69 Charger 500 S.E. XX29L9B224394

[moparstuart]

Must not have paid him enough for his advice.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

500Jon, you tell a very similar tale to mine, as told at the beginning of this thread. I don't really care what Galen had to say, many ill-informed people have told me I'm crazy. I get where they are coming from. Doing something difficult and something many people could not do leads to this type of ignorance. What burns me is that he is put on a pedestal as having all this great knowledge when in fact the opposite is true. That's the real crime. He is the "expert" on wing and aero cars, yet I know the guy who he goes to when he does not know the answer to something "aero" related. It is laughable really. If it were left to him, many rare cars would be lost forever. It's really too bad, because the service he provides does have great value, if applied in a respectful and ethical manner...

Mike

Mike thanks for registering both your cars.  I noticed on your 69 SE car you have hood pins.  Did you add them or were they on the car when you got it?  Curious to see where the pins are located under the hood.

[69_500]

Jon, glad to see you posting on the board now. How is your 500 coming along now? Aren't there a few 500's over there in England? I was thinking that there was 3 or maybe even 4 that were in England.

As far as the last 440 powered car that I'm not 100% positive on. Yours is the last 440 powered car VIN wise that I have full fender tag information on. However I have some information on 2 other 440 cars that come later. 248665 and 248666.

Mike what car do you have? As far as Galen's numbers they are what they are. Just like the numbers I have collected, or the ones that chris has registered. Just a record of what is known to exists. None of the list are complete, nor do I think that any of them ever will be. As of now I'm up to information on 256 of the Charger 500's. I'm still holding out hope of finding all of them, but I highly doubt it. Once can dream right?

[PocketThunder]

As of now I'm up to information on 256 of the Charger 500's. I'm still holding out hope of finding all of them, but I highly doubt it. Once can dream right?

256/392= 65%  thats getting to be a pretty good survival rate dont you think?  I'll try and work on getting the vin numbers of the 3 in my area next summer at car shows. 

[69_500]

Oh they didn't all survive. There is at least 5-10 on that list that are known to have been crushed. And then there are another few that I know that the only things left are in an envelope.

[charger500440]

As for my SE car, I added the hood pins a long time ago. Regret it now as they aren't original. The base of the pin mounts to the upper tie bar on the support.
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As for Galen, I never even got to the point of trying to hire him. I finally deleted his e-mail, you guys would fume over it if I still had it. He totally discounted the car and didn't even inquire more about it. Look how much interest you guys have shown it. And he is supposed to be the expert? Coincidentally, I e-mailed him just a few weeks prior to the e-mail that appears at the beginning of this thread. Again, I'm fine with the fact that he may not be able to help me but his advice was to part the car out. Not "worth" saving it. I guess if I can't sell it at Barrett-Jackson with his signature of approval, it might as well be a paperweight.
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Nearly 65% of the 500's can be traced, that is really cool. I knew of one other 500 here in CT that was off the beaten path. It was a survivor, all complete, in the Hartford area. The owner bought some parts off of a friend of mine for another project and he was willing to sell it. It was a gold car, black interior, black stripe and a hemi no less. I know it did finally change hands but I don't know where it ended up or anything else about it. It was a thing of beauty though. That was back around 90 or 91...
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Same friend of mine knows a guy in New York who is supposed to have several 500's. Not sure who he is, he may even be on this board...

Mike

[nascarxx29]

In NY XXHEMI on this board.Ed has had a few 69 500s Hemis and 440 .And his friend Greg I know has had some also.And there was 2 500s sitting in NY state .I seen that have been mentioned on here gold and silver .But forgot who posted at the moment.But just found that post by EMF .That mentionds the same Ed as above
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The parts car is gold with a white painted top. It was purchased out of an upstate N.Y. junkyard about 15 + years ago, about the same time the silver one was purchased. The junkyard owner stated that the car had Conn. plates on it and that the owner blew up the engine on I 84 and it was towed to the junkyard in the late 70s where it rested until I purchased it. I know of a person named ED in this area. He has a few really nice mopars. He knows about the cars and so do a few others in the area. I believe someone already has the Vin. #s on file.

[500Jon]

Hi Clan500!

Back in the mid 80's I was lucky enough to purchase the only 69 Sixpack Superbee in the UK, but never bonded with the car because it was a bench seat column change car in Butterscotch. After storing the car for many years I sold it to a Moparnut friend of mine for the grand sum of £2500. I then went on the hunt for a suitable replacement, a 69 SP RR!!! But they are an elusive beast as you well know, and never got one?
After owning a stream of wonderful Street Mopars, myself and a good friend decided it was time to hit the 1320 with a Dart.
As if by magic, a 68 Koffel motored Dart was up for grabs. It was at the time the fastest street Mopar in Europe.
It was called COOKY'S Dart and ran 8.3 at 182mph and could be used as a grocery getter!!!

But the money ran out as these things do and she was sold. My friend Jim was unhappy not having a Street stomper, so he deciced to purchase a 470ci Mopar engine from Tom Nelson in Sunny LA! The motor was built for the 2003 Engine Masters competition, and was now destined to go in his 70 Burnt Orange, show stopping GTX. Well, we talked him out of this eventually, as the GTX is the most original UK Mopar and wins many trophies.

I diverge, in the neighbourhood to Tom's in LA was a mopar resto guy with no less than TWO C500's.
Well you can guess the rest, me and a English friend purchased them both and brought them to the UK.
My search has now ended, I have my 4-speed Dana car I always wanted, and an AERO car as well.
All my Christmases had come at once!!!

As far as we are aware these are the only C500's in the UK at present. There was a white Hemi 500, rumoured to be owned by the famous Hemi collector, Carlos Monteverdi of Ferrari fame! Where this car is now, we do not know???

There has been many wing cars here in the UK but never any 500's and I feel very priviledged to own such a rare piece of Mopar history!!!

Thanks for your replies, 500Jon.

PS. On a different note, there was once here in the county of Kent England, a specialist performance engine shop called WESLAKE!!!
They were employed on many occasions by none other than Chrysler for development work on Bigblock engines for racing?
There are several mentions of ther work in some Mopar publications, one being the new performance cylinder head for the 70up 440 Mopars.
But as we all know the fuel crisis put paid to this development head, the big block "W2" of which only two pairs were cast.
I still have the complete Dyno engine from Weslake's with the Oval port "W2" 440 style heads still bolted on.
They were rumoured at the time, (mid 80's) to be a Nascar replacement head, but there is no literature to back this up?

Best wishes to you all, Jon.

[69_500]

If I'm not mistaken that Carl still owns a white hemi 500 over there in England. I believe there was some photo's of a larger Mopar show over there and the HEMI Daytona (black 4 speed) and the white HEMI 500 were both present.

[moparstuart]

Hi Clan500!

Back in the mid 80's I was lucky enough to purchase the only 69 Sixpack Superbee in the UK, but never bonded with the car because it was a bench seat column change car in Butterscotch. After storing the car for many years I sold it to a Moparnut friend of mine for the grand sum of £2500. I then went on the hunt for a suitable replacement, a 69 SP RR!!! But they are an elusive beast as you well know, and never got one?
After owning a stream of wonderful Street Mopars, myself and a good friend decided it was time to hit the 1320 with a Dart.
As if by magic, a 68 Koffel motored Dart was up for grabs. It was at the time the fastest street Mopar in Europe.
It was called COOKY'S Dart and ran 8.3 at 182mph and could be used as a grocery getter!!!

But the money ran out as these things do and she was sold. My friend Jim was unhappy not having a Street stomper, so he deciced to purchase a 470ci Mopar engine from Tom Nelson in Sunny LA! The motor was built for the 2003 Engine Masters competition, and was now destined to go in his 70 Burnt Orange, show stopping GTX. Well, we talked him out of this eventually, as the GTX is the most original UK Mopar and wins many trophies.

I diverge, in the neighbourhood to Tom's in LA was a mopar resto guy with no less than TWO C500's.
Well you can guess the rest, me and a English friend purchased them both and brought them to the UK.
My search has now ended, I have my 4-speed Dana car I always wanted, and an AERO car as well.
All my Christmases had come at once!!!

As far as we are aware these are the only C500's in the UK at present. There was a white Hemi 500, rumoured to be owned by the famous Hemi collector, Carlos Monteverdi of Ferrari fame! Where this car is now, we do not know???

There has been many wing cars here in the UK but never any 500's and I feel very priviledged to own such a rare piece of Mopar history!!!

Thanks for your replies, 500Jon.

PS. On a different note, there was once here in the county of Kent England, a specialist performance engine shop called WESLAKE!!!
They were employed on many occasions by none other than Chrysler for development work on Bigblock engines for racing?
There are several mentions of ther work in some Mopar publications, one being the new performance cylinder head for the 70up 440 Mopars.
But as we all know the fuel crisis put paid to this development head, the big block "W2" of which only two pairs were cast.
I still have the complete Dyno engine from Weslake's with the Oval port "W2" 440 style heads still bolted on.
They were rumoured at the time, (mid 80's) to be a Nascar replacement head, but there is no literature to back this up?

Best wishes to you all, Jon.

any chance for pictures of your car jon ? or his 500 ?   

[69_500]

I know I have one picture of Jon's car, and I believe that his friends name is paul? Am I right? I think I have some pics of both of their 500's.

[nascarxx29]

Jon have you see this 691/2 car over there
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/classic-car-page.php/carno/41566

[500Jon]

Hi Clan500,

My 500 is partially stripped and in storage at the moment, as soon as I can, I will take some pictures for the DC site!

Yes there are two 691/2 Sb's in the UK, my old Butterscotch one and the red one that is up for sale at the moment.
I have only ever seen them both together once myself, but they do both live in the South of England.

No comments on the Weslake story?
The late great Dick Landy, wanted my "W2 Headed" 440 motor, to go with his Ballstud Hemi, for his LA Collection, but I did not to sell to him!
I have met his son Robert on many occasions, and was sorry to see him lose his historic father.
I understand that the famous Landy shop will be taken over by a fellow Hemi enthusiast to hopefully carry on his great name again???

I have bought a date coded Hemi to put in my 500, but fellow UK MMA members have frowned upon me putting the Elephant motor into a 440 car?
Whats your thoughts on this matter???

Best wishes 500Jon.

[69_500]

My personal thoughts of using a date coded HEMI in the 500 would be great. I know that my dream 500 is a non numbers matching car that I would love to drop a HEMI in, and just enjoy. A plus to yours is that it is a 4 speed car, which to me would be the best ones to drop the HEMI into. I don't recall if your car was numbers matching or not, but either way its not that huge of a deal to do the swap. Used to require a lot more work than it does now.

[500Jon]

Hi Clan500,

I did get the original block with the car! The trans is from a 69 gtx I believe?

The car was used for drag racing duties I believe? The block had suffered some internal damage, possibly a broken rod and one damaged bore.

The motor was then discarded to the backyard for many years of weathering!!!

I had to force the rods and pistons out with twenty ton press, and too my disbelief all the good bores cleaned up woth a 60 overbore.
I fitted one liner to the damaged bore and in the next few weeks I will be assembling the short motor!

The 69 "Car Life" Road Test on the two C500's, and clearly states "the crown comes back"! The fastest road cars ever tested!!!
Chrysler supplied an auto, and a manual Hemi 500 which ran the best 1/4 mile time of 13.68.
It has always been my dream to recreate this fantastic 'out of the box' stockcar time and maybe improve on it with better tyres???

Best wishes to you all and have a wonderful Christmas, Jon.

[69_500]

Both of the cars that Car and Driver test drove on that day are still around as well. The HEMI 4 speed car is still unrestored, and shows up from now and then at various shows. The AT they used, well it has been parked for a long long time, but hopefully one day will be back at a show. I would love to see those two cars together at a show.

Personally if I was in your situation I think I'd still drop the HEMI in it, and enjoy the heck out of it.

[tan top]

drop the HEMI in  ..... its only a bolt in swap after all ..not as it you tubbing it .

[69_500]

Update. The block for this car has been located, and hopefully gets reunited with the car. Engine is in New York. So not too far from the car.

[charger500440]

Update, this past weekend I was able to purchase the original 440 block for my Charger 500. A huge thank you to John in New York for reaching out to me and also to 69_500 for his role in making it all happen.

The engine had been purchased out of a junk yard over 20 years ago and the block has been sitting in a storage unit for years. And to think I've driven through that area of NY several times over the years, goes to show you never know what's out there. The engine was probably with the car up until the mid to late 90's. No idea how it got separated but they're back together again.

I've read a lot of posts on this forum about how the site is not as active as it used to be, just not as much going on as in years past. And unfortunately that is true. Things are changing and that isn't always a good thing. That said, the Charger forum certainly helped reunite my 500 with its original engine and for that I'm very grateful.

Again, big thank you John and 69_500 !!!

[tan top]

Update, this past weekend I was able to purchase the original 440 block for my Charger 500. A huge thank you to John in New York for reaching out to me and also to 69_500 for his role in making it all happen.

The engine had been purchased out of a junk yard over 20 years ago and the block has been sitting in a storage unit for years. And to think I've driven through that area of NY several times over the years, goes to show you never know what's out there. The engine was probably with the car up until the mid to late 90's. No idea how it got separated but they're back together again.

I've read a lot of posts on this forum about how the site is not as active as it used to be, just not as much going on as in years past. And unfortunately that is true. Things are changing and that isn't always a good thing. That said, the Charger forum certainly helped reunite my 500 with its original engine and for that I'm very grateful.

Again, big thank you John and 69_500 !!!

   
wow ! thats awesome to hear !!  think every charger owner  with their original engine MIA dreams of
 finding it & getting  back 
  congratulations  great stuff  to all involved
     

[Sgt Superbird]

That's fantastic news!

[C500]

Always nice to hear of a successful re-uniting!!

[Michele]

   Great news for you and cheers to you  
Still looking for a project .Mayby some day
Alain platinum 442 4spd factoryA/C