Has anyone EVER converted a Jeneral Lee back to a normal CHARGER?.

[Ghoste]

Sorry Mike but I have a hard time accepting that DOH saved more Chargers than it destroyed.  Of all the ones painted up to look like the GL we have no way of knowing that if not for the DOH all of those same cars would have been left to rot.  We don't know if even a proportion of them would have.  We also have no way of knowing that if the DOH had never existed that those same cars or many of the would have been restored anyway but wihtout the orange paint and push bars.
I also have yet to see a NASCAR carnage show where the specific purpose is to take a vintage car and destroy it.
Did the DOH save some cars tha would not have been otherwise?  Yes, possibly but to say that it saved more than it destroyed?  No way. 

[68coronetGLwannabe]

Well I just might do it. I recently purchased a 69 that I am doing as a GL. I now wish I hadn't done the 70 GL. I have a friend they may want to buy the 70 but if he doesnt I will put a black vinyl top on it and repaint the doors covering the 01 and BOOM its no longer a GL wannabe.

[Mike DC]

I have also yet to see a NASCAR carnage show where the specific purpose was to take a vintage car and destroy it.

Okay, but would you bet your own Charger's sheetmetal that you could get through one single NASCAR race w/o body damage?  If NASCAR isn't planned destruction of vintage cars, then playing Russian Roulette isn't planning to kill yourself.  

Do the math week-by-week, and I'll bet that NASCAR racing was consistently destroying more Charger sheetmetal than "Dukes" ever did in its prime.  


-----------------------------------


I'm gonna say something unexpected here, but I'd bet that the total DOH destruction numbers are probably less than 150 cars for all DOH productions from 1978-2009.  It's a long story but over the years I've become pretty sure the wrecked Charger numbers are heavily inflated.  A huge portion of those official stats are coming from car builders who got another wad of cash from WB for every Charger that they reported being killed during filming.


It's hard to get firm stats on the # of GL replicas worldwide, but rough estimates are well into the hundreds.  Like maybe 400-500+ Chargers wearing the uniform.  And DOH fans are the quickest of anyone to save some REALLY bad cars.  If even 1/4th of those would otherwise be dead  .  .  .

It's not just specific cars being saved, but look at the overall interest in Chargers.  "Dukes" is not exactly single-handedly keeping the Charger sought after but the GL very clearly made a difference.  There are too many guys in the Charger & Mopar hobby, without a GL replica, who still say the show helped get them into these cars.

[lacucarachaloco]

you know if they were still cranking out the 68-70 body style I would say knock yourself out.... drive your car into a ditch, or a tree, go jump it into a lake if you are stupid enough to do so... it's your car and your life so have at it.

I had my first Charger when that show was on and I had the misfortune of living in the deep south. EVERY freakin day some ignorant redneck was telling me to paint my beautiful green baby ORANGE and asking me how high it jumps and screaming "do some donuts" "jump that ditch" "if you don't make it into a general lee you're just stupid" I gave in once and me and my best friend went out to a dip in the road notorious for getting cars airborne just to see what would happen... 69 Chargers do NOT fly nor were they designed to do so.. they also should not be left in the hands of reckless 16 year olds.. some people just don't understand that

Hey, if they were doing this to some overproduced car like mustangs or camaros I would care less.. in fact if you can get Dynacorn to start re-popping '69 Chargers.. you can go right ahead and trash the old ones cause then they can be replaced.. it would still be a waste of one of the best cars Detroit ever produced.. but not the end of the Charger world.

The racing Chargers were never meant for the street in the first place... and also still in production at the time of the "carnage"

and I agree that Chargers needed no help from the general to boost their popularity... they ALREADY had a legendary status BEFORE doh.

[BlueSS454]

If it weren't for the fact that I wanted to build  GL clone, the Charger i have probably would have been sent to the crusher so it can be looked as the fact I saved another one from ceasing to exist.  Having said that.....could the novelty of having a GL wear off.....posibly.  If it does, I can remove the decals, push bar and wheels; then add the stripe on the rear, some stock wheels and have an equally nice orange 69 Charger.  Mine was going to be orange regardless of it I was going to build a GL clone or not.  Now had it been a matching numbers car, I would have retured it to it's triple green status that it left the assembly line in.

[c00nhunterjoe]

if you guys are going to damn the dukes then why not damn fast and the furious, bullit, dirty mary-crazy lary. and so on. worst case the dukes destroyed 300 cars.  how many more were wrecked by drunk drivers. how many more were hit by drunk drivers. how many more are still rotting away? how can you blame a tv show for the demise of a car?

[Ghoste]

Because only one has inspired copycat acts of destruction? (Dukesfest )

[Mike DC]

The racing Chargers were never designed for street in the first place.  And they were still in production at the time of the carnage.

Yeah, but what if DOH had been in production 10 years earlier and they'd cut a deal with Dodge to get several truckloads of brand new 69 Chargers to use . . .  Would this make it all better somehow?  I fail to see the difference in the big picture.    

they also should not be left in the hands of reckless 16 year olds.

Except me, who bought a raggedy 69 Charger at 16, saved it from being parted out, and used it for a daily driver, all purely because I grew up on the GL.  I've never wrecked it.

If they were doing this to some overproduced car like Mustangs . . .

There is no such thing as an enthusiast for a car who doesn't believe his car is too rare.  There are tons of guys into older exotics & european cars that would still consider a 69 Charger to be a cheap overproduced car even today.  I'm serious.  


I agree that Chargers aren't as cheap as old Mustangs.  And of course I wish they were cheaper just like the rest of us.  

But the fact is that these cars are 40+ years old, and you can still go on online any day of the year and buy a nice restored one for little more than the price of an equivalent modern version of that kind of sporty sedan.  How rare is that?  

 

[Tilar]

It's generally like a General lee but it ain't a real Jenny Lee,.. 

Sounds like a couple girls that moved in next door a lot of years ago, They were both Jennys but I think the one wanted to be a General...   

[RamchargerMopar]

this makes me want to buy an all original 69 super rare charger and strip it down paint it orange and jump the crap out of it!!! This bickering over the DOH is pathetic. I only had an interest in CARS period because of the DOH and if not for the DOH I wouldn't be interested in SAVING a 69 or even the road runners I saw on the show. As time went on and my love of vintage cars grew from other movies such as Christine and Bullitt and Fast and the Pissed off gave me intrest in other cars. Such as the Fury the Mustang and The Buick Grand National. There are so fewer Grand Nationals on the road that the Charger could even shake a stick at. I had a GN and tell you what the thing was one fine automobile. Naturally the argument of DOH will never end and as time goes on neither will the Duke Fest. Face it If not for alot of tv shows and movies many of you would not have even batted an eye lash over any of these cars. appreciate what you got and let others enjoy what they got.  

Oh and to stay on topic here YES my father in 92 turned a Gen Lee back into its former glory of black on black and it was great till he sold it and the new owner turned it back into a Gen Lee. There are prolly MILLIONS of DOH fans out there and if only a fraction of them buy a charger to turn it into a GEN Lee then so be it atleast the Charger still lives.

[Tilar]

There are so fewer Grand Nationals on the road that the Charger could even shake a stick at.

Hardly a relative comparison since the total production of the Grand National was less than half the number of Chargers built in 1969 alone.

[RamchargerMopar]

that is true but your missing the point. It dont matter how many the company made someone is gonna go out and smash it up. that is the point I was making.

[Ghoste]

You are correct, but for all the comparisons to other movies, for all the comparisons to NASCAR, for all the millions of fans who allegedly love Chargers because of DOH, there is only one single car that I can think of where a huge part of the fan base (and I'm talking generally about fans of the show) think it is perfectly normal to jump the car even if it destroys it.  I have yet to see tickets being sold for a DMCLfest where they promise to blow up a Charger in the side of a train or a Vanishing Point reunion where you can pay to see a car pile into a dozer blade.  None of the scores of Eleanor fans are lining up with cash in hand to see a 67 Shelby jump a line of cars.  I can only think of one show and one car where this happens.  It isn't the number of cars destroyed that is the point with those of us who aren't such big fans of it, the point is that it is expected that a proper Dukesfest will feature a Charger jump.  Maybe not by you, maybe not by many of the real fans of the series, but most of the people who paid money to look at some GL's and maybe get their photo taken with Cooter are sure happier when there is a Charger wrecked.
Ans that's the part that eats at me.  Not the number of Chargers wrecked during production or in fests after but the fact that it created an entire cultural mindset whereby it is cool to take a 69 Charger and jump it.

[RamchargerMopar]

You are correct, but for all the comparisons to other movies, for all the comparisons to NASCAR, for all the millions of fans who allegedly love Chargers because of DOH, there is only one single car that I can think of where a huge part of the fan base (and I'm talking generally about fans of the show) think it is perfectly normal to jump the car even if it destroys it.  I have yet to see tickets being sold for a DMCLfest where they promise to blow up a Charger in the side of a train or a Vanishing Point reunion where you can pay to see a car pile into a dozer blade.  None of the scores of Eleanor fans are lining up with cash in hand to see a 67 Shelby jump a line of cars.  I can only think of one show and one car where this happens.  It isn't the number of cars destroyed that is the point with those of us who aren't such big fans of it, the point is that it is expected that a proper Dukesfest will feature a Charger jump.  Maybe not by you, maybe not by many of the real fans of the series, but most of the people who paid money to look at some GL's and maybe get their photo taken with Cooter are sure happier when there is a Charger wrecked.
Ans that's the part that eats at me.  Not the number of Chargers wrecked during production or in fests after but the fact that it created an entire cultural mindset whereby it is cool to take a 69 Charger and jump it.

You make a very good and solid point. Having said that I have to ask...why let something eat at you that you can never control? You said your self its a cultural mind set. It would be like getting everyone to stop going to burger king or stop wearing pants or what ever. The only way dukes fest will stop is if someone dies while Jumping a Lee... I my self wish it would stop.

[Ghoste]

Why let it eat me?   I don't know .  I really don't.  Worrying about stuff I can't control has been a failing of mine for too long.

[RamchargerMopar]

Why let it eat me?   I don't know .  I really don't.  Worrying about stuff I can't control has been a failing of mine for too long.

I guess its human nature