Old, Old timers. When you where Bad, what did yours look like?

[ChargerAndy]

Well, I aint that old and I aint that young..... I was 5 years old when my Dad bought a 68 RT Stripe delete white top GG1 Charger. I don't remember a whole lot about the car but my older brothers have some stories to tell......and I heard them so many times I decided to find my own '68. Dad's car was sold to a knuckle head who wrapped it around a tree 2 weeks later      Anyway, here are 2 scans of original poloroids. They must be taken in 1968 or 69 because I do remember that there was damage to the vinyl on the sail panels from someone taking it through the car wash, and that big roller brush ripped up on the vinyl. Theres no damage in the pictures so it must be early on. Andy

[ChargerAndy]

another

[SeattleCharger]

Awesome story Ken.   You could prob. get that printed in Hot Rod magazine or something.   Great thread.   Thanks for the stories everyone.     Ok, so now I gotta get a 509 lift cam and a low gear posi and 4000 stall and . . . . .     that sounds like so much fun having a car like that.     

          

[cudaken]

 Yea, it sounds like fun. What we are not talking about is all the time it took for us to keep them running right. I posted another Cuda Ken story later tonight.

                                     Cuda Ken

[cudaken]

 Andy, great PIC's. OK getting the scanner out.

                                               Cuda Ken

[rt green]

getting them to run right is half the fun.  this is a hobby right?

[GTX]

'nother quick story.

Back in '81 when I had the tunnel ram on the 'X' and the GF had the wicked '73 Charger I worked at the local 7-11.

There was this punk kid who had a red '73 charger and thought his ride was really bad and used to always come in and get gas. He always gave me crap and wanted to run me but I didn't want to race him since I had heard he was just a big mouth and wasn't fast at all but talked smack about everyone saying he beat them. ' Ya gotta pick your battles carefuly when you have a rep to protect.
He found some old 6 pack and put it on his 440 and had some sort of mild cam and headers and thought he was real bad.

Finally one night after months of his crap I accepted and gave him the choice of which car he wanted to race me in, the GTX or the black Charger.
He was afraid of the tunnel ram and made a bad choice choosing the Charger.

Well, we headed out to highland drive for any locals around here and he insisted on a rolling start. The light turned green and we began rolling out and I let him call it on when to hit it. I was in second and dropped into first and the front end lifted and away we went only he pretty much stayed where he was. I thought that he broke or was possibly sandbagging since we really thought he was faster than that.

He said that I had jumped and had taken off early which I questioned since he was the one calling when to go so we lined up again.

The light turned green and I hit first and away we went leaving him badly in the dust again.
You know that feeling right when you hit it when the car seems to just lift up on all four corners and then shoot forward? I love that!

Anyway, he cried foul again but by then we were sure that he was really trying and we were laughing hard by then at how slow this punk was. All that smack and he was REALLY slow!

We lined up for a third and final run and this time I let him get about 3' in front of me before I hit it and again we blew him away without ever hitting 3rd.

I looked in the rear view mirror and saw him turn off the road and disappear.


He came back in a few times for gas but he never wanted to run me again and kept quiet although I did hear a few people saying that he claimed to beat me 2 out of 3 times although the kid who was with him admitted it was a fair race and I won.  I don't think anyone ever really listened to him though since he did have the rep of a liar and braggart.
I never cared anyway.




Now for the disclaimer, we were stupid to race on the street back then and it still is today in my opinion. There is only one place to race and it's on the strip. They have the timing equipment,safe tracks and med personell right there.
Back in those old days we were able to run fast and hard and get away with it...usually but it was still REALLY dumb. Now you can't do that. I remember very well racing on State street in SLC in a Duster against a Camaro hitting over 100mph. Just try that now!
Go to the track and keep both yourself and the rest of us alive. 

[Ghoste]

It is bad and that's why I haven't participated too much in this thread but I keep reading it and sometimes you just can't hold back.  On that note, here's another and it's kind of a loss and kind of a victory.  Again going back to around 83 or 84 and with my silver 69 Charger.
I was in town one night and kind of hooked up with a group of guys that I knew but not well.  Most of them are close friends today but were really just aquaintances then.  They were just hanging out and cruising around and invited me to go with them.  One of them had a 1969 Mercury Comet with a formal roof and a 428 SCJ that had been well worked over.  The Comet had a fearsome reputation and deserved it.  It was a fast car.
Anyway, driving around, somehow the Comet and I ended up beside each other at the front of the pack and heading out of town.  I don't know who did it first, but one of us geared down.  It was probably Tom, the Comet driver, because that car was just too much for me to challenge it.  Anyway, we geared down again.  You know, just kind of darting around ahead and letting off.  Each one daring theother to go.  Finally, we had both geared dwon into 1st and came to a stop.  We looked over at one another and nodded.  I don't know who called it but we were off.  I had him out of the hole but only by a little bit and then he came by me a little bit and so it went up into 4th when he finally started to pull on me.  When we were done he had beaten me by a fender.
After that noisy little jaunt, we kind of all dispersed and some of us met back up in town.  They were all congratulating me on a such a good run and I was not really into the adulation and began telling everyone that it was fun but Tom didn't have to hold back like that.  I figured that it was nice to give me a chance and all seeing as how he didn't know me but I was big boy and could take my lumps.  Everyone kind of looked at me like I was crazy and started laughing.  I was informed that Tom never, ever holds back and that I had just come the closest by far that anyone in town had ever come to dethroning the king and that it was likely the reason he didn't sneak back into town with the rest of us.  He was likely in his garage figuring out what to do about this Dodge threat before it was too late.
Well, as it turned out, Tom and I became much better friends after that and they were right.  Tom always ran flat out.  If he had to destroy his car to beat you, then that was simply the price.  I lost the race but by so little that my street cred in this town was cemented for a very long time.  (I'm too old to be a threat to these little rice tuners now)

[69_500]

I know that when I was in college and used to go out on a Friday night looking for a race, I would usually find one. Then after a few runs you would spend the greater amount of the next week working and tweaking on the car to try to figure out just how to get a little more speed out of her.

[triple_green]

I love  this thread......so I'll contribute one story. My son reminded me of this a couple of days ago(I should have never told him this story  )

year is 1976. I was a Jr. HS. My best friend had a neighbor who drag raced Chevies. But, his daily driver was a 68 GG-1 Charger R/T with a 4-speed. My friend (who later dropped out of college to work for an upstart co. in Seattle, called Microsoft), had just gotten his first car. I has a grandma car, 4-door 66 Chev. Impala with a 327 powerglide. His neighbor had helped him rebuild the engine and given him some of his leftover drag racing goodies for it. So he had a tan grandma car with a fresh 327 and hi-rise/big 4 barrel, headders, etc. He surprised a lot of corvettes and camaros in that thing.......

One Friday night, we were heading to the Renton loop. That was the big "American Graffiti" style hangout for the south-end and eastside kids back then. Two one-way streets going thru downtown. sometimes it would take 45 minutes to go the 1.5 mile loop. It was jammed with kids and cars.

On the way up to "the Loop" we were crusing up Hiway 167, a two lane freeway with a big divider in the middle and fairly wide shoulders. On Friday nights the traffiic was a little heavy going into town. A nice looking 69 Camaro pulls up alongside of us. He starts accelerating and then slowing down. So we start playing around with him. We "boxed" him in, in the traffic and then he does the same to us. Remember we are in a 4-door brown stock looking 66 Impala. He thinks he is having fun taunting a couple of losers in an old grandma car.

I'm driving and he has successfully boxed us in for a while and I'm kind of tired of this guy. She I floor it and pull over onto the RH shoulder and blow by the car in front of us at over 100 mph. As we are passing this car on the shoulder(at 100 +), I look over and the guy looks back at me. It is my swim coach, he has this surprised look on his face. I'm sure he recognized me.

The coach never spoke to me about that, but our friends always talked about it and the story got around school pretty quickly. BTW, we saw the 69 Camaro guy, who we left in the dust later at the Loop and all he had to say was "what have you got in that thing?".

3X

[69pistolgripRT]

I still have a few old pics from the eighties of when my yellow '69 in my sig pic was still sporting her original white with some cool (!) murals.

"Piracy" used to rule the road.....

Check out the mirror underneath the hood at the car show pic.

[Charger_Fan]

That's definitely different, what are the murals on the side? The pass side almost looks like letters.

[OldGuy]

Ok - finally got the scanner hooked up and scanned a pic.   Didn't take too many of the '68 Charger back when -     The attached shot was taken in 1969, when I was getting ready to play in a high school alumni game - graduated in 1965).   I bought my Charger from a guy that had it only a few months.   The guy's wife got pregnant and he couldn't afford the payments.   I bought it for $2,500.   R/T, 440 HP, 727 tranny, turquois paint, black vinyl top and interior.

I have a few stories of running in the "original days", but since we have had a few threads about close calls via street racing, I will give the one that put a stop to my street racing.

I lived in Ogden, Utah in the 60's.   I was dating my soon to be wife and we had her rooommate and her mate's boyfriend in the back seat.   It was night and we were going north on Harrison Blvd in the '68 Charger and turned down onto 20th street going west towards Washington Blvd.   A Mustang came up behind us and tried to pass.   The speed limit was posted 25mph.   I hit it and started to pull away from the Mustang.   About 6 blocks down the road on Monroe Blvd was the Utah State Deaf and Blind school on the corner of Monroe & 20th.   They brought kids from all over the state and had them live in dorms during the school year.  There was a blinking yellow light at the intersection and a street light so you could kind of see if someone was waiting to cross the road.   We were closing in on about 80mph, when I could see a kid standing on the corner waiting to cross 20th.   All of a sudden, he took off across the road right in front of us.   The kid was running kind of spastic-like with his hands and arms waving from side to side.   I stood on the brakes and started sliding sideways, got it back going straight and slowed down enought to go behind him.   Don't know what happened to the Mustang, whether he turned off or just slowed down when we pulled away from him.   I was too focused on not hitting the kid to worry about the Mustang.   My soon to be and the couple were screaming in the back seat to not hit the kid.   They were digging into the dash and the backs of the front seats waiting to see if we were going to hit him.   I figure the kid was maybe 10-12 years old and was probably deaf and couldn't hear us coming.   I finally got the Charger back down to 25 mph and vowed to my future wife that something like that would never happen again.  

I had a friend in high school that hit a girl on a bike in a crosswalk and killed her - that really screwed him up mentally.   After nearly hitting that kid and for sure killing him if I would have hit him - I have never forgotten that when guys try to screw with me while driving on city streets and in neighborhoods.

[warlock]

I know I don't have any photos of my old rides handy, but, American Graffiti. I like that movie. It really reminds me of a time when there was nothing to do but cruise around and park in the old Grants parking lot where you could see everyone that went by. Sooner or later there would be a bunch of us guys there shooting the bull and trying to think of something to do. Once in awhile someone would stop by and so and so is going to race down on RT 4. (Where we had the 1/4 marked off) Once or twice a year, or when we felt like it, we would start doing 360s in the parking lot and wait for the police to come. When they came, everyone would scatter and nearly no one ever got caught for it. It was probably like shooting at a flock of geese rather than focusing on only one. Sometimes there would be so much smoke that you had to be really careful not to hit someone else. It was a different time then too. There was not an excessive noise law, to begin with. Sometimes we would hop in with a buddy and cruise down to the beach to see what was going on, or go over to Jack's house to see how he was doing on his car, or head to a party that we had heard was going on.

[Ghoste]

I think it was different for the cops then too.  At least in the small towns where I come from, I think a lot of nights they were as bored as we were.  When the fun was getting to be too much, they were mainly happy just to break it up and send us home.
Nowadays, they are likely amped up from having just finished running down some crackhead or they have a hundred far more serious calls to address than a bunch of stupid kids (meaning they are going to make an impression on the kids so they don't come back).

[73rallye440magnum]

I'm not an old timer, but can contribute. one of my friends who is currently doing a 66 chevelle, his dad grew up around here too. He says the cops back then really didnt car what you'd do. He had chevelles, vettes, all with built motors, said you could go down the street and light em up all you want, they would wave. As long as you didnt put anybody into danger they were cool with it.

[cudaken]

 Couple of funny stories.

My first shop say around 1984 in Indy. Runner was bad but had no chrome under the hood. One thing I had seen that gave me wood was Chrome Plated Hood Higes. Well I made friends with Leo, he owned a Chrome Plating shop (another story in it's own) and we became friends. Want to guess what the first thing I had plated was, yep the hinges!

While he had them I still had the latches on the front and would still lock down. One day during lunch I wanted to go across the steet to "Mr Dan's Hot Dog's" but traffic was bad and walking across could get you killed. My shop was at the intersection, so I drove a round the shop so I have a short light in the runner. My guys where sitting be hinde the shop eating when I drove by. Gilly one of my bodyman yelled (jump on it)!

Well I goosed her in 1st hard then back off just as quick. Runner jumped hard, then slowed down fast! Want to guess what happened? Hood latch would keep the down, but not from sliding forward! Yep, it slide off the Runner and I ran over it Guys where laughting there asses off and pointing at me!

I get out and look at the hood, then walked over to the guys. They where rolling on the ground LOL and crying from it. I looked at Gilley and said (Ron, I don't know what you are laughing at, your fixiing it). Well, Ron stopped laughing at me and got a sober looked on his faces and when and got the hood. I paid him to fix it, fair is fair. Looking back at it, God that was funny, have a grin on my faces while I miss spelling!

____________________________________________________________________________________

Next, a friend Mike and I where cruzing Madsion Ave again one night. There was nothing worth playing with so we headed to the now defunk Super Shops and parked. Left the Runner with the hood up and windows down and where looking at the other cars. All of a sudden, IPD showed up and blocked both the driveways to the parking lot and brought out the dogs! Well neither Mike or I where in to the Herb (funny we where in a rock band) nor drinking. I never touched a drop if I was hunting.

I looked over to where the Runner was sitting and had a big crowed around her, normaly drew a crowed but this was say around 20 people? Must have a lot of people that had good taste out this night Mike and I where talking with a guy that had long tube cross ram on his I think 34 Plymouth. After about 30 minutes IPD had busted a few people and left. Mike and I decide to head back to the barn and left. It was time for a beer run. At the second light I was doing around 35 and light changed fast and had to brake a little hard.

We heard clanging and stuff started to roll from under the seats? Good thing I had my foot on the brakes! Mike and I where both where going "what the F--k is this"! Turned on the dom light and low and be hold there where beers every where on the floor board! Mike and I said "Cool" at the same time! Over all we had 31 beers in the Runner and most where cold. Just add ice. We also found some Herb, gave that to the boys in the band. We then knew why the Runner had such a big crowed, they where dump beers in the Runner. Hee, Hee, Hee, naybe I need to crusie more.

                            Cuda Ken

[Darkness]

These are cool stories guys. 

[BBMoparFreak]

Deffinately the best thread on this board that I can remember!  I'm going out to rent American Graffiti now...lol

Michael

[Silver R/T]

cool old days

[MOPARHOUND!]

When I was 15 and my brother 14 we went to a guy about 20 miles away who was heavy into mopars.   He knew even in the early 80's what was considered rare.   Wandered through his little junkyard of 40-50 cars and came across a 69 GTX someone had put a 383 in.   Had been setting a few years, and the carb was misssing.   But it had the rare combo of Silver exterior/ Silver interior, and the seldom seen passenger side mirror.   Haggling ensued, and we were able to get it relatively cheap compared to the 1970 Challenger R/T-S/E with a 383 Magnum next to it with the overhead console and little back window he was asking $1,500 for (those were the days, this Challenger has since been restored and featured in the Mopar mags).

Once we got it running we soon discovered on the way home why the car had been parked.   The auto trans had no 3rd gear, only 1st and 2nd!   We limped it home in 2nd at about 50 mph.   Alot of tinkering ensued, but it wasn't long a rod started knocking.   Pulled the engine and trans, and it has set for the last 23 years.   "Barn Fresh" pic below is from today.

Notice the "Hijackers" air shocks sticker on the driver's side window.   If you looking closely, you can see one of the air shocks beside the driver's side tire.   Below the bungie cord holding the trunk partly shut you can see the black air lines running to them (lost the keys to the car over the years, if trunk gets latched, about 5 feet of 3/8" extensions are needed to get the trunk open again, via removing the back seat).   Shackle extenders for the rear springs are also visible.   The rims are American Racing, which I believe are a knock off of the Cragar S/S rims, they are junk now.   The front tires are ultra-skinny 185/14s, and if you look behind the one in the pic you can see the chrome splash guard someone screwed onto the fender.   Don't see those much nowadays.

The seller has since repeatedly tried to buy the car back, but this one is a keeper.   Car has it's fender tag and broadcast sheet.  Have a rebuilt warranty/service block 440 and rebuilt auto trans waiting to bolt into it, but would like to get the paint and body done first.   Have since purchased a 69 GTX 440 needing a rebuild.   Hmmmmm.....decisions, decisions.

Will try to get a 70 Runner story together for you.

[Ghoste]

Silver and silver with a black top?  That has got to be some gorgeous GTX when it's done.  I'd keep Cragar's on it too.

[warlock]

1966 before I totaled my 39 Dodge pick-up, me and Steve decided to see how fast we could travel over this old back road that was fairly curvy. (Boy were we dumb) I really don't remember how fast we were going, but fast enough so that every corner was sideways. We headed into this one corner and Gary happened to be coming the other way. (He was driving his 56 Olds with a tripower setup. It wasn't that fast, but was way cool, and I think he was doing the same as me) Well that didn't leave much room in the road, but we missed each other. I had to move over towards the ditch because we were in a left-hand turn and started to loose it in the loose dirt at the edge of the road. I decided to try to power out, rather than take a chance of crashing, and drift around that corner. Well, it worked, we didn't crash, but the tail of the pick-up bounced off every tree in that corner, but we were still moving so headed home. (Gary made it but never stopped) When we got home, the side bed of that truck was totaled, and all the wheel lugs but two were broken off. That caused me to put on an all steel flatbed that I had out back.

Even though times were different then, you guys all know that these things are not the things that we should be bragging about. There are countless others who were not as lucky, a couple were friends. On top of that I endangered the life of my friend. I have schooled my children (I have seven) on the deadliness of vehicles. I have had hot rods all my life and when one of the boys or girls takes an interest, I take them out and show them the respect these vehicles demand. I have told my children these stories rather than not so that when they do try something, they will have more data for judgement. But youths are invincible. I still had one of my sons die in a crash that ended into a cement pole, and it was reported to me when the police came that he fell asleep at the wheel. He was driving a hot Chevy of the day, but I don't remember the model. It was a V6 and I just didn't pay attention.

[Ghoste]

Yeah, I have a feeling that more than a few of us are holding back.  I know I am.  Some stories are maybe best just shared with the couple of people who were there.  Then it can be followed by somber head shaking and "Man were we stupid".

[Charger_Fan]

Ok, here's one that didn't endanger anyone.

Again in about 1982 & yes, my same old truck...back when most cops had a better sense of humor, as said by others.
A group of us hung out in the parking lot of an all-nite Mexican restaurant most weekends until late...GTX may remember Naugles on State Street.
The previous week, I had just taught myself how to power brake a stick shift & this night, I was showing all my friends my new found talent in the parking lot behind the restaurant.

I did a huge burnout that lasted about 2 minutes, resulting in a massive smokescreen.
Finally, I let off the brake, slid it sideways around the building (almost hit a fence) & stopped at the street. The rear stake holes in the bedsides were smoking like little chimneys...looked left & saw 2 cops just hanging out on the street by the building. They both looked right at me, then upward as the big cloud slowly blew over the building.
They were on me like stink on poop & invited 4 more of their buddies to join in as they all went over my truck with a fine-tooth comb, picking out every fine-worthy flaw...while my friends were giggling from the sidelines.
One cop asked me what posessed me to do something like that. I thought about it for a second & decided the truth was best, "sorry Sir, I was just trying to impress my friends" as politely as possible. I also had 2 chicks in the truck with me...one is now my wife. 
After it was all said & done, I drove away with a WARNING TICKET! Shocked I could hardly believe it.

The next morning, my right rear was flat...I had burned through 3 cords that night & it leaked during the night, the left one wasn't too far behind.