What is the cheapest running classic car that you've ever bought?

[Kern Dog]

I've never owned a classic car that was a performance model.
In all of my 70+ vehicles that I've owned, I have never owned a 340 car, no 383 Magnums, no R/Ts, nothing like that. I've always bought the cheaper models and fixed them up with the bigger engines and such.
My first car was a Dodge, I bought it in 1982 for $400. It was a 69 Dart with a 318.
My first Charger was also a 318 model, bought in 2000 for $1700. I've spent a bit on it and now it has a 440 based 495....



My second Charger was a 383 2 barrel model but it cost me $5000.
I'd love to hear some stories on some cheap cars you guys bought in the 70s and 80s for what is less than a weeks pay today.

[70 sublime]

I think you will have to define classic
we have all bought older cars way back when that are considered classic now

I bought a running 68 Charger ( my very first charger ) around 1982 for $800

Think classic should be something 25 years old at the time of buying it

Around the year 2000 I did buy a running 73 Charger slant 6 car for $900

Come to think of it those were the only 2 neat cars I have ever had that ran with an engine in them of the 40 plus cars I have had so far

[timmycharger]

That would be my current Charger that I bought in 1997. I paid $3900 for a running, driving 68 Charger with a 318/auto

 Looks are deceiving, this car had a hack "resto" in the 80s or 90s and needed pretty  much every body panel replaced including floors and roof.

Kind of miss the green now haha.

.

[John_Kunkel]

What is considered "cheap" by today's standards might have been close to the going price years ago. I bought my third Charger, a '70 RT, for $3000 in 1988...it needed work but was driveable.

[Kern Dog]

At FBBO, I had guys responding with unbelievably cheap cars. I'm talking under $200 for V8 cars back in the 70s and 80s.
I find that mind boggling.

[timmycharger]

I hear ya KD, I had a friend that was about 10 years older than I am constantly talking about buying $100 cars back in the day, like Novas and Chevelles (he was a Chevy guy).  I remember looking at cars in the 90's for a few thousand and he would always give me crap saying, pfft, thats a 50 dollar car man... Im like when?

[Old Moparz]

$100 for a 1970 Dodge Coronet Deluxe. Slant six, automatic, heat, AM radio, rubber floor covering & I drove it for almost a year until I traded it to a coworker for $75 & a set of chrome magnum 500's that I sold years later for $150. 

[496polara]

My first two cars I paid $500 each.
1981: 1973 Charger 400/727/3.23
1983: 1970 Charger R/T 440/833/4.10

Drove them both home and would give all my cars I have now for them.

1987: 1966 charger 383/727/3.23 I paid $1000 for it.

[Todd Wilson]

71 Charger for 500$ and a 69 Charger for 1200$

Todd

[Derwud]

70 Charger R/T (Free, Birthday gift from Sister and Brother, they paid 700 in 1979)
71 Plymouth Satellite 318 Auto 400 bucks
67 Plymouth Valiant 225 50 bucks
69 Dodge Dart 225 50 bucks
65 Plymouth Valiant 270 bucks (traded a Kids outdoor play kit for the Car)
I went and looked at a lot of cars in the early Eighties that were 200 - 1000 bucks..

[Kern Dog]

I've worked a deal to put in a day's labor building some walls in exchange for a beat up '74 Duster.
I'm not sure if it runs. It is a slant six automatic with disc brakes.

[71charger_fan]

I bought a '73 Charger SE at a Lions Club auction in 1989 for $55 and drove it home. A few years later, I picked up a '71 coupe for $250 from a guy who had to sell it fast or the city was going to impound it and he wouldn't get anything. I parted both of them.

[will]

I had a 1971 Chrysler town and country for $150 in 1985. Blew the transmission and off she went to the crusher. $300 for a 74 duster, slant 6 with drums. Wrapped it around a pole. $2.00 for a 1975 Plymouth Gran Fury. It was my uncles car, so it was easily the cheapest car on the list. 1970 Oldsmobile Delta 88. $200, my father bought us that car. My brother blew the transmission in that one outside of a church during 5:15 Mass. When the cop got there he told my brother " This is that really loud car. You guys shouldn't be riding around like that." The passenger exhaust had rotted off the manifold.

[Back N Black]

When I was 18 bought a 74 Roadrunner for 400 bucks, then a 74 monte carlo for 400 bucks and then a 74 Grand Trino  for 200 bucks. This was from 83 to 86.

[74Rallye]

My first car. 1966 Mustang, 289, 4sp,4bbl,heders,Keystone wheels and air shocks. $450 off a used car lot. It only took 2 years to add 3 pages to my driving record. Too much fun.