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

[MoparSam]

Hey guys and gals just joined and while I ain't an original owner or old fart just yet, I'd like to tell a little bit about my Charger.  As we all know the Dukes got a lot of people to turn to the 2nd gen. Charger as "the car of cars", well I'm one of them.  Growing up a '69 Charger was what I wanted..... until the day in high school I was in awe of the infamous triple black '68 R/T assassin's car in Bullit.  I set out on a quest to find one, but they were out of budget and none locally.  I finally succumbed to want any kind of Mopar (It's in my blood).  Until November 18 2006, a customer in my dads gun store relayed that he had a Dukes car (its orange) and its sitting outside at his dad's house.  I brushed it off as a '69 until dad informed me it had round tail lights.  Well I couldn't get to the bank fast enough so, that Friday I took off work and went to the bank and money changed hands when I realized an R/T!!!  It had a '76 440 out of a New Yorker and a 727 to back it up with 3:91 gears out the back (factory 3:23).

[tan top]

 hello & welcome  Mopar sam    .... good deal an R/T    would like to see pictures sometime     

[MoparSam]

Thanks tan top, pictures will soon come, I have to figure out exactly how to post them (kinda new to the whole forum idea).

[Brock Samson]

Over the five or six years I been here annoying folks on DC.com I've posted a variety of back in the day posts,..
here one i could find...

'm a Car Nut!
  Absolutely certifiable. If I could, I'd have as many cars as possible, dozens, hundreds even, just like some folks who collect old 45s or L.P.s, magazines, newspapers, spoons or refrigerator magnets, beany babies, Stamps or Coins.
However,.. Living on a tight budget and in the inner-city means  I can really only afford and have space for two cars,* a "Daily Driver" which has to be supremely tractable and my "Hot Rod" which is not limited to mundane considerations like size, the number of cup holders or miles per gallon.
   I remember My late uncle Smiley arguing with my dad who finally relented and allowed  me to accompany him to a southern Ca. airport race track in the early '60s where beautiful finned turquoise Jaguar D-Types mixed it up with  Mercedes 300 SLR s the occasional Corvette and home built specials.  Peering out the back of my moms' '54 Bel-air I learned to judge the speed of cars by their Animalistic anthropomorphic  grilled faces in front  and the number of chromed tail pipes sticking out in back, The aggressive leer of  early '60s Thunderbirds and the sound of  dual glass packs is forever etched into my consciousness. When I was an impressionable youth American muscle cars ruled the roads, the older guys in the garages hung out listening to the latest Motown or the groovy new sounds of the British invasion on small one speaker AM radios while chain-smoking Marlboros which dangled from quiet but occasionally swearing lips and in the case of the really cool guys,  filterless camels came from packs tucked into Tee-shirt sleeves, THE Official uniform of gear heads which incl. blue jeans and black high top Keds .
   At the age of 10 in my area the one car that most caught my imagination was the copper colored 1967 Plymouth GTX, powered by a now as then legendary HEMI engine that you could hear shaking windows from two blocks away, that, plus the tales I was told by the older dads who owned the huge Chrysler 300s and 4-door New Yorkers and who swore their "Chryslers are over engineered.. 'cause you know, Chrysler built the mighty -29 Super-fortress in W.W. II". These Stories seemed to me like those told in caves around the tribal fire of the ferocious Cave bear and Mighty Mastodons clinched me as a MOPARIAN, a  Chrysler Gear-head for life.
    Someyears after I started hanging out in garages I found myself at age 11 working my first long 10 hour day helping to swap an oil pan gasket in a puddle of dirty oil under a '57 Chevy on Geneva Ave. right where it broke. After that it was my mom's '63 Galaxy 500 which needed a head gasket. A few months later a trip with a family friend to Champion raceway off U.S. 101 where in a borrowed and way too big, blue metal flake helmet I sat, knees knocking uncontrollably in the fiberglass passenger seat of a 427 engined '58 Ford Highboy called "The High and Mighty".
Most all the hot drag race cars were named back then in large metallic letters, The Brother up the street had a '67 Goat (G.T.O.) named "Soul Shaker", and  there were many others on Friday and Saturday nights prowling for girls and kicks on El Camino and the Great Highway. and hanging out both before and after at Mels' Drive in on South Vann Ness .
  Finally, after "some college", I started working two jobs to pay for my long dreamed of  Ride. I had my Daily Driver, a  ten year old Dodge Van in which I hauled my Rock band's gear which quickly became other bands gear and then solely through  word of mouth became a weekend gig moving folks stuff around the bay area, the modest extra income meant I could finally afford a project car. I didn't want a new car, or even a perfect old car, because My dream was to build my own car, to soup-up a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T - Special Edition. The R/T option was the 440 or 426 Cubic Inch engine performance package offered from 1968 to 1972 and the S.E. package was the luxury package that could be ordered on various models,  both designations are a nomenclature still in use on Dodges today.
  Finding a '69 Charger R/T S.E. was a long shot especially at a price I could afford but, nonetheless only two weeks after beginning my intensive search, A call from a friend who spotted a stripped example in a wreaking yard was just what I had been waiting for. Oh it was rough, rust had eaten away the rear quarters, roof and the drivers' floorboard, there was no engine, transmission, axles or interior but soon a wreaked parts car '70 500 provided seats and  working if basic mechanicals which powered the loud, smoking black and white striped automotive Dinosaur, dubbed by my best friend Steve "Skunkenstein".
  My initial rectification estimate of two years and ten thousand dollars  proved wildly optimistic, because I lacked the funds, repair skills, tools and garage space to quickly transform her into a perfect show car, but run she did, trailing oil smoke and gas fumes, occasionally overheating, steering like a clipper ship rounding the horn and yes -occasionally breaking down, there were a few minor accidents too but no one was hurt, even when I launched off a dead deer in the road at 90 M.P.H. at 2:00 A.M. in the Gold Country and still I managed to make it to many local car shows where I was teased by the well-healed "experts" for arriving in a cobbled together, under powered and unfinished mongrel.
   I proceeded slowly, collecting parts as funds permitted. One day an ad in the Chronicle classifieds offered a genuine 440 Six-Pack, my engine of choice, the motor I  had been saving and searching for ten long years... I arrived at the home of an ex-drag racer just a couple minutes ahead of  another motor head longing for the same motor. The short block engine was claimed to be "perfect, needing only to be bolted in", however a closer examination reveled an oil pan filled with granulated pistons.
  Finally in 1999,  I completely rebuilt my Charger using all the special parts I had been collecting since 1984 at the start of my long endeavor. She may not be the fastest or the most beautiful, the most expensive or all original but she's mine.
  By the way, my Daily Driver?.. It's a Chrysler. 
  (February 21, 2006)

* Since I posted this three years ago I've also aquired a stock '71 Plymouth Road Runner and a '78 Dodge 440 powered Class A Motor home.

[skip68]

   Wow, what a journey and great story.    A deer at 90mph.   

[RECHRGD]

Great story Brock!  You may not fit into the original owner category, but I think you fall into the 'old fart' realm just fine. Bob

[472 R/T SE]

Spelling, thought process & a well written story all top notch.  Is this the same Dave? 

[The70RT]

I was at my highschool back in 78 or 9 and a friend told me another friend got a 70 Monte with a 402 and wanted to run me. He said he thought my car was slow because I was funnin around and put some of these prism stickers on my front fenders that showed 340 CID  He knew I had a big block but didn't know what. So we met at three different stoplights and left him in the dust all three times. He still wanted to race and to hit the interstate  I told him to give it a rest.  I was on the boulevard that night and a friend said a Duster was looking for me and the guy with the Monte was with him. I just laughed. I soon seen the Duster 340 with a tunnel ram with 2 4bbl I thought WTF. He had a four speed and mines an auto. We started off about at a 20 mile an hour roll and we both hit it. He spun like hell then hammered 2ed and by then I was hooked up and pulled away. He started gaining when he hit 3rd and I was still in 2ed. In a block I had him by a fender and just shifted to 3rd at about 75 or 80. About a half a block up the light just turned green and I figured cool.......well some idiot pulled a right from the corner and I thought oh shit! It was a 67 Satelite and I was in the outside lane and was hoping like hell he stayed in the right lane. I let off and my foot covered the brake. I look right and the Duster hammered the brakes and the rear was jacked up pretty high because he had wide tires and we know Dusters can't fit much meat under the fender well. He takes a nasty fishtail beside me and almost took me out me and then swerved behind me. I was looking in my mirror and thought wow when he somehow saved it  He actually left marks in the street from it. So the Satelite gunned it (4spd) Hammered 2ed then 3rd and soon was beside me at about 70 so I punched it too and then he hit 4th and left me sitting there. We pulled over a couple blocks later and it was a Hemi car with 10" slicks. The Duster pulled in and the guy got out and said he about shit his britches. He said he freaked out and probably would have been ok if he didn't hit the brakes. The guy in the hemi said "I knew I could get out ahead of you guys" 

[PocketThunder]

I was at my highschool back in 78 or 9 and a friend told me another friend got a 70 Monte with a 402 and wanted to run me. He said he thought my car was slow because I was funnin around and put some of these prism stickers on my front fenders that showed 340 CID  He knew I had a big block but didn't know what. So we met at three different stoplights and left him in the dust all three times. He still wanted to race and to hit the interstate  I told him to give it a rest.  I was on the boulevard that night and a friend said a Duster was looking for me and the guy with the Monte was with him. I just laughed. I soon seen the Duster 340 with a tunnel ram with 2 4bbl I thought WTF. He had a four speed and mines an auto. We started off about at a 20 mile an hour roll and we both hit it. He spun like hell then hammered 2ed and by then I was hooked up and pulled away. He started gaining when he hit 3rd and I was still in 2ed. In a block I had him by a fender and just shifted to 3rd at about 75 or 80. About a half a block up the light just turned green and I figured cool.......well some idiot pulled a right from the corner and I thought oh shit! It was a 67 Satelite and I was in the outside lane and was hoping like hell he stayed in the right lane. I let off and my foot covered the brake. I look right and the Duster hammered the brakes and the rear was jacked up pretty high because he had wide tires and we know Dusters can't fit much meat under the fender well. He takes a nasty fishtail beside me and almost took me out me and then swerved behind me. I was looking in my mirror and thought wow when he somehow saved it  He actually left marks in the street from it. So the Satelite gunned it (4spd) Hammered 2ed then 3rd and soon was beside me at about 70 so I punched it too and then he hit 4th and left me sitting there. We pulled over a couple blocks later and it was a Hemi car with 10" slicks. The Duster pulled in and the guy got out and said he about shit his britches. He said he freaked out and probably would have been ok if he didn't hit the brakes. The guy in the hemi said "I knew I could get out ahead of you guys" 

Holy Crap!!!!   

[RECHRGD]

I had a friend back in the 60's who's father owned a Chevy dealership that seemed to specialize in high performance cars,  Kind of like Mr. Norm's I guess.  His dad would let his older brother bring home a different car every weekend to impress the local youth market and maybe drum up a few more sales.  I remember several times he took us cruising down Hollywood Blvd. in whatever new 396 chevelle he was driving at the time.  I'm sure I would have ended up being a GM guy if I hadn't been blown away by the '68 Chargers design.  I remember one night he let me wring out one of the hot new 396 Vettes that had just come out.  Pretty heady stuff for a teenager back then.  Another night he had a new chevelle that he said had just arrived and had been special ordered by Dan Blocker (Hoss on the old Bonanza show).  I didn't (and still don't) understand how his dad would let him take a car that had been ordered by a celebrity and let some young clowns beat on it.  Anyway, that car was amazing, you could take off in 3rd and fry the tires just like in 1st.  I think it was some special aluminum block 396.  A couple of years later, when I had the Charger I went up against him in a 427 Vette he was driving.  It had the 390hp so I figured I might have a chance.  I ended up beating him by about a fender, much to his dismay.  But, the Charger started blowing some smoke after that race.  Bob

[66FBCharger]

I stumbled on this thread and I love these stories!
I'm hoping maybe there are some new members that have stories from back in the day.
Great thread!

[wingcar]

My first car was a 1966 Charger with a 383, I paid 500.00 cash for it and still remember carrying what seemed like a Million dollars in my pocket.  I was very glad to finally get to the car lot and hand over the cash as it was a big relief.   I fixed it up with the help of my dad and then traded it in on a 1969 Charger RT/SE from the used car lot at Downey Dodge.   Later I wanted a 1970 Challenger and found a 440 6-pak 4-speed RT/SE at "Stick City" a hot rod dealership on Whittier Blvd.  Came home and told my parents, but they wouldn't let me buy a car from a hot rod dealership, so I went back out to found something else.  (You know kids...I had decided was going to get another car no matter what).  I found a really nice 1969 Big Block Camaro and couldn't wait to get home and tell my parents.  And, it was sitting on the lot of a major Chevy dealership...so how could they say no?  Well they were gone and I remember waiting and waiting for their return so I could drag them over to the Chevy dealership and show them the Camaro.   Then I hear something outside...sounds like the rumble of a car, so I go outside.  And, what do I see but what I thought was the most beautiful 1970 Dodge Challenger.  It was a triple black RT/SE with Mags, and powered by a 440 automatic.  They basically throw the keys to me and tell me that the car is mine and that they are taking the '69 Charger in trade....to say I jumped on the deal would be an understatement.  They had gone out and purchased a used Challenger from Huntington Beach Dodge just to keep me away from any more Hot Rod dealerships.  And, what of the Camaro you ask....what Camaro, I totally forgot all about it!  So I had my Challenger and my '69 Charger was still in the family...we were a Mopar family for sure.  Ironically, the 440 in the Challenger committed suicide about a year later....I bet that 440 6-pak in the Challenger I originally wanted was still running strong long after I had to rebuild my 440....LOL.  Later, my dad came home from work and told me that a co-worker had a '68 Charger RT in his garage that he raced and had damaged the engine...my dad said let's go check it out as he only wanted $500.00 for it.  It was in excellent condition, needing only the engine repaired and new paint.   I remember using the cam and headers he had raced the car with and that I had to change both out since they were not really streetable.  I traded the '68 plus some cash for the ultimate Mopar with a year or so....a 1970 Hemi 4-speed Plymouth Superbird.  The kid had to sell as the local police told him that they would pull him over every time they saw him as he was known for being a big street racer.  His lost was my gain.
 
While I may have missed seeing these cars in the dealer showroom, I grew up during a time when these same cars were considered nothing more than old used cars.  They could usually be found on the back row of most used car lots.   And, the prices were within the means of a high school student with a good part time job (and understanding parents).  It was a good time to be a car guy........

Many other cars came and went during this time, including an Olds 442, a Pontiac Trans Am, a 1965 Dodge Coronet, and three other 1966 Chargers plus a 1938 Chevy.  (And, don't get me started on the cars I almost purchased...that list is really long)!  

[cbrestorations]

im 29 years old and i love hearing these stories, i was definitely born in the wrong era. the cars of today will never have the heart that the old muscle cars did and still do to this day. i cant afford to restore my charger yet, but atleast i still own my all time favorite car, 68 r/t red black tail stripe charger

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

My 2nd car was a 68 Charger (first car was a new Corvette, which I still have). Anyways, the Charger was $1,400 and while it was a cool car, I sold it (had a third car by then, too (Trans Am). I had just turned 18, and my Mom thought it was too much for me to have 3 cars. Fast forward today and I now have nine. The sky is apparently going to fall soon. :Two cents:


Charger was cool. It wasn't that old of a car yet, and already needed to be repainted. The cylinder heads replaced, and engine resealed. Fun times. 

[lukedukem]

I had a friend back in the 60's who's father owned a Chevy dealership that seemed to specialize in high performance cars,  Kind of like Mr. Norm's I guess.  His dad would let his older brother bring home a different car every weekend to impress the local youth market and maybe drum up a few more sales.  I remember several times he took us cruising down Hollywood Blvd. in whatever new 396 chevelle he was driving at the time.  I'm sure I would have ended up being a GM guy if I hadn't been blown away by the '68 Chargers design.  I remember one night he let me wring out one of the hot new 396 Vettes that had just come out.  Pretty heady stuff for a teenager back then.  Another night he had a new chevelle that he said had just arrived and had been special ordered by Dan Blocker (Hoss on the old Bonanza show).  I didn't (and still don't) understand how his dad would let him take a car that had been ordered by a celebrity and let some young clowns beat on it.  Anyway, that car was amazing, you could take off in 3rd and fry the tires just like in 1st.  I think it was some special aluminum block 396.  A couple of years later, when I had the Charger I went up against him in a 427 Vette he was driving.  It had the 390hp so I figured I might have a chance.  I ended up beating him by about a fender, much to his dismay.  But, the Charger started blowing some smoke after that race.  Bob

what happened after the smoke, what caused it.
great stories

luke

[chargermick]

I was a senior in high school in 1975. My first Charger was a '69 R/T A/t with a few upgrades but mostly stock. I bought it with a custom paint job already done. Previous owner claimed it won best paint at the '71 rod and custom show in Chicago. It was really cool coming out from school to find a crowd around my car. One day I'm at a party at a buddy's house, and I walk over by a group of 5 people and they all stop laughing as I walk up. I just know they're laughing at me. I say what's so funny and my buddy's girlfriend blurts out "You can't pull a hole shot like Tommy can, his car is faster than yours." Tommy is staring at the ground because he knows he's busted. Tom had a '69 Roadrunner with a 383 and stock skinny tires, while I had L 60.s on the ass end. I had damn near 20" of rubber on the ground. So, I said let's put your tires on my car and see what happens. Tommy wants no part of this, but now everyone is prodding him to do it. We put his tires on my car and I light em up. You would have thought I had a line lock, my speedo was sitting steady at 80 mph, I'm barely moving forward and my ass end is waving back and forth. Now, we're on a side street in Chicago, I'm filling the whole neighborhood with black smoke and Tommys screaming that I'm burning up his tires. I just pretend that I can't hear him. When I got done tearing up his tires, I said to his girlfriend that maybe if I got the same tires as Tommy has, maybe my car would be fast too. I'm pretty sure Tom had a talk with her about keeping her mouth shut.

[Challenger340]

[MGBRingo]

I will add my old days stories also.

I am 66 years old and have a 1970 Charger RT/SE that i purchased in 1980.

I grew up in a GM family. My dad worked at the local Pontiac, Buick, GMC garage and that is all we owned. I had at least 10 Pontiacs before i graduated from high school in 1966. Dad was OK with Fords but did not like Dodges. He said they sounded tinny when you slammed the doors. He was right. I still think of that when I slam my Charger doors.
I loved the Chargers and wanted one. During college there was a brand new Superbird that sat on the showroom floor for a couple of years. I went in there regularly to look at it because I liked it. They tried to sell it to me at a big reduction but I as a college student with a wife and daughter couldnt afford their price of just over $3,000. I think the sticker price was around $3,600 if I remember right.

In March of 1970, just before I graduated from college I went down to the Dodge dealer and had them configure a new 1970 Charger RT green with a hemi. The price came to $3,960, as I remember and I couldnt afford that either. I remember them telling me there was no warranty on the hemi if That is what I ordered. They were trying to talk me out of the hemi. So I had to leave the dealership with my dream still in place.  Couldnt afford one.

A month after that I saw a green Charger RT Hemi on a used car lot. I tore in there to find out the owner had just been drafted to Vietnam and the car had 5,000 miles on it. I told them I was looking and they let me drive it. The sales person went with me of course. I remember him telling me this car had a lot of power and if I wanted to step on it to be careful and not lose control.

Well I drove it nicely and did not lose control. When I got back to the lot my legs were shaking so bad I could hardly walk I was so excited. It was a crazy nice car in my color (green was very popular on the early 70's) but still couldnt afford that kind of money. A friend told me a few weeks later that a guy was trying that car out and lost control and took it into a tree. They totaled it.

Finally in 1980 i saw my Charger on a used car lot for sale. I boight it for $2,500. It had 71,000 actual miles on it. I had just changed jobs and had $2,500 from cashing out my retirement fund that I talked my wife into using for the car.  

Two weeks later I found an exact twin to mine on another lot for the same money. It was the same color with the same options as mine. Except it had an aluminum maniford on it. I didnt have the money to buy two of them.

I still have my Charger. It has 72,000 actual miles on it now. I dont drive it much other than maintenance miles each summer.

I have lots more stories from the past I can share later. It was a great time to grow up, except for the Vietnam issue. Like many others have said our cars were just normal old cars back then. You could find them on the back row of used car lots cheap. They burned lots of gas and people couldnt afford to pay 50 cents a gallon for that much gas.

[jessejames]

 I love these old stories!! I often wonder what it was like to live in that time period or even go back in time to surf the car lots back then. My mother tells me stories about certain cars in the area where she and my dad grew up that were really fast and it seems most of them were dodges. I have heard so many stories about these cars getting wrecked back in the day. My dad's 69 green charger had the same fate after he sold it in '76. Keep these stories coming!! Thank you all for sharing!

I will add my old days stories also.

I am 66 years old and have a 1970 Charger RT/SE that i purchased in 1980.

I grew up in a GM family. My dad worked at the local Pontiac, Buick, GMC garage and that is all we owned. I had at least 10 Pontiacs before i graduated from high school in 1966. Dad was OK with Fords but did not like Dodges. He said they sounded tinny when you slammed the doors. He was right. I still think of that when I slam my Charger doors.
I loved the Chargers and wanted one. During college there was a brand new Superbird that sat on the showroom floor for a couple of years. I went in there regularly to look at it because I liked it. They tried to sell it to me at a big reduction but I as a college student with a wife and daughter couldnt afford their price of just over $3,000. I think the sticker price was around $3,600 if I remember right.

In March of 1970, just before I graduated from college I went down to the Dodge dealer and had them configure a new 1970 Charger RT green with a hemi. The price came to $3,960, as I remember and I couldnt afford that either. I remember them telling me there was no warranty on the hemi if That is what I ordered. They were trying to talk me out of the hemi. So I had to leave the dealership with my dream still in place.  Couldnt afford one.

A month after that I saw a green Charger RT Hemi on a used car lot. I tore in there to find out the owner had just been drafted to Vietnam and the car had 5,000 miles on it. I told them I was looking and they let me drive it. The sales person went with me of course. I remember him telling me this car had a lot of power and if I wanted to step on it to be careful and not lose control.

Well I drove it nicely and did not lose control. When I got back to the lot my legs were shaking so bad I could hardly walk I was so excited. It was a crazy nice car in my color (green was very popular on the early 70's) but still couldnt afford that kind of money. A friend told me a few weeks later that a guy was trying that car out and lost control and took it into a tree. They totaled it.

Finally in 1980 i saw my Charger on a used car lot for sale. I boight it for $2,500. It had 71,000 actual miles on it. I had just changed jobs and had $2,500 from cashing out my retirement fund that I talked my wife into using for the car.  

Two weeks later I found an exact twin to mine on another lot for the same money. It was the same color with the same options as mine. Except it had an aluminum maniford on it. I didnt have the money to buy two of them.

I still have my Charger. It has 72,000 actual miles on it now. I dont drive it much other than maintenance miles each summer.

I have lots more stories from the past I can share later. It was a great time to grow up, except for the Vietnam issue. Like many others have said our cars were just normal old cars back then. You could find them on the back row of used car lots cheap. They burned lots of gas and people couldnt afford to pay 50 cents a gallon for that much gas.