how and why you got your first charger

dd44068 · February 21, 2006, 10:32:41 AM

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 · February 21, 2006, 11:12:29 AM

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 · February 21, 2006, 11:15:29 AM

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 · February 21, 2006, 11:27:52 AM

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 · February 23, 2006, 08:38:58 PM

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 · February 23, 2006, 08:51:57 PM

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 · February 23, 2006, 08:56:13 PM

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 · February 23, 2006, 09:11:40 PM

Quote from: Plumcrazy on February 23, 2006, 08:51:57 PM

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 · February 23, 2006, 09:52:48 PM

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 · February 23, 2006, 09:56:24 PM

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 · February 23, 2006, 10:01:44 PM

Here is the story and pics of my '68.

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

PocketThunder · February 24, 2006, 12:46:09 AM

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 · February 24, 2006, 01:13:11 AM

'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 · February 24, 2006, 07:59:24 AM

Awesome story Strat!

NYCMille · February 24, 2006, 09:00:02 AM

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 · February 24, 2006, 09:11:09 AM

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 · February 24, 2006, 10:09:28 AM

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 · February 24, 2006, 11:08:44 AM

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 · February 24, 2006, 02:50:04 PM

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 · February 24, 2006, 05:20:46 PM

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 · February 24, 2006, 05:49:34 PM

Awesome story man!

sixpack70 · February 24, 2006, 11:20:36 PM

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 · February 25, 2006, 08:22:54 AM

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 · February 25, 2006, 04:24:02 PM

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 · February 25, 2006, 05:04:17 PM

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

Sinister68 · February 25, 2006, 07:40:04 PM

Four score and seven years ago...

Ah well, just read this!

jaak · February 25, 2006, 09:25:32 PM

I have always liked dodges, my granddad had a dart when I was a kid, I still have it he died when I was 10, I'm 29 now and still have it (although it needs restoring and its a 4-door) I guess thats why I never fixed it up, well anyways I have always liked dodges and as a teen I loved cars especially muscle cars, well after finishing school, I was working and had a little money and decided I wanted to buy a project, I knew it would probably be a mopar, well I worked with a guy who had a 69 charger as a daily driver and was fixing it up as he drove it. I have seen many charger pics and chargers on tv, but after looking at one up close I thought that was an awesome car, a long sleek car that just looked like it could kick your ass, I knew then I wanted a charger.......well after about a 3 yr search I bought a 69 rt, very complete car wasn't numbers matching but came with a 68, 440. As I started dissassembling It was in bad shape alot of rust and shoddy body work, well a year later I happen across another rt, Pretty much a solid car and it ran but was missing everything, alot of trim , some glass, all the interior, except for a pair of 70 buckets, so I bought it and stripped and kept what I needed off rt 1, ebayed the leftovers and now I"m resto moding the 2nd rt. I came out pretty good I guess with the first car, I give 3000 for it in 1999, I kept all the glass, every piece of trim, seats, dash, console, fenders, doors, hood, decklid, motortrans, and numerous small parts, perfect grill, I ebayed some some extra stuff, left over stuff, traded, bartered, etc etc. and I figured I got to keep all parts off 1st car and probably made 1800-1900 of my money back. If your wondering I paid 2500 for the 2nd car in 2000, but I pretty much bought it to have a rust free rollor to start with. Then I had 2 kids, and in 2005 I bought a house with a 32x40 shop so over the last 5 years, I have dissassembled, bought sold traded, to get stuff I needed, and planned, so now I'm getting to finally working/resto moding it.

jaak · February 25, 2006, 09:30:45 PM

Quote from: RECHRGD on February 25, 2006, 05:04:17 PM
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

thats a good story, Bob!

Crazy Larry · February 25, 2006, 09:40:01 PM

The following is an excerpt from a book I wrote on the making of a movie that features a Dodge Charger.
The Charger is now owned by me after I purchased it from the production upon completion of the movie.
Here is the cover from the book:

THE DODGE CHARGER (Part 1 - had to split that chapter into 2 posts to get around the 9,000 character limit)

One final actor was needed before the shooting began for And I Lived...the Dodge Charger. Chris and I shared a love for the era of the muscle car, a time when the big three in Detroit competed for the fastest car on the streets. From the late sixties to the mid seventies, the muscle car owned the highways and streets of every town America. Hollywood would catch on and films began to feature car chase sequences with the muscle car. It is my humble opinion that, throughout the years, the Dodge Charger was the star of them all. It took part in the 1968 chase scene that started it all, by battling Steve McQueen on the streets of San Francisco in the film, Bullitt. Peter Fonda used it to evade police in Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry in 1974. It still can be found today in Hollywood—Wesley Snipes drove it to hunt vampires in the 1998 film, Blade. The Dodge Charger even made its way from the big screen to the television set, while it carried The Dukes of Hazzard over the fields and through the mud from 1979 to 1985. From short cameos to the role as the hero's car, the Charger logged too many appearances in motion pictures to list here (I have counted thirty-two so far—but that's for another book). I wanted to add one more appearance to the list with And I Lived, so I wrote the muscle car into the script. Our main characters would drive around in a Dodge Charger.
In the screenplay, a car chase scene takes place towards the end. It called for the Charger to outrun a tractor trailer, and evade two rent-a-cop cars who try to run it off the road. Why a car chase scene in an independent, low-budget, first-feature film? There were two major reasons behind the decision.
The first: Why not? When studying films, I had developed the love for the car chase scene. The energy, the danger, the quick last-minute decisions—all of them are fun to watch. I thought the opportunity to direct one would be fantastic, and there was an extra bonus: including a car chase in the film and actually pulling it off would add greatly to the production value. A successful filmmaker makes a movie seem like it cost more to make than it actually did. This helps get a bigger return on your budget investment. My aim was just that. By having a car chase scene full of kinetic energy, not to mention a few car wrecks, I saw And I Lived standing above and beyond the typical art house-two-guys-talking-in-a-coffee shop-independent film. Plus, we would have a great time filming it. So, why not?
The second reason: H.B. Halicki. In the seventies, independent films were few and far between. This filmmaker rose from his car dealership and scrap metal business to film a movie on his own. His name was Henry Halicki, and the film was Gone in 60 Seconds (1974). I stumbled upon this man's story while in the military, searching for stories of inspiration to move me through the hard times (when dreams seem unattainable). For a person looking to make a movie outside of the film school/Hollywood system, Halicki's story is canned inspiration.
Here was a man, born into a working class family with twelve siblings in Dunkirk (a small town in western New York State), who just wanted to make some of the most amazing car chase scenes ever filmed. A "Do It Yourself" philosophy was created from his successful years working in self-owned auto salvage businesses, which he started from the ground up, after a move to California. With his work ethic, using his own money, a ten-page script, guerrilla filmmaking tactics, and a 1973 Mustang Mach 1, Halicki filmed a movie including a forty-minute car chase scene in and around the streets of Los Angeles. The relentless filmmaker did his own stunt driving as well as his own directing and producing. Those who worked with Halicki explain how he held on to his vision of the film and wouldn't stop for any hurdle. He would modify the storyline or action scene to work with all the stunt mishaps and filming mistakes. With the wrecking an unprecedented 93 automobiles, Halicki's Gone in 60 Seconds went on to gross forty-million dollars, two sequels (Deadline Auto Theft, The Junkman), and a fan following in America and Europe. Halicki had been labeled "The Car-Crash-king" and had a self-started career in the movies. All of his success was achieved using his own money which he had made from his auto salvage and junk yard businesses and without the assistance of the major Hollywood studios.
Tragically in 1989, H.B. Halicki was killed during the making of Gone in 60 Seconds 2, when a stunt car crashed into a water tower resulting in its collapse onto the set. Support cables violently snapped and a nearby telephone pole was severed at the base. Halicki was struck by the falling telephone pole—he died instantly. Here was a man who just lived to put cars onto film. His story has inspired many to follow their dreams and move ahead no matter what their background. I saw the filming of the car chase scene in And I Lived as a way to pay respect to this great independent filmmaker. Every time I think of turning back, H.B. Halicki's example rings in my head and gives me the courage to move forward.22
Now, finding a Dodge Charger to fit within our budget was the question. Nothing is impossible in this world—after all NASA has cameras on Mars—but finding a Dodge Charger would prove to be almost as difficult. Well maybe not that difficult, but it was a challenge and a half. We often made jokes about changing the company's name from "Charger Films" to "Camaro Films" or even "Mustang Films"—those cars are a dime a dozen. There are Camaro and Mustang traders with thousands for sale. In upstate New York, the Charger supply was pretty thin, so...you guessed it, we would have to turn to our old producer friend, eBay.
Our spending limit was about three thousand dollars. This would rule out the 1968 to 1970 Charger models, which all shared the same body style (the one we wanted). One of those in good condition ran $5,000 and up. Chris and I would keep watch out on eBay, hoping for a good deal. It was July, and we were out of time so a decision would have to be made. We were about to go with a 1974 Dodge Charger, which was in our price range. Dodge changed the body style after 1970 and the Charger was issued a different look, complete with a pointier front end. Some like it (Mel Gibson rides away in one at the end of Payback), we clearly did not. Our hearts and the storyboards were set on the classic 1968 body style, but we were out of time and we couldn't spare any more cash. At least it was a Dodge Charger.
Enter Zenon Dacko, my father and my hero. A muscle car fan and driver back in his twenties, my father was interested in what kind of car we were going to get for the film. Now my father, like any good father would, disagreed with my exiting the military and pursuing feature films. He tried to talk me into working for the local union of linemen at an upstate New York power company where he had worked for the last thirty years. I told him, I am happier making movies. Nevertheless, my father supports all the efforts of his children and always had his opinion of what "looked good" in movies (even though he claims he doesn't like movies at all). When we told him we were looking to buy a 1974 Dodge Charger his eyes widened with disgust. "Oh, no," he stated, "That car looks terrible. You don't want that in your movie." My father then offered to invest some money into the purchase of a good looking Dodge Charger—a 1968 Charger. He would put his dream of buying a Harley Davidson motorcycle on hold just so we could have the perfect car for the movie. What a guy—my first investor.
Now with seven-thousand dollars as a cap on our Charger fund, Chris, and I set out to the summer car shows to look for Dodge Chargers. It was mid June of 2002.

Crazy Larry · February 25, 2006, 09:42:10 PM

The DODGE CHARGER (Part 2)

The largest car show in upstate New York, the Syracuse Nationals, would be in town soon. In preparation, the local muscle car traders held a swap meet. We arrived late and by the time we got there most of the cars were sold or en route to their new owners' homes. There were only a few cars remaining. In the center of the field sat a 1970 Dodge Charger. Red in color, it sat with a crowd of folks looking at it. Quickly my Father, Chris and I walked over to the silent car. Posted on the windshield was a printed sheet of paper stating $8,000. We learned that the owner was nowhere to be found, and that the car would have been sold hours ago if he showed up. So we waited a bit longer than everyone else and the owner finally showed up. After a test drive and a brief conversation, we negotiated a $7,000 sale for the car. We would meet up with him in two days to make the exchange. We shook hands and drove away excited. The Charger for the movie was ours. There was no stopping us now.
There are probably a thousand old clichés I could quote here: If it's too good to be true than it isn't; don't count your chickens before they're hatched, and so on. Any of these could apply here because the guy and his 1970 Dodge Charger simply never showed. He just disappeared. We tried calling and leaving messages. He never answered. We looked his name up in the phone book. He wasn't listed. We had his address and looked in the town where he said he was from. He wasn't there. We were back to square one; still no Charger.
After months of watching for Chargers on eBay Motors, we thought we'd found one that was simply perfect. It was in the following week, after our first Charger deal had fallen through, that Chris and I found a white 1969 Dodge Charger for sale out of Oklahoma. The Charger had a "buy it now" option for $5,500, which meant we could buy the car for that price with the press of a button. The car looked great from the multiple pictures that the owner had made available. It was in good shape with a solid, working engine. We talked about how much work would be needed and if it was affordable to drive the ten hours to pick up the vehicle and drive it back to Rochester. We decided it could be done, so we hit the buy it now option and purchased the vehicle. The eBay message came through stating Charger Films wins the bidding. There it was. We had done it. Finally, we made a successful purchase of a Dodge Charger, a good looking one too. All we had to do was drive down and pick it up. I just about sat back and breathed a sigh of relief, until...
The owner's reply email arrived. Apologetically, the guy stated that he had sold the car locally on his front lawn just hours before we made the purchase electronically. He told us how he forgot to remove the listing off of eBay after the sale. Anger and frustration began to set in. Shot down again, two times in a row. Still no Charger and we were already approaching the end of June. Filming was only one month away!
There are times when subsequent let-downs cause pressure in our lives (careers) and we as humans are faced with decisions. It is how we handle this pressure that directly affects whether those decisions are made correctly. I believed that this film was making itself. If we lost the first two Chargers, maybe it was never meant to be. I knew there was a Dodge Charger out there for this movie—the first two just were not meant to be in the film. Instead of overreacting and buying whatever showed up next, I sat back and kept watch over the Chargers on eBay and in the local auto trade magazines. The right one would present itself.
And it did—the next week, I came across a 1968 Dodge Charger for sale out of Vermont. The bidding was only at $3,000 with one day left. I immediately placed a bid for the car and went off to work hoping for the best. Chris said the rims on the Charger were thousand dollar rims and there was no way we would get the car for less than seven thousand dollars. I said, "Hey, you never know," and kept my eye on it.
The next day I won the on-line bidding with $6,500, but the auction was invalid since it didn't meet the owner's reserve price. I called the owner after the sale didn't go through to discuss what they had in mind. She basically said they wanted $8,000 and the Charger to go to a good home. I explained how we were going to film a movie and we were looking for a star performer in the form of a Dodge Charger. Due to budget restraints, I told her we couldn't go above $6,500. The next day, the owner called the office and stated if we showed up that weekend we could have the car for $6,800. "Deal," I said, and we were off to Vermont to look at a Charger.
It was in northern Vermont where we would meet Kim and Ron, who had one Dodge Charger resting on their front lawn for sale. It was beautiful, in all its classic car glory. Orange in color with a black vinyl top, I knew the car would need a cosmetic makeover. The script called for a black Charger and, even though orange Chargers are fine, the movie really could do without the inevitable Dukes of Hazzard references. The body was rust free and in beautiful condition. Under the hood was a 383 big-block engine with an automatic 727 TorqueFlite transmission.
Kim explained the story of the Charger which originally began in Canada. Back in the early 80's, the car was purchased used and brought over the border by a man to northern Vermont where he would work on it with his son. The man soon died and the son gave up on the vehicle. The son moved away and left the car in his mother's possession. The Charger then sat in a multiple car garage for over fifteen years, never to be used once. Kim explained how she came across a car sale held by the deceased owner's wife. There, in the line-up of antique cars that the lady owned, the Charger sat. Kim purchased it to have a separate "fun" vehicle to get groceries in. Circumstances fell on the couple where they needed to sell the Charger. That was when Chris and I pulled up in Chris's Ford pickup with a trailer attached to the back.
After the test drive, we noticed the car needed some work. There was a fuel leak and the engine didn't seem as strong as it should have been. Chris decided the car was mechanically sound and he could fix the minor problems that the car had. We went ahead with the sale and drove away with one 1968 Dodge Charger. It was now official; we did not need to change our name to Camaro Films.
It was the end of June. The Charger would take a bit more cash to get prepared for filming. An electric ignition and racing fuel cell would be added to make the car more reliable. We stripped the 1970's vinyl covering off the top of the car and had the body painted high gloss black.
By mid July, the Charger looked really impressive. We had the best year and best color for our movie. If the film looked as good as the Charger did, we would be in pretty good shape when this was all said and done. Thanks to our now-Associate Producer, Zenon Dacko, the Charger in Charger Films was all set and ready to go.

Images from the movie "And I Lived"

Poster from "And I Lived"

genlee1970 · February 25, 2006, 10:26:41 PM

I was 12 when the Dukes came out and I fell in love with the General Lee (as well as Daisy!!) I knew at that point I'd like to some day to have a Charger (and a hot girlfriend!!). My first car was a 71 Duster that I used to beat on Dukes style, catching air over the local train tracks and tooling around the dirt roads in the cemetary near my girlfriends house. After that, there never seemed to be Chargers around when I was in the market for another vehicle. When Iwas 19 I told my father that I wanted a Charger and that I had wanted one since I was 12. His response was "That goes to show that you're no smarter now that you were when you were 12!!" I ended up with a 74 AMX Javelin (which he hated as well!!!) , which I "restored" (in the late 80's sense of the word)
Paint, interior, mild 360, headers, glass packs. Cool ride. By the early 90's I had been in the auto repair business for 5 years and was becoming disenchanted with all things automotive, so the AMX sat more and more. By 96, the cylinders had rusted over so the motor could hardly be spun by hand. Rather than fix it, I sold it for pennies on the dollar, putting the money toward repair of my first house which I had just bought. So ended my foray into old cars or so I thought.
Fast forward to 1999. I was sent to Delaware for new product training and the only thing to do on lunch breaks was read magazines. As luck would have it, Car Caft was featuring alot of Chargers that year; that got the wheels turning. I needed an old Mopar. I spent my hours after class driving around Delware in the rental car looking for one. I found a "little old lady" 66 Belvedere, 273, bench seat column shift for $2,500. I called my then wife concerning the prospect of buying this thing and driving it home to Rhode Island. She was fine with it, if that's what I really wanted. "No, what I really want is a Charger!!" "So why not wait and get what you really want?" she replied.
Upon returning home I picked up an auto trader and within 2 weeks found ...."a 70 R/T, apart, body straight, rebuilt 440,all the hard work done" Well, the body was solid, the 440 looked clean enough, and it was apart, about as apart as you can get a car and still have it roll. To say my wife wasn't pleased at me spending $3,500 for a car that was basically like a Revel Model kit.... Well luckily for me the guy was some what honest. I knew nothing about vin numbers at the time. Thankfully all the numbers checked out and it is a real R/T. The "rebuilt 440" turned out to be a freshly painted '78 440 with a cylinder ful of water and rust!!! Since most of the car was in boxes I didn't realise how many parts were missing, but 20 years after I had first seen the Dukes, I finally had my own Charger.
I started restoring it in my driveway then when winter hit I got one of those Cover It instant shelters.
I worked on it when weather and funds permitted.
ACTUAL time start to finish was about a year and a half (glad all the hard work had already been done...knot!!!) though marital trouble extended the process out over a five year period. The decision to go General Lee with it was made as I was blocksanding it. This'll be it's third summer finished, and I can honestly say I've never had so much fun "with" (not in!! ...71 Duster...1984...drive in...) any other car I've had. It was well worth the wait. Special thanks to Pam, Gary, Pete and Mike, (G-series, Chargervert, Dayclona) for parts, information,advice and guidance. Charger....a sweet addiction

Brock Samson · August 24, 2008, 02:12:48 PM

time for a bump?..

charger_fan_4ever · August 24, 2008, 02:57:13 PM

Guess it started off with watchin the duke's of hazzard back in the 80's as a kid. Then the movie bullit, dirty Mary crazy larry. My brother at the time had a 69 daytona that he ended up selling in the early 90's. Wanted to buy a 2nd generation project for a first car. Couldn't find one i could afford, so at 14 I bought a pair of 70 dusters. One a rust free 6 cyl, the other a 340 4 speed with a shot body. Got the 6 cyl on primer and the 340,4 speed, 8 3/4 ready to go in. Time passed got my license, duster sat there. Wanted something i could get in and go, so i bought a gta trans am 350 tpi. Wasn't fast enough, so i swapped it for the fox body mustang i have now. When the speed bug really bit i sold off the duster to fund some major speed parts for the mustang. I always wanted a charger and the A body didn't really cut it. I sold the duster about 6-7 years ago and the charger prices were even further out of reach then they were for me at 14. I started looking about 6 months ago called about a few r/t's all seemed to be the same story needed everything including frame rails. I found the 70 r/t i have now a couple months ago on the craigslist in NH. Called on a saturday and liked what i heard. Drove down the following tuesday and then went back to pick it up the following saturday. For once a car was actually as described

nice solid frame rails and uni body.

Pic of it loaded heading back
other pic of it with some rust free metal from my brothers parts stash

CharcoalCharger · August 24, 2008, 04:17:06 PM

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,46978.0.html

triple_green · August 24, 2008, 08:33:46 PM

Because in H.S. I had a /6 Dart and what I always wanted was a Charger.

in 1998-99, I worked on the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas merger...so I took some of the OT I earned and bought my 68 for $4K .

I've never regretted it.....................

3X

TK73 · August 24, 2008, 09:14:28 PM

I'm compensating for a serious lack of emotional stability and trying to be cool...

G-man · August 24, 2008, 09:36:27 PM

I remember when I was 6 years old a "Jumping orange car", I always loved and asked about the "jumping orange car", in my mid teens I asked my brother "what was that jumping car I remember?", he said "you mean knight Rider?" I said, No, it was big and was orange and he said "O you mean Dukes of hazard?" So i looked it up and there it was, a 1969 Dodge Charger. Was my most favourite and still is show thats ever been on TV. I also heard about the HEMI at this time and how the General was a "426 HEMI Charger". As Im searching ofcourse I find out that most cars were 383/440s (just spoken of as Hemis) and as far as the doors being welded shut you could hear in some episodes when the doors open/close (car not in picture). Was just part of the story.

Well when I was 20 I went looking for it, at this time (5 and a half years ago) The best thing I could get was a 318 (hopefully running) rusty Charger. So it was out of my price range by far. So I ended up getting a 1987 308ci Pontiac Trans Am GTA. Had fun with it. I noticed not long after a 1979 white Trans am (the 1 with the 4 square lights in the front) and thought "man that looks so muscly compare to what im sitting in" and a week after that I see a beafed out hotrod drive past, and Im thinking "man, these cars look like serious muscle" and I lost interest in my trans-am. So After selling it I went looking for a muscle car. Again I asked for a Dodge Charger again it was TOO expensive... so I settled for a 1972 VH Valiant Charger, 245ci straight 6 hemi. Drove that and again, was not happy because it just didnt look right. Yes it was a "muscle car" but it looked like an aussie muscle car. We have GTHO fords, Holden Monaros and the Ford XB and the Valiant Charger... all have this "aussie" look to them which I never liked.

Well later I saw 2 fast 2 furious, and I fell inlove with the 1970 Dodge Challenger, it looked good, loved the rear tail light how it went accross the entire rear etc. So i started doing some research. Find out the Challenger is "Shorter" than a Charger and also has a 10" shorter wheelbase providing "Better handling" and supposed to be lighter providing better "power to weight ratio" which means faster in acceleration and down the quarter. Since I liked the B-Body Charger and Challenger equally at this time, the "performance" of the challenger is why I in August 2005 Ended up with a 1970 Dodge Challenger. This car is still not complete, had few problems with Banks and houses (parents side) so I had to sell the challenger, but at the same time I wanted to keep a muscle car, so I could only afford something half the cost (but had to be a driver)

So I realised few things:

A- as far as the street is concerned both will handle as good as eachother as you cant race on the street. I am not going to a race track ever so the handling of the challenger where it would be realised is now void.

B: Power to weight ratio, as ive done more research I am finding out that the charger though Longer by 1 foot, is actually narrower than the challenger by 2.2". The weight of these 2 cars are very similar, so power-weight ratio will be the same (the only thing you can use safetly on the road when no cops around)

C: Im never going to earn 60 000+ per year to be able to go modify these cars all out to reach the levels where there would be differences. So that means either Challenger or Charger both will suck in handling if the $ never allow this to be changed, so all thats left for me is the "look" as the performance on the street is the same.

D: I need to go to college and I cant afford to keep my challenger as alot of $ went at it for a full rotiserie resto.

So I started looking for another Challenger to replace the 1 I got (half the price). Looked to spend 20 000US on a car which imported to this country, tax etc works out to 30k AU. That was my budget.

Then I started thinking about the above A-D and decided "well since im replacing my one anyway... maybe I can now look for a charger, its easier to part with a equally good looking car (Challenger instead of charger) rather than parting with the dream car since 6 years old (the charger though both look good)

The 1968 Charger looked meaner because of that square blacked out front and at the same time was more interesting in design than the challenger (fold in grill - just had a taste of uniqueness - interesting idea)... however, becasue i grew to love the challenger I loved the rear tailight that went right accross... I found out the 1970 CHarger has that... but I never liked the front of it and i liked the marker lights of the 68 and I always wanted a car prior to "1970"

So I thought "hell I can always change the rear on the 68 to a 70 to get that mean straight across tailight and still keep the nice front and marker lights + 60s car if i really HAVE to"

SO I now started looking for a Charger in May 2008. I posted up a message on this forum asking if somebody could help me find a 1968 Charger with a manual and preferably a big block. Reason Why, going by the income again, I may never afford to spend 6000 on a manual. I may sadly just end up with what I end up, if it drives, that may be all it will ever end up being, so at least if its a manual, itl be fun even as is.

Called up Mike (Mr-Happy

) asked few questions, then when it was settled in my mind, i decided Charger instead of Challenger.

Well DANS68 I believe found me an original 318/auto car that was fitted with a 383 BB and a 4-speed. Pocket Thunder went out to have a look at it and said it was worth the money. Said it didnt have rust issues, everything was nice and straight on it and the gears were smooth up, just not down (needing a minor adjustment).

So I ended up buying towards the end of May 2008 (just few months ago) my 1968 Dodge Charger 383-4speed (originaly 318/auto).

im 25 and now I finally have the car I knew about when i was 6 and im happy. Here she is.

Kevin68N71 · August 24, 2008, 11:29:45 PM

I always loved Chargers, I always loved Mopars in fact. After a two year stint in Illinois my dad finally got transferred back to California. On the drive out we kept passing this 1969 orange Road Runner. I had already had a ride in a 1969 Hemi Super Bee, so the Mopar bug had bit.

It took me about a year to save up some money. I really wanted a 1969. However, a friend of mine who worked in a gas station knew I wanted a Charger, and a guy came in with one and he asked him if it was for sale, and it was. He was kind enough to get his phone number for me.

I called the guy, and he said yes, he had the car, it had been his wife's car (!) and it was in very good shape. I went right over.

It was a 1968, but I loved it. I took it for a drive with him. It rumbled really nice. It was $750. I went home and told my dad I wanted it--my dad had already tried to talk me out of a musclecar by the old trick of having his insurance guy call me and tell me it would be too expensive to insure. But when he heard the price he was willing to take a look at it. After he drove it, he agreed to lend me the $250 I was short and I bought the car. I was working at Bob's Big Boy as a dishwasher at the time saving up for it...now THAT was commitment!

My ex-wife tried to get rid of it...I got rid of HER instead!

G-man · August 25, 2008, 03:15:00 AM

Quote from: Kevin68N71 on August 24, 2008, 11:29:45 PM

My ex-wife tried to get rid of it...I got rid of HER instead!

KMPX2 · August 25, 2008, 03:46:37 AM

I learned to drive in my Dads new 73 Charger SE. So it was a no brainer that I bought a used 72 as soon as I had the cash.

gordo1968charger · August 25, 2008, 04:19:40 AM

about 1979 i saw dirty mary crazy larry,(this was before the dukes of hazzard)i thought it was the best looking car ever made.fast forward to 1995 i bought my first american car(i live in uk)a 79 caddy sedan de ville,but it was really a charger i wanted,money was tight etc,i had a young son another on the way(i was 25)caddy had to be sold.
my luck changed in november 2000 when i was coming home from work on my motorcycle when i was hit by an old woman who hospitalised me for 2 months

my wife rushed to the hospital to see me and found i had a smashed left thigh,i needed 6 pints of blood and a 2 month hospital stay in traction,I HAD A HUGE SMILE ON MY FACE TOO!

wife says what are you smiling about?
"I CAN GET A CHARGER NOW WITH THE COMPENSATION"
october 2004 i bought my first and only charger
when someone says are you going to sell it,my reply is"i ve been through too much shit to part with it"

bear · August 25, 2008, 04:28:30 AM

When I was about 10 or so I saw a 69 listed in the paper for and at that time I couldn't picture what it looked like so I looked it in one of the car books laying around my house and knew that was the car I wanted to have. I found mine through the guy that we met and he was restoring a 68 at the time (now its finished see the thread about it) and said he would keep an eye out for me if he found a good project one and he did bought it off of EBay and now it sit waiting for me to return to restore it.

SFRT · August 25, 2008, 12:11:09 PM

I bought my first 'hotrod' in 1976...a 65 plymouth sport fury III covertible with a roll and tuck interior, a tiny chain steering wheel and no brakes. That car got me kicked out of the house. over the years I always had something, a 69 Nova, a 70 goat, a 66 vette, hell, even a corvair. I finally got my first 'real' B Body in 1991..a super cherry 70 roadrunner. thing was awesome...until I got T-boned by a Bridge Authoritry truck here in SF, which totalled the car. I had done quite a bit to the roadrunner, so I was pretty bummed, used the settlement money to buy a new car...swore of old cars...about 4-5 years ago my wife started agitating for a 'hotrod' and, of course, she wanted a '67 Camaro.

Tell you what, nice' 67 Camaros cost a lot, and you dont get much...so I did what I could to sort of sabotage the project....one day we where 'talking' about the car, and she was going on about 'evil black musclecar'..and I told her ..look..a camaro isnt a MUSCLECAR..its a ponycar and its...well..sorta gay.

IF YOU WANT A REAL MUSCLECAR-it can ONLY be a Charger...and started showing her pictures. and movies..Finally, we went to see Deathproof and...

she was.......oohhhhh..its like a REALLY BIG CAMARO...

So, finally, it was all systems go to get a Charger. I looked around for a while, wanted a 4 Speed basically, and ended up buying an overpriced carpet-bombed Dresden quality '69 R/T from some Hillbillies up in the Holler...and couldnt be happier. The resto is about done, everything looks sweet and life is good.

69*F5*SE · August 25, 2008, 01:36:43 PM

Short and sweet, I loved the way the looked and I had the money to by on impulse when I got mine. I should've waited to find a completed car but it didn't work out that way.

DixieRestoParts · August 25, 2008, 03:34:27 PM

Here's my story. It was published on www.jalopnik.com by a buddy of mine. Hope you like it.

http://jalopnik.com/cars/retro/a-tale-of-two-chargers-321920.php#c3000136

Dans 68 · August 25, 2008, 04:00:17 PM

Quote from: G-man on August 24, 2008, 09:36:27 PM...Well DANS68 I believe found me an original 318/auto car that was fitted with a 383 BB and a 4-speed.

You are welcome!

Looks a lot like my '68....

Quote from: G-man on August 24, 2008, 09:36:27 PMPocket Thunder went out to have a look at it and said it was worth the money. Said it didnt have rust issues, everything was nice and straight on it and the gears were smooth up, just not down (needing a minor adjustment).

Paul is a good guy. But his screen name is just too...!

His Wifey needs to weigh in....

Quote from: G-man on August 24, 2008, 09:36:27 PMSo I ended up buying towards the end of May 2008 (just few months ago) my 1968 Dodge Charger 383-4speed (originaly 318/auto).

im 25 and now I finally have the car I knew about when i was 6 and im happy. Here she is.

Good story. Mine is a bit dull...my '73 was given to me by my brother-in-law, as she and Hubby were moving across the country and did not want to ship the car. As I have always been a gear-head it was a simple solution to their problem (I offered to pay for it, so don't hate me). Now, my '68 was a much desired purchased, and I took my time getting it. I guess I need a 1st gen to complete the series. Wonder what my wife would say to that...?

Dan

arrow · August 25, 2008, 04:41:41 PM

I really liked the 68 Charger when they were introduced -, and when I got home from the Army one of the first things I did was get a loaded 69 RT , I still have it today, it has a whole 41000 miles on it

moparstuart · August 25, 2008, 04:54:38 PM

glad to hear those stories where you kept it though thick and thin

General_01 · August 25, 2008, 05:22:18 PM

Great Stories.

I fell in love with the Charger because of the General Lee. This was further cemented by a guy in my town who had an awesome maroon '69 with the license plate "SIX PAK". That car was awesome. When I started college, I moved in with my sister. Her boyfriend Mike, now husband, owned and drove a '73 as his daily driver. This was 1987. I wanted to buy a Charger. I found out that one of my Dad's friends had a '74 sitting in the field behind his house. No engine or tranny. My dad's friend and his wife said I could have the car for $50. COOL! Mike found a 318 4 barrel engine and tranny for $400. So for $450 and a little elbow grease in 1987 I had my first Charger. I drove it for a couple years and then loaned him to my sister and Mike for a while because they needed a vehicle. When they were done using it I decided to sell it and Mike found a buyer.

In 1989 I bought the '71 Superbee and from 2001 to 2008 I also owned a GL replica. I still have the Bee. Kinda funny how second gens got me interested, but I ended up with a 3rd gen.

mikepmcs · August 25, 2008, 05:39:42 PM

I actually am a huge DOH fan as well(no kidding, right, I know) and that is why I now have a 69 as well, but to tell you the truth my first car was a 1970 Charger and basically I just saw it one day on the side of the road and had to have it. Always been a huge MOPAR fan and I remember, during that time frame, my across the street neighbor had a brown duster and his buddy had a Cuda' and i've had at least one Chrysler product floating around ever since. Darts, Scamps, Rams, Ramchargers, even had a 80's Daytona(wing was a little smaller

) 3- 69 road runners(my second favorite b body), Jeeps, you name it I've had a bunch as well as a ton of other big 3 cars and some foreing jobbers as well. I even owned 2-32 Chevy's at one time(pure junk, no wheels etc....) but I had em', caddy's, a couple vettes, I could go on and on like quite of few others on here. My goal is to own every car i've ever wanted and I'm down to about 2 or 3 now. I still want a 34' ford..ZZTOP rep of course(probably not gonna happen) and a couple others including a Cuda' but time is growing short and unless I hit the lotto, well you know.

I'm down to 3 Chevy Trucks, my 69 and my 55, and an ironhorse(for sale by the way)

Only car I will never get rid of is my 69 Charger!

I rambled sorry

v/r
Mike

Finn · August 25, 2008, 06:08:03 PM

I wanted a practical car (large trunk) that I could take people in (room for 5...legally...room for 7...technically), was easy on gas (when turned off), wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg to keep up (cost me my life savings instead), had a good warranty (if something brakes, someone out there has the part you need to fix it...for the small fee of your firstborn), and was reliable (it was still technically driving after 40 years...if that doesn't spell out reliability I don't know what does).

68RT4ME · August 25, 2008, 10:30:39 PM

The year was 1980. I had just moved and transferred to my new high School and I meet this skinny blond haired guy who looked like Tom Petty in gym class. The guy's name was/is Troy aka hemi68charger-Troy. Yeah him. Well at the time, I didn't know squat about cars. Troy will tell you I still don't and compared to him, I don't but, I digress. Anyway, this kid, all he would talk about was this damn Charger car.

On and on he went. day in, day out. Kinda like now...lol. neither of us owned a car. We weren't quite old enough as yet but, he swore then it would be MOPAR or no car.

The year past and Troy shows up one day in a white '68 Charger but, this thing was let's say, in need of some help. I've kinda told this before on here but anyway, he tells me he's having it painted and that I will like it when he gets it done. I along with EVERYBODY... laugh

at Troy Petty , oops... Troy

. So now one day, he shows up to school in this car and it's painted in a bright yellow with a black top and sounds awesome as it's got new exhaust too. It was easily one of if not the nicest, coolest rides at the school. Suddenly, nobody was laughing and I had a whole new appreciation for the car.

It wasn't till a few years later that I bought that very car from Troy as he had moved on to others. Though we now live in different States, Troy's been my best friend since way back then. I both blame him and thank him for my near obsession for Chargers. I have 3 now..... Damn it!!!

and thanks... Troy

General_01 · August 25, 2008, 10:35:07 PM

Quote from: 68RT4ME on August 25, 2008, 10:30:39 PM
The year was 1980. I had just moved and transferred to my new high School and I meet this skinny blond haired guy who looked like Tom Petty in gym class. The guy's name was/is Troy aka hemi68charger-Troy. Yeah him. Well at the time, I didn't know squat about cars. Troy will tell you I still don't and compared to him, I don't but, I digress. Anyway, this kid, all he would talk about was this damn Charger car. On and on he went. day in, day out. Kinda like now...lol. neither of us owned a car. We weren't quite old enough as yet but, he swore then it would be MOPAR or no car.

The year past and Troy shows up one day in a white '68 Charger but, this thing was let's say, in need of some help. I've kinda told this before on here but anyway, he tells me he's having it painted and that I will like it when he gets it done. I along with EVERYBODY... laugh at Troy Petty , oops... Troy . So now one day, he shows up to school in this car and it's painted in a bright yellow with a black top and sounds awesome as it's got new exhaust too. It was easily one of if not the nicest, coolest rides at the school. Suddenly, nobody was laughing and I had a whole new appreciation for the car.

It wasn't till a few years later that I bought that very car from Troy as he had moved on to others. Though we now live in different States, Troy's been my best friend since way back then. I both blame him and thank him for my near obsession for Chargers. I have 3 now..... Damn it!!! and thanks... Troy

Dude, you gotta change your screen name. You don't even have a 68.

By the way, cool story. Ain't that always the way it is. Your best buds are always the ones steering you wrong..er, I mean right.

paironines · August 26, 2008, 12:28:45 AM

I went to buy a 68 Charger I found on the side of the road, but talked myself out of it because it needed rails and everything and I had never owned a car before much less worked on one. Discouraged, me and my friend drove home and I casually picked up the local trader paper and found a running but rough 70 500 for sale 11 miles from my home. I purchased it later that night and had crazy fun in that car. I sold it in `97 to someone form Ft. Wayne IN and I would be tickled to death to know that it was still alive. Maybe even to buy it back? It was originally green w/ red oxide primer all over it, white interior w/ one black seat and a 360 under the hood (orig 318). Very rusty. Help!!

The70RT · August 26, 2008, 05:42:07 AM

To make a long story short. In 78 I had just bought a 71 Fury 6 months earlier and then my nephew decided to drop out of school and inlist in the Army. Well the car had to go and I told him I had first dibs if it was gonna ever be up for sale. He said I could have it for what he gave for it 8 months earlier - 1000. I ended up getting a loan and my payments were 38 bucks a month..........end of story

68RT4ME · August 26, 2008, 08:53:09 AM

Quote from: General_01 on August 25, 2008, 10:35:07 PM
Quote from: 68RT4ME on August 25, 2008, 10:30:39 PM
The year was 1980. I had just moved and transferred to my new high School and I meet this skinny blond haired guy who looked like Tom Petty in gym class. The guy's name was/is Troy aka hemi68charger-Troy. Yeah him. Well at the time, I didn't know squat about cars. Troy will tell you I still don't and compared to him, I don't but, I digress. Anyway, this kid, all he would talk about was this damn Charger car. On and on he went. day in, day out. Kinda like now...lol. neither of us owned a car. We weren't quite old enough as yet but, he swore then it would be MOPAR or no car.

The year past and Troy shows up one day in a white '68 Charger but, this thing was let's say, in need of some help. I've kinda told this before on here but anyway, he tells me he's having it painted and that I will like it when he gets it done. I along with EVERYBODY... laugh at Troy Petty , oops... Troy . So now one day, he shows up to school in this car and it's painted in a bright yellow with a black top and sounds awesome as it's got new exhaust too. It was easily one of if not the nicest, coolest rides at the school. Suddenly, nobody was laughing and I had a whole new appreciation for the car.

It wasn't till a few years later that I bought that very car from Troy as he had moved on to others. Though we now live in different States, Troy's been my best friend since way back then. I both blame him and thank him for my near obsession for Chargers. I have 3 now..... Damn it!!! and thanks... Troy

Dude, you gotta change your screen name. You don't even have a 68.

By the way, cool story. Ain't that always the way it is. Your best buds are always the ones steering you wrong..er, I mean right.

My first Charger was the '68 in the story. Hense the screen name. It's also my favorite year.

News:

how and why you got your first charger