Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edition!

[Bonnewagon]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

Nice find! When you get a chance crawl under and look at the shifter tabs on the side of the trans. It sounds like one is upside down, thus reversing 1rst and Reverse.

 

[454muscle]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

Thanks Bonnewagon. Um, I think it's factory actually. The shift knob has this pattern:

R 2
|_|
| |
1st 3rd

 

[clean8485]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

454Muscle, you are correct, the shift pattern is factory for that car. The one that I have now is the 3rd one of these that I've owned in the past 20 years. They are neat cars, and because they were built and sold in Canada, they kind of flew under the radar for alot of people. The 3 speed gearshift pattern does take some time to get used to, but its normal for those 3 speed Saginaw transmissions. There are some other interesting features to these cars as well. The tweed upholstery, the 200km/hr long type speedo, with no MPH scale on it, no rear defroster (they were built for a desert country), the large A/C system with the old style 6 cylinder GM A/C compressor, and the skinny steel wheels with the dog dish hubcaps. The one that I have is a pretty solid car, but does need some work to be roadworthy. Maybe after I get it fixed up a bit, I might want to keep it. It might make a good candidate for a 4.3V6/5 speed swap (keeping with the economy theme).
454Muscle, good luck with the car, and keep us up to date with any changes. I'd be interested to see and gear how it turns out.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

Yup, Clean8485 is right, that's a normal 3 speed pattern. I thought when you said it was reversed, 1rst was up and Reverse was down. I have seen that backwards before, don't ask how 😳 . I will say one thing, in snow, it's easy to rock the car when 1rst and reverse are in line like that.

 

[hereiam]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

A lot of these cars had different color interiors, some didnt even match and some had wild colors. GM throw in any 3 speed transmission they had laying around. They all didnt have the same ratios. Quite a few were returned from Iraq because they didnt run. When they got back here, the servicing dealerships discovered that the blowing sand had gotten past the filter and filled the carb. Others had the paint missing in areas because of the way they were parked during sand storms. and they had been sand blasted. Most of the returned ones were sold off to employees of the GM dealerships. All in all it was an interesting sale to Iraq

 

[hereiam]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

One other thing that just came to mind is that most of them the back door windows did not go down

 

[Hoopty_Mike]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

One other thing that just came to mind is that most of them the back door windows did not go down

There wasn't enough room for the rear windows to go down in the back of the 4 door bu's.

 

[onyxxtreme]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

great pick up.
Iraqi Taxi's are one of the few cars on my "list". But I know i'll never have one, living in the southern US.
Can't wait to see this thing built up, would be nice to see more clean Gbody sedans on this site.
Mine will be finished in hopefully 1 more month (looks-wise...with exterior, interior, and a 3" drop) 8)

 

[YGspider]

Re: Replacing my 2 DDs w/ 81 Chevy Malibu Special Iraqi Edit

drop in a 2.4l Ecotec and a 6speed manual and you'd be laughing for a DD