I own a restoration company in western Arkansas, USA. We just purchased a 70 Challenger RT SE, plum crazy 383, auto, black interior, black top, non matching engine but closely dated block. We have the original data plate and vin tag of course. The car is rust free southern car but the previous owner replaced the quarters just because they had some large dents and he didn't want filler on the car. I wish that I could have bought it previous to them being replaced. I have an excellant metal man that could probably have gotten most of the dents completely out. The floors, frame rails and everything else is mint and solid. At this point the car is stripped and I can take some nice pics showing the rust free metal. Everything on the car will be new or near mint when we're finished. We only use premium paint/materials. I'm guessing that the car will be priced at 40K, u.s. dollars.
The only deviations from original will be modern a/c and front disc brakes. I believe that the reliability of modern a/c and the safety of front disc brakes take precedence over originality. We like to build cars that will be both reliable and comfortable.
I also will be selling my personal car that's a 1971 Barracuda, factory sassy grass green. It was originally a 318, auto, black buckets and auto on the column. I recently converted it into a street radial drag car, but never raced it. I didn't cut anything. I just bought a 71 Cuda drag car and need to sell the green car to pay off the cuda. The car still has the original green paint but it's thin. I'll repaint it to the original color using base/clear. It had a flat hood but I have a real nice rust free power bulge hood that I plan to put on it. I also have a fresh 340 and 727 to put in the car. There are some small rust bubbles in the lower quarters that I'll cut out and replace with fresh sheet metal prior to painting. After that the car will be rust free once more. It's a southern car that a good friend of mine had owned since the 70's so I've always known the car. I hate to sell it but I have way too many cudas and roadrunners and I also own the Black Ice Superbird.
I wouldn't buy an older restoration for top dollar unless you really know the story behind the car. Sometimes older restos need to be re-restored if not done correctly. That and you usually pay top dollar even for older restos.
You can check out some of my cars and customer's cars at
www.maniacmusclecars.com I have plenty of references to verify that I deal honestly on everything that I build.
