How I found, then bought my new ride

[Hemidoug]

Nice ride! BTW...you have a very wise wife (with excellent taste)! Welcome to the "split grill" club! Trust me, they will look GREAT together (I bet you can't guess how I know)!

[68RT4ME]

Nice ride! BTW...you have a very wise wife (with excellent taste)! Welcome to the "split grill" club! Trust me, they will look GREAT together (I bet you can't guess how I know)!

Thanks again guys. Man, thats way cool. Nice combo...

70charger_boy , no the guy doesn't have a '68 among the 8 other cars he has....lol

[hemi68charger]

Nice ride! BTW...you have a very wise wife (with excellent taste)! Welcome to the "split grill" club! Trust me, they will look GREAT together (I bet you can't guess how I know)!

Doug,, Great pic !!!!  I've known Andy for, Lordy,,,,since the 10th or 11th grade (What, about '80/'81?)....... Andy, which one is it? Andy's done a great job "catching" up... I used to rag on him all the time about, "Hey, when are you going to get another Mopar?"... Well, he's come full circle in a relatively short time......

[bullit68]

VERY nice car! i also have a t5 69 rt 4 spd car.mines a tan interior with black top and stripe.btw my wifes a lot like yours,i have 4 cars.lol

[sean68charger]

fantastic , you say project  , man, its only a weekends work to get that back on the road

[68RT4ME]

VERY nice car! i also have a t5 69 rt 4 spd car.mines a tan interior with black top and stripe.btw my wifes a lot like yours,i have 4 cars.lol

That's cool. This one too is a Tan interior car and suppose to be a tan top as well and a black stripe. I'm going with the tan top but the interior was converted to all black and for moneys sake, it's staying that way. It's going to need more than a weekend to finish as I think we're going for a rotissorie resto on this one. First thing I have to do in sell a '65 Buick Skylark Convertible we have. I'm taking that to Daytona for the Turkey Run at Thanksgiving. An awesome show with 5-6 thousand cars hanging around town for 4 days. The car coral alone usually has 2-3 thousand cars for sale. Every kind of car one can imagine will be there. Anyway, as soon as I sell it, off goes the '69 to the body shop and then the real fun begins.   

Troy, we met in 10th grade, 1980. Remember how you were coming off of the    and tripped over your drool  bib then your diaper fell off and you stood there looking at everybody like this  ? I knew then I'd have to watch over you and keep them from taking your lunch money everyday  .........

Bro, I'm just kidding.    Troy for those of you who don't know him, is about the most stand up guy you could ever hope to meet. He's been a loyal friend all these years and shall be my friend for life. Nothing I wouldn't do for this guy. If you know him, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, your missing out. Truely a Good man.

Nice ride! BTW...you have a very wise wife (with excellent taste)! Welcome to the "split grill" club! Trust me, they will look GREAT together (I bet you can't guess how I know)!

Doug,, Great pic !!!! I've known Andy for, Lordy,,,,since the 10th or 11th grade (What, about '80/'81?)....... Andy, which one is it? Andy's done a great job "catching" up... I used to rag on him all the time about, "Hey, when are you going to get another Mopar?"... Well, he's come full circle in a relatively short time......

I've been blessed for sure. My kid, my wife, my friends = good life. 

[hemi68charger]

Dang Andy, you're not supposed to tell them everything.... You're just jealous that I've been able to go faster than you at 800 mph in the F-16 I flew.. 

[68RT4ME]

Well guys, I'm getting started on the restoration of my '69. I took it last weekend to a buddies shop where we spent time this week removing the engine and trans. I'm no mechanic but my friend is letting me help out where I can and maybe learn something along the way. (Lord only knows that Hemi68charger Troy tried to teach me this stuff for years to no avail...lol  ) The engine went to the machine shop. No horror stories there. The engine is already .30 over and very clean inside. Need valve guides and a basic rebuild. We will be changing the pistons to Forged Sealed Power versions and losing the cast pistons found inside. The Tranny needs rebuilt too. Going with a Center Force Clutch setup there.

Tomorrow morning, I'm taking the car to the Paint/body shop where it will spend the next 4-6 months. It looks like I won't have to have them put on new quarters after all. Will need to replace the front pans and the trunk floor of course along with the panel at the base of the rear window. It's going to be stripped down then put onto a rotisserie and blasted. I've been so excited,    I slept like crap all week.  Just a few pics here for now and more to come. Wish me luck. 

[1969chargerrtse]

Great pics, good Luck with the car you lucky son of a gun.

[tan top]

  intresting pictures  , love looking at stuff like this , can't wait to see more of your progress  ..........

[BMOTOXSTAR]

Do you still have your 71' R/T?
Nice progress.

[TUFCAT]

Wow - you work fast!  You gotta love guys who buy cars, and then have the time and money to start working on them right away !

[440fan]

Great car! Looking forward to seeing photos when it is done. Man, you work fast.

[68RT4ME]

Thanks guy's. I really appreciate the encouragement from you all. I must give most credit here to the Mrs. who is all for the resto.. As we married guy's know, it's allot harder to do these projects when they aren't on board. She's been great from the start. We aren't rich by no means but but have been blessed and made some good decisions with money that let's us have this great opportunity. It's why we are striking while the iron is hot so to speak.

Anyway, I feel I've left the body work and paint to some capable hands at least I feel that way right now but, from what I've seen here locally, this crew will do a great job on the car. It's getting the rotisserie treatment but, this will be no trailer Queen. I am going to drive the wheels off it. I will beat on it and if it breaks, we'll fix it. No point in going thru all this just to look at it sitting there. Sure, if and when we go outta state with it, I may put it on a trailer but, soon as we get there, it's off and running. Just hard to travel very far in a non A/C car in todays world especially if it's not necessary.

Today, I spend the morning hand polishing the trim work. Time consumming to say the least but the pieces I did came out really nice. Long way to go but it will save allot of money doing that myself. And yes, I still have my '71 R/T. in fact, I was at a show last night. I won some door prizes and a nice little trophy plaque too. I love my 3rd Gen charger. It won't have to leave us anytime soon. Speaking of my '71, since it's Hemi Orange, does that make it a "Hemi" car?....lol 

Thanks again guy's. You all are great and so supportive. I'm thrilled to be apart of this site. Updates to follow.

[mikesbbody]

what a great wife you have  you should definitly hang on to her! and congrats on the 69  i have always loved your 71 (my favourite charger)