Whats this 68 RT worth?

[DC_1]

I came upon a 68 RT, fresh restoration that I have a chance to pick up for $26k. Is it worth t?
Body is pin straight.Paint is good.... under side of the car is as shiny as the top. Relatively fresh 440. It is a column shift car but has factory A/C and power windows. It has the original #matching motor but not the tranny. The fender tag is missing. He claims it was somehow lost during the resto. Exterior is great....it has the original interior which needs new covers but everything is there.

What is your opinion? Is a car with the original motor more valueable than one with the fender tag? Can I get a fender tag? What does it cost if I can?

Sorry about the bad angle on the pics......the car was in the garage and it was a crappy day when I took these so i couldn't get him to move it outside.

[DC_1]

more

[Rolling_Thunder]

pretty good deal now adays.... I'd snag it if i had the means

[69charger2002]

weird color combo. i expected black interior after seeing the stripes and top. but i think if it's restored right, it's worth 26k no question. and yes a #'s matching motor to me means a heck of a lot more value wise than a fender tag. a fender tag is just cool to have, but a #'s motor is much more rare and desirable in my opinion
trav

[sharpspike]

did R/T's come with column shifts?

[DC_1]

The car came origianally with a white top and white tail stripe....the guy didn't like that combo and changed it during the resto. He was planning on changing the interior to black as well

[69charger2002]

Posted by: sharpspike 
Insert Quote
did R/T's come with column shifts?


yes they did. not that common, but not really rare either.. if that makes sense
trav

[derailed]

Id say its worth that in a heartbeat. Did you check the numbers on the motor against the car. I was somewhat under the impression that early 68s didnt have the vin stamped on them and you could only check the date against the build date of the car but I may be wrong and im sure somone here will correct me if I am.

[bull]

I'd say $26k is a steal for that, but it is an odd color combo. I'd be tempted to switch the interior to black if it were me, or go back to the white vinyl and stripes.

Id say its worth that in a heartbeat. Did you check the numbers on the motor against the car. I was somewhat under the impression that early 68s didnt have the vin stamped on them and you could only check the date against the build date of the car but I may be wrong and im sure somone here will correct me if I am.

Starting in Jan. '68 the engines were stamped if they were 383 HP or R/Ts. Non-HP 383s, 318s and six-bangers were not stamped. Prior to January none of the '68 Chargers got any engine stamps IIRC.

[PocketThunder]

its worth it.  you cant build that same car for less than $23G

[73ChargerSE]

Wow, that is an excellent looking car  .  If I were older, and had a better job, I'd sure pony up the cash    .  Would love to see how it would look with the white top and stripe, must be pretty sharp

[65post]

 .Someone put alot of time and money in that one. Looks like a pretty good deal.

[BigBlockSam]

early 68s didnt have the vin stamped on them 

[bull]

  early 68s didnt have the vin stamped on them  

It depends if you're talking about early '68 '68s or late '67 '68s. After January '68 all the HP and R/T Chargers got engine stamps.

[derailed]

I believe the serial numbers were put on mid 68 motors that were going into 69 model cars

[440 Fanatic]

Are you planning on buying it to NOT lose money?,,or do you really genuinely want THAT Charger?
If you are never planning on reselling it,,what does the cost matter? Considering that it is as nice as it is,,if you can't decide,,then the decision shouldn't be made for you.

[Silver R/T]

seems like good price but too bad about the tag, lots of value is lost with it

[89MOPAR]

 Does "fresh resto" mean new paint   ?

Not to pee on the parade , but the front drivers seat looks like it needs a serious scrubbing, the passenger seat has a split seam, and there's a big gouge in the drivers side door armrest.     

Not thaqt those things should be deal-breakers but, they'd cause me to go over this "fresh resto" with a fine tooth comb and make sure what worked and what didn't.   Besides that if you have been to see it in person - I guess so as you said he didn't want to take it out because of bad weather - then you need to get it outside and examine the paint. Paint looks better in garages with electric light than it does in sunlight.   And you should drive it. Maybe the engine knocks like a woodpecker or the brake pedal drops to the floor - who knows ?
Press bent exhaust is the cheap way to go also....
Beware vinyl dye [?]

I wouldn't dog it for being a column shift.   My former 70 R/T was column shift with " buddy seat" instead of console.
    OK , enough skepticism, just trying to help you protect your wallet and level of frustration in the future.....

[8WHEELER]

If it was mine I would put the white top back on, and the correct white tail stripe good looking combo.
I would have a problem myself with no fender tag, but if this is a car you plan on keeping for a long
time its not as much of a concern. Plan on re-doing the hole pearl white int, it will look great but that
will cost some good money to do, but its easier than painting it   

They made a lot of 68 RT's with column auto with buddy seat.

Dan

[is_it_EVER_done?]

Personally I could care less about numbers matching as long as the title matches the VIN, but if it's important to you, then this isn't the car for you. If however, your looking for a bargain on a nice Charger, then judging by the photos you provided, it appears to be well worth it, but only you can be the judge since photos always make a car look it's best.

It's obvious that someone took time and care in the preparation for paint since it was disassembled, cleaned, and preped instead of a quickie job, so if the paint and body are as nice as it looks, and it runs/drives well, with working A/C, radio, gages, windows, non pitted chrome, no rust, etc., then it is well worth the 26K as you sure couldn't duplicate it for that no matter what anybody might say.

If you buy it, just be prepared for the number of people "morons" that will criticize it due to the missing fender tag. Just treat your purchase decision as if it was a cloned 318 car. That way you won't agonize over the presence or lack of numbers, and you can then concentrate on the cars merits and quality, instead of it's future worth.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Is the build sheet intact/available?   If so  repro tag can be made form the buildsheet.

It does look like a nice car but like others stated it looks like a few corners were cut to "move" the car (ie, trim, fit & finish etc)
Overall I like the color combo the way it is right now

[DC_1]

Does "fresh resto" mean new paint  ?

Not to pee on the parade , but the front drivers seat looks like it needs a serious scrubbing, the passenger seat has a split seam, and there's a big gouge in the drivers side door armrest.   

Thanks for your feedback.....The paint and body are new and i crawled all over the car and would say no corners were cut.The interior is all original and definitely needs new covers and a little TLC. All the gauges work and look ok but definitely could also go for a rebuild as well.

I have a 69 383 car that I am in the early stages of restoring.....I need floor pans trunk pans and quarters as well as a little tail panel work and general body work. I will also have to put on a new vinyl top and redo the interior. When I look at all that and see this car that is relatively done it makes me think I should go for the turn key and sell off the project car.......And as some one asked I would keep it for a while and I know I would loose money but is it one of those deals I should jump on or let it pass.

[69charger2002]

if you can get it for $25k or so, jump on it. i am getting to the point where i'd prefer turn key cars. i mean sure there is an unreplaceable gratification that comes from taking 2-3 years to restore your own car, but let's face it. none of us are getting any younger. the longer you can actually "enjoy" driving a charger, the better..
anyway   here's how i would make my decision:
take the original body, in this case an R/T. and assume it's worth $5k in rusty but fixable condition. then look at the car as it is today, factor in everything done to it including body/paint, new top, all the way down the list.. and if you get even CLOSE to 25k or beyond, and can save yourself the year or 2 of having to WAIT for it to get to that stage.. then go for it. also as far as the lose money part, i don't think you will. the thing i have found most enjoyable about chargers.. is that they are the opposite of newer cars. you buy that car for $26k TODAY, enjoy the car for 2 years, keep it in same condition, and you can put 20,000 miles on it even.. and when those 2 years are up, you can probably easily still get $26k for it, or maybe even more by then. that's the beauty of it, you just can't lose with them.
good luck and let us know what you decide
trav

[bull]

If you can be sure they didn't botch the body work I'd go for it. Body work and paint on the one you're restoring is going to cost you $10k minimum unless you do it yourself. Even then it will probably run you $5k to $6k. And how much did you pay for it initially? Say $5k or so? Say $2k-$3k to finish the interior, roughly $3k to rebuild an engine and probably another $5k-$10k to finish the rest. That adds up to between $25k and $31k, not counting all the time you're going to have to donate to do some or all of the work yourself and all of the new or good used parts you'll probably have to buy.

[six-tee-nine]

I'm sorry for the offtopic...but this is realy interesting.

I am wondering what R/T's go these days....i'm not relly looking for a showcar, but im into restoring myself and i am thinking of spending something around 12K.

Does that buy me an R/T???

[derailed]

If your into restoring one yourself that would get you into one. Awhile back there was a 69 RT here that needed restoration for 14k

[Blakcharger440]

I think you could do better for the price. I would keep looking.
I happen to like the color combo that it currently has though.

[SeattleCharger]

     Looks good, I like the color combo the way it is just fine,   the interior looks fine to me.   So the interior is not perfect, close enough.   Just my impression from the photographs.     I am far from an expert here, so this is just my opinion as the average laymen's first impression of the car from looking at the photos.   I think it looks great.   I doubt the average person would nitpick the small stuff, they would prob. say, "Wow, that is a beautiful car."     I know I do.     If you judge the restore to be good quality and legitimate, I would buy that car in a second.  

[HeavyFuel]

The car came origianally with a white top and white tail stripe....the guy didn't like that combo and changed it during the resto. He was planning on changing the interior to black as well

As the saying goes, "There's no accounting for taste." 

White top, stripe and inside kills compared to the black.  Buy the car and put it back to original.

[hydroforce]

my car has / had the same color combo-
cannot for the life of me make up my mind on new color combo's

[Brock Samson]

that last pic is kinda washed out,.. 

i was watching this documentary about the '60s,.. and they had this camera shot from a helicopter...  ( )
looking down along a row of cars on a bluff on the beach,.. and there was this red and white trimmed R/T and with the white stripe and interior, especially the package shelf, the car literally ( ) lept off the screen! 

[HeavyFuel]

my car has / had the same color combo-
cannot for the life of me make up my mind on new color combo's

Your R/T is red with triple white also?  And you can't decide on the color combo?  Tough problem to have.  I would love to have that combo from factory.  Tell you what, let's trade my gold R/T with triple black for yours, and we'll call it good.  My car is ready for paint, and I am going original becasue of the numbers.  But nobody is going to be sad about one less gold Charger, if you are going to pick a color for your car, rather than going with original.  I have gone as far as priced out what it would cost me to convert my car to a white interior, just so I could go with the red/white combo.  Way too much.   

Now I'm just getting depressed.

[DC_1]

Well I bought it.......Man this has been an expensive Christmas.......I guess the Charger fund to fix my 69 has now been totally depleted. Is there a 68 registry somewhere?

[SeattleCharger]

Well I bought it.......Man this has been an expensive Christmas.......I guess the Charger fund to fix my 69 has now been totally depleted. Is there a 68 registry somewhere?

Congrats, I like the red on white, and its a 440 RT, cool.
Ya, right here.   Welcome.      Check out the thread on which 2nd generation Charger do you like better, and you'll see the '68 is well in the lead.     

[SeattleCharger]

   Hard to compare these two objectively because the rims are quite different, so I made one with the rims covered just because I was curious if that was changing my opinion of how they looked.        That color combo you have is really   nice   IMO.               (second pic next reply)

    

[SeattleCharger]

.

[DC_1]

My initial thoughts were to change the top back to white but the more I look at the color combo (black red white), I am starting to like it. The biggest problem i still have with the car is the fact that it is a Column shift. I really wish it was a console car. I wonder how much I would hurt the value if I converted it to a console......any thoughts?

[SeattleCharger]

     My car used to be a column, now a center console, I wouldn't have wanted the car with a column shift.      I say make it how you want it.      See, you are talking about effecting the value, I don't know about that, but you would have wanted the car even more if it had been made into a
center console shift sounds like, soooo . . .     
  Plus, sounds like you are keeping the car for yourself because you like it, even more reason to make it how you want it.  
       My car used to be a 318 now a 440.     I didn't have the money at all to look for numbers matching/collectable, R/T, options, all that, I just wanted a 68 440 with a center console AT.     Yours I don't know about the value change, you already have the stripe different, big deal.   Its cool.     A column shift is just not that cool, IMO.   Maybe in a 318 standard model, but especially not in a 440 R/T.       

    edit:     the more I look at the side by side first pic, the better your rims look   with your color combo.

[8WHEELER]

If you want a console put one in, without a fender tag no one would ever know anyway and
you will have what you want. I prefer a console as well and have passed on a few cars I should
have bought because of that. There are a lot of column shift chargers out there for sale. You
will love the pearl white interior, but it takes more caution so as not to stain anything, with a
black interior there not to much to worry about but it does not have the pop of the white.
Good Luck......

Dan

[six-tee-nine]

Is it difficult the to go from column shift to console shift?

Because i saw great chargers for sale with a column shift but always passed on them because i really want a console shift....