Car-wise, what did you hate about the 70's?

This whole post, and nobody mentioned 70's rods;
Murals,
"ribbon" painting (sorry DeSoto),
unbelievable rakes,
unsafe-as-hell modifications,
tires almost outside the fenders,

Resto-Rods.....UGH

Stock 60's dashboards in thirties cars
White letter tires,
Peeling Cragar mags,
Any more and I'll have to get out a photo album...the above has been seared into my brain, irrevocably.
Cosmo

 

Look around. "THIS" still is going on

 

I graduated from high school in 77. Reading through this thread just makes me smile with all the memories. I didnt care for any rides after 72, but look at all the cool rides pre 72 we picked up on the cheap. To bad we didnt have the forsight to hang on to some of em. Gonna be 47 next week and if i could go back and do it all again starting in the 70's I would.

 

Camaros...

 

Remember..."Lace Painting"?...never understood that one.

Unsafe mods?....Safer than the 24" Wheel crap they do today.........Safer than "Rat Rods"

Cragers?...........They wouldn't last a year without peeling. Never liked them anyways. Liked Americans, still run a set I bought in 68

 

what i hated about the 70s was all the 50s era cars that got crushed.there was still allot of them in the salvage yards and they where taking up space so they got crushed....

 

Kinda hard to drive to England or Hawaii. The biggest wireless hazard in a car now is probably a cell phone plastered to the ear of an inattentive driver.

 

How about all the dickweeds that installed those atrociously silly bolt-on headrests on everything? The other thing (at least it was ubiquitous in Seattle) is STP stickers....everyfreakinwhere - kids school books, windows of cars, toolboxes (one sticker per brand name is the official limit for toolboxes), jackets, you name it...some TIThead stuck an STP sticker on it.

"....sit down and finish your cotton candy, LunchPail BOY...and leave the BIG people alone..."

dj

 

I hated everything about the 70's cars trucks vans whatever.At least after 72 everything went straight down the shitter

 

Those stupid verticle steering columns on Fad Ts

 

I wasn't old enough to drive. Dad always at least one early 60 something Ford as a daily so I didn't car what else was on the road.

 

Those headrests were in the 60's weren't they?
Anyway, they were silly because they weren't strong enough and rarely mounted well enough to actually use as a head rest.

I think the popularity of the STP stickers was drug related.
Around '68, there was a Psychodellic on the street that was like a three day LSD high that people nicknamed STP.
Rumor was that it was made by or for the military to be a truth serum but it backfired.
Really hard to sleep or work on the stuff....

 

You're not alone in that. I liked 'em a lot, too.

 

Does this mean my car is ugly?
I just got it lowered, I was so excited.

I inherited it from my late Great Uncle , I probably would never purchase a car like this but I have come to appreciate it.

1977 Ford Thunderbird Towne-Landau

 

Yup, those big-ass chrome I-beams were resopnsible for much of the crappy 70's early 80's styling, I think.

 

No man but it's the big bumpers, the powerless motors that they turned them in to and started adding alot more plastic and just generally made them kinda cheesy.I'm not saying they weren't a decent ride and I've almost always liked the T-Bird but they just really went down hill in quality from what they had been.

 

That year and the '78, with those extra 1/4 windows is just bizarre enough to be COOL!
One of the better designs to come out of the 70's
As said, the Cow catcher bumpers are overpowering the styling of the car, reference the '61-'66 birds for what a "lighter" bumper looks like on them and how they let the grill and rest of the styling intigrate.
Don't missunderstand. I'm not suggesting swapping those parts on to yours. They wont fit.
But if you wanted to get radical, you could roll the pans and put a lighter fabricated bumper on it that worked with the front and rear ends better.
Something smaller like just the top 3" bar of that bumper set back where it "fits".
With a few changes you could do a "77 Tbird" version of something like this Dual Ghia Dodge Firearrow:



Or just enjoy it the way it is!
I had a '74 Vega and a '75 Camaro LT in the 70's and they had ugly bumpers on them. I knew they were ugly, but I couldn't see them from the drivers seat!
Look at 70's Porsches or current cars for ideas on how ALL the companies should have resolved the bumper issues in the 70's.
But remember, the urethanes were just being developed then that current bumpers are made of and the past 10 years plastics chemistry has grown immensly.

 

In a word: PLASTIC!
It started appearing everywhere, bumpers, dashes, trim, etc. It was everywhere. And still is. I've always loved cars with steel dash boards. That stopped in the 60s'.

 

I got my license in Oct. 1973 just in time for the first gas crunch.

The thing I miss most is the nice light gray tone of the inside a exhaust pipe of a well tuned lead gas burning car...

I too have had many AMC's, lots of cheap shit fell off my beaters but NOBODY was faster than my 1969 AMX with 1970 390, ported dogleg heads, T-10 4 speed, ect. Gremlin X came with a V8, who else built a V8 econo-box from the factory?

Did anybody mention the "double nickel" speed limit? What a joke!

 

I hear ya. I guess I never put that much thought into a 70's car. You've opened my eyes to a new decade of automotive design. I prefer earlier models of car anyway. My gears will be turning. Thanks.
Mike

 

That thing is bad ass! With some reverse offset Cragars, it would be right.

I once had a triple black 77 Lincoln Continental with the side trim shaved and a lowering job. That was the most comfortable car I've ever owned. I'd collect gas money and load it up with friends and drive down to Atlanta at 85-90 mph, cruise control, one finger steering, to hit the clubs and it was a rolling lounge. We pulled up like rock stars.
I put six wheels and tires in the trunk and closed the lid, and the 460 would spin the wheels. Hot rod? no, Cool, DUI-easy to drive, and fun as hell? Hell yeah! It's a whole 'nother way of looking at the world.

 

EGR valves
Any Landau topped anything
Unleadedfuel necks that were too small to fit a regular fuel nozzle in
The space saver spare tire
Rich corenthian leather
The dude from Paradise Island who uttered the words "rich corenthian leather"
Exhaust manifold with AIR tubes
AIR pumps
Anything bolted to the front of a motor that wasnt a water, fuel, or powersteering pump
195 Tstats for "emission purposes"
Vapor lock
Air cleaner lids that were huge, heavy, vac line riddled and would flow less air that a fart after pizza
US car makers designing cars by survey instead of real car guys
Performance became a dirty word
The demise of chrome bumpers
The demise of factory hood scoops that actually did something like draw cold air from the out side.
Orange peel
Stickercharging cars with decals to try and make people forget that the new cars were slow, heavy, boring, and crap.
A corvette that you couldnt order with a stick
Hell, any car that you couldnt order with a stick because if it had over 200 HP because the factory trans "couldnt take the power".

 

HAIRY PORN BUSH!!!!
bonka bonka boowoo[feel the bass]

 

interesting side note: theres a porn where a girl is lookin for another girl with a butterfly tattoo....in one action scene they play the theme song to JUDGE WHOPNERS court show...note for note....that porn was from the early to mid 70's!!! whopner must like the porn......


ive been married too long

 

1970-1979. How 'bout the 80's? From 1980 to 1989.

 

I'll go you one better, my dad sprung fro the Gremlin X, sand beige with a gold stripe (you could barely see it), 258-6/3sp. with a FM convertor under the dash.

 

there is a young guy that lives next to the house we just finished , that has 2 gremlin's....including one x......i about passed out when i saw them in the drive way .....brandon

 

yeah baby...NOT!​

 

I would drive the crap out of that yellow X. It's perfect..no, it needs some side pipes.

 

RIGHT!!! id be all over that !! fun!!!!