how and why you got your first charger

[dd44068]

How about a way for us to tell the story/history of our first charger. Well I first got hookedon them from my father and the dtories he told me when he was younger. During the years when I was younger he had a few then bought his in 99. Now about my first in 2001 i went to carlisle with a friend whos car broke down and just missed out on a 68 r/t auto with ac, It was white with a light blue interior. While looking through I believe it was the old car trader i found one about a 2hr away it was a b5 blue 68 rt a week later it was on my driveway. I wound up selling it a few years later but no big deal it was not a #s matching and needed work. Finally in 2004 i bought my 68 #s matching 2nd owner r/t and I plan on keeping it for as long as I can. On a side note would anybody know of  70 318 I believe an se bronze or copper  car coming out oh hoboken nj probably in the mid to late 70.

[Shakey]

You'll find a lot of answers in this thread as to how, maybe some info as to why.  There's some good pics too!

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,8146.0.html

[ramit]

I got hooked on 71 and 72 chargers because my dad had about 6 of them between the late 70's and early 80's.  He would buy them for about $300, fix them up and sell them for about $1500-$2000.  He bought a 71 charger 500 in 1983 that he never got around to fixing and he gave it to me for an early high school graduation gift.  I started puting money into it when I was 13 years old and continued to put money into it until I graduated in 94'.  I kind of lost interest in it because I bought a restored Cuda that I was having fun with.  I sold the 71 charger in 2004 to a guy that bought it for his kids high school graduation gift.   I now have a 72 charger that my dad bought in 1978 and I bought it from him in 2003.  The 72 charger was the one that really got me hooked because it was always my dads pride and joy that only left the garage a couple times a year, but I always got to go for a ride with him.  That 72 was the loudest car in town with headers and dual exhaust with glasspacks.

[Blown70]

I got one because I loved the body style,,,,69 Charger.  I bought the first one when I was 14.  Was an R/T SE.....I sold it a few years back to buy a house. ,  Had a second one when I was 16 (yea I was a kid in 91 with 2 chargers)  I have now a 70 and two 70 challys.

Tom

[chargervert]

When I was a kid,my mom stopped for gas,and a green 68 Charger R/T pulled up on the other side of the gas pumps. It was that light goldish green,with the black tail stripe. It had big fat tires,and aluminum slots on it. I watched as the attendant,put the gas in the filler on the top of the rear quarter,and I thought that was the coolest car that I had ever seen! Then the guy fired it up,and took off smokin the tires up the street,I was hooked! Then my parents split up,and my mom started seeing a guy who had a 62 300 H convertible.After a few months the guy came home with a 70 Charger R/T SE,it was triple green,with a white tail stripe.It was a 440,automatic car. That Charger was our family car until they sold it to a friend of mine from school in 1982. I bought my first Charger,in 1980,and have owned more than 50 second generation Chargers since! I currently have five of them!

[Plumcrazy]

 
 


In the summer of 73 I was working as a stockboy at a shoe store trying to get a date with one of the salesgirls. Without any success I might add.

My 65 Rustang died so I started telling the girl about the Charger was going to buy. I got her to agree to go out with me if I bought the car.
She told me later she never thought a stockboy making $1.60 an hour was going to be able to buy a $1650 car. That's why she agreed to go out with me. She was wrong.

To make a long story short we just celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. And we still like taking the Charger out on "dates".

[terrible one]

When I was around 12 years old, my uncle started introducing me to muscle cars. He owned a '69 GTO convertable. I've really always liked the Chargers, and seeing them in F&F, Bullitt, Blade, etc etc really kept me going. I like a lot of other muscle cars, but the Charger is by far the best to me.

Well, I was basically dreaming from age 12-14. I didn't know what I was doing, didn't have the money, couldn't drive, etc. Well when I was 15 it actually became a possibility. I had money saved previously, and was working during the summer. I finally made a deal with a guy on a 1970 Charger in pretty rough shape for $3k. This was shortly after I inheritied my grandfathers '76 Cadillac Eldorado convertable. This car has a lot of sentimental value. I planned to do a basic rebuild on the engine, and get it roadworthy, and go from there. Needless to say, the car turned into a complete money pit. It needed a complete restoration, and I gave it one. My dad helped me with the funds. I could go on and on about that car, but that's a different story. Anyways, the Charger had once again dissapeared from sight, but was not forgotten.

Now, a little over a year later and 16, I was itching for a Charger once again. I had to have one. For a month of so I browsed on Ebay, hunted within my area, etc. Living in a small town, nothing good popped up besides a '72 and '73 in almost unsaveable condition.

Just a few weeks ago, I came upon an Ebay ad for a '68 Dodge Charger roller. The front end was done and in primer, with all new suspension parts. The rest was untouched by the guy who was selling it. I talked to him about it outside of e-mail, asking for more pictures. He told me that the reserve was $3,500 but I could have it for $4,000. Some may remember me asking for input about it here. Basically everyone told me it would be a really good deal.

Well, I stalled and thought until it was too late. I didn't really want to spend $4k because I barely had that much. With 27 minutes to go on the auction, and the price at $3,100, I decided to do it the old fashioned way. I knew that the reserve was at $3,500. With 7 seconds left, I put in a bid for $3,600. I was refreshing every second. With 1 second to go, I was winning. When I refreshed after that, I was not. I was, in simple terms, pissed. The guy had been using an auction sniper or something. I was really bummed for a while, and constantly reminded myself on how good of a deal I had passed up.

I e-mailed the seller and told him about what happened, and that if something went wrong for any reason, to contact me. When he finally replied, he told me that the winner was coming to pick the car up that day, but he would keep me in mind. "Fat chance" I thought. Anyways, later that day he e-mailed me telling me that the guys wife was obviously a nutcase and didn't wan't him to buy it. She wanted a car that you could drop an engine in and go! She wanted to buy the car for $500. He told me that I could have it for my bid of $3,600. I was lucky. Of course, I told the guy that I would take the car. I promptly mailed out a money order for $1,000 as a deposit. The following weekend we went to pick up the car, with the other $2,600 in cash.

I inspected the car. It has more bondo than I thought, or could see in the pictures, but after peeling/chipping some off, the body looked alright. Only the usual Charger rust spots. It was complete besides engine, tranny, driveshaft, and front seats. I had finally gotten my Charger, and I couldn't be more happy! It's going to take a lot of time, money, and work, but it will be great when it's done, and I can't wait.

[chargervert]

 


In the summer of 73 I was working as a stockboy at a shoe store trying to get a date with one of the salesgirls. Without any success I might add.

My 65 Rustang died so I started telling the girl about the Charger was going to buy. I got her to agree to go out with me if I bought the car.
She told me later she never thought a stockboy making $1.60 an hour was going to be able to buy a $1650 car. That's why she agreed to go out with me. She was wrong.

To make a long story short we just celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. And we still like taking the Charger out on "dates".

I just celibrated my 21st wedding anniversary today!but I had my 70 Charger R/T SE 3 years before I got married,and I still have both!

[bad1032]

Seen them around. HAD a 68 gt 390 mustang and liked the charger, young and dumb , sold the mustang and bought the 68 charger , white car 383 auto for 300.00 in 1979. sold the gt 390 to buy the charger. kept it for a while,ended up with a nice 440 six pack motor, got married in 83 sold the car in 86 and regretted it since then, Been trying to buy it back but i have lost track of it now.Ended up buying the 69 I have know for 100.00  The 68 gt 390 unded up in New York somewhere, blue with white c stripes.Lesson learned DONT SELL THE CAR when ya get married.

[66ragtop]

When I was a kid my Grandpa always had Mopar products.  I remember the 60 Dodge (Coronet I think), big fins and blue, white 65 Fury III blue interior(I put it in gear and down the driveway we went right into a tree, Tree died car had a scratch), then an AMC Hornet grey/red, 78 Volare copper/copper (got totaled) and a 83 Aries "K" car.  So I guess it was in the gene pool .  I got a job at 16 working at Godfather's Pizza, and between my allowance (before job) and what I saved from work I bought my 66(delivered pizza in a big block, gas was cheap though).  I saw that fastback and tail light (Star Wars looking) and fell in love.  Mainly the fastback though.  I was torn between the Charger and the AMC Marlin.  Glad I chose the Charger though

[694spdRT]

Here is the story and pics of my '68.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,6761.0.html

[PocketThunder]

I was surfing the www for chargers off and on since 1999 when i graduated from college.  I had a 1955 Chev at the time that i restored while going to college.  (probably a dumb move on my part, should have spent the money on tuition)  Anyways, i found the old charger site and started/continued surfing the want adds.   
I came across a 69 500 at .........HLPAG on their website on a thursday and called them right away.   I was the second caller. the next day, Friday they called me back and said the first guy cant come up with the money.  So i proposed a trade for my 1955 Chev, that i was getting sick of.  They accepted the trade plus 1k. 
I drove down Sunday morning and made the swap that day at Noon.  I came home that night and my spouse walked out of the house and said..... "It looks like a big brown turd floating down the road" 





And it still sits in my garage waiting to be worked on as we type.....

but!.....>>>>>http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,154.msg115420.html#msg115420

[Brock Samson]

'm a Car Nut!
  Absolutely certifiable. If I could, I'd have as many cars as possible, dozens, hundreds even, just like some folks who collect old 45s or L.P.s, magazines, newspapers, spoons or refrigerator magnets, beany babies, Stamps or Coins.
However,.. Living on a tight budget and in the inner-city means  I can really only afford and have space for two, a "Daily Driver" which has to be supremely tractable and my "Hot Rod" which is not limited to mundane considerations like size, the number of cup holders or miles per gallon.
   I remember My late uncle Smiley arguing with my dad who finally relented and allowed  me to accompany him to a southern Ca. airport race track in the early '60s where beautiful finned turquoise Jaguar D-Types mixed it up with  Mercedes 300 SLR s the occasional Corvette and home built specials.  Peering out the back of my moms' '54 Bel-air I learned to judge the speed of cars by their Animalistic anthropomorphic  grilled faces in front  and the number of chromed tail pipes sticking out in back, The aggressive leer of  early '60s Thunderbirds and the sound of  dual glass packs is forever etched into my consciousness. When I was an impressionable youth American muscle cars ruled the roads, the older guys in the garages hung out listening to the latest Motown or the groovy new sounds of the British invasion on small one speaker AM radios while chain-smoking Marlboros which dangled from quiet but occasionally swearing lips and in the case of the really cool guys,  filterless camels came from packs tucked into Tee-shirt sleeves, THE Official uniform of gear heads which incl. blue jeans and black high top Keds .
   At the age of 10 in my area the one car that most caught my imagination was the copper colored 1967 Plymouth GTX, powered by a now as then legendary HEMI engine that you could hear shaking windows from two blocks away, that, plus the tales I was told by the older dads who owned the huge Chrysler 300s and 4-door New Yorkers and who swore their "Chryslers are over engineered.. 'cause you know, Chrysler built the mighty -29 Super-fortress in W.W. II". These Stories seemed to me like those told in caves around the tribal fire of the ferocious Cave bear and Mighty Mastodons clinched me as a MOPARIAN, a  Chrysler Gear-head for life.
    Someyears after I started hanging out in garages I found myself at age 11 working my first long 10 hour day helping to swap an oil pan gasket in a puddle of dirty oil under a '57 Chevy on Geneva Ave. right where it broke. After that it was my mom's '63 Galaxy 500 which needed a head gasket. A few months later a trip with a family friend to Champion raceway off U.S. 101 where in a borrowed and way too big, blue metal flake helmet I sat, knees knocking uncontrollably in the fiberglass passenger seat of a 427 engined '58 Ford Highboy called "The High and Mighty".
Most all the hot drag race cars were named back then in large metallic letters, The Brother up the street had a '67 Goat (G.T.O.) named "Soul Shaker", and  there were many others on Friday and Saturday nights prowling for girls and kicks on El Camino and the Great Highway. and hanging out both before and after at Mels' Drive in on South Vann Ness .
  Finally, after "some college", I started working two jobs to pay for my long dreamed of  Ride. I had my Daily Driver, a  ten year old Dodge Van in which I hauled my Rock band's gear which quickly became other bands gear and then solely through  word of mouth became a weekend gig moving folks stuff around the bay area, the modest extra income meant I could finally afford a project car. I didn't want a new car, or even a perfect old car, because My dream was to build my own car, to soup-up a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T - Special Edition. The R/T option was the 440 or 426 Cubic Inch engine performance package offered from 1968 to 1972 and the S.E. package was the luxury package that could be ordered on various models,  both designations are a nomenclature still in use on Dodges today.
  Finding a '69 Charger R/T S.E. was a long shot especially at a price I could afford but, nonetheless only two weeks after beginning my intensive search, A call from a friend who spotted a stripped example in a wreaking yard was just what I had been waiting for. Oh it was rough, rust had eaten away the rear quarters, roof and the drivers' floorboard, there was no engine, transmission, axles or interior but soon a wreaked parts car provided seats and  working if basic mechanicals which powered the loud, smoking black and white striped automotive Dinosaur, dubbed by my best friend Steve "Skunkenstein".
  My initial rectification estimate of two years and ten thousand dollars  proved wildly optimistic, because I lacked the funds, repair skills, tools and garage space to quickly transform her into a perfect show car, but run she did, trailing oil smoke and gas fumes, occasionally overheating, steering like a clipper ship - rounding the horn and occasionally breaking down, there were a few minor accidents too but no one was hurt, even when I launched off a dead deer in the road at 90 M.P.H. at 2:00 A.M. in the Gold Country and still I managed to make it to many local car shows where I was teased by the well-heeled "experts" for arriving in a cobbled together, under powered and unfinished mongrel.
   I proceeded slowly, collecting parts as funds permitted. One day an ad in the Chronicle classifieds offered a genuine 440 Six-Pack, my engine of choice, the motor I  had been saving and searching for ten long years... I arrived at the home of an ex-drag racer just a couple minutes ahead of  another motor head longing for the same motor. The short lock engine was claimed to be "perfect, needing only to be bolted in", however a closer examination reveled an oil pan filled with granulated pistons.
  Finally in 1999,  I completely rebuilt my Charger using all the special parts I had been collecting since 1984 at the start of my long endeavor. She may not be the fastest or the most beautiful, the most expensive or all original but she's mine.
  By the way, my Daily Driver?.. It's a Chrysler.   

[Ghoste]

Awesome story Strat!

[NYCMille]

I've wanted a Charger since I was 6 years old (I'm 33 now) - I started searching on and off when I was about 26, I looked at A LOT of basket cases and finally in Jan. (I think) 2004 I was looking on collector car trader at about 8am and saw my Black 68'. I called the number, not thinking that the guy was in WA and I was in NY, woke the guy up at like 5AM and said I would buy his car - It was EXACTLY what I wanted.

I called on a Wed. morning, Fedex'ed him a deposit Wed. afternoon and was on a plane that Sat. to see the car - anyway, it was perfect... so CHA CHING!!!! plopped down a bunch of greenbacks and WHALLA! I was the proud owner of a 1968 Dodge Charger.

I have since further modified it and plan to keep modifing it - I love my car, it is a dream to drive and honor to own. Hell I got married in this car and when we have kids, car seats will go in it and then hopefully when they're old enough I'll be able to hand it down to them once I'm old and grey....

[BB1]

Why, because I liked the General lee. How, just picked up the paper and called on one. 

Also I dreamed about having a car with hidden headlights. Not because I wanted one, the dream said I was going to have one. When I woke up, I was like ''man" what was that all about. Must have been the late 70ds, when that happened.

I recalled only Oldsmodile, Cadillacs, and some Ford had them and they all made me puke. So when I turned on the TV in 1979, I saw the DOH. I was like "wooh", that is one cool car. Four year later I got one. 

[4402tuff4u]

Since high school days (1983) when I took a ride on a original owner 1968 Charger R/T red with black vinyl top and stripe that was for sale for $ 1,000. I remember going to the house and the old lady telling me that her son, that was in college at the time, did not want the Charger anymore and was sitting for 4 months in the garage in Amityville, NY - right across the street from the high school. She gave me the keys and said to take it for a spin if I wanted. The 440 started right up and even thou the rear tires were low on air, when I gunned the pedal on the Charger, that Charger went down Merrick Road sideways and I almost ended up inside a 7 eleven! I was young and stupid then, now I'm not so young. Anyway, it was love at first sight. I had just been stung by the Mopar bug! I went home all excited and talked to my parents. My parents reply was: "no problem, get a job to pay for it!" I asked them for a loan and they said: "no, get a job save the money, and then go get it" I was so pissed. But I thanked them now because I probably would have gotten myself killed or something. It was just not meant to be. The way I look at it is that someone upstairs was watching over me and it has given me more of a reason to appreciate my Charger.
Anyway, by the time I had the money saved that Charger was gone.   

Since that day, I said to myself  "I will find the same car one day". Well after getting done with college, settling down and buying a home, getting married and having two wonderful daughters, I decided it was time to look for that Charger. Two years ago, I found my number matching 68 R/T in Collector Trader On Line after a two year search. I was the first to call and then after a one hour telephone conversation and photo exchange, I sent Joe, a private collector in GA that was going to restore it but had to many projects going on, a deposit and bought it.

Currently being restored and I've told my daughters that I want the Charger to remain in the family.

[4forty]

A blue hotwheels redline Charger started it for me, when I was a kid it was my favorite hotwheels, (and I had alot!!!)  I took it everywhere and no one could play with it but me, When I turned 16 my aunt gave me her original owner '66 Chevelle which I drove for a year while keeping eyes open for a Charger. long story short... Drunk driver rammed & totalled the Chevelle and I found my blue '69 which I had for a while but ended up selling and regretting. bought the '68 green a few years ago. The Charger is the Ultimate Musclecar for me and always has been!

[crzyc68]

I grew up watch the Dukes of Hazzard.  My dad would tell stories about him and his friends jumping his car like in the movie Bullit.  My friend and I would play outside, role down the windows and climb in and pretend we were the Duke Boys.  We'd slide across the hood and everything.  When I turned 16, my parents gave me the car.  I have had it ever since.  My dad is the original owner.  He bought it when he was 18.  I love my 1968 Charger and will never sell it.  I still slide across the hood after I wash and wax the car.  I can't see why anyone would not like the Charger.

[volk68]

When I was just a baby, my Dad and Mom used to take me to all kinds of drag races, and my Dad had a 68 Dart with a Hemi shoehorned into it that he dragged all the time.  Mopars were the weapon of choice for my Dad and his friends back in the musclecar days (and now, for that matter).  Somehow, though, it didn't really take hold of me until after I got married.  I had motorcycles as a kid, and bought a rolled Dodge truck when I was 12 (I'm 31 now) that I was going to restore for when I was old enough to hit the highway.  Unfortunately, I never really grasped the amount of work that would take, and while I worked on it quite a bit, I never seemed to get ahead on it.

When I turned 18, my Dad stumbled on an add in the local paper for a couple of 73 Satellites for sale along with a 350 chevy engine for $550.  We bought them, and one of the Satellite's became my ride.  A 440 was installed, and while the car was cool and very clean, it just didn't capture my heart.  Once I got married, I started to really gain a strong interest in Mopars again...almost like waking up to it for the first time.  During this time, I wound up seeing the movie Blade.  It had been so long since I had seen a Charger that hadn't been done up as GL (since I was a little kid), and I fell in love immediately.  I studied up on the car, and the more I learned, the more I loved it.  It quickly rose to the top of my favorite cars of all time list, and the 68 became my goal.

I eventually found a 68, 50 miles from my house in a salvage yard.  It was a complete disaster...a true basket case.  The yard owner had no fender tag, the engine was a seized up 383, and half the parts were missing...to say nothing of the rust.  He wanted $2,000 for it.  I knew I didn't have the time, experience, or money to build that car...so I passed.  I set out to build a RR clone out of my 73 Satellite, and drove halfway across the country to secure a hood for my planned conversion.  During this time, I had saved up enough money to get the paint and body work done on my truck that I had bought when I was 12 years old and had never completed.  My wife wanted this truck finished, so I drove it to the same town I saw the Charger in, and the paint and body guy started working on it.  This guy is seriously layed back and struggled with focus...it took him almost two years to get the truck painted

It was during that two years, though, that he pulled that same 68 Charger out of the junkyard and began work on it for himself.  On one of my usual "nag" trips to the body shop, I discovered the Charger out back.  He had put on new 1/4's and put a 440 in it, and was well underway with it's restoration.  I was shocked to see it there, and jokingly told him that if he ever wanted to get rid of it, give me a call.  As most paint and body guys do, he got tired of the car after he finished the body and paint.  He offered it to me for $4500.  It was a good price, but we were expecting our second baby, and I didn't have the money for it.  I turned the car down again.  This killed me for the next 3 months.  I was completely miserable.  Then one afternoon at work, he called me again and asked if I was interested in it still.  He offered it to me for $2,500.  I sold my Satellite to my Dad and borrowed a little cash, and I bought it from him.  I drove it back home in the dark with terrible steering, little brake, and no functional dash lights or speedometer.  It was bliss.  I will never forget it.

Since that time, both the truck and the Charger are in "assembly mode".  I ripped the Charger apart and spent almost a year getting the dash, wiring, heater and everything else functional.  Now, all that's left is some interior installation, and I will eventually get it re-painted someday with all the trim polished.  The truck just needs simple re-assembly...all the hard work is done.  The bug has bitten me now...and I want as many classic MOPARS as I can find Here are pics of the Charger and the truck as they are today:

The Charger:


The Truck (still patiently waiting to be completed after all these years):

[terrible one]

Awesome story man!

[sixpack70]

My story may not be cool and also might scare some people. I bought my 1969 Mach 1 from a classic car dealer for a pretty good price. It needed work but was a driver. I comissioned into the army after a year of owning my mach 1. While I was driving home from Ft. Lewis Washington after a TDY  assignment  I had a bearing go out on the front rotor of my car. I was leaving for Ft Bliss in two days and my car was down and going to sit in my parents driveway until I could figure out a way to ship it to Bliss (wasn't driving it there anyway) I got to bliss and spent a year there. My wife got a job and I got bored. I wanted to look for another car to play with while I decided what to do with my mach 1. (my dad didn't really want to work on it, its not his car!) I wanted another mach 1 but a big block S, R or Q code car. I thought I know those cars really well and I could get one easy (n 2002 maybe but not 2004). The prices of these cars rose so high I couldn't afford one. Also most of the projects seemed to dissapear online about 6 months before I got the car. Most cars sold were complete 35k+ cars. 0 projects for big blocks. I was a little dscouraged  but kept looking.

I sat down and wathed the bullit car chase scene, as I did this almost every morning for a month. I watched the black charger come flying around a corner with the mustang chasing behind. I though maybe i want to look at chargers. So I started to look at chargers online. I already had a 68 R/T bullit model. I looked over every inch of the car and thought more about why do I want another of the same darn mustang with just a different engine. I started to scour the ads on ebay and trader online. I found a 68 R/T for 10 grand not running and a 70 R/T sixpack car that was running but rough. I decided on the 6 pack car as it was more to my liking in color and tranny. Yes this car was on HLPAG.  Suprisingly they did not put it on ebay, only trader online.   I called them up and talked to John and asked for specific pictures (always do  this!) They sent me a big email full of color pics of all of the areas I asked for and more. I saw trunk and a few holes in the floor pan, but the rails were solid. The engine and tranny were NOM but it had the alumium edelbrock sixpack intake from a 69 1/2 car. I didn't care as I wanted to play with the car a bit so I bought it. They shipped it cheap with one of their own drivers.

There was an issue at the building I was in the day the car arrived. I couldn't leave the building until someone resolved the issue. My wife called me and said the charger is at the gate to Ft. bliss. I told her she had to go escort the guy in. I thought it was going to be a nightmare and I was stressing it big time.  My wife led the driver to our house and they had to pump up a tire that went flat in transit. The battery was also dead so they were charging it. The building was released at 9pm and I went home with two buddies coming with me. We got to my house and all three of us starting acting like a bunch of drooling 3 year olds when we first saw the car. It was very excting to see this huge car, 440 sixpack and everything else it had. My wife handled the situation great and they had everything ready to unload, they just wanted to wait for some bodies to help move the car. Someone kicked or bumped the wire free from the clutch pedal loading it and the engine wouldnt start because of the new for 70 safety feature. We unloaded it and unfortunately we bumped the rear quarter on a post in my car port. That will increase my body work time by quite a bit.  It pissed me off but it was my fault for not checking on the distance between the car and post.

The car was exactly what I wanted. I go out to the garage just to look at both of my cars sitting in the garage. I think the charger is jealous because the mach 1 gets to leave the garage and the charger is all in pieces now.

[dkn1997]

saw a daytona driving down my street in about 1979.  then the dukes of hazzard got me hooked.
then in 86 when I got my licence, there was one in the paper.  I wanted a 69, but the pickins were slim.  my friend drove me to go look at it because my parents refused to take me to look at something that old.   we pulled into the lot, and all I saw was the rear quarter sticking out from behind another car.  I said to my friend "I am buying this car"  AND THAT'S ALL THERE WAS TOO IT....

[Arigmaster]

My '68 came from So. Dakota originally. It was sitting in a barn since 1979 with all kinds of things piled on and against it. (neglected) I picked it up for $2,800.00 and brought it home. The body and undercarrige was very solid with no rust holes anywhere except along the bottoms of the quarter panels behind the wheel openings and lower corners of the rear window channel (pretty typical) There were various sized dents in every single body panel on the car but still it was very solid for starting point.

The first phase was to make sure that The engine and drive trane was in good shape so we went through and rebuilt everything from the radiator to the tail pipes. With a few smal modifications  to the engine. (has the original 383 4bbl. with 727 automatic) That pretty much summed up the first year owning the car (2001) and I was able to play with it for part of that Summer. My friend Perry did a beautiful job on the motor and when he was finished, it it dyno'd 418 hp at 2500 rpm. He told me I could get more hp with some modifications to my ignition and carburation but I passed. (OPEC already has too much money and I dont') It didnt look like much and still had that "barn smell" to it but even in that condition, there were people always askin'.."ya wanna sell that?" The answer was always "NO" and it was kind of fun humiliating a handful of nice shiney little rice grinders and GM cars looking the way it did. So it added another $5,400.00

In the fall of 2001 after putting about 500 miles on it, I brought it to a small heated garage at a friends house where we took it apart down to a bare shell and so began the task of completely re-doing the entire body. I still haven't brought the car home yet to this day. I am sure many can relate to how difficult it is to make time to really spend a whole day or two on the car when you have other things that usually take priority. (This applies to the money part too) In addition, there are so many new ideas or things that deviate from the original plan when you really start getting into the project and you take a couple steps backward to do it again.

The result of this was changing my mind several times with color combinations, accessories, etc. For the most part, it was finding that better part than the one you have on the car. (fenders, doors, etc.)  I always liked the Daytonas but was never a fan of the front nose. I also liked the look of the '68 grill better. I ended up buying the fender scoops and wing early on in the project because I knew I was going to put them on the car even if it wasn't "correct." I also picked up a six-pack hood scoop for it for the same reason. I wanted something unique.

I ended up replacing the quarter panel skins, both doors, drivers side front fender, front valance, and rear lower valance corners. My goal was to minimize how much body filler ended up on the car and I was very meticulous with working the sheet metal on the car. I put months of work into the quarters alone just to eliminate using fillers on them. I pulled every single dent out of the car the same way including the little shopping cart size dings.

So far, in hired help, new parts, and material for the body...nearly $5,200.00 with another $2,000.00 to go for trim parts etc. Then comes the interior.  I chose the Charger because I liked the look of the car first and secondly, I wanted to see if I could still build a car the way I used to years ago.

[RECHRGD]

I grew up in Southern California.  In '68 I was 20 years old and working as an attendant at a Standard Station in Sunland.  One January morning, I was reading the L.A. Times and spotted an ad for the most beautiful car I'd ever seen.  It was for the new Dodge Charger and they started at around 2600 or 2700 as I recall.  The next day I was at the Pasadena Dodge dealership.  By the time I walked out of the dealership I had a new yellow R/T on order.  I forget how much cash I put down, but my '66 Suzuki X6 Hustler motorcycle was part of the down payment on the $3,500.00 car.  I bought a 1946 Plymouth Deluxe for $50.00 to cover my transportation needs until the Charger arrived.  I'll never forget going to pick the car up.  Even the guys at the dealership were admiring it and said the the bumblebee stripes were starting to grow on them.  I had the car less than two years, but the many great memories associated with it never left me.  That led me to find my current '68 back in 1997 and restoring it to look just like my old one.  Needless to say, when I take it for a cruise now and turn on and Doors or CCR CD, I'm 20 again and it feels good.   Bob