FMJ cars were fairly plentiful in the local wrecking yards back around 2000 but since then they've disappeared. Scrap metal prices went high enough for a long enough period of time to wipe out a lot of that stuff. And the cash for clunker program blew a lot of them into the bone yards. I always thought they were horrible cars but some people like them. Who am I to judge.
I recall walking past a ton of them in the u-pull-it during that period of time. Often considered grabbing a bunch of stuff cheap, holding for a decade or two and then cashing in. General thought being that they were popular enough that some demand would build later. Seems like just walking past them was the right call. The other thing I noticed going on around that time was kids bolting on 4 bl carbs and trying to make them fast. Not every county in PA has emission inspections. Was a pretty short lived thing as most of them were too young to figure it out and moved on to ricers.
As for trying to beat one to death, good luck with that. Basic bullet proof 318 not putting out anywhere close to enough power to dent the 7.25 and the only thing resembling a crumple zone is the shock mounted bumpers that are still heavy hunks of steel. I've always considered them to be full sized Chryslers stuffed in to a mid size box that was galvanized to within an inch of it's life. Ya know, the reaction to the Aspen / Volare issue of rusting out before leaving the factory was build something that will just about never rust.
On one hand, a basic boring box of a 4 door. On the other hand, built like a tank and a great highway cruiser. The last rear drive carburated Chrysler before the company went to hell and real easy to transplant a tweaked 360, 727, 8.25 and make it get out of it's own way. With enough determination, ya can even stuff a big block under the hood. As for the kid that wanted ya to fix the "brake failure", should have tossed him a wrench and said have at it.
