The pictures were taken when i first brought the car home (about 5 years ago). Here is the story on how I came upon it for anyone interested.
I was working in my office one day when a kid from Shipping came to deliver a package to me. I had a calendar on my wall that had muscle cars featured on it (different one each month). Anyway that month featured an AAR Cuda, one of my favorite cars growing up. The kid saw it and said "Hey, I have one of those". Well, I knew my Mopars pretty good, having grown up with them all my life (I'm 47 now), so I thought I'd set him straight. I said "you might have a Barracuda, but that is an AAR Cuda. They only made about 2,700 of those". He responded, saying "Yea, a double A, R Cuda". So now he had my attension. I asked more about it and found out it was his dads car and he had planned to give it to his son but was in need of money so may have to sell it. I told him I was interested in seeing it and so we set up a meeting.
The car was in a single car detached garage at an old house in a small town. When he opened the door, there sat the AAR. It was totally complete down to the inflator for spare, unused space saver, 15" rallys (off to the side), everything. Packed into the garage with stuff all around it and behind. Barely enough room to get around it but I saw enough to know that I really, really wanted it.
I asked the guy what he wanted and he told me there was a guy in NY that was prepared to give him 10K, sight unseen. Now that may seem like a good deal looking back now but remember, values back then were just starting their steep rise, so to me, it was way out of my budget range. I did make him a low offer, but as I suspected, he respectfully declined.
I spend the next several months bumming about what I was sure would be my car. It was a big dissapointment, to say the least. Time went by and I soon forgot about it.
Then one day, a few years later, I received a phone call. It was the guy. He said "Hi this is Ray. Do you remember me?" I said " of course. You are the guy with the AAR". He said, yes, and that he did not sell it and came to the conclusion that he would not be able to restore it, remembered me and still had my phone number so he decided to see if I was still interested.
I told him I was but that I didn't have 10K for it. He said "make me an offer". I told him I would call him back. Had to discuss with my wife.
Within a few minutes (and approval from the boss) I called him back and offered him $2,700. He said "come and get it"
So now I actually own that car. Still can't believe how it came together the way it did. And fortunately, its value has increased significantly since I bought it which makes dumping money into it a bit easier. I'll post some additional pictures of the tear-down showing the rusty mess it was in before sending current pictures.
