to making it as good as I can make it.There clearly is not a following with our js in large crowds but,they turn heads if there in good shape and def not many on the road it brings the memories back for sure.My two cents.
