For Sale: 1964 Dodge Custom 880 4dr Hardtop, A/C - $9,300 - Cortland, NY - Not Mine - Still Available, Price Reduced to $9,000, October 2021:

[58L-Y8]

For Sale: 1964 Dodge Custom 880 4dr Hardtop, A/C - $9,300 - Cortland, NY - Still Available, Price Reduced to $9,000, October 2021:

1964 Dodge Custom 880 - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle... (craigslist.org)

1964 Dodge Custom 880 4dr. Hard top, V-8 361 cid, 3 speed push button automatic. Cold working A/C, New rear leaf springs, battery, New tires all around. Starts, Runs and Drives great! Several spare body and interior parts-
( hoods, seats etc. ) S.O. #0713. Very comfortable riding car. Selling auto collection.  odometer: 86762   $9300.00 or Best Offer.

Contact:   text or call and leave message at (607) 5-nine-1-3-0-three-4
Copy and paste in your email:   e4f2d36e0f9c34d6af1e768870ae65a9@sale.craigslist.org

I have no personal interest or stake in the eventual sale of this 1964 Dodge Custom 880 4dr Hardtop.  Note: one of 3,634 '64 Dodge Custom 880 4dr hardtops built.   Should you buy it, brush up on your Dodge history, the 880/Custom 880 are an obscure model no one remembers, you'll have to answer occasional 'what is it?' inquires.

Edited October 11, 2021 by 58L-Y8
Still Available, Price Reduced to $9,000, October 2021: (see edit history)

[NC-car-guy]

A 60s 4door hardtop with AC...  What's not to like?

[The 55er]

Thumbs-up to this sharp looking Dodge with its new tires but aren't those 53 Studebaker 15" wheelcovers? 

[avgwarhawk]

Clean car. Price seems about right.  

[58L-Y8]

4 hours ago, The 55er said:

Thumbs-up to this sharp looking Dodge with its new tires but aren't those 53 Studebaker 15" wheelcovers? 

Yes, the wheel covers are 1953 Studebaker.  These small images show the correct wheel covers which have a three-bar center spinner:

[JamesR]

Boy, you don't see many mid-size '64 Dodges. Strange, because they're nice looking. By contrast, you see a fair number of '64 Chevelles (and other similar GM's), as well as '64 Fairlanes.

[The 55er]

Those 3-bar Dodge spinners would look great on that 64 but those are 14" and the apparently the Dodge has 15" wheels for the Stude wheelcovers. If it were my car I'd swap the wheels too and install those correct spinners. 

[John_S_in_Penna]

There's a man who often goes to Hershey

who specializes in, or especially likes, these

full-sized Dodge 880's.  I remember that he had

a white convertible from one of these years, the

early 1960's.  He has at least 2 others, I recall he said.

 

This is an appealing car in a nice color combination.

Thanks for sharing it, Steve.

[58L-Y8]

1 hour ago, JamesR said:

Boy, you don't see many mid-size '64 Dodges. Strange, because they're nice looking. By contrast, you see a fair number of '64 Chevelles (and other similar GM's), as well as '64 Fairlanes.

JamesR:

 

The "Lean, New Breed of Dodge" for 1962 was indeed a mid-size car by comparison with the full-size Chevrolet/Pontiac and Ford/Mercury competition segments in which Dodge had played.    At the 1962 introductory showing of the bizarrely-styled, down-sized Darts and Polara which included no traditional full-sized Dodges, the attending Dodge dealers became, to put it mildly, livid!   Dodge management was informed, in no uncertain terms, that if a traditional full-size Dodge wasn't quickly forthcoming, they would be loosing legions of dealers!    The hastily conceived and executed result was the Dodge Custom 880, introduced January 21, 1962.   Flipping a 1961 Polara front clip on a 1962 Chrysler Newport with various 1961 DeSoto and Dodge bits and pieces did the trick.   Maybe it should have been named the Dodge "Duress".    Although no blockbuster, it sold somewhat better than the 1961 Polara. 

 

Forward to 1964, the Dart name taken over by the Lancer-replacement compact, the Dodge 330/440/Polara were a sort-of oversized, mid-size or a not-fully-full-sized line.  These Chrysler-platform 880/Custom 880's carried dealers over with traditional buyers until the all-new 1965 C-Body Dodges could finally return the size/price/prestige pecking order to an equilibrium.   The Custom 880 put in one more appearance for 1965 only as the topline trim level except for a sole Monaco two door hardtop targeted at the Pontiac Grand Prix buyers.   The Monaco expanded to a full body selection for 1966 to replace the Custom 880 plus a Monaco 500 still mounting a pale effort to compete with Grand Prix.

 

Make an astute observation...get a dissertation!
 

 

[58L-Y8]

1 hour ago, The 55er said:

Those 3-bar Dodge spinners would look great on that 64 but those are 14" and the apparently the Dodge has 15" wheels for the Stude wheelcovers. If it were my car I'd swap the wheels too and install those correct spinners. 

Quote

You are correct, the 880/Custom 880's tire size was 8.00 X 14".  One suspects the owner wanted to run radials so 15" was a good solution, except the correct wheel covers wouldn't fit.   

 

Someone needs to come up with a trim ring-style spacer into which the 14" wheel covers can be attached then the assemblage snapped on the !5" wheels to keep the generally original looks, albeit with a narrow additional encircling element.  

 

[kingrudy]

4 hours ago, JamesR said:

Boy, you don't see many mid-size '64 Dodges. Strange, because they're nice looking. By contrast, you see a fair number of '64 Chevelles (and other similar GM's), as well as '64 Fairlanes.

I agree, my sister had a '64 Fairlane Sport Coupe. Nice looking design. And my parents had a Turquoise Chevy Malibu. Both were great cars. I think the style of the Dodge leaves a lot to be desired in comparison. 

[Brooklyn Beer]

Remember that these cars were Chryslers from the firewall back.  Dodge screwed up and didn't have a full size sedan because they thought chevy was downsizing. They missed the impala. So Chrysler agreed to "give them" chryslers with attached Dodge front sheet metal till 1965.  Getting parts for these 880's is not hard but some parts are straight up Chrysler like brake drums depending what rear went in. My 63 880 takes dodge front drums and chrysler rears.  The vacuum line system on these cars though is straight up hell on earth with a spaghetti mess in the heater / AC controls that is all that crappy yellow plastic nipple ports that crumbled to dust years ago.   

[JamesR]

So these were full sized cars I gather from the comments. Then what were these '64 Dodges categorized as?

 

 

They have a very different look than the car in the OP's ad. Thanks in advance for the education, Mopar guys. 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brooklyn Beer]

This is a well written article                 https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/1962-64-dodge-880-and-custom-880

[John_S_in_Penna]

12 hours ago, JamesR said:

So these were full sized cars I gather from the comments. Then what were these '64 Dodges categorized as?

They have a very different look...

 

James, history such as this, with all its mistakes and turns,

is interesting.  I think 58L Steve's description of the other

Dodges (copied below) describes the market niche of the

mistakenly  downsized 1962-1964  Dodges, which didn't really

fit the size categories of their times:

 

19 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

...the Dodge 330/440/Polara were a sort-of-oversized mid-size, or a not-fully-full-sized, line.  These Chrysler-platform 880/Custom 880's carried dealers over with traditional buyers until the all-new 1965 C-Body Dodges could finally return the size/price/prestige pecking order to an equilibrium....

 

[JamesR]

1 hour ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

James, history such as this, with all its mistakes and turns,

is interesting.  I think 58L Steve's description of the other

Dodges (copied below) describes the market niche of the

mistakenly  downsized 1962-1964  Dodges, which didn't really

fit the size categories of their times:

 

 

 

Thanks John. Sorry, I missed 58L's explanation. Thanks to him for the education.

[58L-Y8]

20 minutes ago, JamesR said:

 

Thanks John. Sorry, I missed 58L's explanation. Thanks to him for the education.

JamesR:
You are welcome to the history lesson.  The bizarre situations that arose from poor marketing decisions are fun to analyze.   Sometimes its "what were they thinking?"
Your confusion about how to classify the 1962 Dart/Polara and 1963-'64 330/440/Polara is the same as it was for new car shoppers then.   Size reductions for 1962 were significant: wheelbases: Darts: 118' to 116'; Polara: 122' to 116'.  OAL: Dart/Polara: 209.4' to 202'.  Width reductions as well.

The changes were most noticeable in the Polara, the series that had sold to the traditional Dodge buyers of Custom Royals etc in the late 1950's.   Always keep in mind that this was the era when 'bigger was better', size equaled value and prestige, and cars were sold by 'acreage' of ground cover.  The 1962 Custom 880 was a hasty conceived and executed effort to placate the livid dealers network while circumventing mass defections to competitors of them as well as their loyal customer base.   It worked well enough without major tooling costs until the next complete restyle cycle when the ship could be righted properly for 1965.
 

[John_S_in_Penna]

3 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

The 1962 Custom 880 was a hasty conceived and executed effort to placate the livid dealers network while circumventing mass defections to competitors of them as well as their loyal customer base.  

 

In 1962, not only was the smaller size a detriment

to sales, but the styling must have been as well.

Sorry to insult any '62 Dodge fans, but I find their

regular-line cars the most unslghtly cars of the decade,

with almost every styling line being incongruent!  Here it is:

 

Edited September 24, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Fossil]

There so many things going on here that it's possible to get seasick if you look at it long enough.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Fossil (see edit history)

[58L-Y8]

Still Available, Price Reduced to $9,000, October 2021:

1964 Dodge Custom 880 - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle... (craigslist.org)

Contact:   text or call and leave message at (607) 5-nine-1-3-0-three-4
Copy and paste in your email: 64c61d9316033447844deaa10fad843e@sale.craigslist.org

[John_S_in_Penna]

On 9/23/2021 at 5:11 PM, John_S_in_Penna said:

There's a man who often goes to Hershey

who specializes in, or especially likes, these

full-sized Dodge 880's.  I remember that he had

a white convertible from one of these years, the

early 1960's.  He has at least 2 others, I recall he said.

 

The man who specializes in 880's was at Hershey again

for 2021.  I talked to him next to his white convertible.

He currently owns four 880's, he said, and has had more

than that over the years.

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Gearheadengineer]

On 9/23/2021 at 6:28 PM, 58L-Y8 said:

Someone needs to come up with a trim ring-style spacer into which the 14" wheel covers can be attached then the assemblage snapped on the !5" wheels to keep the generally original looks, albeit with a narrow additional encircling element

The early (pre ‘64) slab side Lincoln guys had to figure this out. (Try getting a 14” tire that can handle a 5,000+ pound car).  There are a couple of ways to do it. One way is exactly what you suggest - use a 15” trim ring and attach the 14” wheel cover to it. Rally style trim rings work well. 
 

Interesting history lesson. As a product development guy this story hits home. Dodge should have done what is now called “continuous discovery.”  Fancy name for talking to your customers regularly. 

[edk]

Here is my 63 880 hard top wagon

[Fossil]

Had friend that had one of those campers on a 1963 Chev. wagon. Always thought that using the toilet would be real pain in the a$$. 

[Lavin]

58L-Y8, I have to say I love how the 880 looks with those Studie caps. Great looking car!