So how far back does your Mopar experience go?

These are cool stories, mine pales in comparison as I'm only 30 lol. Since I was old enough to walk I was obsessed with anything mechanical, first I screwed around with my parents' vacuum cleaner. Then it was grandpa's lawnmower. Then when I was 14 I got a nitro-powered (teeny-tiny piston engine) R/C monster truck which I drove and broke and upgraded so much, man good times lol. And I still have it after all these years. However I was the oddball of the family, nobody else including dad, uncles, grandpas etc was into wrenching and building stuff I was all on my own.

When I was about 15 my mom was going to the bookstore and asked if I wanted a book. Just on a whim I thought, "Yeah how about a book on muscle cars?" She brought home one of those big coffee-table books going through famous muscle cars from the 1950s-2000s and I was floored, I knew I had to have one of them. I remember initially thinking Chevelles were really good-looking but then one day my mom picked up an issue of Mopar Action "just because it had a muscle car on the front I thought you might like it" (thanks mom!!). I read about how Mopars were better engineered than other American cars of the day and the cool stories about the Hemi engine, NASCAR dominance in the 60s, the 300 letter cars of the 1950s and the crazy ram-induction big blocks... that was it I was a Mopar guy after that point! Shortly after that (still 15 years old) my grandpa and I ran into a guy at the local Walmart with a 1965 Coronet dressed up to look like a Super Stock car and packing a built 440; we talked and he invited me and my grandpa to his home where he then took me for a ride in that '65 Coronet. HOOOLY **** what a rush, I remember him being nervous about scaring me but I was all "Hey is it over already? Please do it again!!!" LOL

A year later my family moved from central PA to Colorado as my dad got a job teaching engineering (as a civilian) at the U.S. Air Force Academy. As I turn 16 my dad says I can start looking for a car, budget is $3000 pick what you want. So naturally I start looking at old Mopars. Mind you this is in 2007-08 so they had already started getting valuable, especially the B and E-bodies. I really wanted a 68-70 Plymouth B-body but nothing I found in decent shape was affordable. Then I came across the 1970 Duster in my avatar and the rest is history! Still own that car to this day and I don't plan on ever selling it except in the most extreme financial situation, it's a part of me. I taught myself everything I know not only about working on old Mopars but about working on cars in general with that thing. Reminds me I need to update my build thread lol...