I bought a 74 Challenger last April and joined this site in June so I thought I would give the story on how this all came to be.
I'll start by going back to the late '70s when I bought a '72 Pontiac LeMans. This car had all the GTO styling - grille, bumper, hood scoops and fender louvres but just a 350 big block, two barrel. I'm not sure why it had the GTO styling and only a 2 barrel. I added air shocks, Crager SS mags with G60s and loud muffler(s), can't remember if it had dual exhaust or not. Then I had it repainted so it looked great and it sounded great even though it wasn't very fast. Six weeks after the paint job I rolled it and that was the end of that.
The next 35 years were consumed with paying a mortgage and raising a family which brings us to the winter of 2012. My wife works in the school system and loves sun and water. So our school break in March saw us on the way to Myrtle Beach, SC. I'm not a real beach person so I was looking for other things to do. Someone suggested I go to a place called The Cars of Yesteryear. At this point I'm not looking for a muscle car even though, for decades, I've had in the back of my mind that some day I'd like to get one again.
A day or two later off I go to The Cars of Yesteryear. WELL! This is a private display of 50-55 cars. There are a couple of off brands, a couple Vettes and Mustangs but it is mostly Mopar muscle cars. Chargers, Challengers, Cudas, GTXs, Roadrunners, Coronets and a Superbird. The owner used to race cars and most of these are the actual cars he drove. There was nearly one of every model of every year. I talked to him for a bit and he said he had about another dozen that didn't fit in the display area so he rotated some every year.
I studied a lot of the cars comparing grilles, headlights, tailights, etc of different models and years and decided that some day I'd like to get a '70 or '71 Cuda. I left there feeling like I'd just had a 90 minute orgasm!
On the way home my wife asked what was the best part of the week and I said 'the cars'. Hey, she asked!
A couple weeks after we get home I put a post on an ag talk forum that I'm on looking for a '70 or '71 Cuda. I was only half serious but a guy who lurks on here from Wisconsin (hi Tim) replies with pictures of his '74 Challenger. I fell in love. I think if he hadn't put up pictures of it I would have held out for a Cuda. So we made a deal and I hauled it home to Ontario a couple weeks later.
I drove it some over the next six weeks until the motor blew, hence my name. We spared nothing in rebuilding the motor. Well, we didn't stroke it but it's done right with high quality parts. I went to few car shows over the rest of the summer which I really enjoyed. The day we put it away for the winter it quit shifting so that's the first thing to deal with when we get it out again. I now have a new head liner, fan shroud, plug wires, tach with shift light, rims and tires to go on it so I can't wait for spring .
I know THIS THREAD IS USELESS WITHOUT PICS so I'll try and post some later. In closing I'll say I still hope to get a Cuda some day..............oh, and a '68 Charger:-)
