How did you get your Charger?

[Axels73Charger]

Tell me things like: how long you worked for it, how you found it, and the other important things that people ask about chargers! As of now im just "Counting down" the amount of work I gotta do. In hours and weeks, I got around 150+ hours and 3 weeks. So I thought this would be fun.

[jaak]

When I found the '69....I had been searching for a 69 Charger for about 3 years. Back in those days, I would just cruise the backroads and see if I could find anything. It was a nice Sunday afternoon, so I filled up my truck and started riding backroads looking to see if I could spot anything. I was up in southern Tennessee, when I got to thinking I better start heading home, like I said I was on a back road. I turn around to head back toward the highway. When I got to the highway, I came out right across from a service station/tire center. Sitting beside it was a 69 Charger RT....couldn't believe my eyes! I wrote down the number on the sign. The next day (Monday) I called to see if the car was for sale....and after numerous times hearing "Im gonna restore it someday" or "no, its not for sale" this one was indeed for sale, at a price I could afford on top of that! So the very next day (Tuesday), I laid out of work and went up there and bought it.

The '73 Rallye.... with the 69 being apart for a long term project....I needed a driver Mopar. After about 6 months of looking around on Ebay, Craigslist, and local ads, I found the '73 Rallye on Craigslist and it was located about a two hour drive away. I called the owner and spoke with him a couple of times and like what he told me. So I took a day off work and my wife and I, drove up there with cash in hand to check it out.....loved it, bought it, drove it home.

I had a '72 Charger for a while (Don't have it anymore), I got to work on a Monday morning and a guy there said he looked at a charger for sale that weekend, said he thought about buying it for him and his grandson to have a project but decided to pass. So he took me right then and there to show it to me. It was a '72, 318 2 bbl/automatic, and had some cool options (hideaway grille, rallye gauge), real solid and super CHEAP! I called my wife to have her run some money up there to me right then, I paid for the car, then drove it home when I got off of work.

The 69 Charger (I parted out) was found in a local free classified paper. I seen the ad, and it was just located about five minutes away from where I worked at the time, drove by after work to check it out. Bought it, disassembled it, kept what I needed for my project, ebayed the rest.


Jason

[b5blue]

My bro used to be fairly well off and as kids he always wanted a 70 Challenger. Having missed a good deal I found on a rag top one, from waiting to long to go look at it I had standing orders to check out any other Challengers ASAP and force him to go if they were decent deals. My friend told me of a 70 Challenger for sale behind a shop. I went the same day only to find I knew the shops owner. Waiting for him I looked around back and saw 2 Chargers but no Challenger. A white 72 (?) Rally 400 and a b5blue 70 Charger. He came back and I asked about the Challenger. Nope just 2 Chargers for sale......OH CRAP the 70 is for sale! The rest is history in my house! I still wish I could have gotten both Chargers, and the cherry Burgundy 69 Satellite (no motor or trans.) I found 3 weeks later, they (the white Rally and Satellite) were up for grabs for 700.00 each! It took all I had to get the Charger back on the road and ready for a move from FL. to VA. in 45 days. (1000 mile road trip in an old drag racer that had only been on the road 2 weeks before leaving!) That was 15 years ago.  

[Lizey]

was golfing with my grandpa and he said "you know, uncle John wants to sell you that Chrysler hes got sitting behind his barn". i stopped by later in the week and it turned out to be a '77 Dodge Charger SE. he said since we were family he'd take $300. drug it home the next day and the rest is history!

[TylerCharger69]

Well...Ive wanted a 69 every since the DOH aired on TV.   I was living in a lil s**t town called Ehrenberg Arizona.  On one of the few streets there are there....I was driving by and spotted the front grille from the street, and the entire back half of the car was buried in the sand, not to mention corrugated roofing materials stacked on top and all around it.  So long story short,  I made a deal with the old man who owned it to purchase the car for 600 dollars.  The car hadnt moved from that spot since 1972, and was still complete.  After hours of digging, and finding tires that would hold air long enough to tow the car home, I was ready to close the deal.  I said  "Here's the 600 dollars, now I need the keys and the title"   Well  I was informed that the title and keys were lost long ago, so I snatched a hundred dollar bill from his hands from the 600 and said  "I'll give you 500 and I'll take care of the paper work"  He agreed, since4 the car was originally tagged in California.   So I spent Thanksgiving Day of 1995 digging the car out and getting it home.  The car was rough.  He said he parked it because he got caught driving drunk too many times and couldnt drive it anymore,  so...the car sat in the same spot for 24 years.  I was at the right place at the right time, and came sporting all of its original parts!!!    500 bucks???  I'd say I stole it for that price!!!  And I'm preparing for its restoration if I can ever quit driving it long enough!!!!

[twodko]

My best bud and former co-worker (we both retired from that gig) has always been a mopar guy. I was always a GM guy especially Chevelles. He had 2 cars, one a 69 Charger R/T and the other is a 69 Barracuda 340 trype S both he bought new in the SF bay area. After I retired I found a 69 Chevelle my wife and I restored. It had a SB crate in it and was fun and fast for what it was........but there are a million of em'. We decided we wanted a "rare and special" car and a BB at that. My bud had the 'Cuda torn down, full rotis paint, new interior parts and the motor/tranny was rebuilt and sweetened. This beautiful 'Cuda is still sitting in his garage unassembled under a car cover for the last 12+ years! However, the still intact Charger sat right next to the 'Cuda for awhile then he put it in storage for a few years. In a moment of stark clarity I realized I had access to that "special' car we were looking for so I began to make it known I'd like to buy the Charger. This went back and forth for a couple years before he agreed to sell me the car. He had the tranny rebuilt, new brakes and MC, FirmFeel II steering box, new stock exhaust with tips, recored the rad and gave me a box full of OEM NOS stuff. Everything from new badges-batt tray-front turn signal lights-hood signal lights-trunk mat-this list went on. This was 2 years ago and it should be coming home from paint this week! The drive train is done (no rotis job but super clean) as is the interior -  thanks Legendary. All that's left is its new shoes. I've been sporadically posting my build but I'll need to do right by all you folks and post all of it when its done. Stay tuned.

Tom

[Brass]

I *heard* my first 68 before I saw it, as it passed us on the road.  It belonged to a friend of my older brother.  He recognized us on the road and did a furious drive by.  I was about 14 then and already loved Mopar, particularly Chargers, and thought that car was bad ass.  I bugged him shamelessly over the next couple of years until he sold it to me.  He had worn out the drive train and pulled the 4.11 by then - but still...  Had fun swapping in another engine with a friend, and had the meanest car in school.  Unfortunately I let that car go but I'm enjoying my "new" one.  Those many, many years in-between felt all wrong because I didn't have a Charger.   

[charger490]

in september of 67 i looked at the 68 charger and i wanted one so i ordered one and got it in march of 68. it was a 383 4sp power everything . well i had it till 1969 may when i got hit head on and that was the end of that one.
my son was in the air force in phonix  AZ  and found 17 chargers for sale in 1985 so i said buy the best one and drive it home. that car is the one i won best of show with last week

[mauve66]

you only have 3 wks of work left??? you haven't been at this very long have you..................... it NEVER gets finished................

had been looking for a RR for about 6 months, only had $3K to spend so of course everything i could afford wasn't even driveable

saw an ad for Mary in the Denver paper, automatic and mauve paint but what the heck, i'm gonna get black or purple anyway and you can put a 4spd in just by cutting a hole right............ and got the owner to drive down to Colorado springs to let me see it, finally got into town just as the sun was barely going down, paint faded so bad it looked silver but all the trim appeared to be there and damn there was alot of chrome inside that car, seemed pretty cool while we were driving around. then at a traffic light the owner said "you haven't even seen the best part yet" and told me to pull out the light switch, DAMN i was hooked for sure, those dash lights were just incredible, i had never seen anything like it before. she was mine the next weekend. on the way home from denver down into castle rock she did 120+mph and the wife was pissed when she finally caught up.

became my everyday car for about 4 months then the motor let go (something to do with the motor mount letting the drivers side of the block go way up in the air and come crashing down while power braking, or so they say )

spent the next 6 months or so stripping the car and replacing the motor and carpet, trans shift kit in an army barracks parking lot, friends with the mp's so they didn't get it towed

moved to missouri,spent the next year as my everyday car until the starter went bad

sat for awhile and then i got a bug up my butt and stripped her to a shell in one night, about 10 hours or so. then she sat for 3 years

decided to move to nevada, had 2-3 wks to get her painted and completely put back together, got her about 95% back together

moved to nevada, spent the next year as my everyday car then the starter went out again

sat for next 11 years as i do little piddly stuff here and there hoping beyond hope that  i can eventually make her into my dream car

tired of waiting to do that , especially now with the economy in the toilet, so now i'm starting over and what every shape she is in come MATS 2011, thats the way she rolls down the street, paint, no paint, new engine/old engine, don't care, i just want to drive a V8 after all these years

[JT01]

The Dukes got me hooked on Chargers Im 37 and always wanted one and 3 years ago I bought mine off ebay it was pretty rough but I didnt care because I finally got one and I feel I saved this car I will be getting it back next week from the body shop then the fun begins putting it all back together.

[CaptMarvel]

Fell in love with the 2nd gen Charger around 1979/80 while staying home sick one day from school and a local station re-ran Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Looked for one off & on for most of my adult life since. Then, in 2003 while working as a bldg insp. for City of Fresno, I came across a familiar shape under a car cover at a vacant house in the bad part of town. I knew it was 2nd gen obviously, but never guessed it was a factory R/T. After a windy weekend, back out on the job, I noticed the rear quarter of the car cover had exposed 68' bumble-bee stripes on a worn sunfire yellow Charger. I hastily tracked down the owner of the house (& the car-who was 2nd owner since 71') and he had just sold the vacant house and didnt really want to haul the R/T back to the bay area from Fresno, but didnt want noithing for it either as neighborhood kids had previously offered him. He gave me a figure of 3K, after nearly fainting I went & got the cash and drove it home (had not been driven in quite a while, but man what a ride!) All original, nothing missing, but not a clean survivor (needs repaint, new interior and some minor engine work) Its got a 727 torqueflite, 440 magnum, black vinyl roof, black interior but no factory sure grip! Still, its just what I always wanted...

[rattlehead_74]

I owned my first charger when i was 19 years old (1994) stumbled across it at a local used car lot,,it was a 1973 dodge charger se factory black 400 4barrel car,,they wanted 700 bucks for it,,I ended up trading my 78 t-bird and 200 bucks for it ,,,awsome car i drove the piss out of that car for three years,,,blew the timing chain out of it (nylon teeth),parked it in the parents driveway for 6 years,ended up parting it out later ,,frame was rotted,,


I, like everyone i know have always wanted a 69 ,But, like everyone i know couldnt find one that was in our price range so after years and years of drooling  over the very few i would see on the streets or at shows i stumbled across a 69 maybe within my reach, on non-other than www.racingjunk.com  trade only type of deal so i sent an e-mail offering up my 1949 chevy buisiness coupe (4x4 lol) and we ended up working out a deal on the coupe and a v-dub buggy i had ,,and thats how i got my dream car!   thanks , BTW great topic!


I still have some original parts off the 73 for any of you 3 gen owners out there ,LMK

[ChgrSteve67]

 I was working for a trucking company delivering freight between Sacramento and Stockton CA.

One day I rolled up to the transfer station in Stockton and sitting out front was this red thing with black stipes and it had a for sale sign in the back window.  I walked into the office and asked who is selling that car and how much.  Went to the bank the next morning and got a signature loan for $1000 got a friend to drive me down to Stockton and drove my Charger home. 

Drove the Charger for about 6 months and due to lack of funds and CA smog laws I had to park the Charger.

Charger sat for about 15 years before I began rebuilding her.

The rest is history.

[Axels73Charger]

"you only have 3 wks of work left??? you haven't been at this very long have you..................... it NEVER gets finished................"

Well that maybe true but I can finally own one! You have a very good story! Long but hey its pretty cool!

rattlehead_74 Thanks I thought it was a good idea. Now Ive kinda given up on 69's even though I LOVE them! I dont have alot of money and ive been busting my but for the past 3 months to get more money.

PS Keep the stories coming there cool!

[mleist89]

i acquired my 1973 dodge charger from my grandfather after he passed away in march of 09.

[Iceyone]

Bought my first Charger in 1978. Paid 250 bucks for it and drove it home. Tried to buy my dad's old 69 SE a couple of months earlier but it got bought out from underneath me. Had a chance to buy an original 68 Hemi Charger for 7 grand about six months later. 7 grand sounded like 7 million to me back then so I passed. If only I could have seen into the future on that one. Still have that first 68 Charger and try'n to get it back on the road after sitting for the past 28 years.

[AKcharger]

Found mine abandoned in a storage lot. Bought it for $750  (including back storage). All it took was lots and lots of time and thousands and thousands and thousands of dolloars to fix it up.

[Brock Lee]

My main car was passed around like a bottle of hooch between a group of rednecks from the late 80's into the 90's. I would see it around and ask to buy it, but each one planned on "passing it down to their son". The car would develop a problem and it would end up being traded t another hick in the group, get half assed back together, then passed on again when a bigger problem occurred. One of them broke the chain and traded it for a snowmobile to someone outside the group. He had it for some time. I would hear "I would love to get that, but he wants way too much for that". But nobody threw figures out. One day in 1998 I went and spoke to the guy myself, he wanted $800 for it. By this time it was running, but had all kinds of hack shadetree mechanic work done to it. The body was straight and original though. So I spent a year going through it and have been driving it ever since.

[elanmars]

1st Charger- 1973 SE 400. Had been looking for a few months and this was during the high price years. I quit even peeking at 2nd gens, only the 1st and 3rd were realistic but even then, prices were high. found one on a craigslist ad in north carolina. talked to the guy, flew to check out the car...and it was waaaayyyyy better than in the pictures, so i drove that car back to louisiana. extremely happy i was...drove the crap out of that car, didn't really give me any problems other than having the transmission re-done. i would love to get another 3rd gen sometime, 73-74 and have the 71-72 hideaways on it...













2nd Charger- 1969 with a 400, formerly a 318. i sold the '73 for a very nice, high price. i had started to learn that not all was groovy with the car and it had some things that would be expensive to fix in the long run if i had kept it. well, expensive for me. specially with a child on the way. for some reason i thought this '69 Charger was in decent enough shape. hey, it drove, you know? just barely...while i bought it at a good price, it needed A LOT. it truly looked like a barnyard find, why, the dude thought it'd be a bright idea to get drunk with friends, swing by home depot and spray paint the gray primered car...you guessed it....ORANGE. holy crap did it look absolutely redneck ghetto. i was able to knock the price down a good bit because of that, that spray paint was EVERYWHERE. all over the trim, tires, wheels, windows...and when I said the car needed a LOT...brakes, front drive train, transmission, belts, alternator, body work (had a LOT of bondo, replaced the hood, windshield, got all kinds of seals all over the place, etc)...and i got a lot of that done, body shop headaches and all. but i didn't get it finished...i still needed to fix up the interior, the floor, get new front and back bumpers, put a final coat of paint, a/c...and with a child on the way, it was just not do-able. it's too bad because it was getting there..





























3rd Charger - 1969 383, formerly a 318. I got this last one after needing to get a more complete car and abandon the "dream car" due to having a baby, if i was to have a Charger at all. sold the second one for a great price, way more than expected-drove it to the dude in texas and that was that.

i knew about this car being for sale before, having seen it here and moparts. then seeing in person that it hadn't sold when i went to see travis for some parts for the car i had at the time, i was just curious if it was still for sale and the answer was yes. didn't think more about it until it came time to sell my 2nd Charger....while i wasn't keen on it having a white top, it has a certain charm to it. the tinted windows (which i sadly have to get rid of for more "legal" tint, as a lot of cops HATE that in the town i go to university), the black stripe, the actually not-bad-for-being-15's wheels...."OOOoooooh there's one nearby that already has air conditioning and it's his most driven one..."

so came up with the total, which took a week or two and it was driving me crazy not having "an old car" but i was determined not to let this one get away. i had already missed my chance for a very nice '68.

it's the first time i only had to travel 30-40 minutes for a car and not go across states. that was nice too...and being able to roll with air conditioning in louisiana heat and my baby can ride in the back no problem...awesome!

thankfully i've always been able to get drivers within my means-i'd love to have the money or/and time to learn and do it on my own, to have a car just down right the way i want it but i'll live totally fine with having a driver. all my cars have seen rain and been driven all over the place. i didn't bust my ass to get something just to sit in a garage and clean every now and again for a show, you know?

i may be thought of as insane for driving Chargers as my dailies the last few years but oh well, that's just how I roll.

not that i wouldn't mind a new Challenger SRT8 but that's WAY beyond my means.





for more photos, follow my sig!!

[bull]

My first Charger, a '70, I saw on my school bus route back in 1980 during the original airing of the Dukes of Hazzard TV show. I told my dad I had to have it so we went and offered the guy something like $300 for it. I did some crappy body work on it, painted it Trans Am red and then drove the piss out of it for 11 years.

My second Charger, a '68 R/T with no engine or trans., was something I fell into. I had helped a friend buy it from a private wrecking yard next to his house and when he had no place to store it I bought it from him for $50. All I did was move it about three blocks and parked behind a friend's storage unit and there it sat while I lived 350 miles away. It had a lost title so I did all the footwork involved in getting a new one in my name and pretty much as soon as I accomplished that he wanted it back. Shortly after he bought it from me he dropped a 400 in it and it got wrecked. I should have kept it because he's into Camaros now.

FFWD about 9 years when I got a job surrounded by Harley-Davidson guys telling me how they paid $17k or more for these big monstrosities they call motorcycles and I thought, I should be able to pick up a nice '68 Charger (my favorite year) for that much money. Well, sort of. I got the car for $5,500 and then I've poured more money than I like admitting to into its restoration since but, oh well. But I didn't have $20k+ to spend on one that was driveable so I did what I could. How I got it was kind of backward. I first started a national search shopping online for about a year and after getting frustrated with less-than-honest sellers and the idea of buying sight-unseen and spending $1,000+ on shipping I decided I needed to tap into the local market and exhaust it first. My Mopar buddy (now deceased) told me to get in touch with the local Mopar clubs and restoration shops and ask them and that's when things really started happening. I also have a coworker who cruises side roads all around town as a hobby looking for classic cars. After about two days of research gathered from about three sources I suddenly had 5-6 '68 and '69 Chargers to look at within 20 miles of my house. I found my current Charger, a '68 383/2bbl/4spd, sitting in an alley about 12 miles away. I bought it and then spent a year trying to decide if I should do a full resto on it. I finally made the decision and now it's in about 4,000 pieces in my garage. But I work on it pretty much every day and someday I'll get to enjoy the fruits of my labor... I hope.

[69bronzeT5]

I figured I had already typed this out on the site somewhere but I can't seem to find it so here it goes again.



I grew up watching the Dukes Of Hazzard reruns. I loved everything about the show....I was obsessed to say the least. However the obsession grew from the show into the car they used. The General Lee caught my eye from the first moment I watched the show. It was 1997, I was 5 and all I knew was I wanted my own General Lee. My dad started looking for one so we could restore it together. 1998 rolled around and a family friend called my dad and asked if that car he was looking for had a pop-up gas cap. My dad replied 'yes' and he said 'I found one sitting in a field near my house'. I remember me and my dad going out a few nights later to look at the car. It was rusty, beat up and missing a lot. Someone had thrown the front bumper through the windshield and keyed (or a screwdriver) a lot of the car. I remember looking at it in amazement, this was the first time I had actually seen a Charger in person. I still remember looking at the tail lights and that confirmed this was the same car the General Lee was. Anyways we went to the closest house and asked about it. The guy who owned the house said it was his friend's parts car for his '69 R/T. After getting in contact with the owner, we were able to buy the car for $400. I don't remember much of this time, I was 6 but there are still certain scenes from that night that play in my head. I can still picture looking at the passenger side of the car under that ripped tarp using only a flashlight to see in my head like it was yesterday. Even more so, I still have the image of me sitting in the front seat of my dad's car looking up at the tow truck with my Charger on it as we followed it back home on Christmas Eve. My dad made it official that night (1998- I was 6) by giving me a box with the keys to the car in it. My dad still tells me my mom wasn't impressed when she saw what was sitting in the driveway. Apperentley my dad snuck it into the driveway without her knowing Here's a few pictures that my dad took of me with the car a few days after Christmas.......

[69bronzeT5]

A newish picture of it....

[G-man]

I got mine as follows...

Allens friend was selling his daytona clone to buy a superbird, Allen wanted the daytona so he was selling his 68 QQ1 blue charger, I wanted Allens 68 QQ1 blue charger so I am selling my  red 68 charger.



I think im the winner in this whole ordeal 

Thanks Allen!

[doctor4766]

I have actually bought my Charger twice.
First up I bought it with my wife to do a GL clone for a charity bash here in West Oz.
Found it in a country wide magazine and had it shipped from Melbourne to Perth.
Spend a couple of weeks stripping down the car to send off to the panel shop.
While it was still in there my wife and I seperated.

Purchase number two was at divorce time when she thought the car was worth more than it was.
I had to pay her out the same amount of money that I had already spent on the car by that time in order to keep it from ending up in her hands.

Oh well.. sh1t happens.
She's now driving a piece of crap and has squandered all of her share of the money from the sale of our home.
I bought the home btw and I leave the garage door up just so she can see the Charger when she drops our son back after his couple of days a week at her (rented) house.
Is gloating a bad thing?

[CRZNYT]

Back in 1983 when I was in grade 9 my dad drove me to school and we would pass this one house everyday. I remember looking into his back yard and seeing this shell sitting back there, and I just had to have it. It was a 66 Charger all apart and just rusting out, I went to the door every week for 2 years but got the same story not for sale it's a resto project. Was driving to school one day a few months later and the car was gone, went to the door to inquire about it and he said he sold it. I said I have been here every week for 2 years and you told me it was not for sale, he says you are just a kid I thought you were kidding 
Fast forward to 1993 now 25 years old and still have that car in the back of my mind I tell my wife and dad that I am in the hunt for a Charger don't care what year as long as it says Charger. I have been looking for about a year or so everywhere in the area and a friend of mine who works at a body shop behind my dads car lot says there is a 66 sitting in the back, been there since 1980. Figures one block away and I had no idea it was there.
I go take a look and the car is sitting on the rockers sunk down in the mud, I take a chance and give the guy his money and bring it home. To our surprise the rockers and frame rails are in great shape with a few of the usual holes in the floor. Takes a few years to restore but in 2000 it came out and has been a blast to drive ever since.
By the way it turns out years later I befriend this guy and we get talking about the one that got away back in highschool and he informs me he bought and it was a factory hemi car. I asked where it was now and he told me he sold it to  a guy in Florida.
I have owned another 66 a 73 and now own a 77 Daytona package along with the 66.
Cheers Don 

[Jake]

Here is the story of my General. This was my first car when I was 16 yrs old, I bought it for $300 out of a field. A '68 Charger. It was brown with Green indoor/outdoor fake grass patio carpeting and full of bondo. ( The car was originally triple green from the factory). After I had owned it for three months and stuck a ton of cash into it I sold it. ( Funny how history repeats itself) Then 12 yrs later I tracked it down through 4 different owners in a 5 hour period ( all in one day.) By the end of the day the car was home with me again. There were still receipts in the glove box from the auto parts store where I bought parts for it as a kid. When you talk about heritage this car has it for me. Everyone that is doing work on it I have known for a long time. For example, The engine was professionally built by a good friend of my family, I remember going to his shop as a kid and watching he and my brother fix up cars and build race engines etc. The guy who did the body work was my Tee-Ball coach. The guy who re-upholstered my seats, I used to work for and have know for about 15 yrs.
This car was built to never be sold.( spared no expense) Converted everything but the doors to a '69.  It was also built to be driven and I have driven it HARD. This car is tough and very strong. It just wants to run wild. This is no trailer queen. I let kids and very hot chics sit on the door with their feet on the seat to have their picture taken. When all polished up it shines like a Georgia sunrise. I have done exhibitions at local dirt tracks, pavement circle tracks and countless parades and promotions. There is nothing like 6000 people standing on their seats screaming their heads off when the General takes the field sliding sidways,smokin the tires and tormenting the local cops who purposefully chase you hoping you run. It is a blast to drive.

Pic of me when I was 16 checking the oil and of course using my t- shirt as a rag. Still live on the same road and so does my buddy in the pic. We still mess w old cars even in our late thirties. http://www.jakesgeneralstore.com/node/312

resto pics http://www.jakesgeneralstore.com/image-galleries/cars/images-jakes-general-lee

[Belgium R/T -68]

We, the family was celebrating my dads 75th birthday in 2005 at my sisters place and late in the evening
my brother in law showed me ebay on his PC. Never heard of that before and I spent the night checking for everything and found a -68 Charger R/T for sale in Texas, a white one with centerline wheels. I hit the "buy it now" button and the rest is history like they say. Spent the 2 first year
beating the crap out of it and started the resto in 2007. My first and only Charger.

Per

[Plum Crazy 68]

1988 I was on a movie date with my girlfriend.  I left my 57 chevy wagon at home and we took her 74 duster.  She drove.  After the movie her mom told her they found her car.  I said,.... what other car do you have? We went to an impound yard and there was a 68 Charger in primer gray.  She was almost in tears as the person who stole it had ripped off the vinyl top and tried to cover the brown paint.  She said she paid $500 for it when she was 15.  It had a dented driverside door and fender but it came with both parts.  She was the official 2nd owner in 1985.  It was reported as stolen for 14 months and was recovered by the CHP when someone tried to register it.

Well, we got married in 1992 and she hung on to the Charger.  In 1992 the same motor was rebuilt.  It was a daily driver until 1996 when we bought her a new car.  In 1998 we finally got the car painted Plum Crazy Purple and had the interior redone plus a new vinyl top.  It went into the garage for 10 years and was undercover.  So after owning the car for 25 years we have finally got it back on the road.  It is a true California rust free car with black plates.  So essentially, I had to give up my freedom, sell the Chevy, buy new cars, house and have kids just so I could have a 68 Charger$$$$$$.

[TK73]

Online ad...

[Foreman72]

I love telling the story of how i got my charger...

its all typed out and illustrated here...
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,60532.0.html

So about 5 years ago my family was at my aunts house for easter.  My aunt lives in a farmhouse that has been in my mom's family for 7 generations; very historical location.  Over the course of the day, I was talking to one of my uncles about cars and i mentioned i loved muscle cars.  Then he went and talked to my mom for a while.  I went on hanging out with family and then he came back and said he had something to show me.  We walked out to the barn on the propertry.  Its in pretty rough shape and filled with all sorts of old things from wagon wheels to oil drums.  But i saw this car.  This green car.  My uncle said this was his car when he was in high school.  Then he gave it to his girlfriend who used it for awhile.  When she got a new one we had nothing to do with it so he put in here.  That was 20yrs ago.  He said, I've been trying to think of something to do with it and your mom said it was ok if I gave it to you so guess what?  He handed me the key and I couldn't even see straight.  For the rest of the day I was in that barn pouring over my new treasure.  Now 5 yrs later I have studied everything possible about this car, picked up every parts mag I could, read all the mopar mags ect ect I could and of course joined here.  
And the resto is slowly but surely moving forward

[Wicked72]

Me too! Me too!
Yeah to much to type all over again..
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,68060.0.html

[68blue]

My 68 was purchased new by my grandmother's older brother. He lived in Florida and would drive up on occasion to visit. Nobody in our farm family played golf so I would go with him to the local 9 hole goat hill golf course and caddy, chase balls, and keep him company while he played golf which was his real passion.

Fast forward 15 years, I'm married, two sons, working full time, and living in a small house. My grandmother calls and tells me that my great uncle passed away and that she is going south to settle the estate. Sad call but I had not seen him in some years. When she returns she tells me that he left me the car.

I was surprised and a little sad when I picked up the car as I realized that I had no place to keep it. Parked it in a barn after keeping it in the weather on the street for a year or so always wanted to fix it up but with family, job and space, things just never worked out.

Fast forward another 25 years, kids grown, I'm retired in a buy out, and moving to a house with a much bigger garage. I go back and pull the car out, evicting the various unhappy long term inhabitants and start in. The rest being slowly documented at this site which has been a great source of info and entertainment.

I found his old golf hat still in the trunk where it will return when the car is done.

[moparstuart]

 story of how i got one of my chargers ,  My 69 500


     http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,49791.0.html

[hemi68charger]

Tell me things like: how long you worked for it, how you found it, and the other important things that people ask about chargers! As of now im just "Counting down" the amount of work I gotta do. In hours and weeks, I got around 150+ hours and 3 weeks. So I thought this would be fun.

Which Charger are you referring to? I've owned a bunch..........

But if we're just discussing the ones currently owned, it's called the "Troy-trade"

1. 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona - knew about the car for over 3 years from ebaymotors. I tried and tried to trade my other Chargers for it. Finally, in '09, I did. I traded my ever-on-going '68 Hemi Charger R/T and running/driving '69 Charger 500 440 4-speed straight up for it.........

2. 1969 Dodge Charger 500 - posted an "possible trade my '70 440 six pack Charger R/T project for a '69 Charger 500 project" ad. It worked. An hour after the posting, the process started with Pete and it finally happened.

[Brock Samson]

'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, 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 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 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-heeled "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 lock 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.

[Charger RT]

The Charger I have right now I first saw in 1980 when I drove my 17 year old brother (in my 69 charger) to buy his first car. A 68 R/T 4 speed charger for $1000.00. He drove it until the end of 82 pulled the engine for a rebuild and just let it sit for 3 years until he gave me first shot to buy it. His price was $400.00 plus I had to agree that every car part trash or treasure he left at our moms house when we lived there was part of the deal. That way I had a week end of cleaning his mess. It been mine for 25 years now but it still gets referred to as juniors car or juniors old car. My brother has asked a few times to buy it back but I always turn him down. At least he knows where his first car is.
Tim

[Rolling_Thunder]

Went to a local car thing to sell my brother's car (72 Nova) - I was 15 at the time and looking for a mopar - I had been working summers and saving all my money ---  I ended up not selling the car (was there with my father) and as we were packing up and about to leave I see a white 68 Charger pull through the gate and idle down one of the rows -  I went over with my dad and looked at it and talked to the owner...       it was for sale.

Now keep in mind that my parents had regulated what i could purchase...   I had found a 1970 RT/SE V code charger a couple miles from my house - but with a 4-speed and 4.10's out back my parents said "hell no" -  I had gone and looked at about a dozen chargers by this time...    engine limit was a 383 only because I never found a 318 Charger...     

Back to this white car...    owner had it for sale - he was there with his wife and new daughter - it was the wife's car so it was optioned as follows: WW1 paint, green interior, buckets, console, light package, export code, 3rd owners, 2.76 open rear end, 318 2bbl automatic, and generally very clean.

I ended up buying the car that day and the rest is history...    6 engines, 3 transmissions, 3 rear ends, and two "restorations" --- its still not done...     

[Old Moparz]

Told women to give me money so I could buy a Charger or they'd have to see me naked.











Had enough cash in about 3 minutes.  

[Grim Jhaixus]

Mine is a little sad. Back in 2002, three Days before I turned 15 I met this guy at school named Tony, a 19 year old who was doing a second run on the 12th grade, we talk about cars and we become best friends in minutes. He collected cars, trucks, vans, race cars, classic cars, new cars, beater cars, diesels, even an electric scooter once. Mustangs being his favorites (3rd gen Chargers were already mine). He doesn't restore them, he just gets them limping enough and then blows them up or wrecks them, whichever happens first. Drove me crazy, always having to wrench on something because he refused to put brake fluid in it or ruined the tranny after getting it stuck in some mudhole, or parked it between a couple of trees up on its side (his sister-in-law's 1992 Pontiac Sunbird). We go through 80s Mustang after 80s Mustang after Bronco II, 87 Camaro, 77 AMC Hornet, 80s Rangers, his sister's Blazer, 70s Ford Vans and then one day he shows up in a 1975 Mustang II. I had never seen one before, they were nearly all crushed probably by the time I was 5 (born in 1987 btw) and I still say it's the only good looking Mustang Ford made. I want this car before Tony destroys it, I don't succeed, he blows it up and then sells it to some Lithuainian. After a couple 90s Mustangs, his mother-in-law's Camry, a very cool 73 Cougar XR7, 83 Bronco, my ex-girlfriend's ATV, a 72 Q Code MACH1 and I don't remember what all else later Tony calls me about a 1973 Charger he traded a Mazda B1600 with a built Chevy 305 for. It sounded terrible, it was full of dents, paint runs, missing trim, busted marker lights, bald tires, obviously abused and neglected. Me: "Tony, sell me that car before you ruin it." Tony: "No way." Me: "Why not?" Tony: "It's a Charger, it's badass!" He ends up only wrecking it once, backed it into a short concrete pole on the passenger side. Somehow it lives nearly a year, possibly because I would show up and do the maintainence for him. Oil, power steering fluid, air filter, brake pads, new Carter BBD, more stuff you wouldn't normally do for someone else's car. It ends up being Tony's last car. He finally agrees to sell me the car on Thanksgiving Day 2009, he gets sick shortly after and dies June 25th.

I know it's kind of a downer but that's how it was.

[fireguyfire]

After restoring my 66 Coronet 500, I started a 2 year search for my dream car, a 68 charger; very hard to find  one in the condition I was after (needing full resto but not too far gone) and while searching and putting threads on this site I hooked up with none other than Troy; wound up buying his factory black 68 this winter and hope to have her on the road next spring!

[Axels73Charger]

Man all these stories are amazing. And not one is the same! Great pics by the way!

Online ad...

Well thats looking to be the thing I do too.

[jobbless]

i asked everyone i met that was into cars. looked in the news paper. bought all the magazines. auto trader, roundup, free ads, all that junk, looked online. drove all over on wild goose chases to find cars that either didn't exist, weren't for sale, or junk. i was threatened to get off of peoples property, just for knocking on their door to ask about the charger rotting in the back yard. this went on for 13 years. almost bought some cars i didn't really want just because i drove over 8 hours to look at them. just missed a few good deals. seems like there are some deals when you don't have any money. and i had a few deals taken from me. when you make plans with someone and they brake them. when you are supposed to buy the car and are at the bank getting the money to do so. they sell it to someone else. and you didn't talk the guy down!!! and then he tries to sell you a shittier car for more money just because it was all one color. anyway i am venting.

so i finally found a 68 on craigslist. in missouri. i am in pittsburgh pa.  it is 14 hours away. i write the guy 15 or so times the day i see the ad. in the last message, i tell him i will give him 500 more than his asking price. if he gives me a chance to come look at it.  he calls me and informs me that 75 people wrote him that day and said that they would take it now for the asking price. so he said he called me because i was the only person who offered more. my buddy nino and i jumped in the truck. and off we were to missouri. we get there the car was not as nice as advertised. as they never are. but it was not that bad. nicer than most i have looked at and way cheaper. one owner running and driving. so i bought it. we drove to U-haul. rented a trailer. its awesome. i finally have my 68..... it took a long time.

[Dans 68]

The '73 was originally purchased new by my wife's sister's husbands father.    He traded in his (purchased new) '68 Charger for it without telling his family.
Just came home one day with the '73.    Collectively they wanted to kill him.   

Flashing forward quite a few decades, my sis-in-law and husband were moving to the DC area, and did not want to take the handed-down '73 with them. As I was their mechanic (performing all tune-ups) they offered it first to me. I agreed to take it (that's right, FREE!  ) and we went down to the local AAA and transferred title that same day.

My Mopar appetite whetted, a few years later I starting looking for a 4-speed '68, the ultimate Charger in my mind. I scoured the internet and found one in Texas that looked promising. I talked to the owner quite a few times over a 2-week period, obtained a lot of photos and history, and flew to San Antonio to take a look see. I liked it, we haggled over price, and shook hands to close the deal. A few weeks later the car was delivered. 

Dan

[Grim Jhaixus]

How do we get a thread made "sticky"? I vote we do it for this one.

[oldgold69]

i had a 63 sport fury in high school.   my friend kept bugging to sell it to him.     i always liked the cowl induction 454 ss.  so cruised the dealers on the south side of milwaukee looking for one.   hit all the  major brand dealers  didn't  have any chevelles.       stopped at the rambler dealer they had this gold 69 charger sitting in the back corner of the lot.  salesman and me took her for a spin  they wanted $1695 for it  i ofered him $1060 including tax.  he cried  he couldn't sell it for that.  i started to walk away he said sold.  that was in 1974  i am the second owner  it came with all the orginal owners bills of sale from the dealer.

[myk]

It was summer of '94, I had been working at McDonald's since my high school graduation of '93 trying to save up for either a late 80's Mustang GT, Camaro Z28 or a 68-70 Charger.  Somehow the Charger won and I found an ad in the paper that fit my price range: $3000.  My mom called the owner and he drove it to his local church that just happened to be in my neighborhood.  My mom, mechanic and I checked it out and $2500 later it was mine.  I've had it since then...

[jb666]

Cool story, Brock!

Everyone here knows my story... But to sum it up, ever since being glued to the tube at age 10 (in the late 70's) I knew I'd own a Charger some day. I had to wait through two kids growing up and get to a point that I was financially ABLE to support the purchase and/or resto properly.. But that day came, back in 2008. The rest is history. I wasn't born a "Mopar guy" , but I certainly will die that way!! 

[b5blue]

I just started laughing when I saw you replied to this topic Jeff....... 

[jb666]

I just started laughing when I saw you replied to this topic Jeff....... 

This is hurtful 

[Headrope]

Spent money on it. Done.


Kidding aside, I wish I had a cool story about my '66 but it's just something I saw on the side of the road and fell head-over-heels for. My dream was to own a '68 but seeing the '66 for the first time was - well, about the same as the first time I saw Heather Thomas in a bikini on "The Fall Guy."

[rattlehead_74]

bump

[Darkman]

Well, here's my story....

Wanted a Charger was looking around Aus. Almost gave up looking in Aus until I found what I thought was a bargain 15hrs away. Paid a deposit and waited for it to ship. It was a red "black plate" Cali car with no engine or tranny and was still in the US. Was told it arrived, so I drove 15 hours to be bitterly disappointed as it turned out to be a piece of junk. Drove 15 hours back and found an importer (Shermatt America) the next day and he began looking for me. We found a car (complete 68 Charger with minor problems - which was perfect for me) in Turners Falls Massechussetts, and arranged to buy it. The day we (my agent) went to organise transport, the buyer changed his mind and wanted to keep it  I looked on Craigslist that day and found another 68 in the San Fransisco bay area. We bought it  Now it is in an LA shipping warehouse awaiting import approval and it will be shipped.

[Grim Jhaixus]

Man, that's rough. It'll be worth all the trouble very soon. 

[lisiecki1]

Found my '73 in an autotrader around '95 when I was 17.  I wasn't set on a charger, I just wanted a mopar muscle car (dad's influence with his 67 GTX).  The charger in the picture looked nice and piqued my interest.  Showed the ad to dad and he said call em and we'll see.  Turned out the car was about 5 miles away!  2 days later we went and looked at it.  Guy was asking $1500, dad had the whole "how low can you go" conversation with him and he said no less than $1200, but another father/son were coming to look at it.  Dad gave him a pending "$1200" guarantee and we went home and waited for the call.  Guy called us the next day, said the others would give him his asking price but he would allow us "first come first serve".  Dad said we'd give him his asking price.  I had about $800 saved in the bank and mom and dad loaned me the rest with the understanding that if it wasn't paid off in a year they would take ownership (they probably wouldn't have, but you have to teach kids that deals have stipulations).  I paid it off to them in about 6 months.

I drove it for the rest of high school and a couple years after until the 360 we built for it had the carb stud come loose and go through the passenger side head and it's been off the road ever since.  About 10 years now.   God I miss driving that car.

Good topic, but you suck for making me miss driving it even more than I did 15 minutes ago!

[Brock Samson]

  this thread sure makes me appreciate mine, as I bought three chargers for a total of $3,500 the stripped rusty R/T SE from a junkyard awaiting the crusher, for the $2.5 K i was gouged by the Yard,... a super crunched all green 318 '70 500 for the entire drivetrain and seats, and the '69 S.E. i stripped in the junk yard for the black interior and trim it too was crunched and the drivetrain stripped... I bet anyone of them would be at least a $3.5 K car today... of course this was in '84 and computers were what I played pong on... but i did have my stripped R/T SE on the road in only two weeks.

[Khyron]

Brian found my charger for me.... on teh old dodge-charger.com site ... or maybe it was moparts, but I called the guy, went down and payed for it

The story does get more exciting...

I payed for it but then needed to come down the next weekend to get it. It was about 3 hours south from my house. Well, the weekend that I went to get it the town it was in was experiencing flash flooding, and my Chargers owner was right by the river that was flooding :shock:

I called the owner and he was busy putting the charger up on cinder blocks because the roads to get it out of where it was had already washed out... I drove down there like a mad man to see if I could get to it, but i got stopped about 100 meters away by a deap river over teh road, Nimo and the police wouldn't let me past, I swear i would have tried.

I had to come back teh next day, and I got real lucky... The car was up high enough where the water just got on teh tires, not even rim high... then again he had it up on 2 blocks per corner heheh

[Charger_Dart]

I was looking for a 69 Charger for about 3 years, but everything I found was either too expensive or too rusted. Finally in 1990 a good friend of mine called me one day and said he saw a garage door up on a subdivision townhouse. He said it looked like a Charger's back-end, but it was a 68. he gave me the address and I drove over the next day to see what the story was. The car was pinned against the wall on the drivers side and the front was up against another wall. It was covered in years worth of garage crap. I could not see anything but part of the top , trunk and passenger side of the car. The owner said he was going through a divorce and he did not want his wife to get it. He told me it was an original 383 Charger with an auto that had a locked up engine. I figured it was a non R/T Charger but I could deal with that. I picked up the car for $900 as-is and had a flatbed pull it out the next day. When it arrived home I real happy to find the 383 engine was not the original engine and the car was actually a R/T car. I also found out that the car was originally gold and not the brown color on it; and found a broadcast sheet under one of the seats. I have been enjoying the car ever since.
Mike  

Darkman - Turners Falls is the next town over from me. Do you have any other details on the that 68 Charger?

[Tilar]

Man, there are some good stories here.

Mines pretty simple. I had wanted a 68 Charger since the time they came out. There was a tire shop next door to where I worked in Texas. It was a mom and pop shop and they worked out of a big garage behind the house. There was a long driveway behind the shop, maybe a hundred yards or so long. Their son had bought this 68 Charger and he would run this thing to the end of the road and back just as hard as he could. It was a 318 with a 3 on the tree. I just knew he was going to grenade that 318 and sure enough, after about a week he did. He pulled it out and stuck a 400 from a cordoba down in it and could never get it running. I tried for about a month to buy it and finally he agreed to sell it to me for $400, Only bad thing was I had just gone through a bad divorce and I didn't have $400. He agreed to let me make payments over the course of 6 weeks which I did. That was back in 86. I still have the receipts they wrote for each payment.

[Bob T]

My wife and I had always wanted a 68 and only a 68 would do, we had run of Aussie Valiants including a mint R/T 6pk car that I sold to put the money into my business rather than take a loan for more staff/business vehicles.
I had organised a Mopar run off another forum and we had about 20 cars on it, about an hours drive each way. One of the cars on it was a 68 burgandy RR1 with a white top, stock as. I got talking to the guy and his partner and we sort of got on well and swapped emails etc to keep in touch for future runs.

About 8 months later I had a email out of the blue from a guy wanting to buy my current car.

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,72020.msg808869.html#msg808869


When I knew I had a deal on the boil , I called my friend and told him I would buy it if he wanted to sell it. As it turned out, he wanted to build a big shed for the rest of his cars and I caught him on the right day so we did a deal on it.
The old car left on a trailer on Wednesday and I was driving my new 68 Charger home on Friday night in the rain. And saying to myself, "Man, I finally got a Dodge Charger" , finally cracked it, as they are so rare out out here and do not come for sale very often.

Pretty happy with that.

[chargerjy9]

In 1973, I graduated from college, got a job at Chrysler, went out and bought my 1st new car, 73 Charger SE, red w/ white top and interior, 400HP, 8 3/4, 3:23 posi, pretty optioned up. I loved that car.   Drove it for 2 years. wife "suggested" I sell it because we were going to start a family and GAS WAS .60 cents A GALLON AND THAT CAR WILL PUT US IN THE POOR HOUSE!!! reluctantly sold it, vowing to find another some day.

Fast forward to 2003,family raised, Kids are out of college, off my payroll, I suggested to my wife that it was my turn. She agreed. Found an ad in the local paper,(unlikely source) that described an original 73 SE with less than 2800 miles. thinking it was a misprint (meaning 28,000 miles) I called the guy who said, " no, it had 2,765 actual miles." I ran over to where the car was. found an unrestored, unmolested, fully documented, reference survivor.  400 HP engine, 8 3/4, A/C that blew cold. It had been in a private collection, under a roof, for nearly 30 years. Car was pristine, factory original right down to the spark plugs.  we drove the car, my wife says "this car drives as if it were brand new."  bought it on the spot, my search was over.
Today the car has 15,000 miles on it, ( just out of warranty.) it is no trailer queen. it has been upgraded to be a reliable and safe driver,  original stuff taken off the car is stored away,  IMO, Cars are meant to be driven, that's why they have wheels. It is a trip down memory lane. I would not be afraid to drive it anywhere.

[1BAD68]

My first Charger (70 R/T SE) I found on Ebay about two hrs away, total basket case but it was all there and complete just pulled from a 20+ year hibernation in a barn.
Spent the next 2 1/2 years fixing that one up before I could drive it, and sold it when I sold my first house.
Then I found 69 1/2 Six Pack Bee, beautiful low mileage car. Just too boring owning that one as it only needed to be occasionally washed so I sold it.
I decided I wanted another Charger preferrably a 68 that needed some work but wasn't a full blown restore so I searched the internet constantly for weeks when an ad on auto trader popped up one Saturday morning.
It was what I was looking for so I spent the whole day calling the number with no luck. Finally it was just before 10 pm and the guy answered, we talked about it and he said his voicemail was full and he was weeding through all the calls. I told him if its what you're telling me then consider it sold and I'll be there at 10am Sunday morning.
Unfortunately it was Superbowl Sunday and I feverishly called all my friends at 10:30 at night to find someone who could run down to Illinois with me at 7 in the morning. Luckily one of my good friends said he'd go. I swear I've never been in such a wound up high gear trying to pull this off in only 12 hrs.
First I had to find someone who wasn't watching the game, then I had to get 7500 in cash, I had to put together some tools and parts in case something broke down and pick up my friend by 7am it was a 3hr drive one way and I planned on driving the Charger home. Unbelievably, I got there a little early, looked the car over and the seller handed me a huge stack of records and receipts. This car was awesome, never abused, just a base model 318 Charger out of California with brand new brakes, tires, rims, engine rebuild and many other parts.
Drove the car home that day without any trouble.
Had to let my friend drive it too, here's a picture from that day...

[Axels73Charger]

 

[RallyeMike]

Charger #1. Knew a guy who knew a guy. Pulled it out of a back yard and towed it home.
Charger #2. Saw it behind a fence. Rescued it from a shop where the title was signed over because the bill could not be paid.
Charger #3. Found it in a parking lot downtown with tires slashed and front and rear windows busted. Left a note on it. Brought two tires down the next day and drove it home with busted glass.
Charger #4. Guy at 7-11 told me he had a derelict one (looking at mine) and I went and picked it up.
Charger #5. Bought it from a pal that pulled it out of a wrecking yard (my current Charger)
Charger #6. Traded a friend my 68 440 Dart for it.
Charger #7. Purchased from a guy on this site. Drove 200 miles and pulled it out from the edge of a wheat field.

[UH60L]

Well, like alot of others, I fell in love with the '69 charger when I was a kid and saw the Dukes of Hazzard on tv.  In the mid '80s during my high school years, I searched for one that I could buy, but had no luck.  They were all either well beyond my price range or the owner stated that he was "going to do something with it eventually.

In 2004, I decided it was now or never, and started looking seriously again.  I started following a couple on ebay, and put a bid in on one.  I kept bidding higher until it hit $7000.00.  I put one last bid of $7100.00 on it and, long story short, I won the car on a Sunday evening in May.

I drove out to Utah from Salem Oregon and drove the car home with a 440 and 727b in it.  It's been alot of fun since then.  I belong to a car club now, and my wife and kids go with me to cruise-ins and car shows.  Unfortunately I haven't driven it since 2007 because I dropped it into the body shop, got the body and paint done (well, mostly) and now I am out of money.   

I just recently started a thread on the restoration of my car.  Should be on the first page somewhere.  I'm posting lots of pictures.

[Charger´69]

I´ve loved '68-70 Chargers since I was a kid. Last fall I decided to sell my supercharged Iroc-Z Camaro which I had 7 years and buy my dreamcar: '68-69 Charger, '72-74 Barracuda/Cuda or Challenger. Well I started searching my dreamcar first here from Finland, but I didn´t find enough good and reasonable priced car.

I had purchase advertisement for those cars here on few Finnish american car forums and some dealers from US contacted to me and started to offer their cars to me. Well, pretty soon I was searching Charger and Barracuda/Cuda only, Challenger didn´t anymore interest me as much as those first two. After maybe 6-8 weeks and many many Chargers/Cudas pictures/info later, one of those dealers sent me 120 pictures from '69 Charger which was XP code, R/T clone with 440cid Magnum and unrestored. And no rust. It looked so good in pictures that I reserved it immediately to me. It was reserved to me maybe 2 weeks before I bought it, because I wanted this same dealer to check few other Chargers and Cudas that he and I have found from Craigslist. Well, we didn´t find better car so I bought this one to me. There was a long story to get it to here Finland, but when it came here in late april 2010 it was worth it, I really love this car 

If anyone interested to read and see more, there is many pictures and info in my topic, just click my signature below