My '69 Charger R/T Story

[moparedtn]

Moparedtn mentioned being a good steward and that's exactly what I'm trying to do while also being considerate of the folks who came before and without whom, I wouldn't have this opportunity.

You, sir....get it.
Would that more in the hobby could be so astute...
There's a certain nobility in that of which you speak!

 

[QOTHL]

However when I see a restored car with the same documentation I start to lose interest. It just feels like it’s not the same car anymore, its personality is gone.

I'll politely disagree. I restored a 69 Charger R/T SE that I could tell expected this return to his (yes, my cars have big balls) former glory. My mechanic friend and I sometimes feel like he's laughing at us. Plenty of personality.
Another one has "told" me he wants a different color.
Alexander also has a tremendous personality.
Fritz has an interesting history, a one owner car. It won't be as good as the OP story. I don't know how to contact the survivors and have a feeling they don't care what happens to their fathers car. The owner however was a very popular man.

 

[chargervert]

Alright it's 104 out there right now so it's time for a break til the evening so here's the rest.

I was stumped about how the hell I was going to prime and paint upside down with a HVLP gun. I had thought about buying a pot style gun but saw too many issues with leaking and I don't have the cash to waste on something that might not work or might waste a bunch of paint so I kept looking. I ended up going with the Devilbiss Dekup system. It was actually fairly cheap and involved using a fitting on my gun which adapts it to the Dekups cup and with that cup you are able to use disposable liners and most importantly allows you to purge the air out of the cup and turn your gun upside down and still be able to spray (bad explanation so look it up on youtube, I recommend the system if you have a similar issue).

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When I climbed out from under the car after the final coat, I looked a bit like a Jamaican Blue smurf. It's so damn hot there's no way you could wear anything other than shorts and a T so maybe I shaved a year or 10 off my life by absorbing overspray but I only had less than a couple feet of space for me and the paint gun. I did wear a respirator of course but still... It actually went much better than I had expected though and turned out pretty decent. Better than I expected. I've painted quite a few cars now but it is always stressful AF.

Once it had dried I started in on it again. I ran the fuel line and return line then started on the brake lines. I went ahead on bought SS lines because most of the lines were still original. Like I said earlier, Cliff had installed a SSBC power front disc brake kit probably 10 or so years ago and never drove it after so most of all that is still like brand new other than a little dirt and dust. But the master cylinder had completely rusted on the inside and I wasn't going to have that thing contaminate the rest of the brake system so I had to figure out what that master came off of originally. Turns out it's actually an older Corvette master so I went ahead and ordered a replacement.

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I'm limited on space and by now I needed some room to work. The rear end and trans were in the way so I got busy tearing down the rear end for the most part. I really just stripped it down and cleaned it up, then I repainted it and installed the new SS lines on it. At this point I decided to get new springs and ordered them from ESPO and added an inch so the rear doesn't look quite so droopy. Springs should be here this week. Once I reinstall the rear end I am going to go through the brakes and replace the wheel cylinders as well but I just didn't want to do all that with the rear literally perched on the jack stands.

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Then I used my engine hoist to pick the assembly up and move it between the cars on the other side of the garage and out of my way for the time being until those springs show. I will not be using the old slapper bars and Cliff said he had saved the original shock mounts so he was able to dig those up and that solved that issue. I have everything ready to go to reinstall the rear once those springs come in.

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Nice work, you are really kicking *** on the car! The only problem with being a smurf is trying to get a date! All those dudes competing for one chick!

 

[Nxcoupe]

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That's for the Borgeson unit so you don't have to cut the column? hmm. Do you have one on your car? I'm eager to hear how the OP likes his.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

That's for the Borgeson unit so you don't have to cut the column? hmm. Do you have one on your car? I'm eager to hear how the OP likes his.

That's a part Bergman makes that allows you to use the borgeson box without cutting the column.. Lotta guys have used them with good results... Recently Kern Dog added one to his car.. That guy can't leave stuff alone...

 

[Magnes]

I'm eager to hear how the OP likes his.

I will be sure to report back with my opinion once I have it out on the road. My 72 Plymouth's steering box is on the way out and as soon as I get the Charger on the road I will be looking to buy another for the Plymouth. I have high hopes!

 

[moparker]

I bought this '69 Charger R/T at the end of last August and since then have been able to put together the entire history of the car and begin to get it back on the road. I figured you guys might like to see this. It is the only time I've been able to get the complete story of a car like this and I found it all very interesting, so I thought I'd share. If you're on facebook you may have seen me post about some of this in a couple of the groups there but if not, here goes....

View attachment 1318103

The car was bought new just a stone's throw from where I live now and as it turns out, it has been within 20 miles of that now defunct dealership damn near every day of every year ever since.

Unfortunately, the original owner has passed away but I was able to use the title that I was given by the 2nd owner to track down the original owner's family. According to his wife, her husband worked at the Buick dealership that used to be across the street from the Dodge dealer. When he saw the new '69 Charger he went over and ordered his. He wanted the 440 and a bench seat but the R/T came with buckets so he ordered it with the "buddy seat" so it has no console and a column shift automatic. He wanted it that way so his wife could sit next to him. He also had to have A/C because... well.... Texas.... not to mention this was the everyday car for him, his wife, and little girl.

The original owners kept all the paperwork all these years including the original dealer invoice with the options he had requested and they had the original window sticker. They had even saved receipts from payments and registration through the years.

This is the invoice. I have blocked the name and address of the original owner simply out of respect. I don't want to put their names out there but everyone involved said it was OK to share the pictures.

View attachment 1318098

And this is the original window sticker, mostly intact but some areas are tough to read. Still lots of good info there even if you have to decipher it a bit.

View attachment 1318105

So when the car came in on the delivery truck to the Dodge dealer, the owner saw it arrive, clocked out of the Buick dealer and went over and waited as they unloaded his new car. He immediately left the Dodge dealer with it and went back to the Buick dealer to perform all the dealer stuff to it himself. His widow (who has become a dear friend) has been so excited to hear that the car is still around and loved that she provided photos of her family and the car when it was still new. These are all labeled May of 69 as you can see.

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And then there's this one of their cute daughter posing next to it. She will become an integral part of the cars history as the story continues.

View attachment 1318108


The wife told me that this car was her husband's pride and joy. He had planned to keep the car forever because he just knew that these cars were the epitome of a muscle car. Unfortunately, to them the car seemed cursed. She said he picked her up in it the first day and took her and their daughter into town and by a series of department stores that had glass window walls out front so they could look at their reflection as they drove by. They then drove it to her parent's home to show her Dad. As they pulled up, they saw her Dad replacing a vent on the roof of his house. They parked the car and the Dad stumbled, dropped the vent and it bounced off the roof of the house and banged right into the center of the hood. The hood had to be repaired and repainted. That's some bad luck. She said the bad luck continued as it seemed like someone was always bumping into the car and they kept repairing to keep it looking pristine. Once a motorcycle rider ran a red light and smacked into the passenger fender which threw the rider off the bike and over the hood, breaking his leg. The motorcyclist was ticketed and carried to the hospital and again they repaired the car.

Over the next decade he had become protective of the car and since the luck with other drivers had been so bad he used his tow truck to commute back and forth to the mechanic shop he had opened in town. By this time his daughter was a teenager and had her license, but they hadn't gotten her her own car. He told his wife to never let the daughter drive the Charger, but she was a good girl and when she bugged the mom to let her use the car to go to her boyfriend's house the mom decided it would be ok to do so if she promised to be very careful with it and go straight there, then straight home. She never made it to the boyfriend's house. She got to town, waited at a red light, when it went green, she took off carefully, but an illegal immigrant ran the red light and smacked right into the driver's side. The door was crushed and the front half of that 1/4 panel took a nasty hit as well.

The man was devastated. She said he was so sick over it that he put it off to the side of his shop and covered it up so he wouldn't have to see it. He believed it to be too badly damaged to be repaired properly with what was available at the time and his skill set as far as body work and paint.

So there it sat for a year or so....

Until it was spotted by a high school kid who had a high school buddy named Cliff that was looking to replace his 1st car (a 69 Charger RT/SE) that had been completely totaled out when they hit a tree. So these kids go over to the shop and inquire about the car that had been spotted. Cliff asked if the car was for sale and the original owner decided he'd go ahead and let it go since he couldn't fix it himself. He sold the car to Cliff for $100 in 1979 (I believe was the year).

Cliff was convinced he knew a body shop that could use what was left of his RT/SE car to fix this RT. He had this car towed down to the body shop and they looked at it. They told him if his parts were good they could repair and repaint the car for $1500. They used the driver's door and half of the driver's 1/4 panel. Cliff's RT/SE had hit the tree on the passenger side so the driver side parts were good enough. He was still in high school and had to pay it out over time but eventually he paid them in full and got this car back. He said it wasn't perfect but most people couldn't tell.

Cliff says he felt like he was king of the street in that car with the big R/T badges on the 1/4 panels. He used to cruise Westheimer in Houston which was the biggest cruise spot and was a miles long party on Friday and Saturday nights. He'd park at a certain convenience store with his buddies and drink beer while waiting on someone to race. And race he did. He blew the original 3.23 rear end up (I still have the pieces) and swapped in a 3.91 suregrip. Here's some pics Cliff took back in his heyday. You can clearly see they did a pretty decent job on that driver's side.

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Cliff drove the car for a couple years and raced it on the weekends pretty successfully until the Fox body Mustangs started to take over and Westheimer cruising was shut down. So Cliff decided it was time to do something. He parked it and spent the next few years going through the engine and upgrading it to what he figured would be about as bad *** of a 440 as possible. It was an expensive project and he had a wife and kid by now so slowly the Charger hit the back burner. It sat until the late 80's in his mom's garage until he had finished the engine and bought a new upgraded 727. He took it out only a few times and maybe put 20 miles on the car after he had that engine built. He said it was wild. When he describes the way it was set up, the car was a bit much and he didn't have the money to do anymore to it to get it right. It got away from him when he was showing off to the local Hi-Lo autoparts guys, he looped it 360 in the middle of a busy Houston street but managed to not hit anything. He just parked it, figuring he could get back on it little by little as his kids got older. And he was able to do some more upgrades to it like SSBC front brakes and better wheels/tires, plus an upgraded front sway bar to name a few.

But they years passed and unfortunately his mom passed so he lost the garage. He kept it in storage for a while and he kept it in a friend's garage for some time but eventually he didn't really have a place to keep it other than outside at a mutual friend's house. It was under a shed the first time I saw it. As I walked up to look at it a big *** snake shot out of it and I took off, admiring it only from a distance. I met Cliff about 7-8 years ago and started making offers to buy the car shortly after. He laughed in my face. It was like trying to buy his son. Not happening.

We started working together at our friend's shop and I made offers to this man that were pretty damn good offers. Each time I offered more and more. Each time he shot me down like I was an idiot for even asking. Every time I'd go out there I'd look at the car, eventually getting the courage to brave the snakes and really look at it close

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He laughs because once I made the biggest cash offer yet with my wife standing there and he shot me down but I shot back that I'd pay him the cash and my wife would even flash her boobs at him, LOL! She agreed and that shocked him, he turned red and his jaw fell open. Still turned it down but the man knew I was serious.

He had watched me build my car over the years and appreciated my work and sacrifice for it. It had won a bunch of awards, been on an award and some T-shirts, and even had been in Chrysler Power mag as a centerfold.

View attachment 1318179

So I changed my tune and started offering to help him build his car. I stopped offering cash and continued offering help but it never happened. He didn't take me up on it and the car just sat for more years. He just couldn't come up with the money and past that he didn't have a place to keep it other than at our friend's place.

Eventually one day I was tipped off that he had been talking about buying a new truck as his commuter car Camry was taking a piss and he was sick of working on it. I went straight up there to him and this time I took 10 grand cash. I shot the **** with him for a while and he said something about that shitty Camry so I whipped out the 10 grand and said "I'll give every bit of this to you plus however much more is needed tomorrow if you will sell me that Charger". He was shocked. Stared at the cash and said no almost as quick as ever. So I said "well the offer stands" and shook his hand and left. He called me that night pissed off. He said "You really F'ed me up today showing me that money. All I could think about was that money and I broke and lost so much **** the rest of the day because it was all I could think about!". Then Cliff did what I thought he never would. He said his price. This time I was shocked. Not for the reason YOU think but because this man named a price that was less than my biggest offer. In fact it was less than I had ever offered. I offered more but he declined. I paid him his cash the next day and that weekend we went out there and I got the car.

It was bittersweet. I had finally, after many years working to get this particular car and after wanting one my whole life, I got it... But I also had to see my friend give up on his dream. I swore I'd make him proud and that if I ever sold it, I'd make sure him or his kids would get another chunk of cash.

(At this point I can't add more pics to the post so I will follow up with more pictures and progress pics of the work I've been doing)

 

[moparker]

Your wife is a keeper by the way.

 

[Keeper]

I bought this '69 Charger R/T at the end of last August and since then have been able to put together the entire history of the car and begin to get it back on the road. I figured you guys might like to see this. It is the only time I've been able to get the complete story of a car like this and I found it all very interesting, so I thought I'd share. If you're on facebook you may have seen me post about some of this in a couple of the groups there but if not, here goes....

View attachment 1318103

The car was bought new just a stone's throw from where I live now and as it turns out, it has been within 20 miles of that now defunct dealership damn near every day of every year ever since.

Unfortunately, the original owner has passed away but I was able to use the title that I was given by the 2nd owner to track down the original owner's family. According to his wife, her husband worked at the Buick dealership that used to be across the street from the Dodge dealer. When he saw the new '69 Charger he went over and ordered his. He wanted the 440 and a bench seat but the R/T came with buckets so he ordered it with the "buddy seat" so it has no console and a column shift automatic. He wanted it that way so his wife could sit next to him. He also had to have A/C because... well.... Texas.... not to mention this was the everyday car for him, his wife, and little girl.

The original owners kept all the paperwork all these years including the original dealer invoice with the options he had requested and they had the original window sticker. They had even saved receipts from payments and registration through the years.

This is the invoice. I have blocked the name and address of the original owner simply out of respect. I don't want to put their names out there but everyone involved said it was OK to share the pictures.

View attachment 1318098

And this is the original window sticker, mostly intact but some areas are tough to read. Still lots of good info there even if you have to decipher it a bit.

View attachment 1318105

So when the car came in on the delivery truck to the Dodge dealer, the owner saw it arrive, clocked out of the Buick dealer and went over and waited as they unloaded his new car. He immediately left the Dodge dealer with it and went back to the Buick dealer to perform all the dealer stuff to it himself. His widow (who has become a dear friend) has been so excited to hear that the car is still around and loved that she provided photos of her family and the car when it was still new. These are all labeled May of 69 as you can see.

View attachment 1318106

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And then there's this one of their cute daughter posing next to it. She will become an integral part of the cars history as the story continues.

View attachment 1318108


The wife told me that this car was her husband's pride and joy. He had planned to keep the car forever because he just knew that these cars were the epitome of a muscle car. Unfortunately, to them the car seemed cursed. She said he picked her up in it the first day and took her and their daughter into town and by a series of department stores that had glass window walls out front so they could look at their reflection as they drove by. They then drove it to her parent's home to show her Dad. As they pulled up, they saw her Dad replacing a vent on the roof of his house. They parked the car and the Dad stumbled, dropped the vent and it bounced off the roof of the house and banged right into the center of the hood. The hood had to be repaired and repainted. That's some bad luck. She said the bad luck continued as it seemed like someone was always bumping into the car and they kept repairing to keep it looking pristine. Once a motorcycle rider ran a red light and smacked into the passenger fender which threw the rider off the bike and over the hood, breaking his leg. The motorcyclist was ticketed and carried to the hospital and again they repaired the car.

Over the next decade he had become protective of the car and since the luck with other drivers had been so bad he used his tow truck to commute back and forth to the mechanic shop he had opened in town. By this time his daughter was a teenager and had her license, but they hadn't gotten her her own car. He told his wife to never let the daughter drive the Charger, but she was a good girl and when she bugged the mom to let her use the car to go to her boyfriend's house the mom decided it would be ok to do so if she promised to be very careful with it and go straight there, then straight home. She never made it to the boyfriend's house. She got to town, waited at a red light, when it went green, she took off carefully, but an illegal immigrant ran the red light and smacked right into the driver's side. The door was crushed and the front half of that 1/4 panel took a nasty hit as well.

The man was devastated. She said he was so sick over it that he put it off to the side of his shop and covered it up so he wouldn't have to see it. He believed it to be too badly damaged to be repaired properly with what was available at the time and his skill set as far as body work and paint.

So there it sat for a year or so....

Until it was spotted by a high school kid who had a high school buddy named Cliff that was looking to replace his 1st car (a 69 Charger RT/SE) that had been completely totaled out when they hit a tree. So these kids go over to the shop and inquire about the car that had been spotted. Cliff asked if the car was for sale and the original owner decided he'd go ahead and let it go since he couldn't fix it himself. He sold the car to Cliff for $100 in 1979 (I believe was the year).

Cliff was convinced he knew a body shop that could use what was left of his RT/SE car to fix this RT. He had this car towed down to the body shop and they looked at it. They told him if his parts were good they could repair and repaint the car for $1500. They used the driver's door and half of the driver's 1/4 panel. Cliff's RT/SE had hit the tree on the passenger side so the driver side parts were good enough. He was still in high school and had to pay it out over time but eventually he paid them in full and got this car back. He said it wasn't perfect but most people couldn't tell.

Cliff says he felt like he was king of the street in that car with the big R/T badges on the 1/4 panels. He used to cruise Westheimer in Houston which was the biggest cruise spot and was a miles long party on Friday and Saturday nights. He'd park at a certain convenience store with his buddies and drink beer while waiting on someone to race. And race he did. He blew the original 3.23 rear end up (I still have the pieces) and swapped in a 3.91 suregrip. Here's some pics Cliff took back in his heyday. You can clearly see they did a pretty decent job on that driver's side.

View attachment 1318148

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Cliff drove the car for a couple years and raced it on the weekends pretty successfully until the Fox body Mustangs started to take over and Westheimer cruising was shut down. So Cliff decided it was time to do something. He parked it and spent the next few years going through the engine and upgrading it to what he figured would be about as bad *** of a 440 as possible. It was an expensive project and he had a wife and kid by now so slowly the Charger hit the back burner. It sat until the late 80's in his mom's garage until he had finished the engine and bought a new upgraded 727. He took it out only a few times and maybe put 20 miles on the car after he had that engine built. He said it was wild. When he describes the way it was set up, the car was a bit much and he didn't have the money to do anymore to it to get it right. It got away from him when he was showing off to the local Hi-Lo autoparts guys, he looped it 360 in the middle of a busy Houston street but managed to not hit anything. He just parked it, figuring he could get back on it little by little as his kids got older. And he was able to do some more upgrades to it like SSBC front brakes and better wheels/tires, plus an upgraded front sway bar to name a few.

But they years passed and unfortunately his mom passed so he lost the garage. He kept it in storage for a while and he kept it in a friend's garage for some time but eventually he didn't really have a place to keep it other than outside at a mutual friend's house. It was under a shed the first time I saw it. As I walked up to look at it a big *** snake shot out of it and I took off, admiring it only from a distance. I met Cliff about 7-8 years ago and started making offers to buy the car shortly after. He laughed in my face. It was like trying to buy his son. Not happening.

We started working together at our friend's shop and I made offers to this man that were pretty damn good offers. Each time I offered more and more. Each time he shot me down like I was an idiot for even asking. Every time I'd go out there I'd look at the car, eventually getting the courage to brave the snakes and really look at it close

View attachment 1318168

He laughs because once I made the biggest cash offer yet with my wife standing there and he shot me down but I shot back that I'd pay him the cash and my wife would even flash her boobs at him, LOL! She agreed and that shocked him, he turned red and his jaw fell open. Still turned it down but the man knew I was serious.

He had watched me build my car over the years and appreciated my work and sacrifice for it. It had won a bunch of awards, been on an award and some T-shirts, and even had been in Chrysler Power mag as a centerfold.

View attachment 1318179

So I changed my tune and started offering to help him build his car. I stopped offering cash and continued offering help but it never happened. He didn't take me up on it and the car just sat for more years. He just couldn't come up with the money and past that he didn't have a place to keep it other than at our friend's place.

Eventually one day I was tipped off that he had been talking about buying a new truck as his commuter car Camry was taking a piss and he was sick of working on it. I went straight up there to him and this time I took 10 grand cash. I shot the **** with him for a while and he said something about that shitty Camry so I whipped out the 10 grand and said "I'll give every bit of this to you plus however much more is needed tomorrow if you will sell me that Charger". He was shocked. Stared at the cash and said no almost as quick as ever. So I said "well the offer stands" and shook his hand and left. He called me that night pissed off. He said "You really F'ed me up today showing me that money. All I could think about was that money and I broke and lost so much **** the rest of the day because it was all I could think about!". Then Cliff did what I thought he never would. He said his price. This time I was shocked. Not for the reason YOU think but because this man named a price that was less than my biggest offer. In fact it was less than I had ever offered. I offered more but he declined. I paid him his cash the next day and that weekend we went out there and I got the car.

It was bittersweet. I had finally, after many years working to get this particular car and after wanting one my whole life, I got it... But I also had to see my friend give up on his dream. I swore I'd make him proud and that if I ever sold it, I'd make sure him or his kids would get another chunk of cash.

(At this point I can't add more pics to the post so I will follow up with more pictures and progress pics of the work I've been doing)

Thanks for sharing great story.

 

[Ghoste]

Great story and photos. Also it's great you shared it. Thank you.

 

[72 Satellite]

I bought this '69 Charger R/T at the end of last August and since then have been able to put together the entire history of the car and begin to get it back on the road. I figured you guys might like to see this. It is the only time I've been able to get the complete story of a car like this and I found it all very interesting, so I thought I'd share. If you're on facebook you may have seen me post about some of this in a couple of the groups there but if not, here goes....

View attachment 1318103

The car was bought new just a stone's throw from where I live now and as it turns out, it has been within 20 miles of that now defunct dealership damn near every day of every year ever since.

Unfortunately, the original owner has passed away but I was able to use the title that I was given by the 2nd owner to track down the original owner's family. According to his wife, her husband worked at the Buick dealership that used to be across the street from the Dodge dealer. When he saw the new '69 Charger he went over and ordered his. He wanted the 440 and a bench seat but the R/T came with buckets so he ordered it with the "buddy seat" so it has no console and a column shift automatic. He wanted it that way so his wife could sit next to him. He also had to have A/C because... well.... Texas.... not to mention this was the everyday car for him, his wife, and little girl.

The original owners kept all the paperwork all these years including the original dealer invoice with the options he had requested and they had the original window sticker. They had even saved receipts from payments and registration through the years.

This is the invoice. I have blocked the name and address of the original owner simply out of respect. I don't want to put their names out there but everyone involved said it was OK to share the pictures.

View attachment 1318098

And this is the original window sticker, mostly intact but some areas are tough to read. Still lots of good info there even if you have to decipher it a bit.

View attachment 1318105

So when the car came in on the delivery truck to the Dodge dealer, the owner saw it arrive, clocked out of the Buick dealer and went over and waited as they unloaded his new car. He immediately left the Dodge dealer with it and went back to the Buick dealer to perform all the dealer stuff to it himself. His widow (who has become a dear friend) has been so excited to hear that the car is still around and loved that she provided photos of her family and the car when it was still new. These are all labeled May of 69 as you can see.

View attachment 1318106

View attachment 1318107

And then there's this one of their cute daughter posing next to it. She will become an integral part of the cars history as the story continues.

View attachment 1318108


The wife told me that this car was her husband's pride and joy. He had planned to keep the car forever because he just knew that these cars were the epitome of a muscle car. Unfortunately, to them the car seemed cursed. She said he picked her up in it the first day and took her and their daughter into town and by a series of department stores that had glass window walls out front so they could look at their reflection as they drove by. They then drove it to her parent's home to show her Dad. As they pulled up, they saw her Dad replacing a vent on the roof of his house. They parked the car and the Dad stumbled, dropped the vent and it bounced off the roof of the house and banged right into the center of the hood. The hood had to be repaired and repainted. That's some bad luck. She said the bad luck continued as it seemed like someone was always bumping into the car and they kept repairing to keep it looking pristine. Once a motorcycle rider ran a red light and smacked into the passenger fender which threw the rider off the bike and over the hood, breaking his leg. The motorcyclist was ticketed and carried to the hospital and again they repaired the car.

Over the next decade he had become protective of the car and since the luck with other drivers had been so bad he used his tow truck to commute back and forth to the mechanic shop he had opened in town. By this time his daughter was a teenager and had her license, but they hadn't gotten her her own car. He told his wife to never let the daughter drive the Charger, but she was a good girl and when she bugged the mom to let her use the car to go to her boyfriend's house the mom decided it would be ok to do so if she promised to be very careful with it and go straight there, then straight home. She never made it to the boyfriend's house. She got to town, waited at a red light, when it went green, she took off carefully, but an illegal immigrant ran the red light and smacked right into the driver's side. The door was crushed and the front half of that 1/4 panel took a nasty hit as well.

The man was devastated. She said he was so sick over it that he put it off to the side of his shop and covered it up so he wouldn't have to see it. He believed it to be too badly damaged to be repaired properly with what was available at the time and his skill set as far as body work and paint.

So there it sat for a year or so....

Until it was spotted by a high school kid who had a high school buddy named Cliff that was looking to replace his 1st car (a 69 Charger RT/SE) that had been completely totaled out when they hit a tree. So these kids go over to the shop and inquire about the car that had been spotted. Cliff asked if the car was for sale and the original owner decided he'd go ahead and let it go since he couldn't fix it himself. He sold the car to Cliff for $100 in 1979 (I believe was the year).

Cliff was convinced he knew a body shop that could use what was left of his RT/SE car to fix this RT. He had this car towed down to the body shop and they looked at it. They told him if his parts were good they could repair and repaint the car for $1500. They used the driver's door and half of the driver's 1/4 panel. Cliff's RT/SE had hit the tree on the passenger side so the driver side parts were good enough. He was still in high school and had to pay it out over time but eventually he paid them in full and got this car back. He said it wasn't perfect but most people couldn't tell.

Cliff says he felt like he was king of the street in that car with the big R/T badges on the 1/4 panels. He used to cruise Westheimer in Houston which was the biggest cruise spot and was a miles long party on Friday and Saturday nights. He'd park at a certain convenience store with his buddies and drink beer while waiting on someone to race. And race he did. He blew the original 3.23 rear end up (I still have the pieces) and swapped in a 3.91 suregrip. Here's some pics Cliff took back in his heyday. You can clearly see they did a pretty decent job on that driver's side.

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Cliff drove the car for a couple years and raced it on the weekends pretty successfully until the Fox body Mustangs started to take over and Westheimer cruising was shut down. So Cliff decided it was time to do something. He parked it and spent the next few years going through the engine and upgrading it to what he figured would be about as bad *** of a 440 as possible. It was an expensive project and he had a wife and kid by now so slowly the Charger hit the back burner. It sat until the late 80's in his mom's garage until he had finished the engine and bought a new upgraded 727. He took it out only a few times and maybe put 20 miles on the car after he had that engine built. He said it was wild. When he describes the way it was set up, the car was a bit much and he didn't have the money to do anymore to it to get it right. It got away from him when he was showing off to the local Hi-Lo autoparts guys, he looped it 360 in the middle of a busy Houston street but managed to not hit anything. He just parked it, figuring he could get back on it little by little as his kids got older. And he was able to do some more upgrades to it like SSBC front brakes and better wheels/tires, plus an upgraded front sway bar to name a few.

But they years passed and unfortunately his mom passed so he lost the garage. He kept it in storage for a while and he kept it in a friend's garage for some time but eventually he didn't really have a place to keep it other than outside at a mutual friend's house. It was under a shed the first time I saw it. As I walked up to look at it a big *** snake shot out of it and I took off, admiring it only from a distance. I met Cliff about 7-8 years ago and started making offers to buy the car shortly after. He laughed in my face. It was like trying to buy his son. Not happening.

We started working together at our friend's shop and I made offers to this man that were pretty damn good offers. Each time I offered more and more. Each time he shot me down like I was an idiot for even asking. Every time I'd go out there I'd look at the car, eventually getting the courage to brave the snakes and really look at it close

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He laughs because once I made the biggest cash offer yet with my wife standing there and he shot me down but I shot back that I'd pay him the cash and my wife would even flash her boobs at him, LOL! She agreed and that shocked him, he turned red and his jaw fell open. Still turned it down but the man knew I was serious.

He had watched me build my car over the years and appreciated my work and sacrifice for it. It had won a bunch of awards, been on an award and some T-shirts, and even had been in Chrysler Power mag as a centerfold.

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So I changed my tune and started offering to help him build his car. I stopped offering cash and continued offering help but it never happened. He didn't take me up on it and the car just sat for more years. He just couldn't come up with the money and past that he didn't have a place to keep it other than at our friend's place.

Eventually one day I was tipped off that he had been talking about buying a new truck as his commuter car Camry was taking a piss and he was sick of working on it. I went straight up there to him and this time I took 10 grand cash. I shot the **** with him for a while and he said something about that shitty Camry so I whipped out the 10 grand and said "I'll give every bit of this to you plus however much more is needed tomorrow if you will sell me that Charger". He was shocked. Stared at the cash and said no almost as quick as ever. So I said "well the offer stands" and shook his hand and left. He called me that night pissed off. He said "You really F'ed me up today showing me that money. All I could think about was that money and I broke and lost so much **** the rest of the day because it was all I could think about!". Then Cliff did what I thought he never would. He said his price. This time I was shocked. Not for the reason YOU think but because this man named a price that was less than my biggest offer. In fact it was less than I had ever offered. I offered more but he declined. I paid him his cash the next day and that weekend we went out there and I got the car.

It was bittersweet. I had finally, after many years working to get this particular car and after wanting one my whole life, I got it... But I also had to see my friend give up on his dream. I swore I'd make him proud and that if I ever sold it, I'd make sure him or his kids would get another chunk of cash.

(At this point I can't add more pics to the post so I will follow up with more pictures and progress pics of the work I've been doing)

Fantastic story, and great job. What's the story/connection with the sweet green bee ?

 

[Magnes]

Fantastic story, and great job. What's the story/connection with the sweet green bee ?

I've posted about that one before. That is our (Cliff and I) mutual friend's car. He bought it in 80 or 81 looking just like you see it there and years later he pulled the vinyl top off to begin restoring it and found some scraps of weird material. Then he decoded the fender tag to find out that it's 1 of the 28 Super Bee "Floral Top" cars. The top had been stripped and replaced with that black top you see there by the previous owner. The car has been sitting after having been repainted. He just doesn't take the time to finish it. With the help of another member on here we were able to locate the original floral top material and sent it off to be made into the top so it's ready to go.

I have put together an AAR Cuda and a T/A Challenger for him, painted his 1 of 0 69 Super Bee convertible and countless numbers of his family's and customer's cars but he hasn't asked me to do that one. I think he's scared. He wants it to be his old car but it's so much more than what he thought it was back then... IDK.

Here it sits now... Waiting. A shame but I can only do so much.

 

[Nxcoupe]

I've posted about that one before. That is our (Cliff and I) mutual friend's car. He bought it in 80 or 81 looking just like you see it there and years later he pulled the vinyl top off to begin restoring it and found some scraps of weird material. Then he decoded the fender tag to find out that it's 1 of the 28 Super Bee "Floral Top" cars. The top had been stripped and replaced with that black top you see there by the previous owner. The car has been sitting after having been repainted. He just doesn't take the time to finish it. With the help of another member on here we were able to locate the original floral top material and sent it off to be made into the top so it's ready to go.

I have put together an AAR Cuda and a T/A Challenger for him, painted his 1 of 0 69 Super Bee convertible and countless numbers of his family's and customer's cars but he hasn't asked me to do that one. I think he's scared. He wants it to be his old car but it's so much more than what he thought it was back then... IDK.

Here it sits now... Waiting. A shame but I can only do so much.

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I lived in a low rent apartment building back when I was in my early twenties, and the guy in the apartment next door had a 70 cuda with a mod top, and a 70 GTX too.

 

[Magnes]

The Charger's cheek lifts just came in.

No hardware yet though.

I went and started talks with the machine shop today. I'm just sending the engine across the street and letting them handle it. I can put a car together but I can't build that engine and do it right. A man's gotta know his limitations... Engines and transmissions are 2 of those for me. It's going to hurt my wallet but that's some **** I only want to do once.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Might want to listen to suggestions here on pistons & camshafts... I can't speak to how your chosen machine shop does things but it's pretty common if left to their own devices many machine shops will build you a lazy low performance engine... Cast pistons with a 1.91 C/H are a sure way to save a few $$$ and build a lazy engine... I'm not suggesting building something that won't run on pump gas, but don't build a smogger either..

 

[Linda Parlier]

Love the story and thank you for sharing it and your passion.

 

[Magnes]

Might want to listen to suggestions here on pistons & camshafts... I can't speak to how your chosen machine shop does things but it's pretty common if left to their own devices many machine shops will build you a lazy low performance engine... Cast pistons with a 1.91 C/H are a sure way to save a few $$$ and build a lazy engine... I'm not suggesting building something that won't run on pump gas, but don't build a smogger either..

One of their main guys is on here and he builds some bad *** Mopar engines so they typically defer to his expertise. I won't call him out but he built the 451 in my Plymouth and he has a NSS car running a similar 451 and he runs a funny car he built as well. Having said that I'm always open to suggestions... The only issue is I likely won't know wth you're talking about but I can pass it on to those who do

 

[1 Wild R/T]

One of their main guys is on here and he builds some bad *** Mopar engines so they typically defer to his expertise. I won't call him out but he built the 451 in my Plymouth and he has a NSS car running a similar 451 and he runs a funny car he built as well. Having said that I'm always open to suggestions... The only issue is I likely won't know wth you're talking about but I can pass it on to those who do

Say no more, sounds like you are in good hands..

 

[chargervert]

I've posted about that one before. That is our (Cliff and I) mutual friend's car. He bought it in 80 or 81 looking just like you see it there and years later he pulled the vinyl top off to begin restoring it and found some scraps of weird material. Then he decoded the fender tag to find out that it's 1 of the 28 Super Bee "Floral Top" cars. The top had been stripped and replaced with that black top you see there by the previous owner. The car has been sitting after having been repainted. He just doesn't take the time to finish it. With the help of another member on here we were able to locate the original floral top material and sent it off to be made into the top so it's ready to go.

I have put together an AAR Cuda and a T/A Challenger for him, painted his 1 of 0 69 Super Bee convertible and countless numbers of his family's and customer's cars but he hasn't asked me to do that one. I think he's scared. He wants it to be his old car but it's so much more than what he thought it was back then... IDK.

Here it sits now... Waiting. A shame but I can only do so much.

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I built a one of none B body convertible myself! I love the mod top bee!

 

[Magnes]

More history on my Charger...

Was talking to Cliff tonight and he dug out these pics. This was Cliff's 1st car, a 69 Charger RT/SE 440 car. He didn't even have his license yet, 3 people in the back, him and another guy up front. He lost control and hit 2 trees, 1 in front and 1 on the pass side. Guy in the back was hurt, busted his spleen and was in the hospital for a while over it.

Funny thing though, one of the other guys that was in this wreck told Cliff afterward where to find the blue Charger. So this is the car that was used to repair my blue Charger. I have this car's drivers door and half the driver 1/4 panel on mine.

A shame cuz that's a bad *** Charger that got wiped out. They were lucky. That was a nasty wreck.

Cliff told me a while back that when he was a kid, several junk yards in Houston just had stacks of 2nd gen Chargers. He said he saw at least a hundred of them stacked in these various yards. Then one day the price of scrap went up, he drove by, they were all gone... If only they knew.