Hemi General Lee confusion

[paxo]

Being a bit of a DOH fan I've always read that there were never any Hemi Chargers used for the DOH series,but watching a dvd the other day where a group of people were aking the stunt guys/mechanics questions,one guy asks "did you ever use any Hemi chargers" too which [I think it was one of the mechanics] replied "no,but we did use a Hemi k frame car".What does this mean?,did they use a Hemi charger or not?.
Sorry if this is a dumb question,but I don't know that much about Chargers and I've only just gotten into the whole DOH thing.

[Brock Lee]

Rich Sephton talked about two instances stand out cars came in. One was a Hemi Charger they refused to take. These guys were Mopar fanatics and to kill that car was not an option. He did not say if the car was brought in by a prospective seller, or if the scouts bought and brought it. He also mentioned a shell brought in that was a Hemi car, but the Hemi was long gone. They used that one. At the time a rolling shell was a rolling shell. It wasn't worth much.

[Mike DC]

  
Yeah, nobody ran VINs (or cared) in those days.  It's not known whether the whole car was an OEM Hemi body or not.   They just knew it had a Hemi K-frame that needed to be swapped out.    


They didn't aim for desirable cars.  They weren't in the business of making hot rods.  They were hired to build safe/reliable TV props, by the dozen, as cheaply as possible.  They would pick a 383/auto over a Hemi or 6-barrel or 4spd any day.  

If a car needed more speed for a jump they could give it a nitrous shot.  If they wanted it to look faster they could speed up the footage.  If they wanted it to hang the tail out more they could remove the front swaybar.  If they wanted a burnout on pavement they could squirt some water & bleach on the tires/street.  Etc.  Filming tricks are way more effective than keeping a whole fleet of more expensive cars (with only a few more HP in the big scheme of things.)  


One of the suppliers once went to look at a couple of Daytonas for sale and rejected them.  Not enough stock 68/69 body parts for the price.    

[paxo]

Thanks for the replies guys,its a bit clearer now,all fascinating stuff though.Glad they refused to use the complete hemi Charger.Just seen on another forum that one of the mechanics {someone called Tom Sarmento} is writing a book about his time as a mechanic on the show.

[tan top]

Thanks for the replies guys,its a bit clearer now,all fascinating stuff though.Glad they refused to use the complete hemi Charger.Just seen on another forum that one of the mechanics {someone called Tom Sarmento} is writing a book about his time as a mechanic on the show.

be an interesting read , 

[skip68]

I'll buy that book.   

[Brock Lee]

I am sure it will be a good book. But you will not get a comprehensive background on the actual building of General Lees pilot to finale. There was never one guy that moved from crew to crew making them. The most detailed era is roughly the second half of the shows run when Warner Brothers brought General Lee building in house. However, there is interesting factoids about stuff they did to already built Chargers too.