Nice '69 Charger/General Lee article in newspaper

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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/automobiles/Genl_Lee.html



It ran in Saturday's Oregonian courtesy of the NY Times News Service.

By DAVID PUNER
Published: July 29, 2005
EVERY Friday night from 1979 to 1985, millions of television viewers tuned in to watch an orange superhero fly. The star of the TV show "Dukes of Hazzard" was a 1969 Dodge Charger named General Lee, as in Robert E. The car was Nascar-ready, with welded-shut doors, "01" in big, black numerals stamped on the sides, a horn that tooted the first 12 notes of "Dixie" and the Confederate battle flag painted on the roof. The General could jump ravines, chase down bandits and outrun corrupt lawmen, occasionally on two wheels. Despite its apparent immortality, more than 300 Generals were wrecked during the show's run.

Now the car is set to fly again, on big screens, in its feature film debut on Aug. 5. (Thirty Chargers were used in making the film - 23 were trashed.) The General, incidentally, is the only member of the original television cast invited back for the movie.

With the release of "The Dukes of Hazzard" movie, interest in the General, which never really went away, is likely to go through the roof (or the billboard or the henhouse or whatever stands in the car's path). Second-generation Dodge Chargers (1968 to 1970) are being pulled out of fields and junkyards and being reborn as General Lees.

One outfit in Washington State, Smith Brothers Restorations, builds General Lee replicas starting at $32,500. Bob and James Smith were introduced to the Dodge Charger via "The Dukes of Hazzard" while growing up in Arkansas and started restoring regular Chargers as a hobby in 2000. In 2003, the Smiths built a General Lee for a "Dukes" stunt show, after which their phone started ringing.

"One led to two, led to three," said Bob Smith, 37. "Next thing you know, we had a fleet." Now the Smiths earn enough from their former hobby to build General Lees full time.

The Smiths search nationwide for Chargers in any condition - some are borderline derelicts. "We can handle extensive rust, wrinkles and those kinds of things," Mr. Smith said. "We try to find cars in the $5,000-to-$9,000 range, because they're usually fairly complete. Then we strip it completely down to just a bare shell, sandblast the body and gut out any rusted areas or dented areas that can't be fixed and weld in new sheet metal."

Then the Smiths paint on the graphics and install the pushbar (mounted in front of the grille) and a tan interior, complete with a nonfunctional rollbar hoop made from exhaust tubing. A General is born in about four months, Mr. Smith said. "To my knowledge we're the only ones restoring Chargers into authentic General Lees," he said of his company's replicas.

Mr. Smith currently has seven Generals on order and recently received a spike in inquiries from locales like New Zealand, Britain, Sweden, Italy and Missouri. Chances are, he said, that Smith Brothers Restoration will soon expand. "A couple of people have volunteered to come and work as interns," Mr. Smith said. "I may be giving them a call." One "Dukes" fan complimentary of the Smiths' work is Travis Bell, president of the North American General Lee Fan Club and a self-described "book of knowledge on the big orange car." Mr. Bell estimates that there are now easily 275 General Lee clones worldwide, compared with around 50 a decade ago.

A handful of individuals sell decal kits and other General Lee bits and pieces at car shows and on the Internet. The pushbars are available from jakesgeneralstore.com for $350. The "Dixie" horn can be ordered through Wolo Manufacturing (wolo-mfg.com) for $99.99. Web sites, like buildagenerallee.com (which offers a complete decal kit for $275), provide recipes for building Generals.

Aside from the orange paint - different shades were used during the show's production - and a few accouterments, the differences between a stock '69 Dodge Charger and a General Lee are few. A General can be converted back to a factory-correct Charger fairly easily.

Charger purists, Mr. Bell said, do not see the Charger-to-General conversion as a noble effort. "They absolutely hate us," he said. You either love the General or you loathe it, he said. And then there's that Confederate flag on the roof. "To me it's just part of the big orange car from 'The Dukes of Hazzard,' " said Mr. Bell, 32, a self-proclaimed Yankee from Indiana.

While most privately owned General Lees are replicas, a few authentic cars from the television show survive. After "Dukes" was canceled, 19 remaining Generals were parked on a California desert lot. In 1991, 17 cars were sold by Warner Brothers to fans of the show; the buyers signed lifelong agreements never to disclose the purchase price. Most of those cars are thought to remain unrestored, their owners keeping them as blemished pieces of television history.

more...

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To aid their reproductions, when possible, replica builders examine details of authentic Generals. "We've crawled underneath GL35 many times," Mr. Smith said, referring to General Lee No. 35, owned by Jim Sirotnak, a dentist in Dunmore, Pa.

Dr. Sirotnak, 39, bought his authentic General, the only car used on the show for two-wheel stunts, three years ago for $48,000. Except for battery and tie-rod replacements, oil changes and vacuuming, Dr. Sirotnak's General Lee remains unaltered from its neglected days in the desert sun. Despite the car's somewhat beat-up exterior and ratty interior, Dr. Sirotnak figures he could sell it for at least $55,000.

MOST General Lee builders are do-it-yourselfers with helping hands. For Pat St. Onge, a 23-year-old firefighter and builder of a General Lee replica in Norwalk, Conn., it took almost a year to finish the bodywork on his car. "Four or five people helped a ton," he said.

Out cruising in his gleaming General Lee clone and wearing a broken-in orange cap with a black "01" embroidered on the front, Mr. St. Onge recently explained how to perform a 180-degree slide. "Turn the wheel to one side," he said, double-checking to make sure an empty parking lot was clear, "and step on it!" A few seconds and 10,000 miles of tread-wear later, Mr. St. Onge and his car, equipped with a 440 double-barrel Magnum V-8, went from pointing north to facing south. "I'm kind of a country boy stuck in Norwalk, Conn.," he said with a grin.

Mr. St. Onge's General wasn't flight-ready when he found it on eBay in 2002. He paid $6,000 for what he called a "rotting corpse." Almost $40,000 later, his General has earned its tags: BAD LEE. "Pretty much the only thing that I haven't replaced is the frame," Mr. St. Onge said. Based on what General Lee clones are going for these days, he figures his car is worth around $30,000. But he's not looking to sell. "Never would," he said. "Never could."

In June, Mr. St. Onge took his car to DukesFest, an annual fan gathering in Bristol, Tenn., joining 50 other Generals for a weekend of laps around a track to benefit the Special Olympics. At DukesFest, Mr. St. Onge received a distinctive addition to his car when John Schneider, the actor who played Bo Duke on TV and is currently featured in the series "Smallville," autographed the inside of his trunk lid and added the inscription: "YEE HAA!"

Mr. Schneider is a regular on the "Dukes" circuit and has restored eight General Lees himself - four of which he fitted with special "Bo's General Lee" lettering on the roof. "I think Kid Rock's got one," he said in a recent phone interview. Another he kept for himself. "Mine's got the 511 Hemi in it - seven-and-a-quarter-horse," he said. "Great car."

As a General Lee owner, you have to like attention. "People always get a kick out of it - they never get tired of it," Mr. St. Onge said and then paused. "Except for my ex-girlfriend," he said. "It might be a chick magnet down South, but not here."

On the road, Dr. Sirotnak's General Lee, fitted with a tired 318 engine, rattles, squeaks and creaks. Still, the other day, he said, "between here and the two blocks to the Mobil, I had to blow the horn three times." An ultimate dream, Dr. Sirotnak added, wistfully, "would be to get this up on two wheels again someday." For now, he said, he looks forward to seeing the movie stunts.

"I just want to see the General Lee fly," he said.

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[skip68]

I guess this is the 7 year itch.  Just for you guys.   

[Ghoste]

Wow, now that's digging deep.

[Cooter]

Dang, I'm amazed "Mr. Bell's" name was mentioned here.

[skip68]

Not here, there.   

[Cooter]

Here now.....

[Ghoste]

What was the time period when he became an outcast?  It wasn't always like that was it?

[Cooter]

What was the time period when he became an outcast?  It wasn't always like that was it?

Well, since there really isn't anything such as a "GL Purist" IMO, he was about as close as you could get to one. Till the royal screwing over of Lee1.

[Back N Black]

I can't keep up, how many GL threads now!! Must take break..........................

[Mike DC]

Dang, I'm amazed "Mr. Bell's" name was mentioned here.

The article is from 2005.