Hello guys, this is a small story about my 1971 Plymouth Satellite custom. It was imported in 1996 here in The Netherlands and I bought it in 2006 when I was fed up with my Dodge W200 - but still wanted enough space to take stuff with me. Because I love Mopars and - back then especially - the fuselage years I really wanted this car. It has since then caused me a lot of headaches because it wasn't as good as it looked. So here an introduction: This is how I bought it - full of dents and scratches but relatively solid and relatively rust free. This car has 2 fender tags because of all the options it had. After a short drive I had smoke coming from the dashboard. This is what some ***** did to the wiring harness: So I cut it all out and put in a '73 station wiring harness (which has better gauge wiring as well): It also had an engine swap (and an airco delete with it): From this to this Unfortunately although it has more power now I am not really able to use it because of an unwilling holley which keeps on backfiring etc. Some other nasty things happened. This neighbourhood hates old cars: They scratched and dented the side of the car... and they broke the antenna. But.... Nice things happened too! Some of the new things in the car: - completely new brake system - dash cap - steering wheel - VDO gauges - steelies w/ dog dish (gotta love that Mopar look!) - redone wiring routing (lights work with a relay etc.) - New exhaust system - lots of small technical improvements Last thing I tried is was how it would look without the roof rack. I like it but because the car already owes me too much I don't think I will be taking in it off permanently because of the painting and bodywork costs... I'm not a millionaire and will never be. Anyway, this is how it looks (and with GOOD tyres this time): As we speak my car is in storage because of gasoline in the oil... That Holley has to go. C Ya! Wilf
I can't get youtube movies to work but here are some vids of the car: - this year, after winter - movie was made this year after new tyres, the pictures are older (still with bad white letter tyres).
Lights under the car?!?! That's a latin tradition! Northern Mexico and Southern California! Papacito! Forgive me for chuckling, I'm French Canadian, married to a Mexican gal. We lived in Guadalajara, Mexico for 5 years, in Central Mexico. Occasionally, some Northern Mexicans would come into the city, and get laughed at, because they still had those big hydraulic rams under their cars and trucks and the 'sex-lights' and window fringe balls. Like from the 1960's and 1970's. The local guys, just put the biggest, hottest engines in and fabulous paintjobs. Funny about people vandalizing someone else's vehicle. Really petty and stupid. I have a hood-ornament on mine. Here the big thing was who could break them off. 12 years later, I still wait for a replacement. Seems that it was the big thing to do back in the 1980's. Dumb begets dumb. I really love what you've done to that fine wagon. Hopefully, you'll solve the Holley mystery.
Wilf...Welcome aboard. Recognize your name from the Monkey board (I'm Hairy Clamshell over there). I do remember your W200 (overheating) from a Tunnel cruise a few years ago. I saw your wagon last year at a meet in Den Bosch.
@ Norman: those lights were from the garage (in Dutch it was "on the bridge" of the garage) so no worries Hey Clamshell, yeah I visited that meeting, last meeting for me was this years first King Cruise. C U.
Nice wagon, Wilf! Welcome to the forum. Got a question for you... We have quite a few members her from The Netherlands, so obviously older American cars are a big hobby there. What do you guys do for parts? I mean the regular maintanence parts like brakes, filters, alternators and such. Are there enough of you that there is a retail distributor where you an get pretty much anything locally, or do you have to mail-order everything?
A combination of both... There are a lot of parts that one has to get from the USA, especially parts that do not go on the popular cars (Mustangs, Challengers, Chevy Caprices etc.) but brakes and other replacement parts are usually easy to buy, though everything is much more expensive here. The US car hobby is not really big in The Netherlands, I think the Dutch people here are here because they know one of the others (as I do) The US car hobby is biggest in Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Germany. Especially the first two countries. Sweden even resembles the US; the heartland with hills and big red farmsteads etc.
Thats what these wagons are called huh, Longtops .... Wow I just learned something. I always called them Tuna Boats. Looks weird without the roofrack. I paid a company to detail my Dodge and they removed my roofrack to wax the roof and it worried me that there were seals under the rack to prevent water from going into the roof. Not the case strangely, but I made certain the put it back on right. I didnt like the look without the rack
Couldn't agree more. I love the dog dish-look, especially these Mopar police dishes. Now only if there were aluminum wheels with the look of steelies... That's the only thing I miss about the original wheels (the ones on the car when I bought it); the lack of own weight of the wheels. It truly is a big difference.
If you look up the online vehicle details you will find a date of first registration in the Netherlands for 1998. I found an old advertisement for this very car in an old Dutch magazine (1999) by this shabby used car dealer (you know who he is) Pricing still in good old Dutch guilders: I don't agree on that: There is a very healthy American car scene going on in the Netherlands. Compare the Dutch meetings & shows agenda to foreign agendas, you will find out that there's really not a lot to do in countries like Switzerland or Germany on a regular base. In the Netherlands you can visit meetings and car shows every weekend from March to November, and very often there are several events organised on the same day. Not bad for a country only as small as 13,084 square miles, that's about the size of Maryland, USA.
Wilf as for that Holley....sounds like the power valve has gone away!..cheap fix but id say throw the Holley away and get a Edelbrock...easier to tune... more street friendly nice wagon!
You're right, I mixed the year up, sorry The advertising is very funny, it says "very much has been replaced"... Well, if replaced means replacing original wiring for speaker cable they were right indeed Okay, maybe our scene is bigger than Switserland and Germany but Scandinavia is really unbeatable. When spring comes almost half of every car on the road there is an American classics and every weekend there are several meetings But yeah you're right we don't need to complain when it comes to meetings. One of the coolest Dutch meetings is King Cruise IMHO. Erik, you know what I really miss and think about once in a while? The tour around the IJsselmeer. That was really cool! Well, the Holley has been refurbished three times (including the power valve) and tuned four times by four different people; a drag racer, a hot rodder, a car builder and an engine mechanic but no-one could get it right so an Edelbrock seems like the better solution.
