hemigeno's Daytona restoration - a few more tweaks... again!

[nascarxx29]

Twocents: A guy I know posted what his X9 70 V code charger lack in judging from the nats .Any help or pictures you can provide would be greatly appreciaed.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,94263.0.html

[mauve66]

what is the deal with the orange/red tona and the cream colored engine bay??  is that a tona thing or something special for that car??

[Aero426]

what is the deal with the orange/red tona and the cream colored engine bay??  is that a tona thing or something special for that car??

Yes, it was part of the extremely limited Ronald McDonald SE Daytona package.    

The car was originally yellow; the exterior repainted orange early in life.  The engine bay had been covered in black undercoat and was painstakingly cleaned off.    The car has now been restored to all yellow as when it was new.  

[Ghoste]

Ronald McDonald SE.   It would have made a great ad car though.

[resq302]

what is the deal with the orange/red tona and the cream colored engine bay??  is that a tona thing or something special for that car??

Yes, it was part of the extremely limited Ronald McDonald SE Daytona package.    

The car was originally yellow; the exterior repainted orange early in life.  The engine bay had been covered in black undercoat and was painstakingly cleaned off.    The car has now been restored to all yellow as when it was new.  

From what I heard if I remember right from John was that the original owner got the car and really did not like the Y2 yellow and got into a minor accident where the pass side door skin got damaged and that is when he had the car repainted in the EV2 orange.  If he was just going for an exterior paint job, it makes sense as to why the engine bay, door jambs, etc were not painted also.

[johntpr]

Lets keep this topic about Gene's car !

[resq302]

And what a fantastic example of a R4 red daytona it is!   

[hemigeno]

OK, now that the car has had its proper debut, I can put out a bit more of the "expanded" history of the car as relayed by the second owner back in March.  This is long enough it'll take a couple of replies, so bear with me here...



On Wednesday, 3/28/2012 I drove 285 miles to the small town of Maysville, MO where the second owner of my Daytona temporarily resides.  His name is Jerry Meade, and I had spoken with him back in 2003 after finding his name in a State of Missouri title search.  He was great to talk with back then, and even more helpful this time around.  We spent four hours going over photos and some of the documents I've collected about that car and Chrysler's Daytona program in general, but mostly I sat back and listened to the tales he told about driving/owning a muscle car "back in the day".  Very entertaining, to say the least!

Unfortunately, Jerry has Parkinson's Disease – which is a battle he will fight for the rest of his life.  So far the medication he takes does a decent job of controlling the disease's affects on his ability to function, but the right dosage is a delicate balance between too much (which gives him lots of pep but causes borderline hallucinogenic problems) and not enough (which allows the disease's symptoms to restrict his motor skills and ability to function independently).  He's been staying at a residential care facility for the past several months while they help him get everything balanced just right, and that is where I was able to meet him.  Thankfully his mind is still wonderfully sharp, he still has a decent amount of mobility, and he even has enough dexterity to sign his name in the front of a photo album I made up for him to keep.  Anyway... 

Jerry's wing car history began when a brother-in-law (he has seven sisters, so there are a bunch of these) bought a new Duster from a dealership in Harrisonville, MO.  The same dealer had a Superbird on the lot, which the B-I-L thought Jerry might like since he was in the market for a car as well.  This was 1970-71, and he was fresh out of the service with a few dollars in the bank to spend.  Jerry absolutely loved the wing car look, but before he could scrape together all the money to purchase it, the dealership went bankrupt and the 'Bird was sold off in the liquidation.  He didn't know if it was a new or used 'Bird, but the wing and nose look was exactly what he wanted.  He didn't find another wing car right away, so he ended up buying a customized '69 RoadRunner which was for sale cheap.  Fast forward a year or so down the road...

Jerry's B-I-L deer hunted in northern Missouri every year, and on the way to his deer camp the last weekend of deer season in 1972 he got off I-35 just to get gas in the small town of Cameron, MO.  While driving by a small Chrysler-Plymouth dealership, he noticed this nice-looking red Daytona with slotted wheels sitting on the lot.  The B-I-L called Jerry to let him know about the car, who decided to drive up and take a look.  As it turns out, the dealership's owner wanted to move the car, since Jerry said the local kids were constantly stopping in and bugging the salesmen about it.  Jerry stated the car was listed for $2,600, but he told the owner that he only had $1,750 in the bank – and that's what he would pay for the car.  After a few moments, the dealer agreed.  Fearing that the car would be sold out from under him and he'd lose out as with the 'Bird, Jerry made a quick trip back to Kansas City to the bank.  Due to some mechanical issues with the 'Runner he barely made it back to the dealership before they closed.  By this time, the B-I-L had returned from hunting and was prepared to help get the new purchase back to KC.  On the way home, the headlights kept getting dimmer and dimmer until the car died.  They had to drag it to a friend's house where they charged the battery overnight.  The next day, the car drove fine (it was daytime so no need for headlights).

Jerry tried to drive the car to work the next night (he worked the night shift at Hallmark Cards), however the same thing happened – dimming headlights and the car died... no juice again.  As it turns out, the wiring harness lead to the alternator was damaged and the alternator was not charging the battery.  This makes perfect sense to me after hearing the original owner tell of multiple instances where the alternator bolt broke after a hard launch – which probably caused the alternator positive lead/wire to be damaged.  At any rate, Jerry chose to replace the entire engine harness with a new Chrysler harness set just to make sure the problem was completely solved.

Since Jerry had cleaned out his bank account to buy the car, he did not have enough money to pay the sales tax and to license the car.  I had always wondered why the State's title history showed a purchase date of 11/27/72, but the title was dated 5/08/73.  Jerry explained that lag time perfectly, as he simply transferred the plate back and forth from his '69 Runner to the Daytona depending on which he wanted to drive.  When he got enough money together to pay the taxes/registration, he did so.  Made sense to me!

Another mechanical issue he had right off the bat was with the oiling system.  He had told me back in 2003 that the oil pressure in the car would gradually drop when the car's RPMs got over 3,000.  I had understood that issue was why the engine was replaced under warranty – but Jerry told me that was just a quirk of the car, and was never addressed at least while the original engine block was in place.  Jerry clearly remembered the car having a tachometer when he bought it, although it was an aftermarket unit mounted on the steering column... probably much more accurate than the factory tachs.  Either the original selling dealership (St. Joseph Dodge), the original owner (Terry Alden), or the Cameron dealership added the tach somewhere along the line.  I asked Jerry if the car used oil, as Terry Alden had told me about taking the car back to St. Joseph Dodge numerous times for that reason.  Terry's dealership would top off the oil and tell him to drive the car around, purportedly as an "oil consumption test" – but Terry thought they were just trying to put him off.  They did eventually replace the piston rings once under warranty, so at least some work was done to fix that problem.  Jerry did not remember the car using oil, but he said he changed the oil often enough that he wouldn't have noticed it using much oil.  The first year or more of his ownership, he changed the oil each month even though he put very few miles on the car just driving it on weekends.  He did remember the K-member seal being in place when he bought the car, but doesn't remember whether he kept re-installing it each time or whether it was discarded at some point.

The whole engine replacement story was different than I had assumed from the 2003 conversation.  Jerry explained that he and a friend of his named Earl drove to a shop in Appleton City, MO, to check on a Yenko Camaro motor that was being rebuilt for use in Earl's 1968 Chevelle.  Earl ended up quasi-racing a Gran Prix.  Earl (a lifelong GM guy) was driving, and Jerry thought the engine was revving a lot higher than he normally ran.  He looked over at the tach which he recalls read 7,500rpm – and the speedometer showed around 150mph.  He said he NEVER revved the car that high, and knew that a big block Mopar was comfortable up to 5,500 to 6,000 rpm but not much beyond that.  Factory tach's always read fast anyway, but this was pushing things a bit too far.  Sure enough, the engine started making loud knocking sounds.  Jerry told Earl that if he was going to break it, to break it all the way and not halfway – that way he would be sure of getting a new engine under warranty.  So, he says they kept going for another half hour before the motor finally quit and they coasted to a stop on the shoulder of the highway.  Earl's father worked part-time at a towing company, which is how the car was taken to the dealership.

[hemigeno]

Second Owner's story, continued...

When Jerry purchased the car from the dealership in Cameron, he said he got a "second owner's warranty" – which did nothing more than extend the 5yr/50,000 mile warranty to a subsequent purchaser.  Expecting the repairs to be covered under that warranty, Jerry had the car towed to Mitch Crawford Dodge, located on US Highway 50 in Raytown, MO.  The first thing the dealership mechanic did after the car was dropped off by the tow truck was to check the tire wear on the front tires.  We're not sure if this was to determine if the car's odometer reading matched the expected wear on the tires, but that would have been a moot point since Jerry said it already had radial tires on the front (the originals would have been bias ply redline tires).  When the dealership balked at the repairs (guessing that the engine had been abused), Jerry called the Regional Sales Manager to complain.  He said it took only a week for that appeal to generate results, and the dealership was ordered to fix his car. 

With regard to the engine replacement, I was particularly interested in whether the replacement block was ever painted orange.  Jerry said that it absolutely was not painted, and was left bare cast iron.  He wrote that off as the dealership being angry with him about having to perform the warranty work, however it's my understanding that it was standard operating procedure for a dealership to leave a replacement block in its bare casting form... not to say that ALL blocks were left bare, but other men with dealership connections from "back in the day" have remembrances which mirror the experience Jerry had with his warranty replacement block.  I had made the comment that they might have re-used the camshaft in addition to the heads, intake, etc. – which caused Jerry to grin and say "Oh, I doubt it".  That's when he relayed the part about telling Earl not to break the motor only halfway.  I asked if the original engine block was windowed by a thrown rod.  Jerry didn't seem to think so, as he said there was no puddle of oil underneath the car when it finally quit.  He remembered that the camshaft was broken in two places, so whatever rotating parts which grenaded at the time of final engine failure must have flown up and broken the cam.  Regardless, there had been enough damage to warrant installation of the replacement short block.

He again recounted how the mechanics installed the clutch disc backward during the short block swap, which caused the clutch center section's springs to make contact with the flywheel bolts.  Shortly after the engine work was performed, Jerry took the car back to Mitch Crawford Dodge because of the grinding noise it made when the clutch pedal was depressed.  The dealership told him that the noise was due to an oil-soaked clutch disc, and they threatened to charge Jerry for the entire repair bill if he made them tear it out and they determined it was the clutch disc as they said.  Jerry was savvy enough to know that an oil-soaked disc would not cause the metal-on-metal grinding sound he heard – but he was afraid that the dealership would conceal the true cause and would instead show him an old, worn disc as "evidence" of the source.  Jerry said he had replaced the flywheel and clutch assembly only a few months prior to the engine failure, so he was sure the clutch was fine before the engine replacement, but he didn't want to risk gambling on the repair costs with the dealership so he decided not to have the clutch repaired.  He said the noise eventually went away and all seemed fine – until the clutch failed again shortly after he got married in June of 1975 (less than 18 months after the engine replacement)  When Jerry replaced that clutch unit himself, he discovered what the dealership had done with the disc back in early 1974.  While replacing the clutch (again), he wanted to replace the flywheel bolts too, but didn't have any tools to remove the rounded and ground-down bolts.  Jerry relayed again about how the spark plug wire retaining clips inside the boots were intentionally opened up so much that four of them had fallen off the spark plugs by the time he was a block away from the dealership.  Other specific details he remembered about the replacement work was that they re-used cylinder heads, intake, carb, oil pan, and all the other basic engine "accessories" which are bolted to the block.

This warranty replacement work was performed in February of 1974, finishing up in either late February or very early March at the absolute latest.  Jerry said that it was the first decently warm day of the year when he and Earl made the ill-fated run which ruined the engine.  He estimated that the repair work took maybe 2 weeks tops, plus the week it took before the dealership was ordered by the RSM to make the repairs.  Jerry remembers it being a warm late-winter's day after a long stretch of cold weather when he went to pick the car up from the dealership after the engine replacement work.

One of the details we talked about was the mileage of the car.  He doesn't remember exactly how many miles it had on it when he bought it, but was sure it was in the 22 - 24,000 range.  At first he did not drive the car much during the week, mostly on weekends.  He figured the car had right around 25,000 miles on it when the block was replaced, as he had owned it just over a year at the time and had driven the car around only on nicer weekends.  After his little brother wrecked his '69 'Runner, he had to use the Daytona as a daily driver from January 1975 through late 1976 or the very early part of 1977.  This was when he put the majority of his miles on the car.  He met his wife in January of 1975 during that period of time, and they were married in June of that year.  His wife refused to drive the Daytona (perhpas related to a comment he made early on in their marriage that if it came down to a choice between her or the Daytona, she would have to go).  During the fall of '76 Jerry and his wife purchased a 1976 Charger Daytona that had been used as a dealer demo.  He remembered doing the same thing with the '76 Daytona that he had done with the '69 Daytona after first purchasing it... transferring the plates between the two cars depending on what they wanted to drive.  Once again, when they had the money together to pay the sales taxes, they titled the '76 and were then able to license it.  They licensed the '76 'Tona in very early 1977, as he said they would not have bothered having the '69 Daytona inspected had they not needed to keep its plates up for use on the new car.  He said a police officer had pointed out that his '69s old plates were about to expire, so he figured he had better not take any further chances.  Once they paid the sales taxes, the '69 Daytona was relegated back to weekend/pleasure driving only.  He wasn't exactly clear on why he decided to drive the '69 to work the night of the engine fire, but figured it was because his wife needed the '76 that evening for whatever reason.  I showed him the last Missouri registration slip for the car and the two mileage notations made on it.  One was written by the safety inspection mechanic, and the other was a notation made across the front of the slip – which Jerry said had to be the miles the car had on it when it burned.  The registration was dated December 17, 1976, and the engine fire happened in the spring of 1977.  For at least a few weeks in that stretch of time he was using the car as a daily driver until the '76 was fully licensed/registered.  There were 1,931 miles clocked in the 3-4 months between the last safety inspection and the engine fire, so it's quite likely his recollection is correct. 

[hemigeno]

Second Owner's story, Round III (final installment)

Speaking of the engine fire... I was able to show Jerry the pictures graciously given to me by Doug Schellinger/DSAC, which showed the car as it was in 1980 – just days after Jerry sold it to a co-worker at Hallmark.  In those photos you can see the top side of the engine, especially the Holley carburetor and a small stub of fuel line.  He said he wasn't sure if the clear plastic fuel line they used between the fuel pump and the carburetor had actually come off the steel fuel line stub to the carburetor, or was just leaking enough that it finally caught fire.  Either way, that was the source.  One odd recollection of his related to this topic:  As he drove along on his way to work (night shift), he noticed the glow of the engine fire coming from underneath the hood – but the car was still running fine.  Knowing there was a big problem in the works, he quickly got to a better section of road with a shoulder and pulled off.  He said a fire truck just happened to drive by within minutes of his stop (they were NOT called to the scene by anyone), and they jumped right in to put out the fire.  If he had been driving the car during the day, the fire damage could have been much worse before he noticed what was going on – but because he was driving to work at night, he saw what was happening that much sooner.  Considering that there were no cellphones and no way to quickly summon help in 1977, this fortuitous set of circumstances kept the car from burning all the way to the ground as it would have done otherwise.

He again told of the firemen breaking out the driver's side window to hose down the dash which had caught fire by this time.  When the car was disassembled, we found lots of broken glass inside the door which testified to the truth of this statement.  He also relayed how, after the fire, the car was towed to a nearby service station.  While parked there for this brief time, the car had its shift knob stolen – a Hurst "T" handle which Jerry said had been on the car since his purchase.

Jerry said that perhaps American Family Insurance still had records of the car's claim history, since they paid off after the engine fire (not likely, but I doubt I will follow up).  Because it was an 8 year old used car at the time, American Family settled the claim by paying Jerry $1,000 and he could keep the car.  He wanted to do it that way, figuring he might be able to eventually put the car back together.  It would have been cost-prohibitive for any insurance company to have paid to repair the damage, even back in 1977.

I asked him if the car ever ran hot, and he said it did – and that he had the original radiator re-cored once and had replaced the water pump several times.  Mostly, he said he just never let it idle for very long to help prevent vapor lock.

Jerry noticed snow tires in one of the photos from 1980, and said that he regularly drove the car in the snow.  He remembers that with studded tires, he could get around most anywhere – and only got stuck once.  In that incident, he got stuck on icy roads near his rural home (there are rolling hills nearby).  He couldn't go up the next hill, or back the way he came.  In the process of trying, he hit a neighbor's mailbox.

I asked about the other visible dents/damage, and he recounted the car being sideswiped on the driver's side quarterpanel as I had been told before.  This time, he added more information... the body guy who was paid by the insurance company to do the repairs was supposed to have hung a new quarterpanel in place.  Instead, he pocketed the extra money, pop-riveted some sheet metal in place and used a train car load of bondo to fix the Daytona.  Jerry remarked how he thought karma had settled that score, as shortly after the guy repaired Jerry's car, the body guy bought a speedboat even though he didn't know how to swim.  Not being an experienced boater, he capsized during his first trip out on the Missouri River and drowned.  Later on, a neighbor backed into the Daytona while it was parked on the street, and a good portion of the bondo popped out – exposing the poor repair work.

Here's another interesting tidbit related to the mileage which didn't make sense until later:  Jerry said that all the mileage totals being discussed were accurate, but that the car did run for a short while with a broken speedometer cable.  He said that the cable was resting on the H-pipe and it burned the housing, seizing the cable inside the speedometer/odometer housing.  He estimated that maybe a thousand miles were driven before he replaced the cable.  The interesting part was when I mentioned that little snippet of info to Vance, he perked right up.  As it turns out, Vance's guys noticed during the floor pan sheet metal repair work that there was no clip on the underside to hold the speedometer cable in place and off the exhaust.  It still isn't clear whether the clip had been knocked off somehow, simply fell off, or whether it had been accidentally omitted from the factory.  Assuming that it had fallen or been knocked off, Vance's crew sourced another clip and installed it in the proper factory position.  Without very careful forensic analysis of the area to determine if the clip had been installed at one time, it would be difficult to say with any certainty that it was a factory mistake.  I'm relieved they took this step, as it would be difficult to explain to every "inspector" of the car that the missing clip had NOT been forgotten but was deliberately omitted to replicate a factory error (if that was indeed the case).  That would be a long and unnecessary explanation I would tire of giving rather quickly.

Jerry has graciously agreed to furnish a signed statement which runs down the particulars of the engine block swap performed in '74.  For the record... I have personally contacted the Mitch Crawford dealership in Raytown twice – once in 2003 just days after my first conversation with Jerry, and again in early 2012.  When the first contact was made, the dealership was still affiliated with Chrysler.  I spoke to two or three people, including the Sales Manager who had the longest tenure of anyone at the dealership.  He basically laughed when I asked about the possibility of service records from 1973-4 still being available.  He said that they kept nothing older than seven years, and that there was zero chance of such records remaining anywhere.  On a whim, and hoping to speak to one of the owners of the firm, I contacted them again in early 2012.  Unfortunately, I discovered that Mitch Crawford's dealership was one that lost its franchise rights during Chrysler's reorganization which accompanied the government bailout.  They are now a small used car lot.  Regardless, I asked again about any records related to the warranty work and was told that very little Chrysler-related paperwork remained in existence, and certainly nothing that went back that far.  I detected a fair amount of animosity towards the topic of Chrysler in general, and won't bother trying to contact them any more.

[moparstuart]

  Great info very cool hearing about all the local places and wing history .

  Crawford was still a good strong dealership untill the whole bankruptcy and forced closers of just a couple years ago .

They had three locations all still in Raytown , Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep stores .  

   I bought one of my early cars there back in 85 a daily driver horizon . My dad bought several cars there over the years .....

[nascarxx29]

Wow thats cool owner history there .Reminds you me of Dave K cars story engine issues etc when car was new and the owners dilema Ed Schram dodge
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,48894.msg534053.html#msg534053

[moparstuart]

Wow thats cool owner history there .Reminds you me of Dave K cars story engine issues etc when car was new and the owners dilema Ed Schram dodge
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,48894.msg534053.html#msg534053

that car was pretty close to me also ...

[resq302]

Gene,

Amazing story and history of the car.  I would kill to get something like that with mine.  Actually, this year at Carlisle, I came across new info on my car about when the original motor in my car had been blown and was last known to be in someones basement.  Im still waiting for the person to get back to me with the info he had.   

[hemigeno]

Related to the above story from Owner #2 is an interesting possibility for next weekend.  As long as the weather holds out, I am taking the Daytona back to the Kansas City area for the first time since 1981.  All four of the titled owners for this particular car are currently planning to be at Smithville Lake, where I've rented a park pavilion for the day.  This will be the first time the car's original owner will have seen it since 1972, and (other than photographs), the first time Jerry Meade will have seen it since 1980.  Davtona has seen the car a couple of times of course, but not since it's had the heart transplant back to the warranty replacement block.

I'm really looking forward to getting all these guys together, and listening to more stories.  Plus, I have held off driving the car out on the road for when Jerry Meade can be there - since it still hasn't been driven on the highway after Jerry had his engine fire in '77.  That may not be a big deal to some, but I think it'll be a neat thing.  I also have a couple of large-size photos printed up that I'd like all the owners to sign, and hopefully we can take some photos together as a group.

Moparstuart (maybe Wayne Perkins??) has said he could attend, so it'll be more than just the 4 of us.  Last Saturday and what's expected for tomorrow have both been absolutely perfect from a weather standpoint, so it'll probably be my luck that next weekend the area will have thunderstorms or maybe even snow  

[moparstuart]

Related to the above story from Owner #2 is an interesting possibility for next weekend.  As long as the weather holds out, I am taking the Daytona back to the Kansas City area for the first time since 1981.  All four of the titled owners for this particular car are currently planning to be at Smithville Lake, where I've rented a park pavilion for the day.  This will be the first time the car's original owner will have seen it since 1972, and (other than photographs), the first time Jerry Meade will have seen it since 1980.  Davtona has seen the car a couple of times of course, but not since it's had the heart transplant back to the warranty replacement block.

I'm really looking forward to getting all these guys together, and listening to more stories.  Plus, I have held off driving the car out on the road for when Jerry Meade can be there - since it still hasn't been driven on the highway after Jerry had his engine fire in '77.  That may not be a big deal to some, but I think it'll be a neat thing.  I also have a couple of large-size photos printed up that I'd like all the owners to sign, and hopefully we can take some photos together as a group.

Moparstuart (maybe Wayne Perkins??) has said he could attend, so it'll be more than just the 4 of us.  Last Saturday and what's expected for tomorrow have both been absolutely perfect from a weather standpoint, so it'll probably be my luck that next weekend the area will have thunderstorms or maybe even snow  

  I still plan on it , I think wayne is going to MMW in indy but i will see him tomorrow in Ottawa and find out for sure .

[Davtona]

Am still planning on attending Gene.  Looking foward to meeting everyone and seeing the car once again. Ya and hoping for good weather also.

[moparstuart]

tomorrows the day , cant wait to 

[hemigeno]

Thanks for all your help today Stuart - and Davtona too.  You guys were great, and I think both Terry & Jerry enjoyed the fruits of our collective labor.

Thanks again!



(too tired right now to post the few pics I took)

[jonw29]

Gene are you bringing the Daytona to MCACN?

[tan top]

good story & info !! on your Daytona histoy , awesome to know stuff like that about your car back in the day !!!  thanks for sharing  HemiGeno

[moparstuart]

Thanks for all your help today Stuart - and Davtona too.  You guys were great, and I think both Terry & Jerry enjoyed the fruits of our collective labor.

Thanks again!



(too tired right now to post the few pics I took)

had a blast and always great hanging with you guys   sorry if you have to clean up the   from dave and I and even Ian      

 i loved hearing the stories about the car back in the day great stuff , priceless  

[hemigeno]

OK, here's a bit of an update from last weekend's "reunion" with the previous owners of my Daytona.  We met on Saturday at a rented pavilion on Smithville Lake just north of KC, MO.  Moparstuart gets credit for the location, as he's the one who suggested it.      The weather overall was great, but a bit on the chilly side and VERY windy.  Had it not been for the strong breeze coming off the lake, it'd have been perfect - although I'm just glad it wasn't raining.

All four of the titled owners of this car were thankfully able to attend.  I had met Jerry Meade (the second owner) back in March, as mentioned elsewhere.  Two of Jerry's sons were able to come along, including one with a very early connection to the car... Jerry took his wife to the hospital while she was in labor with Rich, and brought Mom & Rich home from the hospital in the car as well.  No roadside deliveries, incidentally.  Terry, his wife and I met for the first time on Friday night for supper, although we had chatted on the phone several times since 2004.  Dave, well, he's probably sick of hearing from me by now... 

The first two pics are of the four titled owners... from left to right are Dave H. (Davtona), yours truly, Jerry Meade, and Terry Alden.  In case anyone was wondering and didn't want to go digging for the info in this thread somewhere, the other guys' ownership periods are:
Terry - 3/70 to 10/72
Jerry - 11/72 to 11/81
Dave - 11/81 to 8/03

I snapped the last two as Jerry was signing one of the photographs I had printed up to give to the owners.  The prints being signed were shot by Mopar Action's photographer for use in their upcoming article.  It seemed like a cool idea to have all four owners' signature, so I asked each of them to sign a couple of the photos.  As it turns out, each of the guys ended up getting one of their two prints signed by the group as well - so I must not have been the only one who thought it was neat.

[70Sbird]

Awesome gathering there Geno!
There were probably some intersting stories swapped! Had any of these guys met previously or known one another?

[hemi68charger]

Geno, that is an outstanding story my friend !!!