1974 Dodge Charger SE Restoration

[Wile E Coyote]

My love of 74 Charger SE's started in 1980 at the age of 15. Three months before my 16th birthday, I bought the car below. 400 engine, column shift car with the cloth and vinyl interior. Sold it at age 18, went in the Air Force but stayed true to Ma Mopar.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

My first duty station was in Charleston, SC where I picked up my 68 Road Runner. I tucked that away in storage for 3 years while I was in Korea and then ended up stationed at Hill AFB, Utah. In 1993, I went on a 6-hour road trip up to Freeman's Auto Wrecking in Whitehall, Montana to pick up some interior pieces for my Road Runner. The day I visited there just happened to be the same day that the owner had moved a dozen or more cars out of a huge storage building to get a car out that he had sold. One of the cars he moved out that day to get to the sold car was the 74 Charger SE I am restoring. When I laid my eyes upon this 75,000 mile, California/Nevada 440 sunroof car, I knew I had to have it. Had I not been there THAT day, I wouldn’t have ever seen or known about this car. I struck up a conversation with the owner about the car; it wasn't for sale but yeah, he supposed he would sell it. We talked back and forth and he finally put a price tag on it of $3500. I made my best plea to him to hold it for me and I would be back real soon to buy it! I made that 6 hour drive back home all the while calculating how to get that dang car! Back in 1993 as an E5, I wasn't making much money but somehow, some way, I managed to get the money and 3 months later, I was driving it back from Montana to Utah!

 

[Wile E Coyote]

I immediately started to disassemble it to paint it. Since I really couldn’t afford to paint it, I knew it would be a while so I wrote down each step as I disassembled it. Labeled, tagged, bagged everything, I did it right. Little did I know… In 1994, I decided to get out of the Air Force and then, life got in the way. The car sat in a storage unit for 11 years in Utah; 1994 to 2005.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

In 2005, I moved it to a storage unit here in Tennessee where I now live and it sat in that storage unit for 12 years until February 2017.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

February 24, 2017 I took it to Hodge Restorations in Inman, SC.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

3 hours later, I had arrived at Hodge Restorations!

 

[Wile E Coyote]

And here it is - all secure at Hodge's, 24 years later - after solitary confinement in those storage units, ready for rebirth!!

 

[Wile E Coyote]

I'll now post 27 pictures of it which I took in 2005 when it arrived in Tennessee. This is the point I disassembled it down to in 1993 to get it ready to paint. And this is how it remained for 24 years.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Here it goes! - The HODGE HEALING HAPPENING!

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]

 

[Wile E Coyote]