Just found this board since I've done very little Mopar related internet searching since I signed off the MML in 1997 (too busy) and the RAMM list soon after (too busy!). Time to get back in the game since I may finally be coming up with some free time to restart my project.
1971 Challenger, 318 automatic (Slapstik)
741 axle, 2.76 gears
GF3 green metallic (currently Earl Scheib White)
H6XW Black and white interior, buckets
Standard gauge set with clock
Built 4/14/1971 (A Wednesday!)
Chrome racing mirrors
Front bumber guards with cushions, rear bumper guards
Build sheet found! Fender tag present, and all numbers on the body match
My first car, bought in Las Vegas for $300 in 1979 (High school junior, A904 trans was quite dead). Bought a rebuilt and traded in the original (wish I'd known about matching numbers...) which raised the actual cost to around $700. It came painted white (looked nice back then), R/T badges (at least I knew those were undeserved!), with chrome/black insert bodyline molding, BF Goodrich Belted T/A tires on Mercury Cougar mags and an unhappy dent in the lower right quarter.
I started collecting parts for it in 1980 when a beer truck driver forgot his parking brake and rolled back into the hood and right fender, and some "helpful" kid jumped on the hood to make sure I knew the car had been hit. Insurance bought repair parts, and as I could afford it I started buying other parts for future use from a helpful local dealer. Unfortunately interior parts like the door and dash panels were already NS1, and the Nevada sun had already pretty much destroyed mine. On bit of luck; turns out the right fender had been heavily bondoed in the past; the left (unhit/undamaged) was clean... at least I didn't lose the good one.
It was my daily driver until 1987 when a freeze plug at the rear of the block rusted through, and it got parked. Two uncles let me keep it at their shop or large back yard till 1995 when I could afford to bring it out to Illinois. It came out on a truck but with the loan of a battery and some Berryman's in the fuel bowl, actually started and powered itself up the driveway and into the garage. That was a major relief! In the four days it was parked in front of the house I had two cops nudging me about the Nevada plates with the 1987 stickers, and half a dozen offers to buy it.
I started pulling all the dead parts (interior, hood, damaged fender) as well as prepping to pull the tired 318, when work pulled a darn near 10 year long expansion into every available formerly spare moment...
So here we are. Challenger piled up with parts and storage items, still paying storage fees (for 16+ years now!) on the parts that don't fit in the garage, its summer and the garage is sweltering and too small for a rotisserie or lift, and I finally have a little time on my hands and the hope that that will continue for a while.
The good: outside of the hood and fender, the body and frame are in great shape. The only rust is a small perforated patch in front of the right rear wheel, and a _little_ bit around the windshield channel. Nevada car... The dent in the rear quarter is a big shallow one, although a bit wrinkled; an experienced person should be able to knock it out with almost no filler needed. The passenger door has a couple of harder dents on the body line (my fault, sigh) , but still not major, and no rust at all that I can see. 318 engine will make a great practice rebuild, plus it remains available for "posterity". And I have a fair number of new parts that have been waiting many years to take their place on this car.
And its my first car and I still have it! And its a '71, which I think was the best appearance year for the model. And the tuner kids across the street ignore me (and it) and don't pester me to sell it to them.
The bad: its a 318 lo-po, modestly optioned, and originally green. All the plastic and web parts are fried after decades in the Nevada sun; even though it was covered while parked all those years, the interior is a total loss. New foam, all new upholstery, new panels (or Just Dashes treatment all around), new belts, new weatherstripping, new armrests and woodgrain (including for the rallye gauge set I'm putting in) are required. Drum brakes MUST be upgraded. Underhoood wiring managed to get baked enough that the insulation is failing, so new harnesses will also be needed. It needs a bigger, better (but still small block) engine.
And every time I open the garage door I end up fending off people looking for a parts car for their R/T... dunno how they can sense it and show up so fast; none of them are neighbors. Life in the rust belt...
Cheers. Pictures another time; all my available ones were on 'legacy' film, and the only digicam I have handy is a Mavica floppy unit, and the house Mac doesn't have a floppy drive any more. Not that whats there now is much to look at, other than the potential (and for me, the memories...)
