Her story begins with the Bobby Kennedy assassination. Well, not quite. I guess to put it more clearly, Lucy's story actually begins the day before the Kennedy assassination. As Bobby was winning his primary elections in South Dakota and California, Lucy was rolling off the assembly line in Hamtramck, Michigan as a 1968 Dodge Dart Sedan with the 270 trim package. She sported Medium Olive paint, black vinyl roof, AM radio, and that's about it. But what Lucy lacked in comfort options, she made up for in being a reliable second car for the original owner.
Not that I know who the original owner was--he's the one piece of the puzzle I haven't been able to find. For the purposes of this narrative, though, I going to do some educated guessing on our mystery owner. It would be a safe assumption that our John Doe was a Mopar man. I'm guessing here, mind you, but a safe bet was that Lucy was bought for his wife--he drove something bigger, maybe a Coronet, perhaps even a Chrysler Newport if last years' lawnmower sales were better than expected. Like so many Dodge Dart and Plymouth Valiants, Lucy was destined to be a 2nd car for our John Doe. Fortunately for me, this meant she had very few miles put on her when our now older John Doe sold her sometime in the early 2000's to another nameless, older man.
Here, finally, I don't have to keep relying on assumptions and safe guesses. Though I never did get find name of Lucy's 2nd owner, the namless man bought Lucy and proceeded to mildly refurbish her after nearly 35 years of routine use. Gone was the stock 1-barrel carb and intake, and in it place a hotter 390-cfm Holley 4-barrel and Offenhauser intake. Lucy next received a fresh coat of Medium Olive paint and lost the vinyl top. Pretty again after all these years, the ol' girl finally started living in a garage, being driven occasionally from Laurel, MD to Ocean City to attend car shows and cruise-ins. Evidently, owner number #2 got tired of Lucy, opting either for a more collectible muscle car or to get out of the classic car business entirely. And, alas, he sold it to his son in 2005 or 2006.
Now onto owner #3, the son did much of what the father did: drove Lucy to and from car shows, periodically as far as Ocean City, though she again lost her spot in a garage. In 2010, Lucy received a brand new vinyl top along with tires and NOS 14" Mopar rally wheels in place of the factory 14" hubcaps that had started to look shabby with the years and miles.
And that's how I found her. After a decidedly bad experience with an old pickup that caught fire on me while in college, I decided to buy myself a graduation present and started roving Craigslist in search of an old car that I could use as a daily driver. And that's where I stumbled on her. In an old, almost-expired ad outside my Craigslist region, I saw some blurry, crappy cellphone pictures of a '68 Dodge Dart with a 225 cu.in. slant 6 for an absurdly cheap price. I thought to myself, "well this is either a dog, or somebody really needs to get rid of this car." Figuring it was no longer available, I nonetheless gave owner #3 a call. Yes, it was still available, and yes, he'd be happy to show it to me.
But it wasn't quite as easy as just picking it up that night in June 2011. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got there...this car was beautiful! Sure, the front wheels badly needed an alignment and the front tires were worn to the cords, and sure there were some rust bubbles starting on the left rear fender behind the wheel, but otherwise the Dart was immaculate! Perfect for a daily driver. But not so fast...what did I intend to use the car for, the owner asked me. He told me that he had to sell it to finish his basement before the his first child came, but that he had already turned down several potential buyers because they either wanted to hot rod it, turn it into a lowrider, or just wouldn't take care of it. But he seemed to like the idea of it as a daily driver, and so about a month later, I came back with the money and took Lucy home with me! The Dart was mine, and I was about to embark yearlong journey of maintaining, repairing, and servicing to make the ol' girl a reliable daily driver.
Not that anything was particularly wrong with it, but because it had actually never been a daily driver, there were some issues that needed to be taken care of. First, new tires and an aggressive front end alignment. Then, new windshield seals, as it leaked in the rain. Unfortunately the years of leakage had corroded the contacts in the fusebox, so I had to find a clean one in a local junkyard. Eventually I installed a RediRad so that I could drive with something a bit more exciting that AM talk radio. Finally, the automatic choke left in favor of a manual one, making cold starts easier.
And that's Lucy. She's not fast, not particularly quick, not terribly fuel efficient, kinda loud on the interstate, not overly safe even though she has rare 3-point seatbelts installed at the factory. But she's mine, and it's been a joy to go through this process of owning such a classic. Plus, she drives like a dream.
And that's all you can really ask for, right?