70 Dart, how to change regular dash to Rallye dash?
Hey Guys,
The only thing I want to say now is that it was my mistake buying a car without doing the proper research. My best friend growing up had a beat-up 69 Dart with 340 and I really liked that car. I had a 74 318 Challenger. Nice enough but no 340. I'm going to enjoy my Dart no matter what the hell it is and I promise all that in the future I will not misrepresent the history. I am sure the car will sell itself - flaws and all.
If the car is legal, feel free to share the story. You could keep someone else from making the same mistake. It happens, there are a lot of unscrupulous people out there. While it's a real shame that you may have paid more money for the car than it's worth in light of its situation, it doesn't mean you can't enjoy the car. A 340 under the hood is a 340 under the hood, regardless of what the VIN says. I know for a fact that my 340 powered, original slant 6 car is more fun than any factory 340 ever was. From the few pictures you shared it looks like a nice car, regardless of how it was originally equipped.
If the car
isn't legal, not sharing anymore information on it isn't going to protect you from the law. You were mislead, you haven't done anything wrong, and the time to sort it out with the authorities is
right now. If you turn around and hide the information you've found, well, you're not a victim anymore, you're involved. Better to deal with it now and move on. If I found evidence that any one of my cars wasn't legal for some reason I'd have it inspected. Yeah, I'd hate to lose one of my cars because it was stolen back in the day and VIN swapped or whatever. But if that's the case, somewhere out there is some poor bastard that had his/her car stolen, and that person deserves it back. Obviously, that's an extreme case. But seriously, if something isn't right, get it squared with the authorities now.
^^^And this is exactly why all you VIN Nazis deserve to have your Mopars confiscated and be forced to drive a 1995 Jetta.
None of you care that much about the hobby.....for you guys it's all about the money. Ptoooi.
Give me a break! You're talking to a guy that daily drives a clone. I don't care what the stamped numbers say as long as a couple of the important ones match. That's why I bought a 1974 /6 Duster, ripped out the stock engine and transmission, and planted a '69 340 and 4 speed in the car so I could daily drive it. I don't care that it's not an original 340 4-speed car. I probably wouldn't have bought it if it was because then I would have had a hard time cutting it up. But instead I had no qualms about replacing the '74 Duster bodywork with '71 Demon bodywork, or doing any of the chassis reinforcement I needed to do to make it handle well. I build my cars to enjoy them, and that's why I'd lose money selling every single one of them. I don't care, that's not why I do it. I do it to build and drive old iron. To build what
I want and drive the crap out of it.
But that doesn't mean that VIN fraud doesn't matter, or that anyone that commits or even condones it doesn't deserve to be in prison. Because they
DO. It's that simple. I don't give a crap about originality or original cars. You can bet that the non-original cars are a lot more fun to drive. But that doesn't mean VIN fraud is ok. If someone pays for a car thinking it's an original hemi car, they should get an original hemi car. Yeah, I think that's a waste of money because there aren't a whole lot of people that would buy an original hemi car and drive the piss out of it, but that's the way it goes. And if I ever sell any of my cars, it's pretty easy to see what they really are. Google the car, read my build thread, it's all there. One 1974, /6 auto Duster cloned to look like a '71 340 4 speed Demon. VIN, title, and all the VIN stampings say '74 Duster, which probably makes it worth a third of what a real '71 340 Demon would be worth in the same condition. Heck maybe less.
Clearly, your car is completely legal and you know that because it passed muster with the local DMV. End of story. You don't need to promise anyone anything. Don't let your Catholic upbringing make you feel guilty....you did nothing wrong.
And if it passed muster at the DMV there's no reason to withhold the real story on it either. Be up front, the car is what it is. There's only one reason to hide that information, and it involves being a criminal- one way or another.