What's your story with your Mopar?

Bought mine 5 years ago.....looked "ok" but mechanically a piece of crap.
It's a LOT better these days!
Still, I drove that piece of crap hope 900 miles the day I bought it!

Jeff

I had a few V8 Vega's, a 69 Mach 1, a Chevelle, and somewhere I got the itch to own a Duster. I bought a 1970 yellow one advertised as a 340 car for 2K back in 1991. I purchased it, had fun with it and it was time to sell it and then I learned it was not a true H car but a clone. I knew nothing of data tags then and so I researched as best as a I could in the early internet days.
1993 I decide I want another Duster but I am not in a rush, willing to wait until I see a local ad which by then was a needle in a haystack. First newspaper I look at and the ad says, 1971 Duster 340 for sale. I call, have to meet the guy in the backwoods and see a sassy grass all stock looking Duster in need of some restoration. He wants 5k, we haggle and he says he will sell for 3K if he takes his stereo out. I say I am not buying a stereo, and I get the car for 3k. I learn codes on the data tag and it's numbers matching and I learn it's a true FJ6 car, true J81 Go Wing and V24 hood car. I decide I am restoring stock right down to the original dog dish wheels and I also decide I will not be selling this one. All restored and I still have it.

I bought my ‘53 Dodge truck in ‘75 ($100) and drove it for 11 yrs before i decided to overhaul it. Machine shop screwed up the engine, then left town. Land, house, kids in school, then in college, then finally getting To rebuild it in 2015.

Now rebuilding a ‘67 Barracuda Formula S convertible - original engine gone before I got it.

After that, my late father-in-law’s ‘54 Chevy wagon. Then either ‘70 Barracuda ‘vert or a ‘74 Cuda. Lots of stuff - only one cost $3,500. The rest were less - but I’ve had them in sheds for the past 25 yrs. Only my old truck currently runs.

My wife and kids tell me not to even consider passing away until all of them are done. Damn, they put me on a schedule.

Hi! So the thread is what's your story with your Mopar. It doesn't say A body so I'll include some pics of a B body also.
My first "old" car was a 1974 Mustang when I was 14 that I drove until I was about 19. It wasn't until I was 34 (family gets in the way, ha) that I finally got back into the classic car game and bought a 1964 Ford Fairlane which I still have. Only when I stumbled across a 1966 Plymouth Valiant wagon did I realize what the whole Mopar craze was about. That slant six and the wagons overall design ran laps around the Ford inline six in the Fairlane.
Since then I've added a 1965 Dodge Dart GT and a 1972 Dodge Charger. I live in the city and having 4 classic cars and 2 regular vehicles has been a challenge to say the least, I also live in Minnesota. I got the Charger in December of 2018, it wasn't running due to the entire harness having been burned up. I had to hot wire it to get it running so I could move it due to the snow emergency's. Also among the pleasures of living in the city is the lack of a real garage. Here's a picture of the tiny single car garage with no electricity that I've done all my work in. Currently I just replaced a frame rail and torsion support and an engine swap into the Charger. I have to run a large extension cable to run my welder.
Sometimes I hear laughter in that garage, the laughter of a crazy person...and then I realize its me. One day I know I won't have to work in such a cramped space but until then it's back to the garage. Thanks for reading, Jeanette

Always wanted a drag race Colt. Years ago I traded a 68 Formula S roller for a 72 Colt roller. Wanted to build a drag car, but never got to it. Long story, the Colt got stolen after a move to Texas.

After it was stolen I went out to Tucson and bought another car.

Then I found this one, and I figured I could get years ahead and much closer to the drag strip. So I bought this Don Hardy Ex Hemi Colt and I hope to be on the track next year. Sold the blue one to some folks in Ohio. Here is the Colt from the day and now with the engine going in..

After dreaming of “restoring” a car for 30 years, I bought my 1969 Barracuda (First car build) in July 2016 from a craigslist ad. It was originally from California, and somehow ended up in Milwaukee, where I drove out with my family from Minneapolis to pull it home on a trailer. Owner said it came with a 383 “engine”... come to find out, that meant a block with pistons, crank and cam, that had been sitting For years on the floor of a barn. It originally had a 318 (long gone), but I had to have it, since the body was sound, and it was a factory 4 speed, one of 249 for that year.

I finally got her on the road two weeks ago, after I did a full 383 rebuild, then pulled it and dropped a 440 in this spring.

Still a long way to go, but I friggin love it

Since the mid 80's I have built just about all of them..A,B, E bodies. Some were just bare shells, some were non running complete projects, an occasional done or sorta done car. . Never had a wing car, did not like them, a good bud bought 3 V code Superbirds from a guy, rollers and all missing a wing, or nose or fender. My choice was $5000 back about '95 or so. Passed.
Now I am old and wore out and have forgot half what I did know. Maybe I just thought I knew?
Hard to pay the asking price for for to
days junk or a car someone else did and I have no idea what they did till it would be too late.
I like buying and hate dealing with the selling so now I have 4 cars no body will want. Good!!!!!!! lol

My 1975 dart sport I literally saved from being scrapped @ a local junkyard about 18 years ago! Luckily my pops new they owner if the yard otherwise no chance of dragging it out. Driver's side window was broken out. Engine was long gone but body was mostly all there. So took it home for $300 bucks and got it going. My 1st car and mopar. Still have it. Started life as a boring slant 6 & 2.45 rear gear. Total dead dog but got me from point A to point B reliably. Now has a hot 360 and 292 mopar cam, 3.91's out back. However, body still sports it worn finish from yard!! I love my dart sport!!

Inherited mine

I was well into a restification of my '83 Hurst Olds when I got the urge to recreate my old '69 340 Swinger that I owned a lot of years ago. I sold my Olds to fund the project and then found an unfinished '69 Dart project on eBay.
I bought it sight unseen except for the pics that were posted in the ad...and lucked out because it was 90% what the previous owner said it was. When it arrived off of the transporter from Oregon it had a brand new 380-horse 360 crate motor, a freshly rebuilt 727, a B-body 8.75, junk roller wheels and a couple of boxes full of parts and pieces in the trunk. A new exhaust system was sitting on the back seat and on the floor in the front were a brand new B&M Megashifter still in the box and a full complement of Auto Meter gauges still in their boxes. Based on the value of the new crate motor and all the extra parts and pieces I figured I got the car for free. This was 14 years ago.
In the years since I've changed the build direction numerous times but accumulated almost all of the parts I want for my 'dream build'. I kept the crate motor but swapped the single-plane M1 intake that was on it for a brand new Edelbrock RPM airgap dual plane, sold the Holley 770 Street Avenger carb and now going to use a Quick Fuel 750 with annular boosters. The rebuilt 727 was sold and I had a 200-4R manual-shift, reverse pattern OD trans built with a 2800-stall and lock-up. I've got 4.30 gears for the rearend - the OD 4th gear will give me the equivalent of 2.88 gearing on the SoCal freeways.
The stock front bench seat was sold and now lives in an A-body in New Zealand. New bucket seats are still in their boxes.
The big hangup has been body and paint. The first shop disappeared with my paint just before my Dart was going to go in for work. The second shop moved out of state, again just before my Dart was to go in to start work. Over the past five years it's been in three other shops. I pulled it out of shop #3 after it had been in for over a year and the owner started refusing to give me a completion date. Shop #4 had the car for over an additional year when the owner told me he wasn't going to do any additional work on my Dart because his general collision work was too profitable. It's been in shop #5 for just over a year and it's going to finally be finished in the next couple of weeks. It's been quite a ride getting through 'paint prison'. But it's going to be more than worth all the headaches when it's finally assembled and on the road!

I hate to say it but these cars didnt fare well,by the late 80's most of em were POS ( at least the ones that I bought on the cheap...) My current car is a 70 Dart Sswinger 340 that I bought in 1993 as a basket case,which means I towed the body home with a second run with a trailer in tow full of parts. I have owneed other Mopars including a B bpdy and a 70 Duster,bought back in the day (late 80s early 90's) and each one had issues...The B bopdy needed engine trans frame rot work,and the 70 Duster, other than beingratty ran and drove, although I believe the ball joints were toast.

charliec said:

I get rolled eyes from a lot of friends who don't understand the process of rebuilding a car. They just can't fathom having a car on a rotisserie for years, or taking so long to work on meticulous detail. They tell me they don't see any change from the last time they saw it, even though I know the progress made. So, I'm curious how many of you built your cars in one fashion or another and how many of you bought a car already restored.

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Funny, my Swinger is in a stage of bodywork where I am putting a second coat of 2K on and block sanding. People tell me its "pretty straight". I say " Not yet...its not ready for paint yet..." thing is when you are working on it you know.

Always bought piece of **** basket cases and rebuilt them. Then i would get bored, sell it, and find another piece of **** basketcase to rebuild. My friends all thought i was some sort of automotive masochist. The 67 barracuda coupe thats shoved in the corner of the shop so that i can currently work on my sons 69 barracuda coupe will eventually get done. I dont plan on selling that one. It will be the last one i build.

My brother had the car in high school (1991-93). He had purchased the car and didn’t do much to it but ran the crap out of it. He loved the car. Finally blew the original motor and the car sat the summer after school and before college. He sold the car after being told by mom it had to go.

He sold it to a good friend with blown motor and all. He lived local and I helped him load it on a trailer the day it left.

In 1996 my brother was killed in a vehicle collision out of state. I was devastated, he was 21 I was 19.

in 2014 my brothers friend found me via a friend of a friend and asked if I wanted to buy my brothers car from him. It had sat in a garage for 20 years and never transferred the title no reg had been paid. Within a week the car was in my garage.

The car had seen better days as the friend has taken parts off for another car and had about an inch of dirt on it from the garage. I had told my son if he helped me build the car he got to drive it when done ... over the years he was there to help... sometines... haha. But dad made a promise.

In 2018 my son was to graduate high school and with a week left he got what he had worked for. He got to drive the car to the same school his uncle had years prior.

The car has been home built with the only thing not done by me was the blue and clear. Though the engine bay was just painted by me in the garage as it was black at first. Over all it has been a great project and it has sentimental value for sure. My daughter is now driving and she will learn how to drive it soon. I’ve read the other stories and I think it’s really cool how cars and hobbies bring people from all over the world together.

Cheees !!















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1966 barracuda, dad purchased it in the 1980’s. It remained relatively unchanged up until I purchased it in 2011. Cane with factory 273/904 column shift with dealer installed air and 4 wheel manual drums. After I bought it, I’ve slowly been modifying it pretty much ever since. Now a 408/727 floor shift with power 4 wheel discs. Currently I am at the shop a couple days a week getting it ready for its first new paint since 1980. Doing all the body mods I had envisioned for it as well. How I bought it.

how she looked last summer.

And how she is today.

father and son 69 project as purchased, and currently. Project is at a dead stop right now until it starts cooling off around here. It's been in the low 100s the past few weeks. Will be 108° friday, then it's supposed to drop into the low 90s next week. My 67 project on the backburner in the backround.

My 67 as bought, and last work I did with it on the rotisserie.