G'day all - New member from Australia

[aussie]

G'day all,

I dont know if this is the correct place to post on this forum but i thought i'd give it a try.
I'm hoping within the next few months to start looking to import a charger from the USA.
Looking at 69-70 model, 383 auto, don't think i will be able to afford a RT lol.
Anywho, i'm after some buying tips and a bit of a general " what to look for " when buying one.
Like common problems, rust areas etc etc.
Also do you guys have like database or something to check if a car has been in an accident?
Hear in Australia we have a REVS check which you can do tell you if the car has been " written off " ( damaged in a accident beyond repair ).
Do you guys have a rough price guide to follow?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers Lads.

[Baldwinvette77]

Welcome! theres a bunch of australian members here they can help you better than i can, most common rust spots are the rear window channel, quarter panels, taillight panel, rear valance, but remember these are 45+ year old cars and can rust anywhere, Goodluck! 

[Evolution69]

Welcome you have come to the right place.

Few Aussie members here im sure they will chime in and help you out

[polywideblock]

welcome   yea theres a mob of us Ozzie's on here .
can't help with rust issues on the 2nd gen  but if you look hard enough you can find  the info you want on this site

[billfury]

 

Welcome to the family.

[aussie]

Great! I'm making a transition from old pommy cars, used to looking at floor pans and sills and crappy wiring lol.
I will be more looking at something in really good condition or nearly restored.
I have been checking out a couple sale pages like cruizecalifornia.com , seem to be fairly neat cars on that page.
Hopefully some of these OZ members can give me the low down on importation and compliancing etc etc.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

I've never been to Australia, but the wife and I ate at the Outback last night. 

[aussie]

lol. I had a japanese friend in high school that thought we rode kangaroos to school, so i asked him if he ate cats lol.

[Ghoste]

Welcome to the group.

[Cooter]

G'Day MAte, and Welcome.... I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express Last night.

[charger Downunder]

Good to see you found us welcome.

[70 Charger RT]

Welcome.  Where in Oz are you?  I was there years ago.  I bought an HR Holden in Sydney and drove to Melb'n, Perth, Broome, Ayers Rock, Townsville, Cape Tribulation, Brisb'n, then to Sydney.  Sold the car for what I paid for it ($390).  All these miles with no Roo bar or front bumper.  No, I never hit any roos.  It was a great trip.

[twodko]

Welcome! As you can already guess we're a randy bunch of gear heads. 

[JB400]

Welcome to our group.  Best of luck acquiring a 2nd gen

[tan top]

hello & welcome     

[68X426]

thought we rode kangaroos to school, so i asked him if he ate cats lol.

You don't? They don't? 

Welcome. You will fit right in. 

The forum search tool works great for most everything you're asking about. Member "Bob T" in New Zealand imported a Charger, he'll help with some tips and ideas.

[skip68]

   Welcome to the site.

[68X426]

  Welcome to the site.

Aussie, by the way, BEWARE of Skip! 

Mrs. Skip is ok.

[nvrbdn]

hey, i talked to a couple austailians before. well dang, guess i just did it again. welcome to the site.

[68X426]

Aussie, one way to track activity and pricing in the USA is with E-bay. Not that it is authoritative, or even an adequate gauge of quality and price, but at least it's a start. Here is a link to completed listings in the last 21 days:

http://motors.completed.shop.ebay.com/Cars-Trucks-/6001/i.html?LH_Auction=1&LH_Complete=1&Make=Dodge&Model%2520Year=1970%7C1969%7C1968&_trkparms=65%253A14%257C39%253A1&rt=nc&_nkw=dodge+charger&_catref=1&_dmpt=US_Cars_Trucks&_flso=0&_fpos=95370&_fspt=0&_myi=1968-1970&_qfkw=1&_sc=1&_sticky=1&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_sop=3&_sc=1

There were 33 ads in May. Several sales in the $20k to 30k range. It's easy to set up your own tracking search on their site.

[aussie]

Thank you all.
In Tamworth NSW, nearly half way between Sydney and Brisbane, country NSW.
Somebody mentioned good luck acquiring a 2nd gen charger, are these extremely sort after? Or was the just misread encouragement lol.
Yeah i watch ebay AU a fair bit but our prices are crazy compared to the importing sites.
I even browse carsales.com.au and the like, usually what im looking at is around the $45k mark, where the same looking stuff on these importing sites is more the low $30k mark.
I had a car imported from japan in 2002, but i had a dealer do it for me. It seemed fairly straight forward, hoping the US is a similar story.

[ottawamerc]

Hi mate glad to meet ya, good luck with the hunt for a car and welcome

[aussie]

Well ebay USA makes chargers look even more affordable  .
Nice black one in Alabama 
Has anyone had anything to do with cruisecalifornia.com before?

[Darkman]

Hi and Welcome. I'm from Adelaide and have gone through this almost 3 years ago.

My advice is to:

Get a reputable broker to do the searching for you. They will establish what budget you have and will find a car that fits. I used Matt from Shermatt America in Florida. Matt is an ex Adelaide boy that now lives in Florida. They charge $2000AU and take care of all that stuff for you. Be sure to explain how much your budget is. If it is $45k then that will need to include ALL costs for importing (not just the car).

Depending on the car and location, but they will inspect it for you. If it is on the other side of the country, they will charge flights and accommodation, so choose carefully and get them to inspect the one you REALLY want.

They will also guide you through the import process and use Schumacher Logistics. Being in NSW you should get a direct shipping route from LA (where they ship from) so it will be cheaper.

Then you will need to incorporate transport from wherever the car was purchased to LA, quarantine/customs inspections, unpacking, unloading, insurances, shipping, transport to you and GST.

So, for a $30,000 car (which is a very nice car by the way), don't expect too much change out of $45,000!

[Bob T]

Gidday Ocker, and welcome to the best site for info on U.S. Charger iron, spend some time with the search function on peoples projects and decide how committed you are to buying the best car that you can for the money. Its expensive to import one, but often cheaper than buying a project or a local one that's already on the road

Definitely as Darkman says, get it inspected by some reputable agent , remember you are risking your dough if it turns out to be a lemon when it turns up at the freight depot in oz and will cost you thousands to put right  and get it roadworthy, I know of several people that have turds on their hands that are worth nothing like they paid for and still need plenty doing.. If the agent says its a dog, pay him his clip and keep looking, it will be cheaper and less stress in the long run.
I used a Kiwi agent in LA, expensive but good, can supply his contact if you wish, he ships anywhere

I brought mine off a member here after placing a wanted ad here and on moparts- had made enquiries on around 6 cars, the seller was a man of his word but I still got it checked for piece of mind.

Also, realistically, avoid eBay, by the time the auction runs out, the time pressure could mean not being able to get the agent there for an inspection. Plenty of scam artists waiting for foreigners too. Be patient. Set the budget and allow extra for hidden charges, freight, import duties etc.
Dunno if you're set on a Charger or any tough B body, a lot of Runners, Coronets, Satellites and the like can be had for less coin and still do big skids and possibly only owe you 35k all up.

68's are the pick of the bunch anyway, even Fred will tell you that  
Good luck

Bob in NZ

[twodko]

Don't let them put you off with horrid tales of our beloved Skip68. He may be a few fries short of a Happy Meal but who isn't. You live in/on one of the most beautiful countries/continents in the world which just happens to have an over abundance of nasty highly venomous stinging, biting, chewing on you things. I mention this because our Skip68 likes to play with rattlesnakes and scorpions. All tame by AU standards. Mrs Skip, Our Jackie and the ever lovely Mrs Fred.......well, I don't want to get into any trouble but I'll offer one word.

Lookers!  

Once you meet them you'll forget all about our scary Skipper.  

[Rosco]

Welcome! Good to see another Aussie!

As others have said, rear window, quarters, boot floor, etc, are the major rust spots.
Can't help too much with the importing, as I bought one that was already here.
Best of luck finding one!

[fy469rtse]

I've never been to Australia, but the wife and I ate at the Outback last night. 

that refers in old times as the toilet, why would you eat there lol , did the serve kangaroo or just deep fried snake,

[fy469rtse]

check out some of the importers here just mustangs , riddles creek, American used at hastings , they regularly have cars on the way or in stock or could help you search for the right car and paper work , I'm sure that there's more than these importers here, do a web search

[polywideblock]

just imported for the 3rd time cost to import approx $3000 but the big killer is GST 10% of the TOTAL that you spend on the import that includes  car,transport fees in the us etc etc  .I've used  http://www.autoezysearch.com.au/ all three times and can't fault them and they do it all dotars, customs etc etc all you have to do is arrange transport from Melbourne to your home and pay the GST  everything else is included in one off fee . I've found cars from e bay .com and http://www.carsonline-ads.com/colsite/col?use=UC1_BrowseSite&cmd=showHome   i haven't had a problem getting car inspected within time limits  maybe I've been lucky

[loudmouthaussie]

Welcome aboard. Tom from Brissy. '70 500 w/ 383 auto 

Plenty of dealers around in oz. Its pretty hard to find good mopar for good price though.

Have a friend who goes to states once a year and brings 5 cars back most times.

He'd love to bring more mopar but can't find many. If you want his number/email I can give it to you in a PM 

[aussie]

Thanks for all the oz support  .
I mostly had the Charger in mind, i suppose a lot of it will come down to how much the wife will let me spend lol.
I like the super bee but they are just as expensive i have seen.
Love the coronet and road runner as well, maybe one of them if the missus won't free up the purse strings.
Not really after a all out performance machine, i already have a purpose built drag car that i trailer to and from the strip... Ford falcon meets Toyota Supra... did i just sacrelidge ? 
I just like the evil look and stance of the old mopar monsters, just an added bonus they go like stink... with the right engine.
Honnestly i have even been looking at the Chev Chevelle, seem to be a lot of car for the money. Have they not reached cult status yet? Nice looking car.

Somebody might be able to help me with this one too, i was on ebay the other night and sore some plymouth i think it was with this disgusting looking bonnet scoop, i have seen a couple cars with this but i cant remember its name? Has like 4 divisions in the scoop, looks almost badly home made, it really ruined the whole car for me. Thought it may have been a Cuda but could be wrong. Any ideas what it is?

[polywideblock]

if your talking about this     

               its the 68 hemi A body scoop   cudas and darts hell race package and yes" factory"

[aussie]

Yeah similar to that, it was actually a 3 divider one i seen, found the add. Hope i'm not treading on anyones toes saying that looks shit house lol. ( the scoop i mean ).
Anyone on here have much to do with the road runners and coronet?

[polywideblock]

I've got a 71 roadrunner, great car  everyone got at least a couple of favourites .I'd like a 70 super bee or coronet r/t but hey i want a 76-77 dodge  street van too but when push comes to shove  there all mopars and you just gota love em

[aussie daytona]

hi...just up the road from you in narrabri,are you a tamworth chrysler club member ??...great bunch of guys on this forum who helped me many times with hints on building my car.

[aussie]

No not a member of the chrysler club yet, but i know Mr Loffel, i bought a 265 Hemi 6 and auto off him for a drag racing project.
I'm in Tamworth Drag Racing Association though.

[Chippa]

Welcome Aboard Aussie  

This is an awesome site i have learnt so much from the kind ppl on here  

Cheers

Chippa, Western Australia  

[figgy308]

G'day Aussie,

Welcome. You probably don't want to do it the way I did, bought sight unseen from CL (although it had been inspected semi-professionally) and shipped across country. It does introduce a lot of worry but I was lucky and had a great seller who was super helpful and honest.

When you are looking to buy think also of resale. Chargers, particularly 68 & 69 will hold their value well down under because we are aware of them and that applies to those non-car guys. Yes you can thank DOH for that but it is a fact. Whereas other Mopars are less well know and despite them being good cars they won't hold their value in comparison to their value in the states. In my opinion a USD$20K Satellite wouldn't be worth the same in Australia as a USD$20K Road Runner for example.

Set your budget, you may not be able to afford an R/T but if you pick up a well optioned base model in excellent condition you will save yourself a lot of work. Like all cars it is the little bits that end up costing so much. Sure they remanufacture them, but that is expensive generally and we don't have the option of going to a wreckers for secondhand part.

Finally if you do buy one and you can arrange it, get any parts you need loaded in the car. You will need to declare them and pay GST, but you save a heap on transport which can cost a lot, particularly for large parts such as fuel tank,bumpers etc. Don't try and get by without declaring them it really will cost you a heap more when they won't let your car move off the wharf. Oh and make sure the import approval is done correctly, they got my VIN incorrect and fortunately I pricked that up before it landed. Good luck