After Eight Years

[Tropicalcats]

On April 30, 2005 I joined Cuda-Challenger.com. Back in the day (1974) I had owned a 70 Dodge Challenger plum crazy black vinyl top black interior it was a 318 and in fact it was my first car. My dad said he was going to buy (Finance) my first car and unlike other things he held to his word and I got my car. The car was four years old when I got it and I drove it for about four years before trading it in on a Mazda GLC ( Great Little Car) The gas crisis was hitting and to drive around a car that ate gas like the Challenger was just not the right thing to do for my pocket. I must of been out of my mind but hindsight is always 2020.

Years later I thought it would be great to have another Challenger so I joined the board and started looking around to see what people thought of the car and what kind of prices were out there. Much to my surprise the cars had become a high ticket item and if I wanted to have one I was either going to have to find one that needed to be restored or mortgage my house.

 It wasn't long after I joined the board and got the word out that I was looking that a member (David/Bondavi ) started to email me with a couple cars that he had found in Sacramento California he was going to make a choice between the two cars and if I wanted to I could have the other. David at first picked my car and even paid for it but changed his mind and bought the other car. I think it was 70 V code six pack R/T FC7.

 At the time I was working for a company, oddly enough that was headquartered in Sacramento California. I live in NW Ohio. I convinced my boss that it was time I paid a visit to the home office and I made arrangements to see the car. By this time I had  been emailing the owner of the car and although he never said that he would not sell me the car he never said that he would. He invited me to come out and look at the car. All of the emails between him and I up to that point were more of an interview process. He always want to know what I was going to do with the car if I was going to keep it stock or if I wanted to change things he wanted to know what my plan for It was long-term, why I wanted a Challenger, why plum crazy ?
 
On June 15,2005 at 4:00PM I got out to Sacramento and saw the car. I was amazed.  It had been sitting in his garage for about 10 years and he had bought it from a guy who had it in his garage for about 10 years.  It is a true R/T 383 Magnum all numbers matching FC-7 with white vinyl top, Leather interior and thumb radio.
 
 The paint was very faded missing in sections the white vinyl top was almost completely dry rotted off the car. Headlight bezels look like they had a ball peen hammer taken to them. The great part, the amazing part is that the car was all there. The only thing that was missing was the exhaust tips, the gas cap, the white longitudinal stripe and the original driver side standard outside mirror. It was a find,a keeper at least for me.

So now after eight years it looks as if the car is about ready to go to be stripped, body work and paint.

And after almost 8 years I'm going to start my very own restoration thread.

I'm going to start on photo bucket with pictures of the car the way I found it. As if it was just happening. And then every week or two I will add pictures of the progress That I have made over the last eight years.

Keep an eye out for the small yellow sticker on the clock. I'll have more details on that later.

They say the pleasure is in the journey and not the destination and I do have to agree with that but it is going to give me a great deal of pleasure to arrive at my destination.

http://s92.photobucket.com/user/70DodgeChally/slideshow/THERUTHS-PC/The%20Challenger%20Find

[dodj]

Cool slide show tcats.
It will be interesting to watch through the 'time lapse' restoration! 

[Falbz]

Awesome - can't wait to see the restoration over time 

Was wondering about that sticker 

[dvldwg89]

so the fun begins

[Topcat]

Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Be careful with using Photobucket.
All too many times, I go thru archived threads and see a photobucket picture that has dissappeared.

Quote: "This file has been removed or deleted"

[dutch]

cool car     good luck restoring.
I think photobucket will work just fine as long as you don`t move any pics. Make sure you have a good system in maps.... my bucket turned out a bit chaotic after a couple thousand pics.... not a problem untill you need a specific one.... 

[cudamadd]

It will be a great journey .  To watch this  unfold .Nice car one of the best colours .     AM-FM radio R/T  big block  wow. . I enjoy seeing  cars in this way left for dead , SO TO SPEAK
And then  one day all the hard work pays off and she lives again 

[71gogreen]

very nice project,I love the purple colored cars too.My brother back in 71 bought a71 chargers/e in purple,it was beautiful.To bad it was only a318 engine.

[Oldschool]

Very cool!     It will be very interesting to follow your work as you move forward....   

[Sleepychallenger]

Can't wait to see the updates.

[Topcat]

Did it ever run once you brought it home?
Looks like it could have if attempted.

[Bullitt-]

So glad to see this happening  , i recall a few years back when you seemed to have lost your way. 

[Tropicalcats]

Did it ever run once you brought it home?
Looks like it could have if attempted.

I never ran it. Didn't want to take the chance.

So glad to see this happening  , i recall a few years back when you seemed to have lost your way. 

Life did get in the way for awhile but back on track.