How about an original owner's or old fart's thread?

[RECHRGD]

Most of you guys are pretty young, well everybody is, compared to me.  I bought one of those beautiful new Chargers back in 1968 and I'm sure there's a few more of us original owner's on this site.  Although I only kept the car for a little less than two years, it implanted a wealth of memories in my now shrinking brain.  I thought it would be interesting for you youngsters to hear some stories from back then, when every stop light on Pasadena's Colorado Blvd. was basically a christmas tree.
My Dad loved car payments and never kept a car more than a couple of years.  He use to alternate between Corvettes and Cadillacs,  always living beyond his means.  He had '58, '61 and '68 Corvettes and I loved them.  I had a pretty good job at a Standard Station in Tuhunga, Calif. and was saving for a new car.  I was reading the L.A. Times one morning and saw a ad for the new '68 Charger.  It was love at first sight.  I wanted to be just like Dad, so it was time to get a car payment of my own going.  A week later I had a new yellow Charger R/T on order.  Pasadena Dodge took my little 250cc Suzuki X6 Hustler motorcycle in on trade, so I had to get something for transportation in the meantime.  A $50.00 1946 Plymouth Deluxe fit the bill just fine.  Man that back seat was made for partying, but dates were hard to come by when driving that old junker.  I had a month to wait before the charger would arrive and needed to drive down to Torrance for a job interview.  Not trusting my current ride to make the trip down there, I called the salesman at the dealership to see if they could provide me with a loaner for the day.  The car they gave me was a white Coronet R/T that had been used in the famous Rose Parade on New Years day.  It still had pretty little roses painted on each front fender.  I didn't get the job (I think they thought I was a hippy with flowers painted on my car).  Anyway I had a good time getting a taste of things to come while burning rubber all the way to and from Torrance.  A couple of weeks later I got the call, my car had arrived.   When picking it up, I noticed a small dent in the front passenger fender right next to the grill.  The dealership took care of that a few days later.  Man, was that yellow beast beautiful.  My Dad got jealous and bought his '68 Vette a couple of weeks later.  My Charger would run circles around the Vette.  It had a small block and automatic.  Anyway, life for this 20 year old was about to change for the better in regards to my love life and life in general.  More to come------  Bob

[mikepmcs]

cool little story, thanks for sharing.  i'm in for some interesting reading.

[tan top]

good story Bob ! makes for a very intresting read stuff like this    ......   

[CB]

cool little story, thanks for sharing.  i'm in for some interesting reading.

 

thanks for sharing!
CB

[skip68]

    Thank you for a little sample.  More please.    OH, any pictures would be a bonus too. 

[RECHRGD]

   Thank you for a little sample.  More please. 

OK, I'm a little groggy after the turkey dinner and a few cocktails, so I'll keep this one short;
After I got the car and had it parked at the Standard Station where I worked for a few nights, an old guy (40 ish) drives in one night with a yellow R/T just like mine (except it was a stripe delete car).  He wanted to race, but I couldn't leave the station while on the clock.  He kept coming back night after night until I gave in because it was so slow that night and my co-worker wanted me to kick his ass.  He had his fat little son with him and he had him get in the back seat.  We went to a little used residential street in the Sunland area.  Race #1-his son was bouncing up and down in the back seat and he got the jump on me by a car length and stayed there.  Race #2- I got better at coming off the line and got him by a length.  Race #3- dead heat.  We were side by side until shutdown.  We both had 323 rear ends, so both cars were evenly matched.  Month's later I ran into him at Irwindale Raceway and he had installed 391 gears in the car.  More on that later.   Bob

[jaak]

Cool! I love hearing these old car stories.

Keep on!!!
Jason

[tan top]

Cool! I love hearing these old car stories.

Keep on!!!
Jason

:yesnod:that was a good one bob ..love hearing about back in the day action

[69 OUR/TEA]

Cool stories,thanks!!

[The70RT]

    

[MoparManJim]

I like reading these old car storys as while. Thanks for shareing as while. 

[RECHRGD]

I was at a party one night and the local rich kid wanted to race.  He had a new 427/435 tri-power Vette that was wicked fast.  I knew I didn't have a chance, but I was never one to walk away from a race.  The street in front of the house was a wide four lane road with little traffic.  Everybody emptied out of the house to watch the event, lining the side of the road.  Just like in the movies, a sweet young thing stood between the front of the cars to give us the go signal.  I got lucky with a good launch and the fact that the other guy didn't know how to drive.  He just nailed it and that Vette was all over the road though 1st and 2nd.  By the time he hooked up I was too far gone for him to catch me.  I didn't go back to the party, as I figured the neighbors would have called the cops.  I'll take a win anyway I can get it.   Bob

[WingCharger]

Here:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,5670.0.html

LOTS OF STORIES!!!!

[mikepmcs]

jeremy, don't spoil it man.

[WingCharger]

jeremy, don't spoil it man.

Wish I had a car to tell stories about...

WAIT! I know where a '72 Duster is sitting around the corner from me...wish I could go look at it.

[2much2learn]

40yrs later that car is still kickin @$$   
more please

[RECHRGD]

One night a friend and I decided to drive to Palmdale (just a small town at the time) and go jack rabbit hunting when the sun came up.  We went up Angeles Crest Hwy and then north toward Palmdale.  There is/was a very long straight stretch of road out in the middle of nowhere before you come to the town.  My friend wanted to see how fast the car would go and I was curious myself, so down went the pedal.  Alot of people say that these cars couldn't reach the 150mph mark.  That may be true, but, the needle buried itself past the 150mph mark on the speedo, so it was going pretty darn fast.  Just when I started to let off the gas we ran into a fog bank so thick that you could not see a thing.  It seemed like an eternity, but was only a few seconds later that we popped out of it into the clear night sky.  If that fog bank had lasted any longer, I'm sure I wouldn't be sitting here writing this today.  I made contact with that old friend several years ago and he still remembers that night like it was yesterday.  He also said that he has never gone faster on land than we did that night.   Bob

[skip68]

No disrespect intended RECHRGD,  but the price of gas must have been nice and low back then.     

[RECHRGD]

$0.34 for Chevron Custom Supreme (white lightning).  Wages were about 1/8th of what they are now, so it's all relative I guess.

[firefighter3931]

$0.34 for Chevron Custom Supreme (white lightning).  Wages were about 1/8th of what they are now, so it's all relative I guess.

My first memeories of gas prices were in 1978 when i got my first car....which just happened to be a 68 Charger.  Sunoco 96 was 70 cents a gallon and i was making less than $2.00 an hour as a HS student changing tires and doing oil changes at a GoodYear tire center. Good times....my Senior year was a blast. 



Ron

[RECHRGD]

Nice old picture Ron.  Ever here of 1/2 mile drags?  They used to have them a the old Riverside Raceway on the back straightaway.  No helmets or roll bars required, just weld a small chain under your driveshaft and you were good to go.  I went their once with my then girlfriend, Marcia.  She was a drop dead gorgeous blond that, oh never mind.  I wish I still had those old time slips.  As I recall the car ran around 126mph and I think around a 19 second E.T..  I remember a friend of mine with a small block El Cameno kicked my butt.  Not too many guys in my crowd did engine mods to their factory hot rods back then, but this guy's dad was a mechanic and had that little chevy rocking.  I think he turned about 130mph with some big slicks on the back.  My engine mods consisted of headers and that was it. 
Right after I bought the car I took it to a shop in Pasadena that was well known for VW exhaust systems.  They said they had been waiting for one of these cars to come in because they wanted to design a set of headers that would work on them.  They said if I could leave it there for a couple of days that I could have the headers built and installed for only $50.00.  Well, when I went to pick it up and saw that they had cut big holes in my wheel wells for one of the pipes on each side I was not too happy.   The guy apologized for not clearing it with me, but the damage was done.  Bob

[CB]

Well, when I went to pick it up and saw that they had cut big holes in my wheel wells for one of the pipes on each side I was not too happy.   The guy apologized for not clearing it with me, but the damage was done.  Bob

WTF


CB

[tan top]

Well, when I went to pick it up and saw that they had cut big holes in my wheel wells for one of the pipes on each side I was not too happy.   The guy apologized for not clearing it with me, but the damage was done.  Bob

WTF


CB

        Damn .... 
  .......... Nooooooooo  not fender walls 

[jb666]

Great stories!! Keep'em coming!! 

[John_Kunkel]

In February '68 the local TV commercials continually advertised basic 4-speed Roadrunners for $2888 so I decided I wanted one. But.....they were selling so well that not a single dealer in Northern Calif had a "basic" RR, the dealer I was visiting had only one RR, a $4200 red Hemi automatic, so a salesman was trying to sell me a $4000 GTX which I couldn't really afford.

While he was laying down his sales pitch he talked me into giving him the keys to my potential trade in '63 Dodge (ex-Max Wedge, now a street 426) for a test drive to determine the trade in value. While on the test drive the transmission totally quit, they had to bring it back in on the hook.

I was tired of working on that car so I bought the GTX that I really didn't want just to get something new and reliable. First new car I ever bought.