Turning a 2000 Mercury into a General Lee

[Drache]

Northeast Ohio Dukes turns a 2000 Mercury into a '69 Charger StuntLee.

[Drache]

[Drache]

[b5blue]

Yea buddy! WOW!

[Dino]

That's pretty cool!

[moparguy01]

I am very tempted to do this. It would be a half way affordable 69 charger that rides nice enough to be a daily driver.

[Kern Dog]

These Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis to Charger projects result in doors that don't open and really nothing more than a Charger skin over a Ford body.
The windows don't go up and down. There are no door panels, headliner, floor shifter or the traditional Charger interior.
For a stunt car, this is great. It looks the part from a distance but for a driver?
No.

[JimShine]

The Dukes of Hazzard is steeped in make believe. As Charger values rise, there is a faction of fans out there that have no problem driving a make believe Charger. They don't want to open the doors anyway.

There used to be a segment that bought absolutely rotted shells and accumulating parts thinking they would restore the cars themselves, only giving up after they realized they were in over their heads. I think this will be the next generation. They can absolutely botch the work and cover it up with some bondo. What will be scary as shit is seeing these things on the road.

[Mike DC]

 
Meh.  If you have the tools & brains & money to build one of these CV conversions then you probably won't make it too unsafe. 

Those conversions are only cheap if you start off with a fabrication shop and a yard full of Charger parts.  They are only easy compared to restoring a real Charger.  Cutting off most of a CV, building a big custom rollcage, mounting $10k worth of repro metal and glass . . . it's not a small project.


Besides, where is the bar for unsafe classic cars?  I've seen too many $100k restored cars with mal-adjusted brakes, seat belts mounted dangerously, floor/body welds you could knock apart with a hammer, electric fuel pumps hanging down under the chassis . . . At least these CV Generals keep the lower half of the CV donor car intact.       
   

[Kern Dog]

I find it amazing that this idea was discovered.
I'd love to know the backstory on the first person to do this. It must have been a matter of learning that the wheelbase was close and then add in some beer, a few dares from your buddies, maybe a couple of UNrestorable Chargers to use for parts and BOOM...Stunt car!

[marshallfry01]

I find it amazing that this idea was discovered.
I'd love to know the backstory on the first person to do this. It must have been a matter of learning that the wheelbase was close and then add in some beer, a few dares from your buddies, maybe a couple of UNrestorable Chargers to use for parts and BOOM...Stunt car!

James Smith built the first one. He's a huge Dukes fan and does really good restoration work on real chargers. He's built like 30 Generals. Smith brothers is the business name I think. There's a YouTube video of him talking about building the first Vic Lee.