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1978 Colt Wagon Lowering


jshanks

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Hey all.

I'm in the US and just picked up a 1978 Colt wagon that was in decent shape, short of needing a new 3 speed auto and some patch. I found out right away that there is no such thing as parts for me over here so I am looking out your way. Does anyone have a good suggestion of a vendor that has a kit or parts for dropping the wagon a good inc-inch and a half? I ask folks here and all they say is, " what did you say you're driving?"

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Here are a couple of shots of the Colt right now. I pulled the rack off so I can get her in primer. She needs odds and ends like the plastic pillar covers for the seat belts. (looks like a dog chewed them pretty good) The drivers door will be getting reskinned. I need to get a heater core and replace the three speed gearbox that is pretty shot. Did Mitsu make smooth front and rear bumpers for these without the pushouts? I am curious to find a good site that actually has parts for these. I wanted to find something that no one else here had and I am quickly finding out that there are practically none here.

wagon.jpg

wagon rear.jpg

wagon front.jpg

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What you have is a third generation Galant wagon, called the Chrysler Sigma in Australia or Mitsubishi Galant-Sigma in other parts.

Mitsubishi did indeed make smaller bumpers for the European, Japanese and Asian markets.

1978-1980_Chrysler_Sigma_%28GE%29_GL_sta

1977_Mitsubishi_Sigma_Galant_Wagon.jpg

%252778%2520sigma%25201.jpg

 

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hey I've got one of these but no spare parts. think you guys have a dodge d50? pickup over there, i would be finding the running gear out of one of them and bolting it in rather than spending money on the crappy auto. should bolt straight in too. good bumpers for this model are hard to get here.

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How about the plastic strips that go down the pillar behind the front seats that encase the seatbelts? Mine are totally cashed and need replaced. The left front turn signal housing is jacked too, but I can wait to take care of it. I noticed in a few forums that there are dash covers around but I can't seem to find where people are getting them.

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4 minutes ago, fuel said:

Australians just looooove dash covers due to the harsh sun, however you'll probably find they are for RHD only.

Are they shaped/single sided? The one in my ute is just like a thick felt and could be reversed

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This is one of the members off here build thread for his car

take a bit of a look.

I also just went and had a look at ebay and there is lowering springs available.

you just need to search them by what they are called on this side of the world  

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Thats a Mitsubishi sigma herein Australia. 

Is it the 2L or 2.6L astron?

Over here they had the old bw35 trans.

But they aso had a "sports" option 2 door sedan called the scorpion. They had a baby torqueflite 904 auto.

So they may be an option in the us?

Mitsi also released a gsr turbo sigma 4 door sedan. They went hard for what they were.

And from memory the early tm-tp? Magna efi heads etc were the go for these things??

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26 minutes ago, 8ball said:

Thats a Mitsubishi sigma herein Australia. 

Is it the 2L or 2.6L astron?

Over here they had the old bw35 trans.

But they aso had a "sports" option 2 door sedan called the scorpion. They had a baby torqueflite 904 auto.

So they may be an option in the us?

Mitsi also released a gsr turbo sigma 4 door sedan. They went hard for what they were.

And from memory the early tm-tp? Magna efi heads etc were the go for these things??

You have to remember that the Australian Mitsubishi/Chryslers of that time are often different from the Japanese models they are derived from, as the Australian models had to rely on heavy local content - ie PBR brakes in place of Sumitomo, Borg Warner transmissions and diffs in place of Aisan/Mitsubishi derived items.

His wagon will have either the G32B 1.6L or the G54B 2.6L and unlikely to have a Borg Warner transmission like the Australian assembled models. The Scorpion is known as either the Dodge Challenger II or the Plymouth Sapporo in the US and they have the same engine options as the OP's wagon. The turbo sedan wasn't available in the US - their first turbo Mitsubishi was in the form of the FWD Dodge Colt aka Mitsubishi Mirage, also sold as the RA-RE Colt in Australia just minus the turbo engine. Then they got the Starion in 1983 followed by the Cordia, Galant VR-4 etc.

The Magna doesn't exist outside of Australia - the 5th generation Galant the TM-TP Magna was based on was sold in the US as a Galant Sigma but it came with either the 2.4 4G64 or the 3.0 6G72 V6. When I was living in Australia I sent a boat load of TN/TP EFI inlet manifolds over to the US for the Starion guys to convert to MPI.

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Registered as a Dodge Colt. See the tag in the pic as well. I wanted to be positive about the springs because every forum that I've dug around on shows different thoughts about it. You all obviously have been tooling around on these for some time so I'd rather hear what you guys have found to be the best...other than cutting springs. I just finished primering her today so I've got time before I get to lowering her. Next is finding a replacement 3-speed auto since I only have one speed and reverse right now.

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  • 1 month later...

So I am being told by the transmission shop that just brutalized me for $2400 that there are 12 different possible gears for the speedo cable in the three speed auto gear box? Can anyone tell me what the part number is for the correct gear?

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