Holy Cow! Look What I Found

[mikepmcs]

I was playing around upstairs today and found this amongst all my old stuff.
This was my first car. 1970 Charger 500.
I have no idea why I still have this but here's some pic of the Original Owners Manual, Build sheet and some consumer information.

Vin:  XP29GOG181622

I bought this car for $1500 in 1982(omaha, nebraska) and sold it in 1986(fairfax, virginia)
The guy that bought it wrecked it 2 weeks after he bought it.  Anyone seen it or know of it?

v/r
Mike

[Skued]

I'm sure Chris.G and Dodge Don over at http://1970chargerregistry.com/page10.html would love a copy of those items

Steve

[terrible one]

Very cool find man! I wonder where the car sits now?

[Shakey]

Cool find!   

[Charger_Fan]

Wow, that's a really clean build sheet.
So the guy you sold it to got spanked by the awesome power of the mighty 318?

[Charger Aficionado]

Wow, that's a really clean build sheet.
So the guy you sold it to got spanked by the awesome power of the mighty 318?

Imagine if he had a big block!  wow.   Whaat a marooon....

[mikepmcs]

Wow, that's a really clean build sheet.
So the guy you sold it to got spanked by the awesome power of the mighty 318?

Actually he got rear ended.  One day me and my mechanic buddies were going to lunch and there it sat in the middle of the road with the left rear corner bashed in.  It was very fixable but I got sick to my stomach.

The 318 that was in it was built by the previous owner and I promptly blew that up.  Dropped a valve and it embedded in the top of the piston in a Z shape.  I had the motor rebuilt by a professional(term used loosely) and it never did run right again.  That's when I decided to start fixing my own stuff.  That was when the car was in Nebraska and I was 17.  Once I got to Virginia(dad got transferred) I hooked up with some race guys(oval track) and I soon started working for a Chrysler Dealership(front end mech).  I picked it up pretty quickly and moved on to the line on my own.  My dad thought that wasn't a respectable career, I did though.  Anyways in late 86, I went and saw Top Gun and joined the Navy the next day.  Went to Bootcamp on Apr 26 1987 and the rest is history, I retire in a couple months.  But I will always miss that car and kick myself cause I never kept it.  Dad wouldn't let me keep it at the house so It was hanging out in my racer buddies fenced in yard where the race car was stored. I eventually just sold it cause I hated not driving it. It's a longer story than that, but I just decided to give the shredded version.  That's how I remember it anyways.

I don't even have a picture of the car, isn't that sad.  It was plum crazy, auto, console with a black vinyl top and black interior.  I believe the dash was woodgrain but can't really remember.  It had centerlines, that were stolen and ended up with Cragers and Kelly Super Charger tires.

V/R
Mike

[tan top]

 intresting stuff

[Dave22443]

Mike,  do you remember the name of the guy you sold it to?  This is a little spooky.  I live in Virginia, not far from Fairfax.  My brother bought a 1970 Charger 500 around the same time frame you said you sold yours.  It was a 318 car AND it was plum crazy.  I wonder if it could be the same car?

[mikepmcs]

No unfortunately I do not, but I don't ever remember seeing another one about that time frame.  I can tell you this, the gentleman paid me $1500 for the car from what I remember.  Ask your brother if he wrecked his Charger right off route 50 in between 50 and Lee highway(i believe that's highway29) or something. It was as you are coming out of fairfax heading towards fair oaks mall(going west towards centreville), there was a street that you could cut over to 29 from 50 and it was right there where i saw it wrecked.
I lived in centreville at the time and worked at Fairfax Chrysler Plymouth World.  If it was your brother, then he would have gone to Manassas to buy the car or at least look at it(that's where i kept it stored).  Details are foggy 20+ years later.  I want to say he was a tall slim, blonde guy, but don't quote me on that one.  Chris, Rick, Kevin maybe?? I just can't remember.
This could be interesting

[Dave22443]

I don't remember the guys name that my brother bought it from, but the description doesn't fit.  However, I do know the general area's where the guy he got it from lived and worked and he worked near Fairfax (I just can't remember what he did?  Might have been a mechanic somewhere???)

I remember this guy had only had it a couple of weeks before my brother bought it from him.  He said the engine wasn't any good and he didn't feel like working on it.  My brother still drove it though until he finally blew it up running from the cops.  (yeah, he was like that back then)

The car wasn't wrecked when he bought it, but maybe it was repaired?  I was so young then I wouldn't have noticed if it was "repaired" or not.  I just remember driving it.

I do remember parts of it being in primer though, as though the previous owners had been working on it. I'm pretty sure the guy that sold it to my brother didn't do that, it was like that when he bought it.

My brother wound up going into the Marine Corp and he left me the car to look after while he was gone.  I liked driving it (after we replaced the engine) but I quickly got tired of the coat of many colors.  So me and some friends got together one saturday and we painted it black.  It was a really cheap paint job, but at least it was all one color now.

After my brother got out of boot camp, he was stationed in California.  He took the Charger with him and some time while he was there, he had it painted Canary Yellow.  He was out there for a couple of years before coming back to Virginia, bringing the Charger with him.

He had the car a couple more years after that, but he was run off the road one night and wrapped it around a pole.  The car was totalled and my brother wasn't much better off.  I think he spent three weeks in the hospitol.  I got the car after it was totalled and sat on it for several years.  Eventually I sold it someone for parts. 

Here's an old picture I found of me sitting on the hood of it after we painted it black.  It doesn't have a vynal top, but I think it did at one time.  I seem to remember filling holes where the trim would have gone.  And if I remember correctly, it had a tan interior and a console.

I notice it doesn't have stock mirrors.  I'm pretty sure those mirrors were on it when he got it.  Did your car have mirrors like that?

[Joshua]

Cool find....
I LOST all my build sheets and the ORIGINAL window sticker for my Charger. Had 'em stored in a repair manual and I think I lent it out to someone. That was 4-5 years ago....I can't remember...

[mikepmcs]

Probably not the same car but it was interesting for a second there.

Only a vin check, if you still had that info somewhere would be the final say.  But the events do not match up.  Oh well.  The search is on.

v/r
Mike

[4cruzin]

Thats a great find!!  Nice job! 

[mikepmcs]

Anyway I can check the vin to see if it's Chris' Registry. Duh, i guess i could try to register it, but I don't know if the car exists any longer so that's why i'm asking.

v/r
Mike

[Chris G.]

Cool stuff Mike! If you could send us a nice picture of that sheet and your info, we can list you as the contact person when the car does show up. 

The closest we have to that is about 100 off.

[mikepmcs]

Chris,

How about this.  Unless you tell me this would fetch a ton of money on ebay(i'm being funny), I'll send it to you live so you can be the contact info and send it to the owner should he choose to claim it.  But you have to promise not to sell it back to the owner should he claim it.  As much as I like this piece of nostalgic history in my otherwise boring life, I have no real use for it and it would be a shame to just let it sit here when I know you are in a better position to help a 70 owner out. 
PM me your address if you like and it's yours.
v/r
Mike

[Chris G.]

Chris,

How about this.  Unless you tell me this would fetch a ton of money on ebay(i'm being funny), I'll send it to you live so you can be the contact info and send it to the owner should he choose to claim it.  But you have to promise not to sell it back to the owner should he claim it.  As much as I like this piece of nostalgic history in my otherwise boring life, I have no real use for it and it would be a shame to just let it sit here when I know you are in a better position to help a 70 owner out. 
PM me your address if you like and it's yours.
v/r
Mike

Mike, I honestly wish more guys were like you. So many people hold on to these things for who knows why, but I think they feel deep down they are worth something. I don't have a problem with that, but I just hope they don't tuck it somewhere and forget about it. You have no worries sending anything to me. Nothing is for sale, and that's my word.

I see a t-shirt coming your way.  PM coming. 

[Ghoste]

A big thumbs up to you both!  That is the kind of thing that made me love this hobby for so long.   

[Arthu®]

I agree with Ghoste here, thumbs up to you both. This way it has the biggest possible chance to wind up with the owner of the car now (if it still excists ofcourse). 

Arthur