General Lee wrecked in Missouri

[MoparMike68]

Two passengers in the vehicle when the driver lost control and ran off the road
into a tree.   

[Mike DC]

Yeah that was in the news the other day. 

Man, tree hits are so brutal.  They don't give at all.   

That Charger's hit looks sorta like the 'Gone in 60 Seconds' Mustang hitting the light pole.  But the light pole broke off and didn't hurt the Mustang as badly. 


It's surprising that the Charger's front end is pushed so far to the side but there is no visible damage behind the front clip.  No cracked windshield or wedged-shut doors or anything.     

[Kern Dog]

I can fix that. I've done it before....

[70 sublime]

The GL push bar seems to have helped the frame rails from getting closer together at the front

[tan top]

Yeah that was in the news the other day. 

Man, tree hits are so brutal.  They don't give at all.   

That Charger's hit looks sorta like the 'Gone in 60 Seconds' Mustang hitting the light pole.  But the light pole broke off and didn't hurt the Mustang as badly. 


It's surprising that the Charger's front end is pushed so far to the side but there is no visible damage behind the front clip.  No cracked windshield or wedged-shut doors or anything.     

bummer     haha yeah gone in 60 seconds  i thought that soon as i saw the picture or the  challenger 000GAL  they bought at the salvage auction

[Mike DC]

 
Looks like the same kind of hit.  Sliding laterally and hitting the LF fender into a vertical pole.

But the 'Gone' Mustang hit a pole that snapped off.  And the Mustang's body had some reinforcing.  Internal rollcage, skid plating underneath, etc.   

The 'Gone' pole crash was a real accident during filming.  They had to wrench on the car to get it driveable again.   




   

[tan top]

Looks like the same kind of hit.  Sliding laterally and hitting the LF fender into a vertical pole.

But the 'Gone' Mustang hit a pole that snapped off.  And the Mustang's body had some reinforcing.  Internal rollcage, skid plating underneath, etc.   

The 'Gone' pole crash was a real accident during filming.  They had to wrench on the car to get it driveable again.   




 

yes that was a good film, remember watching that film on video tape over & over again when i was a kid  pausing freeze framing charger spotting, had a pretty good sound track too ! dont know why they removed it when they remastered it few years back they also attempted to soupup elenore by dubbing in engine & exhaust sounds ,believe it was originally 302-2 barrel !

heres the challenger i was thinking of from the film ! same kind of wreck as the mustang
 

[Mike DC]

         
Yeah you're right.  The early Challenger has that kind of hit too.  That one with the OOO GAL license plate where they show them switching the VINs.

IIRC they used about 3 different Challengers. 1970 cars with some 72-73 body parts thrown into the mix to make them look newer.   



That movie wasn't a major studio production, it was basically a DIY project by a guy who owned a junkyard (and was rumored to be in the stolen car business for real).  They did some of the highway filming by going out into real LA traffic. 

The two Mustangs (one abused, one pretty) were custom jobs.  They were both 1971 Mustangs with the front grilles and paint striping changed to resemble '73s.  Both running 351c automatics.     
   

[tan top]

Yeah you're right.  The early Challenger has that kind of hit too.  That one with the OOO GAL license plate where they show them switching the VINs.

IIRC they used about 3 different Challengers. 1970 cars with some 72-73 body parts thrown into the mix to make them look newer.   



That movie wasn't a major studio production, it was basically a DIY project by a guy who owned a junkyard (and was rumored to be in the stolen car business for real).  They did some of the highway filming by going out into real LA traffic. 

The two Mustangs (one abused, one pretty) were custom jobs.  They were both 1971 Mustangs with the front grilles and paint striping changed to resemble '73s.  Both running 351c automatics.     
   

oh right , never knew about the mustangs were 71 models & had 3 fifty ones in them !  yes challengers figured there was more than one, remember trying to pause the video tape & the right spot to look at the  vin tags & door decal    & at the time wondered why the challenger that when to the shredder had an R/T badge & stripe on the deck lid yet 73/74 rear tail lights,  low budget or not was / is still a good film more closer to reality than flims from the late 90s & over acting , still got the original video tape somewhere.
  

[Mike DC]

 
This is the crasher '71 Mustang during the build (before the movie shoot). 

It looks like it may have been a fire-burned salvage car.  And the front end of the unibody looks clipped.    It must have been a mish-mash of several Mustangs by the time it was painted yellow and ready to film. 

This is getting off-topic though.  The thread was originally about the Missouri GL wreck. 

[tan top]

This is the crasher '71 Mustang during the build (before the movie shoot). 

It looks like it may have been a fire-burned salvage car.  And the front end of the unibody looks clipped.    It must have been a mish-mash of several Mustangs by the time it was painted yellow and ready to film. 

This is getting off-topic though.  The thread was originally about the Missouri GL wreck. 

  yes good chance they could have started with a salvage mustang, good picture never seen that before thanks for sharing
  i thought that the thread is getting off topic , ( no offence meant MM68 sorry for the side track  ) its the way conversations go sometimes  one thing leads to another( least it does with me  )
 

[Charger440RDN]

Seems like it held up pretty good overall. Hopefully they can bring it back to life.

[JimShine]

At this point it is more or less a question of "will". Will the insurance company pay enough to repair it? If that is a problem, will the owner kick in the difference? If it winds up sold for salvage, will someone else buy it and repair it?

I suggest anyone that hasn't updated their policy in recent times, consider bumping up the value. Collision shop rates are going up faster than parts prices.

[Mike DC]

Yeah, repairing that General Lee is mainly a question of throwing enough AMD metal (and skilled labor) at it. 


It's probably gonna need some frame tugging first. 

And if the existing orange paintjob isn't fresh then this would be a good time to repaint the whole car.  They will have to spray at least 1/3rd of the body for the wreck repair.



The insurance coverage value of these cars needs to be raised every few years as a normal habit. 

Leaving the agreed-value figure unchanged while the govt is inflating the currency = reducing the agreed-value figure.     
 

[1969RTSE]

I was just in Branson last week for a short little vacation with the family.  Walking out of a restaurant from breakfast one morning, I caught a photo of the car on the front page of a free newspaper they had available.  Turns out, I'd seen (read) about that car before... I don't remember where I saw the original article on the car, but it was a young man with some health issues (and/or autism??) who loved DOH and his mom bought a car to build into a GL for him.  Got in over their heads and abilities, and a friend helped publicize it for them - going way back in the memory, but it seems like even Tom Sarmento or Rich Sephton showed up to help them finish the car and tune it, and I think even John Schneider personally donated some small parts.  It was a neat, feel-good story at the time - didn't realize that was the car that got wrecked until I saw the article last week in Branson.  The Branson article said it was two kids who were at the home while the owner and his mom were at a nearby medical facility for treatment; they didn't have permission to take the car out but did anyway and apparently got a little too gutsy with it.