Andrew Finkbeiner, Mopar B-Body Performance Upgrades 1962-79. New York: S-A Design, 2012


My neighbor collects the Plymouth Fury: she has a ’66, a ’73, and a tattoo on her shoulder. While the Fury isn’t exactly a muscle car—it was a C-body, while the models discussed here are B-bodies—it has enough common components to make her comments valuable.

She tells me this book is nicely organized; each chapter is sufficiently self-contained to explain a project, but builds on explanations for those previous. Illustrations are crisp, well-captioned, and useful. The text provides both general background explanation and specific pointers or techniques; Finkbeiner, also an attorney, clearly knows how to organize information and write well, making this volume much easier to follow than the old Chilton manuals. And while those volumes are still necessary for detailed reference (Finkbeiner does not get to the wiring-diagram level of detail), this book provides the theory to make those diagrams understandable.