My 70 Charger acquisition thread (Cross country road trip ahead).

[smithenhiven]

The trip was an absolute blast.  Started out by flying out of Pittsburgh at 7:00 a.m. on April 2.  Took a short connecting flight to Toronto where I was supposed to have an hour and 45 minute layover while waiting for the flight to Vancouver, but my Pittsburgh flight was delayed from takeoff due to ground crew issues, we didn't actually take off until about 7:45.  Then we land in Toronto (my first time in Canada, lol), this time we are delayed from unboarding, again due to a ground crew issues.  At this point, myself and a few of the other passengers who are also connecting to Vancouver are starting to get concerned, because instead of an hour and 45 minute layover, we now have just minutes to get off the plane, run through the airport, go through Canadian Customs, and over to the other boarding zone.  I literally made it to my other plane with about 5 minutes to spare.  That was probably the most nerve wracking experience of the whole trip, I thought I was going to miss my plane.

Once I landed in Vancouver, everything was smooth sailing from there.  The seller picked me up, and we chatted the whole ride back to his place (about an hour away), got to his house, he opened his garage door,....and there it was, the CHARGER.  We went over the car, took it for his final ride around the neighborhood, I paid the man, and I was on my way.  Wow, I was actually driving a 70 Charger. 

It was only about 15 minutes from his house to the US border.  I was surprised that this process went as smoothly as it did.  The longest part was waiting in the lobby while the border agents stood around figuring out who's turn it was to assist a customer.  Finally I was called over, presented them with my pre-printed and completed border crossing documents.  I was told "throw those away, we don't use those anymore, it's all on our computer system".  All I had to do was show them my license, passport, bill of sale, and seller's registration.  He looked that stuff over against his computer for about 5 minutes, then said he'd be right back as walked out to the car, looked at the VIN, came back in, handed me my stuff back along with a form that he printed and said I was good to go.  All in all, that process took about 1/2 hour. 

It was at that point the US-made for Canadian export Dodge Charger was home again.  Now I had about a 3 hour drive ahead of me to pick my buddy up at the Seattle airport, since he didn't have a passport and couldn't fly with me to Canada.

Day one we made it down through Washington and into Oregon.  Day two we made it to Boise, met Chris with his 70 Charger, trekked on through Utah just shy of Wyoming where we ended day two.  It was at the end of day two when my buddy Rich was driving, and noticed the blinkers were blinking super slow, like a full second or two between blinks.  One look at the Alt gauge and I knew something wasn't quite right, it was deep into the negative.  At this moment we decided to call it a night to check it out in the morning.  We woke up early at like 6, first thing I thought to do was change out the voltage regulator, did that, still not charging.  Figured it must be the alternator.  That's one thing I didn't bring a spare of.  So we waited till 730 when the O'Reilly auto parts store opened up. Guy came out with his test gauge and says "Alternator is fine, probably your voltage regulator".  I said highly unlikely, as I just changed that out.  He goes to check his inventory for an Alternator, and doesn't have one. 

At this point, we decided to improvise.  Since the car was running and driving just fine (off the battery, with no alternator), I said what the heck, and bought a spare battery, a trickle charger, and a solar charger.  My plan was to run the car without using any of the electrics, only driving in the day light, and swap the drained battery out with a recharged one as needed.  Luckily we didn't have to drive too far like this, because at one gas-up in Wyoming, we found a parts store that did have an Alt in stock (but it was a 60 amp, hence my pause for concern on the amp increase).

After changing out the alternator, the trip was totally trouble free the entire ride back.  Not a single issue what so ever.  I was shocked, I thought for sure I'd have to do some roadside troubleshooting, and parts swapping, and leak fixing, but there was non of that.

The next few days were just driving driving, and more driving.  We stopped at a few places, like the American Pickers store in Le Clair Iowa.  They were closed, but at least we got a few cool pictures in their parking lot.

Met some really nice people along the way, tons of thumbs ups, honks, and waves.  Most gas stops included conversations with interested people.  One young kid at a gas-up was so taken by the car, that I let him sit in the driver seat while his dad took some pictures.

I spent around $475 in gas to go 2800, the car got right around 15 mpg, which is a little better than I actually thought it would.   

All in all, it was a trip that will be remembered for ever.  My only regret is not having more time to really stop and enjoy some of the sights and attractions along the way. 

Pics to come as soon as I re-size some.

 

[birdsandbees]

Sounds like a great trip and wonderful transaction!!!

After purchase... what process did you do to have the car in your name or at least plates on it to drive home?? Long gone are the days of slapping plates on and driving when nobody is looking, curious how it's done these days.

[smithenhiven]

Even though the car was bought and paid for, legally speaking (if it were checked into by police), the car would come back as still being owned by the seller.  He let me drive off on his plates, with the understanding that I would mail them back once I got home.  I looked into my own plates prior to the trip, but my state does not give them out UNTIL the car is registered here.  I did have my own insurance policy in effect for the whole ride.

Let's see if these pics work.

[smithenhiven]

few more

[303 Mopar]

Trip of a lifetime!   

Great pics and thread!  Thanks for sharing.

[polywideblock]

very cool , thanks for sharing your trip     

[ACUDANUT]

very cool , thanks for sharing your trip     

x2

[70 sublime]

A trip to remember

[CDN72SE]

Glad you made it safely back home. So you got to be a Canadian for a few days. 

[smithenhiven]

Haha, thanks, I guess I could say I got to be a Canadian for a few hours.  I think my total time spent in Canada on this trip was 5 hours, tops. 

[CDN72SE]

Ah yes, but you were driving with Alberta tags right?

[smithenhiven]

British Columbia, but yes, driving on those tags.

[CRW-FK5]

Glad you had a great and memorable trip.  Enjoyed the pictures.

[billssuperbird]

  I my see you at a cruise this summer

[Dino]

Very cool! Not many can say they did a trip like this in a Charger and that's how your story started. On to the next adventure!

[69 OUR/TEA]

Very cool purchase and experience !!!! Def got to see the cars dependability with that cross country test drive !!!!!! Congrats !!!!!

[tan top]

 wow  , good you got back home ok  !!  what an awesome road trip adventure !!       awesome pictures , love the gas station ones & the third one in your first batch of four   

[ht4spd307]

did you speak to frank & mike while you were there or was it someone else

[Dino]

did you speak to frank & mike while you were there or was it someone else

We stopped at a few places, like the American Pickers store in Le Clair Iowa.  They were closed, but at least we got a few cool pictures in their parking lot.

[Lennard]

Great trip and that picture at the Mobil station is awesome. 

[smithenhiven]

Yeah, unfortunately Antique Archaeology (American Pickers) was closed.  We tried making it there before they closed, but missed them by a couple hours.  I highly doubt Mike or Frank or Danielle behind the counter would have been there anyway, probably just some random worker.

That Mobil station was very cool, and we found it by pure luck.  We gassed up off some random exit, and started heading in the wrong direction away from the freeway.  A mile or so down, it hits us, we're not going the right way, we better find a place to turn around, low and behold we turn around in the parking lot of that place.  My buddy has a lot better pictures of that place on his Camera (that was the best one from my cell phone).  He's gonna email me a bunch of pics from his cam, and I'm sure he'll have plenty from the Mobil station (and others), I'll upload a few more once I get them.   

[charger chris]

Cool stuff.

[qwick68]

Super cool

[stripedelete]

When did you really relax?   For me it was after I crossed the Mississippi River.

[smithenhiven]

I think I started to relax towards the end of day two, once we got the Rockies out of the way, and felt comfortable behind the wheel, and got a feel for how the car performs.  That first night in the hotel, I could barely sleep, lol.  Every hour I was up looking out the window to make sure it was still there, haha.