1970 Dodge Challenger – the Day I Bought It

My 1970 Dodge Challenger when I found it
March 15th, 2003

A friend and I had just picked up a cheap Holley 3310 in a nearby town from another Mopar guy who had listed it on the old Yahoo Classifieds. After a little conversation we decided to stop at the local hobby shop.

We got back in my GMC Sprint, and as we were leaving the ass of a gray primered muscle car caught the corner of my eye. It looked like a Mopar, and me being a Mopar guy, so I had to drive by.

It was a 1970 Dodge Challenger, somebody’s old redneck hot rod, sporting old faded gray primer with dark red painted R/T stripes, a stock flat hood, mashed fender/valance, and rot in the driver’s corner. But it was a Challenger!!

I’m not sure if the owner heard my Sprint’s exhaust leak or saw us checking it out, but he comes out to talk. He had wanted a Challenger, and bought this one sight unseen from Colorado or North Dakota or somewhere out there. When he got it he realized it was a much bigger project than he wanted to deal with, so it just kind of sat behind his shop. I asked him how much he wanted for it, and he said $500. I was ecstatic. Nonchalantly, I said “Would you take $400?”. He took another $100 bucks off, and it was mine.

For $400, I drove my dream car home with a hopped up 440 with a cam, intake, headers, a Slapstick 727 with blown 3rd and reverse, and 3.91 limited slip. I think I needed to be pinched!

Here’s some more pictures I took later, with the horrible digital camera I had at the time. Better than nothing, of course!

Covered with surface rust, but nothing too deep.

Look that stripe, kind of resembles a cross between the Dodge Challenger T/A stripe, only full length like a ’72-’74 Plymouth Barracuda stripe!

This thing has a near perfect grill!

Here is the engine it came with. Headers, solid motor mounts, high-output alternator, nice ignition, some other fancy stuff….

Here is the backside. No valance, but there’s an 8 3/4 hanging in there, with rusty dual exhaust!

The interior. Needs general restoration, new seat covers, carpet, etc…

Here is the rotted out quarter panel. This will get fixed the right way, and soon!!

The day after I put a good tranny in it, the 440 dies in horrible grinding epiphany…. I always kept an eye on the oil and stuff, but who knows how it had been treated before I got it. A badly spun rod bearing finalizes its demise…